Dominator Emperor

For a Pharmacist, the most difficult thing to refine isn’t Body Ointment, and it’s certainly not Longevity Medicine. It’s the Life Pill. The requirements for creating a Life Pill are simply too demanding. A Pharmacist’s Power, their Fire Control—both must be at an incredibly high level. Whether it’s the alchemy techniques, the Fire Control, or even the pill retrieval methods... a single mistake in any step can easily ruin the entire batch.

Furthermore, a single cauldron of ingredients can only produce one Life Pill, yet Life Pills are the most in-demand of all elixirs. After all, not every Cultivator needs Body Ointment, and not every Cultivator needs Longevity Medicine, but every single Cultivator can benefit from a Life Pill! For this reason, Life Pills are often more sought-after than even Longevity Medicines.

Life Pills undergo Nine Transformations, and the number of transformations is determined by the ingredients. For example, if the main ingredient, Soul Grass, and its supplementary herbs are all at the third transformation, one can only refine a three-transformation Life Pill; it’s impossible to create a fourth-transformation one. If the Pharmacist’s Power is insufficient, a mistake with third-transformation ingredients might result in a second-transformation Life Pill, or worse. There’s even a high chance of ruining the cauldron, which not only destroys the pill but also damages the Furnace God.

Because of this, Pharmacists are exceptionally careful when refining Life Pills. They won’t even attempt it without absolute confidence. After all, nurturing a good Furnace God is no easy task.

”Let’s begin.” When Elder Sun and the others had all the Spiritual Medicines ready, Li Qiye gave the command. He then summoned the Ten Thousand Furnace God.

The Ten Thousand Furnace God landed, transforming into an immense toad. It held a furnace in its gaping maw, a mouth that looked as if it could swallow countless ingredients.

WHOOSH! The Ten Thousand Furnace God spat out a raging inferno. Then, something incredible happened. The Furnace God was like a colossal tree, and the flames it spewed suddenly branched out, blooming like a hundred flowers.

”One, two, three...” Watching the flames form into Fire Cauldrons, Elder Sun couldn’t help but count. But in an instant, he was dumbfounded. Every Pharmacist from the Xiyan Ancient Sect was utterly stunned.

In alchemy, pills are refined by furnace fire and nurtured by the Furnace God’s Medicine Field. However, the nurturing from the Medicine Field is merely supplementary, icing on the cake. The crucial part is the refinement by the furnace fire!

When performing alchemy, one forms cauldrons from furnace fire. For any given Pharmacist, it’s easy for their Furnace God to form a single Fire Cauldron. Forming two is also quite possible. But forming three is difficult. A Pharmacist who can perform alchemy in three Fire Cauldrons at once would be considered a Grandmaster of the Medicine Dao.

The more cauldrons one can form, the more powerful the Pharmacist. While the number of Fire Cauldrons a Furnace God can form is related to its own level, simply forming them isn’t the true skill. The real talent lies in simultaneously controlling multiple Fire Cauldrons for alchemy. This is an extremely profound aspect of the Medicine Dao!

But now, Li Qiye’s Ten Thousand Furnace God was like a tree bursting into bloom. In the blink of an eye, the furnace fire blossomed into one Fire Cauldron after another, a spectacular sight like a hundred flowers blooming at once.

”Impossible... This... this is impossible...” All the Xiyan Ancient Sect Pharmacists present stared, completely frozen. Their eyes were wide with disbelief at the scene before them, something so incredible no one would believe it even if they were told.

For a single Furnace God to form over a hundred Fire Cauldrons was considered absolutely impossible, unless it was a relic left behind by the Medicine God himself. And even then, taking a huge step back, even if a Furnace God *could* form a hundred Fire Cauldrons, being able to *control* all of them at once wasn’t a testament to the Furnace God’s greatness, but to the Pharmacist’s unrivaled Power.

The Fire Cauldrons before them were all identical—identical in size, identical in color, identical in the flow of their flames, identical in their every transformation! This meant it wasn’t just the Furnace God that was powerful, but that Li Qiye’s Fire Manipulation Technique was simply peerless.

”One thousand and three.” One of Elder Sun’s disciples finished counting and was so shocked he thought he was seeing things. He bit the tip of his tongue, and the sharp pain that followed confirmed that this was not a dream.

Elder Sun was also stunned. He muttered, ”Even if I used my own Furnace God and exhausted all my Power, I might be able to form a hundred Fire Cauldrons... but... but their stability would be completely unreliable, let alone actually using them for alchemy.”

Elder Sun was shocked into a stupor. Even if he risked his life and managed to form a hundred Fire Cauldrons, they would be a motley, misshapen bunch. Their size, color, flames... nothing could be guaranteed. They would be completely useless for alchemy.

Yet here was Li Qiye, who had just formed one thousand and three Fire Cauldrons in a single move. Their size, color, flames... everything was identical. This was no longer about how precious the Furnace God was; this was about unparalleled alchemy techniques and peerless Power!

’Even if I were given the Ten Thousand Furnace God,’ Elder Sun thought, ’I could never form one thousand and three Fire Cauldrons.’

As for the other Pharmacists, they were simply dumbstruck. The scene before them was a miracle, the likes of which hadn’t been seen in eons!

”It’s acceptable.” Watching the Fire Cauldrons bob in the air, Li Qiye nodded. ’Theoretically, the Ten Thousand Furnace God can form ten thousand cauldrons. With the Medicine Dao I created with the Medicine God, I’m sure forming ten thousand in the future is entirely possible.’

Li Qiye’s ”It’s acceptable” left Elder Sun and the other Xiyan Ancient Sect Pharmacists speechless. If forming over a thousand Fire Cauldrons was merely ”acceptable,” then they might as well go hang themselves with wet noodles.

”Are you ready?” Li Qiye’s command finally snapped Elder Sun and the others out of their daze. They all jolted and immediately prepared the medicinal ingredients.

”Add the ingredients—all of them!” Li Qiye commanded the Ten Thousand Furnace God, his eyes growing deep as he stared at the thousand-odd Fire Cauldrons.

In that instant, Elder Sun and the others tossed in all the ingredients for a First Transformation Life Pill. As Pharmacists who had refined many Life Pills before, their movements were extremely fluid.

SIZZLE—CRACKLE! The moment they added the ingredients, a series of popping sounds erupted, like soybeans being stir-fried.

Before Elder Sun and the others could even process what was happening, the Life Pill inside every single Fire Cauldron was instantly complete. This was simply impossible! The Refinement of a Life Pill required a process: adding the ingredients, tempering with fire, and finally, the pill’s formation. Each step took time. But in Li Qiye’s hands, refining a First Transformation Life Pill had no process at all. It was like flash-frying soybeans over the fiercest flame—done in an instant.

”The Medicine Gourd!” Li Qiye roared while Elder Sun and the others were still in a daze.

Elder Sun, the first to recover, immediately summoned his Medicine Gourd. Li Qiye bellowed, ”Disperse!” Instantly, all the Fire Cauldrons burst like bubbles. The furnace fire receded like a flash flood, not even a single flicker of flame touching the newly formed Life Pills.

The Medicine Gourd, meant for storing the pills, inhaled all of the finished Life Pills like a whale swallowing the sea. The sight left everyone speechless once again. They had never seen such a pill retrieval technique. They had never seen so many Life Pills created in a single batch. And they had certainly never seen pills formed so quickly.

Elder Sun, along with all the other Pharmacists of the Xiyan Ancient Sect, was completely dumbfounded. ’Is this really alchemy? This is just like stir-frying soybeans. No, it’s even easier than stir-frying soybeans!’

”Even a First Transformation Life Pill... it takes me several hours to refine just one. At my absolute best, I can only produce five or six of them in that time... This... this is just a magic trick!” Elder Sun was so stunned he could barely speak.

Life Pills have Nine Transformations, with the transformation level of the ingredients determining the level of the pill. The First Transformation Life Pill is the lowest level. It is refined from a first-transformation Soul Grass as the main ingredient, supplemented by first-transformation herbs like Scarlet Flame Pith, Jade Blood Bamboo Stem, and Red Ironwood.

For the ingredients used in refining Life Pills—be it the main Soul Grass or supplementary herbs like Scarlet Flame Pith, Jade Blood Bamboo Stem, or Black Ironwood—the longer they grow, the more transformations they undergo. The ultimate is nine transformations. A Life Pill refined from nine-transformation ingredients is known as a Nine Transformations Life Pill!

For a Pharmacist, the more transformations a Life Pill has, the harder it is to refine and the longer it takes. Take Elder Sun for example: he needs several hours to refine a single First Transformation Life Pill. A second-transformation pill would take him one or two days. This means that in the span of about six hours, a Pharmacist like him could produce five or six pills at most—and that’s only for the lowest-level First Transformation Life Pills.

And yet, Li Qiye had just acted like he was stir-frying soybeans, producing over a thousand in one go. No—he had refined over a thousand Life Pills in one go. It was simply impossible. If you told anyone about this, they would never believe you.

Elder Sun and the others couldn’t help but rub their eyes, feeling as if they were dreaming. For an ordinary Pharmacist, refining over a thousand Life Pills might take an entire year. But Li Qiye had done it all in one go. It was the stuff of legends! A true miracle.

”Is... is this... stir-frying soybeans?” one Pharmacist asked in a daze. Before this day, if anyone had claimed that alchemy was easier than stir-frying soybeans, he would have laughed at them for being an arrogant fool who didn’t know their own limits.

But now, the stupefying truth was that Li Qiye *did* make alchemy look easier than stir-frying soybeans, leaving them all completely and utterly floored.

”Did you see the technique clearly?” Li Qiye asked, holding up the Medicine Gourd now filled with Life Pills.

Snapping back to their senses, they all looked at each other, dumbfounded. Finally, Elder Sun gave a bitter smile, his old face flushing red. ”It... it was too fast,” he said. ”We couldn’t see the technique at all.”

How could they have possibly seen his alchemy techniques? They had been too dumbfounded to even register what he was doing.

”Then pay close attention this time. You won’t get another chance if you miss it,” Li Qiye said nonchalantly.

Hearing this, Elder Sun and the others felt a chill run down their spines. At the same time, they couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement and anticipation. Elder Sun, in particular, was so thrilled his old face felt like it was on fire.