"The pills from that day are already gone?" Jiang Yun didn't rush to agree to Zi Yan's request. Instead, he pulled her closer, carefully examining her to ensure she wasn't injured before slowly saying,
"I finished them this morning. When I came back, I couldn't find you, and I've been hungry all day."
Zi Yan pouted, speaking pitifully. As she spoke, Jiang Yun even saw a hint of sparkling tears in her eyes.
"Sigh—"
"Hand them over!"
Jiang Yun sighed deeply, amazed by Zi Yan's appetite. Fortunately, he was prepared and extended his hand, signaling.
"Hehe, I was just waiting for you to say that!" Hearing Jiang Yun agree, Zi Yan's expression immediately changed, and she chuckled, pulling out several high-grade medicinal herbs.
At this point, Jiang Yun was no longer an Alchemy novice. Purple Cloud Flower, Adamantite Fruit, Fire Cloud Grass—these were all main and auxiliary ingredients for refining fifth and sixth-grade pills. It was clear what Zi Yan had been doing in the Magical Beast Forest these past few days.
"I can help you refine them, but you need to stay in the Academy for the next few days. Don't run into the forest again."
Jiang Yun put away the medicinal herbs and spoke to Zi Yan with a serious expression. Seeing these herbs, Jiang Yun knew that Zi Yan had likely become a wanted criminal in the Magical Beast Forest.
For Zi Yan's safety, Jiang Yun had to calm both of them down.
"But..." Zi Yan still wanted to say something, but seeing Jiang Yun's serious face, she could only droop her head and say in a low voice, "Alright!"
"Cultivation can't be rushed; it needs to be gradual. You've consumed too many medicinal herbs these past few days, and some haven't been fully digested. Give yourself some time to rest."
"I've been conducting an experiment recently. If it succeeds, it will allow you to grow up quickly and become plump and healthy."
Jiang Yun looked at the dejected Zi Yan, stepped forward, and gently ruffled her hair, speaking softly.
"Really?" Zi Yan's mood instantly cleared, and she looked up at Jiang Yun with a surprised expression.
"Really!" Jiang Yun nodded. Once he successfully refined the pills, he would enter the fast track of cultivation.
"Then go quickly!" Hearing Jiang Yun's affirmative reply, Zi Yan excitedly pushed him, urging him to go cultivate.
"Don't rush. First, go help me find a few things. Remember not to be discovered!" Faced with Zi Yan, who was even more eager than him, Jiang Yun couldn't help but chuckle. It seemed that for Zi Yan, growing up was indeed an obsession.
Looking up at Jiang Yun with confusion, Jiang Yun leaned in and whispered into Zi Yan's ear. He was now as tall as Zi Yan, so it didn't make him feel awkward.
"Leave it to me!"
Zi Yan felt a tickle in her ear and a strange sensation in her heart. Fortunately, Jiang Yun finished speaking quickly. After noting Jiang Yun's requests, Zi Yan patted her chest and assured him.
"Remember, absolutely don't let anyone discover you, and take this with you as payment." Jiang Yun reminded her uneasily. After seeing Zi Yan nod seriously, he took out a black iron piece. The iron piece was ordinary but emitted a strange attraction, making people unconsciously focus their gaze on it.
"I'm going! When I come back, I want to eat pills!" Zi Yan put away the iron piece, and her figure flickered, disappearing from sight. However, her voice echoed in his ears.
Watching Zi Yan leave, Jiang Yun secretly calculated. This time, he had asked Zi Yan to go to the Alchemy Department to help him get a medicinal cauldron and several sets of low-grade medicinal herbs. These were enough for his experiments.
However, constantly taking things from the Academy made Jiang Yun feel uneasy, so he acted as a 'Grandpa' delivering opportunities. That iron piece contained a method for cultivating the soul, though it was incomplete, much like the prize Xiao Yan received at the Pill Gathering. Nevertheless, it was extremely precious.
It was the Demonic Spirit Clan's method for cultivating the soul, one of the few cultivation techniques he had brought down from the Great Thousand World. He couldn't teach the entire scripture to the Academy, so he could only extract a single sentence from it as compensation to the Academy.
Jiang Yun had also tampered with it. Those with strong soul power would be able to sense its extraordinary nature. At least a fifth-grade Alchemist's soul power would be needed to uncover its mysteries, and in the entire Academy, only Elder Huo and a few others possessed such soul power.
What if someone discovered it and kept it for themselves? How could Jiang Yun not have a backup plan? As long as it was away from Zi Yan's aura for a period, the soul power Jiang Yun left inside would erupt. By then, it wouldn't be something that could be hidden.
Currently, the strongest Alchemist in Jia Nan Academy's Alchemy Department is Elder Huo. As the top Alchemist in Jia Nan Academy's Alchemy Department, he had immersed himself in alchemy for many years, and his alchemy skills were definitely sufficient. As the chief of Jia Nan Academy's Alchemy Department, his flame was certainly not bad, and his cultivation was also at the Dou Huang realm. So, what he lacked was only soul power.
Now, with Jiang Yun's secret assistance, Jia Nan Academy would surely soon have a sixth-grade Alchemist.
While Zi Yan was fetching the items, Jiang Yun successively refined her spoils into delicious pills. Only then did he take out a book and read it carefully, waiting for Zi Yan's return.
In the blink of an eye, night fell.
At this moment, a joyful voice rang out, "Xiao Yunzi, I'm back!"
Hearing Zi Yan's familiar voice, Jiang Yun's attention left the book, and the corners of his mouth curled slightly as he smiled, looking at the figure who burst through the door.
His vision blurred, and in the next moment, the jade bottles placed beside Jiang Yun all disappeared.
Zi Yan stood before him, took out a jade bottle, and sniffed it gently, revealing a happy smile. She then poured out a few pills and began to pop them into her mouth.
"So delicious!" While eating, Zi Yan didn't forget to hand a storage ring to Jiang Yun.
Jiang Yun took the storage ring, and his soul power probed inside. He saw a four-mouthed cauldron and a dozen sets of the medicinal herbs he needed. He immediately nodded contentedly, praising Zi Yan as he said,
"You worked hard. Get some rest tonight. Things will have a result tomorrow!"
Zi Yan had no time to bother with Jiang Yun at this moment. She waved her small hand, holding the jade bottle, and walked towards her room while still popping pills into her mouth.
Seeing this, Jiang Yun also got up and returned to his room, taking out the crimson four-mouthed cauldron and the medicinal herbs.
He took a deep breath. His theoretical knowledge was already perfect; now it was time for practice.
Jiang Yun raised his hand and gently touched the body of the cauldron. The black and white vortex in his body subtly fluctuated, and white Dou Qi flowed along the meridians to his palm, finally entering the medicinal cauldron.
"Puff..."
With a muffled sound, the white airflow, after passing through the fire opening, transformed into a pure white, substantial flame, continuously churning and burning within the medicinal cauldron.
According to the steps of an ordinary Alchemist, at this point, one should introduce a trace of wood energy, using the principle of Wood generates Fire to make the flame more sustained and easier to control.
However, Jiang Yun didn't have wood energy, but he also didn't need wood energy to stabilize the flame.
"One Blood Coagulation Grass, two Poppy Flowers, one first-tier wood-attribute Magical Core."
Following the prescription in his memory, Jiang Yun placed the medicinal herbs into the medicinal cauldron one by one. Having helped Zi Yan refine medicinal herbs these past few days, he was already proficient in this step and made no beginner's mistakes, such as burning the herbs.
Under the scorching of the flame, the outer shells of the medicinal herbs were burned away one by one, condensing the contained juices. This was the essence of these medicinal herbs, and also an important part of pill formation.
At this step, the next was to gradually merge these essences together to form a pill.
Jiang Yun controlled the medicinal liquids to make contact one by one. The moment they touched, Jiang Yun felt a repulsive force appear. The fusion of medicinal liquids with different properties was not so simple.
Jiang Yun knew that he couldn't rush at this moment and could only slowly fumigate the medicinal liquids with the flame. Finally, at a certain moment, Jiang Yun seized that fleeting opportunity. Under his propulsion, the medicinal liquids slowly merged. The instant they fused, Jiang Yun perceived a faint life force from the white Holy Heavenly Demon Flame in his hand integrating into the pill.
Seeing this, Jiang Yun slowly breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that at this moment, his conjecture was true: he could indeed use the Holy Heavenly Demon Flame to refine pills.
Pure fire-attribute cultivators, whose Dou Qi was filled with violent power, could not form pills when merging medicinal herbs without that trace of wood energy to catalyze them.
However, he had accomplished it. From now on, the door to being an Alchemist would open for him, and his future actions would be much more convenient.
As the nascent pill was tempered by the flames in the medicinal cauldron, the pill turned cyan, and a faint medicinal fragrance diffused from the cauldron.
Only at this moment was this first-grade Restoration Pill truly complete.
With a wave of his hand, the pill automatically fell into his palm. Looking at the pill in his hand, Jiang Yun's calm face couldn't help but reveal a smile. This was his first pill, worthy of commemoration.
Putting away the pill and feeling the abundant Dou Qi within his body, Jiang Yun felt no fatigue. High-grade cultivation techniques were indeed good; not only was the Dou Qi purer, but the recovery speed was also faster.
No wonder everyone pursued high-grade cultivation techniques!
Feeling that he was in excellent condition, Jiang Yun struck while the iron was hot, once again placing a set of medicinal herbs into the medicinal cauldron. This time, it was a second-grade Qi Recovery Pill.
As time passed, the medicinal herbs originally placed beside Jiang Yun decreased, replaced by small jade bottles. From the faint medicinal fragrance emanating from them, it was not difficult to deduce that the pills inside were all rare, high-quality ones.
The moon set, and the sun rose.
The next day arrived quickly. As the last pill was placed into a jade bottle, Jiang Yun stretched lazily. After nearly a night of refining pills, he now appeared refreshed and energetic.
One could only say that Jiang Yun's configuration was already overpowered, incomparable to an ordinary Dou Zhe. A night of pill refining not only left him feeling no fatigue but also allowed him to break through one star, reaching a four-star Dou Zhe.
Looking at the dozen or so jade bottles around him, Jiang Yun nodded in satisfaction, then raised his hand to put them into his storage ring and walked out.
As he opened the door, Jiang Yun looked somewhat astonished. He saw a small figure sitting on a chair in the hall, her small head nodding off, looking utterly adorable.
Seeing this, ripples spread in Jiang Yun's heart. Although this girl usually seemed unreliable, she never dropped the ball at critical moments.
"Mmm~~~" In a daze, Zi Yan seemed to sense movement and instantly became alert. In a flash, her hazy expression turned sharp, and she coldly scanned her surroundings.
When she saw Jiang Yun, the ice melted, and her small face was filled with excitement. "Xiao Yunzi, you've come out of seclusion!"
Looking at the foolishly grinning Zi Yan before him, Jiang Yun raised his hand to wipe away the drool from the corner of her mouth and said softly, "I'm out of seclusion. My experiment was successful. From now on, I can feed you until you're plump and healthy."
"Really!" Hearing this, Zi Yan's eyes immediately lit up. She didn't even notice that she had drooled in her sleep. She leaned closer to Jiang Yun, sniffing, "Such a strong medicinal fragrance! You succeeded?"
Zi Yan had brought back the items one by one, so how could she not know what Jiang Yun wanted to do? Although the matter was somewhat unbelievable, out of trust in Jiang Yun, Zi Yan did not discourage him, and even helped him everywhere. At worst, she would eat a few less meals then. She would absolutely not make Jiang Yun poor because of this.
"I succeeded!" Jiang Yun met Zi Yan's joyful gaze and nodded affirmatively. "This is a second-grade Qi Recovery Pill. It no longer has an effect on Dou Kings, but this is the first second-grade pill I've refined. Keep it as a memento!"
Taking the pill Jiang Yun handed her, Zi Yan happily opened it and sniffed, completely unfazed by how astonishing Jiang Yun's words were.
A second-grade pill?
This meant that Jiang Yun had already reached the realm of a second-grade Alchemist. Overnight, an alchemy novice became an alchemy 'big shot' of the Outer Court. If this were to be spread, it wouldn't scare people to death, but make them laugh to death.
Jiang Yun didn't think reaching second-grade overnight was anything remarkable. One must know that his soul power was even higher than Elder Liu's, at least reaching the fifth-grade realm, and the flame in his hand was not ordinary fire. With such a configuration, learning alchemy was inherently incredibly fast. If it weren't for Jiang Yun running out of medicinal herbs, he could even challenge third-grade.
"Oh, right, Zi Yan, don't tell anyone that I've become an Alchemist."
At this moment, Jiang Yun looked at Zi Yan and said seriously, "An Alchemist without wood attribute—Jiang Yun wouldn't be surprised by what kind of monsters and demons it might attract. The proportion of Alchemists and fire-attribute cultivators on this continent is simply too large, practically one in ten thousand."
If it were exposed, Jia Nan Academy wouldn't be able to protect him either.
"I know. I won't even tell Elder Su Qian. This is our little secret." Zi Yan listened to Jiang Yun's instructions, nodded very seriously, and said with a solemn little face. She wasn't a reckless dragon; she knew what could be said and what couldn't.
"Don't worry! Once we have the strength to protect ourselves, we won't have to be like this!"
"It'll be soon!"
In the days that followed, Jiang Yun's life remained as calm as ever. Jiang Yun spent his days either cultivating or refining pills.
Thanks to the special privileges Zi Yan obtained from the Great Elder, she took out many medicinal herbs from the pharmacy. Coupled with her occasional forays into the Magical Beast Forest to cause trouble, Jiang Yun never lacked medicinal herbs to practice with.
Of course, alchemy was merely an auxiliary in his eyes; the most important thing was his own strength.
After breaking through to Dou Zhe, he was busy experimenting with alchemy cultivation and hadn't cultivated Dou techniques. Now that he had proven he could cultivate alchemy, he began cultivating Dou techniques.
To his disappointment, the divine techniques he obtained from his clan were few, and many were immensely powerful, not something he could cultivate at his current stage. Therefore, he didn't rush to forcefully cultivate them.
Instead, with the help of the Tower Spirit, he slowly absorbed and refined the Holy Heavenly Demon Flame, and his own cultivation also steadily increased during this process.