Chapter 39: A New Heavenly Flame!
A few days later. Outside Jia Nan Academy, beyond Peace Town.
Two figures in black robes came to a stop atop a small hillside, gazing into the distance.
The newcomers were none other than Zi Yan and Jiang Yun, fresh out of the secret realm. After departing the secret realm, they had been teleported to an unfamiliar, strange location. It had taken them quite a bit of effort to find the direction back.
In the cleft between two majestic, towering mountains in the distance, a small, faintly discernible town flickered in and out of view. Gazing upon that small town, Jiang Yun and Zi Yan's minds and spirits finally relaxed.
Over these past few days, they had also encountered many desperate, ruthless fugitives in the Black-Corner Region. Quite a number of people who had previously been unable to enter the secret realm had simply lain in wait on the outer perimeter, watching and targeting those emerging from within.
After leaving the secret realm, even though the two's teleportation location had been remote and secluded, they had still endured several rounds of slaughter and bloodshed. Among them, they had even encountered Dou Wang-level obstacles blocking their path.
Toward those who blocked their way and sought to rob them, Jiang Yun and the other showed absolutely no mercy, sending every single one of them to report to the underworld.
That Dou Wang as well—under Zi Yan's barrage of dragon fists, they had been beaten to death alive!
After once again reaping several storage rings of considerable, impressive wealth, Jiang Yun and Zi Yan had finally struck it filthy, explosively rich in one great wave. Their net worth and fortunes now finally matched and befitted Jiang Yun's status as an alchemist!
"Remember—if anyone asks, just follow what we've agreed upon!" Nearing Peace Town, Jiang Yun still couldn't help but worry and remind her once more.
"I know, I know! If Old Man Su Qian asks, we'll just say we discovered an unknown Heavenly Flame within a secret realm. Little Yun absorbed and refined it, and by chance, this granted Little Yun the talent and ability to perform alchemy!"
Looking at Jiang Yun, Zi Yan tirelessly, patiently repeated the cover story they had rehearsed and agreed upon several times.
Jiang Yun nodded, rubbing the top of Zi Yan's head. "Sneaking around and hiding is ultimately rather inconvenient. If we have a legitimate, justified reason, I can use alchemy to acquire medicinal ingredients on a grand, massive scale. And this way, you can also grow and advance much faster!"
Proactively revealing his talent and ability to perform alchemy was something Jiang Yun had intended and planned from the very beginning. On the Dou Qi Continent, the identity of an alchemist could bring him considerable assistance and save him a great deal of trouble.
What's more, he truly did need to systematically, properly study alchemy now. This was the perfect, opportune moment!
As for whether Su Qian and the others believed it—that was no longer within Jiang Yun's control. In any case, the fact of the matter was: I, Jiang Yun, am an alchemical genius!
Any questions? Take it up with the Heavenly Flame!
"Hmph— Otherwise, I wouldn't be helping you concoct this cover story at all!" Zi Yan tilted her little head up and declared with an air of supreme tsundere pride.
"Heh heh!" Watching Zi Yan, Jiang Yun chuckled lightly. She truly had the heart and nature of a child!
After confirming their identities as Inner Academy students, combined with the fact that the storm and commotion Jiang Yun had stirred up still hadn't fully settled, the two were able to enter Peace Town with ease.
Under the surrounding students' gazes—filled with a mixture of awe and reverence, fighting spirit and challenge, worship and admiration, and a host of other complex emotions—Zi Yan extended the Dou Qi wings on her back and carried Jiang Yun, flying directly toward the Inner Academy.
"So that's Jiang Yun—the legendary one who bulldozed straight through the Fire Energy Hunt!"
"Feeling envious? Then go train like your life depends on it! Who knows—maybe one day, you'll have the chance to do the same!"
"Who's envious?! I know my own talent well enough. Compared to envying Senior Jiang Yun's talent, I'm far more envious that he has a Dou Wang childhood sweetheart!!!"
"..."
"Damn it! I'm envious too!!!"
Not long after, Zi Yan and Jiang Yun returned to their dormitory. Days upon days of unending, intense battle had kept their minds and spirits exceptionally taut and strained. The moment they returned to their dormitory, the two first each retired to their own rooms and had a good, proper night's rest.
The next day.
Jiang Yun awoke within his room. Feeling the abundant, surging Dou Qi within his body, he nodded with satisfaction. This trip to the secret realm had been an entirely unexpected, unforeseen matter. He had originally only intended to obtain some Earth Core Body-Tempering Milk and break through to Dou Ling. Now, he had shot straight all the way to 4-star Dou Ling.
Even more difficult to come by—he had discovered yet another method of utilizing the Saint Demon Flame.
The Saint Demon Flame was composed of two types of flame: black and white. The white flame presided over life; the black flame presided over death. This reminded him of the Yin-Yang Dual Flames, ranked twenty-first on the Dou Qi Continent's Heavenly Flame Ranking.
How remarkably, astonishingly similar the two were!
"Hm?" Just at that moment, Jiang Yun's expression flickered. He rose and walked toward the outside of his room.
As expected, the First Elder Su Qian was seated with practiced composure and calm in the living room chair.
"First Elder!"
"You've reached Dou Ling?!" The very moment Jiang Yun appeared, Su Qian's gaze locked squarely onto him. He spoke with a face full of stunned shock and astonishment.
"A stroke of luck!"
"Good! Excellent!" Watching the modest, humble Jiang Yun, Su Qian smiled with utter satisfaction. The way he looked at Jiang Yun was brimming with gratified approval.
"What's all that racket?! Are you even going to let a person sleep?!" Just at that moment, a crisp, clear, furious roar rang out. Zi Yan came down from upstairs, her expression filled with disgruntled dissatisfaction. Her little face had the words 'I haven't woken up yet!' scrawled all over it.
"..."
Su Qian and Jiang Yun exchanged a glance. Both saw within the other's eyes the unmistakable hue of helplessness.
"Oh! It's Old Man Su who's come!" At this moment, the still drowsy-eyed, sleepy Zi Yan finally registered Su Qian's presence, looking as if she had only just realized.
"Zi Yan has been utterly exhausted these past few days. I hope the First Elder won't take offense!" Jiang Yun walked over, guided Zi Yan to a chair to sit down, and conveniently stuffed a bottle of pellets into her mouth, shutting her up.
"You—" And Su Qian, upon hearing Jiang Yun's words, stared at Jiang Yun with a face full of utter disbelief. He turned to look at Zi Yan, then back again. His expression was somewhat complicated.
"?"
Seeing the utterly heartbroken, grief-stricken expression on Su Qian's face, Jiang Yun felt as if he had been deeply misunderstood. He hurriedly spoke aloud, "First Elder, are you aware of the Dou Zun's ruins that appeared in the Black-Corner Region a few days ago?"
"Hm?" Su Qian's train of thought was immediately pulled right back. He looked at Jiang Yun, then looked at Zi Yan. A look of sudden enlightenment and understanding dawned on his face. "You two went!"
Watching Jiang Yun smile without refuting or denying it, Su Qian couldn't help but sigh with deep, profound feeling. "You two are truly, unbelievably bold! I heard that practically all the Dou Huangs and Dou Zongs of the Black-Corner Region were drawn and attracted over! You two—one a Dou Wang, the other a Dou Ling—actually dared to go and join in the commotion?!"
"I must truly be getting old!"
"Old Man Su, those guys weren't all that formidable or impressive! This time, we actually obtained some excellent stuff!" Zi Yan swallowed the pellet in her mouth and curled her lip.
"What kind of excellent stuff?" At this point, Su Qian was rather curious. A Dou Zun's ruins—it went without saying that the treasures within were extraordinary and beyond compare. And for Zi Yan to call something excellent stuff—it was naturally far from ordinary. This made Su Qian quite curious indeed. What excellent treasure had the two of them managed to scavenge and snatch from the hands of that pack of Dou Huangs and Dou Zongs?
"First Elder, by sheer luck and fortune, we obtained a Heavenly Flame!" At this moment, Jiang Yun replied with a smile. At the same time, he turned his palm over. A white flame blazed and surged up from within his palm, diffusing and radiating a stirring, moving life-force aura.
"A Heavenly Flame!!!"
The First Elder gazed at this white flame, which radiated a terrifying, dreadful heat yet eerily, paradoxically carried a thriving, vigorous vitality—faintly giving him a threatening, menacing sensation. His pupils constricted sharply. He finally revealed a trace of lost, shattered composure.
"It is indeed a Heavenly Flame!" Jiang Yun showed a fitting, appropriate expression of delighted joy on his face.
"You are truly, ridiculously fortunate!" Su Qian stared fixedly at the flame before him. For a long, long moment, a myriad of emotions and sighs surged and swirled within him.
Why was Jia Nan Academy so renowned and famous? It was because they possessed the Fallen Heart Flame, ranked fourteenth on the Heavenly Flame Ranking!
A Heavenly Flame—this sort of divine, wondrous object of heaven and earth—every single time it appeared, it would draw and cause countless experts to scramble and race madly. Yet those who actually managed to obtain one... were pitifully, vanishingly, pathetically few.
A Heavenly Flame was, even more so, the object of every single alchemist's most fervent, desperate dreams and desires. That Jiang Yun could obtain a Heavenly Flame—even Su Qian couldn't help but envy this young man's absurd, outrageous fortune.
"But... this Heavenly Flame of yours... it doesn't seem to correspond or match any of the flames on the Heavenly Flame Ranking!"
Having calmed and settled his state of mind, Su Qian now stared at Jiang Yun's Heavenly Flame and spoke with some puzzlement and confusion.
Jiang Yun's Heavenly Flame—its color leaned toward white, and it carried a thick, dense life-force aura. As far as Su Qian knew, only the Bone Chilling Flame, ranked eleventh on the Heavenly Flame Ranking, was white. And as for a flame that carried a life-force aura—there was only the Flame of Life, ranked fifth.
Neither of them matched Jiang Yun's flame!
"The Dou Qi Continent is vast and immense. Who can say for certain whether some unknown corner hasn't given birth to a new Heavenly Flame?" Jiang Yun flipped his palm back and stowed away the flame, speaking with an indifferent, casual smile.
"That's also true!" Su Qian was momentarily taken aback, then nodded in agreement. "In that case, do you want to give your Heavenly Flame a name? Who knows—perhaps one day, it will follow you and become the twenty-fourth flame on the Heavenly Flame Ranking!"
"I shall call it... the Undying Sacred Flame."
"Very well. In the future, I hope that within this very academy, this old man will be able to hear the day when the Undying Sacred Flame's name spreads and resounds across the entire continent." Su Qian nodded with satisfaction beside him, stroking and smoothing his graying, patchy beard.
"Old Man Su! After Little Yun refined this Heavenly Flame... it seems he can perform alchemy now!" Just at this moment, Zi Yan 'snitched' with a face full of excitement toward Su Qian.
"Cough, cough..." Su Qian's hand jerked and spasmed. A tuft of his graying beard was yanked clean off, yanked right out by himself. This alone was enough to show just how colossal and earth-shaking the impact of this revelation was upon him.
"What did you say?!" Su Qian stared at Zi Yan with a face full of utter, stark disbelief. Then, he whipped his head around and stared dead at Jiang Yun. Unsure and uncertain, he demanded, "Jiang Yun! What Zi Yan just said—is it all true?! You can perform alchemy now?!"
Jiang Yun nodded and said, "The gap between me and an alchemist was the lack of a single thread of wood energy. Now, using the life-force power within my flame as a substitute—it is entirely viable and feasible. This is a tier 1 Revitalizing Spring Pill I personally refined. First Elder, please take a look!"
He reached out and produced a pill he had long since prepared, handing it to Su Qian!
Su Qian hurriedly, hastily took it. Upon careful, meticulous examination and inspection, he discovered—it was indeed a tier 1 pill! And what's more—it was a top-grade, supreme-quality pill, even bearing pill veins! This discovery left Su Qian stunned and stupefied.
"Hahaha— Good! Good!" Immediately following, a great, booming laugh erupted and rang out from the dormitory. At this very moment, the way Su Qian looked at Jiang Yun was as if he were beholding a rare, world-class peerless treasure!
Jiang Yun's innately, exceptionally, terrifyingly powerful soul power had already made Su Qian regard him with special favor and high hopes. The great pity and tragedy had been that, back when he broke through to Dou Zhe, it was discovered that Jiang Yun's body lacked wood energy. This had left Su Qian sighing and lamenting for a good, long while.
But now—all was well! Jiang Yun had obtained a great, tremendous fortune, making up for the deficiency of wood energy within his body. He could perform alchemy now! This made Su Qian indescribably, unbelievably excited. It was as if he were personally witnessing an alchemy grandmaster rising and blazing to glory right before his very eyes!
"Oh, right. How did you learn the refinement method for the Revitalizing Spring Pill?" Snapping back to his senses, Su Qian looked at Jiang Yun and asked, puzzled and curious.
"What's so difficult about that?! My Little Yun is a genius!" Zi Yan declared with a face full of pride from the side.
Jiang Yun then proceeded to recount to Su Qian the process of how he had learned and studied alchemy—exactly how he had done it.
"Sigh— If you couldn't perform alchemy... then the very heavens themselves would find it intolerable and unjust!" After listening, Su Qian couldn't help but sigh with deep, profound feeling. Merely by observing and watching a few elders of the Alchemy Department refine pills—and yet he could reproduce and replicate it perfectly?! With a talent like this—if Jiang Yun couldn't perform alchemy, the heavens themselves wouldn't be able to stand it, right?!
"First Elder! I wish to formally join the Alchemy Department!" At this moment, Jiang Yun cupped his fists and spoke aloud.
"Only right and proper! If Old Man Huo were to see you... he would certainly be overjoyed, positively ecstatic!" Su Qian agreed with a face full of smiles, even casually teasing and ribbing his old friend in the process.
"No time like the present—let's go now!" Su Qian was a man of decisive, swift, vigorous action. The moment he agreed, he was already ready to lead Jiang Yun directly to the other's doorstep.
"Zi Yan..." Jiang Yun nodded, then turned his head back to ask Zi Yan.
"Little Yun, you all go on ahead. I'm a bit tired!" Before Jiang Yun could even finish, Zi Yan waved her hand with a listless, disinterested air. She spoke, her face full of weary fatigue, and capped it off with a yawn.
Was she about to advance?
A flash of light flickered through Jiang Yun's eyes. He silently speculated and deduced inwardly!
After repeatedly reminding and urging Zi Yan to rest well, Jiang Yun followed Su Qian and headed swiftly toward the Inner Academy's Alchemy Department.
The Inner Academy's Alchemy Department was slightly, subtly different from the Outer Academy's.
The building that appeared before his eyes—its outer appearance was just like a medicinal cauldron. Around the building, windows were installed, resembling the fire vents of a cauldron. High atop the towering roof, an enormous, giant cauldron lid lay sprawled and prostrate.
Above that building, upon a plaque of pale purple sandalwood, were written several blurred, indistinct, ancient, simple characters.
"Inner Academy Alchemy Department!"
And Jiang Yun discovered—beside these five large characters, there were still several more characters. Fixing his gaze carefully, he saw they read: Alchemist Guild.
"What is this?" Jiang Yun looked at Su Qian with some puzzlement and curiosity.
"Heh heh. Our Jia Nan Academy Inner Academy's Alchemy Department is, at the same time, also the sole Alchemist Guild within this Black-Corner Region. The alchemist tier assessments conducted here... will be recognized and acknowledged across the entire continent."
Su Qian cleared up Jiang Yun's confusion, his tone carrying a faint, subtle hint of pride.
Jiang Yun immediately understood. Every city possessed its own Alchemist Guild. They could all assess and examine an alchemist's tier, receiving the recognition and acknowledgment of the Central Plains' Pill Tower. And Jia Nan Academy was also renowned and illustrious throughout the entire northwestern continent. The existence of an Alchemist Guild here was hardly surprising or strange.
Otherwise—after graduating from the academy, would the students have to go back and take the assessments all over again?
Walking into the interior, a faint, light medicinal fragrance wafted and drifted toward them, making one feel refreshed, clear-minded, and utterly at peace.
Within the main hall, there were very few people. Only a scarce, sparse handful were quietly, silently going about their own affairs and matters. Hearing the sound of footsteps, some people raised their heads. Seeing the newcomers, they were rather surprised and astonished.
A middle-aged man stepped forward and spoke with great respect and deference, "First Elder!"
"Is Old Man Huo in?"
"Elder Huo is in the rear courtyard!"
"I understand. I'll head over myself. You go back to your tasks." Having spoken, Su Qian led Jiang Yun toward the rear courtyard.
The several instructors around them exchanged strange, puzzled glances. Watching Jiang Yun's retreating back, they fell into some deep, pensive thought.
This one... was he that widely, hotly rumored relative of the First Elder?
As the chief and foremost figure of the Alchemy Department, Elder Huo naturally had his own small, private courtyard. It was not opulent or lavish—a dwelling entirely, wholly constructed from lush, verdant, emerald-green bamboo.
Gazing upon the quiet, peaceful, secluded little courtyard before him, Su Qian pushed open the courtyard gate and slowly, unhurriedly walked up to the door of the room. At the same time, he spoke aloud, "Old Man Huo! I've brought you a treasure!"
"First Elder?" A faint, puzzled, questioning voice drifted out from within the room. Immediately following, Elder Huo emerged from inside.
"What brings the First Elder here?"