"Back when I was hunting for this Bone-Chilling Ice Flame, I spent eight long years trapped in that godforsaken pit of darkness," Yao Lao said, shaking his head with a sigh. A rare flicker of something haunted crossed his weathered features — the ghost of a memory still vivid enough to quicken his pulse, even after all this time. "And at the very moment I attempted the absorption, despite all my preparation, this wretched thing nearly burned me to ash."
"Heh heh — the danger was extreme, of course, but the Bone-Chilling Ice Flame made it all worthwhile." Yao Lao raised the pale white flame dancing in his palm with unmistakable pride. "With a Heavenly Flame in your possession, not only do the elixirs you refine become vastly more potent, but in battle, opponents of the same rank won't dare face you head-on."
Xiao Yan's gaze settled on the churning column of ghostly white fire, and unconsciously, his expression betrayed a yearning he could not quite conceal.
Seeing the boy's envious stare, Yao Lao let out a mischievous chuckle, a crafty gleam flickering behind his eyes. His tone, however, shifted without warning. "Heavenly Flames are still far beyond your reach, lad. Your priority now should be praying you advance to Dou Warrior soon."
Xiao Yan nodded with a trace of disappointment, reluctantly pulling his thoughts away from the allure of the Heavenly Flame and grounding himself back in the present.
Satisfied that the boy had refocused, Yao Lao smiled faintly. In his palm, the ghostly white flame surged and roiled, sending tongues of fire spiraling upward before dissolving into nothingness.
His gnarled fingers plucked a stalk of Ink-Leaf Lotus from the table and tossed it gently into the flame.
The instant the herb touched the Bone-Chilling Ice Flame, it was reduced to a pool of deep black liquid that rolled slowly through the fire, its surface gleaming with an eerie, liquid sheen.
The white flame burned ever fiercer, yet Xiao Yan noticed something peculiar — the air beyond its perimeter grew colder by the moment.
Yao Lao's attention was absolute, every fraction of his focus devoted to controlling the temperature within the flame. At this stage, the slightest deviation — even a hair's breadth too hot — would reduce the dark liquid to nothing but smoke.
When the temperature had been held steady at the precise threshold, tiny specks of yellow impurity began to surface within the black pool.
Observing the impurities, Yao Lao gave a small nod and flicked his finger, expelling a small droplet of black liquid that carried the contaminated matter away from the main body.
More yellow specks continued to appear in succession after the first, and one by one, without exception, Yao Lao swept them clean.
Under the relentless heat of the Bone-Chilling Ice Flame, the Ink-Leaf Lotus — originally the size of half a fist — had been refined down to no larger than a thumbnail.
The deep black liquid turned slowly within the pale fire like a single dark pearl, unfathomable and mysterious.
Only when the first stalk had been reduced to this state did Yao Lao cease refining it. He then fed in the remaining four stalks one by one, purifying each until five droplets of liquid — dark as black pearls — sat glistening in the flame.
Prolonged exposure to the Bone-Chilling Ice Flame had begun to merge them. The combined mass swelled briefly, expanding in volume, though this lasted only a moment before contracting back to its former size.
The liquid rolled within the fire for a long while, and within its inky depths, Xiao Yan could have sworn he saw a tiny white flame flickering and dancing.
At this sight, Yao Lao's hand moved with swift precision, snatching the Serpent Saliva Fruit from the table and casting it into the flame in one smooth motion.
The moment the fruit entered the fire, it dissolved into a jade-green liquid that exhaled wisps of icy vapor. Yao Lao stripped away its impurities with practiced speed, then slowly draped the translucent green fluid over the dark, flame-wreathed liquid.
*Ssss...*
The two substances — one of opposing nature — made contact, and a chorus of strange hissing sounds filled the air. Wisps of pale steam billowed upward from within the flame.
The hissing gradually faded, and there, quietly taking shape in the heart of the fire, was the crude form of a pill — its surface still rough, but unmistakably a pill nonetheless.
Yao Lao observed the nascent pill with a calm, appraising gaze, then nodded once more before adding the Spirit Gathering Grass and the second-tier water-attribute magic core into the mix.
Refine to liquid. Purify the impurities. Merge the components. Each of these intricate, demanding steps flowed from Yao Lao's hands without pause or hesitation, seamless as breathing.
Watching this effortless mastery, even Xiao Yan — who understood almost nothing of alchemy — could not help but silently admire the old man's skill.
The Spirit Gathering Grass neutralized the wild, turbulent energy within the magic core, and a stream of pale blue, purified energy flowed in a slow, steady current into the pill's body.
When the last droplet of blue energy sank inside, the pill's surface — once pitted and uneven — smoothed itself into a flawless sphere. A soft blue luster bloomed across its surface, lending it an almost ethereal beauty.
Yet Yao Lao did not stop there. He continued to nurture the pill within the flame for nearly ten minutes before the white fire in his palm finally dwindled and died.
As the flame vanished, his left hand swept a jade vial from the table in a blur of motion. He plucked the pill — faintly green with a subtle thread of pale blue running through it — and sealed it inside.
"Whew..." Yao Lao released a long breath and tossed the vial to Xiao Yan with an offhand flick. "Take a look."
Xiao Yan caught the vial with careful hands. A faint tremor of excitement ran through him as he raised it beneath his nose and inhaled. A familiar, intoxicating fragrance drifted out, and his senses sharpened with a jolt of clarity.
Gazing at the pill nestled within — its surface alternating between green and blue — Xiao Yan relied on his keen spiritual perception and sensed, with blurred but unmistakable certainty, that this particular Qi Gathering Powder was vastly superior to the one Nalan Yanran had once presented, both in grade and in potency.
*That woman, holding that pill with that condescending look on her face, that lordly tone of hers...*
A faint smile crossed his lips, tinged with quiet mockery.
Shaking his head, Xiao Yan gripped the cool jade vial tightly. He exhaled a heavy, deliberate breath. After three long years, he could finally set foot in that realm once more.