Black Corner Region, at an unnamed mountain range.
Above the lush peaks, a bone-white flame flickered in and out of the greenery, like a ghost fire.
Yao Lao's expression was solemn as he watched the rapidly rising bone-white flame in the medicine cauldron.
Due to the extraordinary quality of the "Black Demon" cauldron, the initial warming-up stage took longer than with ordinary cauldrons.
However, with Yao Lao's alchemy skills and his control over the Bone Chilling Flame, he was naturally able to minimize this time.
Thus, after the flame had risen for nearly a minute, Yao Lao waved his hand at several herbs on the ground in front of him.
Immediately, four different herbs slowly floated up from the ground and then directly entered the medicine cauldron.
The Soul Cleansing Poison Eradicating Pill was a seventh-grade pill, and the herbs required for its refinement naturally numbered in the dozens.
If one were refining an eighth-grade pill, it would not be surprising for the required herbs to number in the hundreds.
When refining ninth-grade treasure pills and ninth-grade profound pills, the required herbs would be in the thousands.
At this point, alchemists needed the ability to simultaneously refine several types of herbs.
Otherwise, if they refined them one by one, by the time all the herbs were refined,
the medicinal properties of the earlier refined herbs would likely have already been completely lost.
However, since it was only a seventh-grade pill, there was no need to refine too many at once.
Moreover, with only dozens of herbs, as long as "sealing" measures were taken, refining them sequentially was fine.
As long as the refining speed was fast enough, it wouldn't have too much of an impact on the medicinal properties.
But no matter how well protected, some medicinal properties would still be lost.
Therefore, Yao Lao chose the most time-saving refining method, simultaneously refining several herbs that required similar temperatures.
As for multitasking dozens of ways... he had just recovered to the Dou Zong realm; being too reckless could lead to failure.
Yao Lao divided the Bone Chilling Flame into four, simultaneously enveloping the four herbs.
Under the scorching of the Bone Chilling Flame, the herbs quickly withered.
Tiny droplets of water seeped from their surfaces, then slid down and suspended above the flame.
As the droplets continuously dripped and rolled, the originally vibrant green herbs had completely turned into withered gray.
The pure medicinal power contained within them had been completely forced out by the Bone Chilling Flame, but their outer shells had not been burned to ash.
With a gentle wave of Yao Lao's hand, the withered residues flew out of the medicine cauldron, landing on the grass nearby and scattering with the wind.
Seeing this scene, Xiao Xue couldn't help but admire him.
If an ordinary alchemist were to refine them, the medicinal residue would surely be burned to ash and settle at the bottom of the cauldron.
As for whether those residues would mix into the pill, no one would know.
Even she, refining with water methods, had to go through "filtration" to remove the residues, absolutely unable to achieve such perfect refinement as Yao Lao.
Only someone like Yao Lao, at the very moment the medicinal power in the herbs was completely exhausted, could control the temperature and throw them out of the cauldron.
Only then could it be said to be truly perfect control of the flame.
It seemed that, at least in terms of refining, she was still far from being a true alchemy grandmaster.
Xiao Xue did not speak to disturb Yao Lao, merely silently committing what she saw to memory.
Yao Lao's control over the Bone Chilling Flame was also something she could learn.
Yao Lao waved his hand, drawing the four masses of medicinal liquid into his palm, enveloping each with the Bone Chilling Flame, and then suddenly intensified the heat.
As the bone-white flame rose, the surface of the liquid masses immediately boiled, and tiny bubbles continuously pulsed.
With the pulsing of the bubbles, faint wisps of gray mist rose from within.
These mists were impurities contained within.
To refine a high-quality pill, these impurities had to be completely removed.
Otherwise, the presence of impurities might even make it difficult to form the pill.
After removing the impurities, Yao Lao placed the four masses of medicinal liquid into jade bottles for later use.
They were enveloped by a cluster of bone-white flame by Yao Lao, and then, along with the flame, poured into a jade bottle.
At the mouth of the jade bottle, there was even a faint film of flame, isolating it from the air.
This preservation method allowed the medicinal liquid to maintain its temperature and purity as if freshly refined, but it also required a very high degree of flame control.
Jade bottles are fragile; if the temperature was slightly too high, even the jade bottle would be scorched and crack.
Caught off guard, it would instead cause the refined medicinal liquid to be completely ruined.
Therefore, if one did not have sufficient control over the flame, this was absolutely impossible to achieve.
Xiao Xue looked at it and felt that with her "Sword Heart" condensed, achieving this would not be difficult.
After Yao Lao refined several more batches of herbs, he finally threw the last and most precious herb—the Soul Cleansing Nether Orchid—into the medicine cauldron.
At this point, the refining of the herbs had undoubtedly reached its most crucial stage, and even Yao Lao dared not be careless in the slightest.
On the other side, Medusa looked at this, then at that, feeling that she had already guessed the truth—
Xiao Xue's so-called "eighth-grade alchemist teacher" should be this soul body in front of her.
Being able to lead the Snake-People Empire to survive amidst the encirclement of the four empires, Medusa was not some brainless, naive girl.
In a very short time, she deduced some things based on known information and information she had subconsciously ignored before.
Firstly, heavenly flames were inherently rare; some people spent their entire lives traveling the continent and couldn't find a single one.
For two Bone Chilling Flames to appear simultaneously, and both to be subdued by these two individuals—one person and one soul—in front of her, was too unreasonable.
Moreover, even if Xiao Xue truly had a powerful backing, there was no reason for it to give a Bone Chilling Flame to that remnant soul.
Heavenly flames, in the hands of a living person, driven by Dou Qi, could unleash greater power.
Especially since the remnant soul's alchemy skills were clearly not low, appearing to be at least seventh-grade, or even higher.
For an alchemist of this level, it wasn't too difficult to acquire a body for resurrection.
Who would want to be a lonely ghost all day if they could have a body?!
Therefore, there were many suspicious points about that remnant soul.
However, if he was Xiao Xue's "teacher," then many things would make sense.
Thus, the only possibility was that Xiao Xue and this soul body were using the same Bone Chilling Flame.
Moreover, that "eighth-grade alchemist" should have been eighth-grade when alive.
This old man in front of her, now a soul body, can refine seventh-grade pills; it's very reasonable that he could refine eighth-grade when he had a body.
This was also why, after that incident, no Dou Zun came to capture her and stew her into snake soup—
Xiao Xue had indeed not lied; she truly had an eighth-grade alchemist as a teacher.
It was just that this current Dou Zun couldn't even defeat her.
While thinking about something, Medusa suddenly shivered and subconsciously looked up at Xiao Xue.
Xiao Xue smiled at Medusa, revealing a mouthful of brilliant teeth.
Medusa felt a chill throughout her body—a physical one.
"What are you thinking about?"
"No... nothing."
Meeting Xiao Xue's playful gaze, Medusa immediately lost her mischievous intentions.
Because she suddenly remembered something else—
Although that soul body was at the Dou Zong level, he had just reached Dou Zong and couldn't possibly defeat her when she was at three-star.
But in the outskirts of the Izumo Imperial Capital, she, a three-star Dou Zong at the time, had been beaten half to death by Xiao Xue.
So, Xiao Xue must have other trump cards.
Coupled with some other reasons, although Medusa felt she had discovered the truth, she still dared not act rashly.
Although that soul body couldn't defeat her now, Xiao Xue still had ways to take her life!
Hadn't Xiao Xue just now activated the Bone Chilling Flame crystal within her to threaten her?
In fact, Yao Lao had just finished refining the most difficult and most important Soul Cleansing Nether Orchid.
Next was the pill formation.
And after the pill formation, Medusa would need to go up and withstand the lightning tribulation.
Before forming the pill, Yao Lao also rested for a moment to replenish his energy.
Xiao Xue, meanwhile, withdrew her gaze from the medicine cauldron and saw Medusa zoning out beside her, so she casually asked.
Heaven help her, Xiao Xue was genuinely just curious about what Medusa was thinking while spacing out.
As for the so-called "threat," that was entirely an illusion caused by Yao Lao also using the Bone Chilling Flame.
However, Medusa was completely unaware of this.
Her mind was now filled with panic: "It's over, she must have guessed what I guessed, I won't be silenced, will I?"
Xiao Xue looked at the extremely nervous Medusa, feeling a bit confused, but didn't pay much attention and turned back to watch Yao Lao refine the pill.
On the other side, after Yao Lao rested for a moment, dozens of different medicinal liquids finally began to slowly merge.
------------------------
I've posted 70+ chapters in advance on Patreon.
Webnovel updates will still be daily, as usual.
It might not seem tempting right now but who knows what the future holds?
[email protected]/DaoistRoeoNQ
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"