At dawn, the first light of the sun spilled across the Azure Spirit Sect's alchemy grounds — a valley of fire.Hundreds of pill cauldrons lined the terraces like silent sentinels, each glowing faintly with the memory of flame.
The air shimmered with heat and spiritual energy, and every breath tasted faintly of herbs and smoke.
In the middle of it all, Lin Xuan stood beside a battered iron cauldron — borrowed, cracked, and barely holding spiritual resonance.
It didn't matter. He wasn't here to flaunt. He was here to learn.
The Pill Division was ruled by Elder Lu. He is an alchemist with a reputation for perfection and cruelty in equal measure. His disciples, dressed in crimson robes, were known for arrogance sharper than their blades.
When Lin Xuan arrived, their laughter had been immediate.
"Outer disciple? Wrong courtyard.""Didn't they say you were a spear cultivator? Go stab herbs instead.""Careful — if he fails, he'll burn down the valley."
Lin Xuan ignored them. He bowed to the elder, expression calm.
"Disciple Lin Xuan requests permission to refine basic recovery pills."
Elder Lu's brows arched. "Outer Sect? Hmph. I see Elder Ji's hand in this. Very well — one cauldron, one chance. Fail, and you leave my valley forever."
Lin Xuan nodded. "Understood."
The First Refinement
He placed his ingredients in order: Spiritgrass, Minor Flame Root, and the rare Heartleaf Herb.The fire roared beneath the cauldron, licking the cracked metal with orange tongues.
Lin Xuan's breath slowed. The world narrowed.
Inside his consciousness, the Omni-Talent System flickered.
[Alchemy Sequence Active.][Memory Sync: Azure Furnace Pill Codex.][Assisting Stabilization: 12%.]
Flame swirled.Herbs melted.Essences collided.
Most alchemists struggled to balance heat and timing — Lin Xuan instead listened. He felt the herbs' qi tremble, pulse, merge, and—
BOOM!
A puff of emerald smoke filled the air. The disciples watching laughed uproariously.
"Ha! He exploded it!""Knew it — spear brain can't handle pills!"
But when the smoke cleared, the scent that drifted out wasn't burnt. It was pure.
Lin Xuan calmly reached inside, withdrawing three golden pills — each perfectly round, faintly glowing, and pulsing with qi.
The laughter died instantly.
Elder Lu's pupils contracted. "Triple refinement?"
The Omni-Talent System chimed silently:[Basic Pill Condensation — Perfected.][Derivative Discovered: Emerald Restoration Pill.]
Whispers spread like wildfire through the division.
"Triple batch from a cracked cauldron?""Impossible. Even senior alchemists need crystal furnaces for that!""Who is he?"
Lin Xuan offered the pills respectfully. "Elder Lu, may I ask for evaluation?"
The old man took one, sniffed, and his face went utterly blank. "Nine purity rings."
A gasp rippled through the valley. Nine rings — near-mythic perfection for a basic recovery pill.
Elder Lu set it down carefully, his voice low. "You may continue refining here."
But as Lin Xuan bowed and turned back to his cauldron, the elder's gaze hardened. Too perfect.
By noon, word had already reached every terrace.
"Lin Xuan refined nine-ring pills his first day.""He used a broken cauldron.""Even Elder Lu acknowledged it."
Admiration mixed with envy.
Other alchemists eyed him coldly. Some glared openly.To them, every pill was years of labor — and this outsider had skipped the line with unearthly precision.
A junior disciple sneered. "Must be luck."Another smirked. "Or stolen technique."
The next day, Lin Xuan returned — and three senior disciples from Elder Lu's line blocked his path.
"You don't belong here," said the leader, Yan Zhi, his robe embroidered with gold. "Alchemy isn't for opportunists chasing fame."
"I'm chasing understanding," Lin Xuan replied.
Yan Zhi's smile turned cold. "Then understand this — knowledge costs blood."
He waved his hand. The fire beneath Lin Xuan's cauldron flared unnaturally high, tampered with by hidden talismans.
Lin Xuan's brows furrowed, but he didn't step back.
He closed his eyes and exhaled once — deeply.
The Omni-Talent System pulsed.
[Environmental anomaly detected.][Auto-adjustment engaged: Reverse Qi Flow.]
The flames twisted downward, compressing instead of exploding. Heat reversed, spiraling into stability. The tampered array disarmed itself.
When the cauldron lid lifted, four perfect pills floated out, glowing softly.
Yan Zhi's smirk died.
Lin Xuan looked at him evenly. "Your lesson was expensive. I'll remember it."
From the upper terrace, Elder Lu watched, fingers drumming the arm of his chair.
"Reverse Qi Flow… he stabilized an unstable flame by folding its essence," he murmured.
His senior disciple approached cautiously. "Master, should we punish Yan Zhi?"
"No," Elder Lu said. "Let the valley burn a little. It will show me who survives the heat."
But his eyes narrowed. "That boy's control isn't natural. He's reading patterns no one taught him."
Days passed. Lin Xuan continued refining quietly — never boasting, never competing, only experimenting.
One evening, he noticed something curious: when he carved formation lines around his cauldron using the same sigils from his training, the pills formed more evenly, qi cycles balanced.
The System flickered.[Cross-discipline resonance detected.][Formation + Pill Fire — New Fusion Concept.][Symbiotic Arrays: Pill Formation Mode unlocked.]
As he activated it, faint emerald runes appeared beneath his cauldron, harmonizing the flames.
The next batch produced not three, but five perfect pills — the first of its kind in sect history.
That night, whispers spread through the Pill Division like poison.
"He's manipulating flame with forbidden arrays.""He's insulting Elder Lu by showing off.""Even the Inner Sect alchemists can't match that rate."
Yan Zhi gathered a small circle of disciples, faces hard with resentment.
"He's mocking us," Yan Zhi said. "Elder Lu tolerates him because of the elders' favor, but if his cauldron 'malfunctions' again…"
No one needed to finish the sentence.
The next morning, Lin Xuan was visited by the silver-haired elder herself. She appeared beside his cauldron without warning — her presence so refined that even the flames seemed to bow.
"Do you know what they call you now?" she asked.
Lin Xuan didn't look up. "Something flattering, I hope."
"The Emerald Flame Disciple."
He paused, then smiled faintly. "Fitting."
Her eyes softened. "Be careful. Emeralds are beautiful because they fracture easily."
He met her gaze. "Then I'll forge myself unbreakable."
She regarded him for a long moment before turning away. "Elder Ji was right. The storm has only begun."
As she vanished, Elder Lu entered the courtyard, his robe stirring embers.
"You refine beyond your station," he said coldly. "Such progress defies reason — or violates it."
Lin Xuan bowed. "If learning is a crime, I accept the punishment."
Lu's eyes flickered with something unreadable — admiration, perhaps fear. "Continue, then. But remember — alchemy burns more disciples than fire ever could."
The Breakthrough
That night, Lin Xuan attempted something no Outer Disciple dared — a two-layer pill refinement, combining healing and qi restoration.
Most who tried ended with an explosion.
He adjusted heat, breath, formation flow — every detail within a hair's breadth of collapse.
Wu Ming watched from the doorway, sweating more than the flames. "Senior Brother, your cauldron's shaking…"
"Good."
A deep hum filled the air — a harmony of wind and fire. The cauldron pulsed once, then released a brilliant wave of green light.
When it faded, three jade-colored pills hovered in the air — dual-layered, crystalline.
[New Pill Created: Emerald Soul Recovery Pill.][Unique Rank: 1.][Hidden Achievement: Innovator of the Second Path.]
Lin Xuan exhaled slowly, the faint scent of success curling in the air.
Far above, in the Pill Division's main hall, Elder Lu held one of Lin Xuan's new pills between two fingers. The glow illuminated his expression — part wonder, part danger.
"A dual-layered refinement," he murmured. "The boy's either a prodigy… or a heretic."
From the shadows, Yan Zhi bowed low. "What are your orders, Master?"
Elder Lu's eyes gleamed. "Let the sect decide. I'll report his 'unapproved' methods to the council myself."
And so, while the emerald flame rose higher than ever, so too did the shadows gathering to smother it.