Battle Through the Heavens

A large wooden basin was placed in the middle of the room.The basin was filled with an emerald green colored liquid. Within it, a young man’s naked body was seated cross legged. His eyes were closed and his hands displayed the seal for training. He allowed the gentle energy within the emerald colored medicinal liquid to slowly enter the interior of his body a little bit at a time to repair those nearly dilapidated Qi Paths in his body.

As the training dragged on, the emerald colored liquid in the wooden basin slowly became more clear. Finally, the emerald color completely disappeared and was replaced by clean water where one could see the bottom of the basin through it.

“Plop!” A small snake’s head suddenly rose up from under the water. Its tail repeatedly splashed the water’s surface. Joy filled its pale purple snake eyes.

Sensing that the energy in the liquid which he was soaking in had been exhausted, Xiao Yan slowly opened his eyes. He eyed the happy ‘Heaven Swallowing Python’ beside his body and smiled. In a careful manner, he twisted his body before slowly letting out a mouthful of coarse air a moment later. In a soft voice, he muttered, “The healing liquid that Teacher formulated does have a very nice effect. In only three days, my dilapidated Qi Paths have become more flexible... Now, my Qi Paths should be able to support the circulation of Dou Qi.”

In the three days since he had awoken, Xiao Yan requested Xiao Ding to help him purchase the large amount of medicinal ingredients that he needed. After which, he clenched his teeth and endured the pain created when Dou Qi passed through his Qi Paths, directing the last remaining liquid energies within the vortex to transform into a Dou Qi flame. In this manner, he refined a couple medicinal liquids with some difficulty.

Once he had finished the first batch of medicinal liquid, Xiao Yan’s recovery obviously sped up by quite a bit. After three days of soaking within the medicinal liquid in this manner, the dilapidated Qi Paths in his body had already gradually repaired themselves to a much better state than the tragic situation they were in a few days ago.

Xiao Yan stood up from the wooden basin and wiped his body clean. He randomly put on a set of clothes. After which, he raised his hand and a pale green glow drifted out from within the storage ring. Finally, it transformed into a green lotus that was suspended in front of Xiao Yan and emitting a faint glow.

Pressing his toes gently on the edge of the wooden basin, Xiao Yan floated and landed on the green lotus. He seated himself cross legged and his hands once again formed the training seal. Immediately, he began slowly closing his eyes.

Not long after Xiao Yan entered his training mode, the surrounding space began to fluctuate slightly. Threads of mottled energy passed through the green lotus light cover and unceasingly poured into Xiao Yan’s body.

At first, each time the energy entered Xiao Yan’s body, it would result in his face twitching slightly. However, as the energy was unceasingly poured into his body, Xiao Yan, who had become used to the pain, was able to ignore this feeling. He gently clenched his teeth, refined this somewhat mottled energy and merged it into his Qi Paths and muscles. After which, he lowered his mind into his body and felt the slowly recovering strength.

During the time that ensued, Xiao Yan followed the instructions step by step according to the recuperation plan that Yao Lao had told him about. The horrifying injuries in his body gradually began to recover at a gratifying pace. According to this speed, he should be able to return to his condition from before within a month’s time.

During this period of quiet recovery, Xiao Yan, who had a lot of free time, restored his alchemist identity. Every day, he requested Xiao Ding to purchase a large amount of medicinal ingredients. He would then refine some healing medicine which were of quite good quality in large batches. During the period that he was refining medicine, Xiao Yan made a somewhat surprising discovery. Originally, the control he had for flames was insufficient for him to refine the medicinal pills like the ‘Energy Recovery Pill’, which could be considered a tier three medicinal pill. However, this time around, he was stunned to realize that for some unknown reason, his ability to control flames appeared to have grown by exponentially. Even the ‘Energy Recovery Pill’ was able to be refined by him. Although the failure rate was quite high, he still managed to succeed.

After being stunned for a while, comprehension appeared in Xiao Yan’s heart. This likely had some connection with him creating the ‘Angry Buddha Lotus Flame’.

In the past, the extent of Xiao Yan’s control over the ‘Green Lotus Core Flame’ could almost be said to be a complete mess. The only things that he was able to do was to wrap the flame around his fist and use it to increase his attack strength or to use the flame in a rudimentary method and shoot it out. However, after he shot it out, Xiao Yan did not have the ability to continue controlling its attacking direction. Therefore, if the flame that was shot out did not hit the target, that very attack would have simply wasted a large amount of energy.

Each time Xiao Yan recalled the exceedingly comfortable manner of how Yao Lao controlled the ‘Bone Chilling Flame’, his heart was filled with envy. If Yao Lao was the one who was in control back then in the fight against the ‘Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor’, Xiao Yan dared to say for certain that the ‘Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor’ would be in an extremely dire state. Yao Lao would not even be like Xiao Yan, who was actually ridiculed by his opponent when he controlled the ‘Bone Chilling Flame’.

With Yao Lao’s controlling ability, he was able to release wisps of tiny ‘Bone Chilling Flame’ which would then move along the ground and quietly shuttle closer toward their target before suddenly attacking. In that way, even if he was a decent distance from the target, he would be able to turn the opponent into a cluster of ice carvings or ashes without anyone knowing.

This strange kind of method of controlling the flame was something that Xiao Yan had secretly coveted for. However, it was a mere fantasy with his strength in the past. Even with the sudden and massive increase in his flame controlling ability, which he accidentally obtained by creating the ‘Angry Buddha Lotus Flame’, something so horrifying that even a Dou Huang would be shocked at, he still had a great distance before he could achieve Yao Lao’s level of control.

After the fight with the ‘Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor’, Xiao Yan’s heart finally began to pay greater attention to the degree of control he had for the ‘Heavenly Flame’. He was clear in his heart that when he was able to train the degree of familiarity of his control to that of Yao Lao, his fighting strength would definitely soar abruptly.

Once Xiao Yan had this determination and thought, the refining requirement that he had for himself during this period of refining medicine had almost reached the extent of it being harshly stringent. Although Xiao Yan currently had a lack of Dou Qi in his body, the main energy required for the controlling the ‘Heavenly Flame’ was the unceasing Spiritual Strength. This was also something that the current Xiao Yan had an abundance of and was most outstanding at.

Therefore, at the corner of the courtyard which was snuffed with some hot air, the ‘Desert Metal Mercenaries’ repeatedly began to carry in many different kinds of medicinal ingredients. When they came out, their faces were filled with awe as they carried huge piles of jade bottles. Within these jade bottles were high quality healing medicines that were rarely seen in the ‘Rock Desert City’ as well as some ‘Energy Recovery Pill’ that one could not purchase here, even if one had the money. These medicinal pills, which were extremely rare in marketplaces, appeared to be rubbish that was thrown from the hands of the black clothed young man within the courtyard and were randomly piled in a corner. This huge wealth caused everyone to feel stunned. Was this the greatness of an alchemist?

As the days passed by one after another. Those ‘Desert Metal’ mercenaries that had delivered the medicinal ingredients and retrieved the medicinal pills from the courtyard also gradually became numb. After all, anyone who had stayed for a long time in such an environment would not act like they did initially, standing in front of a bottle of medicinal pill and foolishly staring without thought at it for a long time.

Xiao Yan, who was in the courtyard, gave up quietly recuperating. Every day, after he had completed the necessary steps for recuperating, he would sit in front of his medicinal cauldron and repeatedly practice his control of the ‘Heavenly Flame’ until his spirit could no longer support him. Only then did he begin to rest. Under this kind of tough training where he forgot to sleep and eat, Xiao Yan could clearly sense that his ability to control the ‘Heavenly Flame’ had gradually become greater.

In the courtyard, Xiao Yan was seated cross legged on a stone bench. In the dark red colored cauldron in front of him, a pale-green flame was writhing turbulently. Sections of the hot flame’s waves could be felt even from a far distance.

Xiao Yan’s ten long fingers were flat and probed in front of him. The ten fingers flashed and the green colored flame in the cauldron began to dance along with them.

The flexible appearance was like an obedient flame spirit.

Xiao Ding and Xiao Li quietly stood at the door to the courtyard, eyeing Xiao Yan’s unceasing movement of his hand gestures. Their faces could not help but be filled with amazement. Being able to control the flame to such an extent was already somewhat unbelievable in their eyes, but from the slight frown on Xiao Yan’s face, it appeared that he was still a little dissatisfied.

The flame in the cauldron rose for a moment. Xiao Yan lifted his eyes gently, flicked his finger and a gentle breeze knocked against the cauldron cover, sending it flying. With the beckoning of his hand, a few round medicinal pills soared out. After which, they steadily landed into a jade bottle.

Holding a jade bottle, Xiao Yan carelessly took a glance at it before throwing it toward Xiao Ding and Xiao Li at the door. He immediately stretched his lazy waist and closed his eyes to sense the injury in his body. Surprise surfaced on his face immediately.

“Ke, looks like I am recovering quite quickly.” After over half a month of nursing, the Qi Paths in his body had already recovered by more than half. This caused Xiao Yan, who was in a training stance to feel surprised.

At the door, Xiao Ding caught the jade bottle that flew over before slowly walking into the courtyard with Xiao Li. He faced Xiao Yan and asked with a smile, “How is your injury?”

“Not bad.” Xiao Yan smiled and answered, “Next will be the last part of the recuperation. It should not be a problem for me to be completely healed in five days.”

“Tsk tsk, you really are an abnormal fellow. With those kinds of horrifying injuries, you only needed a mere twenty days to recover to such an extent. Your constitution is really a cause of envy.” Xiao Ding and Xiao Li had amazed faces as they laughed.

Xiao Yan waved his hand. In his heart, he clearly knew the reason he was able to recover at this speed. Thirty percent of it was because of his constitution which was strengthened by the ‘Green Lotus Core Flame’ and seventy percent was because of the recuperation plan that Yao Lao had painstakingly designed. Only with the two of them working together did he manage to achieve such a speed.

“Where’s Old Hai?” Xiao Yan leaped down from the stone bench and randomly asked.

“Uh, ever since that day you gave him some medicinal ingredients name, it seems that he ran to every single medicinal shop in the ‘Rock Desert City’ during these few days. I think that if it were not for the fact that he needed to stay here to protect you, he might have run to the other cities.” Xiao Li laughed.

Xiao Yan laughed and nodded his head. These medicinal ingredients were all extremely rare items. Unless Hai Bo Dong had the luck of having a pie drop from the sky, it was almost impossible for him to find these medicinal ingredients in the medicinal shops within the ‘Rock Desert City’. It looked like Hai Bo Dong really wanted to swiftly recover his peak strength.

“I should start the final healing portion tomorrow. Only by recovering my strength as soon as possible can I help Yao Lao find some natural unique things that can help him swiftly recover his Spiritual Strength.” Xiao Yan’s hand gently rubbed on the black colored ring as he softly muttered.

“Moreover, the time to the three year agreement is also drawing closer!”