291: Four-Star Dou Huang

While the Jia Nan Academy Inner Academy was fiercely competing for spots on the strong ranking list, Jiang Donghua, the list's top ranker, had long since left the academy.

Thousands of miles away from the Inner Academy lay an ancient, rarely visited mountain range.

Here, peaks overlapped and ancient trees towered, but more importantly, the Heaven and Earth energy was exceptionally abundant.

The intertwining of water-attribute and wood-attribute energy caused spiritual energy to permeate the valley, nurturing countless rare medicinal herbs.

Deep within the secluded valley, a thousand-zhang waterfall hung like an inverted silver river, roaring as it crashed into a deep pool, filling the air with mist.

Jiang Donghua was here.

When he first arrived, he was drawn in by the dense vitality and the faint medicinal fragrance lingering in the air.

On the cliff face beside the waterfall, he pointed his fingers like a blade, and with powerful Dou Qi surging, he easily carved out a spacious and clean cave dwelling.

The cave entrance faced the waterfall, allowing him to use the sound of the water to temper his mind while constantly sensing the abundant Heaven and Earth energy.

At this moment, inside the cave dwelling, Jiang Donghua sat cross-legged on a cushion, his aura profound and deep as the sea.

Dozens of days ago, relying on his profound accumulation and the benefits gained from refining part of Venerable Huanhai's residual soul energy, he naturally broke through the bottleneck and successfully stepped into the Dou Huang realm!

Furthermore, his Soul Power, which was already far beyond ordinary people, finally underwent a quantitative change leading to a qualitative change, stepping into the Spiritual Realm that countless Alchemists dreamed of!

Upon entering the Spiritual Realm, his soul perception underwent an earth-shattering change, granting him an unprecedentedly clear understanding of the flow of Heaven and Earth energy and the subtle balance of medicinal properties.

This past month, besides consolidating his Dou Huang cultivation, he spent most of his time immersed in his Sea of Consciousness, hungrily absorbing and digesting the immense alchemy experience and knowledge left behind by Venerable Huanhai.

The lifetime experience, knowledge, Pill Formula, and fire control secrets of an Eighth-Grade Alchemist Grandmaster—the sheer volume of information was like a vast ocean.

Even with Jiang Donghua's Spiritual Realm Soul Power, he needed to spend a significant amount of time slowly sorting and comprehending it.

Theory must be combined with practice.

The abundant medicinal resources in this mountain range became his best training ground.

He often traveled through the mountains and forests, collecting various medicinal herbs, then returned to the cave dwelling, summoned his Medicine Cauldron, and refined pills casually.

From the initial third-grade and fourth-grade pill to the later fifth-grade pills, he gradually turned Venerable Huanhai's experience into his own, and his alchemy skills steadily improved at an astonishing speed.

Today, an unusual energy fluctuation and a dense medicinal fragrance permeated the cave dwelling.

Jiang Donghua looked focused.

In front of him floated an ancient Medicine Cauldron, flames leaping inside, subtly showing an anomaly of dragon and tiger merging.

His hands moved like butterflies among flowers, forming complex and profound seals, precisely controlling the temperature of the flame and the timing of fusion.

His Soul Power was like the most precise carving knife, sensing every subtle change within the Medicine Cauldron.

What he was refining was a top-tier sixth-grade pill, the Huangji Pill!

This pill has immense efficacy for Dou Huang expert, capable of increasing the user's strength by one or even two stars.

It is priceless, extremely difficult to refine, and enough to stump most Sixth-Rank Alchemist.

Time passed bit by bit.

The energy inside the Medicine Cauldron became increasingly violent, but Jiang Donghua's powerful Soul Power kept it firmly contained within the cauldron.

Finally, at a certain critical point, all the violent energy suddenly subsided, and a purer, more majestic medicinal power merged perfectly, like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea!

"Condense!"

Jiang Donghua gave a low shout, and the seal in his hand abruptly changed!

Buzz—!

The Medicine Cauldron trembled slightly, the lid opened, and a dazzling golden light accompanied by a refreshing exotic fragrance shot up into the sky!

A dragon-eye sized, perfectly round pill, radiating a halo, slowly flew out of the cauldron and landed inside the jade bottle he had prepared.

On the surface of the pill, a strange pill pattern faintly appeared, indicating its excellent quality!

"Success."

Jiang Donghua looked at the Huangji Pill in the jade bottle, a satisfied smile appearing on his face.

To succeed on his first attempt at refining a high-difficulty pill like the Huangji Pill, while only being a newly promoted Sixth-Rank Alchemist, and achieving superior quality...

This was certainly thanks to Venerable Huanhai's experience, but it was also inseparable from his own powerful Spiritual Realm Soul Power.

He put away the Medicine Cauldron and the pill, walked to the cave entrance, gazed at the waterfall cascading down, and felt the Dou Huang power and Spiritual Realm soul within him, his heart filled with peace.

Looking at the glowing Huangji Pill in his palm, Jiang Donghua's thoughts raced.

The increase in his strength and the advancement of his alchemy skills made his future plans increasingly clear.

"The Dou Huang realm is stable, and my Soul Power has entered the Spiritual Realm.

It is time for the next step."

He muttered softly, looking toward the direction of Jia Nan Academy.

"The Fire Energy accumulated in the Inner Academy should be enough to exchange for that Earth Rank High Tier fire attribute cultivation method."

This was something he had planned long ago.

A powerful main cultivation method is the foundation of future cultivation.

For someone who relies on system idling, an Earth Rank High Tier cultivation method is especially crucial.

【 Host: Jiang Donghua 】

【 Realm: Four-Star Dou Huang (3000 / 4000) 】

【 Main Cultivation Method: Heaven Burning Furnace Art (middle-rank earth tier) 】

【 Idling Income 】

Clone 1: 3 points / hour

Clone 2: 3 points / hour

Clone 3: 3 points / hour

Clone 4: 3 points / hour

Clone 5: 3 points / hour

Clone 6: 3 points / hour

Clone 7: 3 points / hour

【 Current Total Income: 21 points / hour 】

"After exchanging for the cultivation method, I can use the Origin Heart Flame at the bottom of the Sky Burning Qi Refining Tower to conduct a thorough body refinement!"

Thinking of the core power of the Fallen Heart Flame, a trace of heat flashed in Jiang Donghua's eyes.

That miraculous effect of burning away impurities and purifying Dou Qi from the inside out is enough to elevate his physical strength and Dou Qi quality to another level, laying an extremely solid foundation for charging toward higher realms.

"After completing all this, it will be time to leave Jia Nan Academy and head to the Northern Region of Central State."

Thinking of his wife Red Silk, who was far away in Central State, a warm current and a sense of urgency surged in Jiang Donghua's heart.

With his mind made up, Jiang Donghua no longer hesitated.

He turned and returned to the cave dwelling to start packing.

Actually, there wasn't much to pack, mainly the pills he refined, the rare medicinal herbs he collected, and his personal Medicine Cauldron.

His gaze swept over the small medicinal garden he had carved out in the corner of the cave dwelling, which contained some relatively rare seedlings he had transplanted casually.

These herbs were currently growing well, but they were still young.

At most, they could only be used to refine third- or fourth-grade pills; for him now, they were negligible.

"Forget it,"

Jiang Donghua chuckled and shook his head.

"Taking them would be a burden on the road, but destroying them would be a waste."

He pondered briefly, walked to the medicinal garden, formed a seal with his hands, and a gentle yet tenacious Dou Qi mixed with Spiritual Realm Soul Power spread out, slowly constructing an invisible energy barrier around the garden.

The moment the barrier formed, it flickered slightly and disappeared, completely isolating and protecting the medicinal garden's aura.

"I'll casually set a seal.

It looks like if no one deliberately searches for it, leaving it for twenty or thirty years won't be a problem."

He nodded in satisfaction.

"Maybe twenty or thirty years from now, some fated little fellow will discover this place.

That would count as a stroke of fortune."

Having finished all this, there was nothing left in the cave dwelling worth lingering over.

Jiang Donghua walked to the entrance, took one last look at this place of secluded cultivation that had accompanied him for several months, and the ceaselessly roaring thousand-zhang waterfall.

The next moment, his mind stirred slightly.

Boom!

A powerful aura, many times more majestic and vast than it had been months ago, suddenly erupted from his body, like a sleeping giant dragon awakening!

Azure Dou Qi enveloped his entire body like flames.

Behind him, a pair of gigantic Dou Qi wings, even more solid and flickering with strange runes along the edges, sharply spread open!

The pressure of a Four-Star Dou Huang was released without reservation, sweeping across the entire valley like a tide!

In an instant, the valley fell silent.

Even the roar of the waterfall seemed to be temporarily suppressed by this pressure.

Deep in the distant mountains, several powerful Magical Beasts, originally ruling as kings and possessing Fifth-Tier strength, instantly let out terrified whimpers in the face of this terrifying aura that made their souls tremble.

They immediately suppressed their entire aura to the extreme, their massive bodies shivering and curling up in the deepest part of their dens, not even daring to breathe—just like when Jiang Donghua first arrived months ago!

Jiang Donghua felt the surging power within him, a slight smile twitching his lips.

He no longer lingered.

The wings on his back sharply flapped!

Whoosh—!

His figure turned into a blue streak of light, breaking through the valley's mist, tearing through the clouds, and speeding toward the direction of Jia Nan Academy at an astonishing speed!