151: Chapter 151 Strange Flames of Heaven and Earth

As he walked out of the pine forest, the evening breeze surged up from the valley, carrying the fresh fragrance of vegetation from the spiritual fields.

Su Cheng stood in the wind for a moment, having already made up his mind.

He had to fight for the opportunity to enter the Alchemy Hall treasury.

Not allowed to be shared? That didn't matter; he never intended to sell it anyway.

As long as the spirit nurturing pill Pill Formula entered the qiankun creation furnace, it was his business who used the resulting supreme grade Medicinal Pills and how they were used.

However, winning the grand competition would require more than just the support of the Qi of Creation.

The qiankun creation furnace could never be manifested in front of others, as that would be equivalent to showing his greatest secret to those Golden Core Elders in public.

But just because he couldn't use the creation furnace didn't mean it couldn't help.

The creation furnace had long since merged with Su Cheng. Every time he used it for Alchemy, the natural Creation Intent within the furnace would permeate the entire refining process.

Su Cheng mused that if he deliberately set aside a wisp of his mind to perceive this Concept during future Alchemy, he might eventually be able to truly make the Creation Concept his own.

Besides, he would have to sense it anyway once his cultivation reached the Foundation Establishment Peak.

If he succeeded in sensing it now, even without the creation furnace, he could integrate that wisp of Concept into his control over the heat and medicinal properties when refining with his own techniques.

This path might just work.

But relying on this alone to surpass the Alchemy Hall's direct lineage, who possessed Unusual Fires and Treasure Artifact Pill Furnaces, was still uncertain.

The Alchemy grand competition was a contest of the final Medicinal Pill quality.

The higher the cultivation, the more vigorous the spiritual energy one could mobilize, and the stronger the Divine Sense, leading to a greater margin for error when refining high-tier Medicinal Pills.

Most of those top-ranked Core Disciples in the Alchemy Hall were at the Late Stage Foundation Establishment or even the Foundation Establishment Peak. With the added bonuses of Unusual Fires and Treasure Artifacts, they held every Innate advantage in the competition for high-tier Medicinal Pills.

As for Su Cheng, his cultivation was a shortcoming, and his Pill Furnace was only a high-grade magic tool; he was at a disadvantage on both fronts.

Therefore, he had to find a way to obtain a wisp of Unusual Fire or a Treasure Artifact Pill Furnace.

Ideally, he would have both.

Su Cheng rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

Fang Zhenhai needed ning shen pills and po zhang pills, the daily supply for the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce couldn't be interrupted, he still had to go to the mountain Peak every day to sustain the dragon beard vine, he hadn't finished studying the materials from the Dharma Transmission Pavilion, and now he had to figure out how to get an Unusual Fire and a Treasure Artifact Pill Furnace.

Why did it seem like his tasks were piling up?

He stood in the wind for another moment, eventually shaking his head and turning toward his Immortal Cave.

Back at the Immortal Cave, Su Cheng didn't rush into anything else. First, he brewed himself half a tael of spiritual tea he had pilfered from Senior Brother Chen Yuan.

After finishing the tea, he focused his mind, manifested the qiankun creation furnace, and began refining the remaining ning shen pills and po zhang pills.

Refining second-tier High Grade Medicinal Pills was by no means easy.

Even with the creation furnace handling the core steps, Su Cheng still had to bear the rhythm of mobilizing spiritual energy and the significant consumption of Divine Sense himself.

As the various Spirit Medicines were refined within the creation furnace, Su Cheng set aside a wisp of his mind, attempting to capture the mysterious aura emanating from within the furnace.

This was something he had never tried before—actively sensing it.

The Creation Concept.

It was something indescribable.

Whenever the creation furnace operated, a refreshing rhythm would flow between the ancient patterns on its body.

This wasn't just Su Cheng's guess; it was mentioned on the creation furnace itself.

This rhythm seemed to contain the ultimate principles of the birth and death of all things and the rotation of creation. If he could comprehend it, it would become his own Concept.

However, comprehension was easier said than done.

As soon as Su Cheng's mind touched the edge of that rhythm, he was pulled back by a sharp pain in his Sea of Consciousness. The medicinal liquid inside the furnace faltered during the Fusion stage, nearly ruining the batch.

He quickly withdrew his scattered focus and concentrated fully on stabilizing the Pill Furnace.

That was close.

After struggling for over an hour, the batch of ning shen pills was finally complete. A lustrous, jade-like Medicinal Pill lay quietly at the bottom of the furnace, glowing with spiritual light—it was of supreme grade.

Su Cheng put away the Medicinal Pill and let out a long breath.

The path of multitasking was currently impassable.

His Divine Sense strength was only at the Foundation Establishment Mid-stage. Trying to sense the Concept while managing Alchemy was simply asking for trouble.

He would have to wait until his Divine Sense grew stronger or his cultivation improved before he could touch that wisp of creation dao rhyme during Alchemy.

It couldn't be rushed.

"I'll finish what needs to be done first."

Su Cheng gave himself some encouragement, meditated for half a day, and started another batch of po zhang pills the next day.

Repeating this cycle, two months quietly passed amidst the flickering firelight of the Pill Furnace.

In a corner of the Immortal Cave, thirty jade bottles were lined up.

Fifteen ning shen pills and fifteen po zhang pills, every single one of them supreme grade, without exception.

Besides these, Su Cheng had also refined a considerable number of first-tier Medicinal Pills.

He had accumulated nearly a thousand each of qi gathering pills, body tempering pills, and qi recovery pills.

There were also a few spirit burst pills. Their supreme grade effects were enough to significantly mitigate the side effects of use, making them a trump card for the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce, his father, and his sister.

The Spirit Medicines mainly came from the supplies sent by the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce earlier, as well as the large quantity of first-tier Spiritual Plants stored in the qiankun creation furnace's space.

He hadn't touched much of the first-tier spiritual fields on Qingmu Peak.

He did use some second-tier spiritual herbs, as he didn't have the main ingredients for varieties like foundation establishment pills and clear spirit pills, so he had to rely on Qingmu Peak's spiritual fields for the time being.

Fortunately, his Revered Master had previously given him free rein, saying he could "use them as he pleased," so Su Cheng didn't hold back.

The matter of the Medicinal Pills was settled for now, but the progress on another front did not please him.

During these two months, Su Cheng had used his spare time to discreetly inquire about two things within the Sect: Treasure Artifact Pill Furnaces and heaven and earth exotic fire.

The Danding Sect was, after all, a major Nascent Soul Sect. When it came to information regarding Alchemy, there was likely no equal in the entire Tianlan Province.

The records on heaven and earth exotic fire were very detailed; there were twenty to thirty known types of Unusual Fire, ranging from the third to the fourth tier.

Unfortunately, records were just records; not a single one was actually obtainable.

Su Cheng pored over several relevant volumes in the Dharma Transmission Pavilion and eventually summarized three useful clues.

First: Deep within the Chiyang Mountain Range to the southeast of Tianlan Province, a Cultivator had reportedly witnessed traces of what was suspected to be the third-tier Unusual Fire, "Chiyang Heart Flame," a hundred years ago.

However, the Chiyang Mountain Range was within the territory of another major Nascent Soul Sect, a distance of over half a prefecture away from the Danding Sect.

Second: In the Nether Sea to the northwest of Tianlan Province, rumors said a dual-attribute Unusual Fire of water and fire called "Nether Sea Ghost Flame" lurked within the underwater volcanic clusters.

This was indeed a good find, but the Nether Sea was a place where even Nascent Soul Cultivators had to tread carefully. An Early Foundation Establishment Stage like him going there would be no different from delivering himself as a snack.

Third: Hundreds of thousands of miles away from Tianlan Province in Yanyang Prefecture, there was an ancient ruin called the "Fentian Secret Realm" that opened once every hundred years. It was said to contain various seeds of Unusual Fire.

The next opening was in thirty years.

Thirty years.

Su Cheng silently closed the book.

Three clues: one too far, one too dangerous, and one too long.

All of them were useless.

The situation with Treasure Artifact Pill Furnaces wasn't much better.

The Artifact Hall did indeed have Treasure Artifact Pill Furnaces for sale, and Su Cheng had even made a special trip to take a look.