A bear and wolf transparent clashed in midair, locked in a desperate struggle to determine the victor.

  Bites and claw strikes flew left and right. At first, the bear held the advantage with its massive physique and powerful claws—but at the last moment, the wolf made a sudden move, clamping down hard on the bear's neck and causing it to vanish.

  "I win!" Qing Xuanling smiled proudly. "Finally!"

  Xuan Dan rolled her eyes. "After losing a hundred times. I'd say it's more incredible that you only managed to win once."

  Still, Xuan Dan looked at Qing Xuanling with surprise. They had invented various training methods to improve their control over the Clear Flame. This had been the most recent: battling each other with the fire figures they had created.

  To make things more interesting, Xuan Dan had suggested they compete for three days without her entering Qing Xuanling's divine sea—so she couldn't share her insights. Qing Xuanling, equally eager to test herself against an alchemical genius(who had a natural talent for fire control), had agreed.

  The result had been obvious. Xuan Dan had won overwhelmingly. She was simply too skilled at controlling clear flame—her divine talent made her comprehension of alchemical methods extraordinarily potent.

  Qing Xuanling, on the other hand, possessed a fire root with purity below ten percent. Not only was she facing a supreme genius in fire control, but her innate command over her fire meridians was abysmal. Under those conditions, victory had been nearly impossible.

  Initially, Qing Xuanling's control over the flame figures had been stiff and clumsy.

  Yet somehow, she had won the final round. Xuan Dan glanced sideways at Qing Xuanling.

  'I suspected it—but the original truly surpasses me in anything battle-related! She actually surpassed my flame mastery for a moment by improving mid-combat!'

  Xuan Dan didn't feel bad about it—in fact, she was delighted. Now their roles were perfectly assigned! While she could remain in the rear refining pills, the original could stand at the forefront, leveraging her combat talents!

  "Alright—let's merge our insights and finally begin alchemy." Xuan Dan entered Qing Xuanling's divine sea.

  Qing Xuanling closed her eyes as ideas and methods for controlling the Clear Flame flooded her mind like a tidal wave. Her face paled slightly from the information surge—but within minutes, she returned to normal.

  Xuan Dan emerged shortly after. She waited calmly as Qing Xuanling compared her original insights with the new ones Xuan Dan had provided.

  The wait stretched to an hour.

  "Alright… I learned quite a bit this time." Qing Xuanling opened her eyes and immediately began discussing her new realizations. "First—I noticed it makes no sense to keep injecting Qi into the third meridian past a certain point—its function doesn't change. I suspect several other meridians might be similar…"

  Qing Xuanling and Xuan Dan launched into a final study session on the Clear Flame Technique that lasted another two hours. Soon, both wore smiles, feeling their control over the Clear Flame had improved by several leaps.

  "Mmm—we'd previously mastered the technique to the Greater Accomplishment realm. With this, we should have entered the Perfection realm," Xuan Dan said happily.

  Qing Xuanling nodded. "We weren't as fast as we'd hoped—but it's still acceptable. I suppose we can finally begin refining our first pills…"

  If any experienced alchemist had overheard their conversation, it would be hard to say what expression they'd wear.

  The Clear Flame fire-control technique was, unexpectedly, quite famous among alchemists—not for its effectiveness or antiquity, but for its extreme difficulty relative to its modest efficiency.

  An experienced first-rank alchemist might take half a year just to barely produce the Clear Flame. And as for novices barely entering the world of alchemy… well, no one had bothered trying when better methods were available.

  Yet here they were—mastering it to the Perfection realm in a single week…

  Unfortunately, no one was present to witness it.

  Qing Xuanling retrieved the cauldron Madam Yechan had sold her, which sat in a corner of the room. She placed it in the center of the room and stood before it. Xuan Dan stood on the opposite side.

  Both gazed solemnly at the exquisite cauldron.

  "You can do this, right?" Qing Xuanling looked at Xuan Dan. She would be doing most of the work now.

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  Xuan Dan smiled confidently. "I might doubt many things—but not this. My body, every cell within it, screams at me to begin—to not waste time… I can't even imagine failing."

  Qing Xuanling smiled and produced the ingredients for the Qi Recovery Pill. Both had already studied the formulas for the two pills and agreed this was the easiest.

  The ingredients for a Qi Recovery Pill were: beast core powder, yellow ginseng root, Scarlet Forest red moss, one stem of moonlight sunflower, and ten blood ants.

  All were low-grade ingredients—specialties of Ziyu City. Clearly, this was a formula adapted to the

  city's environment.

  "According to the formula's steps," Qing Xuanling recited from memory, "first we must extract the essence from the ice-attribute moonlight sunflower stem, then use the yang-energy red moss to balance it. Next, add the beast core powder followed by the ten blood ants—whose blood will neutralize the core's harmful properties—leaving the yellow ginseng root for last to provide structural integrity to the pill…"

  Xuan Dan listened attentively despite also knowing the formula by heart.

  "I just realized—the key with this formula is speed," Xuan Dan said suddenly. "I hadn't noticed before, but the first ingredient is ice-attribute. If we're not careful, our flame could damage it."

  Qing Xuanling's eyes lit up. "True—I hadn't realized that either. But I don't think we need to worry too much. The Clear Flame's alchemical method actually proves quite useful for cases like this."

  Xuan Dan nodded in full agreement. She took a deep breath and conjured a Clear Flame the size of a human head. Previously, this would have seriously depleted her Qi reserves—but fortunately, she'd broken through in cultivation three days prior. Not too surprising—her cultivation talent was several times superior to Qing Xuanling's.

  "Let's begin."

  Xuan Dan launched the Clear Flame into the cauldron. The flame settled at the bottom, forming a pool of fire. Without delay, she tossed in the two-foot-long moonlight sunflower stem. It landed in the pool of Clear Flame.

  Surprisingly, the stem didn't begin to burn. Instead, it started shrinking and withering.

  Qing Xuanling, observing from the side, watched intently. This was the greatest difference when using the Clear Flame for alchemy. Traditional alchemy used external fire to heat the cauldron and extract medicinal properties through heat.

  But with the Clear Flame, that wasn't necessary. As its name suggested, the Clear Flame was nearly transparent and didn't emit intense external heat. Instead, the heat concentrated internally.

  For example—if they launched the Clear Flame at someone, that person would likely feel only mild warmth. But if they wrapped someone's arm in the flame, that person would probably scream in pain from the concentrated heat.

  Strangest of all—the Clear Flame lacked burning properties. Thus, the moonlight sunflower stem in the cauldron showed no scorch marks—only shrinking and slight wilting.

  'However… now comes the decisive moment.'

  Xuan Dan frowned as the stem shrank from two feet to the size of a fist. Beads of sweat dripped from her brow as she gestured with her hand. Immediately, the Clear Flame in the cauldron gathered and formed a sphere around the stem!

  Surprisingly, the flame-encircled stem began transforming into a bluish-green liquid!

  Xuan Dan's eyes narrowed. She immediately grabbed a handful of red moss and tossed it into the cauldron. The moss landed on the bluish-green liquid and began fusing instantly.

  The process was relatively swift. Within a minute, the moss had fully merged with the liquid—now a dark purple medicinal extract pooled in the cauldron.

  Xuan Dan moved immediately, adding twenty grams of beast core powder. The liquid inside began bubbling violently. She quickly grabbed the ten blood ants and tossed them in—

  But before the ants could fall into the cauldron, the dark purple liquid exploded!

  "Argh!!"

  Scalding liquid splattered onto Xuan Dan and Qing Xuanling, who swiftly shielded themselves with Qi.

  Qing Xuanling sighed. "A failure… though expected. It would be too much to hope for success on the first try."

  Xuan Dan nodded, her face strangely smiling. "Of course I failed—but it doesn't matter! I already see where I went wrong. I should've added the beast core powder more slowly—that's what caused the medicinal extract to react too violently! Also, I should've had the blood ants ready in hand…"

  Xuan Dan retreated into her own world, murmuring one improvement after another for the next attempt. Her blue eyes shone like stars. Qing Xuanling had to admit—she looked utterly enchanting.

  They rested for half an hour—mainly for Xuan Dan to recover her Qi.

  The next attempt began immediately.

  Xuan Dan repeated the exact same steps as before: tossing the moonlight sunflower stem into the cauldron and letting it heat until it became bluish-green medicinal extract, then adding the red moss.

  But unlike the first attempt, the extract exploded at that moment. Xuan Dan wasn't discouraged in the slightest—she quickly analyzed what might have gone wrong.

  She didn't take long to realize: she'd heated the moonlight sunflower stem too quickly, causing imbalance when the red moss was added.

  The third attempt also failed. She'd successfully added the beast core powder and blood ants—but when going to add the yellow ginseng root, she lost control of the Clear Flame and the extract exploded.

  This was the fourth attempt.

  Xuan Dan's eyes seemed hollow as she tossed the moonlight sunflower stem into the cauldron. Soon, it transformed into bluish-green extract. She quickly added the red moss and let them integrate for a minute before adding the beast core powder.

  This time, she carefully added five grams every three seconds. After fifteen grams, she grabbed the blood ants and tossed them in simultaneously with the final five grams of powder.

  The extract turned an earthy brown.

  Xuan Dan took a deep breath and swiftly added the yellow ginseng root—the size of a baby's head. She tossed it into the sphere of Clear Flame containing the extract and watched the process with bated breath.

  The ginseng root slowly melted into the earthy-brown extract, which gradually thickened and turned yellow.

  Xuan Dan's eyes sparkled.

  She gritted her teeth and controlled the Clear Flame to divide the extract into ten portions—each encased in its own sphere of flame.

  Xuan Dan began sweating profusely as she manipulated the flames. But controlling ten simultaneously proved too much. She lost control of three of the ten spheres.

  Three forming pills exploded.

  Xuan Dan's face paled—but she held firm. Biting her lip, she maintained control over the remaining seven flame spheres containing portions of the extract.

  Slowly, the medicinal extract within the flame spheres began taking on spherical shapes under her control.

  Qing Xuanling watched, nervously biting her nails—when suddenly, the seven white flame spheres vanished, revealing yellow pellets falling gently downward…

  Qing Xuanling looked up and met Xuan Dan's gaze. They exchanged radiant smiles.

  "A success!"