“Fellow Daoist Ruan.” He calmly took a step back, yielding the spot in front of the Alchemy Cauldron. “This Venerable sees your earnest desire to learn. You light the Spiritual Fire, and this Venerable will instruct you from the side.”

Ruan Se was stunned once again. Igniting the fire was the most basic step in Alchemy, something even an alchemy boy could do. But since Senior said so, he must have his reasons.

She couldn’t figure out the hidden intricacies behind it, but she did not dare to ask. Assuming Senior was merely testing her foundational skills, she hastily focused her mind and walked briskly to the Fire-Starting Platform.

Spiritual Power flowed slowly from her palm. The Fire-Starting Stone embedded beneath the Fire-Starting Platform sensed the Spiritual Power and lit up with a hum. A streak of tangerine-red Spiritual Fire shot up from the center of the platform.

Lai Li’an watched the Spiritual Fire ignite, nodded slightly, and gave a soft “Mm.”

Ruan Se retreated to the corner and withdrew her aura once more. Senior had just nodded, was that his approval of her?

But she hadn’t really done anything, merely lighting a fire that even an alchemy boy could manage. What exactly did Senior want her to glean from this simple act of starting the fire?

She wanted to ask but didn’t dare, so she could only suppress her doubts and refocus her attention on the Alchemy Cauldron.

The Spiritual Fire burned quietly beneath the cauldron. The tangerine-red firelight reflected against the walls, bathing the entire Alchemy Room in a warm, glowing halo.

A faint crackling sound of medicinal herbs being roasted by high heat came from within the Alchemy Cauldron. Lai Li’an stood in front of the cauldron, his back to Ruan Se, and closed his eyes.

On the surface, he looked like a Grandmaster Alchemist using his Divine Sense to precisely control the medicinal power within the cauldron. But in reality, Lai Li’an was screaming internally.

The Scripture of the Eternal Alchemy God had silently begun to circulate the moment he closed his eyes. The Spiritual Qi within his body probed into the Alchemy Cauldron in a manner he completely could not comprehend, wrapping each and every medicinal herb in an extremely thin film of Spiritual Qi.

These Spiritual Qi films isolated the different medicinal herbs from one another, while simultaneously allowing them to refine individually within the same high heat.

As all of this happened, there was absolutely no change in Ruan Se’s eyes. She only saw Senior close his eyes and stand perfectly motionless while the Spiritual Fire continued to burn.

Suddenly, the Spiritual Fire surged upwards. The flames swept up from the bottom of the Alchemy Cauldron along its walls like an awakening fire snake, enveloping the entire cauldron within a blazing core of fire.

The temperature of the entire Alchemy Room spiked drastically in a single breath. Ruan Se abruptly stood up straight, this was High-Heat Temperature Raising!

Her heart pounded wildly. She subconsciously leaned forward half a step, her eyes full of expectation. The Senior was about to truly begin refining the medicine!

This High-Heat Temperature Raising must be to quickly stimulate the medicinal properties of the herbs. Presumably, he would adjust the heat next and begin refining the medicinal liquid.

However, as the minutes and seconds ticked by, she began to feel a bit uneasy.

Any Alchemist knew that the biggest taboo in alchemy was using a single level of fire from beginning to end.

Some herbs required slow simmering with a gentle fire, while others needed a rapid assault with a fierce fire. The rhythm and variation of the fire were the true essence of the Alchemy Dao.

But the Senior hadn’t adjusted the heat at all from start to finish. He just let it burn explosively like this. Furthermore, those herbs were all mixed together. The refining progress of different herbs at the same temperature was completely different; some of the herbs inside might have already been reduced to ashes.

She couldn’t help but recall Lai Li’an’s “Using Herbs to Control Herbs” theory from earlier. At the time, it sounded profoundly mysterious, but now, watching this explosively burning Spiritual Fire, she couldn’t help but suspect: was the Senior just spouting nonsense?

The Spiritual Fire had been explosively burning for a full quarter of an hour, yet the flames showed no signs of waning, nor were there any traces of adjustment.

In a normal alchemy process, High-Heat Temperature Raising would only last for a brief moment. Once the medicinal efficacy was released and the liquid essences blended, it should immediately be switched to a slow, gentle simmer.

But now this Spiritual Fire was still burning, burning so fiercely that the entire Alchemy Cauldron started to emit a faint hum. Could the medicinal ingredients withstand it?

She began to secretly ache for those medicinal ingredients. Although this batch of materials couldn’t be considered rare treasures, they were all top-quality goods in perfect condition. To just burn them away to nothing like this, it would be a lie to say her heart didn’t ache.

What gave her even more of a headache was that if this batch was ruined, where would she go to gather a second set of materials?

She shook her head silently. True enough, if the disciple didn’t even know the most basic Alchemy Dao knowledge, how formidable could the Master be?

Although the previous scene of killing a Late Golden Core cultivator with a single palm strike was indeed shocking, that did not rely on Alchemy Techniques. A Mid Golden Core cultivator claiming he could refine an Eighth-Grade Pill, and she had actually believed it.

Leaning against the medicine cabinet, she lowered her eyelashes, already starting to silently calculate if there were any other ways to save Su Wan’er.

Just as she was feeling disheartened, an anomaly suddenly appeared!

Above the Alchemy Cauldron, a cluster of extremely pale cyan mist manifested out of thin air. The cyan mist hovered over the top of the cauldron, spinning faster and faster as its color continued to deepen, shifting from pale cyan to emerald green, and then from emerald green into a pool of rich, dark green.

A faint, almost imperceptible pill fragrance drifted from the cauldron, like the scent of green grass seeping from the soil after the first rain of early spring.

That was the scent of the Eternal Spring Flower. To think that the Eternal Spring Flower had not been destroyed by the fire! Instead, its medicinal power was firmly locked within, pushed to the absolute limit under the extreme heat, and it was now beginning to fuse with the other medicinal properties.

Ruan Se’s eyes widened.

The fierce fire had been burning for so long, yet the medicinal ingredients were not only undamaged, but had actually begun to fuse?

Her gaze was fixed intensely on the increasingly bright dark green mist at the top of the cauldron. Suddenly, a thought exploded in her mind, causing her entire body to shudder.

So Senior was performing alchemy using an unprecedented method!

He was wrapping each medicinal ingredient in Spiritual Power, allowing them to be refined separately at their own pace within the same Alchemy Cauldron without interfering with one another. Ultimately, amidst the tempering of the raging flames, they would complete the fusion of their medicinal properties on their own!

This was countless times more complex than ordinary methods. To simultaneously control the state of over a dozen medicinal ingredients in the blazing fire using Divine Sense, while also needing to accurately calculate the melting speed of each ingredient… she had never even deduced this level of precise manipulation in theory, let alone in actual practice.

The reason for using intense fire wasn’t to show off his skills, but to race against time.

Su Wan’er wouldn’t survive the night. The Senior couldn’t wait to go through the complete alchemy process step by step; he was snatching time from Yama1, using his ultimate Alchemy Techniques to gamble for a chance of survival.

He didn’t say it aloud, but from the moment he stepped into this Alchemy Room, he had been giving it his all. Thinking of this, an indescribable emotion welled up in Ruan Se’s heart; if only her Honored Master would treat her this way as well.

“Not good!” Ruan Se suddenly snapped out of her thoughts.

Light penetrated the Alchemy Cauldron, seeping out from every Formation Pattern and illuminating the entire Alchemy Room.

This level of brilliance, this concentration of Spiritual Qi, would definitely attract a Pill Tribulation!

And the commotion of a Pill Tribulation would inevitably expose their location. It would be disastrous if they drew the attention of the Law Enforcement Hall cultivators. To think the Senior hadn’t set up a Concealment Formation beforehand!

She glanced at Lai Li’an. Lai Li’an’s eyes remained closed and he was completely motionless, seemingly immersing his entire mind and soul into the Alchemy Cauldron.

Ruan Se opened her mouth to call out to him, but forcefully swallowed her words. The Senior was putting all his effort into controlling the fire; he could not be distracted.

She took a deep breath, turned around, and rushed out of the Alchemy Room. There was no time to hesitate.