The Alchemy Pavilion sank into the entrails of the western slope, while the towers of Clear Wind Peak rose toward the clouds high above.
As Shen Tian descended the hand-carved volcanic stone steps, the air temperature soared. The aroma of fresh pine and slope moisture gave way to a dense stench of sulfur, burnt coal, and charred medicinal plants.
In this corner of Mu Shu Country—one of the dozens of mortal tributary nations that paid tithe of resources and recruits to the Jinyun Sect within the vast Deep Heaven Continent—the earthly fire that flowed through the subterranean veins was the lifeblood of alchemists.
Shen Tian crossed the reinforced bronze threshold. Before him opened a gigantic cavern where dozens of black iron and bronze cauldrons pulsed over channeled lava openings.
At the back of the main chamber, a man with broad shoulders and a disheveled beard, stained with soot, bellowed orders at three servants who ran terrified with bundles of dried roots.
Master Tang Songyang stood there, an alchemist of explosive temperament with a cultivation at Level 3 of the Foundation Establishment Realm.
"Useless! Expose the Frozen Jade Root three more seconds to direct heat before crushing it, and the toxins will ruin the entire batch!" roared Tang Songyang, hurling a smaller cauldron to the ground.
CLANG!
The bronze vessel shattered into pieces, scattering shards across the stone floor.
Beside him, working with a methodical calm that contrasted with the chaos of the room, was a young woman of sixteen. She wore a vermilion work tunic with fitted sleeves and had her black hair tied in a firm bun. Her eyes, dark and sharp as steel needles, evaluated every movement in the workshop.
Tang Yuding. Level 6 of Qi Condensation. Songyang’s only daughter and first assistant.
Shen Tian stopped three meters away, adjusted his gray servant tunic, and brought his hands together in an impeccable salute, keeping his head lowered to feign submission.
"Servant Shen Tian presents himself before Master Tang to fulfill his transfer," he said in a flat voice.
Tang Songyang turned, wiping sweat from his forehead with the back of his soot-stained arm. His small, cunning eyes swept over Shen Tian’s body with explicit contempt.
"Another piece of garbage sent by the lower administration?" spat the alchemy master. "You’re thin as a dry reed. Deacon Zhang treats my pavilion like a garbage dump for those who can barely haul water."
Shen Tian bowed his head lower and absorbed the insult in silence. Letting Tang believe he was garbage served him well. Keeping the alchemist blind to Zhang’s true motives served him even better.
Tang Yuding set aside the stone mortar she was working on and walked toward her father, observing Shen Tian with an examining gaze.
"Father, two days with the heat of the lower cauldrons tends to finish off common servants," Yuding commented, her voice clean and firm. "If the administration sent him, let’s test him immediately. If he fails, the volcanic gas will take care of removing him."
"You’re right," Tang Songyang nodded, sketching a twisted smile. "Listen carefully, brat. I judge by results alone. To work in my pavilion, you must prove your hands stay steady before death. I’ll give you one chance."
Shen Tian activated Causality Perception. A tenuous, grayish thread connected Tang Songyang to the depths of the Pavilion, where the lava veins pulsed like open veins. The thread was weak, almost withered. The alchemy master was tied to his cauldron, consumed by an ambition that would never take him beyond Level 3.
Tang Yuding’s thread was different. It shone with a cleaner intensity, but also a more fragile one. The young woman had potential, but she was trapped by her father’s shadow. Shen Tian stored that information in a corner of his mind. It could be useful later.
The master walked to a sandalwood table and threw a worn bamboo scroll at Shen Tian’s feet.
"There you have the recipe for the Blood Purification Pill. It’s a Grade 5 pill—on the scale of 1 to 9, it’s a mid-level pill—designed for cultivators in the Foundation Establishment stage, used to cleanse metabolic residue after a violent breakthrough. I need two fresh ingredients from the deep zones of the Iron Pine Forest: three flowers of the Three-Form Fire Lotus Herb and the intact Bile of a Shadow Serpent. You have six hours. If you return empty-handed or with damaged ingredients, I’ll use you as a human bellows for the iron furnaces."
Shen Tian picked up the bamboo scroll with his expression unchanged.
"This disciple will fulfill the task," he responded dryly.
Before leaving the Pavilion, Shen Tian took a bone scalpel and a jade flask from Tang Yuding’s tool table. He simply took them. If the master wanted him to gather ingredients, he would need the proper tools. Nobody would notice their absence.
The Iron Pine Forest on the western slopes of Clear Wind Peak was an expanse of dark vegetation where the tree trunks absorbed the metallic Qi of the earth, turning their bark as hard as bronze.
Shen Tian ventured into the mist that covered the deep slope. As he crossed the boundary of the zone permitted for servants, the System interface glowed in his vision.
[Active Emergent Mission: Infiltration of the Alchemy Pavilion.]
[Secondary Objective: Complete Master Tang Songyang’s test.]
[Required ingredients: Three-Form Fire Lotus Herb (0/3), Shadow Serpent Bile (0/1).]
"A Grade 5 Foundation Establishment test batch for a simple servant," commented Xue Huang’s voice in his mind, charged with sarcasm. "The bearded old man wants you to die in the jaws of a beast so he can spare himself your rice ration."
"That gives me direct access to the ingredient pantry while keeping my tracks clean," Shen Tian responded in thought as he leaped quietly onto the branch of an iron pine.
Shen Tian activated Spiritual Sight with discretion, keeping the flow of ocular Qi at an imperceptible level. The world around him tinted with lines of energy. Two hundred meters to his left, among an outcrop of volcanic rocks where the subterranean heat emerged in cracks, three small flames of crimson color pulsed in the ground.
The Three-Form Fire Lotus Herb.
Shen Tian descended from the branch and landed in silence. However, as soon as his feet touched the damp earth, a sharp whistle tore through the mist behind the rocks.
HISSSSS!
An energy signature of dark blue tone emerged from the shadows. A Shadow Serpent four meters long, with scales that absorbed light and empty eye sockets that detected thermal vibration, slid at a terrifying speed toward him.
[Entity detected: Shadow Serpent (Grade 2 Spiritual Beast).]
[Equivalent threat level: Qi Condensation — Level 6.]
[Warning: Its neurotoxic venom can petrify meridians in less than sixty seconds.]
The beast lunged with open jaws, spitting a jet of greenish acid that melted the bark of the nearest pine in an instant.
Shen Tian maintained the absolute coldness of his 135 years of experience. Despite being at Level 10 (Great Perfection), facing a beast whose venom could ruin the meridians of his fifteen-year-old body demanded caution.
"Flickering Shadow Steps," he murmured.
A short burst of Qi exploded in the soles of his feet. Shen Tian’s body shifted laterally, leaving behind an illusory image of grayish energy. The serpent passed through the illusion, smashing its head against the rock.
CRACK!
Before the reptile could react, Shen Tian positioned himself on its back. He concentrated the compression of his ninth and tenth meridians in the palm of his right hand.
"Devastating Tide Palm."
The blow fell with surgical precision right behind the beast’s head. The Qi pierced the scales while leaving the outer skin intact, releasing high-frequency concentric waves directly into the internal cavity. The serpent’s organs collapsed from the inside out, and its spine fractured at three points.
The beast convulsed compulsively before becoming inert on the ground.
"Well executed," Xue Huang murmured in his mind. "The Devastating Tide Palm struggles against hard-scaled beasts. You had to adjust the frequency of the waves to pierce the skin. Not bad for a brat."
The System interface flickered.
"[Grade 2 Spiritual Beast eliminated.]"
"[Reward: +30 Suppression Points.]"
"[Current balance: 1130 Suppression Points.]"
Shen Tian drew the bone scalpel and the jade flask he had taken from the Pavilion. With methodical movements, he extracted the reptile’s gallbladder, keeping every drop of greenish bile within the flask. Immediately after, he harvested the three Fire Lotus flowers with roots intact.
The System interface flickered again.
"[Secondary Objective Completed: Ingredients gathered.]"
"[Reward: +50 Suppression Points.]"
"[Current balance: 1180 Suppression Points.]"
Back in the Secondary Hall of the Alchemy Pavilion, the surprise on Tang Yuding’s face was unmistakable when Shen Tian placed the ingredients on the work table.
"You brought them intact... and in less than three hours," Yuding murmured, examining the transparent bile with her dark eyes. "Most servants die trying to cut through the skin of a Shadow Serpent."
Tang Songyang let out a grunt, hiding his astonishment behind his rigid facade.
"A lucky kill of a beast makes you an alchemist? Boy, think again. Now you’ll light the secondary black iron cauldron. Ruin the herbs during essence extraction, and I’ll deduct the value of your salary for the next ten years."
The alchemy master pointed to a pile of common ingredients stacked in a corner: spiritual bamboo roots, fire mint leaves, and low-grade serpent bile.
"Before you touch the special ingredients, you’ll practice with these. My Shadow Serpent bile demands a more experienced hand. Master the technique with the common ones first, then use the special ones. A failure with the special ones ends your time here."
Shen Tian nodded. A logical measure. Tang carried more calculation than his temperament suggested.
The process of refining the Blood Purification Pill required three fundamental stages: Essence Extraction, Thermal Purification, and Runic Fusification.
Shen Tian sat in front of the secondary cauldron. He channeled his Qi to open the earthly fire valve beneath the bronze base.
Before beginning, he considered opening the System Shop and buying a basic alchemy manual. With 1180 points, he could afford it. He chose to hold back. The Alchemy Pavilion offered a chance to sharpen his own skills, relying on his own hands. Besides, the points were valuable. Better to save them for something more urgent.
The first attempt was a catastrophic failure.
As soon as he threw in the first spiritual bamboo root, the heat of the subterranean vein spiked uncontrollably. Shen Tian’s Qi, though dense and refined at Level 10, required fine-tuning to regulate the external temperature of an iron furnace. The stalk turned to black ash in less than two seconds.
"You’re regulating the fire with the breathing of a lame ox," Xue Huang mocked in his mind. "Qi responds to guidance, softening under a careful hand. Caress the flame."
"Too much heat, idiot!" shouted Tang Songyang from across the room. "You’re burning the spiritual essence!"
BOOM!
On the second attempt, Shen Tian reduced the fire, but the common serpent bile coagulated before mixing with the root powder, blocking the cauldron’s air ducts. A small explosion of bitter smoke blew the iron lid off, staining Shen Tian’s tunic with soot.
"The bile must be stabilized with a touch of cold Qi before mixing it," Xue Huang murmured. "Even I know that, and I’ve never touched a cauldron."
On the third attempt, the clash between the fire-attribute Qi of the plant and the toxic energy of the bile created a violent reaction inside the vessel.
CRACK!
The inner wall of the bronze cauldron fractured under the pressure.
Three attempts. Three batches of common ingredients reduced to useless slag. The special ingredients remained intact, waiting for the right moment.
Shen Tian remained motionless in front of the smoking furnace, his face stained with ash but his gaze completely serene. In his mind, each failure was simply a parameter adjustment.