Chapter 3

The reason alchemists can have such treatment is naturally due to their rarity and practicality; wanting to become an alchemist, the conditions are extremely harsh.

First, one must possess the fire attribute; second, within the fire nature, a trace of wood qi must be mixed to serve as a catalyst for alchemy.

Know that on the Dou Qi Continent, a person's bodily attribute is determined by their soul; a soul forever possesses only one attribute, impossible to have other attributes mixed in.

Therefore, for a body to possess two different strengths of attributes is basically impossible.

Of course, nothing is absolute; among billions, there will always be some mutant souls, and those who possess such mutant souls have the potential to become alchemists.

However, merely possessing a fire-wood attribute soul still does not make one a true alchemist.

Because another necessary condition for alchemists, equally indispensable, is: the soul's perceptive ability, also called soul-shaping power.

Under these harsh conditions, those qualified to become alchemists are, of course, as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

And with fewer alchemists, those miraculous pills are naturally even rarer; rarity breeds value, thus conferring upon alchemists a status so noble it borders on the grotesque.

Like Hai Bodong and the Heavenly Flame Venerable in the original work, they begged Xiao Yan to refine pills, not knowing how many times they had risked life and death; in the end Xiao Yan handed over the pills, yet still had to thank him, thus incurring a debt.

Thus, one can see how exalted the status of alchemists is!

The next day.

"Lin Feng, you finally came; hurry to the back door and help load the goods." In the shop, the shopkeeper saw Lin Feng arrive, hurriedly called out to him, looking somewhat anxious.

"Okay, I'll go right away." Seeing the shopkeeper's appearance, Lin Feng also felt a bit curious and asked: "Shopkeeper, why are you in such a hurry?"

Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper clasped his hands behind his back, proudly lifted his head, and said: "You weren't here yesterday, so you wouldn't know; yesterday I went to Zhenbei City and at the Myriad Flowers Pavilion I met a One-Star Alchemist. I inquired about the master's preferences, gritted my teeth, and spent tens of thousands of gold coins to buy a snake woman and sent her over."

Speaking of this, the shopkeeper recalled yesterday's alluring snake woman; a flash of heat and reluctance crossed his eyes, then he was filled with excitement.

Clapping his hands, he exclaimed excitedly: "After receiving the snake woman, Master Liu Xi has already agreed; not only will he entrust us with supplying all the medicinal herbs he needs for alchemy, but also, each month, twenty percent of the pills he refines will be sold by us."

The shopkeeper, thinking of the endless huge profits to come, couldn't help but start daydreaming about his future life of ease and abundance...

Hearing this, Lin Feng already understood why the shopkeeper was so pleased today.

His shop is the foremost establishment in Wutan City, with a monthly net profit of several thousand gold coins; if he could attach himself to a One-Star Alchemist, that profit would likely double.

Wait, Liu Xi?

Lin Feng thought for a moment; this isn't the alchemist from the original who helped the Jia Lie Family and the Xiao Family oppose each other, is it?

He remembered that Liu Xi was still a disciple of a Three-Star Alchemist; his family wealth should be quite substantial, right?

Thinking of this, a glint of unusual light flashed in Lin Feng's eyes.

"Right, today I'm so happy I almost forgot; you go help right now, if you delay my delivering medicinal herbs to Master Liu Xi, watch me not give you anything pleasant." The shopkeeper suddenly remembered Lin Feng was still here and shouted.

"I'm going now." Lin Feng replied, then ran toward the back door.

Zhenbei City.

Lin Feng followed the shop's cargo team to Liu Xi's mansion, together with everyone unloaded all the medicinal herbs, then ran to the shopkeeper and said: "Shopkeeper, I want to resign."

"Resign?" Hearing Lin Feng's words, the shopkeeper blinked, then asked: "When?"

Lin Feng replied: "Today."

Hearing this, the shopkeeper blinked and said: "Today? So sudden?"

"Yes." Lin Feng nodded; after a month of indirect inquiries, he had already obtained Liu Xi's routine from the shopkeeper.

Now is the perfect opportunity to carry out his plan; missing this would mean waiting several more months.

"Alright." The shopkeeper didn't think much of a porter, took out a few gold coins and said: "This is your wages for this period."

"Thank you, shopkeeper." Lin Feng took the gold coins, then shouldered a large cloth bundle and left the place.

After walking a distance, Lin Feng quickly turned direction and ran toward the outskirts...

Running along the main road for a few li, he found a suitable tree in the nearby woods and climbed up in a few moves.

Holding an explosive packet containing a hundred catties of black fire powder, Lin Feng hid cautiously atop a large tree, patiently awaiting the target's arrival.

His target this time was none other than Liu Xi!

Since a month ago, after learning Liu Xi's information from the shopkeeper, after some hesitation, he decided to take a risk and began plotting Liu Xi's assassination.

If successful, he would not only obtain advanced cultivation techniques, but also be able to acquire all the various items needed to study alchemy.

Later, after some indirect inquiries, he obtained Liu Xi's routine from the shopkeeper.

Learning that Teacher Liu Xi resided in another city not far from Zhenbei City, the reason Liu Xi came to Zhenbei City was to conveniently evade his teacher's supervision.

However, Liu Xi periodically visits his teacher; today is the day he goes to see his teacher.

Although he knew Liu Xi's schedule, Lin Feng's ten-star Dou Qi strength was clearly insufficient to defeat Liu Xi, let alone the fact that he had several Dou Qi practitioners as bodyguards.

Thus, Lin Feng exploited his advantage as a transmigrator, and after some tinkering, produced a black fire powder explosive packet!

Although this item is hard to kill a Dou Qi practitioner head-on, a sneak attack still has a good chance of killing.

After waiting a while, four burly men escorted a white-clad youth slowly into his field of vision.

The leading white-clad youth appeared to be in his early twenties, quite handsome, but the occasional flash of lewdness in his pupils utterly ruined his appearance.

At this moment, the youth's face was full of impatience; obviously, his daily sexually fulfilling life in Zhenbei City made him unwilling to see his teacher.

Seeing the crowd approach, a glint of madness flashed in Lin Feng's eyes.

Having transmigrated once, he originally only wanted to live a bit better, but the Dou Qi Continent is too cruel; if he cannot become stronger, he can only suffer others' bullying!

When the few people came to a spot not far below the tree, he quickly lit the fuse with a match, threw it downward, then hurriedly clung to the tree trunk and hid behind it.

He had tested the fuse's burn time; it lasted less than two seconds, and moreover these Dou Qi practitioners didn't know what an explosive packet was, so they were likely unable to dodge.

"Huh?"

"Who goes there?!"

The people below saw something suddenly flying toward them from above, shouted loudly, and instinctively raised their weapons to block.

Two of the burly men even drew their weapons and stabbed toward the explosive packet.

At the moment the explosive packet was about to contact the people's weapons, a blinding flash of light erupted, and then everyone only heard a tremendous 'Boom—' as the cloth packet burst above their heads.

A large number of iron shards inside the cloth packet were propelled by the scorching air flow in all directions; many branches of the surrounding trees were severed, and many more penetrated the bodies of Liu Xi and the others.

A few people below were also thrown several meters away by the blast's impact, and two unlucky ones even had their bodies blown into pieces.

As the explosion subsided, a mass of flesh, entrails, along with the surrounding trees' branches and leaves fell to the ground.

A moment later, seeing no movement below, Lin Feng's limbs grew weak, and he shakily descended the tree, looking at the debris strewn on the ground and letting out a sigh of relief.

His attempt this time was, indeed, a failure—he perished—but seeing the limbs scattered everywhere made Lin Feng instantly feel nauseated.

He also knew that anyone nearby who heard the commotion would surely rush here, so he forced down his nausea and began rummaging through the shredded flesh...

"Hey, we got goods."

Seeing the binding ring peeled off Liu Xi's finger, Lin Feng's mouth curved; the One-Star Alchemist's fortune was a huge sum for him right now.

However, he didn't have time to count it carefully now; after stashing it, he resumed his scavenging.

Soon after, Lin Feng's hands held several more scrolls and gold coin cards, and glancing at the gold coins scattered on the ground, there were roughly a few thousand.

"Enough, let's leave quickly; with such a loud noise, the others must be on their way here."

Grabbing the newly seized items, Lin Feng casually grabbed a scrap of cloth to wipe the blood off, ran into the woods, led out a horse he had prepared earlier, and rode away swiftly.

A few hours later, Lin Feng arrived at a cave and decided to cultivate his technique here before moving on; otherwise, encountering bandits or marauders, he wouldn't be able to cope without having cultivated any technique.

He took out the binding ring obtained from Liu Xi; his soul perception slowly seeped into the ring in his palm, and after a moment, a barely concealed joy rose on his face.

Liu Xi's binding ring's collection was extremely rich, containing the cultivation techniques, combat skills, prescriptions, alchemy cauldrons, gold coins, pills and herbs he now urgently needed.

"No wonder the ancients said a gold belt that kills and sets fire—it's true!" he exclaimed, looking at the binding ring in his palm.

He pulled out a scroll and read the small print: "Mysterious Tier intermediate technique, Red Fire Manual!"

He then picked up several other scrolls; aside from one Mysterious Tier low-level combat skill Red Fire Palm, the rest were prescriptions for first- and second‑grade pills.

Seeing the combat skill, Lin Feng felt a bit disappointed; he had expected the skill to be Mysterious Tier intermediate like the technique, but it turned out to be a Mysterious Tier low-level scroll, suggesting Liu Xi didn't favor fighting.

Nevertheless, this combat skill pairs with the technique, and when used, should be stronger than ordinary same‑level combat skills...

A moment later, after tallying his loot, Lin Feng curiously picked up a gold coin card and looked at it; it was his first time seeing a Battle Qi Continent bank card.

The gold coin card resembled Blue Star's savings card, bearing a number of one hundred thousand, apparently indicating the card's balance.

He put the card away, grabbed the Mysterious Tier intermediate technique scroll, and began cultivating.