Chapter 389: Heading to the Zhihuo Mountain Range

Xiao Yan's eyes widened in surprise; he swallowed hard and licked his lips. This kiss was unlike those from Xun Er, Yun Yun, or Cai Lin.

This kiss carried deep affection with a touch of quiet elegance, distant yet brimming with lingering attachment. Soft yet slightly cold, it carried a faint medicinal scent as she leaned down—unforgettable.

Xiao Yan was torn inside! He wasn't a scoundrel—he just had his heart split in two, half given to Xun Er, half to Cai Lin!

Cai Lin was still pregnant at home, waiting for him to return; Xun Er was still in Zhong Zhou's Gu Clan, waiting for him to come and marry her!!

Was he even a man!!

Seeing Xiao Yan lick his lips, Xiao Yixian's cheeks instantly flushed crimson; her heart raced wildly, her chest pounding so hard Xiao Yan could hear it from afar.

Xiao Yixian wondered if she'd been poisoned! Why had she suddenly done something like this!!

Just as Xiao Yan was about to speak, Xiao Yixian pressed her finger firmly over his lips and hurriedly said: "Don't misunderstand—I only meant to thank you for saving my life, nothing more!"

Wuuuu!! (Choked!)

Xiao Yixian pursed her lips, glanced once more, then locked her gaze on the raven nearby, preening its feathers; she grabbed it suddenly and changed the subject: "You gave me the Strange Fire—what about you?"

What could Xiao Yan do? Pretend he didn't notice her trying to change the subject—what else could he do?

"Cough, cough." Xiao Yan cleared his throat and said: "I still have plenty of Strange Fires, and since this one's already been refined by me, you being nearby won't stop me from using it."

Xiao Yan's mind shifted; he activated the Burn Scripture. The raven reverted to its Elixir form, and a cluster of ink-green flame separated from it, floating beside Xiao Yan.

Once refined by the Burn Scripture, a Strange Fire could never escape—unless Xiao Yan released it himself. Not even the Phantom Poison Fire, let alone the Void Swallowing Flame, could get away.

Now, Xiao Yan was essentially lending out the Strange Fire—long-term.

Fortunately, this was only the twentieth-ranked Phantom Poison Fire; it didn't significantly affect Xiao Yan's Burn Scripture, and his rank didn't drop.

As expected, without the Phantom Poison Fire, the Poison Elixir couldn't take form on its own. Only after Xiao Yan merged the two again did the raven reappear.

It was a miraculous entity, halfway between a Dan Beast and a Spiritual Flame.

Xiao Yixian's Eternal Calamity Poison Body still remained; her Poison Dou Qi came from that body—this was Dou Qi used to cast Dou Techniques. The Poison generated by her Eternal Calamity Poison Body resided within the Phantom Poison Fire and the Poison Elixir.

Xiao Yixian always possessed two powers: one, the Poison Dou Qi and Poison Dou Techniques of her Eternal Calamity Poison Body—her combat cultivation Dou Qi; two, the terrifying Eternal Calamity Poison that struck fear into all who heard of it.

Xiao Yixian suddenly asked: "Aren't you worried I might suddenly run away?"

Hearing this, Xiao Yan's heart trembled. He slowly closed his eyes, feeling the soft warmth through her Alchemist Long Robe, murmuring: "I never considered that question."

Indeed—he'd never imagined Xun Er would one day leave him and return to the Gu Clan, just as she had before.

Seeing Xiao Yan slowly close his eyes, Xiao Yixian silently vowed: "I won't leave you."

"How much longer are you going to lie there?"

"I'm injured! Let me rest a bit longer! By the way, what's your current Cultivation Realm?"

"My Eternal Calamity Poison Body absorbed the Phantom Poison Fire's poison—I'm now at Fourth Star, nearing Fifth Star Dou Zun."

???? Xiao Yan was stunned, mouth agape!

Eventually, even Xiao Yan's thick skin couldn't keep exploiting Xiao Yixian's kindness—he rose, took some Elixirs to heal, found a spot, sat cross-legged, and slowly activated the Burn Scripture to refine the medicine's effects and restore his injuries.

"This thing's such a hassle." Xiao Yan opened his eyes, slowly opened his palm—and a gray lightning bolt, thin as a wheat awn, appeared in his palm.

Xiao Yan never expected that after the Heavenly Punishment's thunderclouds vanished, the gray lightning that struck him had left residual traces inside his body!

"This thing won't stop until it kills an Alchemist—even Yin-Yang Twin Flames could only temporarily trap it, never fully destroy it." Now, many such gray lightning strands lingered inside Xiao Yan, each wrapped in swirling black-and-white flames—only this had saved him.

Otherwise, with the sheer aging power of this gray Heavenly Punishment lightning, Xiao Yan's organs would've already failed.

Xiao Yan's expression grew grave—he had no immediate way to resolve this force of heaven and earth.

But it wasn't entirely hopeless. Each time he refined a Strange Fire and his Burn Scripture evolved, his body underwent purification by the Strange Fire's power. If he could find a New Different Flame, fusing it would let him use the Strange Fire's energy to purge these lingering gray lightning strands.

And Xiao Yan, in fact, knew of one Strange Fire perfectly suited for this.

Nine Dragon Thunder Fire—the twelfth-ranked Strange Fire, just below Bone Spirit Cold Fire.

As the flame surged, nine fire dragons could faintly be seen rising and weaving through the flames. Its Strange Fire contained condensed Dragon Might, granting it a soul-shaking effect.

It was also a dual-element Strange Fire of fire and thunder. In pure destructive power, it was even fiercer and more terrifying than the tenth-ranked Nine Underworld Wind Flame.

This was exactly what Xiao Yan needed now.

But the problem was—this Nine Dragon Thunder Fire was the ancestral flame of the Zhihuo Mountain Range, passed down through generations. Was Xiao Yan supposed to just go there and say: "Hey brother, lend me your fire"?

He'd be hunted down by the entire Zhihuo Mountain Range!

"Sigh. Luckily, my Ancestor left behind Yin-Yang Twin Flames—I'm not in dire straits yet. Anyway, even just to obtain the complete Heavenly Flame Three Mystical Changes, I have to go to the Zhihuo Mountain Range." Xiao Yan shook his head. He hadn't even rested yet, and now he had to move again.

Just after resolving Xiao Yixian's Eternal Calamity Poison Body, he was preparing to head to Zhong Zhou's Zhihuo Mountain Range.

The Zhihuo Mountain Range lay deep within Zhong Zhou—not on its outskirts—situated in the southwest of Zhong Yu, a mountain range entirely formed of scorching volcanoes. As far as the eye could see, everything was uniformly crimson; atop some peaks, thick white smoke continuously rose, and occasionally, lava spilled out.

Xiao Yan had indeed kept the Heavenly Flame Three Mystical Changes in mind—it was a supreme Secret Technique created by his Ancestor, Xiao Xuan. And for some reason, the Soul Sovereign had labeled it as a Heavenly Rank Advanced Grade supreme Secret Technique.

But after inquiring through many channels, Xiao Yan learned that while the Heavenly Flame Three Mystical Changes was the Zhihuo Mountain Range's core Secret Technique, it was only Earth Rank Advanced Grade—not even reaching Heavenly Rank.

Yet compared to the Soul Sovereign, Xiao Yan trusted his Ancestor—who had once fought half the Soul Sovereign alone—far more. He believed the Secret Technique his Ancestor created couldn't possibly be as pitiful as Earth Rank.

"Sigh. If only the Valley Master of the Zhihuo Mountain Range had some terminal illness needing an Eight Grade Pill…" Xiao Yan secretly hoped, cursing the Valley Master of the Zhihuo Mountain Range.

"But am I an Eight Grade Alchemist now?" Xiao Yan thought. His Elixirs hadn't summoned colored Pill Lightning—but wasn't gray also a color? And wasn't that Elixir a Dan Beast? This was definitely an Eight Grade Advanced Grade Pill!

How could he not be an Eight Grade Alchemist!

After a small moment of pride, Xiao Yan pulled out a box containing a single exquisite Bodhi Seed.

"Absorb all the essence from the Puti Huati Yan, refine it with a Strange Fire, and you get a Bodhi Seed. But this Bodhi Seed doesn't seem special at all." Xiao Yan examined it left and right, unable to see how it pointed toward the Bodhi Tree.

Asking Hun Xu Zi or the Soul Sovereign? He'd be a fool to do that.

Even the Lord had ordered the entire world to search for anything related to the Bodhi Tree—if the Soul Sovereign found out this Bodhi Seed was in his possession, he'd be forced to surrender it.

Can't the Flame Lord have a little selfishness?

Shaking his head, since there was no clue, overthinking was useless. Xiao Yan tidied up and stepped out of the secret chamber. Just then, he saw Xiao Yixian, now dressed in a beautiful white floral dress, placing scrolls back into glowing orbs and returning them to the Library Pavilion's shelves.

Seeing Xiao Yan emerge, Xiao Yixian smiled gently. The Thousand and Hundred Elders beside her also smiled. Elder Thousand said: "No serious damage, I hope?"

"Thank you both for your concern. I'm indebted to you both," Xiao Yan bowed slightly and said.

The Thousand and Hundred Elders exchanged glances. Elder Hundred stroked his beard and said: "Ha, this time we've turned misfortune into fortune—we've touched that level. We'll soon break through to Dou Zun. We owe you thanks."

"But as for this little girl—ah, compared to this revered one, we two old men are far behind."

The two thousand-year-old elders sighed and shook their heads; comparing people truly drove one to despair. They had spent decades meditating in the Library Pavilion, a place still bearing traces of a Dou Zun, yet had never touched the threshold of Dou Zun—yet Xiao Yixian's strength had suddenly surpassed them by a great margin.

We still need to rely on Xiao Yan's fortune just to brush against the threshold of Dou Zun—how infuriating is that!

"You two are too kind; just call me Xiao Yixian," Xiao Yixian waved her hand.

Elder Qian looked at Xiao Yan and asked, "Are you leaving?"

Xiao Yan nodded. "Yes, but before I go, I must leave something behind for the Academy."

The day after Xiao Yan and Xiao Yixian left the Library Pavilion and returned to the Inner Court, the entire Xiao Hall courtyard was packed so densely with people that not even a needle could pass through!

And every single one of them was an Alchemist!

Besides the Alchemists and Elders from Jia Nan Academy's Alchemy Department, Ya Fei had also brought many Alchemists from Xiao City, and even former Inner Court students who had graduated and moved to Xiao City had followed Ya Fei here.

Master Xiao Yan is giving another lecture!

No—this isn't just a Master's lecture anymore; this is a Grandmaster's lecture!!

Xiao Yan's Alchemy skill was so terrifying that no one in the Inner Court needed to boast about it anymore; just the terrifying Pill Lightning from shortly before—even those unaware of the details—knew Xiao Yan had refined an extraordinary Elixir.

Xiao Yan taught in the Academy for ten straight days, and this time he even advanced to Six-Grade High-Level Elixirs! He had begun teaching others how to refine the Imperial Ultimate Pill!

Although many Alchemists guessed they would never be able to refine the Imperial Ultimate Pill in their lifetimes, that didn't stop them from listening and watching.

Most importantly, Xiao Yan did not conceal his Pill Refining Method—he used the most ordinary techniques, simplifying complexity and illustrating one principle to reveal many others.

"His Alchemy skill seems even stronger than Great-Grandfather's!" Xin Lan was the only person present who fully understood Xiao Yan's lecture—and because she understood, she grew even more terrified.

It was even easier to understand than the explanations given by her family's Seventh-Rank Alchemist, or even an Eighth-Rank Alchemist!

Although this didn't necessarily mean Xiao Yan's Alchemist rank was Eighth-Rank, anyone with such profound understanding of Alchemy almost always possessed extremely high skill!

In an instant, Xin Lan thought of the rare Pill Refining lectures occasionally held by the Elder Giants of Dan Tower!

"Everyone, try applying the knowledge I just shared to refine Pills. I'll pause for a few days. Failure is the mother of success—don't fear failing at Pill Alchemy," Xiao Yan smiled, sealed away the Imperial Ultimate Pill, and set up a "classroom test."

"Xin Lan, come into the Hall," Xiao Yan used Soul Resonance to speak to Xin Lan, who still stared at him in shock.

Xiao Yan had not forgotten that Xin Lan had once seemed to have something to ask him.

Hearing Xiao Yan's Soul Resonance, Xin Lan shuddered, nodded, and followed him into the courtyard.

In the Hall, Xiao Yu and other members of the Xiao Clan were also present—not only Xiao Clan members, but Ya Fei was there too. After all, Xiao Yan was about to return to Jia Ma Empire, even leave the Northwest Region for Zhong Zhou; they naturally wanted him to handle and approve whatever needed attention before he left.

Xiao Yixian herself was studying the Poison Pill in her room, for this was a Poison Pill never recorded in any text, and no one had ever created such a thing.

Xiao Yixian had already walked a path no one had ever tread before; the rest she must now walk alone.

"Do you have something you want to tell me?" Xiao Yan cut straight to the point.

Hearing Xiao Yan's words, Ya Fei and the others, who had been organizing Xiao City's income reports, turned curiously toward Xin Lan, wondering what this young, strikingly beautiful girl wanted from Xiao Yan.

At Xiao Yan's question, Xin Lan's eyes reddened slightly; she bit her lip lightly, looking utterly forlorn.

Instantly, Ya Fei stared at Xiao Yan in shock—what did you do to her?!

Xiao Yan was stunned—what did I do to her??

With a thud, Xin Lan suddenly knelt on the ground. This startled Xiao Yan and everyone else present!

"Senior Student Xiao Yan, please save my family."

(End of Chapter)