Stepping out of the tower gate, warm sunlight poured down, allowing Lin Yuan who had stayed inside the tower for a full month to finally relax a little. He lifted his head and glanced at the azure sky, taking a deep breath of fresh air. Cultivating inside the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower was indeed far more efficient than cultivating outside, but after spending too long within, it inevitably felt somewhat oppressive.
As his thoughts wandered, Lin Yuan could not help but think of that group of Soul Hall lunatics—those "jie jie jie" weirdos. Living day after day amid gloomy environments and eerie laughter… did they really not develop psychological issues over time?
Shaking his head, Lin Yuan cast those distracting thoughts aside and reined in his scattered mind. After thinking for a moment, he headed toward the medicinal ingredients storehouse.
"My Dou Qi has already been polished and refined. During the tempering process, my control over soul power has also become much more proficient. It's time to complete the alchemy tasks assigned by Elder Huo and further hone my alchemy skills. If I'm lucky, I might even run into Zi Yan in the medicinal storehouse."
Earlier, Lin Yuan had already confirmed through the Strong Ranking that Zi Yan had been brought back by First Elder Su Qian two years ago. Zi Yan was one of his most important objectives upon entering the Inner Academy.
Before long, Lin Yuan arrived at the medicinal storehouse. Elder Hao, who was in charge of managing it, had clearly already been notified by First Elder Su Qian. Even so, upon seeing Lin Yuan's youthful face, he could not help but marvel inwardly. His attitude became noticeably more enthusiastic, and he readily handed over a large quantity of medicinal ingredients and magic cores listed on the requisition Lin Yuan provided.
After obtaining the materials, Lin Yuan felt a slight regret that he had failed to "coincidentally encounter" Zi Yan this time. Nevertheless, he still smiled and bid farewell to Elder Hao.
"It seems fate isn't very reliable for me. Better to use some strategy instead. Just in time—I picked up a pretty good piece of bait the last time I went fishing."
Having made up his mind, Lin Yuan went to a secluded mountain area. This mountain was located near the mandatory path between the back mountain range and the Inner Academy student district. He then took all the medicinal ingredients he had collected from the storehouse out of his storage ring—materials used for refining Fourth-Grade and lower medicinal pills and placed them out in the open. After that, he also took out the Spirit Fruit, one of the main ingredients for a Dou Spirit Pill that he had obtained while fishing in the Black Corner Region after breaking through to Dou King.
"The Ancient Void Dragon possesses a natural treasure-seeking talent, and Zi Yan often goes into the mountains to search for treasures. As long as she travels back and forth between the mountains and the academy, there's no way she won't sense so many medicinal ingredients and pills here. Now I just need to wait patiently."
With that thought, Lin Yuan took out his medicinal cauldron and prepared to refine several Fourth-Grade medicinal pills to be submitted to the academy, such as Qi Gathering Powder, Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill, Spirit Gathering Pill, and Meridian-Clearing Pill.
"I'll warm up with the Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill first."
For the current Lin Yuan, refining a Fourth-Grade medicinal pill that required only a dozen or so ingredients was already effortless. With a thought, he summoned a cluster of Green Spirit Flame and cast it into the medicinal cauldron. Then, with a light flick of his sleeve, he precisely drew more than ten medicinal ingredients for the Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill toward himself. Following the standard procedure, he placed them into the cauldron one by one for extraction, smoothly completing the refinement stage.
Afterward, Lin Yuan placed the refined essences into the cauldron together and began the pill-fusing stage. Powerful soul strength surged forth from between his brows, precisely controlling the flame temperature and the fusion of the medicinal essences. Not long after, as the pill neared completion, a rich medicinal fragrance spread through the air.
"It's done!"
With a light wave of his hand, a plump, round purple medicinal pill the size of a longan—wrapped in faint pill mist—flew into Lin Yuan's palm. He examined it briefly and nodded in satisfaction.
"Not bad. A peak-quality Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill."
After storing the pill away, Lin Yuan began refining another Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill. This time, however, he did not use the same method as before. Instead, he began experimenting with a technique he had conceived himself—abandoning the medicinal cauldron entirely during the extraction stage and directly using his exceptionally strong soul power to precisely control the temperature of the Green Spirit Flame, enveloping the medicinal ingredients and extracting their essences.
At first, the process was somewhat clumsy, but it gradually became smoother. Eventually, he was able to refine multiple medicinal ingredients simultaneously with flowing ease.
After completing the extraction, Lin Yuan used the cauldron for the pill-fusing stage and obtained a high-quality Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill. Seeing this, he frowned slightly.
"The concept isn't wrong, but directly using flames to extract essences still needs more practice. I'll take advantage of this task to train properly."
After reviewing the details of the previous alchemy process, Lin Yuan continued refining pills, steadily correcting and perfecting every detail of his alchemy technique.
More than ten days later, after finishing a round of pill refinement, Lin Yuan sat with his eyes closed, regulating his breathing, appearing as though he had fallen asleep. Suddenly, a faint smile curved his lips.
"Finally took the bait. Waiting this long wasn't for nothing."
Behind him, a petite figure was sneakily approaching. A small hand reached toward the Spirit Fruit. Just as she was about to touch it, a slightly lazy yet playful voice sounded.
"Little sister, what are you doing?"
At the same time, the Spirit Fruit flew away as if it had a will of its own.
The little girl's gaze followed the fruit until it landed in a long, slender hand. That hand's owner—the youth who had clearly been asleep had already turned around and was now looking at her with a faint smile.
Lin Yuan looked at the girl before him. She appeared to be no more than eleven or twelve years old, with light purple hair cascading straight down to her waist. Her cheeks were exceedingly fair, her features delicate and adorable like finely carved jade. The aura of a Dou King emanated from her body—she was indeed Zi Yan.
"Give me back my spirit fruit, or I'll eat you!" Zi Yan shouted angrily when she saw her target fall into someone else's hands.
"No—it's my spirit fruit," Lin Yuan replied with a faint smile.
Hearing his words, a dangerous glint flashed in Zi Yan's eyes. Without another word, she stomped heavily on the ground, her terrifying physical strength leaving a small crater beneath her foot. Her body shot toward Lin Yuan at high speed, her target precisely the spirit fruit in his hand.
Having already enveloped Zi Yan with his soul perception, Lin Yuan curled his lips slightly. Activating his movement Dou Technique almost out of habit, his figure flickered, neatly evading Zi Yan's attack.
Zi Yan, seeing her strike miss, braked with her foot, quickly spun her body, and lunged at Lin Yuan again. Unfortunately, she missed once more. Repeating this several times, she could not even brush Lin Yuan's sleeve.
Angrily, Zi Yan shouted at Lin Yuan, "You're infuriating! If you have the guts, don't run! Fight me head-on and see what happens!"
Lin Yuan chuckled at her words. Tossing the Spirit Fruit in his left hand, he extended a finger on his right hand, beckoning Zi Yan. "Then as you wish, come on, little girl."
Hearing that, Zi Yan lunged at Lin Yuan once again. This time, Lin Yuan did not simply dodge. Instead, he deployed his Dou Qi to engage with her directly, assessing her combat ability as they clashed.
'Her physical body and Dou Qi are quite impressive, roughly at the level of a two to three-star Dou King. Her fighting style is bold and straightforward; her attacks are too direct, with little variety—more like a magical beast than a human. Overall, she has strength but lacks finesse.'
Having gauged Zi Yan's abilities, Lin Yuan decided it was time to end things. He unleashed his overwhelming soul power to disrupt her perception. At the same time, he executed a few feints, combining the Soaring Dragon Step with Instant Step to create an afterimage.
Excited and slightly reckless, Zi Yan swung a fist through Lin Yuan's afterimage. The instant the afterimage dissipated, a hand forming a sword finger had already appeared in front of her, leaving her no time to dodge.
"Damn it!"
Unexpectedly, the hand's gesture smoothly shifted from a sword finger to a flicking motion, lightly striking Zi Yan's delicate forehead. A soft laugh followed into her ear.
"Getting distracted before a fight is over isn't a good habit, little girl!"
Lin Yuan's figure shifted again, landing two meters in front of Zi Yan, smiling down at her.