Chapter Eighteen: Improved Dan Fang

  Two years had passed, and Lin Xiao had grown into a slender and outstanding young man. He was over eight feet tall, with a slightly lean build that paired perfectly with his blue Taoist robe, giving off an air of elegance and refinement. His slightly long, square face featured a pair of eyes that seemed to shoot out red sparks, making them the most captivating feature on him. Lin Xiao's appearance had always been endearing since he was young, but now as a youth, his looks were even more impressive, especially after mastering Taoist techniques, which added an extra layer of charm to his demeanor.

  In two years, Lin Xiao had already cultivated the True Fire Technique to the eighth layer. This speed has broken the record of Daluo Dan Dao for the time being. The fastest person who cultivated the True Fire Technique to the eighth layer before Lin Xiao took four years and nine months.

  Dan Fusheng and Dan Xia originally feared that Lin Xiang's rapid growth in power would lead to instability in his mental state, but after a thorough investigation by the elders of the Da Luo Dan Dao, they found that Lin Xiang's mental state was exceptionally stable. Although his understanding of the Heavenly Way was not particularly profound, there were no signs of him losing control. The elders could only attribute this strange phenomenon to Lin Xiang's exceptional innate talent - in fact, it was the result of Lin Xiang's continuous consumption of the lotus seeds over the past few years!

  The eighth layer of the True Fire Technique, Lin Xiao had already qualified to advance to the Hong Character Dan Room, but because Ya'er was still in the Huang Character Dan Room, recklessly wasting various medicinal materials with her 'familiar hands', Lin Xiao also firmly stayed in the Huang Character Dan Room. Now, however, Lin Xiao's responsibility for the furnace fire dan oven had reached as many as 230 seats, and with his current cultivation, he was more than enough to handle it.

  In two years' time, Lin Xiao had gained a certain understanding of the current situation in the cultivation world and the status of the Great Luo Dan Dao.

  It's unknown since when the spiritual energy in the cultivation world has been getting thinner and thinner. This situation suddenly became extremely severe 2,000 years ago. The spiritual energy between heaven and earth was dwindling day by day, as if a hole had been broken through the sky, causing all the spiritual energy to leak out from it. As a result, the cultivation world is now in decline. There are only a few people with high cultivation levels. Those at the Golden Dan stage can dominate one side, and those at the Yuan Ying stage are renowned masters of their generation.

  As the spiritual energy gradually disperses, it becomes increasingly difficult for cultivators to advance. The spiritual energy in the world cannot meet the requirements of cultivation, so they can only seek help from external objects.

  The Great Luo Golden Way was not in a high position in the ancient times, but with the gradual scarcity of spiritual energy, especially after the spiritual energy density of the cultivation world began to decline two thousand years ago, the Great Luo Golden Way rose with the tide. Now it has become a powerful force in the cultivation world that can't be underestimated. Although there are not many disciples of the Great Luo Golden Way, and the Dao children who chop firewood and carry water are only over three thousand people, no one dares to look down on the Great Luo Golden Way.

  After all, the Daluo Dan Tao is currently the only sect in the cultivation world that can mass-produce various spiritual pills on a large scale. No one can guarantee that they will not need to go to the Daluo Dan Tao one day, so the Daluo Dan Tao and all the orthodox sects in the cultivation world have maintained extremely good relations. Only those demonic cultivators would dare to take advantage of the Daluo Dan Tao's closed-door retreat to cause trouble in the Da Yuan Kingdom, where the Daluo Dan Tao has traditionally held sway. The Daluo Dan Tao's gathering of top orthodox experts from all sides to launch a thunderous attack on the Jiemo and Xuesha demonic sects clearly reflects the Daluo Dan Tao's current prestige and power.

  In short, as Dan Fusheng said, as long as the spiritual energy of the current cultivation world does not recover, and all cultivators have to rely on taking large amounts of elixirs to increase their strength, the status of Dalo Dan Dao is unshakeable. This time, the people from Jimo Gate, Blood Killing Demon Path, and several other demon path sects dared to come to Dayuan Country to stir up trouble, which was purely a low-probability event.

  Lin Xiao originally didn't think much of Dan Fusheng's words. However, after two years had passed, he found that the demonic cultivators from the Jingmo Sect had indeed vanished without a trace, and Da Luo Dan Dao was still as calm and peaceful as ever, refining his elixirs every day. He then threw away that little bit of worry to the farthest reaches of the nine heavens.

  "Hmm, even if the people of Jie Mo Men want revenge, they'll have to see if they can move against Da Luo Tian Dao first?"

  Lin Xiao recalled what he had learned earlier about several senior masters of the Great Luo Sect sitting in town.

  ‘Danqi Lingxiao’, the elder of the Dan character generation, is now the master of the Danling Dao people. However, above the Dan character generation, there are still elders of the Qi character generation and the Ling character generation who are still alive, and it is even said that in a certain place in Daluo Dandao, there are still seniors of the Xiao character generation hiding. These are all thousand-year-old predecessors, with these people sitting in Huichun Valley, Lin Xiang feels that he can cultivate with peace of mind without worrying about anything.

  Quietly sitting cross-legged on a futon, Lin Xiao's newly cultivated divine sense casually swept over the various elixir furnaces in the Dan room.

  The flame in the crucible in front of him had turned milky white, and the elixir being refined in the crucible was a common "Bone-Healing Ointment". The formula for this commonly used ointment to treat muscle and bone injuries was simple, and the refining process was not complicated either. Even the fire only needed to be kept at a constant temperature. Lin Xiao was still conscientiously watching the fire, while the Taoist priest in charge of preparing the medicine, adding the medicine, and collecting the elixir had lazily sat down beside the crucible, holding a copy of the Taoist scriptures and carefully reciting them.

  For the disciples of Daluo Dan Dao, this initial elixir is really not worth taking seriously. If it weren't for Daluo Dan Dao's extremely strict regulations on every step and link in alchemy, I'm afraid this Taoist would have long since slipped out of the dan room and left all the finishing work to Lin Xiao.

  The alchemists in the Danfang were all like this, lacking energy. They really couldn't muster up the spirit to refine these basic dan medicines. The only one who was excited and jumping around the dan furnace, constantly throwing a pinch of medicine into the dan furnace, was the pitch-black faced Medicine Girl. She danced around the dan furnace with wild abandon, constantly calling out to Lin Xiang to add more fire or reduce the flames.

  Lin Xiao's divine consciousness was mostly placed on Yao'er, and as soon as Yao'er had any requirements, he immediately followed Yao'er's instructions to adjust the flame of the dan furnace. Lin Xiao's current cultivation was already enough to remotely control the fire of the dan furnace from a hundred feet away, and he could fully satisfy Yao'er's demands for the flame.

  Two years have passed and he knows what Medicine is doing.

  The girl looks silly, but in fact she is not stupid, on the contrary, she is a very clever girl. Her seemingly fanciful alchemy technique is actually just to make her own elixir better and more effective. In fact, with Yao'er's alchemy technique, she could have been promoted to the Hongzi Number Danfang to refine higher-level elixirs long ago, but the medicinal materials in the Hongzi Number Danfang's pharmacy are no longer unlimited. In order to be able to recklessly waste medicinal materials to improve her alchemy skills, Yao'er wholeheartedly stayed at the low-level medicinal material unlimited supply of the Huangzi Number Danfang.

  It's been two years now, and Lin Xiao has wholeheartedly stayed with Yao'er in the Dan room of the Wasteland Character Inn.

  The disciples of the Great Luo Dan Tao, every time they refine a furnace of dan medicine, can separate a part of the dan medicine from it. Naturally, all the disciples are eager to upgrade to a higher-level dan house. Like Lin Xiao and Yao'er, who have enough cultivation and experience but remain in the lowest-level dan house, are indeed an odd couple. Fortunately, Lin Xiao is always calling out beside her, over the past two years, no matter how many times Yao'er changes the dan formula and refining techniques, this dan furnace of hers has had countless close calls, yet it has never exploded again, truly a miracle.

  Lin Xiao was in charge of the firework for more than 200 dan furnaces. In two years, he had accumulated enough low-grade dan medicine to fill two large halls. If Dan Xia hadn't given Lin Xiao a storage ring, he would have wasted all those medicines and left them for the monkeys that made wine in the mountains behind Huichun Valley to enjoy. This was also an unintended consequence of Ya'er refusing to be promoted to the Hongzi Number Dan House.

  The Huo Ling Jue was released, and the fire under the Dan furnace that Yào ér was in charge of perfectly transformed according to Yào ér's will. The fine Wen Wu fire changed subtly, and a thread of flame wrapped around the Dan furnace, licking, wiping, drawing, and colliding. The flames rose, like living things. Yào ér skillfully added batches of medicine into the Dan furnace as the fire changed, occasionally adding some auxiliary substances like Gan Quan. Gradually, a refreshing, slightly bitter fragrance wafted out of the Dan furnace.

  Lin Xiao looked back in surprise, staring at Yao'er in astonishment.

  Today, the elixir refined by Yaoyi is an ordinary 'Huilindan', which is used to assist cultivators with low cultivation levels. It can increase the cultivator's sensitivity to the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and improve their efficiency in absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Especially, the spiritual energy contained in Huilindan itself is not weak. If one can fully absorb a Huilindan, it would be equivalent to the effect of quieting one's mind and practicing for ten days.

  However, the formula for Huiling Dan has been refined to the point where it can no longer be changed. Every bit of medicinal power is utilized to the fullest extent, and even the shape and smell of each pill are clearly defined. All disciples of Daluo who have the qualifications to enter the dan room are crystal clear about this.

  The medicinal properties of this batch of Huiling Dan seem to be a bit unusual. It indeed has the aroma of Huiling Dan, but it's mixed with other aromas. The smell itself gives people an extraordinary feeling.

  Lin Xiao no longer paid attention to the other furnaces, his full attention was focused on this furnace of Medicine Child. His hands changed seals, and a red light shot into the furnace, perfectly harmonizing the literary and martial fire powers, coordinating with the dragon and tiger, striving not to make any mistakes. In the past two years, Lin Xiao had controlled the dan fire for tens of thousands of furnaces of Hui Ling Dan, but this one was obviously different.

  This is the medicine that Yao'er has been refining for two years, and it's possible that the first furnace will produce a successful elixir.

  Just looking at Yao's silly expression squatting beside the Dan furnace, Lin Xiao couldn't bear to let this Dan furnace have any problems.

  The always carefree and innocent eyes of Yao'er are now filled with tension and a sense of confusion, Lin Xiao only feels a sharp pain in his heart.

  As long as she had that silly smile on her face, it was all right. Lin Xiao concentrated on controlling the fire, with only one thought in his mind: "This tension and confusion should not appear in front of Yaoshi Shizhi. She has always been such a cheerful little woman, how could she be so tense and confused?"

  The final blow of the spiritual formula was struck, and a fierce flame burst forth from beneath the ground, enveloping the entire alchemical furnace.

  A powerful blast of fire thoroughly 'steamed' the pellet that had taken shape in the crucible. The pellet was done.

  A soft sound, a faint blue mist spewed out from the top of the dan furnace, forming a cloud-like shape like a lingzhi mushroom, floating vaguely. A strange fragrance spewed out, and the bitter taste that had just been present completely disappeared without a trace, leaving only a hint of extremely elegant and slightly cold fragrance.

  Nearly a hundred alchemists in the Dan room exclaimed in unison, looking at Yao'er with surprise and delight, as well as the Dan furnace in front of her.

  A string of crisp sounds like "sizzling" burst forth, and hundreds of yellow bean-sized pills shot out from the dan furnace.

  Lin Xiao hastily pressed a seal, and continuously picked up the cold jade bottles piled up beside him, using a forbidden technique to bind the medicinal pellets into the bottles.

  The Qing Wudao person, who had completely restored his youthful appearance, suddenly appeared from somewhere. He casually picked up a pill and turned it over in his hand several times, exclaiming: "Medicine Master Sister, you really did modify the formula for the Hui Ling Dan? And you actually only used the basic medicinal materials from the Huang Zi Fang Dan House?"

  Yaoyao hummed softly, she stood up with a bit of effort, blinked her eyes, and suddenly rushed into Lin Xiao's arms, wailing loudly.

  "Waaah, little brother, I finally won against Master! Waaah, I've finally improved the Dan formula! Hurry and come with me to find Master, I want to ask him for my winnings - the Great Luo Dan Jing!" Yao'er cried out a few sentences, then suddenly laughed and lifted her head up, forcefully smearing the black soot all over her face onto Lin Xiao's face.

  The people in the hall all took a cold breath at the same time.

  The Great Luo Dan Jing is the ultimate treasure of the Great Luo Dan Dao. Is it possible that even a novice who has not yet succeeded in alchemy can gain access to this supreme classic of the elixir path?

  Lin Xiao was stunned and confused, but was dragged out of the Dan room by Yao'er.