Chapter Sixteen: Dan Fang

  The southern peak of Huichun Valley is over 500 meters high, and its entire body is composed of blocks of smooth green jade. Among the jade stones, there are short pines and strange cypresses, which are dotted with three to five pieces of cloud fungi and two or three stems of ginseng flowers. On the large wisteria vines, a cluster of orchids hang from them, and when they bloom, their fragrance can spread for thousands of meters. Inside the mountain body, there are countless interconnected holes as thick as fists, and strands of purple gas slowly rise from tens of thousands of holes around the mountain body, wrapping the entire mountain inside.

  Lin Xiao and Yao'er arrived at the foot of the mountain, led by a Taoist wearing an apricot-yellow robe. Lin Xiao felt a refreshing energy automatically entering his body, making him feel comfortable all over. The spiritual energy hidden in the earth's veins under this high peak was truly astonishing. The Dan room of Da Luo Tan Dao was located right under this incredibly mysterious high peak. Thin strands of purple mist continuously fell from the sky, splashing onto the roof of the Dan house and forming clusters of purple gas that slowly swirled with the wind.

  Dào rén Dào hào Qīng Wù, is an old man who has been practicing in the Great Luo Golden Dan Dao for nearly a hundred years. Recently, with the help of the elixir's power, he had just formed his golden dan, and his appearance was at the turning point from old age to middle youth. His hair had already recovered its glossy blackness, and the upper half of his face had become smooth and radiant, but the lower half still had wrinkles all over it, with age spots densely packed, looking as strange as can be.

  Because of the recent completion of the Golden Elixir, Qing Wu's mood was extremely good. He walked along with Lin Xiao, pointing out the layout of each dan room and introducing the effects of each one in detail.

  The eight levels of the Dan furnace in Da Luo Tian Dao are 'Tian Di Xuan Huang Yu Zhou Hong Kuang' from inside to outside. Among them, there is only one Tian Zi furnace, three Di Zi furnaces, seven Xuan Zi furnaces, and thirteen Huang Zi furnaces. The four levels of Yu, Zhou, Hong, and Kuang furnaces range from dozens to nearly a thousand, with varying quantities. Each level of the Dan furnace corresponds to a grade of spiritual elixir, among which the Tian Zi furnace is said to be able to refine the most divine and unparalleled immortal elixir.

  Of course, the four-tiered Xuan Huang cauldron has been unused for nearly two thousand years.

  The spiritual energy of the world is rapidly dissipating at a stunning rate. Two thousand years ago, it was still possible to find cultivators who were close to becoming immortals and could open the Heavenly Alchemical Furnace. However, nowadays, among the elder generation of alchemists in the Great Luo Alchemical Path, only Dan Lian Dao Ren is able to open the Yu Character Alchemical Furnace, while other elders can at most only open the Zhou Character Alchemical Furnace.

  Innumerable spiritual elixirs and wonderful medicines recorded in the Daoist scriptures have also been lost due to this relationship. All alchemy scriptures record that the methods of refining elixirs are well preserved. However, nowadays the cultivation world is generally low-level, which is due to insufficient strength, but has nothing to do with those alchemy rooms and methods.

  Qing Wu Daoist sighed and said to Lin Xiao: "It's indeed the case, now our Da Luo Dan Dao is increasingly important in the cultivation world. With the scarcity of heaven and earth spiritual energy, if we want to let later generations cultivate golden elixir or yuan fetus before their lifespan ends, they can only massively purchase various elixirs from us."

  Yaoyi suddenly grabbed Lin Xiao's ear and pulled his face towards her. She smiled triumphantly, pointing at her own nose: "Little brother, this time Yuanzong has prepared a lot of pills, and sister has also refined many. Be good and learn from sister how to refine pills, hmm, hmm, sister will teach you all the methods."

  Qingwu's face twitched for a moment, and he glanced at Yao'er with a sideways glance.

  That's right, in these five years, for the sake of helping Yuan Zong refine pills, Yaoni also put in a lot of effort. However, in the past five years, she managed to crack open seven pill furnaces, and the materials she exchanged for the pills she refined were just enough to repair those seven pill furnaces. Adding on the pill furnace that exploded half a year ago... which disciple in charge of the pill house doesn't get a headache when they see her?

  No need to continue pointing, the medicine child had already pulled Lin Xiao with one hand and dragged him into the Dan room like flying. She was familiar with the road in the Dan room, and after a while, she came to a large room with nearly a thousand feet long and nearly a hundred feet wide, where 100 high dan furnaces were arranged in a row. The 100 dan furnaces, each furnace inside was surrounded by green smoke and red flames, the heat wave that rushed towards Lin Xiao made him sweat all over his body, and then as the fire was absorbed into his body, Lin Xiao's face suddenly turned red, he felt that his whole body was full of energy, every muscle seemed to be filled with strength.

  "Hiss!" Lin Xiao suddenly let out a mouthful of air, the True Qi of Departing from Fire surging within his body. The breath he exhaled and the scorching heat that came rushing at him clashed in a frenzy, actually producing several sparks.

  "Wow! Little brother, can you spit fire for fun?" Yao'er looked at Lin Xiao with great surprise, then shook her head, as if spitting fire was not a big deal to her. She pulled Lin Xiao's hand and walked around the large Dan room, laughing: "Master said that this is the largest one in the Arzi number Dan room. Normally, there are over 100 furnace workers on duty here all year round, but you're here now~ Ah, this Dan room will be left to you alone."

  Patted Lin Xiao's shoulder vigorously, Yao'er imitated Danxia's tone and comforted Lin Xiao warmly: "It's okay, the furnace fire here is very helpful for your cultivation. When you practice Zhenhuo Jue to the fifth layer, you can leave the Dan room of the Wilderness Character Department and go to the Dan room of the Hong Character Department. At that time, even if you release three or five palm thunderbolts in one breath, you won't faint." Yao'er still had some lingering concerns about Lin Xiao fainting after releasing a single palm thunderbolt, and at this moment, she didn't forget to use releasing multiple palm thunderbolts in one breath to comfort Lin Xiao.

  Quietly gazing at the hundred giant dan furnaces in front of him, Lin Xiao calmly asked: "Medicine Master Sister, about how long will it take me to cultivate the True Fire Technique to the fifth layer?"

  Yao'er blinked her eyes quickly, tilted her head and pondered: "Hmmm, the fastest one in the valley's legend took less than a year, but the slowest... Qing Wu Shixiong, the slowest fellow disciple, how many years did it take him to cultivate the True Fire Technique to the fifth level?"

  The young man who rushed over saw Yao'er holding Lin Xiao's hand, standing honestly at a distance of seven or eight zhang from the dan furnace, and not randomly throwing any strange herbs into the dan furnace. He suddenly let out a sigh of relief. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and chuckled: "Oh, the slowest one is a junior brother in the Hongzi Dan House, he has 60% fire attribute and 40% earth attribute, he cultivated the True Fire Technique, and spent 79 years to break through to the fifth layer. Hmm, it was just last year that he was promoted to the Hongzi Dan House."

  "Seventy-nine years?" Lin Xiao's eyeballs almost jumped out of their sockets.

  Yao'er hastily patted Lin Xiao's face, comforting him in a soft and gentle tone, as if coaxing a child: "Little brother, don't worry, you're much smarter than that stupid senior brother. You might not be able to reach the fifth level in less than a year, but it won't take seventy-nine years either." Tilted her head in thought, Yao'er nodded affirmatively: "Hmm, maybe you'll only need thirty or fifty years to reach the fifth level."

  After listening to Yao's words, Lin Xiao felt a suffocating feeling in his heart, and he had an urge to swing his sword and slash his neck. In this dan room, what can't be done for thirty or fifty years of cultivation? Lin Xiao also feels that his future is vast and boundless, without seeing any light. He seems to have seen himself at a ripe old age, with white hair and still guarding the dan room, burning fire day after day, year after year!

  "Can't be like this." Lin Xiao pursed his lips tightly, his lip line curved into a small, beautiful arc, making him look vigorous and energetic for a moment, with a hint of maturity. Lin Xiao thought of the Silent Demon Gate, thought of the Wutian Order, thought of many, many things. "Can't be like this, I must quickly enhance my own strength!"

  The girl tilted her head and looked at Lin Xiao. Lin Xiao's pursed lips expression gave her a great deal of... confusion. Why did she think Lin Xiao was so handsome when he pursed his lips?

  "Good-looking, yeah, really good-looking!" Yao'er laughed foolishly, she thought Lin Xiao was much more handsome than those little rabbits she raised.

  Qingwu saw the silly expression on Yao's face and couldn't help but shake his head slightly, then turned around and walked into a small door in the corner of the Dan room. After a while, Qingwu came out with a stack of books that was over two feet high, and heavily placed them on the ground. Qingwu pointed at the yellowed books and smiled: "Lin Xiao, junior brother, these are all the alchemy recipes and firing times for the elixirs that can be refined in the Dan room of the Huangzi Inn. Hmm, currently the Huangzi Inn's pharmacy can refine 317 common elixirs, from now on, you will be in charge of controlling the fire of these furnaces, you must memorize these records as soon as possible."

  Taking a deep breath, Qing Wu continued to explain: "Yaoshi Shimei, the dan furnace assigned to you is in this very dan room. You also need to take on the responsibility of teaching Lin Xiao Shidi the basics. As for those profound and abstruse places, Dan Fusheng Shishu will also enlighten Lin Xiao Shidi."

  "This alchemy room won't be used for refining medicine within the next half month, so Lin Shidi can take his time to record these alchemy rooms and handbooks. When Lin Shidi is bored, he can also try to refine some basic dan medicines like Bu Gu Dan to get familiar with it. The necessary medicinal materials are stored in sufficient quantities in the nearby pharmacy, and he can use them freely without any worries." After explaining everything clearly, Qing Wu secretly reminded Lin Xiao a few more times to be careful and keep a certain distance from the medicine, before leaving the alchemy room with some concern.

  Qingwu took a step forward, and Yao'er quietly crept up to the edge of the dan furnace like a mouse stealing rice.

  Just as Yun Gong was about to open the lid of the dan furnace, Yao suddenly felt a strange sensation and turned around to see Lin Xiao staring at her. With a hint of annoyance, she turned back and frowned, saying: "What are you looking at? Hurry up and recite your scriptures, these things are enough to give someone a headache! I spent three months on them when I was young and still couldn't memorize them... Ah, last time I got ahold of a fun dan room, just right for 'getting familiar'!"

  Shi Xiang's sister showed off her might, and Yao Er ordered Lin Xiao to recite the book from memory. She herself took out several medicinal herbs from her sleeve, enthusiastically following the Dan Fang recipe she had obtained from who-knows-where to refine the medicine in a furnace.

  Lin Xiao held a book for about an hour, but suddenly remembered Qing Wu's entrustment before he left, and felt that something was wrong.

  Lifting his head, Lin Xiao looked towards Yao who was currently concocting medicine, and for a moment, he was so frightened that his soul flew out of this world!

  I don't know what kind of evil the medicine child was brewing, but the purple smoke and scarlet flames in the crucible in front of her surged up to a height of over ten feet, and the entire crucible turned red! The medicine child was frantically casting spells to suppress the fire, but how could she possibly control it?

  The panting medicine finally let out a desperate scream: "We're done for～～～ It's going to explode again～～～"

  With a familiar movement, he patted his hand on the waistband, and a talisman on the waistband of Yaoyao burst out with a loud "crack", emitting a strong blue light that enveloped her tightly inside.

  The crucible shook violently and was about to explode.

  At this moment, Lin Xiao suddenly pounced violently and flew towards that dan furnace.

  "Little brother! Have you gone mad?"

  She frantically tried to grab Lin Xiao, but it was too late. Before her eyes, Lin Xiao's small body plunged into the roaring flames that were spewing out of the furnace.