Chapter 4: Refining the Elixir with Earthly Fire at the Fourth Watch

  The Mortal Realm is located in the center of the Scattered Immortal Realm, surrounded by oceans on all sides.

  In the ocean, all kinds of strange birds and ferocious beasts can be seen everywhere. According to legend, in the deep sea region, there are still some powerful demons that have successfully transformed into humans.

  Ding Yan rented a small wooden boat and drifted in the sea for half a month before finally seeing this isolated Dao's great array. From afar, this array was like a huge dome, covering an entire sea area, with flowing seawater drifting here unknowingly flowing to both sides.

  Ding Yan stood on the wooden boat, his face solemnly staring at the giant array in front of him.

  "This formation is connected to heaven and earth, with countless changes returning to one, it can be called a divine formation! But I don't know who set it up..."

  With Ding Yan's insight, he clearly felt the profundity of this grand formation.

  Generally, arrays borrow the power of array flags or spirit stones. The large array in front of Ding Yan has already completely merged with the surrounding heaven and earth, forming a complete entity. To forcibly break the array, one would need to possess divine powers capable of destroying this space. In Ding Yan's memory, even the Supreme Elder of his previous life's sect couldn't accomplish it.

  He looked up at the sky and fell into deep thought.

  "It seems I have no choice but to return to the sect and receive the jade token... In that case, I can only go into seclusion for about eight years..."

  After finishing speaking, Ding Yan sat down again and slowly sailed away on the wooden boat under his feet.

  As for the several wishes of the former master of the flesh, with Dingyan's cultivation, he would not have taken it to heart originally. However, for some reason, after borrowing a corpse to return his soul, Dingyan seemed to be influenced by the memories of the former master of the flesh and couldn't let go of those two things.

  There is a saying: it's easy to get through thunderbolts and lightning, but hard to guard against demons in one's heart!

  Ding Yan, who had prepared for a hundred years in his previous life, was naturally clearer than anyone else.

  So Ding Yan can only think of a way to enter the mortal world first and fulfill the second wish for his former master. As for revenge, there is no clue at present, and it's not necessary to rush for the time being.

  ......

  After leaving the big array, Ding Yan traveled east. Three days later, a turtle-shaped island appeared on the horizon. From afar, the island was lush and full of life.

  Ding Yan moored the wooden boat by the shore and walked slowly towards the interior of the island.

  On the island, there are towering ancient trees everywhere, and a thick layer of fallen leaves has accumulated on the ground. When stepped on, they feel soft and fluffy.

  "The spiritual energy is gathering here, and the air seems a bit dry. I suppose there should be a faint emergence of earth fire." Ding Yan muttered to himself.

  Earth fire is a purely natural flame that can be used to forge magical artifacts and refine elixirs. Of course, generally speaking, cultivators with high attainments will not use this earth fire anymore, because after crossing the mortal tribulation, a cultivator's body will condense a spiritual fire, and the deeper their cultivation, the stronger the power of the spiritual fire.

  Ding Yan obtained three medicinal materials from Yun Feng using his identity jade card, and adding to those he had accumulated as one of the top ten disciples, he could completely refine several Foundation Establishment Pills. After that, he would close himself off for eight years, and advancing to the Immortal Realm would be a certainty, unless something unexpected happened. Ding Yan was confident that he would successfully pass through the first trial of the Loose Immortal Tribulation!

  After a moment of time like burning an incense stick, suddenly there was a flash in front of his eyes.

  A quiet and secluded small valley appeared before Ding Yan's eyes.

  The valley was ring-shaped, surrounded by mountains on all sides, especially the rocky mountain at the back of the valley, which was obviously higher than the other rocky mountains. In the valley, smoke curled up, and at a glance, there were about dozens of households. Ding Yan felt a little surprised and walked along the small path under his feet.

  This is a small village like a paradise on earth. There aren't many people in the village, probably only about ten or so households, although they are all cultivators, their cultivation is very poor, basically just at the first or second layer of Qi Refining.

  "Outside person, I hope you don't destroy this rare tranquility, otherwise, heaven will condemn you..."

  At the moment when Ding Yan's footsteps entered the village, a hoarse voice suddenly echoed in his mind.

  Ding Yan was stunned for a moment, and then a burst of essence shot out from his eyes, directly at the highest stone mountain behind the village.

  After a while, Ding Yan withdrew his gaze, furrowed his brow, as if he felt something was off. After hesitating for a moment, he took another step forward and walked into the village.

  To outsiders, the villagers felt extremely alienated. Looking at Ding Yan's gaze, in addition to curiosity, there was also a strong sense of vigilance. After observing for a while inside the village, Ding Yan found a relatively secluded corner and sat down.

  Most people in the village just watched him, occasionally someone came forward to talk, and Ding Yan only responded with a smile.

  Like this, Ding Yan sat here for three days.

  In three days, the villagers had gradually become familiar with this strange yet friendly young man. They even learned from some children that the young man's name was Ding Yan.

  Three days later, at dusk, Ding Yan slowly opened his eyes, which had been closed for a long time, and a faint smile hung on the corner of his mouth.

  "It's true that there is indeed a presence of earth fire here, but it's deep underground. If you want to utilize it, it's still quite troublesome." After confirming the existence of the earth fire, Ding Yan directly stood up and turned around, leaving the village.

  After a while, Ding Yan brought back a giant tree from outside the village.

  "What is he going to do?"

  "It can't be building a house, right?"

  The villagers gathered around curiously.

  Ding Yan didn't say a word and after putting down the giant log, he turned around and walked out again...

  Time slowly passed by, the sun set in the west, and night fell.

  The sky is dotted with stars.

  The onlookers had gradually dispersed, leaving only Ding Yan busy by himself.

  The sun rises and the moon sets.

  The next morning, the villagers came out of their houses as usual to work in the fields. Suddenly, they found that at the end of the village, where the young man had sat yesterday, a brand new thatched hut had been built overnight. The roof was covered with dew drops.

  "A villager stared blankly at this newly built thatched cottage."

  Ding Yan pushed open the door and walked out, looking at the villagers with a faint smile on his face.

  From then on, this quiet village had one more household. Gradually, the villagers also knew that in the thatched cottage at the end of the village lived a young man who had only cultivated his energy to three layers, named Ding Yan, an alcohol brewer.

  Days go by one after another.

  At this time, Ding Yan seemed to have forgotten his identity as a cultivator. Similarly, the people in the village were also living ordinary lives, rising with the sun and resting with the sunset, without anyone practicing cultivation.

  Ding Yan had also asked the villagers about their cultivation, and later found out that their ancestors were all cultivators who failed to transcend the calamity. As for their own cultivation, it was mostly innate.

  After January.

  It's night.

  Ding Yan sat in the house, closed his eyes and meditated.

  The room was very simply furnished, with only a wooden bed and a burning stove. On the stove, there was a kettle, with boiling water churning out waves of steam.

  "It's almost midnight." Ding Yan, who had been closing his eyes all along, suddenly opened them and looked out the window, muttering to himself.

  Ding Yan waved his sleeve, and a burst of blue-green yuan energy swept out from the cuff.

  The kettle on the stove suddenly flew up into the air, spinning around before landing silently on the ground beside it.

  Ding Yan flipped his right hand and a seal mark was printed on the stove.

  Buzz!!

  A burst of blue light emanated from the top of the furnace, and a bright red flame erupted from within. In an instant, the temperature inside the house increased dramatically.

  The flames in this furnace are the earthly fire that Ding Yan spent a month bringing out from underground. The stove above is just a disguise, and normally, Ding Yan has a restriction set up above the stove, so at first glance, it looks like an ordinary stove with normal temperature. Once the restriction is lifted, the earthly fire from underground will surge up to form a rare earthfire furnace.

  "The material of this stove is still far from good." Looking at the cracks on the stove, Ding Yan thought deeply.

  The materials for the refining furnace were all collected by Ding Yan when he was one of the top ten disciples. Those materials could be considered as heavenly treasures for a cultivator in the refining stage, but from Ding Yan's current perspective, they were still far from enough.

  "Whatever, as long as I can break through the Refining Qi boundary and achieve that so-called Scattered Immortal body, I should be able to use the Spiritual Fire." Ding Yan shook his head and withdrew his gaze.

  He then took out a storage bag from his sleeve and poured out the medicine inside with a wave of his hand.

  This storage bag was exactly what Yunfeng and Dingyan exchanged identity tokens for at the beginning, and the medicinal materials inside were also used to refine the foundation-building pill.

  Ding Yan looked at the medicinal herbs in front of him, pondered for a moment, then took out one portion and put the other two portions back into the storage bag.

  After taking the medicine, Ding Yan casually threw it out. Under Yuan Li's guidance, several doses of medicine fell onto the ground fire, suspended in mid-air. Next to these doses of medicine was a thick layer of green Yuan Li, wrapping around them layer by layer.

  "Refine!" Ding Yun shouted lightly.

  A stream of yuanqi shot out from his mouth and enveloped the medicinal herbs.

  Suddenly, a fragrance of medicine wafted through the room.

  After a cup of tea and some kung fu, Ding Yan's forehead was covered in sweat, his face gradually turning pale.

  Suddenly, the ground fire burst forth with a loud crackle, followed by a 'whoosh' sound, directly burning the medicinal herbs above into black ash.

  Utterly exhausted!

  A hint of bitter smile flashed in Ding Yan's eyes.

  In Dingyuan's spiritual realm, when refining the foundation-building pill, there would naturally be no waste of yuanqi. However, even so, the yuanqi in his body was still not enough to refine a foundation-building pill, and when he refined it halfway, the yuanqi in his body would appear to be insufficient, causing him to fail at the last moment.

  "It seems that I can only think of a way to recover some of my yuan force first. In my current state, it should be when I reach the fifth layer of refining qi that my yuan force will barely be enough to refine a foundation-establishing pill." With a wave of his hand, he sealed the furnace and sank into deep thought.

  Refining Qi for five layers and building foundation with Dan, if others were to know about this situation, they would definitely think that Ding Yan is talking nonsense.

  After all, the foundation-building pill is already a pretty good elixir. To be honest, only a loose immortal who has gone through a tribulation can refine this kind of elixir, but Ding Yan actually said that it can be refined during the fifth layer of Qi Refining, which is really hard to believe when spoken out loud.

  Hehe, done it! Hope capable friends can lend a hand. Extremely grateful.

  ;