Only Wei Zhao had no way around it: much of what he cultivated he had figured out for himself, and even his master and the old man practiced things that diverged wildly from his own, so they could offer him no counsel at all. The only one who could count as a teacher was Jiao Yazi.

But where alchemy was concerned, Jiao Yazi plainly could not help much either. Wei Zhao had no choice but to grope his own way forward.

Thinking it over, he had after all inherited Zhang Liju's mantle; his tutelage could be counted as coming from Zhang Liju.

Once he had settled his mind, Wei Zhao slowly began to circulate the mental formula and oral instructions for catalyzing fire-kind pill fire. This was the process of catalyzing one's own true qi into fire-kind pill fire. Only when one had trained to the point of catalyzing it at will could one refine pills.

The mental formula and oral instructions looked to be no more than a few lines, yet actually catalyzing pill fire out of them was an exceedingly arduous process!

Wei Zhao could even feel his true qi being consumed at a startling rate, yet there was not the faintest sign of pill fire taking shape. One might say his true qi was squandered for nothing, with no result whatsoever!

After cultivating a full day without pause, Wei Zhao finally understood why alchemists were so few, and why so many gave up halfway! This was only the very beginning, the catalyzing of pill fire, and already the true qi consumed could only be described as terrifying. If he truly became an alchemist, how much true qi would it take?

No wonder there were no low-level cultivators among alchemists; a cultivator of low rank simply could not bear it!

And Wei Zhao had accomplished nothing at all, yet a third of the true qi in his body was already gone. Though he had cultivated without a moment's pause from morning to night, consumption of this magnitude was not something an ordinary person could endure!

Apart from Wei Zhao, whose true qi was not accumulated through bitter, patient cultivation? To waste a third of it in one stroke — who could bear that? At this rate, in a few days the true qi in his body would be spent to nothing, and by then he would have cultivated no pill fire at all, only lost every shred of his cultivation. Truly a loss that far outweighed the gain!

But Wei Zhao could make it all back through his cultivation at night, so there was no problem at all.

And so Wei Zhao catalyzed pill fire by day and cultivated the Xuanyuan Dragon-Riding Formula by night. With his true qi thus ebbing and swelling, Wei Zhao's strength actually advanced somewhat, and he vaguely felt as though he were about to break through the peak of the mid Profound Tier and rise to the late Profound Tier.

"Huu..." Wei Zhao was rather disappointed. After two days of catalyzing practice, he had made no progress whatsoever, and had consumed more than two-thirds of the true qi in his body, all for nothing. Fortunately, the true qi he lost could be swiftly replenished; anyone else could never have managed the kind of catalyzing Wei Zhao did.

By the third day of struggle, a scorching heat suddenly rose from the very center of Wei Zhao's palm. The sensation gave Wei Zhao a start; fortunately his composure was firm, and he paid it no mind, continuing to catalyze pill fire. At last, with a muffled phut, a deep red flame shot forth from the center of his palm!

"Ah!" Wei Zhao could not help but cry out — not because he had been burned, but because this eerie turn of events had genuinely frightened him badly! Fortunately he had been mentally prepared beforehand, and so did not stop catalyzing once the flame appeared in his palm; otherwise he might well have seen all his efforts come to ruin on the verge of success.

Still, though the flame gave off a scorching heat, it did not burn his hand, and judged by Wei Zhao's naked eye alone it differed greatly from an ordinary flame! An ordinary flame was a pale red-yellow, while the flame above his palm was deep red, rather like the color produced by burning chemicals.

But this was no chemical; it was pill fire transformed from the true qi within his body. If chemicals could take its place, things would be far easier — and the profession of alchemist would not be so prized.

The little flame in Wei Zhao's hand was rather amusing. Wei Zhao tried to quicken the catalyzing of true qi and make the flame burn more fiercely, but the result was merciless: Wei Zhao failed!

Wei Zhao still could not control the speed at which the flame was catalyzed; in his impatience, the flame in his hand actually guttered out!

"..." Wei Zhao smiled bitterly. It seemed he too had succumbed to the fault of impatience: no sooner had he catalyzed a true flame than he wanted to govern its size. Truly a bit rash.

"Jiji—" The Heavenly Thunder Pig squealed twice off to the side, as though mocking Wei Zhao's failure.

"Dead pig, what are you sniggering at? Don't you want to level up?" Wei Zhao, already in a foul mood, glared at the Heavenly Thunder Pig and threatened.

"..." The Heavenly Thunder Pig lowered its head, somewhat aggrieved, and did not dare say another word, thinking to itself: you were already a little worse than your previous master; that master surpassed you in both personal strength and cultivation talent!

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