After Lingling was finally pushed out of the chamber, the heavy wooden door closed quietly behind her, leaving only Xuanyan, Yani, and i Lingyao inside the private alchemy hall.
i Lingyao gestured for Xuanyan and Yani to follow her deeper into the alchemy residence. The interior was far larger than it appeared from outside, with corridors leading toward nurous chambers used for cultivation, alchemy, and storage.
Most of those rooms were filled with carefully preserved materials. Shelves of spirit herbs, jade containers of refined dicines, and sealed cages containing various gu insects could be seen everywhere. There were even several chambers dedicated to beast materials of different ranks.
Seeing this, Xuanyan asked whether those beasts were still alive or not.
Yani shook her head. "The gu are alive," she explained. "But beasts are far more troubleso. They require constant feeding, resources, and ti to control. Mother doesn’t bother raising them, so she usually keeps only the useful parts for alchemy."
She gestured toward several sealed containers nearby. "Beast blood, bones, horns, and cores are far easier to preserve. Once refined properly, they contain most of the useful essence anyway. Maintaining a living beast just to harvest those materials later would only waste ti and resources."
Xuanyan nodded slightly when he heard that explanation. For soone like i Lingyao, whose ti was far more valuable than ordinary cultivators, focusing only on refined materials made far more sense than raising beasts herself.
As they walked through the chambers, i Lingyao occasionally spoke with Xuanyan, asking simple questions while observing his reactions. Yani joined the conversation from ti to ti, explaining the purpose of certain herbs or insects when Xuanyan showed curiosity.
To Xuanyan, everything here was fascinating. Many of the creatures and spiritual insects carried unique abilities, especially the gu. However, he knew very well that refining such things for personal use required reaching the Foundation Establishnt Realm first.
Wild gu carried dao marks aligned with specific cultivation paths, and a Qi Condensation cultivator could not use them at all. Before such creatures could serve anyone, they first had to be refined, a process far more difficult than capturing them in the first place. Even Foundation Establishnt cultivators often struggled with that step.
In fact, Qi Condensation was barely considered a true cultivation realm in the eyes of Heaven itself. Even if soone refined every minor stage of Qi Condensation to the absolute peak, their lifespan would not increase in the slightest. In the eyes of Heaven, this stage was only a preparation period before the true path of cultivation began. Without stepping into Foundation Establishnt, a cultivator could not obtain dao marks, and their existence would remain bound by the sa limits as ordinary mortals.
Xuanyan knew that until he reached Foundation Establishnt, such creatures were nothing more than fascinating curiosities to observe, not tools he could truly control.
Eventually they arrived at i Lingyao’s alchemy training courtyard. The chamber itself was circular, its stone walls etched with faint formation lines that glowed softly whenever spiritual energy stirred in the air.
At the center of the chamber stood a jade-inscribed alchemy furnace. Its surface was carved with faint beast patterns, and the tal still carried a gentle warmth as if pills had been refined there not long ago. A faint herbal fragrance lingered in the air.
Several low wooden tables surrounded the furnace, each arranged with careful order. Crystal bottles filled with powdered spirit herbs were sealed with talisman paper, while jade boxes stored more delicate ingredients—glowing petals, fragnts of monster bones, and small beast cores.
i Lingyao finally turned toward Xuanyan. She studied him for a brief mont before raising one hand. A black alchemist robe appeared in her palm, its fabric smooth and neatly folded, the design strikingly similar to the one she wore herself.
"Put this on."
Xuanyan accepted the robe and quickly changed. The cloth felt light but carried faint spiritual warmth. i Lingyao watched him quietly after he finished putting on the robe. The black fabric suited him surprisingly well, its long sleeves settling naturally as he stood before her.
"From today onward you will follow and learn alchemy." i Lingyao gaze lingered on him briefly before she continued.
"You are my personal disciple."
Xuanyan cupped his fists and bowed deeply. "Disciple Xuanyan greets Master. I may lack experience in alchemy for now, but I will follow your teachings carefully and dedicate myself to learning so I will not bring sha to your na."
When he straightened again, his eyes briefly shifted toward Yani. Her face remained calm as ever, but the slight tension in her shoulders revealed a trace of jealousy she clearly didn’t intend to show.
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"Before we begin your alchemy test, there is sothing you should understand first. I will not test you the sa way I tested Yani. From what she described earlier, your control over spiritual fire during pill refinent is unusually stable."
"That level of control is not sothing ordinary disciples achieve easily; many alchemists spend years practicing before reaching that point. Your attainnt in this aspect is already very close to master level—did you know this about yourself?"
Xuanyan already knew the answer, of course. After receiving the Major Alchemy Talent from Tang Lishen, his control over spiritual fire had reached an astonishing level. Even without deep knowledge of alchemy or familiarity with many pill formulas, his instinctive handling of fla far surpassed most disciples who had studied for years.
Still, he shook his head. "Master, I didn’t realize it was anything special," Xuanyan replied honestly. "What exactly do you an by approaching master-level attainnt?"
i Lingyao considered his question for a mont before answering. "You probably don’t know much about attainnt ranks yet," she said. "Disciples in the sect aren’t allowed to choose a cultivation path or study its deeper knowledge until they reach Stage Four—and you only reached that stage hardly ten days ago."
"In the cultivation world, attainnt represents the depth of a cultivator’s understanding in a particular field. It isn’t asured by how long soone has practiced, but by how well they truly comprehend the principles behind what they are doing."
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