Trial Area...
The chamber was spacious, easily three to four hundred square meters, with a vaulted ceiling that faded into shadow. More than twenty cultivators sat cross-legged in front of jade platforms, each covered with spiritual plants of different types and quality.
Some had their eyes closed in meditation. Others studied the materials with focus, fully aware that their future depended on this.
The Alchemy Flame Trial had been running for two months. What began with hundreds of participants had been reduced to fewer than thirty. Everyone left was considered a top-tier alchemy prodigy from across the Eastern Territories.
Which, considering the state of the Eastern Territories, wasn't as impressive as it sounded.
Still, they had made it this far.
This was the final stage, and each person only had one attempt. Fail, and you were out.
The pressure was enough to make even experienced alchemists uneasy.
What made it worse was the lack of instructions. Unlike the previous rounds, there was no stated objective, only a hundred different spiritual plants laid out on jade platforms, ranging from common-grade trash to Heaven-tier treasures, many of them completely incompatible.
Most of the cultivators were still trying to figure out what they were supposed to do.
Bailu let out a slow breath and opened her eyes. She had already figured it out.
First, essence extraction wasn't an option. That had already been tested in the third round.
Second, they were clearly not meant to refine any specific pill. The materials were far too chaotic and incompatible. Trying to force them into a standard formula would be like baking a cake with vinegar, motor oil, and live bees.
Which meant the test was about limits. How many of these hundred ingredients could be combined into a stable pill without everything blowing up?
It was a brutal test of skill, demanding precise control over medicinal properties, reaction timing, and spiritual energy.
Bailu, of course, had already begun.
She selected and processed herbs with ease, though it was likely the result of countless hours of practice.
Her actions quickly drew attention from the other cultivators, though none of them seemed surprised.
This was Hua Bailu, a once-in-a-millennium medical prodigy, at least according to rumor. At forty-seven, she had already reached the third rank in alchemy, with cultivation at mid-Core Formation.
And as if that weren't enough, she was beautiful, gentle, kind, and widely considered the ideal partner.
In short, she was the dream woman of half the young cultivators in the Eastern Territories. The other half had probably just not heard of her yet.
Somewhere in the back of the room, a cultivator let out a quiet, wistful sigh as he watched her work.
Another cultivator elbowed him. "Focus on your own platform."
"I am focused. I am focusing very hard on..."
"On the herbs, idiot."
The worship of Bailu was so ingrained that most of the cultivators didn't even realize they were doing it. She was just that good.
Surely nothing could go wrong with putting her on such a pedestal.
---
Meanwhile, outside the trial chamber, Alexei was having his own problems.
After parting ways with Feng, he made his way to the entrance of the inheritance site.
It looked exactly as dramatic as expected. A massive archway carved into the rock, covered in glowing formations that probably said something profound in an ancient script. And right in front of it stood a stone stele.
From what he had overheard, anyone who wanted to enter had to pass the stele's test. The problem was that the test was meant for alchemy cultivators.
Which meant he had no chance of passing it the normal way.
He stood there for about thirty seconds, staring at the glowing runes. Then he turned around and walked away.
"I'm not doing that."
He had a better idea.
The inheritance site was built entirely from Black Sealing Stone, a material so durable that even Nascent Soul cultivators would struggle to damage it.
For most people, it would be an impenetrable barrier. But for someone with a Fortune III enchanted diamond pickaxe, it was just a very slow mining project.
He found a secluded spot far from the main entrance, made sure no one was watching, and started digging.
Black Sealing Stone was absurdly tough. Each block took nearly a full minute to mine, even with his pickaxe. Still, time was one thing he had plenty of.
He dug straight down and kept going.
After three hours, he had reached a depth of about fifty meters. He switched to digging horizontally, carving out tunnels in several directions in search of a hidden chamber or passage.
He found nothing.
"Do I need to go deeper?"
He switched back to vertical mining, abandoning the safer branch-mining method in favor of the classic "dig straight down and hope you do not hit lava" approach.
THUNK. THUNK. THUNK.
CRACK.
Five blocks down, the floor gave out beneath him.
---
Inside the Trial Chamber...
The alchemists were deep in concentration when a voice echoed from somewhere above.
"SHIT!"
Several of them frowned. What kind of barbarian used such crude language in a sacred trial ground?
They spared a bit of attention to look toward the source of the noise.
Then the ceiling exploded.
Well, "exploded" was an exaggeration. A chunk of Black Sealing Stone broke apart, and a heavily armored figure dropped through the gap. He slammed into the ground and ended up in a crouch.
CRASH.
Dust spread through the air. Thin cracks formed across the floor beneath him.
Every single cultivator in the room stopped what they were doing and stared.
Alexei, facing the wall, turned around.
More than twenty pairs of eyes were locked on him.
"Hi... How are you?"
There was a long, awkward silence.
Then, almost in unison, the alchemists seemed to shake themselves out of their shock. They had a trial to complete. They weren't about to waste focus on some random armored kid who had somehow dug his way in.
One by one, they turned back to their work, refocusing on the jade platforms in front of them.
Alexei paused to take in his surroundings.
The chamber was large and brightly lit, its walls covered in intricate carvings that probably meant something important to someone. A massive stone gate stood at the far end.
Set into the walls at regular intervals were glowing orbs, each about the size of a bowl, giving off a steady white light.
His inner loot goblin stirred.
He walked over to the nearest orb. When he got close, he reached out and touched it.
[Brightglow Pearl:
Spiritual Energy Circuit I
Spiritual Energy Absorption I]
His eyes widened.
"Holy shit..."
He looked around the room. There were at least twenty of these things just stuck to the walls like light bulbs.
This was a jackpot.
The alchemists continued to frown as Alexei muttered to himself, but none of them said anything. The trial was too important. They couldn't afford distractions.
Besides, he clearly wasn't right in the head. No sane person would willingly wear armor that ugly. He didn't look like a threat.
Alexei pulled out his pickaxe.
THUNK. THUNK. THUNK.
CRACK.
[Brightglow Pearl ×1]
THUNK. THUNK. THUNK.
CRACK.
[Brightglow Pearl ×1]
The sound echoed through the chamber like a blacksmith working overtime.
Several alchemists twitched. One of them shot Alexei an annoyed look but said nothing, forcing himself to focus on the herbs in front of him.
Alexei, either oblivious or simply not caring, kept mining.
THUNK. THUNK. THUNK.
Finally, one cultivator snapped.
A young man with a scraggly beard slammed his hands on his platform and shot to his feet.
"Can you please shut up? I have been tolerating this for the past five minutes, but you are the only one making noise!"
Before Alexei could respond, another cultivator nearby let out a slow sigh.
"Fellow Daoist, calm your heart," he said, pressing his palms together. "I didn't know you were so unrefined. Amitabha."
"Shut the hell up, Fang," the bearded cultivator shot back immediately. "And since when are you a monk?"
A few people snorted, but quickly suppressed it.
Alexei paused mid-swing.
"Oh, sorry about that."
He placed the pearl he had just mined into a cloth bag, which already held seven or eight others.
The bearded cultivator sat back down, muttering under his breath.
Alexei thought it over. Mining was loud. These people needed quiet to concentrate. He still needed the pearls, but starting a fight here would be a waste of time.
He needed a workaround.
After a moment, his eyes lit up.
He pulled out wooden planks from his inventory and began building small enclosures around each pearl before mining it. Once the pearl was removed, he dismantled the planks with an axe and stored them again.
The process was slower, but much quieter.
By the time he finished circling the room, he had collected sixteen Brightglow Pearls. He left the six directly above the other cultivators untouched. There was no need to push his luck.
With that done, he turned his attention to the massive stone gate. He walked up to it, gave it a quick inspection, then took out several wooden planks and sealed it off once again.
Only after that did he start digging.
Three meters in, he broke through into another chamber.
This one was smaller, maybe a third the size of the trial room. Four tall stone doors lined the walls, each tightly shut.
In the center of the room stood a stone pedestal, about a meter tall. And resting on that pedestal was a lamp.
It was exquisite. Jade-green glass formed its body, while silver filigree curled around it in intricate patterns. A flame burned steadily within, without any visible fuel, casting a soft, gentle light across the chamber.
He walked toward it, already knowing what he would find.
[Glasswood Spirit Lamp:
Glasswood Flame Aura IV
Spiritual Energy Circuit III
Spiritual Energy Absorption II]
Now that's what I am talking about.
He reached out and tried to pick it up.
It didn't budge.
A closer inspection revealed that the lamp was fused to the stone pedestal beneath it, merged so seamlessly it looked like a single piece.
Clearly, it wasn't meant to be taken.
He pulled out his pickaxe.
THUNK. THUNK. THUNK.
CRACK.
[Glasswood Spirit Lamp ×1]
Looting feels so good...
The moment the lamp disappeared into his inventory, the entire room went dark.
He stood in the dark chamber for a moment, then calmly pulled a Brightglow Pearl from his hotbar and held it in his off-hand.
Soft white light filled the space again.
----------
[POV: Hua Bailu]
After more than two hours of careful refinement, a strange medicinal fragrance finally drifted out of the small cauldron in front of Bailu.
She let out a long breath.
The pill, whatever its effect might be, had required fifty-five different spiritual herbs. That was already the limit of her current ability. Whether it would be enough to pass the trial was another matter.
She rose to her feet, aware of the eyes of the remaining cultivators on her.
Under their watchful gazes, she walked toward the stone door at the front of the trial area. She paused for a moment to steady herself, then slowly pressed her hand against the cold surface.
The entire room fell silent.
Success or failure. The door would either open, or it wouldn't.
If it opened, she passed. If it didn't, she would leave the inheritance site empty-handed.
RUMBLE.
The moment her hand touched the door, it trembled. Then, it began to slide open.
"She did it!"
A small commotion broke out in the trial chamber. Then, almost immediately, several voices cried out in dismay.
"My pill!"
Several alchemists who had been too busy watching Bailu's retreating figure snapped back to their senses, only to see black smoke rising from their furnaces.
Their pills were ruined.
They could only sigh, get to their feet, and head toward the exit with bitter expressions.
As for sneaking into the next trial area by following someone who had passed, that was impossible. Whoever designed this inheritance was no fool. Even if they managed to slip through, they would only end up as spectators.
---
Three hours after the trial began, only four cultivators remained.
None of them looked up when Alexei crashed through the ceiling or when he disappeared through the stone door. Not a single one spared a glance at Bailu's success.
They were completely absorbed in their work.
Refining a spiritual flame was no simple task.
The higher the grade, the more complex and dangerous the process became. One mistake could trigger a backlash that would burn the refiner to ash in seconds.
It could take days. Sometimes even half a month. That was completely normal.
Which meant there was still a chance.
All they had to do was stay focused.
---
The moment Bailu stepped through, the stone door slammed shut behind her.
Everything went dark.
Well, almost everything. A faint green glow emanated from somewhere off to her left, just barely enough to see shapes but not details.
The entire journey through the inheritance site had been lit by Brightglow Pearls. This was the first time she had encountered darkness. Combined with the severe suppression of spiritual sense in this place, her senses were barely better than a mortal's.
She activated the spiritual power in her palm. A white-hot flame ignited in her hand, pushing back the shadows.
The room came into view.
It was empty, except for a single stone pedestal in the center, about a meter tall, with nothing on top.
Each of the four walls held a carved stone door. Above every door was a square opening, roughly a meter wide, leading into dark passages.
Tok... tok... tok... splash.
A strange sound echoed from one of the side passages. The faint green glow she had noticed earlier was coming from the same direction.
After a moment's hesitation, she crouched down and crawled inside.
The passage was narrow, forcing her to stay half-crouched as she moved forward. After seven or eight meters, it finally opened into a new chamber. The air here was thick with wood-element spiritual energy.
At the center of the room floated a green flame.
It hung in midair, flickering softly without any support. The light it gave off was gentle but impossible to ignore.
Beside it stood a figure on a square stone platform.
A young man in what looked like heavy armor was reaching toward the flame.
Bailu's heart leapt into her throat.
Without thinking, she rushed forward, jumped onto the platform, and grabbed his arm.
Just from the aura, she could tell this was a top-tier wood-element spiritual flame. She couldn't judge its exact strength, but something at this level was never harmless. Even without visible heat, a high-grade spiritual flame could reduce someone to ash in an instant.
Who was this guy, and why was he trying to touch it?
----------
Alexei stood in a shallow pool of water he had quickly built using Minecraft blocks, just in case the flame turned out to be hotter than expected, when he felt a sudden gust of air behind him.
A hand grabbed his arm.
He leaned back slightly and caught sight of a woman. His Thorns enchantment didn't trigger.
Which meant she was probably not trying to kill him.
In Minecraft, the Thorns enchantment didn't care how much damage you took. Even something as minor as a pebble could count as an attack. As long as it registered, there was a chance the enchantment would activate and send the force back with overwhelming power. The strength of the retaliation depended on where you were hit, but the threshold to trigger it was absurdly low. So if she had any hostile intent, she would already be lying across the room with broken ribs.
"Refining a spiritual flame requires comprehension of its essence first. You must establish a stable connection with it, then use your own spiritual energy as a conduit to draw the flame into your qi sea for cultivation. Every step is extremely dangerous. Touching the flame directly is suicide."
"I see."
The woman let out a quiet sigh. At least he was listening. She had been worried he might do something reckless.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Alexei, whose right hand she was still holding, had somehow slipped his left hand straight into the floating green flame and was now poking at it.
"...what are you doing?"
"Testing something," Alexei said.
There was no heat and no damage either.
Even standing in MC water, he had expected at least some kind of effect. But there was nothing. But the sensation of compatibility was present. It was the same feeling he got when he could assimilate an item with experience.
Without hesitation, he released a flood of experience orbs from his left hand.
They poured into the green flame, golden light mixing with emerald fire.
Bailu stood there, still holding his other arm, and continued watching as the minutes passed.
She had no idea what he was doing. If this even counted as a technique, it was beyond anything she recognized. It looked almost like a ritual, but there was no chanting, no formation, and no sign of spiritual energy. Only orbs of light drifting into the flame.
It was bizarre.
As the chief disciple of Hundred Flowers Valley and the granddaughter of its sect master, she had access to resources most cultivators could only dream of. Her sect was one of the wealthiest in the Eastern Territories, and that wealth was no accident.
While other sects struggled to stay afloat and depended on powerful families, Hundred Flowers Valley had taken a different path. They focused entirely on spiritual plant cultivation. For generations, their elders had poured their efforts into improving farmland, refining techniques, and breeding better seeds.
The results spoke for themselves.
They were the only force in the entire Eastern Region capable of consistently producing Heaven-tier spiritual plants.
These plants were essential for high-level pills such as Longevity Pills, Innate Creation Pills, and Supreme Essence Pills. Materials like these were nearly impossible to gather in the Eastern Territories.
Once every hundred years, the valley hosted the Alchemist Grand Ceremony. All of their accumulated materials were handed over to the top three alchemists, who refined them on the spot.
The distribution was simple.
The first-place winner kept three pills, second place kept two, and third place kept one. Hundred Flowers Valley kept three of each type. The rest were distributed to participating sects based on prior agreements.
It was an elegant system. It gave independent alchemists a chance to rise, drew in major factions, and strengthened the valley's political influence.
With the sect's position secure, its disciples were treated extremely well.
The valley only had around 6,000 disciples, the smallest among the five first-rank sects, but each one carried a life plaque.
The plaque couldn't bring them back to life, but it could reveal who had killed them.
That alone was enough.
Hundred Flowers Valley was known for never letting such debts go unpaid.
These days, simply wearing the valley's robes was enough to ensure safe passage, even through demonic territories.
Of course, that protection only applied if the disciples didn't provoke others. If you caused trouble first, the life plaque wouldn't save you.
Because of this, all Hundred Flowers Valley disciples followed a strict code: save lives, but never take them.
As for Bailu competing for resources herself, she had no need. If she wanted something, she simply bought it.
Hundred Flowers Valley was rich.
With that in mind, she should have recognized any known method of refining a spiritual flame.
But this…
As the final experience orb merged into the flame, the green fire suddenly shrank, condensing into a small orb no larger than a fist.
Then it dropped straight down like a rock.
Bailu blinked. "What?"
A refined spiritual flame was supposed to be absorbed into the qi sea. That was the fundamental principle. The flame would merge with the cultivator's spiritual energy and become part of their cultivation base.
It was not supposed to fall.
Alexei jumped down from the platform. The moment his feet touched the ground, the fist-sized orb of green flame that had been spinning in midair shot toward him and merged into his body.
[Glasswood Spirit Flame]
He summoned it into his palm.
There was still no heat. It gave off light, at least, but that was about it.
How does this thing even work?
He waved it toward the ground.
The flame flickered, and a patch of emerald-green fire suddenly appeared. It formed a perfect square, exactly one block wide. It looked basically identical to what happened when you used flint and steel in Minecraft.
Is this just a lighter?
He stuck his hand into the burning flame on the ground.
There was nothing at all.
Then he stepped into it entirely, standing in the middle of the green fire. It felt like standing in air. The flame might as well not exist.
So I went through all that trouble for this?
This was what ninety levels of experience had bought him?
There had to be a use for it. There was no way something that cost so many levels was completely worthless.
Right?
He tried a few more things. First, he waved it around, then he tried to push spiritual energy into it, and finally attempted to control it like he had seen other cultivators do.
Nothing worked.
He even tried using it to activate a Nether portal frame he had built earlier in his testing. The portal just sat there.
With a sigh, he stored the flame back in his inventory and switched to the Brightglow Pearl instead.
The clean white light was better than that green glow anyway.
---
Bailu had watched the entire process in silence.
"Did you just refine that spiritual flame?" she finally asked.
"No." Alexei gave her a blank look.
Only then did he take a proper look at her.
She wore a light green dress, with the Hundred Flowers Valley emblem stitched onto her sleeve.
His eyes immediately lit up.
Almost without thinking, he pulled out three pink candies and held them toward her.
"You're from Hundred Flowers Valley, right? Want to buy some Everlasting Peach Essence?"
Bailu blinked.
That was an abrupt topic change.
She looked at the young man's eyes and had the distinct feeling she was about to be treated like a walking bank account.
Still, her curiosity was piqued.
Everlasting Peach Essence was something every female cultivator desired. It could enhance beauty, stabilize cultivation, and even improve spiritual root quality. Materials like this were rare, especially ones without any drawbacks.
Very few could resist it.
She took one of the candies from his hand and examined it closely.
There was no scent, even when she brought it right up to her nose. The spiritual energy was completely contained within the essence, with no aura leaking out.
That alone marked it as a pill spirit essence. Most refined materials would still leak traces of their nature. Only something extracted by a pill spirit, or refined to an extremely high level, could achieve this kind of purity.
She glanced at the young man again. He was watching her, clearly waiting for her reaction.
Then, more out of curiosity than anything else, she asked, "Are you selling the spiritual flame?"
"You want the flame?"
Why would anyone want that thing? It had no offensive power, no heat, and it could not even activate a Nether portal. He would have been embarrassed to give it to Yan as a gift.
In his mind, a proper spiritual flame should be able to burn mountains and boil seas. Something with real destructive power.
This one couldn't even heat water.
As for alchemy, he already had an assimilated furnace. There was no reason for him to keep it.
In short, the Glasswood Spirit Flame was worthless.
The levels he had spent on it still stung.
But if he could sell it, that was a different story.
"How much can you offer?" he asked, summoning the flame back into his hand.
Bailu thought for a moment, then raised two fingers.
Spiritual flames were ranked from first to ninth grade, with first being the highest. They were not especially rare, but high-quality ones were expensive.
Judging by its aura, the flame in his hand was at least second-grade. It was also wood-aspected, which was rare and perfectly suited to her cultivation method.
A standard second-grade flame would cost at least 100,000 mid-grade spirit stones.
Given how well this one matched her, offering 200,000 was more than fair.
"20,000?" Alexei frowned.
That seemed low.
He had heard Yan talk about spiritual flame prices before. They weren't especially rare and were usually divided into two types: living flames and creation flames. Low-quality ones could be bought for just a few thousand low-grade spirit stones.
The cheap ones were usually living flames.
And the green flame in his hand was clearly one of them. It looked exactly like the flames carried by pill spirits.
And pill spirits were everywhere in this underground palace. Core Formation cultivators just couldn't extract the flames, which was the only reason they had any value at all.
So how expensive could this common flame really be?
As for it being the legendary flame of the Verdant Vine Sage… please.
Yan had described that flame as something terrifying. Beyond first-grade, capable of burning mountains and boiling seas, so intense that even looking at it from a distance could scorch your eyes.
This thing couldn't even heat bathwater.
Still, even if it was worthless, ninety levels was ninety levels.
20,000 low-grade spirit stones felt like a loss.
Bailu caught his response and felt vaguely insulted.
"200,000," she said firmly, holding up two fingers again for emphasis.
"200,000?"
Alexei blinked.
That was ten times what he had thought she said.
"Deal."
He stuck out his hand, worried she might reconsider.
Bailu checked her storage ring, then winced slightly.
"I don't have enough spirit stones on me right now. Can I make up the difference with pills? I promise their value will exceed 200,000."
Alexei shook his head.
Pills? Yan had been mass-producing eight-pattern and nine-pattern pills that he fed to Bessie and her friends. Even ten-pattern pills were something Qingxue picked through, only eating the ones that tasted good.
What use did he have for more pills?
"How many spirit stones do you have?"
"A little over 180,000."
"180,000..."
Alexei quickly did the math.
180,000 low-grade spirit stones would convert to around twenty-seven or twenty-eight MC blocks. With Fortune III, that could turn into sixty or seventy if he got decent RNG.
Missing twenty thousand would only cost him five or six blocks at most.
It was still a huge profit.
"Hm… it's a bit of a loss, but I'm in a good mood. So it's fine."
He held out his hand again.
Bailu stared at him.
"You are willing to forgo 20,000 spirit stones? Just like that?"
"As long as I get paid, the flame is yours."
Money now was better than money later.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. Now pay up."
"...all right then."
Seeing how direct he was being, she decided not to argue further.
She pointed at the ground in front of them.
A pile of spirit stones materialized, easily three to four meters tall, glittering under the light of his Brightglow Pearl.
Alexei looked at the pile.
Then he looked closer.
Based on the clarity and the way they refracted light...
He pulled out his pickaxe and mined a single block.
[Mid-grade Spirit Stone ×5]
"Is something wrong?" Bailu asked, watching him freeze in place after a couple of swings.
"Uh..." Alexei looked up at her. "No. Everything is fine."
"What is it?"
"Nothing."
He pulled the Glasswood Spirit Flame from his inventory and shoved it directly into her hands.
"The flame is yours now. Pleasure doing business."