Chapter 88: Xiao Yanying in Shock, Alchemical Patterns! If You're Not Good Enough, Practice Less

“Compensate you? Fine!” Xiao Yanying was so infuriated that she laughed, placing her hands on her hips as she sized Ling Tian up and down once more.

“I didn’t expect someone so young to spout such nonsense. Do you even know what kind of pill I was refining today? And you want to compensate me? Even if you sold yourself, it might not be enough to cover the cost!”

She never imagined that Ling Tian intended to compensate her with pills he refined himself. She thought he just wanted to find out what kind of pill it was from her, then trade for it from the sect and return it to her.

She was confident that at her age, no one in this sacred land had greater mastery over alchemy than she did.

“At least, not here in this holy place.”

“Ha, isn’t it just a fourth-grade pill, the Essence Tempering Pill? What’s the big deal?”

Based on the spirit herbs laid out in the room, Ling Tian had already deduced which pill Xiao Yanying was trying to refine. It wasn’t difficult—one only needed to observe carefully.

After all, he possessed a reward of a compendium of pill recipes, recording every pill under the heavens—and even those that didn’t exist. In this regard, Ling Tian was truly omniscient!

Not to mention, he had a talent for alchemy at the imperial level, which made things even easier.

To Ling Tian, a fourth-grade pill was indeed a simple matter.

“What’s the big deal? You’re really talking big. Fine, I won’t make things too hard for you—just give me three Essence Tempering Pills to compensate for my exploded cauldron.”

Xiao Yanying, startled that Ling Tian had guessed her pill correctly, began to suspect he wasn’t ordinary. She was not unreasonable, and her anger had mostly dissipated by now. After all, Ling Tian had indeed been at fault—every alchemist had their own room for refining, and the process demanded undivided attention. Ling Tian’s interruption could have easily caused her to suffer a serious backlash. Normally, a successful batch would yield six Essence Tempering Pills, so asking for three as compensation seemed perfectly fair.

“Alright, you said it yourself. Don’t regret it later,” Ling Tian agreed with a nod, then walked over to the cauldron.

“Wait, you’re not planning to refine the pills right now and give them to me, are you?” Xiao Yanying looked at him in astonishment, not expecting him to attempt to refine the pills on the spot and hand them over.

Now this was getting interesting.

When had a fourth-grade alchemist appeared in the Luo Qiu Holy Land, and one she didn’t even recognize?

Seeing that Ling Tian ignored her, she suspected he was just bluffing, and grew anxious—if he broke her cauldron, that would be a real loss.

With this thought, she moved to stop him.

Suddenly, a blue-green flame flickered in Ling Tian’s palm. Even though there was some distance between them, Xiao Yanying could feel the heat.

“An alien flame?” she cried out in shock. The natal fire within her own body was merely ranked on the earthly fire list, while alien flames were almost always listed in the heavenly ranks—rare and nearly impossible to obtain.

The moment Ling Tian summoned his flame, she felt her own dantian’s fire cower in fear—it was undeniably far stronger than her own.

She instantly realized that the fire in Ling Tian’s hand was the ultimate treasure every alchemist longed for—an alien flame!

Now she no longer tried to stop Ling Tian—she’d be a fool to doubt an alchemist with an alien flame.

For an alchemist, fire was everything—it determined both their ceiling and their floor. Anyone who possessed an alien flame would easily find a master and rarely amounted to nothing.

Could it be that this youth before her truly could refine a fourth-grade pill?

She herself succeeded only three times out of ten—how high could his success rate be?

Her beautiful eyes fixed unblinkingly on Ling Tian, eager to see what methods he would employ. It was odd, too—most alchemists would never let anyone watch their refining, yet Ling Tian seemed utterly unconcerned.

“Forgive my humble attempt,” Ling Tian said with a soft smile, tossing the herbs into the cauldron one after another with practiced humility.

No sooner had he finished speaking than a loud bang sounded from the cauldron.

Boom—

The cauldron exploded!

“Ahem, like I said—just a humble attempt…” Ling Tian reacted quickly, shielding himself from the blast, and with a wave of his hand, the smoke cleared. Seeing the look in Xiao Yanying’s eyes, he used the very excuse he had just spoken.

No wonder so many people liked to be humble—it worked as a handy excuse for failure.

Not bad at all—it gave him a way out.

“Have you never tried this before?” Xiao Yanying eyed him suspiciously. She realized just now that Ling Tian’s failure was due entirely to losing control of the fire—it was simply too intense, and caused the explosion.

After all, the first lesson for any alchemist was control of the flame!

To make such a mistake, unless he had never tried this before.

“Nonsense—I just obtained this alien flame, so I’m not quite used to it yet,” Ling Tian waved off her suspicion, of course unwilling to admit this was his first attempt; otherwise, who knew what this little spitfire would say about him?

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yanying’s eyes flushed with jealousy—why hadn’t she ever had such luck?

Ling Tian ignored her. Learning from his first mistake, he focused his mind and communicated with the Azure Lotus Flame.

The Azure Lotus Flame was already gentle by nature, and after some time together, Ling Tian quickly mastered its control.

Taking a deep breath, he began his second attempt.

This time, everything went smoothly.

With the fire under control, the rest of the process was flawless.

With the detailed steps from the pill compendium and his extraordinary alchemy talent, even though this was only his second attempt, his every move bore the mark of a seasoned master steeped in the Dao of alchemy for years.

Xiao Yanying watched without blinking, her expression complicated. She had never expected there was such a figure in the Luo Qiu Holy Land.

Truly, there is always a higher mountain.

“Seven Star Herb!” Ling Tian suddenly called out, snapping her out of her daze.

“Hm?” She hesitated for only a moment before fetching the Seven Star Herb from her storage pouch.

Seeing Ling Tian toss it into the cauldron, she inwardly cursed—she was sure that the recipe for this pill didn’t include Seven Star Herb!

She was about to warn him when he dumped the rest of the herbs in as well.

She quickly stepped aside—who refined pills this way? Even her master would never do something so reckless. It was utter nonsense!

She stood and watched, just waiting for the cauldron to explode.

But the disaster she expected never came. Instead, after a while, the fire beneath the cauldron gradually died down.

This was clearly the sign of a successful batch!

He really succeeded? Impossible.

When Ling Tian finished, Xiao Yanying approached, half in disbelief.

“Here, the three pills you asked for,” said Ling Tian, handing her three pills before she could see how many he had actually produced.

“Are these… pill marks?” Xiao Yanying stared blankly at the three pills in her palm, eyes wide with shock.

Pill marks were the sign of the highest quality—once a pill reached that level, they would naturally appear. If the grade were any higher, there might even be a tribulation of lightning, for heaven and earth would not permit such things.

“How easily impressed,” Ling Tian said, seeing her hesitate to take the pills. He took her hand and placed them firmly in her palm before turning to leave. This round of pill refining had given him many insights—he needed time to absorb them.

“Oh, by the way, don’t push yourself to refine pills of such high grade if you’re not ready. The herbs for fourth-grade pills are expensive—don’t waste resources,” he paused to remind her kindly.

This girl had talent, but clearly didn’t recognize her own limits.

Rather than wasting herbs on fourth-grade pills, she’d be better off mastering third-grade ones first, and only moving up when the time was right.

That was the wise path—after all, you can’t eat a fat pig in one bite.

As for Ling Tian himself—he was simply in a different league.

By the time Xiao Yanying came to her senses, Ling Tian had already vanished.

Recalling his words, she could hardly keep herself from stomping her foot in frustration.

“Truly infuriating!”

What kind of person was he!

Waste—waste whose herbs? These were hers, bought with her own spirit stones and sect contribution points!

His words sounded more like mockery to her.

Besides, he had definitely produced more than six pills in that batch! Even though Ling Tian was quick to put them away, she had seen that there were many more than six.

Even her master, an eighth-grade alchemist, had never produced so many at once.

She was willing to believe in Ling Tian’s great talent, but to say he was on par with her master? That, she could not accept.

There had to be some trick…

Of course—the Seven Star Herb!

That was it; the only difference was the Seven Star Herb Ling Tian had added!

Could it be—

Realizing this, Xiao Yanying didn’t dare waste a second. She hurriedly left the alchemy room, clutching the three pill-marked Essence Tempering Pills tightly as she rushed to find her master.

If Ling Tian was a disciple of the Luo Qiu Holy Land, then all was well. If not, it was imperative to “keep” him here.

As for Ling Tian himself, he was blissfully unaware of any of this, happily pocketing the remaining twelve pills as he returned to Luo Qingqiu’s spiritual peak.

That’s right—he had refined a total of fifteen pills in one batch!

Absorbing the insights gained from his alchemy, he swallowed a few Essence Tempering Pills and began to cultivate. Sometimes, using pills to consolidate one’s cultivation was truly an excellent choice.

On Pill Peak—

“Marvelous! Marvelous! What did you say that young man’s name was?” Gu He, the eighth-grade alchemist, examined the Essence Tempering Pills Xiao Yanying had brought, unable to stop praising them.

“Master, according to the alchemy room records, his name is Tian Ling,” Xiao Yanying replied with some confusion. She was certain she’d heard the name before—it had once resounded throughout the entire Chaos Dao Domain.

How could someone else have the exact same name?

Could it be someone had adopted it in admiration?

It wasn’t her fault she didn’t recognize Ling Tian—he had changed too much. When he first arrived at Luo Qiu Holy Land, he had sent Xiao Ling’er away, and Xiao Yanying had never met him.

Little did they know, the always-immortal-like Gu He, upon hearing the name, slapped his forehead and muttered to himself: “I remember—the Grand Elder did say someone would be coming and asked me to guide him. Could it be… him?”