"What a joke! Is there anything wrong with the alchemy I taught you?" Yao Lao glared, but he felt a little guilty whilst saying that.
"Stop wasting time, hurry up." Xiao Yan glanced at Yao Lao and said impatiently.
Once he decided to do something, he would seize the time and not waste a single second.
Hearing this, Yao Lao's became serious.
"With your current Dou Qi and soul strength, you already have the foundation to become a seventh-grade alchemist. You just need to continuously improve your alchemy experience. Since you can already refine top fifth-grade pills, you can try to refine sixth-grade pills." After saying this, he waved his finger, and countless precious materials appeared in the alchemy room.
"It's not easy to refine sixth-grade pills. You can start with the simplest Soul Restoring Pill first, and then the Deep Green Longevity Pill, Spiritual Recovery Purple Pill, and Mighty Huang Pill. The difficulty will increase in turn. I will watch from the side and point out any problems in time."
The old man threw several scrolls of pill recipes to Xiao Yan, but Xiao Yan already had all of these recipes except for the Spiritual Recovery Purple Pill, so he just opened the scroll for the Spiritual Recovery Purple Pill.
After a moment, a stream of information flowed into his mind along his soul.
"Spiritual Recovery Purple Pill, Purple Spirit Flower."
After carefully recording the recipe for Spiritual Recovery Purple Pill in his mind, Xiao Yan also went over the recipe for Soul Restoring Pill in his mind before he began to formally refine the medicine.
A green flame popped out from his fingertips, and the next moment it burned in the entire medicine cauldron.
Looking at the medicine cauldron whose temperature was gradually rising, Xiao Yan reached out and threw a main ingredient for the Soul Restoring Pill: 'Spirit Heaven Grass' into the alchemy furnace, and then threw in several other auxiliary medicines.
Despite this, Xiao Yan did not dare to throw all the herbs in at once. The refining process of a sixth-grade elixir is complicated, it requires the essence of nearly a hundred kinds of herbs to cooperate with each other. If one step is wrong, the refining may fail, so Xiao Yan became cautious, refining dozens of herbs in three batches.
"Huuuuh!" After all the herbs were refined, Xiao Yan took a deep breath, closed his eyes, adjusted his mind, and restored his Dou Qi.
With his current Dou Qi strength, it was quite difficult to refine a sixth-grade elixir.
After he had almost fully recovered, he started the fire again, he poured the essence extracted from various herbs into it according to the procedures on the elixir recipe.
"The temperature is a bit high."
The green flames also made Yao Lao's face turn green, but at this moment he was no longer as frivolous as before, but rather he looked solemn.
Although he was not the one refining the medicine, once someone started to do something related to alchemy, he would be extremely serious. This might be the true quality that led him to become a Medicine Venerable.
Under Yao Lao's guidance, Xiao Yan's alchemy skills also improved by leaps and bounds.
A Quasi-Ninth-Rank alchemist is a big shot even in the Xiao and Yao clans. If Xiao Yan had not become the Imperial Son, he would have to be polite when meeting Yao Lao.
After all, in the Xiao clan, an eighth-grade alchemist who can refine a six-color pill thunder or above is qualified to go to the Heavenly Flame Valley to choose a Heavenly Flame.
(T/N: Pills have different grades, once a pill approaches 'perfection' it undergoes pill tribulations and takes on multiple colours. The more colours and pill thunder/tribulations the greater the quality of the pill)
After an hour, the medicine cauldron shook slightly, and the energy emitted when the pill took shape collided with the cauldron wall, making a pleasant sound.
"Hmm? That was a good sound, the pills should be good quality then." Xiao Yan collected his thoughts and took out a pill from the medicine cauldron.
The whole pill was white jade in color, and just taking a sniff of its fragrance was enough to invigorate one's spirits.
"Yes, you succeeded in refining a sixth-grade pill for the first time. It seems that your talent is really terrifying." Yao Lao smiled slightly, confirming once again that his disciple was indeed extremely talented.
"Take a break and then refine the next pill. Every successful alchemist is created from the ashes of countless medicinal materials."
Hearing this, Xiao Yan nodded slightly.
After sitting cross-legged and resting for half an hour, he began to refine the next pill.
The same thing was currently happening in Xuan Yi's alchemy room.
"I succeeded in refining it!" Cao Ying sucked out a dark green pill from the medicine cauldron.
The fifth-grade pill, the Green Turtle Longevity Pill, can make one's physiological functions last as long as the Rank 5 Magical Beast Green Armor Longevity Turtle after taking it. It is a means for many dying cultivators to prolong their lives.
However, the price of using this pill is that you can only use at most 30% of your strength. If it exceeds this limit, the effect of the Green Turtle Longevity Pill will be lost. If you want to enter that state where you can prolong your life again, you have to take another pill, making it a very costly item.
Even so, this pill is still sought after by some elderly powerhouse.
"Not bad, you finally refined a fifth-grade pill." Xuan Yi looked at her beloved disciple with satisfaction.
Cao Ying is still a few months away from being fifteen years old, but she can already refine a fifth-grade pill. Soon, this fifteen-year-old girl will become a true fifth-grade alchemist.
A fifteen-year-old fifth-grade alchemist is a rare hundred-year genius, this still stands even across the history of the entire Pill Tower.
"Not enough!" Cao Ying's delicate and charming face was full of seriousness and determination.
"If I want to defeat Xiao Yan, this is far from enough!" After saying that, she strengthened the Blood Demon Ape Fire again and continued to refine medicine.
"This child." Looking at Cao Ying's serious expression, Xuan Yi's expression was slightly complicated.
This girl who had been looked up to by her peers since she was a child was defeated by a peer for the first time, not only that she was supressed in every field, even the one she was best at, fire control.
"I'm afraid that old fogey Yao Chen knows Ying'er's strength, yet he is still so confident in his disciple. I really don't know how amazing that kid named Xiao Yan is."
Thinking of this, she couldn't help but secretly curse Yao Lao: "It's okay for the old man to bully me, but now even his disciples are going to bully my disciple?"
In an alchemy room in the Dan Clan's mansion, Dan Chen was similarly polishing and strengthening her alchemy skills. At this moment, her weak and fair face was full of seriousness.
Seven days passed almost in the blink of an eye, and the so-called Pill Tower Youth Group Alchemy Competition also slowly kicked off.
Although this competition is not as popular as the Alchemist Grand Meeting which is a feast for alchemists in the entire Central Plains and even the entire Dou Qi Continent, it is still a lively event for people in the Alchemy Domain.
In Holy Pill City, there was still a huge flow of people, and many talented young people in the alchemy world had come to witness the event.
"Bang!" A terrifying wave was emitted from the medicine cauldron, it as strong as the self-destruction of a Dou King cultivator.
However, 90% of this energy wave was intercepted by the medicine cauldron, and the remaining 10% was also dispersed by Xiao Yan waving his hand.
"Third time, this is the third time I failed." Xiao Yan took a deep breath, his eyes red.
"But only three times. Although the Mighty Huang Pill is not the top among the sixth-grade pills, it is still among the best. Even if you are gifted, you will still fail. What's more, you have gotten tired refining other pills these past few days."
Yao Lao glanced at the twelve jade bottles placed in front of Xiao Yan. In seven days, Xiao Yan had refined medicine thirty times in a row, of which twelve were successful and eighteen failed. The loss of medicinal materials is enough to make a Dou Ancestor weep.
However, Yao Lao did not even blink an eye. What really moved him was the determination in Xiao Yan, the determination to excel in something once he decided to do it. It was amazing.
He had a strong background and incredible talent, but he also had such a determined and tough personality. Such a person was destined to have a bright future.
"You have been too tired recently. You should have a good rest. Maybe after you recover, you can refine the Mighty Huang Pill."
Hearing this, Xiao Yan nodded and stuffed a Spiritual Recovery Purple Pill he had refined into his mouth. Xiao Yan then sat cross-legged to rest.
The seven days of refining pills day and night had indeed consumed a lot of his energy. Even his soul power was almost exhausted. For some things, relaxing and then working would achieve better results in comparison to only working hard without rest.