As her practice deepened, Li Nanzhu gradually figured out a unique technique—she discovered that by wrapping the fire's ferocity with the gentle force of her water spiritual root and then guiding it with the life force of her wood spiritual root, she could perfectly balance the violence of the karmic fire.
By the time the setting sun dyed the bamboo building a golden red, Li Nanzhu was already able to make the flames accurately pass through five levels of the pagoda's windows.
However, every time she finished her session, Xiao Yan's green robes would have a few more charred holes—she seriously suspected her master was intentionally not repairing them just to make her feel guilty.
"Not bad, you're progressing at a godly speed." Xiao Yan inspected the unscathed exquisite pagoda. "However..." He suddenly tossed the pagoda into the air, "Try a moving target! After all, when truly refining pills, some natural treasures won't just wait for you obediently."
Li Nanzhu struck out hastily, her flames drawing a dazzling arc in mid-air.
Seeing that she was about to miss the target, she had a sudden flash of inspiration. She split off a thread of water spiritual energy and turned it into a silk strand, forcefully dragging the flame into the correct pagoda window.
Slap!
Xiao Yan's fan struck the top of her head again, yet his smile was impossible to hide. "Taking shortcuts!" He manifested an even more intricate seven-holed exquisite pagoda. "Again. This time, no using water spiritual silk."
Li Nanzhu rubbed her forehead, looking at the newly appeared pagoda with a desire to cry but no tears.
Suisui was off to the side, clacking with joy, its bone claws mimicking the fan's striking motion. Li Nanzhu shot Suisui a helpless look; the little thing had no conscience.
But training was still training.
This time, the flames traced a crooked path through the air, still failing to enter the pagoda windows smoothly. Fine beads of sweat broke out on Li Nanzhu's forehead. Seeing the line of fire about to deviate from its target, she split off a water spiritual silk in her desperation—
Slap!
Xiao Yan's fan accurately struck her wrist. "I said no shortcuts!"
With that distraction, the uncontrolled flame exploded once again with a boom, sparks flying in all directions.
Xiao Yan couldn't dodge in time. The clothes he had just repaired were once again scorched across a large section, and even the hairpin on his head fell off. He looked utterly disheveled. Meanwhile, Suisui was frantically patting out the sparks that had splashed onto the medicine shelves.
Li Nanzhu looked at Xiao Yan's scorched hem and hurriedly defended herself, "Master, you clearly could have dodged that easily."
Xiao Yan tapped her forehead with his fan. "A real alchemy environment doesn't offer that much room for error."
"But it's still too hard!" Li Nanzhu finally couldn't help but protest, pointing at the still-spinning exquisite pagoda. "The window frames are only so big, and the pagoda is spinning. I don't even have..."
She suddenly froze mid-sentence.
She snapped her head up to look at Xiao Yan, who was half-hiding his face with his fan, his gaze drifting.
"Master..." Li Nanzhu's voice dropped dangerously. "Don't tell me... you forgot that I'm only in the Qi Condensation stage?"
"About that..." Xiao Yan fanned himself even faster. "Of course your master remembers! I just... wanted to test your limits..."
Li Nanzhu nearly pulled out the ribs of the spectating Suisui to throw them at him. Then, she suddenly remembered something and froze in place. "Wait, during the initial trial, I was clearly able to..."
"That was because you were borrowing my power to a certain extent," Xiao Yan interjected quickly, taking the opportunity to hide behind the alchemy furnace. "Now you are controlling the fire yourself. Of course it's different."
Suisui looked between the two. Seeing Li Nanzhu's hands twitching as if she wanted to dismantle it, the skeleton silently took two steps back, holding a spirit grass and standing perfectly still, seemingly thinking it had become a flower pot for the plant.
Li Nanzhu took a deep breath and physically crushed a corner of the table. "Then why did you still make me practice this?!"
"Didn't your master just want to see your potential?" Xiao Yan poked his head out from behind the alchemy furnace with a sheepish grin. He snapped his folding fan open to cover his scorched robes. "Besides, weren't you almost successful?"
Li Nanzhu's teeth itched with irritation. Her gaze swept over the 'playing dead' Suisui, and a plan suddenly formed in her mind. "Master is right, I was too impatient." She lowered her head with feigned obedience. "Why don't we let Suisui try a demonstration first?"
Suisui's soul fire instantly turned a panicked, deathly white. It tried to run away while clutching the spirit grass, but Li Nanzhu grabbed the back of its neck bone in one swift motion.
"Great idea!" Xiao Yan's eyes lit up, completely ignoring Suisui's frantically waving bone claws. "Little Bone, give it a try."
Suisui looked despairingly at the exquisite pagoda shoved in front of it. It couldn't understand why a skeleton needed to learn fire control. However, under the predatory glares of the two humans, it still raised its bone claws and tremblingly condensed a faint wisp of soul fire.
The flame went pfft and extinguished the moment it touched the pagoda, not even coming close to the window frames.
"Looks like it won't work." Li Nanzhu sighed with feigned regret. Her fingers 'accidentally' loosened, and Suisui immediately scrambled behind Xiao Yan, death-gripping his calf.
Then, suddenly remembering that Xiao Yan and Li Nanzhu were on the same side, it flew away from Xiao Yan and resumed its role as a flower pot with the spirit grass.
Xiao Yan looked helplessly at the pair of pranksters. "Fine, fine. Your master didn't consider things thoroughly." He put away the exquisite pagoda and produced a simple small clay furnace. "Let's start from the beginning."
The new training method was simple to a ridiculous degree—she only needed to maintain the flame at a steady pale yellow.
Though it seemed like a simple requirement, it gave Li Nanzhu a lot of grief.
"Out again!" She looked in frustration at the flame that had gone out for the seventeenth time.
Xiao Yan squatted beside her, displaying a rare moment of patience. "Don't try to control it. Feel the flame's own breath."
Suisui cautiously leaned over and drew out a wisp of soul fire with its bone claw. To their surprise, this ghostly blue flame merged perfectly with Li Nanzhu's life force, burning quietly in the furnace.
"Just like that," Xiao Yan guided softly. "Treat the flame as a part of yourself."
Li Nanzhu grew thoughtful. She closed her eyes and stopped trying to force her control. Instead, she let her spiritual energy flow naturally. Gradually, the flame stopped flickering erratically and began to pulse with a steady rhythm, like breathing.
"I did it!" She opened her eyes in surprise, only to see the flame in the furnace suddenly go poof and explode, splashing black ash all over the faces of the three of them.
Suisui coughed madly, its soul fire turning gray.
Xiao Yan wiped his face. His originally handsome features now looked like he had been mining coal.
"There's progress," Xiao Yan said after wiping his face clean. He then manifested a handful of spirit grain and scattered it into the alchemy furnace. "Now try to split the flame into three strands."
Li Nanzhu gritted her teeth, her fingertips trembling slightly as she let the karmic fire slowly divide. Three wisps of flame swayed unsteadily in the furnace. Fine sweat broke out on her forehead as the life force of her wood spiritual root flowed spontaneously, wrapping around the restless flames like vines.
"Don't force it," Xiao Yan's fan lightly tapped her pale knuckles. "Let the flames find their own balance."
But his words came a bit too late. Just as the karmic fire was about to spiral out of control in the next second, Suisui suddenly placed its bone claw on Li Nanzhu's hand. A green glow flashed, and the flames immediately became submissive.
"Cheating is not allowed." Xiao Yan picked up Suisui and moved it away, but as he turned, she caught sight of a 'Manual for Training Qi Condensation Cultivators' slipping from his sleeve.
A glint of amusement flashed in her eyes. This time, she controlled the fire even more carefully. As a result, she accidentally let the temperature get too high, turning the spirit grain in the alchemy furnace into popcorn.
Suisui, however, ate it very happily. Several kernels were stuck in its bone crevices, and it even stuffed quite a few into its personal storage bag.
"Remember the temperature changes." Xiao Yan produced a small booklet. "Every spirit material has its most suitable heat. If the heat is off by even a bit, the effect will be completely different."
Through this continuous practice until late into the night, Li Nanzhu was finally able to simultaneously control three flames and maintain different temperatures.
"A natural-born genius," Xiao Yan said with a face full of gratification. "This technique is even better than when I was..."
Before he could finish, Li Nanzhu suddenly turned deathly pale. The flame in her hand flared out of control, instantly engulfing the entire furnace.
"Focus!" Xiao Yan's fan snapped open, and a green light like a waterfall suppressed the flames. Suisui hurried over with spirit tea, and she only caught her breath after gulping down three mouthfuls.
"Biting off more than you can chew is no good." Xiao Yan manifested a plate of spirit fruit. "That's enough for today."
Suisui took the opportunity to steal a fruit and stuff it into its ribs, only to be hit on the skull by Xiao Yan's fan.
Li Nanzhu wiped the sweat from her forehead before finally taking a spirit fruit and popping it into her mouth. "Master, what else can karmic fire do besides alchemy?"
Xiao Yan's fan paused for a moment. "Theoretically, it can be used for healing. The Buddhist sects have techniques that use karmic fire to incinerate the root of an illness, but..."
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