Battle Through the Heavens: A Dragon at the Start

Chapter 13 Alchemy, Terrifying Talent

In a spacious and secluded courtyard in the northern part of Gama Holy City, Qi Lie, Hai Bodong, Zi Yan, and Qing Lin were looking around at their future residence.

Qi Lie didn't care about the quality of his living conditions; he just needed a quiet space to cultivate and refine medicine.

Hai Bodong is easygoing, Zi Yan is carefree, and Qing Lin is obedient and content; none of them care about these things.

"Alright, pick your own room."

The courtyard was large, with more than a dozen rooms. Qi Lie went straight to the middle room, and Zi Yan and Qing Lin followed behind him, choosing rooms on either side next to him. Hai Bodong walked to the right side indifferently and randomly picked one.

After tidying up the room briefly, Qi Lie called the group out and began assigning tasks for the next phase.

First of all, he was prepared to refine medicine himself, and regardless of whether he succeeded or not, he would at least use up all the medicinal materials he had bought.

Zi Yan's task was to consume medicinal herbs. Qi Lie had given her all the herbs he had collected along the way from the Black Corner Region, since she didn't need them now.

On her previous journey, Qinglin had successfully drawn Qi into her body and become a first-level Dou Qi expert. Following Qi Lie's instructions, she was also trying to sense her Azure Serpent Three-Flower Pupil, but there had been no progress yet.

As for Hai Bodong, he was to do his job of guarding the place. Of course, Qi Lie also allowed Hai Bodong to watch him refine medicine, so that the old guy wouldn't say that he was already a third-grade alchemist and deliberately trick him into making a bet.

After arranging everything, Qi Lie did not start refining medicine. He spent two days carefully studying the alchemy insights of a third-grade alchemist. Only after completing his theoretical study did he prepare to begin refining medicine.

Inside the room, Qi Lie sat cross-legged on a futon. With a wave of his hand, a black medicine cauldron more than a meter tall appeared in front of him. Although the cauldron was black, it emitted a faint glow.

Hai Bodong stood in the corner of the room, quietly watching Qi Lie perform.

Qi Lie waved his hand, and more than a dozen streams of light flashed by, transforming into various medicinal herbs that floated around him.

He raised his palm and placed it lightly on the fire port of the black medicine cauldron. His fighting spirit surged and burst forth from his palm. The fighting spirit passed through the fire port and transformed into red flames, which tumbled and swayed inside the medicine cauldron.

In an instant, the temperature in the room rose slightly.

A pale yellow medicinal herb was automatically thrown into the medicine cauldron under the control of his battle qi. Qi Lie used his soul power to control the flames inside the cauldron and began to refine the herb.

"Bang!"

A soft sound rang out, and the medicinal herbs in the cauldron turned into pitch-black ash, which was eventually expelled from the cauldron by its special mechanism.

"The temperature is high."

Qi Lie remained calm. It wasn't that he, as a Dou Wang expert, couldn't control the temperature; it was simply that he lacked experience and didn't understand the adaptability of medicinal herbs to heat.

Another medicinal herb was thrown in, and it burned again a few seconds later.

Another medicinal herb was added, and after a dozen seconds, this lowest-grade herb was refined into a liquid that floated in the cauldron.

With a thought, Qi Lie sent another medicinal herb flying into the cauldron.

"Bang!"

The medicinal herbs turned into a pile of ashes.

Qi Lie remained unmoved and threw in the medicinal herbs again. What he lacked was not control over the fire or the ability to perceive the soul, but rather a lack of understanding of the properties of the herbs. He could only rely on repeated experiments to find out the liquidation point of the herbs.

One by one, the medicinal herbs were put into the cauldron. In the repeated trials, some herbs were burned to ashes, while others were successfully refined into medicinal liquid. After nearly ten minutes, all the herbs needed for one dose of the pill were finally refined.

At this stage, the medicinal properties of the herbs need to be fused together, which is the most important step in alchemy. However, this step is simple for Qi Lie because he has mastered the resistance of each herb to flames, and his soul power is strong enough to control every detail of the fusion of the medicinal liquid.

The only thing that could be considered somewhat difficult was that the soul's perception had to maintain the temperature of one side of the flame while simultaneously increasing the temperature of the other side, which was somewhat like multitasking or even doing multiple things at once.

A few minutes later, Qi Lie suddenly patted the medicine cauldron lightly with his palm, and several clumps of fused medicinal liquid flew out of the cauldron and hovered in front of him.

Qi Lie smiled with satisfaction. He turned to look at Hai Bodong and saw only a fleeting look of shock.

Turning his gaze away, Qi Lie poured the medicinal liquid into a jade bottle and put it away. Without taking a break, he continued to take out medicinal materials and start refining.

"boom!"

Flames erupted again from the cauldron, and medicinal herbs were thrown in one by one. The occasional discarded herbs formed the foundation of an alchemist's skills...

Cultivation knows no time, and so does alchemy. Immersed in alchemy, Qi Lie seemed to forget the passage of time.

A month and a half passed quickly. After the black cauldron produced another batch of pills, Qi Lie finally stopped refining medicine temporarily. The reason was simple: he had run out of medicinal herbs.

"What a prodigy!" Hai Bodong, who had been watching from the sidelines for two months, finally uttered his second sentence in two months. The last time he spoke was when Qi Lie successfully refined a second-grade pill.

Hai Bodong could naturally see that Qi Lie was indeed clumsy at first, but his progress was exceptionally rapid. He had never seen any alchemist go from failing to refine first-grade pills due to clumsy technique to successfully refining second-grade pills and stabilizing the success rate at 90% in just over a month! It was simply superhuman!

"Haha, it was just a fluke, Elder Hai, you flatter me." Although Qi Lie said this, the smile on his face was unrestrained and unrestrained. He had such talent, so naturally he had something to be happy about.

"I'll have to trouble Elder Hai to accompany me to the Mittel Auction House again later. I'll go check on Zi Yan and Qing Lin first."

"……good."

Hai Bodong knew that Qi Lie was going to buy a third-grade medicine prescription and herbs, and he also had a feeling that he was probably going to lose the six-month gamble!

Qi Lie stood up and walked out of the room first, while Hai Bodong stared at the medicine cauldron in the room and the ashes of medicinal herbs on the ground, lost in thought.

Qi Lie first spent some time being intimate with Zi Yan and Qing Lin, whom he hadn't seen for over a month, asking about their cultivation progress. Then he gave Qing Lin some pointers before calling Hai Bodong to go out with him again to the Mittel Auction House.

The Purple Gold Card still led the way, but this time, they were greeted not by Mittel Lake, but by another rotating elder.

Qi Lie didn't care who was in charge of the transaction; he just wanted to get the medicinal herbs.

Having previously sold some low-level magic cores and miscellaneous supplies, along with over two million gold coins, his storage ring contained only a few hundred thousand gold coins, as well as the Fighting Spirit Pills and Imperial Extreme Pills he obtained in the Black Corner Region. The most valuable items were only eight fifth-level magic cores. However, this time, he did not intend to spend any more money to buy medicinal herbs.

He had previously purchased two thousand sets of medicinal herbs, one thousand sets each of first and second grade, and refined a total of eight thousand five hundred bottles of first-grade pills and one thousand five hundred second-grade pills. Qi Lie would not consume any of these pills; he planned to sell them all and exchange them for third-grade medicinal formulas and herbs.

However, when the elder of the Mittel Auction House took Qi Lie's storage ring and probed it with his soul power, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly. He had never seen anyone sell such a large quantity of low-grade pills before.

However, the Mittel Auction House did not refuse business. After confirming the quantity and quality of the pills, the elders of the Mittel Auction House made a bid.

"A bottle of first-grade pills costs fifty gold coins, totaling 425,000 gold coins. A second-grade pill costs eight thousand gold coins, totaling twelve million gold coins. In total, I can give you twelve million four hundred and twenty thousand gold coins."

Qi Lie's expression remained calm, but he was overjoyed inside. The cost of the first-grade medicine prescription and herbs was 1.1 million, so he lost 675,000 gold coins. The cost of the second-grade medicine prescription and herbs was 5.5 million, so he made a net profit of 6.5 million!

This doesn't even take into account how he used these resources to improve his alchemy skills. In the future, there will be no more prescription costs, the success rate of alchemy will increase significantly, and the profits will only be more terrifying!

Alchemists can make money faster than printing money!

Of course, this is the first time such a large quantity of low-grade pills has been sold, and the price is relatively stable. If other alchemists did the same, the price would probably drop sharply.

Although Qi Lie was satisfied, he still frowned and said, "Eight thousand gold coins for a second-grade pill is too low."

"The market price is 10,000 gold coins, but with such a large quantity of pills for sale, we may have to wait a while before we can sell them all. The price will naturally be adjusted accordingly. We hope Young Master Qi can understand!"

Qi Lie pretended to think for a moment before nodding slightly: "Alright, that's settled then."

Before he even received the money, Qi Lie didn't intend to take it and leave. He continued, "I need ten prescriptions for grade three pills, and one hundred doses of each of the corresponding medicinal herbs."

The elder sitting opposite Qi Lie looked troubled and slowly said, "Young Master Qi, third-grade prescriptions are not as common as first or second-grade ones..."

"It's okay, I'll take as many as you have, and the corresponding medicinal herbs too. Just gather the amount of these 12 million gold coins for me."

"Alright, Young Master Qi, please wait a moment."

The white-haired old man got up to prepare things, while Qi Lie and Hai Bodong waited quietly.

Half a minute later, the door was pushed open, and an elder from the Mittel Auction House entered the room, handing a storage ring to Qi Lie.

"Young Master Qi, there are eight Grade 3 medicinal prescriptions here. These are all the Grade 3 prescriptions we currently have. Each prescription contains fifty doses of the corresponding medicinal herbs. Is this acceptable to you?"

Qi Lie took the storage ring, examined it briefly, and then nodded.

"Can."

"So, each Grade 3 prescription is worth 150,000 gold coins. The prices of these medicinal materials are not uniform. The ingredients for the Awakening Pill... the total price of these medicinal materials is 8 million gold coins. Adding the prescription, the total is 9.2 million gold coins. If we use your pills to offset the cost, I will need to pay you an additional 3.22 million gold coins."

Qi Lie nodded, then touched his storage ring to the other person's storage ring, and the gold coins were his.

Goodbye.

Qi Lie didn't waste any words and left with Hai Bodong.

……

Back at his residence, Qi Lie went back into his room and began refining medicine. This time, Hai Bodong did not follow him in. He had already confirmed Qi Lie's alchemy level and witnessed his talent firsthand, so there was no need for him to stay in the room any longer.

Qi Lie didn't mind; it would be a good opportunity for Hai Bodong to guide Qing Lin in her cultivation.

While Qi Lie was in seclusion refining medicine, Qing Lin diligently cultivated, while Zi Yan, having nothing to do, would occasionally take out a medicinal herb to nibble on. She had already finished eating all the medicinal herbs she had collected on the way. These were the herbs that Qi Lie had entrusted Hai Bodong to buy for Zi Yan after she finished eating them, using the more than three million gold coins.

Amidst the turmoil outside, the courtyard remained tranquil and serene, time passing silently until three months later, when the tightly closed door to Qi Lie's room was slowly opened.

Zi Yan was leisurely lying in the yard sunbathing when she heard the door open and suddenly got up to look at Qi Lie's room.

Qi Lie walked out of the room with his tall and straight figure, followed by a fragrant aroma of medicine.

"Brother Qi! You've finally emerged from seclusion!"

Zi Yan shouted in surprise, and in a flash, she rushed to Qi Lie's side, touched the ground with her toes, and threw herself into Qi Lie's arms.

Qi Lie's lips curled up slightly. He raised one hand to support Zi Yan, and with the other hand, he ruffled her hair, saying with a smile, "What's wrong? Missed me?"

"Yes!" Zi Yan clung to Qi Lie, her little hands wrapped around his neck, pouting and nodding in a crisp voice. As she spoke, she seemed to smell something; her small nose twitched slightly, and then her big, dark eyes lit up as she exclaimed in surprise, "Brother Qi, you smell so good!"

"It's not me who smells good, it's the medicine. Now, open your mouth."

Zi Yan tilted her head back, obediently opened her little mouth, and waited for Qi Lie to feed her. Qi Lie took out a jade bottle, flicked off the stopper with his finger, and poured a pill into Zi Yan's mouth.

Zi Yan chewed the pill twice with a smacking sound, then her eyes lit up. She quickly swallowed the pill and said, "Brother Qi, this is delicious, are there any more?"

Qi Lie pinched Zi Yan's delicate, jade-like face and laughed, "Little one, you're always so interested in food. Don't worry, I've made some for you. Here, give me your storage ring."

Zi Yan withdrew her right hand from Qi Lie's neck, held it up in front of her, and chuckled, "Brother Qi is the best!"

Qi Lie touched his storage ring to Zi Yan's storage ring, and more than a dozen bottles of pills specially made for her were transferred to her.

"Alright, little one, stop lingering, I have important business to attend to."

"Okay!"

Zi Yan responded cutely, and with a light leap, landed on the ground.

Qi Lie looked at the adorable little guy and a loving smile appeared on his face.

"Young Master Qi, how is it?"

Hai Bodong, who had arrived long ago, finally spoke up, asking about the bet between the two.

Qi Lie looked at Hai Bodong, smiled calmly, and said, "Elder Hai, you've lost."

Hai Bodong's gaze sharpened, and after a few seconds of silence, he let out a soft breath and said frankly, "Alright, Young Master Qi, I concede!"

Qi Lie said softly, "If Elder Hai is not ready, he can wait a little longer, it's alright."

Hai Bodong shook his head and said, "No need, Young Master Qi, just go directly to the Mittel family."

"Hehe, as long as Elder Hai doesn't make things difficult for you. Is Qinglin still cultivating? Ziyan, take good care of Qinglin, Elder Hai and I are going to the Mittel family."

"good!"