The moment the Nine Heart Thunder Flame sank into his Dantian, Yang Che already knew the origin of this Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire.
This Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire was reborn after the spirit of the ancient 'Nine Heart Fire Crow' was struck by a heavenly lightning bolt.
During the ancient war, this Spiritual Fire was severely damaged by ancient Cultivators, its nine hearts split and scattered across the world.
The Nine Heart Thunder Flame Yang Che obtained now, in reality, only had one remnant heart left.
Otherwise, it would not have been possible for the heavily injured Wu Qingxuan to capture it, only for Yang Che to eventually devour it.
This flame naturally restrains Cultivators of the Demonic Path Ghost Sect.
Therefore, when the Nine Heart Thunder Flame, with only its remnant heart, was initially discovered by the Heavenly Ghost Sect of Shura Country, they immediately captured it.
They tried every possible method to completely destroy it, but none succeeded, and this Spiritual Fire even managed to escape on its own.
However, the Nine Heart Thunder Flame was eventually captured by the eminent monks of Taiyan Temple using the True Word Art.
Because the Nine Heart Thunder Flame was truly too untamed, the people of Taiyan Temple had no choice but to imprison it at the bottom of the Taiyan Pagoda.
...
The Alchemy Notes state that both Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire and Cultivator True Fire can be used for Alchemy and Artifact Refining.
However, Cultivator True Fire is limited by the Cultivator's own cultivation level, can only be used within a certain range, and during the Cultivator's control process, as mana is consumed, it can also lead to instability in the True Fire within the body.
Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire, on the other hand, has none of these restrictions.
It is born of Heaven and Earth; as long as the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi does not dry up and remains stable, it can burn continuously and stably, and its temperature can be changed at will.
It can be said that Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire is the dream of all Alchemists and Artifact Refiners.
To be able to obtain the 'Nine Heart Thunder Flame', even if only one heart remained, Yang Che felt incredibly fortunate.
He was also very grateful to Wu Qingxuan because of this.
Perhaps it was a coincidence, or perhaps it was fate's will.
Yang Che happened to possess a Mutated Lightning Immortal Root, which is why the Nine Heart Thunder Flame directly chose to merge with him.
...
However, at this moment, a helpless smile appeared on Yang Che's face.
Although he could already control the Nine Heart Thunder Flame, he still felt the faint, subtle arrogance and sense of detachment from the Nine Heart Thunder Flame.
He took a deep breath.
Yang Che adjusted his spirit, energy, and mind to their optimal state, then lightly patted his Storage Pouch and took out his Pill Furnace.
He directly cast a spell to float the Pill Furnace in front of him, then used one hand to activate the Nine Heart Thunder Flame to envelop the Pill Furnace, while with the other hand, he carefully threw the medicinal ingredients into it one by one.
...
After several years of Alchemy practice, Yang Che had already learned that the three difficulties of Alchemy were nothing more than controlling the heat, solidifying the pill, and grasping the timing of opening the furnace and retrieving the pill.
Especially the first batch of a new Medicinal Pill was even more difficult.
Sure enough, Yang Che's first batch quickly ended in failure.
However, he did not rush to open the furnace again immediately; instead, he closed his eyes in deep thought, recalling the details and summarizing his experience.
With the accumulated experience of refining Eight Treasures Pill, Nourishing Yuan Pill, and Qingxin Pill, Yang Che was well-versed in this Dao.
After a long while, he opened the furnace and continued.
...
He failed seven consecutive batches of medicinal ingredients.
Yang Che's heart was bleeding.
These were all bright, shining Spirit Stones being wasted!
Just as Yang Che was about to lose confidence, the eighth batch succeeded.
Then, Yang Che, riding on that wonderful feeling, immediately refined the ninth batch, which was also the last set of ingredients he had prepared for the Pseudo Overlord Pill.
His luck was quite good; success!
Out of a total of nine sets of medicinal ingredients, Yang Che exchanged the failure of seven sets for two 'Pseudo Overlord Pills'.
The reason it was called a Pseudo Overlord Pill was, of course, because several of its main ingredients were almost all lower-grade substitutes.
"Without the Alchemy Notes, trying to refine Medicinal Pills on my own would be a pipe dream."
This was Yang Che's inner monologue.
Since he started Alchemy, he had wasted countless precious medicinal ingredients.
To put it bluntly, Yang Che's current level, apart from the Alchemy Notes, was entirely 'burned' out of Spirit Stones.
And he could not yet be called a true 'Alchemist'.
One can imagine the unimaginable amount of Spirit Stones required to Cultivate a true Alchemist.
Yang Che put away his Pill Furnace and the Nine Heart Thunder Flame.
His eyes burned as he looked at the two round, fragrant Medicinal Pills in his palm, occasionally glinting with silver light.
The ancient Overlord Pill was a Medicinal Pill containing extremely strong lightning attributes, but several of its main ingredients could no longer be found. After Yang Che used substitutes, the lightning attribute of the Pseudo Overlord Pill was greatly weakened.
Even so, the power of lightning contained within it already made Yang Che somewhat unable to restrain himself.
He directly threw one of them into his mouth.
Just as he was about to enjoy the wonderful cultivation boost brought by the Pseudo Overlord Pill, the moment the Medicinal Pill entered his mouth, just as it was about to slide into his stomach, a flame suddenly shot up and directly snatched away the Pseudo Overlord Pill.
Yang Che was stunned.
He immediately sensed that the Nine Heart Thunder Flame in his Dantian had actually absorbed this 'Pseudo Overlord Pill'.
"I..."
Yang Che almost went berserk.
This was a Medicinal Pill he had painstakingly, after endless twists and turns and effort, finally refined, and he hadn't even eaten it yet, when it was snatched by a Spiritual Fire?
If he told this to anyone, who would believe it?
Yang Che held the other Pseudo Overlord Pill, hesitant to put it in his mouth.
He even had to constantly guard against the Nine Heart Thunder Flame coming out to snatch it.
"I only have one left, don't snatch it, okay?"
Yang Che tried to communicate with the Nine Heart Thunder Flame, but unfortunately, it showed no reaction.
"When my cultivation becomes stronger, I'll be able to go out and find better medicinal ingredients. Then we'll work together to refine more and better Medicinal Pills, and I guarantee you can eat your fill, how about it?"
Yang Che 'earnestly' persuaded it, like coaxing a child.
After waiting for a while, the Nine Heart Thunder Flame still showed no reaction.
Yang Che steeled his heart, separated his Divine Sense to envelop the Pseudo Overlord Pill, and the moment he threw it into his mouth, he forcibly bit it into pieces.
However, this time, Yang Che was clearly overthinking it.
The Nine Heart Thunder Flame remained motionless in his Dantian, very quiet, with no intention of snatching it.
But why did Yang Che have a strange feeling, as if this Nine Heart Thunder Flame was waiting to watch some good show?
"Ah..."
At this moment, Yang Che suddenly let out a cry of pain and immediately sat down cross-legged.
A vast and incomparably tyrannical power of lightning from the Medicinal Pill instantly surged through his body.
Wherever the medicinal power flowed, it felt like scraping bone and extracting marrow. Yang Che, who had not experienced such pain for a long time, endured with all his might, and large beads of sweat poured down his forehead like rain.
Yang Che immediately wanted to circulate the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art, but then he changed his mind and continued to forcefully Cultivate the Purple Origin Art.
The medicinal power was absorbed and transformed.
Gradually, as the pain lessened, Yang Che's cultivation astonishingly increased.
In just over an hour, he had already reached the peak of the tenth level of Qi Refinement Stage, showing faint signs of entering the eleventh level of Qi Refinement Stage.
He originally wanted to stop there and use the remaining medicinal power to strengthen his Physical Body with the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art.
But Yang Che suddenly thought that if his cultivation reached the eleventh level of Qi Refinement Stage, he could participate in the 'Qi Refinement Stage Disciple Grand Competition' held every two years by the Sect specifically for distributing 'Foundation Establishment Pills'.
Regarding the Foundation Establishment Pill, Yang Che had a 'great aspiration'.
Therefore, he would certainly not let go of any opportunity to obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill.
Thinking of this, Yang Che had no more reservations and absorbed the medicinal power of the Pseudo Overlord Pill even more frantically, breaking through the Bottleneck of the tenth level of Qi Refinement Stage in one go and advancing to the eleventh level of Qi Refinement Stage.
There was still residual medicinal power.
This time, Yang Che fully circulated the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art, specifically using these residual medicinal powers to temper his meridians.
Several days later.
Feeling the abundant mana within his body and his further enhanced Divine Sense, Yang Che immediately began to test the limits of controlling the Flying Fire Needles.
Two hundred eighty-eight!
Easily controlled.
Three hundred, a bit strenuous.
Three hundred twenty-four, just reached the limit.
After continuing to consolidate his cultivation for more than half a month, Yang Che decided it was time to leave his Immortal Cave and sign up for the biennial Foundation Establishment Pill competition.