Yuan Mansion had acknowledged the identity of the master.
Xu Xiaoshou felt a telepathic connection as the spiritual senses established.
He mouthed a silent “Enter,” and his body had vanished from the room.
Snap.
A stone from Yuan Mansion landed on the floor. It transformed into a spot of light and confined itself in the void.
…
The surrounding air was full of dense spiritual energy.
The life force of this world was almost the equivalent to the Senluo Woods of the Tianxuan Gate.
It could be due to the underdeveloped opening of the Chaos Space. The density of the life force that had encompassed the space was still in an overwhelming abundance.
Despite there only being a few days between Xu Xiaoshou’s last visit to Yuan Mansion, he could not help but feel a strange sense of unfamiliarity.
He looked around his surroundings.
The same plains of nothingness greeted him.
Despite the immense life force that filled the spaces between heaven and earth, no vegetation grew on this land.
A few days ago, this space was only slightly bigger than Xu Xiaoshou’s space ring.
Elder Qiao only had a short span of time to work with, thus he had not restored all of the space in Yuan Mansion yet.
One could even go as far as to say that it would be impossible for him to fully restore Yuan Mansion to its former state.
The only possible method was solely to inject Spirit Mark of Life into Yuan Mansion. By depending on its majestic stream of lifeforce to continuously replenish the space, it could slowly move toward its awakening.
“It is bigger than before.”
Xu Xiaoshou mumbled as he sat his behind down on the floor.
In his previous visit, the space was equivalent to three of four rooms at best. Now, it had enough space to accommodate a house.
Though the space was still surrounded by a thick veil of chaotic grey mist, his naked eye could observe improvements, which was surprising enough for him.
“Elder Qiao said that one should avoid contact with the chaotic grey mist as much as possible. It can be gently pushed to ensure the Spirit Mark of Life does not clash with the inhabitable space.”
Xu Xiaoshou turned to the Spirit Mark of Life that was suspended midair in the habitable space.
The item had been enchanted with an additional array, and it was working tirelessly without a break.
If one could collect the continuous life energy it emitted, simply two or three days’ worth of them was capable of turning an ordinary human elderly back into a child.
Yuan Mansion was well-lit despite not having a sun. Therefore, there was no passage of night and day within the space.
The light was brought to the space by the Order of the Great Path that came with the creation of the space and occurred naturally.
When the mark had fully recovered the space, not only would day and night be restored but also the change of seasons would be possible within the world.
All of that was hope for the future. The current muted and premature state of the space was incapable of that.
The barren land his feet were on felt sturdy with every step.
“If it wasn’t for the flaws present in the law of the Way of the Heavens here, it could satisfy all of my cultivation needs.”
“It’s a shame that the space is imperfect. It could only be a temporary shelter for now.”
Xu Xiaoshou’s train of thoughts stopped, and a lightbulb went off in his head.
“It’s flaws aside, the space is big enough now. In the future, I could use it as a testing ground for attacks.”
His eyes shined with anticipation. If he could test and practice his moves here, he would not require as much sensing and sentiments.
All he had required was a space for him to freely exercise his power without bringing any trouble in his way.
Yuan Mansion had fully satisfied all of his requirements.
“In that case, all the processes that do not require sense and sentiment could be shifted to Yuan Mansion to be processed, like…”
“Alchemy!”
Xu Xiaoshou felt a rush of excitement.
He always had a complicated relationship with alchemy.
Even if he was practicing in a Pill Pagoda, it was not able to withstand the destructive side effects of his alchemy process. Therefore, Yuan Mansion was all the more unable to withstand the effects.
He wondered if he could send the explosions and uncontrollable powers into the chaos when things go south.
The worst-case scenario was to turn the chaos upside down with the explosion.
But that did not matter much due to the nature of the chaos. A few more explosions would not have any damaging impact.
‘Atomic form?’ Xu Xiaoshou thought.
He laughed immediately after. That was impossible.
Moreover, Xu Xiaoshou had another idea.
‘If I were to practice alchemy here, operating 10 cauldrons at once, if it all failed, could I transport them into the real world and toss them at my enemies in the most crucial times?’
His eyes lit up again.
‘The idea is pure evil and pure genius,’ he thought.
Yuan Mansion was similar to the space ring.
The space was big enough to accommodate a person, even with the flaws indicated in the Order of the Great Path. That only accounted for a small space, and that space was constantly being renewed.
Alchemy would be possible within these spaces.
Xu Xiaoshou decided to attempt his idea.
Pulling out his personal alchemy cauldron immediately, Xu Xiaoshou started a pot of the simplest Red Gold Pill.
The process of extraction for medical substances went by in a flash. Before compressing the pill, he stood up suddenly and chanted something silently. His body immediately disappeared from Yuan Mansion.
“Hum!”
The alchemy cauldron jerked aggressively, but its condition stabilized quickly.
Xu Xiaoshou’s eyes were shining with excitement as he returned to his room.
His idea was entirely plausible.
He could operate it all on his own in the real world. It was the same as summoning an object from the space ring. He could perfectly operate the small tub within Yuan Mansion.
Even if it took a bit of spiritual sense to maintain the process of the Boiling Soup method, he was able to ensure the elixirs did not lose their medicinal properties.
Moreover, the quality of the elixirs would increase under the backflow of the repeated process of alchemy.
Xu Xiaoshou was aware that to accomplish this, he had to have a good grasp of the time needed for the process.
The elixirs would be turned into dust if they spent long spent in the backflow.
If he were to cook slowly with a light flame, the Boiling Soup method would require close to half a day, and that would be no problem at all.
Xu Xiaoshou knew that the longer it was kept boiling, the bigger the explosion would be when he would attempt to compress the pill.
If he was able to cultivate 10 elixirs at once, and then be at the home of Zhang Taiying…
Excitement filled him again as he thought through his plan. Xu Xiaoshou hurriedly pushed his door open and called for Xin Gugu.
…
“What do you want?”
Annoyance was written all over Xin Gugu’s face. Xu Xiaoshou had disrupted his beauty sleep.
Xu Xiaoshou’s eyes were beaming with golden light. “Can you help me get a few alchemy cauldrons now? Get those that are thick but easy to cause a cauldron explosion as well.”
“Huh?”
Xin Gugu stared at him with large eyes. “What you mean by thick but easy to explode”
He reached out to touch Xu Xiaoshou’s head. “Are you feeling unwell again?”
“Oi! Don’t interrupt me!”
Xu Xiaoshou smacked Xin Gugu’s hand out of the way. He summoned a chestnut from his tub.
“Of course, it doesn’t have to strictly be thick and easy to explode. It just needs to be the kind that can withstand the heat of my flames and can easily explode.”
He summoned his Infernal Heavenly Flames. The melting heat gave Xin Gugu quite a scare the moment it was summoned.
“An alchemy cauldron to withstand this?” Xin Gugu hesitated. “Are you sure you need an alchemy cauldron?”
His words gave Xu Xiaoshou an epiphany.
“Right, just like you said, it doesn’t have to be an alchemy cauldron!”
“An alchemy cauldron is used to increase the success rates of an alchemy pill making. I’m not using it to make pills, so why bother using an alchemy cauldron?”
Xu Xiaoshou added determinedly, “Buy spiritual weapons, the protective spiritual energy ones that have a heat-resistant array. It doesn’t have to be of good quality. As long as it can last half a day, it’s good!”
There was a sudden feeling of unease in Xin Gugu’s heart.
If Xu Xiaoshou was not planning to practice alchemy, why did he require an alchemy cauldron? Xin Gugu was unsure what Xu Xiaoshou’s real intentions were.
However, it was understandable for one who had not witnessed the power of Xu Xiaoshou’s destructive alchemy to leave the comfort of their personal assumptions.
But he did not pursue the matter further. Instead, he asked, “Sure, how many do you need?”
“Ten for now. I can only operate that many cauldrons of elixirs at once…”
Xu Xiaoshou paused. He felt that he had made a mistake of some kind.
Ten was the limit for him to maintain the success rates of his alchemy attempts. Therefore, he had set ten as the maximum he could go for.
However, his goal at the present was not the success rate of alchemy attempts.
Xu Xiaoshou was aiming for the exploding part of the Exploding Alchemy method.
He waved his hand. “Actually, make that a hundred.”