Chapter 2: Azure Flame Spirit Bird

  That strange flame inside the body, after being forced out, the flames leaped and changed, and actually transformed into a small blue bird! The plumage, beak, feathers, claws, wings... were all incredibly lifelike, just like a real one!

  Made Ling Xiao stare in amazement.

  He hadn't even had time to come back to his senses when he saw the small bird with green flames, its wings spread out again, suddenly transforming into a green line that shot straight towards the center of his left palm!

  It's time to go back!

  Ling Xiao was shocked and hastily withdrew his hand, wanting to dodge, but it was already too late. He saw that the small bird flapped its wings and slid out a strange arc line, lightly and smoothly entering his body along the center of his palm.

  The blue flame fluttered and returned to the dan tian, as if it had taken that place as its nest.

  Pale blue flame? Little bird?

  What is this thing? Never heard of flames liking to dwell in the human body's dantian; even more, never heard of flames transforming into a small green bird...

  With such a flame shrinking in his lower abdomen, no matter how he thought about it, it wouldn't be a good thing. Ling Xiao had some hidden worries in his heart.

  Take a deep breath, discard distractions, and focus your mind to circulate the true energy. Once again, direct it towards the mysterious flame that has retreated into the dan tian. This time, it's familiar territory, and soon you'll force the flame out of the body once more.

  A pale blue flame, in the midst of a "hissing" swirling burn, once again outlined the shape of a small green bird. This time he had experience, and early on used his true energy to surround the flame, to prevent it from slipping back into his body again.

  The true energy cannot be casually withdrawn, but it is not a solution to surround it like this all the time. Ling Xiao was at a loss for what to do with it for the time being.

  The flame's temperature seems to be really low, it doesn't seem to be harmful at all.

  With a slightly reduced worried mind, he dispersed the true energy from his right hand and carefully stretched out his fingers to probe. The small green flame bird suddenly jumped onto his fingertips, flapping its wings as if it were joyful and extremely spiritual.

  Ling Xiao was startled at first, but the small blue flame bird standing on his fingertips only gave him a numb and itchy feeling, as if there was a rich spiritual energy surrounding his fingers. It was an indescribable comfort. He also felt that this mysterious flame had a familiar meaning to it. It was like a lively and mischievous pet, agile and lovely. Of course, it was a bit disobedient and liked to hide in his dantian...

  After teasing for half a day, the flame seemed to become familiar with him and listened more. Wanting it to go somewhere only required using his true energy to slowly pull it along, and it could be easily guided over. It was much easier than at first.

  It seems like there's no malice after all?

  This thought must have come down, and Ling Xiao's mind suddenly became clear. What is the use of this mysterious flame? What can be done with such a low temperature?

  Ling Xiao controlled the small bird of cyan flame, slowly moving it towards a thin paper on a nearby desk, burning it slightly to test!

  He brought the blue flame closer, but only saw that the small bird's wings were flapping wildly, and the flames actually curled back, leaving the paper intact and unharmed.

  Ling Xiao was slightly taken aback, carefully using his true energy to protect the small bird of cyan flames, and slowly moved past again. However, unexpectedly, that small bird of cyan flames suddenly spread its wings and flew off to one side!

  Actually unwilling to burn paper?

  Ling Xiao tried many times, but the small bird of cyan flame still refused to surrender. When he was really anxious, he searched for gaps and crevices, passed through Ling Xiao's layers of defense, and retreated back into his dantian.

  A flame that can't even burn paper? What a waste of a flame...

  Even ordinary fire in the world can easily burn paper to ashes, right? This mysterious flame is indeed a bit strange. Ling Xiao didn't give up, if it couldn't burn paper, how about other things?

  Bamboo bed, straw mat, clothes...... He tried them one by one in the room, but none of them had any effect!

  It's unbelievable, how could this flame be so "useless"? Ling Xiao didn't give up and turned his head to see a small Nine芝 grass on the table. He thought that when Feng Yi saved him back, she also brought back this strange Nine芝 grass together.

  Suddenly, a mysterious flame emerged from the roots of the Jiuzhi grass. Why not try burning the lower Jiuzhi grass with this flame?

  He slowly moved the flame towards that nine-zi grass...

  Hehe!

  As soon as the flame touched the nine-turn grass, the green bird suddenly jumped up, spread its wings and turned into a green line that stuck to it. Its sharp beak opened wide and swallowed the nine-turn grass in one mouthful!

  It really has an effect!

  Ling Xiao's eyes lit up, and all he saw was that the nine-zhi grass had slid slowly into the heart of the flames along the mouth and neck of the Qingyan bird, surrounded by a faint layer of Qingyan. The Qingyan bird flapped its wings with great joy.

  Then, the Jiuzi grass in the belly of the Qingyan bird was burned and decomposed into cyan powder at a speed visible to the naked eye under the encirclement of the Qingyan. Immediately afterwards, it was discharged from the tail of the Qingyan bird, wrapped in a faint cyan flame, floating in the air, with a halo surrounding its body, and an inexplicable aura.

  What is this?

  Ling Xiao beckoned, and the powder was sucked into his palm. He lowered his head to examine it carefully. The powder grains were plump and had a faint cyan color, pure and exquisite. Under the light, they seemed to refract a faint fluorescence.

  Is this... the powder of the divine medicine? The Ninefold Grass, the material powder obtained after being burned? Ling Xiao hurriedly held the powder to his nose and sniffed it lightly, instantly smelling a faint medicinal fragrance, thinking that it was correct.

  Qiyun Sect specializes in alchemy. Ling Xiao had been outside the Qiyun Sect's outer gate for four years, intermittently listening to the sect's elder's lectures on alchemy and roughly understanding the entire process of alchemy. Alchemy has four main steps: warming the furnace, purifying, condensing the elixir, and taking the elixir. Among them, purification is to refine the original spiritual medicine into a pure powder, and then continue to refine the elixir.

  The process of refining the elixir is difficult, and purifying the materials is a step where it's easy to fail. As far as he knows, the powder made from purified materials is worth much more than the original material itself!

  Of course, he also understands that the purified powder also involves a purity issue. The higher the purity of the powder, the easier it is to condense into Dan; at the same time, the quality of the condensed medicine is also relatively higher. Therefore, the higher the purity of the powder, the higher its value.

  But I don't know what purity this Jiuzhi grass powder can achieve?

  The elders of the sect had also roughly introduced how to judge the purity of the powder after refining, but they had not taught it in depth. After all, there are thousands of different materials, and the judgment of purity is different for each material. These outer disciples had few opportunities to refine elixirs, so naturally they didn't know much about it.

  If it were another outer sect disciple, they might not be able to judge at all. But Ling Xiao had always been cautious and meticulous, and from the sect's elders and senior brothers, he had learned many methods for judging the purity of powder materials. Judging purity mainly relied on the powder's color, medicinal fragrance, and the richness of its spiritual energy - but in reality, accurate judgment still depended more on a cultivator's experience, after all, the differences between different purities were very subtle.

  The Jiuzhicao powder is all light green, but in terms of color and shape, there are some subtle differences. The higher the purity of the powder, the more transparent and pure it looks, and the particles are also finer. Ling Xiao carefully examined them for half a day, these powders were as clear as fine sand, and secretly estimated that the purity should be above 60%.

  This is already a very good purity!

  The powder of nine-flower grass with a purity of 60% is worth more than twice the value of the nine-flower grass itself.

  Ling Xiao couldn't help but take a cold breath, her heart beating involuntarily faster. This flame was actually able to burn the alchemy materials into pure powder?

  If it's really feasible, as long as you burn the spiritual medicine you've picked into powder with this mysterious flame and sell it, wouldn't the difference in price allow you to make a huge profit easily?

  Burn other elixirs and try!

  Ling Xiao took a few deep breaths, but still couldn't suppress the excitement in his heart. He hastily rummaged through his boxes and cabinets to find all the remaining spiritual medicine he had left, placing them one by one in front of him. Then, he circulated his true energy, forcing the flames out of his body and moving them towards the spiritual medicines. His hands were still slightly trembling.

  Hehe...

  The sound of flames crackling and burning kept rising from the bamboo house, and Ling Xiao's eyes were also getting brighter and brighter.

  These flames can indeed incinerate the spiritual medicine!

  Moreover, he wasn't picky about food. He took out a series of three or four spiritual medicines and burned them all into powder form. Of course, there were some differences. Some, such as the Nine芝草, had stronger medicinal properties and seemed to make the Qingyan bird more cheerful. Others, like the Gāncóng Huā, had weaker medicinal properties and seemed to make the Qingyan bird less excited...

  It should be related to the medicinal properties contained in the spiritual medicine, Ling Xiao secretly paid attention.

  However, it's still good. Even the Gan Ning flower, which doesn't excite Qing Yan, produces a deep and reserved blue powder when burned - the higher the purity of the Gan Ning flower powder, the deeper the color. It seems that these should be above 60%. Although a more accurate judgment cannot be made, even if it's just this, his wealth has easily doubled!

  Ling Xiao was about to continue burning the spiritual medicine, but when he forced that flame out of his body, he suddenly felt a wave of mental fatigue. For a moment, he couldn't control it and the flame slipped back into his dantian.

  It wasn't until a while later that Ling Xiao came back to himself, and he hastily checked his body all over, only to find that apart from his spiritual energy being greatly consumed, there was nothing else out of the ordinary. He couldn't help but wonder, could it be that using this flame to burn the spiritual medicine would consume his own spiritual energy?

  With that in mind, he took another Gāncóng Huā and forced out the flames from his body to burn it, while carefully sensing the changes on his body.

  He carefully observed and found that when the small bird swallowed the spiritual medicine, there were signs of mental energy being consumed. Ling Xiao took out other spiritual medicines and experimented carefully, it seemed that the thicker the medicinal power was, such as Tongling Branch and Peiyuan Grass, the more mental energy was consumed. He secretly calculated that burning three or four portions would make him feel mentally exhausted, and he had to rest for a while before continuing. As for auxiliary medicines like Ganning Flower and Binglu Lan, the consumption was much smaller.

  Of course, he had limited spiritual medicine in his hands, all of which were only first-class spiritual medicine, and there was no higher-class spiritual medicine, so naturally he couldn't experiment more.

  But even so, after burning a few more spiritual herbs, he had to stop - the consumption of divine thoughts was too great, and he already felt dizzy in his mind.

  He, as a low-level cultivator, still has a very superficial understanding of divine sense and does not know the secret art of restoring divine sense. Although there are some spiritual medicines that can help restore divine sense, they are not something that an outer sect disciple like him can afford to buy, so he can only recover slowly.

  Ling Xiao withdrew his hand and sat down on the bamboo bed, with a radiant glow in his eyes.

  In two more days it will be the middle of the month, which is also when the sect's task is due. He hasn't collected many spiritual herbs this time around, and he's worried that he won't be able to complete the sect's task.

  And if the sect's task is not completed, it will not be possible to obtain enough sect contribution points, and it will not be possible to exchange for the cultivation of Pei Yuandan, nor can you listen to this month's sect elder's lecture...

  He was naturally very unwilling!

  Especially this month - the last time the sect's grand lecture was notified, this month will be taught by Fú Líng Xiān Zǐ and Fú Líng Zhǎng Lǎo to teach them alchemy. This makes him even more unwilling to give up!

  His gaze slid over the spiritual medicine powder in front of him, and a thought suddenly emerged from the bottom of his heart.