A Spirit Alchemist was stationed on the third floor as well. Seeing the bald old man leading a youth upstairs, the alchemist's expression mixed astonishment with deference, and he offered no word of obstruction. Nie Kong’s heart stirred at the sight; it seemed this old man held no small position within the Nie family.

The old man pulled Nie Kong past a few sparse rows of medicine racks and into a small room furnished with several cauldrons and numerous bottles and jars—clearly another place dedicated to refining spirit elixirs.

“Begin, little fellow. Since ancient times, only Spirit Masters who can wield the Fire Spirit Power element can become Spirit Alchemists. This is the first time I’ve ever seen someone refine medicine using Wood Spirit Power,” the old man observed Nie Kong with a benevolent smile. “The cauldrons here are all excellent quality; pick any one you like.”

“Senior, I brought my own cauldron,” Nie Kong replied with a wry smile.

Upon hearing the old man’s words, Nie Kong knew his previous brief assessment of ‘passable’ had piqued the elder’s curiosity to investigate further. The elder clearly doubted that a Wood Spirit Master could actually succeed in refining spirit elixirs, and his gifting of the Ice Plate Water during their second meeting was likely just indulged playfulness toward a child.

“You brought a cauldron? Where is it?” The old man let out a soft, disbelieving laugh. Looking at the youth, he wondered if the boy expected to conceal something so large beneath his clothes.

“Cauldron Phantasm!”

Nie Kong muttered internally, yet extended his right hand toward his chest.

A moment later, when Nie Kong drew his hand out, a small, exquisitely crafted cauldron, barely three fingers wide, rested in his palm. Seeing the old man first stunned, then his mouth twitched uncontrollably in a half-smile, Nie Kong felt a slight flush of embarrassment and chuckled dryly, “Senior, this is it.”

The old man could no longer contain himself. Pinching a few strands of his beard, he shook with laughter. “Little fellow, are you trying to trick this old man with such a tiny toy?”

In a situation like this, explanations were useless; only facts would suffice. Nie Kong said no more, placing the cauldron on the table. He lifted the lid, then opened his herb pouch, pinching out four qian of Silken-Thread Glazed Root, crushing it into fine powder in his palm using spirit energy.

After the powdered root entered the cauldron, Nie Kong processed the Dragon’s Sprout Algae and Dream Spirit Grass one by one, finally adding the White Star Powder.

The four types of powder completely filled the small cauldron. The old man watched from the side, his smile deepening. Hmm, how long has it been since I saw such an interesting youngster?

The moment the Ice Plate Water was poured in, the lid snapped shut. Nie Kong positioned the cauldron in his right hand, and with a mere thought, his spirit energy flowed out from his palm, steady and unhurried, spreading along the cauldron’s three slender feet to envelop the entire vessel. Instantly, the pale purple body of the cauldron was covered in verdant spirit energy.

“Eh?”

When the Wood Spirit Power surged from Nie Kong’s palm, the old man involuntarily gasped, the smile on his face vanishing as his small eyes widened. Nie Kong’s spirit energy manifested like a string of burning flames, and within that Wood Spirit Power, the elder sensed an intense, searing heat.

“Wood Spirit Power carrying the aura of Fire Spirit Power?”

Could this boy have already fused with the Fire Spirit Power element? Since antiquity, a Spirit Alchemist must first be a Fire Spirit Master. Of course, there were rare anomalies who fused with the Fire Spirit Power element and still managed to become Spirit Alchemists. Such alchemists were exceedingly scarce; however, across thousands of years, nearly half of those who achieved the highest title for Spirit Alchemists—the ‘Medicine King’—were these very alchemists whose spirit power had mutated.

The thought caused the old man’s eyes to suddenly brighten, a faint, brilliant red reflecting in his pupils, like two tiny dancing flames.

Nie Kong paid no attention to the change in the elder’s expression; his mind was entirely focused on the cauldron.

“Buzz!”

With a soft chime, the cauldron lifted slightly, beginning to rotate slowly in Nie Kong’s palm. Initially, the rotation was perfectly even, but soon the frequency began to fluctuate—sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes light, sometimes sluggish—gradually aligning precisely with the tremors of his acupoints.

Time passed. The interior of the cauldron seemed to boil, delicate wisps of vapor rising from the three needle-sized holes in the lid. The humming resonance emitted by the vibrating, spinning cauldron grew more intense, filling the small room with a cascade of clear, resonant sounds.

Nie Kong felt a touch of pleasant surprise. Compared to his previous refinement of ‘Spring Revival Dew,’ the integration speed of the medicinal energies this time had significantly improved. Nie Kong understood there were three reasons: First, the ‘Cauldron Phantasm’ had advanced to the second tier, allowing it to manifest externally as his strength grew. Second, the Wood-Sun True Spirit Art. A superior spirit art allows the cauldron and one’s own acupoints to achieve a more perfect resonance during refinement.

Third, it must be the mutated Wood Spirit Power that contained the essence of Fire Spirit Power. Although as long as the ‘Cauldron Phantasm’ was present, he could refine spirit elixirs even with pure Wood Spirit Power, the inherent scorching aura within the wood energy offered a profoundly mystical advantage in alchemy.

The old man was even more amazed. This little fellow was truly hiding his depths. Observing his control over the spirit energy and the cauldron, his methods could only be described as ‘masterful and utterly natural.’ The boy was clearly only at the Spirit Communication realm, yet his refining technique had reached a Grandmaster level. Were his innate talents truly this heaven-defying?

He did not know that Nie Kong and the Purple Luo Illusionary Scent, which had transformed into the cauldron, were essentially one, sharing a single consciousness. After numerous attempts, Nie Kong and it had achieved profound synchronicity. Now, during refinement, a mere thought was enough to bring the cauldron and his own acupoints to a peak state of harmony, requiring no conscious effort to force the synchronization. Possessing the Purple Luo Illusionary Scent gave Nie Kong an inherent advantage in alchemy.

Watching the deeply focused Nie Kong, the speed at which the old man stroked his beard quickened. Suddenly, he felt a sharp tug on his chin, pulling out several more of his already sparse whiskers, but the old man paid it no mind. A look of profound benevolence softened his eyes, which were narrowed in concentration.

His expression was akin to gazing upon his most beloved child.

“Hum!”

With a sound like a colossal bell tolling, a sharp, powerful resonance echoed, and the cauldron’s rotation began to slow. What emerged from the lid’s small holes was no longer white vapor, but fine wisps of fragrant aroma.

“Sniff! Sniff!”

After two sharp inhalations of the scent, the old man’s narrowed eyes snapped open. With a whoosh, he materialized instantly before Nie Kong, his eyes glued to the slowly decelerating cauldron, trembling with uncontrollable excitement. “Ninety-five percent! The medicinal energy integration is actually ninety-five percent!”

Medicinal energy integration, ninety-five percent?

Hearing those words, Nie Kong suddenly solved a problem that had been troubling him.

Regarding the ‘Spring Revival Dew’ refined this time, Nie Kong had not been entirely satisfied because, near the end, the little fellow in his body, in a state of hunger, had begun to show lethargy, causing the quality of the resulting elixir to fall short of his best performances.

But if even a slightly inferior batch achieved ninety-five percent integration, then the bottle he sold to the Spirit Treasure Pavilion must have approached ten-tenths! Nie Kong realized with a jolt: no wonder the Spirit Treasure Pavilion had sought him out immediately after he sold his elixir, even leveraging the Nie family’s power to search all of Jiyang City!

It seemed the Spirit Treasure Pavilion wanted to ascertain why his Spring Revival Dew possessed such high integration—after all, ten-tenths integration existed only in legend!

In the Grand Heaven Spirit Realm, medicinal energy integration directly dictated the quality of a spirit elixir. Sixty percent integration was the minimum standard for a successful refinement; eighty percent was considered excellent quality; ninety percent was unequivocally top-grade; and ten-tenths, it was said, had only been achieved by a handful of Medicine Kings in history.

“Quick! Little fellow, open it quickly, let this old man see!” The cauldron finally ceased spinning, settling gently in his palm. The old man urged him on with palpable impatience.

… .