Xiao Yan patted his forehead as he suddenly recalled some events from the previous night.
Rock Desert City was close to the Tagor Desert, and mercenaries had a high demand for healing medicine.
Alchemists rarely ventured to such harsh borderlands. Even if they gathered materials here, they would sell them off and transport them inland.
Because of this, the prices of materials were much lower.
"Take me for a walk around Rock Desert City," Xiao Yan said to Xue Lan after some thought.
Of the three objectives for this trip, he had already completed two. Now, all that remained was finding Qing Lin.
"Wait a moment, I'll go pour out the water."
Xue Lan grabbed the water basin and ran outside.
A moment later, they left the Desert Iron Mercenary Group and began strolling around Rock Desert City.
Due to the merger of the Sand Mercenary Group into the Desert Iron Mercenary Group, there was a lot of personnel movement, making the city significantly more crowded than usual.
Xiao Yan, however, paid little attention to the battle-hardened mercenaries. Instead, he focused on beggars on the streets.
From time to time, he would also check out street stalls selling medicinal herbs and magic cores, hoping to find a hidden treasure.
Near the Tagor Desert, incidents of human women being violated by Snake-People occasionally occurred.
Under normal circumstances, humans and Snake-People could not conceive children. However, there were always exceptions—albeit rare—where a woman impregnated by a Snake-Person would give birth to a child.
Yet, such offspring rarely survived beyond the age of two.
Because of this unique trait, if Qing Lin was present, Xiao Yan would easily recognize her.
However, after spending the entire day searching through Rock Desert City, he found no half-Snake-Person as old as Qing Lin.
That evening, back in his room, Xiao Yan came to a realization.
Since Qing Lin was born and had survived, it meant she must have had a mother.
The records only stated that such children rarely survived, but they never mentioned the mother dying immediately.
Perhaps Qing Lin was still under her mother's care, barely surviving.
In that case, finding her in Rock Desert City would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
After all, the offspring of humans and Snake-People were deeply despised by society. No mother would openly expose her child's identity.
"Finding Qing Lin will take time. But now that Rock Desert City is under the control of the Desert Iron Mercenary Group, once she appears, we'll immediately know."
Since there was no fixed timeframe for this matter, Xiao Yan could only wait patiently.
Shaking off all distracting thoughts, he sat cross-legged and began his cultivation.
That night, the stars over Rock Desert City shone exceptionally bright, making the Three Thousand Star Technique flow smoothly.
As the technique circulated, Xiao Yan combined it with his own cultivation experience, linking it to the Great Blazing Technique.
In essence, the Three Thousand Star Technique gathered stellar energy to form the Three Thousand Blazing Flames. It was, in a way, a specialized method within the Great Blazing Technique for condensing foreign flames.
Half a Month Later
[Your cultivation of the** Three Thousand Star Technique** and the Great Blazing Technique has reached a new level. You have entered a state of enlightenment. You have comprehended the Blazing Star Technique!]
[Blazing Star Technique: A fusion of the Three Thousand Star Technique and the Great Blazing Technique. It can absorb stellar energy to condense the Three Thousand Blazing Flames. Additionally, the technique has been further perfected, increasing its rank to Mid Xuan Tier.]
A deep humming sound erupted from Xiao Yan's body as his cultivation method evolved into the Blazing Star Technique.
His ability to absorb the world's energy instantly became more terrifying. Thin, gray energy threads began converging in the air around him.
More importantly, denser silver star energy started merging into his body.
The initial evolution of the Blazing Technique required devouring powerful foreign flames to upgrade.
Whether it was Beast Flame or Heavenly Flame, the greater its energy, the larger the power boost upon absorption.
This is also why devouring top-ranked Heavenly Flames from the Heavenly Flame Ranking results in significant upgrades for the Blazing Art.
From the number one-ranked Emperor Flame, it is evident that the ranking list was created after the Blazing Art came into existence.
The ranking of each Heavenly Flame is determined solely by its power level, not by any other factors.
For instance, the second Fallen Heart Flame near the soul form of the Heavenly Flame Venerable, or the flames within the Ancient Emperor Tuoshe's tomb, could not be used for upgrading the Blazing Art because they were too weak and energy-depleted.
However, due to his heaven-defying comprehension, Xiao Yan's path to upgrading his cultivation technique was much broader.
With such comprehension, he could even create techniques stronger than the Blazing Art itself, forming a new technique whose initial level surpasses Yellow Rank Low Tier—the "New Blazing Art."
By using his comprehension to condense a Heavenly Flame on his own, then cultivating it properly, this flame could become an extremely valuable asset, causing his technique to evolve drastically.
And finally, the most traditional method—devouring powerful foreign flames—remained the last step.
After circulating the Blazing Star Technique for a short while, the stellar energy accumulated over several days condensed into a purple energy stream.
This was the prototype of the Three Thousand Blazing Flames. If multiple such purple streams were compressed to an extreme degree, they would form the fire seed of the Three Thousand Blazing Flames.
The purple energy stream wrapped around Xiao Yan's black-and-white Dou Qi. With each rotation of his technique, the purple glow intensified, making his Dou Qi appear increasingly brilliant.
After cultivating for half an hour, when he could no longer absorb more stellar energy, Xiao Yan slowly exhaled a breath of impure air, a slight smile forming on his lips.
At this point, all he had to do was focus on Dou Qi cultivation and soul power training as usual.
Just then, the small bird housing Yao Lao's soul perched near the bed and reminded him:
"It's almost time to deliver the Blood Coagulation Powder to Wutan City."
"I'd better hurry."
Xiao Yan flipped out of bed and picked up a storage ring from the table.
Inside were the materials his two brothers had gathered over the past half month.
With the accumulated treasures from numerous mercenary groups in Rock Desert City and the full purchasing power of the Desert Iron Mercenary Group, the quantity and rarity of the medicinal ingredients inside were so immense that even Ya Fei wouldn't have been able to collect them in such a short time.
"There are so many fire-attribute medicinal ingredients and magic cores… Looks like I have a chance to upgrade the Xuanhuang Flame and the Yin-Yang Twin Flames. Also, I have enough materials for three batches of Qi Gathering Powder—I just hope my luck isn't too bad."
Rubbing his hands together, Xiao Yan instantly retrieved his alchemy cauldron from his storage ring and began preparing the Qi Gathering Powder in advance for Little Doctor Fairy's breakthrough to Dou Fighter.
Yao Lao flapped his wings and hovered in the air, reminding him:
"Qi Gathering Powder is no ordinary pill. Even a typical Tier 4 Alchemist has less than a 50% success rate."
Xiao Yan naturally understood the difficulty of refining Qi Gathering Powder.
It was said that even Pill King Gu He, a Tier 6 Alchemist, had only a 70% success rate.
However, with his heaven-defying comprehension, Xiao Yan had already mastered the Qi Gathering Powder's formula to a perfect level.
With his powerful Heavenly Flame and exceptional fire control, refining a Tier 4 Qi Gathering Powder wouldn't be too difficult.
The only real challenge was the Dou Qi consumption required.
Before long, Yao Lao once again witnessed Xiao Yan's genius-level alchemy skills.
Seeing his unparalleled fire control, Yao Lao was fully convinced—if Xiao Yan had enough Dou Qi, even refining a Tier 5 pill would be entirely possible.
(End of Chapter)
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