A person's energy is ultimately limited. With his current intense training regimen, Xiao Yan had no intention of wasting time on management matters.
Since he had someone as trustworthy as Ya Fei, he naturally had to make full use of her.
After all, once Little Doctor Immortal advanced to the Dou Zhe (Dou Prectioner) stage, Xiao Yan planned to take her to the Cloud Mist Empire for training.
In the future, Ya Fei's influence would extend far beyond the Jia Ma Empire.
With someone dedicated to gathering resources, Xiao Yan was able to devote all his focus to cultivation.
Thanks to the automated alchemy puppet refining Coagulation Powder, the high demand for the medicine in Wu Tan City was no longer an issue for him.
Notably, the Jia Lie and Ao Ba Families attempted to manipulate the price of Coagulation Powder due to its scarcity, causing immense dissatisfaction among the majority of mercenaries.
Once there was a stable supply of Coagulation Powder, the mercenaries abandoned these two families, who had been profiting off their desperation.
Not only did the Jia Lie and Ao Ba Families fail to make a profit from the medicine trade, but their reputations also plummeted, causing their market businesses to suffer a catastrophic decline.
In contrast, the Xiao Family, which had maintained low prices from the beginning and implemented a queue-based distribution system, saw booming business.
By the end, even though the Mittel Auction House was still willing to supply Coagulation Powder to the Jia Lie and Ao Ba Families, the two clans, having lost their market, could no longer sustain their business.
Due to Xiao Zhan's initial decision-making, the Xiao Family's influence in Wu Tan City had clearly surpassed that of the Jia Lie and Ao Ba Families.
After Xiao Yan had refined Foundation-Building Elixir multiple times and perfected its temperature control, he was finally able to create an automated alchemy puppet for its production as well.
By controlling the sales of Foundation-Building Elixir, Ya Fei's authority within the Mittel Family had increased significantly.
Each month, she was able to supply Xiao Yan with a beast flame and even greater amounts of cultivation resources, accelerating the fusion of his Myriad Beast Spirit Flame while greatly enhancing the power of his Xuan Huang Flame and Yin-Yang Twin Flames.
Over Five Months Later
Within a secret cave in the Xiao Family's back mountain, Xiao Yan sat cross-legged, preparing to break through to the Da Dou Shi (Dou GrandMaster) stage.
Shortly after he closed his eyes, the previously calm space around him began to ripple, as if a stone had been thrown into a still lake.
Wisps of visible energy currents seeped from the air, resembling countless strands of energy threads, all surging toward Xiao Yan.
As these vast streams of energy entered his body, they had to pass through three barriers—his Xuan Huang Flame, Yin-Yang Twin Flames, and the embryonic form of the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame.
After overcoming these three checkpoints, only a fraction of the energy remained. It was then refined again by his Burning Flame Star Technique, further concentrating the essence.
Because of this rigorous filtration process, the actual amount of energy Xiao Yan could absorb was not large.
However, while the quantity was reduced, the benefits for Xiao Yan were immeasurable.
Due to the significant modifications made to his Burning Flame Technique, his Dou Qi, infused with different flames, had always surpassed that of others at the same rank.
By absorbing such pure Dou Qi, Xiao Yan maintained an exceptionally solid foundation.
This was evident in his ability to easily defeat opponents of the same level.
Of course, the downside to training this way was that he required a far greater and more terrifying amount of energy to break through to the next stage compared to ordinary cultivators.
Over the past five months, the amount of energy Xiao Yan had absorbed was enough to elevate an ordinary Dou Zhe (Fighter) to the Dou Huang (Dou Emperor) level.
Yet, after distributing this energy among the growth of the Xuan Huang Flame, the Yin-Yang Twin Flames, and his own advancement, it had only just allowed him to break through to the Da Dou Shi (Great Fighter) level.
The birth and growth of any Heavenly Flame required an extensive period of time.
The Green Lotus Core Flame, ranked nineteenth, took ten years to develop its spirit, a hundred years to take form, a thousand years to fully manifest as a lotus, and another hundred years to reach completion.
Compared to the 1,100 years needed for the Green Lotus Core Flame to fully mature, Xiao Yan had, in just half a year, brought the Mysterious Yellow Flame and Yin-Yang Twin Flames from infancy to a stage where their combined power was approaching the level of the Green Lotus Core Flame—an achievement that defied all natural laws.
As time slowly passed, massive amounts of energy from heaven and earth gathered, surrounding Xiao Yan in a grayish-brown glow.
This glow coated his body, gradually forming a Dou Qi robe. As his cultivation progressed, the energy transformed into an actual Dou Qi garment, shimmering in black and white hues with a faint purple radiance.
The robe continuously twisted and fluctuated, as if it was trying to construct and test something.
Vaguely, what was once an illusory Dou Qi robe began exhibiting characteristics of something real and tangible.
Inside his body, his Dou Qi vortex spun rapidly. The liquid energy within, infused with a black-and-white hue and a faint purple glow, was nearing its absolute limit.
Just as the vortex was about to overflow, Yao Lao's voice resounded in Xiao Yan's mind at the perfect moment.
"Quick! Compress the liquid energy—condense your Dou Crystal!"
Exhaling a deep breath of impure air, Xiao Yan swiftly changed his hand seals.
With the shift in his hand movements, his internal Qi vortex momentarily fell into silence. Then, ripples began to spread across its surface.
The fluctuations intensified until, at last, the vortex churned like boiling water.
At the center, black-and-white waves surged, continuously seeping outward.
At the same time, the rapidly spinning vortex reached a new peak, encircled by arcs of black and white light.
A deep, resonant hum echoed from within his body—a sound carrying an almost mystical rhythm.
This hum passed through his meridians, bones, and even down to his very cells before radiating outward, merging into the writhing Dou Qi robe covering his body.
As the sound reached the Dou Qi robe, its erratic twisting gradually calmed.
Black and white light flickered as the Dou Qi fused, converging into a singular form.
In the blink of an eye, a black-and-white flame-patterned armor materialized on Xiao Yan's body.
Though still in its infancy, the deep, luminous black-and-white glow and the surging energy made it clear that this was far beyond the Dou Qi robe of before.
At the same time, as the vortex continued its high-speed rotation, the liquid energy within rapidly decreased.
At the vortex's core, a shadow—faintly radiating black and white hues—began to emerge.
Time passed, and finally, when the last drop of liquid energy was exhausted, a tiny rhombus-shaped crystal, no larger than a thumb, hovered within the vortex.
The crystal predominantly radiated black and white, with a wisp of Xuan Huang Flame flickering inside, and a faint purple halo shimmering around its edges.
This was the Dou Crystal, the defining mark of a Da Dou Shi (Great Fighter)!
In the eyes of many experts, only by condensing a Dou Crystal could one truly step into the higher realms of Dou Qi cultivation.
This small object was the condensation of all Dou Qi within a person's body, containing an unfathomable amount of energy.
As the Dou Qi was compressed to the extreme, the temperatures of the Xuan Huang Flame and Yin-Yang Twin Flames did not decrease due to their reduced volume—instead, they burned even hotter.
With this advancement in his Heavenly Flames, Xiao Yan's cultivation technique had also entered a new stage of evolution.
(End of Chapter)
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