Chapter 4 The Alchemical Body
The air inside the hidden cave was thick with the metallic tang of blood and the earthy scent of damp moss.
Lin Yun dumped the contents of the stolen storage bags onto the cold stone floor. Clatter ensued as low grade swords, vials of pills, and a handful of Spirit Stones scattered across the obsidian.
From her perch atop the treasure mound, Long Xi opened one lazy eye.
"Pathetic," she remarked, her voice dripping with ancient boredom. "Is this what passes for wealth in the human world these days? A few rusted blades and pills made of ninety percent dirt?"
Lin Yun wiped the grime from his face, ignoring her mockery.
"They were Outer Disciples. They are not meant to be rich. But for me right now, even trash is treasure."
He picked up a small white porcelain bottle. He popped the cork and sniffed.
"Bone Knitting Pills. Low quality."
"Throw them away," Long Xi commanded. "Human pills are filled with impurities. If you put that garbage into your body now, you will pollute the Dragon Marrow I gave you. You are no longer a trash bin, Lin Yun. You are a Sovereign."
Lin Yun hesitated, then tossed the bottle aside. It shattered against the wall.
"Then how do I heal? How do I get stronger? I cannot absorb Qi from the air like before."
Long Xi uncoiled, her human form shimmering as she glided down to the floor. She picked up a bundle of dried herbs that had fallen out of Zhao Hu's bag.
"Iron Bark Root. Blood Ginseng. Star Leaf Grass," she identified them with a glance. "Individually, they are weak. But combined, they can form a broth."
"A broth?" Lin Yun raised an eyebrow. "I am not hungry."
"Not for your stomach, fool. For your skin." Long Xi pointed to the black cauldron she had summoned earlier. "The Ancient Path does not use dainty little pills. We do not carefully extract essence with gentle fire. We boil it. And then, we boil you."
She flicked her wrist. The heavy black cauldron lid flew off with a clang.
"Fill it with water from the underground spring in the back of the cave. Then crush these herbs, do not cut them, crush them, and throw them in."
Lin Yun did not ask questions. He grabbed the heavy cauldron, which easily weighed three hundred pounds, and carried it to the spring as if it were a basket of fruit. His strength was growing by the hour.
When he returned with the water, Long Xi was holding a strange, glowing red stone.
"This is a Dragon Scale Ember," she said, tossing it under the cauldron.
Instantly, without wood or oil, a crimson flame roared to life beneath the black iron. The water inside did not just boil; it hissed and popped, turning a violent, murky green as Lin Yun threw the crushed herbs in.
"Strip," Long Xi ordered.
Lin Yun paused.
"Do not be shy, boy. I have seen empires rise and fall. I have seen stars die. Your nakedness is of no interest to me."
Lin Yun gritted his teeth and stripped off his tattered pants. He climbed into the cauldron.
"ARGH!"
He immediately tried to jump out. The water was not just hot; it was acidic. It felt like he had jumped into a vat of liquid fire.
"Stay down!" Long Xi's voice was like a whip. An invisible pressure slammed onto his shoulders, forcing him back into the bubbling green liquid. "The Iron Bark Root is tearing your skin apart. The Blood Ginseng is forcing its way into the tears to rebuild them. This is the Bronze Skin Refinement. If you cannot endure this, you will die the next time a beast bites you."
Lin Yun gripped the edges of the cauldron, his knuckles turning white. His skin turned lobster red, then began to blister.
"Focus!" Long Xi shouted. "Do not fight the pain. Devour it. Your body is the pill. Refine yourself."
Lin Yun closed his eyes. He stopped screaming. He forced his breathing to slow down.
Pain is power. Pain is power.
He visualized the boiling energy not as an enemy, but as fuel. He imagined his pores opening like tiny mouths, swallowing the herbal essence.
Slowly, the green color of the water began to fade. The murky liquid turned clear.
Conversely, Lin Yun's skin began to darken. The blisters healed at a visible rate, replaced by skin that looked smooth but had the dull, tough sheen of old bronze.
Two hours later, the water was cold. The fire had died out.
Lin Yun stood up in the cauldron. He took a deep breath, and his bones cracked, a sound like firecrackers going off.
He stepped out and looked at his arm. He grabbed a sharp rock from the floor and slashed it across his forearm with full force.
Screech.
The rock crumbled. His skin did not even have a white mark.
"Bronze Skin, Initial Stage," Long Xi nodded in approval. "Not bad. You are now immune to ordinary steel weapons. A Spirit Gathering Realm cultivator would need a High Tier artifact to cut you."
Lin Yun clenched his fist. He felt dense, heavy, indestructible.
"Now," Long Xi said, pointing to the pile of loot again. "What is that scroll?"
Lin Yun dressed himself in a spare set of robes found in Liu Yan's bag. They were a bit tight across his broader shoulders, but they were clean. He picked up a scroll made of beast hide that had been tucked away in a hidden compartment of the bag.
He unrolled it.
It was a map. A detailed topographic map of the Dark Mist Ravine.
"This..." Lin Yun frowned, tracing a red line drawn on the map. "This is a sect mission map. But these markings, they are not official."
"Read the inscription," Long Xi said, leaning over his shoulder. She smelled of rain and ozone.
"Coordinates verified. The anomaly appears every full moon. Suspected Blue Lotus Spirit Fire." Lin Yun read aloud. His eyes widened. "A Spirit Fire?"
In the cultivation world, Spirit Fires were treasures of heaven and earth. Alchemists would kill entire clans to possess one. They were flames born from nature that never extinguished and possessed terrifying destructive power.
"Blue Lotus Spirit Fire," Long Xi mused. "A Yin attribute fire. Cold enough to freeze blood, hot enough to burn souls. It is a Rank Three Heaven and Earth treasure."
She looked at Lin Yun, a spark of interest in her golden eyes.
"Do you want it?"
"I am not an alchemist," Lin Yun said, though his heart was pounding. "And I do not use fire arts."
"Fool," Long Xi scoffed. "You possess the Sovereign Body. You do not need to be an alchemist to use fire. If you swallow that fire, if you merge it with your blood, you can refine beast souls ten times faster. Right now, your digestion is slow. You eat a boar, it takes hours to absorb. With the Spirit Fire burning in your gut, you could devour a beast in seconds."
Lin Yun looked at the map again. The location marked was deep in the ravine, in a place called the Silent Swamp.
"Master Gu Cang must have sent them to scout it," Lin Yun realized. "He practices a Yang attribute art. If he gets this Yin fire, he can balance his cultivation and break through to the King Spirit Realm."
Lin Yun's grip on the map tightened, crumpling the leather.
"He wants it?" Lin Yun's lips curled into a vicious smile. "Then he cannot have it."
"That is the spirit," Long Xi grinned, revealing her sharp canines. "But be warned. A Spirit Fire has a will of its own. It will try to incinerate you from the inside out. And since Gu Cang knows about it, those two idiots will not be the only ones looking for it."
"When is the next full moon?" Lin Yun asked.
"Tonight."
Lin Yun grabbed a sword from the loot pile, a decent steel blade, though it felt light as a feather in his new hand.
"Then we hunt tonight."
Long Xi dissolved into a stream of golden light, shooting into the tattoo on Lin Yun's chest. Her voice echoed in his mind.
"Go, my Sovereign. Let us see if you burn to ash, or if you rise from the flames."
Lin Yun kicked the pile of useless pills into the water, turned, and sprinted out of the cave. He moved with the speed of a leopard, his bronze skin shimmering in the dark.
The race for the Spirit Fire had begun.