Chapter 160: Chapter 158: Blue Flame and Soul Force_1
And knowing the wild imaginations of these students, they could probably come up with even more scandalous rumors than that.
The day of the Dan Medicine Competition was fast approaching, and Fang Renran hadn't made any preparations. His days were spent either in cultivation or delving into his cultivation techniques.
Speaking of which, this year's final round of the Dan Medicine Competition was quite lively—Mu Huanqing would be there, Bai Qi would be there, the second master of the Fang Family would be there, and Song Mobei and Xia Fu Lan from the Tiandao Sword Sect as well, with even the Void Hole floating above the final's venue.
Just the thought of all these people gathering together was exciting, let alone for Fang Renran, who intended to turn the Dan Medicine Competition upside down.
"Ding-dong~ Students who have registered for this year's university Dan Medicine competition, please assemble in the lobby of Building 1 after the lunch break."
With the campus broadcast ringing out, Fang Renran, who had been sitting in the garden cultivating with his eyes closed, opened his eyes with a frown.
This morning he didn't have classes, so he had been sitting in the garden cultivating the whole time. Who would have thought that he would become so immersed in his practice that he felt signs of a breakthrough in his realm?
As he continued to cultivate, the feeling of breakthrough grew stronger and stronger until he felt he was just a hair's breadth away from reaching the peak of the Chongshan Realm.
But then, all of a sudden, the campus broadcast disturbed his concentration, and to prevent his True Qi from recoiling within him, he was forced to stop cultivating to stabilize it.
"Why do I feel like everyone wants to go against me these days?"
He shook his head in frustration, full of indignation. With no other choice, he directly pulled out Xiao Yuan and looked at its small round face, saying, "Tell me, why is your daddy so unlucky?"
"Hey ha hey ha?"
Xiao Yuan looked at him with a puzzled face, not understanding where he was unlucky.
"You're still young; you wouldn't understand the pain of being called a scumbag." Fang Renran said with a helpless face.
"Hey ha?" Xiao Yuan still didn't understand the meaning of scumbag.
"A scumbag is a man who takes pleasure in hurting women, a man who is a scoundrel when it comes to feelings."
"Hey ha?"
Seeing that it was still confused, Fang Renran slapped his own face and muttered to himself, "I must be sick to be discussing these matters with a plant. This creature doesn't even have a gender, with no distinction between male and female..."
Xiao Yuan saw his troubled face and thought he was upset about the interruption in his cultivation. It went straight into Fang Renran's Space Ring and brought out two fruits.
"Hey ha hey ha."
Xiao Yuan's spherical arms tapped Fang Renran's palm, and its branch tips held two fruits, which Fang Renran had picked from the battlefield last time.
"Damn, I actually forgot about them."
Fang Renran slapped his forehead as he suddenly remembered the two fruits he had picked and had not yet eaten.
Mostly because there had been so many scandals surrounding him these past few days—about the lingerie thief, being a scumbag, and so on—that they had disrupted his cultivation mindset. Now, even a campus broadcast could interrupt his state of mind.
"I've broken through too quickly these days; I need to really consolidate my cultivation mindset."
Saying this, Fang Renran took the two fruits from Xiao Yuan's branches and looked at Xiao Yuan, asking, "What's the difference between the fruits I picked from that tree and the one from the Chaotic World?"
Xiao Yuan extended a branch and began to carve a line of words on the ground. Influenced by Bai Qi's speech these days, it made the words less cryptic than before.
The words on the ground read: The physical tree's fruits have not reached their peak, and thus their strength is somewhat diminished compared to those of the Chaotic World. However, what the master picked was destined, no need for regret.
"Although you say that, it's impossible for me not to feel regret deep down," Fang Renran replied as he picked up the fruit with the Blue Flame, sighing, "Am I simply not fated to pick the better fruits?"
"Hey ha!"
Xiao Yuan quickly shook its head and carved another line on the ground: Tiandao fate is not determined by the process, but by the result.
After reading this sentence, Fang Renran casually sighed, "The key is that I want to speed up the process, not take any detours."
Without further ado, he tossed the Blue Flame fruit into his mouth. The flame on the fruit was incredibly cold, even holding it in his hand he could feel a bone-chilling sensation.
Swallowing the ice-cold fruit, Fang Renran's taste buds instantly froze, and his brain throbbed with pain; this chill was even more intense than eating a snow cone in the middle of winter.
Gulp—
Hastily swallowing the fruit, a branch from his Spiritual Root instantly reached out and absorbed it. Only then did the feeling in his mouth slowly return.
Hum—
Just as the fruit was absorbed by the Spiritual Root, a mutation occurred on one of his meridians. The gray meridian in the middle was tinged with a faint blue light, which spread from end to end, directly connected to the Spiritual Root.
"This is..."
Fang Renran felt the changes in his body and discovered that in addition to True Qi, he could also sense the presence of another energy that moved at the slightest intimation of his Divine Sense, just as familiar as if he had been born with it.
Whoosh—
As he channeled the blue energy inside him, blue flames suddenly ignited on his hand. The temperature of the flame was very low, cold enough to chill to the bone.
"What's the use of this?"
Fang Renran tossed the flame onto a lawn behind him, and after a few seconds, he noticed that it didn't even burn the grass.
"This... was my opportunity wasted in vain?" Fang Renran stared at the small blue flame, utterly befuddled.
"Hei ha hei ha!"
Upon hearing his words, Xiao Qianye immediately ran onto the lawn, pointing at the blue flame with a spherical arm and shouting.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing it act this way, Fang Renran suddenly felt that there still might be hope, so he immediately got up and moved closer to carefully observe the state of the flame.
When he got close, almost with his face against the flame, he was startled to find that under the blue flame, some small grass had already condensed into a green spherical body, and green juice was continuously dripping from above the green sphere.
"Is this... refining?" Fang Renran speculated.
"Hei ha hei ha!"
Xiao Qianye forcefully nodded his head a couple of times.
"Really?" Fang Renran was completely dumbstruck, "Does this thing work on all herbal materials?"
"Hei ha." Xiao Qianye nodded and then shook its head.
Fang Renran roughly understood its meaning, "That is to say, as long as the material isn't too special, it can be refined."
Xiao Qianye nodded again.
Seeing its confirmation, Fang Renran was instantly thrilled.
A flame that could extract the essence of medicinal materials was akin to a cheat for an alchemist. It was well known that during the alchemy process, many elixirs contain impurities, and alchemists generally want only the essence, discarding the dross.
However, getting rid of impurities is time-consuming, and some impurities just can't be removed completely, needing to fuse with the elixir. They contribute nothing to the efficacy and might even affect the final result of the elixir.
The elimination of impurities is a major challenge in alchemy. The control of the flame, temperature, and timing of adding new ingredients require strict precision. Missing that "degree" would affect the efficacy of the elixir, and there are many other factors that can affect the external appearance of the elixir.
Do not be fooled by the simplicity of throwing ingredients into a pill furnace and lighting a fire—the actual complexity of alchemy is no less than that of cultivation.
"With this, I can also improve some of my ammunition." Fang Renran put away the blue flame, talking to himself in shock, "Really, an opportunity meant for me will find its way to me, enabling me to pick exactly what I need most."
Having briefly learned the purpose of the blue flame, Fang Renran couldn't wait to grab the white fruit and stuff it into his mouth.
The white fruit, compared to the previous blue fruit, was outright plain. It had nothing unusual about it, just like an ordinary white sweet potato.
As the white fruit entered his mouth, Fang Renran didn't taste anything notable when suddenly, his spiritual root extended branches that engulfed the fruit.
Hum—
Fang Renran felt a blank in his brain for a moment, and a few seconds later, he came back to his senses. He immediately felt for changes in his body but found that... it seemed nothing extra had appeared.
"What is this now?" Fang Renran was stunned.
"Hei ha hei ha!"
Seeing his dazed expression, Xiao Qianye happily jumped up onto his shoulder and knocked his head with its spherical arms.
"Are you saying my divine sense has been strengthened?" Fang Renran was taken aback. The last fruit he had consumed had already strengthened his soul force once. How could it be strengthened again?
"Hei ha?"
Xiao Qianye looked at him with disdain, and eventually, it extended a branch from its head to write on the ground: Soul force.
"Soul?"
Fang Renran was confused. Even though the Great Cultivation Era had come and overturned many past beliefs, the word "soul" had not been truly proven in this era.
People of this era knew about True Qi, elixirs, and divine sense, but what a "soul" actually was, no one had encountered yet.
"So, this fruit is meant for strengthening soul force?" Fang Renran asked.
Xiao Qianye shook its head and then scratched a few words on the ground: Starting to have.
Fang Renran paused, "You mean to say I didn't have this thing called soul force at all before?"
"Hei ha!"
Xiao Qianye nodded.
"What's the use of it, then?" Fang Renran asked again.
Xiao Qianye knocked his head with its arm again.
"You mean that I should explore it myself?"
"Hei ha!"
Xiao Qianye nodded.
"Alright, I'll give it a try."
With that, Fang Renran closed his eyes.