Earth Fire

"Wait!"

A shout managed to garner everyone's attention.

"Elder Tan, didn't you say that Alchemy Hall would never accept those who wanted to enter with a connection?" Then, why did you give him the Alchemy Hall token? I don't think he passed the entrance test yet."

A disciple in his outer yard uniform walked forward with righteous indignation.

Seeing that, Wei Fang really wants to applaud the man's courage. He already experienced it himself; no matter how right what you say is, as long as there is no strength to back it up, then your words are just rubbish.

Suddenly, a crushing mountain pressure descended in the room. Everyone could feel their bodies becoming heavy, as if there were a mountain pressing on them, giving them the urge to kneel down.

A blooming voice with an unquestionable tone reverberated through the room: "Do you question my decision?"

When Wei Fang heard it, he couldn't help but look at Elder Tan. The carefree attitude was gone and was replaced with a cold, indifferent attitude.

The pressure came and went in an instant, and everyone couldn't help looking at the outer disciple from before. He was kneeling, and the floor beneath his feet was filled with spider-web-like cracks.

"Disciple didn't dare." He said with a hoarse and miserable voice.

"Hmph!" Elder Tan harrumphed, "You better."

"You are lucky; this was inside the sect. If it was outside the sect, your life would be gone."

"There were always exceptions to the rules. Even heaven's law has an exception, not to mention rules established by humans. It's just that you must be worthy enough for it to happen, but you...

"Forget it; you can leave."

"Thank you, Elder!" The man thanked Elder Tan profusely, limping away.

"Oh, sorry, did I scare you two?" Elder Tan asked Zhu Ju and Wei Fang.

"Don't worry, Elder, it's alright." Zhu Ju answered.

Wei Fang was a bit scared, but did he dare to say it?

"Thank you, Elder Tan; we still had some things to do, so excuse us!"

"Hahaha, just do your thing. Don't worry about it."

Wei Fang and Zhu Ju cupped their fists before leaving.

"Did you feel scared?" Zhu Ju asked.

"A bit. How about you?"

"No, I was just startled; I was already used to it. Master was also at Core Formation, so it was not the first time I felt pressure like that." Zhu Ju smiled.

Wei Fang felt there was something wrong with Zhu Ju's explanation, but he couldn't pinpoint it.

"We arrived!" Zhu Ju said as she stopped in front of a corridor with stone doors filled either side of it. 

"Where is this?" Wei Fang asked, and he looked at the stone doors curiously.

"Pill Chamber."

"Pill chamber?" Wei Fang tilted his head.

"It's a place where alchemists refine pills or concoct medicine." Zhu Ju explained, "Do you want to enter it?"

"Sure."

They walked to the front of one of the doors. Beside the door, there was something that looked like a talisman, glowing red.

Zhu Ju pointed at the talisman and explained, "If the talisman was glowing, it meant the chamber was occupied."

They walked towards another door, and it was still occupied. It was not until the last door that it was unoccupied.

There was nothing at the end of the corridor.

Yes, it was a dead end. Apparently, it was out of consideration for future expansion. 

"Place your token in front of the talisman to open the stone door." Zhu Ju instructed.

"Okay." Wei Fang placed his token in front of the stone door.

With a 'rumble', the stone door was opened.

"If you change your mind, you can place your token in front of the talisman again."

Wei Fang entered the pill chamber without paying attention to what Zhu Ju was saying.

It was just a simple, unadorned room. The room was just about 6 meters deep, 4 meters wide, and 3 meters high. Except for the cauldron in the deepest part of the room, there was nothing else. There was also the talisman character beside the door inside.

"It's had the same function as the one outside."

Wei Fang nodded and closed the door. He looked around the room but didn't find anything that could be of interest. As he was not an alchemist, he didn't know how to use the pill chamber.

"Do you want me to show you how to refine pills here?" Zhu Ju offered.

"Yes." Wei Fang nodded.

Suddenly, Zhu Ju held out his hand.

"What?" Wei Fang looked at the hand and asked puzzledly.

"Spirit stones!"

"Do we need spirit stones to use the pill chamber?"

"Of course, do you think it was free? We need it to activate the formation under the cauldron."

It was only then that Wei Fang saw the complicated pattern and symbol under the cauldron.

"How many?"

"Two."

Wei Fang was relieved; luckily, it was not that much. But then he thought of something.

"Do we need to pay to use the pill chamber?"

"Of course. We need to use merit points to use the pill chamber. But don't worry, every new member was granted seven hours of free use of the pill chamber."

Wei Fang felt there was something really wrong but just couldn't find it. In the end, he just said, "Okay, show me how to use the pill chamber."

Zhu Ju walked to the front of the cauldron and explained, "This cauldron was the invention of the Artifact Refining Hall. It's uniqueness was that it could be used by anyone after they input their qi. Of course, the quality of the cauldron was average. If you don't want to use it, you can activate the shrinking rune in it."

Zhu Ju touched the cauldron, causing it to shrink until it was as big as a fist.

"Like this, and tossed it aside." Zhu Ju threw the cauldron away but hurriedly placed it back.

"Take note of what I do next; otherwise, the formation will not activate."

Zhu Ju placed the spirit stones inside the formation and activated the formation.

Suddenly, fire appeared below the cauldron. The flame was dark red; even from a distance, Wei Fang could feel the heat it emitted.

"This..."

"This was earth fire. Because cultivators below Nascent Soul couldn't produce soul fire, we usually used earth fire to refine pills. Of course, you could also use spiritual fire if you have it."

Eart fire!

Wei Fang's eyes lit up.

When he first got the system, he was given a charr...ahem, gift. One of them was the Body Forging Method. It was a high-quality body-tempering technique, judging from the system routine.

But he didn't cultivate it because he didn't have the right resources to cultivate it.

If he wants to cultivate it, he needs a special fire. He could choose one of the three: earth fire, spiritual fire, or heavenly fire.

Earth fire is fire produced from the earth; it usually exists in volcanoes and special environments.

Spiritual fire was a fire that was naturally born in nature.

As for heavenly fire, he didn't dare to think about it. Because it was fire that was produced when the cultivator was transcending tribulation.

Wei Fang didn't expect to find earth fire here. It was a pleasant surprise for him.