Su Bai ntally opened his system storage and quickly checked the description of his new reward.
[Verdant-Ember Origin Fla]
[Description: An orthodox Heavenly Fire born from the burning sap of ancient spirit trees. It burns with a gentle, nurturing warmth rather than violent heat. If an alchemist makes a mistake with herbs, the fla will gently attempt to stabilize the cauldron, acting as a natural fail-safe to reduce the chance of an explosion.]
Su Bai stared at the description. His corporate heart skipped a beat.
’It’s an automated error-correction software!’ he realized. If he used this fla, his chances of successfully forging the highly complex Shattered-Soul Oblivion Pills would skyrocket. He wouldn’t have to worry about the cauldron blowing up in his face during his first week on the job.
However, absorbing a Heavenly Fire required absolute focus.
"Junior Sister ng," Su Bai stopped walking. "Before we begin, is there a private chamber I could borrow? I need to... stabilize sothing within my foundation."
Liu ng gasped softly. To a cultivator, suddenly needing to "stabilize" sothing usually ant a sudden burst of Daoist enlightennt.
"Of course, Senior Brother!" she whispered, not wanting to disturb his mystical flow state. "Right this way!"
She quickly led him to a secluded refinent room at the back of the hall. She bowed and stepped outside, then sealed the heavy stone doors to give him absolute silence.
Once he was alone, Su Bai sat cross-legged on the designated ditation mat. With a thought, he retrieved the Verdant-Ember Origin Fla from his system inventory.
A small, erald-green fla materialized in the palm of his hand. Su Bai imdiately felt its warmth. It wasn’t the harsh, blistering heat of a normal fire. It was deeply soothing like a ray of morning sunlight filtering through a forest canopy.
Because the Verdant-Ember was a "nurturing" fla, it possessed zero hostility. It didn’t rage or attempt to burn him like the aggressive, higher-ranked Heavenly Fires that cultivators normally had to fight to the death to subdue.
Without hesitating, Su Bai opened his mouth and swallowed the erald fla.
Instead of feeling like he had just swallowed a live grenade, the sensation was incredibly pleasant. It felt exactly like drinking a perfectly brewed cup of warm chamomile tea. The gentle warmth slid down his throat and settled comfortably into his Dantian.
’Well, that was easy,’ Su Bai smiled.
And then, the anomaly occurred.
"Ugh!" Su Bai suddenly doubled over. He clutched his stomach as a blinding, unimaginable pain tore through his ridians.
The green fla’s core instinct was to "nurture flora." The mont it settled into his Dantian, it imdiately noticed Su Bai’s weird spiritual root. A withered, decaying, absolutely lifeless piece of Dead Wood.
Acting like an overzealous, hyperactive paradic, the Verdant-Ember Fla imdiately tried to perform CPR on the corpse. It surged. It wrapped tightly around the Dead Wood root and aggressively pumped it full of pure, warm, Yang life-force in a desperate attempt to revive it.
Su Bai gritted his teeth as cold sweat poured down his face.
He hadn’t expected this at all. His Reversal Body usually activated instantly to protect him.
The fla had tasted "delicious," so he hadn’t perceived it as a threat.
He had assud that, as ridiculous as his Reversal Body was, it couldn’t possibly alter the core nature of a legendary Heavenly Treasure.
But he was completely wrong.
A Heavenly Fire wasn’t a simple, consumable pill. Naturally, it would act differently within him.
It was only when the extre Yang energy began to actively "revive" his root that his body finally reacted.
’Reverse it! Reverse it now!’ Su Bai commanded internally, forcibly ditating to check his internal status.
The mont the Yang overload reached critical mass, Su Bai’s Reversal Body finally kicked in.
It didn’t violently fight the fla. It didn’t even try to extinguish it. Instead, the Reversal Body acted like a flawless, crystalline prism.
As the green life-force passed through the filter of his Dead Wood root, the energy was quietly and violently refracted.
Su Bai watched in awe as the internal changes took place.
The warm, erald-green glow smoothly and silently drained away. It was completely overwritten by a pale, freezing, ash-grey mist.
The most bizarre part was the fla’s reaction. Because the Verdant-Ember was fundantally a gentle, compliant entity, it didn’t even realize its core programming had been maliciously corrupted.
It simply accepted its new "Ashen-Frost" nature without a fight, settling peacefully into the center of his Dantian and resting softly against his Dead Wood Root like a contented, freezing ghost.
The excruciating pain finally vanished. It was replaced by a wave of absolute, bone-chilling comfort.
Su Bai let out a long breath. He stared at the ash-grey mist now swirling in his palm. He was extrely shocked because the reversed fla looked incredibly familiar. He had read about it in the Grand Archives’ index of Heavenly Treasures.
He imdiately pulled out his leather-bound corporate notebook and began writing down his findings like a bug report.
’The Verdant-Ember has been completely overwritten,’ Su Bai noted. ’It exactly looks like the Heavenly Fire Rank 98.’
[Item: Ashen-Frost Blight Fla]
[Description: A mutated Yin fla born from the violent inversion of pure vitality. Instead of emitting heat, it burns with a freezing, ghostly ash-grey mist that instantly consus the life-force of any flora it touches.]
Su Bai scratched his head with his pen. In terms of raw firepower, Rank 99 and Rank 98 were practically equal. The Ashen-Frost was just ranked higher because it was a bizarre, unnatural mutation that was exceedingly rare.
’So this is how the Ashen-Frost is actually created,’ Su Bai realized. He just uncovered a massive piece of cultivation lore. ’It isn’t born naturally. It’s the corrupted, inverted mirror of the Verdant-Ember.’
He closed his notebook with a heavy sigh.
This new freezing fla would instantly rot any dicinal herb it touched, which ant it was the absolute perfect, automated tool for mass-producing the toxic pill dregs his body craved.
But as a forr corporate manager, a twinge of professional guilt washed over him.
If he used this fla for every single batch, he would have a 100% failure rate. He would be purposefully wasting the sect’s expensive raw materials just to feed himself. That wasn’t just poor performance, it was gross mismanagent of company resources.
’I can’t just be a parasite,’ Su Bai decided firmly as his work ethic shone through. ’I need to actually learn standard alchemy so I can forge the Oblivion Pills properly.’
He formulated a new strategy. For legitimate alchemy practice, he would rely on the Alchemy Hall’s standard Earth Fire arrays.
He would only deploy his new Ashen-Frost Blight Fla occasionally, writing off the resulting toxic dregs as "natural novice mistakes" and "acceptable loss margins."
Satisfied with his operational roadmap, Su Bai stood up, smoothed his pristine white robes, and opened the heavy stone doors.
Liu ng was waiting right outside. Her eyes sparkled with anticipation.
"Did you successfully stabilize your epiphany, Senior Brother?" she asked eagerly.
"I did, Junior Sister," Su Bai smiled warmly, feeling the freezing, comfortable ash-grey fla resting in his Dantian. "My hardware is fully updated. Let us begin the training."
User Comments
0 comments from readers