Chapter 10: The Fivefold Firewheel Technique and Alchemical Fire Veins

Traveling by night.

He followed the official road along the Lan River. Whenever he grew weary, he would rest at a roadside post station, then eat a simple meal before continuing on his journey.

And so half a month passed.

Cao Chengyu halted on his way to Luoshui City.

Luoshui City was the foremost of the three counties of Lìzhou, built along the Luo River. Its prosperity far outshone the so-called Celestial Palace City, which was famous in name only.

The reason he stopped was that his alchemical art, the method for seeking fire veins, had sensed something nearby.

Logically, along the vast Luo River running through Lìzhou, there should be no fire veins. The abundant water spiritual energy simply would not allow a fire vein to form, which made him doubt the sensation.

Yet the alchemical technique came from the system and ought not be wrong. After some hesitation, he decided to trust the feeling, leading Little Wind off the main road and into the mountains.

He had gone no more than half a day when, by a wetland up ahead, he heard faint moans coming from a tangled bed of reeds.

He tied Little Wind to a tree and crept forward, carefully parting the rushes. To his astonishment, he found a steaming pool, white mist curling above it.

The water was milky, with hot bubbles rising in places.

The moaning came from a little girl, who looked no more than five or six years old. She was soaking alone in a hot spring deep in the mountains—an odd, unsettling sight.

Could it be a malevolent spirit or ghost?

In broad daylight, the chill that ran through him was real.

Worried, Cao Chengyu did not reveal himself. He waited silently until the little girl finished her bath and left before emerging.

The area was a wetland ringed with reeds as tall as two men, but inside was a circle of dry red earth. Around the spring, someone had built a ring of stones, clearly constructed with intent.

The fire vein he sensed was close by; this hot spring must be one of its entrances.

But how could a fire vein truly exist here?

The formation of the spring itself defied the natural order.

He could think of only one explanation: it was man-made.

Legend said that great cultivators could move mountains and fill seas; to forge an artificial fire vein should be no great feat for them.

Actions speak louder than thoughts.

With that realization, Cao Chengyu plunged into the spring, channeling his innate spiritual energy to his eyes so he could just barely see through the cloudy water.

The spring was not deep. At the bottom was a vent, from which surged intense fire spiritual energy—the source.

Cao Chengyu surfaced, fetched his iron sword, and dove again, using the blade as a makeshift pick to dig down. He could only hold his breath for about ten minutes at a time, surfacing before diving back under.

He dug like this for seven days.

During this time, the little girl never returned, so he worked with peace of mind.

On the morning of the seventh day, he struck bedrock and found a fissure just wide enough to squeeze through.

He reached inside, but instead of finding any expected treasure, a powerful suction gripped him and yanked him through in an instant.

“Glub—(What the—!)”

The moment he crossed the fissure, it was as if he passed through a thin membrane; suddenly, he tumbled into a place of searing heat.

When he regained his senses, he found himself on a narrow stone platform, surrounded on all sides by a river of flowing lava!

This was the legendary earth-fire vein!

In the center of the stone platform stood a furnace, above which floated a bamboo slip.

Aha! As an avid reader of cultivation novels, he instantly understood—he had stumbled upon a predecessor’s hidden abode.

Excitement surged in his heart, but he did not rush forward. Instead, he looked up, searching for the fissure through which he had fallen.

The stone platform was small, and directly overhead, about six meters up, was the crack he had come through. From this angle, the fissure was shrouded in a crimson spiritual light; water could not penetrate, but fire energy continued to leak out.

That was how the hot spring above had been formed.

As for the little girl, she was just an ordinary person who had stumbled upon the place. As for why she had built the ring of stones, he could not guess.

Six meters was barely within jumping distance. As he leapt, Cao Chengyu reached out to touch the crimson light, and, as expected, was instantly pulled back out.

Surfacing in the spring, he quickly restored the earth he had dug up to the bottom, then sealed the opening with a large slab of rock.

Gathering his herbs and rations, he set Little Wind free for the time being, and dove back in.

By nature cautious, especially since this place was not his alone, he made sure to erase every trace of his intrusion.

By the time he returned to the subterranean fire cavern, two hours had passed.

He tossed his damp herb chest aside and slowly approached the center of the stone platform, first inspecting the furnace, then using his Object Manipulation Art to retrieve the floating bamboo slip.

Though Object Manipulation and Wind Walking were among the most basic spells, Cao Chengyu’s body housed only primal spiritual energy, making their use slow and exhausting.

It also drained his core energy, so despite the system’s direct transmission and instant mastery, he had rarely used them.

Now, facing something left by a high-level cultivator, he dared not touch it directly, so he forced himself to try.

The bamboo slip was written in the script of this world. Cao Chengyu had spent a month diligently learning the language and could just manage to read it.

The content was straightforward.

This fire vein was a legacy of the Li Fire Vein of the Five Elements Sect. Whoever could enter this place was considered destined for the sect and could use the method recorded on the bamboo slip to be admitted directly into the Li Fire Vein branch of the Five Elements Sect.

The bamboo slip detailed a technique called the Five-Wheel Li Fire Method. Mastery of it would allow one to conjure five simulated fire beasts, each slightly weaker than oneself in cultivation.

The five beasts were: wolf, leopard, lion, tiger, and dragon.

Cao Chengyu was sorely lacking in techniques and eagerly committed it to memory.

However, this method was profound and required true magical power. For now, he could not cultivate it.

As for the furnace, it was indeed an alchemical cauldron. Inside was a single Pulse-Opening Pill that could help a cultivator at the Qi-Nurturing stage break through to the Spirit-Refining realm!

The cauldron itself was a Brightfire Alchemical Furnace, a mid-grade, first-tier artifact suitable for refining first-tier pills.

He had suspected it was a pill furnace when he first saw it, which was why he had brought his Qi-Nurturing Pill ingredients. He now planned to use the fire vein’s power and the alchemical artifact to refine the pills!

He carefully stowed the Pulse-Opening Pill and, reviewing the basics of alchemy in his mind one last time, began to refine.

Alchemy, in essence, had three steps: purification, liquefaction, and condensation.

Purification meant removing unwanted parts from the herbs—impurities or anything overly earthy, as these reduced the success rate.

Liquefaction was melting the ingredients into liquids and combining them in proper sequence and proportion according to the recipe.

Condensation, the final step, involved intensifying the heat to round the outer layer of the pill, merging its medicinal power, before simmering gently so the liquid inside, drawn by the outer layer, formed into a pill.

With that, the process was complete.

On his first attempt at alchemy, Cao Chengyu felt utterly out of his depth.