Gu Jiacheng was going faster. His hands turned like flowers as he made peculiar gestures in the air one after another. Moreover, when he made those gestures, they vaguely echoed with the patterns on the furnace from a distance away.

Strange powers were released from the furnace. They did not appear out of thin air but were refined from the blazing flame, and they cooperated with Gu Jiacheng wonderfully.

Ou Yangming watched with bright eyes. Sure enough, the techniques of an Advanced Alchemist were unordinary and shocking.

Needless to say, what piqued Ou Yangming's interest or moved him was the huge disparity between alchemy art and smithing art even though they both involved fire-mastery power and had similarities.

Alchemy was a more delicate skill than smithing. According to Ou Yangming's observation, most of Gu Jiacheng's energy was not spent on maintaining his fire's temperature but on striking a balance between the medicinal herbs.

For blacksmiths, the most important basic skill was the endurance to control heat and fire.

Only when one could control one's fire thoroughly could one merge various minerals and materials as perfectly as possible, where different special powers could be released. Therefore, blacksmiths would always roll up their sleeves and smith pieces of equipment on their own. They would want to control their fires' temperatures meticulously and be the first to sense the specific situation when dissimilar minerals were merged.

On the other hand, the refinement of pills was entirely different.

Temperature requirement was much less important for alchemists because they were assisted by furnaces but relatively, herbs were far more complicated than minerals.

If one wanted to incite the active beneficial molecules of many herbs and fuse them into something helpful for living beings, it would be a much more delicate process than equipment smithing.

Of course, this did not mean that the refinement of pills was more difficult than equipment smithing. If Ou Yangming were to say that, he would be drowned by the salivas of all blacksmiths in the world. All in all, the 2 different arts had their strengths and could not be compared together.

Since the furnace was opened, every change that happened to the herbs inside could be seen by everyone.

Theoretically, the refinement process that was carried out by Gu Jiacheng at the moment was extremely secretive. Not to mention outsiders, even his direct disciples might not have the chance to witness it at all.

Nonetheless, Ou Yangming, Yuqi the Venerable One, and the others were too influential. As bold as Gu Jiacheng was, he would not dare to shoo them away. Even so, the alchemist neither tried to hide his skills nor was he too worried.

Alchemy art was an incredibly professional skill. As high as one's cultivation base was, if one did not put in a lot of effort to practice it, one would not be able to gain anything from simply watching several refinement processes.

Lingfeng the Venerable One watched in a high spirit and nodded from time to time, but he occasionally cast regretful looks at Gu Jiacheng.

Yuqi the Venerable One asked softly, "Brother Ling, is something wrong with Jiacheng's refinement process?"

Although Lingfeng the Venerable One was not a professional alchemist, he had dipped into the art due to his interest. Besides, due to his knowledge as a Venerable One as well, nobody would ignore his suggestions if he had any.

Who knew, the Venerable One shook his head and said, "Brother Yu, this alchemist from your sect has an exceptionally solid foundation and near-perfect alchemy skills. Ah… What a pity."

Yuqi the Venerable One kept a straight face, but he cursed internally.

'This fella started with praises and even used the word "perfect", but he ends by saying that it's a pity. If it isn't because of his honorable identity, I would've kicked him already.'

"Why is it a pity?" The old macaque asked softly.

The 3 Venerable Ones had not only lowered their voices, but they also controlled how far their voices could travel.

As such, only Ou Yangming, who was standing next to them, could hear them well. As for Gu Jiacheng, who was refining the pills, he did not know what was going on.

After hearing Lingfeng the Venerable One's comment, Ou Yangming also pricked up his ears as he wanted to hear the Venerable One's suggestion.

Lingfeng the Venerable One cleared his throat and explained calmly, "It's such a pity that this alchemist doesn't have much time left. Ah, if the refinement process turns out to be unsuccessful or if he doesn't consume an Eternal Pill in time, the Humans in Danzhou will lose another outstanding alchemist."

The faces of Ou Yangming and the others darkened. They all cursed internally, 'Don't jinx it!'

They initially thought that Lingfeng the Venerable One had a better opinion, but they ended up being very disappointed. The old macaque looked at him with an ill intention and thought, 'If anything happens to Gu Jiacheng, I won't let this be.'

Ou Yangming curbed his thought and no longer cared about the Venerable One with an undeserved reputation. Instead, he fully focused on the furnace.

Through Gu Jiacheng's hard work, all of the materials had been fused.

Ou Yangming could not understand the theory behind it and did not know what the steps represented, but he could tell something from Gu Jiacheng's movements. He knew the alchemist had done his job perfectly thus far.

All of a sudden, Gu Jiacheng shook his wrist and tossed the Phoenix Fire Bamboo from Ou Yangming into the furnace.

Almost at the same time, he shouted, "Master Ou, now!"

Ou Yangming extended his arm forward without any hesitation and released his Heavenly Phoenix Fire.

Of course, pill refinement and equipment smithing were different. Instead of being used directly on the herbs, the Heavenly Phoenix Fire was released to the bottom of the furnace.

The veined patterns on the furnace instantly flickered and slowly recovered. It was a natural reaction that occurred when a new flame was suddenly added into the process. Nevertheless, as Ou Yangming and Gu Jiacheng cooperated, the fire did not cause any losses and was quickly merged with the original spiritual fire.

Upon seeing this, the 3 Venerable Ones sighed breaths of relief.

There was still some time left until the pills were made, but it was great news that the young fellow and the alchemist overcame the first stage with ease.

Ou Yangming closed his eyes. He released his Heavenly Phoenix Fire quietly and handed over the initiative.

This experience was a first for him, but he did not resist it because he sincerely wanted the pills to be refined.

After a brief moment, Ou Yangming immediately sensed that his Heavenly Phoenix Fire was slowly penetrating the furnace along some unique patterns.

Even Ou Yangming was taken aback when he noticed this.

It turned out that the furnace had such a magical ability.

Ou Yangming had observed on the side for a long time, but he did not realize that the fire could penetrate the furnace and release its power on the herbs. Obviously, the fire must have been weakened many times and was deviating toward a special property to be able to cause this effect.

If not, the fire would have destroyed the herbs the second it came into contact with them.

"Woosh, woosh, woosh…"

The fire outside the furnace seemed to have become more intense, but the hint of the Heavenly Phoenix Fire that entered the furnace was becoming finer instead.

This was a unique adjustment method, which helped Ou Yangming learn an unordinary refinement method.

He was slightly moved. 'If I can employ this method on equipment smithing, it might cause an expected effect. That said, Gu Jiacheng's able to achieve this because he's assisted by the furnace. It'll be difficult to arrive at this step without having anything.

"Increase the power by 10%!"

As soon as Ou Yangming heard Gu Jiacheng's instruction, he released his fire faster.

Since he was controlling the Heavenly Phoenix Fire, which could burn anything, on purpose, its power was also curbed, or the furnace would have been melted.

After the fire's power was increased, the flame around the furnace seemed to have changed drastically.

Yuqi the Venerable One and the others looked at each other and were somehow nervous.

Before long, Ou Yangming's eyelids twitched. He could sense that a hint of queer energy from his Heavenly Phoenix Fire was being drawn by the furnace to be sent into the medicinal herbs, which had merged as one.

Ou Yangming was shocked. 'What's going on? How did Gu Jiacheng do this?'

His Heavenly Phoenix Fire was a whole unit and a formidable ability that belonged to the Phoenixes. Whenever he released it, it had always been indestructible and could burn anything.

However, the fire was being split by a furnace at the moment. The energy that was split was only an insignificant part of its total power, but Ou Yangming paid attention to the change the most.

If an alchemist had just an unpredictable trick, did it not mean that Gu Jiacheng was even more powerful than a Venerable One?

Ou Yangming neither made noise nor stopped; he continued to release his fire steadily. Despite that, he began to shift his focus because he had a vague feeling that the uncommon ability was very important to him.

Eventually, as Ou Yangming and Gu Jiacheng worked together, the liquids of the various fused medicinal herbs volatilized and agglomerated bit by bit.

Ou Yangming could clearly sense every change throughout the process, and he remembered everything well.

Split…

It turned out that the one that split Ou Yangming's Heavenly Phoenix Fire was not Gu Jiacheng but the furnace.

The furnace's veined patterns had special effects, where they could distinguish a certain unique power within the Heavenly Phoenix Fire and draw it out to channel it into the herbs.

Without needing to ask, it was surely the unique power for rebirth through fire.

Ou Yangming could guess it, but he could not fathom how the furnace managed to do it.

Having said that, after witnessing such an odd trick, a sudden and strange thought crossed the young fellow's mind. The thought swooshed up straight and uncontrollably like weeds during spring in his mind.

'What will happen if I can really adopt this technique in equipment smithing?'