“Greetings Miss Zhao Rinrin and sir Bo Ning, what can this one do for you?” A young man who was a deacon at the Alchemy and Pill refining hall asked.

“We wish to learn the arts of pill refining.” Rinrin said in a cold aloft manner she had characterized herself with.

“Ah, I see. Then first we will need to register you and you will be considered apprentice. Is it just pills or potions as well?” He asked.

In this hall, the art is characterized between alchemy which uses mana to make liquid medicine while there is Pill refining which is done by those who use Qi.

“Only Pills.” Ning said.

“Alright.” the young man said, “May I see your ID cards.” he said.

They both handed it over and he took it over before placing both on a tablet with a spirit rune formation. Then he placed a blue one over at one corner and they both began to glow before it ended and he handed it back. When they checked they could see the status, ‘Pill Refiner: Rank apprentice.’

“Ranks within the refiners are characterized similar to martial arts which is, Common, Mortal, Earth, Sky, Heaven and within each rank there are 12 levels. The reason for this is the grades of herbs go from 1 to 12 of each rank the same can be said for pills. Also a level of a pill is different from the quality of the pill. Is there any questions?” The young man asked.

“Are there any books on the basics of fire control as well as a book on the many herbs?” Ning asked.

The young man waved his hand and lead them inside. Beyond the initial room which contained the many pills for sale here there were many workshops made for alchemy or pill refining. All around were many medical servants running around with herbs in trays. The smell of herbs was incredibly strong and after looking around a bit they entered a very open room where there were many young and old men talking.

A few looked with interest at the two of them but the Deacon just nodded a greeting and waved them over to a large door which lead to a corridor with countless doors where the sight of young children training pill concocting.

“Do you have a pill cauldron and furnace?” He asked.

“Pill furnace? I have a cauldron but my mother who taught me never spoke of a furnace.” Ning said.

“Oh? How did she teach you? Lighting wood on the ground?!” The deacon laughed.

“She helped me by making a spark for me to make a Qi flame.” Ning said.

The footsteps of the deacon froze at that moment.

“Did you say Qi flame!? Don’t joke! Only someone with at least a rank of Earth rank would understand the principles of creating a spark to help a disciple obtain a Qi flame!” The deacon frowned and said coldly as if someone said a bad joke. “The furnace is a tool which turns Qi to flame and is a replacement until you gain sufficient rank for you to build enough contribution points to purchase the chance to ignite a Qi flame. At the cost of 50,000 contribution points for one chance you need to work hard to get it.

“Like I said I…” Ning frowned and began to speak until a punch from Rinrin caused him to stop and he looked with a hidden range and also a hidden glee.

Ning finally understood.

Both of them have a sparked flame. Rinrin obtained one the day before and snuffed his spark at his mother's instructions and formed a Peak Common rank spark which was the best type. Snuffing a flame is easier than making one. Simply let it escape and it's gone. That said now that they have a Peak grade Common rank flame they cannot throw it away so casually.

These flames are unique, by slowly refining them and refining pills with them they will slowly get stronger and by absorbing specific herbs that match the flame they would grow stronger.

In Ning’s case he has a flame in both Tora and Tyrant, or more precisely, he has them surrounding the two Dao seeds that belong to them both. Only Zero doesn’t have one because Qi flames obviously need Qi. His mother doesn’t know if there are Demon flames or what their use.

These flames, after training, can also be used as a form of attack and if the control of Natural Law increases these flames will slowly be absorbed into the seed and form an element flame such as an Earth Flame creating a unique flame which is several dozen times stronger.

The best flame is obviously from a fire beast of course but unique flames have their own specialty. Earth flames are more steady and much better for chaotic herbs because it's a stable flame which is easier to control then a Lighting flame or something.

They were lead into a room which was equip with the basics and there was a book case. “Apprentice usually remain training 24/7 until they can acquire a higher rank then apprentice or give up. Common apprentice take around 4 years to finally reach level 1 common rank. We do not restrict the coming and going to the school though and you need to maintain presence in class and train as well.” He said somewhat coldly after hearing what Ning said and even looked down on him and closed the door after he left.

After a few seconds Rinrin sneered and snorted, “That idiot is a frog in a well.” She sneered and walked around. “The equipment here is trash. Most of it is ungraded AND common rank.” She said taking on of the cauldrons and looking at it and sneering as she saw a few cracks. These were the lowest of low meant for the disciples to literally blow them up upon failure.

“Are you going to refine one of them for yourself?” Ning asked.

“Well they are generous enough to leave these free for disciples.” She said and spread her Spiritual Sense through each and everyone of them after a while looking through the pile of trash cauldrons she pulled out a very large one. “How lucky, a very large Low Grade one and it doesn’t even have a spiritual brand on it.” She said.

She flooded her Spiritual Sense and formed a brand on the cauldron and once it was branded she stepped back and with a flick of her hand the cauldron floated up into the air and shrank to the size of those small hand sized ones.

“A treasure indeed, even trash has its uses but for now let's start learning what we need here.” She said and turned only to find Ning casually sitting on the coach near the bookshelf at a safe distance from where either one would conduce the pill making.

Also about the furnace, it was a bit fireplace with several flame outlets under the cauldron where one would feed Qi into. It was also small meant of a small cauldron making them sigh and shake their heads.

In Ning’s hands wasn’t the book on herbs but instead the beginner book on fire control. On his finger was a small flame that he had lit up and he was controlling as the book suggested. Opening his hand and making a wider flame using the palm as the ‘flood’. Then came the flame color and how wild the flame is. Flame control was the one of the most important aspects of this.

Ning put away the flame and read quickly memorizing everything before sitting down and meditating at which time Rinrin took it and began to read.

‘Fire controls can be translated to Qi control. Flames made of your Qi, whether a Qi flame or a furnace the flame is under your control so you Qi control is most important.

Now how do you know if your flame is too wild, that is by checking the flame wave. The wave is how long each blaze or branch of the fire is. If it gently licks a cauldron then the flame is gentle, if it jumps around covering half the cauldron crisscrossing other waves it is wild. These elements of the fire can affect the pill greatly and some pills require a specific flame. Sometimes it will even require the change of flame into a different manner for each ingredient or some specific ingredients.

A flame strength is determined by the color, if you consider a common flame and not a unique flame, the color depending on heat rises from Red to Orange to Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet each growing stronger by 10 fold each.’

As she reached this point she suddenly felt something on her arm and saw the little Dao Beasts had come out of the Ring on their own and for some reason Ning’s Frost Drake had withdrawn all its sharp edged and was cuddly against the waist. When it saw she had stopped reading, it shamelessly jumped up and climbed up the coach before jumping on her shoulder and wrapping it tail around her and cuddling its head against her cheek.

“W-what!” She said in shock causing Ning to hear and slowly he exit the meditation and he turned, “You’re noisy! What is…” Ning started to say and saw Zero cuddling up to her. “Okay talk, what did you do to make him like you?” Ning asked narrowing his eyes.

“I didn’t do anything, it just suddenly started cuddling.” She said and unwrapped the tail and put Zero down only for it to jump up onto her legs and then curl up on her lap and go to sleep.

Both of them looked at the shameless beast, “This shameless drake… wait a second. AH I know! Its probably because there are stories that dragons and dragonkin are all very lustful and like beautiful women. In other words this shameless thing likes you.” Ning said.

The eyes of the drake open and it lifts its head and glares at Ning.

Rinrin laughs at Ning, “As expected, a vulgar master will have a perverted Dao Beast.” She said and grabbed Zero on his body and tossed him onto Ning. “Hmph! Vulgar thing, go meditate away from here as I want peace and quiet to read the books without them getting burned.” She said in a pompous manner.

“Make sure to read it carefully so that someone as dull and hard headed as you who has a harder head than your Rhino’s horn can understand the words.” Ning said and picked up the Frost Drake and stood up before walking over near the furnace and summoning out his flame.

She put away the fire basics book and took the encyclopedia of books, volume 1, which was for beginner pills such as blood producing pill, basic Qi replenishing pill, powered pesticide for Common rank Medical gardens and more.

The two remained as such switching between reading and training where they trained flame control by actually making simple things from flame and then reading about the herbs in their spare time.

As night slowly fell the lamps slowly lit and silence filled the corridors as most people returned to their rooms to either meditate on what was learned or produce pills since most rooms here are sound isolated during the pill production process.

Poff!

Hearing the book close and a sigh Ning kept training his flame, “Hey! What are you still doing!? Come on so w-we can begin already!” Rinrin’s voice trembled as she shouted.

Ning stopped for a moment before slowly his flame withdrew and vanished he whipped of his sweat and with a bit of Qi he evaporated everything.

Rinrin was blushing brightly while sitting on the couch. He walked over and sat down before turning towards her and bending one leg so that he was comfortable and she did similarly while holding her hands out.

“Come on! I don’t want to do this either!” She shouted embarrassed.

Ning lifted his hands and their two palms touched and slowly they extended their meridians together.

This was precisely the first level of Rider’s Dao Couple cultivation. Two days ago she had learned the basic refining art that she could do and she refined her Ice Demon Blade she obtained at the outer sect which made it an Ungraded Mortal rank weapon but after refining it rose almost to Low grade.

The surprising results made her eccentric but then Bo Rei said that if she and Ning worked together and refine, the results would be almost twice or three times as better. All she needed to do was accept him a little to do the first level which was hand to hand.

For Riders, connecting to their Dao Beasts is the most natural thing but connecting to another person is extremely embarrassing but after a long night she finally caved and the previous night they had done this.

Slowly the meridians stretched and each meridian that connected would be an identical one from the others bodies and slowly the two became one.

The ‘Rider’s Dao Couple Cultivation Sutra’ is an open secret in the sect. There are several dozen different sutra mainly because of the different combination of Dao Beasts. Some would connect one Dao Beast others would connect two and so on. Ning and her had found one to connect three beasts, from each side where two were demon beasts and one was profound beast and vise versa.

After memorizing they slowly began to circulate all of their energies to cultivate in the body of the body of the beasts but for them the gathered the energy and moved it in a particular way and slowly they mixed and slowly drew towards the hands and soon split down all the meridians until they all simultaneously reached the connection where it burst. Half of the meridians pulled and the other pushed and the energies of the two flowed while they calculated their energies in a particular path through their bodies and reaching the seeds at the same time. As soon as they hit the seeds all lit up and all the beasts let out a muffled roar as the energy flowed out and went all the way to the Dao Beast’s Dantian then returned to the seeds before rushing to the hands and making contact once more causing the flow to rush again.

The energies of the six beasts mixed. Rapidly the Qi and Demon Essence was refined. Of all those here, Zero and Steel, the Rhino, were gaining the greatest benefit because there was a High Success Demon Essence Ice type demon as a counterpart for Zero and Tyrant, a Low Success Houtian, was connected to the newborn.

Qi and Infernal Energy burst and flowed through their bodies as they experienced a very fast growth. This was nothing like the first day, Zero had instantly broken through to the High Success Infernal Gathering under the influence of the Snow Demon Ape’s massive essence that flowed through them.

What was also amazing was that the elemental energy of all six merged and mixed. Slowly the potential of all eight of them was drawn out as their bodies were forged under the bursts of energy but they knew it could be more. After hands was arms, where they grap up to the elbow and connect all the meridians along touching surface. After that the female counterpart, with as thin clothing as possible, would sit upon the lap of the male counterpart and along his chest and her back they would connect through matching acupunctures.

This was far from their comfort zone because they still weren’t used to each other and so just touching hands was already embarrassing enough and only the pursuit of strength had made Rinrin accept this.

For three hours this went on until they were all spent and slowly they ended the cultivation and the both withdrew their meridians and let out a sigh.

Rinrin quickly got up and walked towards one of the doors which was a bathroom. “I shall bathe first! If you dare enter I will not be polite!” She shouted and slammed the door.

He looked at her and shook his head and grumbled before taking a book on herbs and continue to read them.

After she came out, Ning entered and showered cleaning off the sweat and dirt that had accumulated and finally exited to find Rinrin dressed in a simple dress and her previously bound hair loose. She had more childish charm when her hair was down instead of in a bun.

She was reading the book on fire control and over her finger was a small flat platform and a faint silhouette of her Snow Demon Ape had formed. The shape was correct but the details were lacking. When she noticed him she snuffed the flame and put the book away. “Let’s begin refining the treasures we possess.” She said rather coldly.

“Let me get dressed first.” Ning complained and Rinrin stood up and, while blushing, simply walked over to the pill furnace area not looking back as Ning found a more comfortable clothing to put on before going over and sitting face to face. The furnace had long since been taken out of the way.

“So which one should we do first?” She asked while still having a faint blush on her face.

“We should test it out on one of the cauldrons first. I want to see how good this really is.” Ning said and waved his hand. Qi flew out and one of the ungraded cauldrons flew over and stopped in front of them.

“That is fine, I am also curious. Do you have some kind of material to improve it though?” She asked and Ning pulled out an ingot of Low Grade Profound Iron. Compared to Black Iron this is really low quality and is only a bit better than common steel. An Ingot even goes for only 5 contribution points so there is no worry about that.

He tossed it into the pill furnace and lit his flame before shooting it at the cauldron. The flame gathered at the bottom and making the flames cover the bottom while controlling it well enough for the flame to not be wild but still be hot.

Slowly controlling the fire he controlled the material slowly melting inside while he looked around the cauldron finding the major faults from being made with common mortal material and a few very low grade items. When he found them he pushed the metal into these areas and slowly replaced the material and black smoke burned from the inside and outside as the material of the cauldron was changed. There was enough material for covering up the several major faults in the cauldron and several annoying minor ones that could be fatal if left over time.

When all the material was used he began to lift the cauldron up and called the beasts.

They were placed in a circle around them with each element facing each other in opposite sides. “Alright, I improved the material and we just need to refine it now.” He said. He stretched out both hands and Rinrin did the same and like before they connected their meridians and closed their eyes. Unlike before, their Spiritual Sense slowly flowed to the hands and slowly merged until they felt a trace of each other in their minds and at that point their energies began to move as they, in unison, began to chant the same incantation.

Above them the flame was controlled by Ning but from Rinrin a small flame came out from her body and entered the mix and merged together and the two flames began to burn together and very quickly the spiritual runes appeared just as six waves of Infernal Energy and Qi of three elements swept through it.

At once the cauldron began to pop and seemed to want to blow up from the heat and energy flowing through it but with each sweep, the old runes became more powerful and after several sweeps the runes split and formed new ones and began to rearrange themselves in a more profound manner.

As for the two controlling this they were seeing every section of the cauldron and guiding the energies to refine the metal making it stronger, breaking down small impurities which would burn up slowly cleaning the cauldron raising it into a higher grade.

After half an hour they ended and the two flames shrank and split before returning to their respective owner and the cauldron slowly floated down.

The two withdrew and opened their eyes before looking up. What they found was a grey cauldron with Spirit ruin inscription that had formed metal deposits on the surface and one could read the runes without needing to inject Qi or anything. What was amazing was that it was also now as large as the Low grade cauldron Rinrin found but it quickly shrank and lowered in front of them and they looked at it carefully.

“Peak of low grade only because the material were subpar.” Rinrin said.

“If it was Silver Iron like I did for my cauldron it would have probably gone to the Mortal grade probably.” Ning said.

Graa!

A small growl drew the attention of the two and they saw all six and a growl came from their stomachs.

“Seems we used to much of their energy.” Ning said and opens the back and pulls out twenty kilos of grass for tyrant and meat which is split between the two carnivores.

Rinrin gives fruits to the ape, meat to the harpy and some profound iron ore to the rhino and the two simply watch.

“Let’s do the Medical Garden next.” Rinrin asked.

This confused Ning, “Didn’t you want to do your swords?” Ning asked.

“They are Mortal Rank, your things are Common rank, it’s a shame to me that you have something like that while being my partner. We have plenty of time to do things for me. Also when refining the garden there is a chance that the medical mountain will upgrade. Previously it was upgraded from what I understand but now it was Low grade. To have a personal medical mountain is a blessing so we need to upgrade it and increase the size more. It will also draw in energy for us as well if we do that and will eventually make us our own cultivating forest.” She said

Ning was confused as for why she wanted to do his things first and remembered something, “Now that I think about it I never asked what kind of treasures you have.” Ning said.

She looked at him and also realized he didn’t know about all the items and looked at him for a while before she took her spatial pouch and pulled out a long blue sword which carried a hint of demonic aura to it. She also pulled the collar of her dress and pulled a black metal necklace with a large and strange gem while the metal looked like the mouth of a beast. It looked very demonic in nature.

“This is a rare item my mother gave me after making a trade with one of the demon sects. It’s called a Demon Eye Necklace. The gem is said to be the eye of a hellish demon. The metal is Demon Silver. It seals the malice of the gem but keeps the effect it has which is to attract Infernal Energy. This is graded as Peak Grade Mortal Rank. We can’t refine it, it would take too much energy at this moment.” She said and hid the necklace again.

“Rich families are another thing huh.” Ning said but didn’t mind since birth with a golden spoon is also ‘luck’ and there is no use crying. For such luck it would have a price anyway.

When the six Dao Beasts finished eating and regaining their energy Ning pulled out the Medical Garden. Like before they began to process again and, slowly, were getting a bit used to it after a few times but still were careful. Still, once it began it went naturally.

As for the garden. As soon as the six waves imaged the entire pot shook. The spirit runes shook appearing and the small clouds began to shift around. With the presence of two ice type demon beasts there was an increased amount of improvement to the water element. In all of them there was an improvement. Similar to Dao Couple cultivation, if they advanced how much contact they had it would improve the effectiveness.

Still above them the energy was raging and slowly a phenomenon happened. From the top and bottom, clouds began to swirl around until it was completely covered and the energy of the Dao Beasts simply flowed in and made waves and only as the refining ended did the clouds finally part.

The clouds on top withdrew but remained above the tree the one below withdrew below the pot. The pot was now a dark red while the dirt was dark and looked very fertile and moist. The tree was a dark brown on the trunk and a deep green on the leaves while there were small flower buds that began to appear. The pot kept shining three different colors of spirit runes showing the three elements were in high concentration. What was most amazing was that the energy in the air was slowly drawing towards the Garden.

“It broke through to Mortal rank.” Ning said.

“That means it should be more than 75 acres.” Rinrin said.

With a nod Ning sent his Spiritual Sense inside and his eyes widened, “85 acres and there were many changes. Rivers are flowing some lakes are also forming. It seems the herbs are also growing faster.” Ning said and quickly they vanished into the garden with his thought.

The first thing they noticed as they entered was how vibrant and lush the herbs were. Previously the were as good as 50 year old herbs but now they were as big as 100 year old herbs.

The difference between 50 years makes a huge difference, as the longer it lived the more medical energy it had.

What entered their eyes next was the medical mountain. They saw it was now stretching 100 something meters up. “Its High’ grade common rank now. Any small clan would drool over it but the sect would only leave it open for anyone to search for themselves. Most common rank herbs will naturally appear in it over time. If the sect knew had had refined an ungraded medical mountain that could only be called a 25 meter tall hill into a High Grade Common rank medical mountain they would die of envy.” She said coldly.

“We should probably look for a few more ungraded ones.” Ning said.

“You want to refine more?” She asked him?

“Of course, we only have 20 acres planted and a mountain needs around 15 acres of open fertile land. If it's a small one then it needs even less. The more we have the better the quality of our medical garden and no one will miss those Ungraded Medical Mountains that can barely produce any common rank herbs but we can make use of it and refine a garden on par with the alchemy hall’s large gardens.” Ning said.

“To outdo them… hehe that feels good. Let's make them green with envy. We need to have mother show us how to refine them. I know of three Ungraded ones near other Common rank ones so we can just gather those and refine them. It shouldn’t take more than two or three days to do this.” She said.

With the refining came confidence few people actually had which came from having the unique ability, among their age group, to refine trash treasures into top grade items. As long as the material is provided they would slowly grow more and more.

The two had also yet to notice that they had spoken, ‘our medical garden’ and ‘we refine treasures’ naturally. They gathered a few small herbs and exit before feeding it to the Dao Beasts to let them regenerate their energies so that they could continue to refine more of their equipment.