Beyond the improvement in his strength, what delighted Xiao Yan the most was the enhancement of his Purplecloud Wings. Originally crafted from a fifth-rank Blackflame Purplecloud Eagle, the wings were considered a mid- to high-tier Profound Class Dou Technique. While decent, their flight speed couldn't compare to a genuine Dou Qi Flight possessed by Dou Wang-level experts.
Now, however, after the reinforcement from the beast blood essence, the speed of the Purplecloud Wings was definitely on par with that of a true Dou Wang expert.
Of course, while the wings' speed had significantly increased, so too had their Dou Qi consumption—by several times. That said, Xiao Yan wasn't too concerned about the supply of Dou Qi. As an alchemist, he could refine Recovery Pills. More importantly, he had sensed that his Flame Mantra had once again advanced a minor level.
Just as he'd speculated, that black flame was indeed evolving. After absorbing the Blackflame Purplecloud Eagle's blood essence, its power had increased tremendously. As a result, Flame Mantra had advanced from Low Profound to Mid Profound Tier, enough to support the energy expenditure of the upgraded Purplecloud Wings.
That said, this was only viable for short to mid-range travel. Long-distance flight using Purplecloud Wings still wasn't realistic—unless Flame Mantra advanced to Earth Class, or his strength reached the Dou Wang level. But at that point, he'd naturally use the more efficient Dou Qi Flight instead.
After the black flame completed its evolution, a stream of strange information surfaced in Xiao Yan's mind. He finally learned the origin of the black flame—it came from a type of magical beast known as the Nine Nether Sparrow. In truth, calling it a magical beast was somewhat inaccurate, as it was not native to this world. It had drifted into the Dou Qi Continent from another realm.
According to the information, the Nine Nether Sparrow was only the initial form of its species. If it continued to evolve, it could eventually become a legendary Undying Phoenix, a divine beast of the ancient world. The Nine Nether Flame it produced would evolve along with its power.
Of course, Xiao Yan wasn't a Nine Nether Sparrow, so he couldn't become some ancient phoenix. However, judging from how the Nine Nether Flame devoured the eagle's blood essence, it seemed that the flame could continue evolving by absorbing the essence of avian-type magical beasts.
"A seventh-rank magical beast's blood essence was only enough to trigger a basic evolution. If I wanted to evolve this flame into the so-called Undying Flame, I'd probably need the essence of a Dou Di-level beast." Xiao Yan chuckled at himself after reading the information. As much as he craved the Undying Flame, it was clearly far beyond his current abilities.
In fact, the reason the flame had managed to evolve this time was likely due to the Blackflame Purplecloud Eagle possessing a trace of ancient phoenix blood. Without that trace, even a seventh-rank beast wouldn't have triggered the transformation.
That wasn't the only benefit he'd reaped. His soul strength had also greatly improved—far more so than his Dou Qi. After all, he had directly refined the soul of a seventh-rank magical beast. Based on his estimation, his current soul strength was already at the peak among sixth-tier alchemists.
In terms of soul cultivation, he was now at the peak of the Mid Mortal Stage—only one step away from advancing to the Late Mortal Stage.
If his cultivation base were strong enough to support higher-level alchemy, he would already qualify as a true sixth-tier alchemist.
Thinking about all the benefits he'd obtained, Xiao Yan almost felt like erecting a shrine to honor the eagle. It had given him so much that even he felt a little guilty. But after imagining the eagle's spirit cursing him from the afterlife, he wisely let go of that absurd idea.
When Yao Lao learned of the changes in Xiao Yan, he too was amazed. Though he was a Dou Zun expert, he had never heard of such a miraculous encounter. Of course, Xiao Yan didn't disclose the origin of the Nine Nether Flame. He only gave a simple explanation about the black flame's evolution and its power increase.
Despite his breakthrough to Da Dou Shi, Xiao Yan didn't enjoy much leisure time. On the contrary, he became even busier. Since his advancement relied somewhat on external forces, Yao Lao remained cautious and assigned him a daily task: to hunt ten third-rank magical beasts each day.
The goal was twofold—one, to temper Xiao Yan's Dou Qi; and two, to gather the last ingredient for refining the Blood Lotus Pill.
Xiao Yan also gave himself another goal: to collect as much blood from fire-attribute magical beasts as possible.
However, this ruthless hunting regimen was halted after just a month. The reason was simple: due to Xiao Yan's relentless slaughter, all magical beasts above the third rank had begun forming alliances. There were even multiple sightings of fourth-rank beasts. Although Xiao Yan had ways of dealing with them, Yao Lao knew that if this continued, stronger beasts would be drawn in. When that happened, it could get very dangerous.
Interestingly, during one of these battles, Xiao Yan discovered a faint phoenix cry hidden within his voice. He speculated that this was due to inheriting the trace of ancient phoenix blood from the eagle's essence. If he could find a soundwave-based Dou Technique to complement this ability, it would become another hidden trump card.
Fortunately, in the final chest from that cave, among the many Profound Class techniques, he happened to find a suitable soundwave Dou Technique.
Beyond that, Xiao Yan had devoted himself to another project. During his hunts, he had collected several beast flames. In his spare time, he began cultivating a technique called Flame Manipulation Art, originating from the Flame Demon Valley. Though the process was complex, it allowed the user to create a pseudo-Heavenly Flame called Transforming Flame.
This became another hidden trump card for Xiao Yan—not only as preparation for his upcoming journey to the Cloud Empire, but also for contingency against other unforeseen dangers.
He even kept this training hidden from Yao Lao. Part of it was because he didn't want to explain where the technique came from, but the deeper reason was that Transforming Flame was also a safeguard against Yao Lao himself.
Even now, Xiao Yan couldn't bring himself to fully trust Yao Lao—not because Yao Lao had done anything wrong, but because his experiences from his previous life had taught him not to trust anyone completely.
He needed to ensure that if Yao Lao ever betrayed him, like that person in his previous life, he would still have a way to protect himself.
If he could successfully create the Transforming Flame, he would finally be able to unleash the ultimate signature move he had created in his previous life—
The Flame Lotus of Demonic Wrath.
(End of Chapter)
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