"Ha ha ha, kid, I’m lending you the Flame Valley Mysterious Spirit Tripod!"
Seeing the Elixir Demon’s deflated expression, Sword Obsession also put down the Big Iron Hammer and burst out laughing, "Kid, I look favorably upon you. This stinking alchemist, he has no skills but always boasts to me that he’s the best alchemist under the heavens, bah!"
"Stinking blacksmith! What did you just say? How dare you lend out my tripod!" The Elixir Demon was nearly driven mad with anger.
"Heh heh, if you don’t lend it, it means you’re scared. Ah, still an Elixir Demon, huh? I’m ashamed to be considered your equal!" Sword Obsession looked at the Elixir Demon with disdain. Although the two old men lived together, they were used to bickering daily, each digging at the other hundreds of times a day, naturally most delighted to see the other embarrassed.
"Hmph, me, scared?" the Elixir Demon huffed, "Stinky kid, go ahead and use the Flame Valley Mysterious Spirit Tripod as you like, I want to see just how capable you really are!"
"Stinky kid, follow me!"
The Elixir Demon gave Ling Feng a sideways glance and then, leaning on his cane, began walking toward the back of the valley. While walking, he muttered to himself, wondering where this kid had sprung from, so young yet so full of big talk.
After all, he himself was a Seventh Rank Peak Alchemist, and as far as he knew, the three most formidable alchemists within the Alchemy Master Guild were, one, President Hong Haotian who was significantly inferior to him.
Another was the so-called Alchemy Genius Yun Danqing, whose alchemy level was indeed unique, but he had more than a hundred years of experience over Yun Danqing, which made him superior in level.
Lastly, there was Su Dongling, known as the Empire’s First Poison Master, who specialized in refining Poison Elixirs, rendering little comparability between the two.
In the Sky White Empire, only these three could make the Elixir Demon take alchemy seriously, yet this kid dared to claim he had an eighty percent chance of successfully refining the Heavenly Heart Nine Transformation Pill.
Bluffing! Absolutely bluffing!
After all, having eighty percent certainty didn’t guarantee success; if the refinement failed, one could simply blame bad luck!
"Hmph, stinky kid, I really want to see what tricks you’re playing!"
Although the Elixir Demon couldn’t claim to be the best alchemist in the world, he was quite confident in his own Alchemy skills. He couldn’t believe that, having lived for so long, he would be outdone by a young whippersnapper.
Before long, the group arrived inside a natural volcano behind the Flame Valley.
Ling Feng was slightly astonished, these two guys were really crazy, to actually treat an "active volcano" as their own backyard!
Only Human Emperor-level powerhouses could afford to be so boldly nonchalant.
"Kid, scared now, aren’t you?"
The Elixir Demon, leaning on his cane with his arms folded, looking at the astonished expression on Ling Feng’s face, said with pride: "When I, the Elixir Demon, refine elixirs, I use Volcanic Flame! It’s a natural unparalleled Elixir Fire Array formed by extracting the Cangming Earth Core Flame from deep within the magma."
Ling Feng touched his nose; this Array that harnessed the power of natural creation was indeed quite an impressive idea!
Before long, everyone ascended to the top of the volcano, where visible magma bubbled and steamed, emitting tremendous heat all around.
At the center of the summit, the Elixir Demon and support tirelessly refined an Array, drawing the Volcanic Flame and concentrating it beneath the Flame Valley Mysterious Spirit Tripod. Just by activating with True Qi, one could maximize the thermal power of the Cangming Earth Core Flame.
The closer one got to the Flame Valley Mysterious Spirit Tripod, the hotter the surrounding temperature became. Carefully walking a circle around this human-height large tripod, Ling Feng couldn’t help but nod inwardly; the quality of this Alchemy Furnace was definitely even higher than that of the Six-legged Taotie Tripod in the Alchemy Master Guild.
Not only that, but with this Volcanic Flame Array, using the Flame Valley Mysterious Spirit Tripod for alchemy would absolutely increase the success rate significantly!
However, every alchemy session required the use of the active volcano’s power which needed a long dormant period for the heat to recover, no wonder the Elixir Demon was reluctant to use the Flame Valley Mysterious Spirit Tripod to refine Low-level Elixirs.
Indeed, it would indeed be a waste to use the Flame Valley Mysterious Spirit Tripod to refine ordinary elixirs.
"How about that, impressive, huh!"
The Elixir Demon stood near Ling Feng, nonchalantly saying, "The Array I designed, along with that smelly blacksmith who got a peerless Tripod Embryo, culminated in the creation of this Flame Valley Mysterious Spirit Tripod. This Pill Furnace can truly be called an Innate Sacred Artifact!"
"I’ve known you, the smelly alchemist, for hundreds of years, and that’s still the most sensible thing you’ve said!"
Sword Obsession chuckled, "But your Array is just gilding the lily; it still relies on the Treasure Tripod I forged!"
These two old treasures, at the slightest disagreement, resumed their quarrel.
However, no matter how they argued, neither had any intention of coming to blows. After so many years together, they actually had a pretty good relationship—it was just verbal opposition.
Ling Feng helplessly shook his head, only able to wait quietly for the two old guys to finish their quarrel.
However, the tempers of these two came and went quickly. The Elixir Demon snorted lightly, looked at Ling Feng, and said with a curled lip, "Bring me the Elixir Recipe. My storeroom should have most of the materials. You only need to provide the main ingredients yourselves!"
The corner of Wu Hen’s mouth twitched noticeably as he hurriedly presented the Elixir Recipe, submitting it obediently.
The Elixir Demon scanned the recipe and nodded, saying, "So it lacks these few ingredients. Why didn’t I think of that? I don’t know which old fart completed it. He can’t be much younger than me."
Ling Feng felt a bit embarrassed as he touched his nose. Though it wasn’t him who had completed the recipe, his grandfather Ling Hanyang, if still alive, would only be in his sixties, several rounds younger than this centuries-old monster!
After a while, the Elixir Demon finished reviewing the recipe and nodded, "Apart from the Ten Thousand Evil Poison Fruit, I have all the other materials here."
With that, the Elixir Demon tossed the recipe back into Wu Hen’s hands, curled his lip, and said nonchalantly, "Adding up the various Elemental Crystals should only amount to a few hundred thousand at most. Forget it, I hate loose change. Round it up, just give this old man one million crystals!"
"Yes!" Wu Hen clenched his teeth tightly, his heart almost bleeding.
Ling Feng pursed his lips, almost hearing the sound of teeth being crushed.
No wonder Wu Hen’s face went pale the moment he heard the Elixir Demon would supply the materials; this guy was basically committing robbery!
The total cost of these ingredients barely amounted to one hundred thousand crystals, yet the Elixir Demon demanded one million crystals right off the bat, essentially slaughtering Wu Hen like a fat sheep.
One million crystals, that was equivalent to billions of upper-grade elemental stones!
Even if Wu Hen wasn’t particularly short on money, this one million crystals would likely pain him for a good while.
Ling Feng inwardly smirked to himself; when it came to shamelessness, the Elixir Demon could probably rival Despicable Donkey!