Dual Cultivation

A Cauldron Room is a place made specifically for Alchemy Masters to use without having to worry about being distracted or distracting others while they concoct pills in their living quarters; it is a convenient place that allows Alchemy Masters to concoct pills whenever they want, and as a Sect that specializes in Alchemy, every house had at least one Cauldron Room.

Cauldron Rooms are also enforced with special formations so the disciples won't have to worry about destroying the entire house if they accidentally caused their cauldron to explode, which happens more often than not, especially in the Outer Courts.

Inside the dimly lit Cauldron Room within Su Yang's living quarters, Zhu Mengyi sat in the middle of a large empty room with a beautiful cauldron in front of her. With complex designs around the entire thing, the cauldron gave off the impression that it belonged to an expert and have existed since ancient times. The size of the cauldron was nearly as tall as Zhu Mengyi herself sitting down, and it was large enough to fit an adult inside without any problems.

Compared to the simple cauldrons used at the Lecture Hall, her cauldron could be considered a luxury.

Su Yang stood a few meters away from her, and he said to her once she retrieved her cauldron, "Go ahead and concoct an Earth Advancement Pill for me right now. I want to gauge the level of your Dao of Alchemy before anything."

"I understand," Zhu Mengyi retrieved the ingredients for the Earth Advancement Pill from her storage ring, taking out a grand total of 108 different herbs.

Taking a deep breath, her expression suddenly turned serious, and her hands moved swiftly as she began inspecting the herbs at a pace that was many times faster than Qing Shan's match with Su Yang.

Mere minutes later, Zhu Mengyi started the grinding process, and within half an hour, every single one of the 108 herbs was grounded perfectly.

Her movements were smooth and accurate, and she did not once stop moving during the entire process, completing the preparations at a rate that would leave any Alchemy Master in this world shocked speechless.

Even Su Yang could not help but feel impressed by her speed. While her speed, in reality, is nothing special in his eyes, he did not compare her with the Alchemy Masters of his world, and as someone of this inferior world, her feats were indeed quite astonishing.

"So her title as the Prime Disciple is not just because her mother is the Matriarch, huh."

After she was done with the preparations, Zhu Mengyi proceeded to heat the cauldron with flames created from her Profound Qi and technique.

"Oh?" Su Yang raised an eyebrow after seeing the color of her flames.

They were not the usual orange, yellow, or red. Instead, it was a bright blue color, resembling a clear sky or a clean sea.

"Azure Flames? She actually managed to cultivate Azure Flames? Interesting…" he thought to himself.

Generally, Cultivators are not born with the ability to create Alchemy Flames that are used specifically for Alchemy and must rely on unique techniques to create Alchemy Flames.

As for those that are born with the ability to create Alchemy Flames without special techniques, they have a chance to be born with unique Alchemy Flames such as the Azure Flame currently used by Zhu Mengyi.

It should also be noted that Alchemy Flame cannot be compared to normal fire techniques used by Cultivators, as such flames are too chaotic in nature and do not have the ability to burn away the impurities within pills without burning the pill itself.

However, not all Alchemy Masters view these unique flames as a good thing, as they are generally extremely hard to control, much less master. As a matter of fact, some Alchemy Master even view such flames as a curse and would abandon their career as an Alchemy Master as soon as they learn that they have such flames.

As for Zhu Mengyi, she did not give up hope, and with the help of one of if not the best Alchemy Masters in the world, Matriarch Zhu, completely mastered the Azure Flames unique to her.

She controlled the flame with ease the temperature of the cauldron flawlessly.

Within minutes, the cauldron was ready to be used for pill concoction.

Once the cauldron was at the perfect temperature, Zhu Mengyi tossed two ingredients into the cauldron at a time, something that even the most confident experts do not dare to attempt for medium grade pills, much less the Earth Advancement Pill, one of the very few Heaven-grade pills available in this world.

However, this was the end of her fast pace and the beginning of a long and boring trail for Su Yang.

For the next five hours, Su Yang sat there staring at Zhu Mengyi and the pill that was barely progressing in the cauldron. He had gotten so bored that he stopped paying attention and went to sleep.

Three hours later, the room suddenly shook, and a loud explosion occurred within the Cauldron Room.

Boom!

Su Yang instantly snapped his eyes open and waved his sleeves, creating a barrier around himself to protect his body against the flying shards that were resulted from the cauldron exploding.

*Cough* *Cough*

"Are you okay?!" Zhu Mengyi called out to him while coughing from the black smoke that filled the room, her voice filled with worry.

A few seconds after the explosion, the room activated one of its few convenient mechanisms and began clearing the smoke from the room.

Once the smoke was gone, Zhu Mengyi was finally able to see Su Yang's figure clearly. She was relieved to see him unharmed and released a deep sigh. However, her complexion paled upon seeing the frown on Su Yang's handsome face.

She could see in his eyes that all of the good impression she had accumulated on him had disappeared along with her precious cauldron!

"I-I'm sorry… I—"

"You can leave for today," Su Yang suddenly said, causing Zhu Mengyi's heart to drop.

However, his next words overturned her sadness and surprised her. "Come back tomorrow with another cauldron and more ingredients."

"Y-Yes!" she quickly replied before leaving to prepare for tomorrow.