Battle Through the Heavens: Reap the Red Lotus Karmic Flame at the Start

Huo Zhi's tone was urgent, and then she reached out and grabbed Yan Chao's arm, about to turn around and lead the way immediately.

Although he had already delivered the person, Xiao Yan was in no hurry to leave, so he naturally went along with them.

This area isn't very large, about the size of a large mountain villa. The environment is indeed excellent, full of spiritual energy, with lush bamboo and trees, and even a clear stream meandering through it, with a dozen or so simple and exquisite bamboo houses along its banks.

Xiao Yan could sense many powerful auras among them, but what surprised him even more was that almost none of these beings, whose strength was above that of a Dou Zun, were in good condition.

Aside from their injuries, everyone around them exuded an air of dejection, as if shrouded in shadow. The annihilation of their race, the desperate flight, had chilled the hearts of every member of the Yan Clan.

Xiao Yan looked ahead again. Although Huo Zhi didn't appear to have any serious external injuries, his Heavenly Realm perception clearly detected that her Dou Qi was severely depleted—a serious deficiency left over from long-term, excessive combat that had exhausted her life force. Continuing like this would inevitably have a serious impact on her future!

Clearly, Huo Zhi herself was completely unaware of this, and she even acted too indifferently towards Xiao Yan's arrival. Xiao Yan knew that in her eyes, he should be a dead man!

Judging from her physical condition, Huo Zhi is currently expending too much energy, to the point that it has affected her thinking. At present, she is mostly just relying on her willpower to keep going.

Before Xiao Yan could even offer any advice, they had already arrived at their destination.

A solitary bamboo house in a small courtyard; as Xiao Yan approached, he felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity.

A unique aroma, a blend of elixirs and herbs, wafted into his nostrils. He knew without even asking that this courtyard belonged to a highly skilled alchemist.

"Elder Huo Zhen! Elder Yan Chao has arrived!" Huo Zhi immediately shouted.

Before he finished speaking, an invisible ripple spread through the space before him. Then, an old man in hemp robes appeared instantly, his movements so fast that Xiao Yan didn't even catch a glimpse of him.

The old man's hair and beard were all white, and his face was withered, clearly showing signs of extreme exhaustion. Only his eyes, deep-set in their sockets, gleamed with a sharp, eagle-like light.

Xiao Yan's gaze was immediately drawn to him, not only because of his sudden speed of appearance, but also because of the rich fragrance of pills that wafted towards him, almost solidified into a tangible substance, as if the old man himself was a pill that had come to life.

The old man's eyes were bloodshot, and the energy fluctuations emanating from his body were subtly disordered. This was definitely a problem caused by continuous, high-intensity, and overloaded alchemy. The Yan Clan had suffered a great calamity, with countless wounded. As a top alchemist, the heavy burden on the shoulders of Elder Huo Zhen of the Yan Clan was unimaginable.

Xiao Yan silently extended his early-stage Heaven Realm soul perception, attempting to probe the depths of the old man in hemp robes. However, what returned was a vast, surging soul power, profound and boundless, far surpassing his own, yet its interior was chaotic and disordered.

Xiao Yan couldn't sense the exact level of the other party's Dou Qi cultivation at all. Xiao Yan's soul power had reached the early stage of the Heaven Realm, and the fact that he couldn't detect it meant that the old man's soul power was at least at the middle stage of the Heaven Realm.

Xiao Yan was certain that this alchemist, whose soul power was at the mid-stage of the Heavenly Realm, was no less skilled than himself and had most likely already reached the ninth rank!

"Old man, you've finally arrived. If you hadn't come, you would have been collecting our corpses!" Huo Zhen's bloodshot eyes were fixed on Yan Chao, his tone quick and sharp.

"Where's the stuff?!"

Yan Chao was clearly aware of Huo Zhen's current condition and the urgency of the situation, and without uttering a single unnecessary word, he said, "I can save her. The best herbs in the clan's inventory are all here!"

The old man in hemp robes snatched the ring and eagerly probed a wisp of his soul power into it. After a quick scan, his taut, bowstring-like face finally relaxed for a moment, and a look of relief flashed deep in his eyes.

"With these... I will never let the clan leader perish!" Huo Zhen muttered to himself.

"Little Fire Child, what are you waiting for? Hurry! Come with me, let's hurry!"

He didn't even have time to glance at Xiao Yan and the others beside him, let alone offer any explanation. With a quick turn of his body, he hurriedly rushed towards the backyard of the bamboo building. Seeing this, the others naturally followed suit immediately.

The backyard was more spacious than the front yard, and a makeshift, open-air alchemy platform stood there. At the center of the platform, a massive medicine cauldron sat steadily!

There stood a massive medicine cauldron, its entire body a deep, restrained dark blue-green, its surface ancient and heavy. Even without anyone refining medicine, this cauldron was slowly absorbing the battle qi from the outside world.

Xiao Yan could clearly feel that, centered on the cauldron, strands of pure天地能量 (heaven and earth energy) were being drawn towards it by an invisible force, continuously converging into the cauldron. It was conceivable that when an alchemist activated this cauldron to refine pills, this pure energy, normally passively absorbed, would transform into a powerful force, endlessly supporting the alchemist's operations and significantly increasing the success rate of pill formation and the quality of the final product!

Xiao Yan sensed its characteristics and, combined with the appearance of the medicine cauldron, confirmed its identity: ranked fourth on the Heavenly Cauldron Ranking, the Guiyuan Cauldron!

The appearance of such a renowned medicine cauldron in the Yan Clan did not surprise Xiao Yan. A family descended from a Dou Di (Battle Emperor) naturally possessed profound resources.

Just as Xiao Yan was marveling at the quality of the medicine cauldron, Elder Huo Zhen had already taken out more than ten kinds of herbs from the storage ring sent by the Yan Dynasty. Huo Zhen didn't even look at them, as if he had already calculated and allocated them. With a wave of his arm, about three-quarters of the herbs floated steadily in front of him, arranged and combined, clearly the main materials needed to make the pill.

The remaining quarter, a total of eight slightly inferior but equally potent auxiliary herbs, was handed directly to Huo Zhi, his command concise and leaving no room for argument: "Refine them to their purest form using the method I taught you before! Remember, there must be no mistakes, and the heat must be steady!"

Upon hearing this, Huo Zhi's tired and dim eyes instantly turned serious. She took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the faint pain deep in her internal organs, and slowly mobilized the Red Lotus Karmic Fire within her body.

In an instant, Xiao Yan's expression changed!

Her Fire Essence was severely depleted. To forcibly extract herbs in order to control the flames, she was completely mortgaging her future and life! This wasn't helping; it was like drinking poison to quench thirst, mortgaging her very foundation and even her life!

"No! Stop!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Xiao Yan precisely snatched all the herbs from Huo Zhi's hand.