225 Alchemis

"My head hurts," was the first thing Xue Wei groaned out when he opened his eyes. The light was so blinding that he quickly closed them again and covered them with his hand. The light was so bright, even through his closed eyelids, that he felt like tearing up.

"That's odd," he muttered. "Since when were my eyes this sensitive?" He had no idea that his eyes had mutated, nor did he know of any other changes that might have happened to his body, but he was able to sense things much better than before. The heaven-and-earth essence itself consisted of small particles in the air, particles that he could sense and even see when he opened his eyes.

"Wei, are you okay?" Hei Gou asked worriedly. Xue Wei sat up and nodded his head. "Never been better," he answered with a cheeky grin on his face.

"I seem to have reached the seventh layer of the Ordinary Knight rank," he muttered to himself, but it was not all that surprising considering that he had been given the heart blood essence of an Azure Dragon.

"That is quite a jump in strength," Bai Tianyi said praisingly from the side. Xue Wei nodded his head. "You better keep up, doggy, or you'll fall behind," Bai Tianyi continued, taking a jab at Hei Gou.

"It will be fine. I can mutate his blood again if need be," Xue Wei said with certainty. There was a certainty in his voice that had not been there before, and both Hei Gou and Bai Tianyi looked at him, eager to hear what he had to say.

"My blood is many times richer than before. Who gave me some blood?" Xue Wei suddenly asked. Hei Gou and Bai Tianyi both widened their eyes. How did Xue Wei know that he had been specifically fed blood? He had been unconscious up till now!

"It was Lan the Prophet," Bai Tianyi answered honestly. He was very curious, but he knew that Xue Wei would tell them if he deemed it necessary.

"I see, so it was that troublesome man." Xue Wei nodded his head and sighed deeply.

"Well, first let me tell you about my situation," he said after considering his words for a moment, and then leaned against the wall, sitting in a comfortable position.

"I am an Azure Dragon, but still not," he said with a serious expression on his face. "In this world, it is supposed to be impossible to be a mixture of a human and a beast. In fact, all mixed breeds are impossible, but that is exactly what I am."

"When I was unconscious, I inherited the memories of the Azure Dragons, their innate abilities and their heritage."

"But at the same time, I also knew that I was lacking something. I did not have a high enough purity of Azure Dragon blood in my body to fully unlock this heritage, which is why I couldn't wake up. That extra heart blood essence was just enough to unlock it, but I am still not a full Azure Dragon."

"I am something different. Thing is, Sovereign Beasts are not as fortunate as we might think; they are bound by several rules and regulations that are cast on their souls, but I am not bound by these as I am only half an Azure Dragon."

"Also another thing is that my body can use both normal abilities that I can train and the innate abilities of Azure Dragons. I have the best from both sides, and it has mutated into me. As for the downsides, I do not know about them yet."

"I have two original shapes, both the Azure Dragon body and this, my human body, are my original shapes—and it is impossible for a Diviner to capture me."

"Although I am not a pureblood Azure Dragon, I still have the blood in my veins, and it has activated, so being fed my blood now is no different from being fed the blood of a true Azure Dragon."

"There is a lot of boring history in my memory now, alongside rules, regulations and other boring things, but most of all, I have all my innate abilities now."

"I understand a few things about myself better now," Xue Wei continued, "and we have to be very careful with the Primordial Beast race's Council of Elders. They are likely to want to destroy me and use me as a blood sacrifice so that they can mutate a large number of elite beasts and take over the continent once more."

"This is also why they have helped me so far. The stronger I am, the greater the results of the ritual will be."

"So what do you plan on doing now?" Bai Tianyi asked worriedly. It sounded as if they were in a tight spot.

"Well, for now, we will continue to the center of the continent. We will meet up with Lan. I have some things I need to clarify, and I also need to pay him back for what he did for me."

"After that, I suggest we leave the continent for some time. We can travel to the other continents and gain strength. No need to return here before we are strong enough to take on the Council of Elders."

"You plan on taking on the Council of Elders?" Hei Gou was shocked, but Xue Wei nodded his head. "We will be fine. We won't return before we are strong enough."

"Before leaving this continent, after talking with Lan, I have to take a bit of a revenge on the Heping Kingdom," Xue Wei said with a smirk. "They killed my brother, so I am going to wash their streets with blood. Last time, I had to flee for my life, but it will not be the same when I go now."

"Oh, let us not forget about the Flowing Blood Prairie," Hei Gou added. "We still have a bit of a grudge with that old tribe in there. They tried to force you into marriage!"

Xue Wei chuckled. "That's fine," he said casually. "We managed to escape after all so it does not matter too much."

"Well, at least we have a plan for the future now," Bai Tianyi said with a smirk. "Let us move towards a new world! But first, let us go to the center of the continent and get our hands on that phony prophet, Lan. He should have quite some answers for you."

Xue Wei nodded his head and smiled. His body felt much lighter than before. He rose from the bed and started checking it. His Qi level was at the seventh layer of the Ordinary Knight rank while his physical strength had already reached the first layer of the Earth Knight rank.

When Xue Wei clenched his fist, a popping sound could be heard as the air in his palm exploded from how fast he had closed it. He could feel his body bursting with energy. There was also a new energy that had not been there before; the Azure Dragon Spirit in his dantian had grown in size, and the many strands of Dragon Qi in his meridians had also grown in size and quantity, and the color of their scales had deepened. In fact, they had changed drastically from how they used to be.

"My biggest issue right now is my Spiritual Energy," Xue Wei muttered to himself as he felt the Golden Dragon Spirit within his mind. This Golden Dragon Spirit was only at the fifth layer of the Ordinary Knight rank, so he would be at a great disadvantage if he encountered someone at his own level with proper spiritual energy training.

Bai Tianyi seemed to understand his problem. "I have a way to solve this problem," he said hesitatingly, "but the price I have to pay is quite substantial."

"What is it?" Xue Wei also hesitated, and he had a frown on his face.

"I can transfer my energy to others," he explained. "We have a soul contract, so for me to hand Spiritual Energy over to you is no big deal, but for each layer of Spiritual Energy I give you, I will go one and a half layer down in strength."

"I am currently a ninth layer Ordinary Knight, so for me to get you to the seventh layer of the Ordinary Knight rank with your spiritual energy will end with me falling to the sixth layer."

"Let us not do that then," Xue Wei was not willing to sacrifice his friend's cultivation base for himself.

"We have a few other options," Bai Tianyi continued hesitatingly. "Well, first of all you can just stay here and slowly cultivate. You can also make inscriptions and raise your cultivation base that way, or we can go look for a two colored rainbow pill and hope your luck is good."

"A third option is that you learn alchemy."

"Me learning alchemy? I never planned on doing that," Xue Wei said, dumbfounded. "Why should I learn alchemy?"

"Alchemy is not exactly like inscription-writing," Bai Tianyi explained. "Inscriptions are fully dependent on the runes and the Spiritual Energy to be created, whereas alchemy requires materials."

"Still, to refine and concoct pills and pastes you need an immense control over your spiritual energy."

"You also require control over your spiritual energy when you make inscriptions, but that is nothing compared to pill-making. I will suggest that you go this route!"

Xue Wei looked at him with narrowed eyes and sighed. "Tell me the real reason you want me to become an alchemist," he said after a bit of thought. Although the reasons that Bai Tianyi had listed made sense, it was clear that he had held some information back.

"We are leaving the continent, which means we might not be able to get our hands on more rainbow pills," Bai Tianyi finally came clean with a pitiful expression on his young face.

"Without Rainbow Pills, I am very useless. My cultivation base will slowly drop. I will become withered, rust, and slowly fall apart; I will become a sword no one will ever use again," Bai Tianyi spoke with such grief and dejection, but Xue Wei had long since seen through his act.

Although the growth of his cultivation base would lessen over time, it would never go the other way and make his cultivation regress.

"Okay then," Xue Wei said after spending a moment to mull it over. Although he had never planned on becoming an alchemist, he had to admit that an unlimited supply of Rainbow Pills was tempting, which was why he decided that it was not that bad an idea.

"But how does one start to become an alchemist?" Xue Wei had no idea where to start or where to stop. He was as clueless as a little child.

"Don't worry!" Bai Tianyi beamed when he spoke. He waved his hand, and suddenly thousands of herbs appeared in the room. All of them had various quality; some were Earth Warrior-ranked, others were meant for the Sky Warrior stage, and yet some were Heavenly Warrior-ranked.

All these herbs were of the best quality in their respective categories, but they were still nonetheless low-ranking herbs.

"You bought these?" Xue Wei asked, to which Bai Tianyi nodded. "I have waited to make you into an alchemist for some time now," he admitted.

Looking around, Xue Wei spotted a large cauldron underneath the big mountain of herbs, and next to the cauldron were jade slips, all of which contained formulas for various pills.

"Don't worry too much, just have fun and start concocting!" Bai Tianyi said as he took Hei Gou's arm and dragged him out of the room. When they finally exited, Xue Wei could not help but sigh again. He felt that he had sighed a whole lot after waking up, but he had no other option. Seeing how adamant Bai Tianyi had been, he understood that he had no other option than to simply do it. Since it mattered so much to Bai Tianyi, he would do his very best. Still, he was not so stupid as to believe Bai Tianyi's reasons.