Chapter 1198: Eating the Cauldron
Not a single bit of the Flame Grass’s medicinal essence was wasted. With victory almost at hand, there was not much excitement in extracting the medicinal essence of the most ordinary Flame Grass. However, upon realizing that she would make that darn Lin Yun admit his sins, the red-dressed girl was overjoyed.
And just as she was about to finish, the red-dressed girl suddenly saw the corners of Yi Yun’s mouth suffuse a malicious smile. At the same time, he gently waved his hand.
Phew—
A black beam appeared from Yi Yun’s palm. Following that, Yi Yun clenched his fist and the black light disappeared. All of this happened so fast, too fast for the red-dressed girl to make out exactly what happened.
Even Skyfire Sacred Hands, who had been watching Yi Yun intently, failed to understand what the black light was. However, his intuition as an alchemist told him that it was a flame!
A black flame?
Skyfire Sacred Hands faltered slightly. It was likely a strange fire, but even with his broad knowledge, he could not discern its origins.
The Heretical God Fire Seed had existed for too long. It was chanced upon by the divine alchemist hundreds of millions of years ago in the Sinkhole. Even someone as knowledgeable as the divine alchemist could not recognize the flame. There were no records of its existence.
Later on, even as the divine alchemist became famous, the Heretical God Fire Seed remained extremely mysterious. No one managed to understand it. In the present day, even the old freaks of Candle Cauldron Divine Territory would not be able to recognize it, much less Skyfire Sacred Hands.
Furthermore, the Heretical God Fire Seed had been sealed within the worldly array of the Sun Burial Sandsea for immense periods of time. It had transformed itself, and as it converged its splendor, its intelligence had increased, turning into Ling Xie’er. It was very different from ordinary strange flames. There was no way to discern its grade. Therefore, Skyfire Sacred Hands was only barely able to ascertain that it was a flame.
And at the moment the Heretical God Fire Seed appeared and disappeared, the red-dressed girl suddenly felt the color drain from her face. She sensed that the flame in her cauldron was no longer under her control, as it began burning wildly.
"What’s going on?" The red-dressed girl was alarmed. After she refined the Extreme Frost-ice Flame, she had never had such an experience.
In her panic, the red-dressed girl could only use her Yuan Qi to envelop the Extreme Frost-ice Flame wisp.
However, what followed was the complete loss of control of the Extreme Frost-ice Flame. It instantly burned through the red-dressed girl’s Yuan Qi and severed the soul connection it had with her.
Puah!
The Flame Grass in the cauldron was immediately burned to ashes by the out-of-control Extreme Frost-ice Flame. The flying ashes were sealed in ice crystals before hailing down.
The extraction failed!
The red-dressed girl felt like her brain had been ruthlessly punched. Upon seeing the ice crystals scattering, she was dumbstruck.
But in the next moment, something that left her even more alarmed and baffled happened. She felt that something had entered her cauldron. Following that, the Extreme Frost-ice Flame in her cauldron began to rapidly weaken!
What?
The red-dressed girl failed to react in time when the connection between her and the Extreme Frost-ice Flame was suddenly severed. It was as if the flame had vanished!
"My flame!"
The red-dressed girl found it unbelievable. She immediately grabbed the cauldron and opened the lid without any regards to her safety. In fact, the red-dressed girl had already refined the cauldron as hers. Her thoughts were connected to the cauldron so she did not need to see to know what was happening in it. However, she could not curb her feelings. She had to open it and see it with her own eyes.
When she looked inside, her face turned extremely pale. The cauldron was empty. There were only the ice crystals of the Flame Grass at the bottom of the cauldron. There was no sign of the Extreme Frost-ice Flame at all.
"Where... is the Extreme Frost-ice Flame...?"
The red-dressed girl felt her spirit leave her. She could not believe what was happening.
Skyfire Sacred Hands had exhorted her to do her best. Therefore, she had conjured her Extreme Frost-ice Flame without holding back. She put the entirety of the flame into the cauldron, all for the refinement of a Flame Grass. As such, she did not have any of the Extreme Frost-ice Flame left in her body!
Although her Extreme Frost-ice Flame was only a child flame, the mother flame would be greatly weakened if too many child flames were distributed. Therefore, the Nine Cauldron Alchemical Sect did not bestow everyone with Extreme Frost-ice Flame.
The red-dressed girl was marked as talented beyond her peers before she was given a wisp. Now, having lost the Extreme Frost-ice Flame, it was a blow to her strength. It was also a grave sin that was punishable by the sect!
And precisely at the moment she thought this, Yi Yun walked in front of the red-dressed girl. He looked at the cauldron that was filled with ice dregs. He said with a smile of ridicule, "Hehe, you can actually fail to refine a Flame Grass. Why are your alchemical skills so lousy?"
"Hey! Why are you still in a daze? It’s time to eat the cauldron."
Yi Yun was not merciful with his words. The red-dressed girl was bitterly sarcastic with her words and extremely unruly. How could Yi Yun show her any mercy?
"You... You robbed me of my Extreme Frost-ice Flame!"
The red-dressed girl suddenly realized what had happened. The black beam that flashed in Yi Yun’s hand must have been the problem!
She was close to tears after losing the Extreme Frost-ice Flame. Under the watchful gazes of the crowd, not only had she lost her face, she had also lost her flame.
Yi Yun gave a look of surprise. "What are you talking about? Why don’t I understand a thing? What did I rob you of? Your refinement of a simple Flame Grass amounted to this, and here you are harassing me with unreasonable claims? You said that you would eat the cauldron, so why aren’t you holding up the end of the bargain?"
"I... I..."
The red-dressed girl lost her stance. She had been the one who spoke about eating the cauldron. However, how was she to eat such a large cauldron?
Now, she realized that she had been tricked by Yi Yun.
However, for Yi Yun to achieve this meant that he possessed unimaginable talents that far exceeded her abilities. Although she was arrogant and ostentatious, she was not brainless. She knew she was no match against such an old freak.
"Martial Uncle!"
The red-dressed girl pleaded for Skyfire Sacred Hands’s help.
Yi Yun shook his head. "You are not holding up to the claim of eating a cauldron. Indeed, you and your martial uncle are the same. You are people that can only make unfounded accusations and speak nonsense."
As Yi Yun said, he looked at Skyfire Sacred Hands. "The nonsense you spoke of previously was not bad. Why? Do you want to make up some more fabrications?"
Skyfire Sacred Hands’s expression was as ugly as it could be. He had exhorted the red-dressed girl to do her best through a voice transmission. It caused the red-dressed girl to use every last bit of her Extreme Frost-ice Flame, and now, there was none left!
This infuriated Skyfire Sacred Hands. Be it saving Si Shaoyu previously or his advice for the red-dressed girl, everything he had done only ended with him shooting himself in the foot.
...
"What is going on?"
"That red-dressed girl’s flame is gone. Skyfire Sacred Hands’s expression looks terrible. What happened?"
The alchemists in the square discussed with amazement. Everyone looked at Yi Yun differently.
The Extreme Frost-ice Flame was extremely powerful, a fact that they had already witnessed. They did not know what technique Yi Yun had employed to make the red-dressed girl’s extraction of the Flame Grass fail but it was sufficient to prove that Yi Yun had exceedingly powerful means.
Yi Yun had not refined a single pill from beginning to end, but people could guess that his alchemical skills were equal, if not better, than the Nine Cauldron Alchemical Sect’s!