Li Nanzhu’s back broke into a cold sweat. She had clearly memorized everything; it was impossible for there to be an omission.
No, stay calm.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes under Xiao Yan’s interested gaze, beginning to reorganize her memories.
After a long moment, she opened her eyes. She had confirmed that her memory was not the problem, and there was no way he would give her an unsolvable puzzle.
The only possibility was that there was something wrong with the object itself!
Li Nanzhu began to observe it again. She was now eighty percent certain that this thing was not a leaf at all. Then what could it be... think. She definitely found it familiar, as if she had seen it in the last two days...
"Well?" The tip of Xiao Yan’s fan lightly tapped the Glazed Cup. "Can't recognize it?"
Hearing this, Li Nanzhu looked up slightly and caught a glimpse of a blue-purple light flashing at his cuff. The image of Xiao Yan fishing yesterday flashed through her mind.
"It's a fish scale!"
Before the words had even fully left her mouth, the scale suddenly transformed into a live fish and leapt out of the cup.
Suisui excitedly chased the fish all around the courtyard, its skeletal frame clattering loudly.
"Hahaha!" Xiao Yan slapped the table and laughed. "Someone finally saw through it! When I put this thing out back then, those fools tore through every scroll they had and couldn't find the answer!"
Suisui also clapped its hands from the side, its soul fire spinning with joy.
Li Nanzhu suddenly felt a bit of sympathy for those disciples. To run into a senior who played so far outside the rules... they were quite unlucky.
However, she certainly couldn't say that out loud. Just as she finished her internal grumbling, Xiao Yan’s voice drifted over.
"Congratulations on passing the assessment!" Xiao Yan satisfiedly put away the Glazed Cup and tapped the tip of his fan against Li Nanzhu’s forehead. "Next, it is time to teach you the most critical part of the Dao of alchemy: fire control."
"Fire control?" Li Nanzhu was pleasantly surprised. This meant she would officially begin learning alchemy knowledge!
"Lesson one of fire control." Xiao Yan’s fan snapped open, and a fire dragon suddenly soared from the fan’s surface, circling above Li Nanzhu’s head. "Starting tomorrow, what you must learn is—"
Suisui was so frightened that it hid behind her, its bones trembling.
"How to make the fire listen to you," Xiao Yan smiled mischievously, "instead of burning your master’s clothes!"
Li Nanzhu: "..."
She knew Xiao Yan was still nursing a grudge over her burning his clothes on the first day!
She sighed helplessly, but a wisp of red-gold flame had already unconsciously condensed at her fingertip. The flame danced in her palm, reflecting a hint of eagerness in her eyes.
"Master, this new set of clothes of yours..." She intentionally dragged out her words as the flame suddenly transformed into a spirit snake and lunged at Xiao Yan.
"Vile disciple!" Xiao Yan’s fan snapped open, and a screen of green fire instantly swallowed the red-gold spirit snake.
Suisui jumped around excitedly, gesturing with its bone claws as if it were directing Li Nanzhu on how to attack.
"Master, you're much faster at extinguishing fires than you are at teaching disciples." Li Nanzhu shook her head with feigned regret while another wisp of flame flickered at her fingertip.
Xiao Yan snapped his fan shut and sighed theatrically. "Sigh, disciples these days... they want to run before they can even walk..."
"Is that not because Master teaches so well?" Li Nanzhu flipped her wrist and circulated her technique, sending a small fire lotus flying toward Xiao Yan.
Mid-flight, the tip of Xiao Yan’s fan trembled. He twisted his wrist, accurately catching the fire lotus with the fan’s surface. The red-gold flame pulsed in his palm, causing his pupils to contract slightly.
"Karmic power?" Xiao Yan’s fingertip lightly touched the surface of the fire lotus. He sent a strand of divine sense inside and asked curiously, "Aren't you from the Five Elements Dao Sect? Why do you know the techniques of those bald donkeys?"
Li Nanzhu couldn't help but complain, "Master, why is your name for those bald... ahem, for those Buddhist cultivators exactly the same as my master's?"
Of course, after her complaint, she didn't forget to answer Xiao Yan’s confusion. "This technique is called the Kalpa Fire Dance Sutra. My master gave it to me, and my eldest senior brother also said it was the most suitable for my cultivation. Is there something wrong with it?"
Xiao Yan’s mouth twitched. "That old bastard Feng Yi... he probably robbed it from a Buddhist cultivator, right?"
Li Nanzhu rolled her eyes inwardly. And you still say you don't know my master. You guessed that so easily; even Suisui wouldn't believe you aren't old acquaintances.
Nearby, Xiao Yan continued to observe the fire lotus closely before suddenly letting out an "Eh?"
"Wait, this purity of karmic fire..."
Suisui also leaned in curiously. The moment its bone claw touched the edge of the fire lotus, it squeaked from the heat and hurriedly hid behind Li Nanzhu.
"The technique was likely modified by my master." Li Nanzhu flipped her wrist, and the fire lotus turned into a thin stream that merged into her palm. "That might be why the purity of the karmic fire feels off?"
Xiao Yan rubbed the ribs of his fan thoughtfully. "No wonder I can't feel any Buddhist aura, only the pure power of karmic fire..." He suddenly tapped his palm with the fan. "That old... your master certainly knows how to slack off. He just tore someone else's technique apart and reassembled it!"
Li Nanzhu couldn't help but laugh. "Master wrote at the end of the manual: 'The old bald donkey's broken scripture—after some changes, it’s still usable.'"
"Hahahaha!" Xiao Yan finally couldn't help but burst into laughter. "Your master is right. After the changes, it is much easier to use than the original. And—" He dragged out his tone, watching Li Nanzhu’s reaction.
Li Nanzhu showed a curious expression as he expected.
"And what?"
"And it's best suited for slaying demons!" Xiao Yan nodded with satisfaction. "He certainly knows how to pick them." He turned toward the medicine cabinet, throwing a sentence back over his shoulder as his robes fluttered. "Vacation is canceled. Class starts now!"
Suisui scrambled to catch the list of medicinal ingredients he threw over, its bone claws nearly falling apart from the weight of the jade slip.
"Karmic fire is extremely yang and firm," Xiao Yan turned and said seriously. "It is most suitable for..."
"Refining tools?" Li Nanzhu chimed in.
"Wrong!" Xiao Yan suddenly pulled out a mantou. "It is most suitable for roasting spiritual food!"
Suisui’s soul fire instantly surged three inches higher, and its bone claws were already reaching for the storage bag hanging around its neck—it was a gift from Xiao Yan, filled with all the spiritual food Suisui liked.
Li Nanzhu: "..."
"Just a joke." Xiao Yan laughed and put the mantou away. "Actually, it is best suited for alchemy, but..." His tone shifted again.
"Correspondingly, the difficulty of controlling karmic fire is several times harder than other flames."
"I am not afraid of difficulty," Li Nanzhu said calmly. To her, there were only things she could or could not do; difficulty was never the question.
Xiao Yan suddenly made a spirit herb appear. "Watch closely. This is a demonstration of what not to do."
As he spoke, the spirit herb was charred black by the flame.
"Karmic fire is like this spirit herb." His fingertip moved slightly, and a burst of life force was injected into the herb. In an instant, the char disappeared, and the spirit herb returned to life. "You must let it burn fiercely, but you cannot let it actually burn away. Your wood spiritual root is the best neutralizing agent."
Saying this, Xiao Yan produced an azure jade alchemy furnace. The natural wood grain on the furnace body was clearly visible. "Come, first try to inject the karmic fire into the furnace."
Li Nanzhu took a deep breath. With a tap of her finger, the red-gold flame flowed into the furnace like a stream. The flame danced at the bottom of the furnace, carrying a hint of restlessness.
"Now, inject wood-attribute spiritual energy." Xiao Yan tapped the furnace wall with his fan.
Li Nanzhu nodded and formed a seal with her left hand. A wisp of emerald spiritual energy flowed along her fingertip into the furnace. But the moment the spiritual energy was about to touch the flame, her mind moved, and she also injected the life force stored within her wood spiritual root.
When the red-gold flame in the furnace suddenly became exceptionally docile, Xiao Yan’s fan clattered to the floor.
"Wait! How is this karmic fire...!"
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