Old Bai

Early the next morning, Yue Wen once again left the agency in Zhao Xing'er's care and boarded the bullet train bound for No. 6 City. Highways and railways connected the satellite cities of the same metropolis, all enclosed within a grand barrier formation. Traveling between them was convenient and required no journey across the wasteland zones. The seller had even provided his exact door number, and the location was within the urban district, so there was likely no need to worry about an ambush. Yue Wen's sole concern was whether the other party's Blazing Flame Powder could meet the requirements for cultivating Chaos Dragon Gang. He possessed virtually no background in alchemy, having only crammed overnight on methods to judge high-grade Blazing Flame Powder. However... After arriving at the station and transferring to a taxi to reach his destination, he looked up at the complex ahead and froze in place. It was a cluster of interconnected white buildings. In front of the foremost building hung an eye-catching red sign: Jiangcheng City Psychiatric Hospital No. 6 City Branch. This... He had gone through all the trouble of rushing over, thinking he was meeting an online friend, only to find he was meeting a fellow mental patient? Why on earth did this psychiatric hospital let patients play on their phones?! Yue Wen's vision momentarily went dark. He could hardly expect a psychiatric patient to be some top-tier master alchemist, could he? Yet a glimmer of hope lingered in his heart. After all, someone staying in a hospital wasn't necessarily a patient. What if this "Old Bai" was a doctor? Moonlighting as an alchemist outside of work was perfectly reasonable. Even a security guard would do... In truth, he knew the chances were slim. In today's cultivation world, alchemists were exceedingly prized, let alone an exceptional one capable of concocting high-grade Blazing Flame Powder. With such craftsmanship, there was no need for any side job; earning money would be child's play. Still, since he had already come this far, he hesitated for a moment before deciding not to turn back. He walked up to the security booth at the main gate to inquire, "Uncle, I'm here to find 'Old Bai.' Can I go in?" "Looking for Old Bai? Buying medicine, aren't you?" Hearing this, the elderly guard in the booth looked Yue Wen up and down, then pointed toward an adjacent building. "Turn right, Room 208." He's actually legit? Before Yue Wen could turn to leave, the old guard pulled an unopened gas mask from under the counter. "If you're seeing him, you'd best buy one of these. I'll give it to you cheap—eight hundred yuan." "Don't worry, Uncle, I have cultivation." Yue Wen waved his hand dismissively. His curiosity about this alchemist grew even stronger. The building indicated by the guard appeared to be a priority ward, filled with single rooms. Following the floor signs, Yue Wen arrived outside Ward 208. The floor space of this room was far larger than the others, taking up nearly half the entire floor. Through the glass panel of the door, Yue Wen saw thick green mist swirling within. It truly had an eerie air to it. Yue Wen knocked on the door. Rap, rap, rap. No response. He had sent a message on Cult Chat just before stepping out of the taxi, but had received no reply, uncertain whether the man was still asleep or busy with something. Taking a deep breath, Yue Wen held his breath, focused his mind, and gingerly pushed open the door to enter. Sizzle— The green mist inside was thick and viscous. The moment it brushed his skin, it produced a corrosive sizzling sound, followed by a faint, stinging prickle. Only because Yue Wen possessed high cultivation and a robust physique could he endure it; for an ordinary mortal, stepping into this room would have been no different from swimming in sulfuric acid. How could a mere gas mask solve something like this? Curiously, even with the door wide open, not a wisp of gas spilled out, as though endowed with a spiritual nature of its own. Moving through the green mist, past a broad counter cluttered with miscellaneous items, he reached the inner room. There, he spotted a white-clad figure bustling about. It was a disheveled, long-haired man of fairly tall stature, wearing a white hazard suit and a full-face mask. Before him stood what looked like a laboratory bench holding a large glass beaker, inside of which an unknown purple liquid was bubbling and churning. He kept tossing ingredients into it, muttering under his breath, "A little bit of this, and a little more of this..." Before Yue Wen's very eyes, the man emptied two jars of unknown substances inside, and the massive blob of purple liquid suddenly stood upright! Indeed, the liquid gradually took on a hideous humanoid shape, rising straight out of the beaker while emitting a faint, wailing shriek: "Aaaah—" As Yue Wen's eyes widened in disbelief, the man whipped a handgun from his pocket, aimed at the liquid creature's head, and pulled the trigger. Bang! Yue Wen's brow twitched. He was certain he hadn't misseen: an alchemist had just executed a batch of medicine by firing squad?! Though he knew nothing about alchemy, he was thoroughly shaken. With that single gunshot, the purple liquid settled down obediently. With a soft splash, it collapsed back into the beaker, turning into an ordinary cup of liquid elixir. "Heheh, done." The man let out an odd chuckle, admiring his masterpiece with satisfaction. As he turned to fetch a bottle to decant the liquid, he finally noticed Yue Wen standing nearby. "Who are you?" he asked, his tone none too friendly. "I made an appointment with you on Cult Chat to inspect the Blazing Flame Powder." Yue Wen offered an awkward smile, harboring immense wariness toward the man before him. "Oh." The man recalled the matter and nodded. He first took his time bottling the liquid elixir, then produced a gourd. Holding it aloft, the green mist lingering in the air was sucked cleanly into the gourd's mouth. In the blink of an eye, the room was clear once more. Yue Wen could finally breathe freely. Only after the air cleared did the man take off his mask, revealing a scruffy face with a receding hairline, a hooked nose, and a pair of slanted mustache wings. He looked to be in his forties or fifties. One of his eyes stared straight at Yue Wen, while the other squinted off in an entirely different direction. He looked exceedingly wise. "What I was brewing just now was Soul Dream Yellow Springs Water, infused with eighty to a hundred living wraiths. They're extremely active. To prevent them from escaping, I released that yang poison miasma to keep yin entities contained." After offering a brief explanation, he retrieved a small, sealed transparent vial containing white powder from a nearby crate and tossed it onto the lab bench. "Inspect it." ... The powder inside was only a tiny pinch, meant specifically for sampling. Yue Wen knew from earlier research that the defining trait of Blazing Flame Powder was igniting upon contact with qi, driving the flames within the sea of qi to their peak. However, he had never handled it in practice. Putting on an expert facade, he said to Old Bai, "Just light a bit for me to see." "Mmh..." Old Bai stepped back a few paces and shook his head. "I only sell this stuff; I don't touch it." Huh? Yue Wen found this odd, but given the man's myriad other eccentricities, he simply picked up the vial himself and uncorked it. There was only a minuscule pinch at the bottom, unlikely to cause any mishaps. Gathering his true qi, he stirred a wisp of fiery breath to ignite the powder. According to what he had gathered online, taking a pinch half the width of a fingernail should produce a palm-high spiritual fire if it was qualified; a one-foot-tall flame meant superior grade; and a three-foot-tall flame marked a peerless treasure of the world. The instant his fire spiritual breath touched the pinch of Blazing Flame Powder, the grains at the bottom abruptly blazed with radiant light, and an alarm bell clanged loudly in Yue Wen's mind. He hurled the vial away. In midair, the vial erupted into a serpentine fire dragon several zhang long! Scorching the air with a roar akin to a dragon's cry, it spanned the expanse of the room with a thunderous rumble! Boom— Had Yue Wen not reacted swiftly and let the dragon burst in his palm, he would have been severely disfigured. "What was that about?" He turned to glare at Old Bai. No wonder the man refused to touch it—he clearly knew how dangerous it was! "You saw it!" Old Bai's eyes shone with excitement. "The Blazing Flame Powder I brew is definitively more potent than any fire-assisting elixir on the market! Just that tiny pinch is enough to trigger an ultimate detonation in your sea of qi!" "Isn't that a bit too fired up?" Yue Wen frowned. "Are you sure this is something I can actually ingest?" "Not sure." Old Bai shook his head without hesitation. Yue Wen: "..." How refreshingly honest. "You only said you wanted high-grade Blazing Flame Powder. You never said it had to be edible," Old Bai said, scratching the back of his head as if noticing Yue Wen's displeasure. "Just look at that quality—it's off the charts, isn't it?" How novel. Did he think I was buying Blazing Flame Powder to pack into fireworks for New Year celebrations, rather than swallowing it into my sea of qi to temper gang qi?! "Can you brew something normal for me? High quality is fine and all... but it really doesn't need to be this high," Yue Wen attempted to negotiate. "No," Old Bai refused flatly. "This is my exclusive proprietary recipe. In all the world, I am the only one who can concoct this supreme Blazing Flame Powder! If you want me to churn out mediocre goods, how would I be any different from those run-of-the-mill alchemists out there?" "Master, I understand your principles," Yue Wen urged. "But the customer is king. Who could you possibly sell this to?" "Naturally to an epoch-making prodigy like you, blessed with the countenance of a rising dragon!" Old Bai clutched Yue Wen's shoulder and took a deep breath before declaring, "I can smell it—the scent of the true qi you just emitted is of supreme refinement, clearly from an unrivaled cultivation method! True qi of such caliber deserves none other than my Blazing Flame Powder for your breakthrough! "Granted, there's a tiny bit of danger... "However, the supreme Blazing Flame Powder I brew can catalyze spiritual fire to the absolute limit, ensuring the gang qi you refine is exceedingly pure! The moment you break through, the strength of your gang qi will rival experts who have immersed themselves in the Gang Realm for years. Your starting point will far surpass ordinary men, and your future achievements will be limitless! "Besides, it's not as if failure means certain death. As long as you secure the finest Taiyi Mystic Blaze Cinnabar to shield your body, even if your gang tempering fails, you'll merely suffer a slight drop in cultivation level. You can simply start over from scratch—what is there to fear?" Listening to his enticing pitch, Yue Wen did feel a tug of temptation. Yet looking at the man's mismatched gaze—one eye standing guard while the other watched the perimeter—he still asked with trepidation, "Has anyone ever died from taking the elixirs you sold before?" "Why do you think I live here?" Old Bai shrugged. "Mainly because the rent and utilities are free, and secondly, killing people isn't a crime."