Immortality and cultivation begin with alchemy and accounting.

Vast sea, Autumn Maple Island.

The island is only a few dozen miles in circumference, with little spiritual energy, and looks unremarkable.

What no one knows is that beneath this island lies a fiery vein.

In the center of the island, there is a dark cave entrance covered by vines and wild grass, hidden in the jungle like a wild beast's den. It is easy to miss if you don't explore carefully.

Upon entering the cave and walking a short distance, you will find that the situation changes dramatically. The surrounding stone walls clearly show signs of artificial carving, forming a passageway.

Descending along the passageway, after an unknown amount of time, you will enter a scorching hot space.

In the space more than ten feet high, below was bubbling, scorching lava.

Along the lava river, there are irregular stone banks that allow two or three people to walk through.

In a spacious area of ​​the stone bank, there was a simple little house built with blue stones.

Bai Xuanjing woke up with a start, opened her eyes, and was surprised to find that her environment had changed from a comfortable bedroom to the underground magma world in front of her.

Before he could think deeply, he felt a strange yet familiar memory flood his mind.

"The Vast Ocean, the Flowing Cloud Sect, the Bai Family of the Canghuang Islands, the exiled alchemists, Autumn Maple Island..."

After receiving the memories of his predecessor, Bai Xuanjing showed a thoughtful expression.

crossed!

This place is a cultivation world in the sea, and he is a disciple of the Bai clan.

Speaking of which, the Bai family's ancestral land is located in the Canghuang Islands, while Bai Xuanjing's current location on Qiufeng Island is quite a distance from the Canghuang Islands, making him a family cultivator who has been sent out to work.

The reason is nothing more than this.

Bai Xuanjing is a first-tier, low-grade alchemist.

Since one is an alchemist, one needs the earth's fire veins as the source of fire for alchemy.

The Bai family has dominated the vast sea for hundreds of years, occupying many islands with earth fire veins.

However, these islands are scattered throughout the vast sea, appearing rather sparse.

Autumn Maple Island is one of them.

Therefore, a considerable number of the family's alchemists were relocated to these islands with earth fire veins.

This is the current situation for Baek Hyun-kyung.

The blue stone house where he is now is his alchemy room.

"How did your predecessor die?"

After processing the memories, Bai Xuanjing immediately began to ponder a question.

He looked at his arm, on which was a clearly visible scar.

It looks like he was burned by something like a cigarette butt.

As Bai Xuanjing began to ponder this question, memories of her predecessor's dying moments began to surface.

Although the underground fire vein on Autumn Maple Island is weak and only rated as Grade D by the Bai family, the accompanying magma area is truly vast.

Today, as Bai Xuanjing walked along the stone bank of the lava river, it felt as if he had been bitten by some tiny insect.

The burn scars on my arm were the work of that little bug.

"Spiritual insects have sprung from the magma?"

Upon realizing a possibility, Bai Xuanjing's expression turned somewhat unpleasant.

The underground magma, accompanied by fire veins, is indeed a place where some fire-loving monsters or spirit insects can easily find a habitat.

The Bai family has only had access to the fire vein of Qiufeng Island for a little over fifty years.

Although they killed the monsters that lived on Autumn Maple Island when they occupied it.

But that monster was not of high rank.

Before coming, Bai Xuanjing was ordered to review "Chronicles of War - Chronicles of Qiufeng Island" to understand the situation here.

However, the book only briefly describes the process of killing the monster that occupied the place, without mentioning the spirit insects at all.

"Spirit insects are small in size and emit very little spiritual energy, so they are difficult to detect unless they gather in large numbers."

"Moreover, my predecessor had been on Autumn Maple Island for three years and had never seen such a small insect before. It must have just hatched."

"Compared to adult insects, insect eggs are more secretive. According to the Records of War, the one who seized Autumn Maple Island was just a small platoon with a relatively weak family. The platoon leader was only at the late stage of Qi Refining, and the rest were at the mid stage of Qi Refining."

"No wonder we didn't find it."

"It now appears that these insects have hatched."

Bai Xuanjing muttered to himself, a strange light flickering in his eyes.

The original owner had been practicing alchemy since childhood and knew little about demonic beasts and spirit insects.

From his memories, he couldn't determine what the spirit insects in the magma were.

However, this spirit insect doesn't seem to be very strong.

Its predecessor died after being ambushed by a spirit insect and injected with fire poison.

After careful consideration, Bai Xuanjing felt that if he was on guard, he should be able to withstand the fireflies as long as they did not gather in large numbers.

After all, he was also a cultivator at the third level of Qi Refining!

Cultivation in this realm is divided into several stages, including Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul.

Bai Xuanjing is now twenty-five years old and his cultivation level is only at the third level of Qi Refining. Although it can be said that he has spent most of his time on alchemy, it also shows that his talent is only average.

That is indeed the case.

In the cultivation world, a cultivator's aptitude is assessed through their spiritual roots.

Spiritual roots are categorized into the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, as well as some unique spiritual roots.

In addition, each type of spiritual root can be divided into low-grade, medium-grade, high-grade, and top-grade.

The quality of one's aptitude is determined by both the quantity and grade of one's spiritual roots.

Bai Xuanjing possesses the three spiritual roots of water, fire, and wood, all of which are of medium grade.

His qualifications are only average.

Fortunately, he had some talent in alchemy and was trained by his family as an alchemist from a young age.

"It's almost time to harvest the pills this year. Let's wait for Second Uncle to arrive before making a decision," Bai Xuanjing thought to himself.

The so-called "collecting pills" refers to the process by which family stewards travel to various enclaves across the seas to collect the pills refined by their disciples throughout the year, while also distributing stipends, subsidies, and medicinal materials.

The cultivator currently in charge of collecting the core pills in the family is Bai Xuanjing's second uncle, named Bai Jingming.

This person is in the late stage of Qi Refining, and is knowledgeable and experienced; he may have a way to deal with these fire insects.

Thinking this, Bai Xuanjing looked around.

The bluestone surrounding his alchemy room was a spiritual mineral called Qingrun Stone, which could insulate against the high temperature of molten lava, so that Bai Xuanjing would not feel hot even when he was near the molten lava.

In addition, Qingrun Stone also carries some restrictive measures, such as sound insulation and protection.

As long as you stay in the Qingrun Stone alchemy room and don't go out, those low-level fireworms won't be able to get in.

The alchemy room was very simply built, square and rectangular, like a matchbox.

In the center is a pill-refining furnace.

The alchemy furnace was about half a zhang tall, and its surface was engraved with many inscriptions depicting flowers, birds, fish, and insects; it was a low-grade first-order furnace.

This alchemy furnace was purchased by Bai Xuanjing at a discounted price with a subsidy from her family after she was selected as an alchemist.

Beneath the alchemy furnace, a pattern of an array was inscribed with some kind of spiritual powder, with faint flickering flames.

The Earth Fire Vein is located beneath the molten lava, and with Bai Xuanjing's cultivation level, he cannot directly draw out the fire source from the Earth Fire Vein.

The purpose of this formation is to connect the source of fire.

Bai Xuanjing only needs to use the incantation to redirect the fire source for alchemy.

In addition, there are everyday items such as pots and pans, tables and bookshelves.

It looks very rudimentary.