Elven cultivators

The door hinges creaked softly, and a wave of heat, a mixture of the aroma of beer, tobacco, and the cacophony of voices, rushed in.

In the dim light, dozens of rough wooden tables and chairs were scattered around, and all sorts of guests sat or stood, talking and laughing loudly.

Anton walked straight through the crowded hall and found an empty seat at the counter.

The bartender was a burly middle-aged man with a faded anchor tattoo on his forearm and an old, centipede-shaped scar on the bridge of his nose, which added a touch of fierceness to his weathered face.

He mechanically drew circles on the oak table with the rag in his hand, oblivious to the noise around him.

"What would you like to drink?" the bartender asked without looking up.

"A glass of ale," Anton tossed a few copper coins. "And some more information."

The bartender then raised his eyelids and looked him up and down.

The person in front of him was plain-looking and dressed in unremarkable clothes, like any adventurer you could find anywhere in the city.

Only those eyes were so deep that it was almost impossible to look directly at them.

"What news?" The bartender pushed a glass of frothy ale toward him.

"I want the story behind Cang Lan, the wanted criminal with a bounty on the bulletin board outside."

Anton picked up his glass, took a sip, and calmly put it back on the counter.

This wine has a rough texture and a smoky flavor, making it far inferior to the sweet and refreshing fruit wines of the clan.

"One gold coin," the bartender said.

Anton took out a gold coin and placed it on the counter. The bartender put it away, turned around and went into the back room. After a while, he returned and handed Anton a folded piece of parchment.

Anton opened the parchment and glanced at it.

Canglan's identity and strength are unknown, and he is suspected to be not a native of Eldron Plains.

In the year 9244 of the Dawn Calendar, the Blazing Fire Merchant Guild reported to the Azurewater Harbor Garrison that an adventurer named Canglan had killed one of the guild's guards. They requested the garrison to immediately issue an arrest warrant and offered a reward of 100 gold coins, but so far they have failed to apprehend him.

"Dawn Calendar 9244?"

Anton's gaze narrowed slightly.

That was the second year he met Harvey's squad, and the year after Cassius died in the Thousand Rocks.

He calmly folded the parchment and whispered the names of Harvey and the other three to the bartender: "I need information on these four people, especially their whereabouts after the year 9243 of the Dawn Calendar."

After Anton paid the payment, the bartender went back into the back room, returned, and whispered, "Of the four people you mentioned, only Harvey is somewhat well-known in the adventurer circles of Azurewater Harbor. I've never heard of the other three. Moreover, Harvey disappeared more than thirty years ago. It's been too long, and we can't find any more information about him."

Anton nodded slightly, already having a vague idea in his mind.

Harvey's team most likely couldn't escape the Ring of Annihilation's retribution and are probably doomed.

Once they fall into the hands of the Ring of Annihilation, those madmen have plenty of ways to get the details out of them, whether they want to or not.

After that, the Ring of Annihilation probably searched for Canglan in secret, but of course, it came to nothing. In the end, it had no choice but to come out into the open and, through the channels of the Blazing Fire Merchant Guild, put up bounties all over the entire Azurewater Harbor.

He persisted for over thirty years and hasn't given up even today; the arrest warrant is still up.

Unfortunately, they were destined to do futile work.

After all, Anton had never used the Canglan identity since then, nor had he ever come to Biyue Harbor. No matter how wide the net of the Ring of Annihilation was cast, it could not catch a shadow that had already sunk to the bottom of the water.

"Judging from this, the Blazing Fire Merchant Guild probably has secret dealings with the Ring of Annihilation."

Anton clicked his tongue.

With its close ties to Dragon City and its clandestine dealings with the Ring of Annihilation, the Blazing Fire Merchant Guild has a very complex background.

Having obtained the intelligence, Anton did not linger and immediately left the tavern.

Although most intelligence brokers have their own code of conduct and principles, just in case, after leaving the tavern, he still found a secluded and deserted alley, changed his face and clothes, and then found a tavern to stay in.

It wasn't until three days later that he changed back to his original appearance and retrieved the finished alchemical cauldron from the dwarven blacksmith's shop.

It was a bronze vessel with three legs and a round belly, about half a foot tall. Its surface was engraved with ancient patterns, and the vessel had a cold metallic luster. Its three legs were cast in the shape of animal claws, firmly gripping the ground.

The lid of the cauldron has a hole in the center for adding medicinal herbs, and nine small ventilation holes are arranged in a nine-palace pattern around the edge.

Although it looks exquisite, it is actually just an ordinary alchemy cauldron.

The alchemical cauldron is also a key element in alchemy.

A magic treasure-level alchemy cauldron can even greatly increase the success rate of alchemy.

Unfortunately, Anton doesn't yet have the ability to refine artifacts, so he can only make do with ordinary pill cauldrons for now.

When we returned to Silvermoon Forest, dusk was turning the treetops golden and red.

Without delay, Anton set up a pill-refining cauldron in the backyard and began refining pills.

Alchemy is a process that uses spiritual fire as a furnace and medicinal herbs as materials to refine, fuse, and sublimate the essence of heaven and earth, ultimately condensing it into elixirs.

The quality of a batch of pills depends 30% on the medicinal materials and 70% on the temperature and control of the medicinal properties.

Simply put, alchemy can be divided into four steps.

The first step is purification, which involves calcining each medicinal herb with spiritual fire to extract its essence and remove its dross.

This step requires extremely high stability of the spiritual fire. If the fire is too strong, the materials will turn to ashes; if the fire is too weak, impurities cannot be completely removed.

The second step is compatibility: the purified medicinal liquid is added to the furnace in a specific order for initial fusion.

The timing, dosage, and order of administering the medicine are all strictly controlled; if one step is wrong, the medicinal properties will clash, and all previous efforts will be wasted.

Next comes the melting process, which involves simmering over a low flame to allow the medicinal liquids to fully blend.

This process can take anywhere from one or two hours to several days. During this time, the alchemist needs to continuously inject spiritual energy to maintain the spiritual fire. If the process is interrupted, the medicinal liquid inside the furnace will immediately solidify and become unusable.

This is why only cultivators at least at the mid-stage of Qi Refining are qualified to touch upon the Dao of Alchemy.

Alchemists lacking sufficient spiritual energy cannot sustain themselves until the pill is successfully formed.

The final step is pill condensation, which involves catalyzing the spiritual fire to condense the medicinal liquid into a pill.

If this step is successful, the fragrance of the elixir will naturally fill the air; if it fails, it will be nothing but a batch of waste.

For Anton, these four steps were not difficult in themselves.

In the end, the Peiyuan Pill is just a low-level pill, not even close to the point where it depends on the alchemist's talent.

Given enough time and materials, and by practicing repeatedly, you'll eventually master the techniques.

The real challenge lies in figuring out which materials from the Dawn Continent can replace the spiritual herbs and elixirs in the original Dragon Essence Pill formula.

This is destined to be a long process of trial and error.

The medicinal properties of each alternative material need to be repeatedly verified to ensure that there are no errors.

Fortunately, Anton had enough patience.

"Let's start with the most basic proportions."

Taking a deep breath, Anton plunged into alchemy.