Chapter 9: Dispersing and Tempering

  This small hole was very strange, its inside big and small were all the same, after crawling out about ten or more zhang far, Su Ming saw the end in front of him, and his movements slowed down.

  He cautiously approached the exit, and with one glance, he was stunned for a moment before taking a deep breath.

  This is a lava cave, with countless conical rocks hanging upside down on the top, the surface cracked and dry, as if it could fall off at any time. The ground was originally pitch black, but there were strips of red rock scattered about, reflecting this place in that brown color, the heat inside was several times stronger than outside.

  Not far away, there was a pitch-black skeleton, which was about 8 or 9 zhang long. Su Ming recognized it at a glance, and this should be the bones of a python.

  On the skull of the python, there was also a horn as thick as an arm, and the color of the horn was also pitch black.

  Such a long python, Su Ming had never seen before, but he had vaguely heard his grandfather say that in the very early days, there was a kind of python beast on Wulung Mountain, which was extremely ferocious. This python had horns on its head and was called horned python. The sharpness of those horns often made them a treasured object for the tribe's offerings.

  In Wushan Department, there is a horned viper's horn bone, which is a hereditary object of the clan leader for generations.

  "Could it be a python?" He measured the snake's skeleton with his eyes, and looked at the small hole he was in, and had an answer.

  In a daze, Su Ming took out a blade of grass from the basket behind him and threw it downwards.

  The herb drifted down and landed, making a hissing sound when it touched the ground. About a minute later, it slowly withered away. He tried several more times, eventually determining that the heat of the ground was tolerable for short periods, as long as he avoided touching the red rocks.

  At this moment, Xiaohong was already impatient, if she hadn't known that it was dangerous here, she would have crawled out and jumped down long ago.

  Su Ming cautiously crawled out, jumped down towards the ground, and stepped on it. Immediately, a hissing sound came from both feet, and a wave of heat spread throughout his body from the soles of his feet, but it wouldn't scald the soles for a short time.

  Little Red entered the fiery cave and immediately broke out in a big sweat. After thinking for half a day, she returned to the small hole and refused to come in, instead flashing away and running off to play somewhere else.

  Su Ming didn't try to persuade him, but instead walked quickly forward with his back to the crowd, he could guess that this place should be connected to the interior of Hei Yan Peak, and perhaps there would be a suitable place for tempering.

  Not far from here, in front of a vast expanse, it is unknown where to go. There are some pits on the ground, and the heat is even more intense here. Su Ming has already felt the scorching heat under his feet.

  He hesitated for a moment, his foot raised just about to fall when suddenly a wave of heat burst forth, causing Su Ming to cry out in surprise and retreat repeatedly. His pupils constricted as he saw a flame the thickness of an arm erupt from a depression on the ground ahead, illuminating the cave instantly with its fiery glow.

  Su Ming took a deep breath and retreated again, until he was pushed to the entrance of the cave. Only then did he focus his attention on it. He looked at it for half an hour before the flames gradually dissipated. However, not long after, another depression erupted with flames once more.

  Cycles of repetition, continuous and unbroken.

  "Fire......" Su Ming stared at those pits, his eyes slowly revealing a bright light, with surprise.

  "There is indeed fire here! However, it appears intermittently and not in a stable eruption..." Su Ming was thrilled for a moment, then sank into thought, feeling slightly disappointed.

  "Never mind, although entering the mountain directly from the top may find a better place, this place is better hidden and if there's danger, I can also leave quickly."

  "So for now, this will be the first place I'll scatter my ashes in this lifetime!" Su Ming's face was filled with excitement as he muttered to himself and looked around.

  "Now that we have fire, all we need is a wild cauldron... I can make one myself!" Su Ming's gaze fell on the scattered stones on the ground.

  "These rocks have been here for so many years without being burned to ashes, they must be extremely heat-resistant, and should be able to withstand the tempering process..." Su Ming scratched his head, changed the medicinal herbs under his feet again, and jumped down once more. He chose a large rock that looked suitable, hesitated for a moment before touching it, but didn't feel too hot, only warm.

  Having decided to use this large stone as material, Su Ming took out his own medicine knife. This knife was very sharp and he often took it out to hone it. Holding the knife, Su Ming used all his strength to scrape against the stone block.

  It was a tedious process, but Su Ming had long been accustomed to it, without any impatience. As he was chopping wood, he suddenly had an epiphany and looked at the python's skeleton not far away, especially the black horn on its skull.

  After a moment's hesitation, Su Ming walked quickly to the vicinity of the skull, looked at it for half a while, and then tapped on the python's skull. With this tap, there was a rustling sound, and the main and deputy skulls immediately turned into fragments and scattered all over the ground.

  In those fragments, there was only one black horn bone that had not been crushed.

  "This horn is indeed extraordinary, I was just wondering how the python got in." Su Ming picked up the horn and drew a line on the wall beside him, immediately leaving a mark. This scene did not surprise Su Ming.

  "It's just that I don't know why this horned snake insisted on drilling in from the outside back then..." Su Ming couldn't figure it out, and took the horn to a large stone, starting to grind it.

  With the help of this corner, after a few hours, a refining furnace that was 50-60% similar to the one in Su Ming's memory took shape. Su Ming even made an extra lid for it, which could keep the heat inside from dissipating.

  "Let's try it first." Su Ming's expression was excited, and he pushed the primitive Ding to those concave places, holding his breath, waiting slowly.

  After several more hours passed, under the repeated flame eruptions, a fire finally burst out in a depression near Su Ming's front.

  It was almost at the moment when the flames burst out, Su Ming suddenly pushed the scattered stone furnace, causing the wild cauldron to cover up the pit that had burst out with flames.

  Su Ming's expression was tense, and whether he could disperse it would depend on whether this ancient cauldron could withstand the high temperature.

  Soon, the stone furnace turned red, heat waves scattered everywhere, and there was a crackling sound echoing around. However, a large number of cracks appeared on its surface, Su Ming's heart skipped a beat, but after waiting for half a moment, he didn't see the stone shatter, only then did he slowly put his mind at ease.

  "One hour... Every time he disperses, there is only one hour of time, which should not be enough..." Su Ming's eyes were deep in thought, and for the sake of dispersing, it could be said that he was exhausted.

  "It can be done like this!" Su Ming retreated a few steps, although he had an idea in his mind, but he didn't act rashly. Instead, he stood on the ground that was not too hot or cold, staring intently at those pits and holes, and he kept looking for a whole day.

  During that time, a little monkey came over, felt too hot after leaving some wild fruits and ran out to play again.

  As for that stone Ding tripod, it withstood the test and did not shatter despite several impacts from the flames.

  "These small holes on the ground burst into flames, some regular, but also irregular..." A day later, Su Ming took out the bone corner and emerged from his body, coming to those pits. He quickly dug a ditch on the ground, connecting one of the small holes in the pit with the bottom of the wild cauldron.

  He moved without stopping, and after six consecutive strokes, he quickly retreated. Before long, when flames burst out of one of the small holes in the depression, it was clear that a lot had been diverted to flow along the grooves on the ground into the stone furnace below.

  "It's done!" Su Ming watched for another half a day, looking for an opening to make five more cuts, and continued observing for the whole day, confirming his method. He had successfully prolonged the furnace fire over a large area, and only then did he put his mind at ease.

  In fact, he also hesitated, the lines and connections of these ravines were not drawn at will, and the flames in the place where the cauldron was located could not be too large or too small, otherwise it would be easy to appear abnormal.

  After all, in his observation, there were several times when multiple pits burst into flames at the same time. If connected incorrectly, it's feared that danger will arise.

  After solving these two most basic problems, Su Ming calmed down and began his first tempering in this Black Flame Peak, according to the scenes in his memory.

  The food they ate was either solved by the little monkey, or Su Ming went out to hunt some small animals and dragged them here to roast over an open flame. There's also the matter of Hei Shan Bu's grandfather, which Su Ming encountered while hunting during this period and informed his own tribe's hunting party about it.

  Time passed day by day, this was his place of seclusion, and from time to time, a sigh would be heard. For half a month, Su Ming's eyes had been bloodshot. In these fifteen days, he had attempted to refine the pill countless times, but not once had he succeeded!

  He is now in the first layer of the Blood Condensation Realm, and has four blood lines. As long as he can produce two more, he will be able to enter the second layer of the Blood Condensation Realm.

  Once he reached the second level, in Su Ming's acquired Barbarian Legacy, he could cast his first Barbarian Technique!

  This is what Su Ming has been longing for, and it's also the driving force behind his continuous refinement of medicine.

  This month's scattered failure has almost made Su Ming disheartened, but the stubbornness in his bones makes him unwilling to give up.

  "I don't believe it! Little Red, help me gather more herbs!" Su Ming muttered to himself as he tossed the woven basket towards the small monkey at the entrance of the cave, who was baring its teeth and grinning. He continued to refine his concoction.

  The little monkey caught the woven basket, grinned and ran out with it.

  One day, one day, one day...

  Failure, failure, failure...

  Half a month had passed, and on this day in the afternoon, Su Ming stood in front of the cauldron with his hair disheveled, holding two kinds of herbs in his hand, both of which were red. One was six-petaled, and the other was five-petaled.

  "Which one should I use..." Su Ming knew he didn't have much time to think, and gritted his teeth.

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  Xiu Mo should be a slow-burning book, with large chapters that can't be done justice to by being overly passionate from the start... The opening of Xian Ni is even more low-key, perhaps this is just the style, and it can't be changed.

  Persevere in listening and you won't let fellow Taoists down, this is a guarantee of the ear root.

  Carefully savor the title of the first volume, and then think about the book's name. You will find that "Life is like the first time we met" sometimes refers to more than just emotions...

  It's a feeling of nostalgia, a moment of looking back after many years, the complexity in one's heart... Just like when we look back at ourselves from many years ago, what kind of feelings will we have...

  The name of the first volume, perhaps it's not about Wen and Ren, but about Su Ming in your eyes.

  Savor slowly, watch slowly...... and I write slowly too......