BTTH: From Genius to Invincible-Chapter 551: Master

Word Count: 2,463 Words

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The old man’s words struck like lightning. Xiao Yan’s eyes flew wide, his pupils contracting sharply as a dormant flood of memories surged awake within his mind.

"You’re my Master?" Disbelief saturated every word. He stared at the elderly figure before him in utter astonishment.

The old man’s eyes were bright and full of spirit, radiating an effortless confidence that seemed as natural as breathing. His hair was white as snow and his face bore the deep marks of age, yet the refined bone structure beneath hinted unmistakably at a man who had once stolen the hearts of countless maidens in his youth.

For a suspended moment, Xiao Yan genuinely couldn’t tell whether this was still part of the Hundred Reincarnations. The old man before him felt so achingly familiar, like someone who had been at his side for years, a constant and irreplaceable presence.

His heart lurched. Could it be that this hundredth reincarnation’s soul information wasn’t about him, but—!

His breathing quickened without his noticing. His gaze dropped to the ring hanging from his neck. Its shape was so deeply engraved in his memory that he would recognize it even if it were ground to ash.

The Bone Flame Ring!

But he distinctly remembered sending the Bone Flame Ring to the Pill Tower, placing it in Xuan Yi’s hands!

A suspicion had already taken root in his mind.

While he stood frozen, staring woodenly at the ring, the old man drifted over and delivered a crisp karate chop to the top of his head, jolting him back to the present.

"I taught you alchemy. How am I not your Master?" The old man gazed at his dazed disciple with helpless fondness.

Xiao Yan exhaled long and slow, forcing himself to calm down. He turned inward, sorting through the soul memories that had just flooded his mind. The picture gradually assembled itself: he had been surrounded by the Wolf Head Mercenary Company and had barely escaped thanks to the Purple Cloud Wings, sustaining severe injuries in the process.

The old man’s soul body drifted to the edge of the stone basin and gave Xiao Yan a thorough once-over. Satisfaction gleamed in his eyes as he smiled. "I expected you’d need at least half a month to recover. Yet here we are, barely five days later, and not only have you healed completely, you’ve actually stumbled into a blessing in disguise and touched the threshold of a 7-star Dou Practitioner. Given your current state, a few more days of cultivation should be enough to push you through."

"I was unconscious for five days? From dealing with that mere Wolf Head Mercenary Company?" Xiao Yan’s eyes went round, shock and confusion written across his face.

Are you kidding me? As if those guys are even worthy!

"Mm." The old man nodded, then shot him a reproachful look. "You could have used the Purple Cloud Wings to escape immediately, yet you insisted on showing off by forcing a Di Class Dou Technique. If I hadn’t activated the Purple Cloud Wings for you, you wouldn’t have had the strength left to flee!"

Rather than anger, the scolding only brought warmth to Xiao Yan’s gaze. His expression softened, and he murmured in a voice only he could hear, "Thank you for saving me again."

"I chose this spot carefully. All the high-rank magical beasts in the vicinity have been cleared out. You can move freely within a few hundred meters." The old man nodded and added a warning. "Still, watch for any that might wander in. Around here, practically anything could kill you with a single slap."

Xiao Yan blinked. The magical beasts here? Then he remembered that in this reincarnation, his strength amounted to nothing more than a Dou Practitioner’s. He could only nod in resignation. Rising slowly from the stone basin, he grabbed his clothes from nearby and fumbled them on in a clumsy rush.

"Wait until your injuries have fully healed before practicing the Flame Splitting Tsunami. In the meantime, I’ll teach you some basic alchemy knowledge. You’re not leaving here until you’ve reached the Dou Master realm," the old man said calmly.

"Alchemy?" Xiao Yan rubbed his nose, a small smile playing at his lips. He straightened up, puffed out his chest, and declared with supreme confidence, "My alchemy skills are incredible."

The old man’s eyes bulged as he stared at Xiao Yan. His expression dissolved into pure exasperation. "You?"

This kid has never refined a single pill in his life. What is he basing this on, dreams?

Xiao Yan flashed a cocky, self-assured grin. When it came to alchemy, he had nothing to fear. He pulled a medicinal cauldron from his storage ring, fully prepared to demonstrate tier 9 mastery for his audience of one, when he suddenly froze.

It wasn’t that he had forgotten how to refine. He had no medicinal ingredients!

"Uh... Master, do you have any ingredients?"

The old man folded his arms and gave him a look of pure disdain. "An alchemist as amazing as you still needs someone else to prepare his ingredients?"

Color flooded Xiao Yan’s face. He rummaged through his storage ring like a man turning his house upside down, finally managing to dig out a few herbs. One look at them sent another wave of heat rushing to his cheeks. These could indeed produce medicine... just not the decent kind.

He quickly steadied himself. So what if it’s not respectable medicine? It’s not like I’ve never made it before. According to surveys, over ninety percent of alchemists produced something improper on their very first attempt. As for who conducted those surveys, that was anyone’s guess.

He fixed his gaze on the medicinal cauldron and cracked his neck. He had to prove that his alchemy was the real thing!

After a quick stretch, Xiao Yan pressed his left hand against the fire opening. With a thought, he drew a wisp of Dou Qi from his cyclone and channeled it to his palm. A muffled poof sounded as the Dou Qi passed through the cauldron’s peculiar fire opening and transformed into a slightly deep yellow flame that flickered weakly to life inside.

’Such feeble Dou Qi flames... I haven’t seen anything this pathetic in ages.’

He smiled ruefully at the flame’s deeper-than-usual color. Once the cauldron had warmed sufficiently, his right hand began selecting from the ingredients laid out before him.

He snatched up a red fruit that reeked of a strange, pungent odor, cleared his throat with two deliberate coughs, and tossed it into the cauldron.

His refinement proceeded swiftly after that, ingredients entering the cauldron in rapid succession. Before long, a sweet fragrance began wafting from within.

A strange light flickered through the old man’s eyes as he watched Xiao Yan’s practiced hands at work.

Roughly fifteen minutes later, Xiao Yan made an instinctive pulling motion with his palm. A Dou Technique surfaced inexplicably in his mind, and a suction force bloomed from his hand, drawing all the pink medicinal powder from the cauldron into a waiting bottle.

He examined the bottled powder and nodded with satisfaction. This wasn’t even a true pill, merely several ingredients refined and mixed in proper proportions, but his refinement technique itself was sound. After all, he had processed ingredients for peak tier 8 pills more times than he could count.

"Master, how was that? Not bad, right?" He stood tall and raised his eyebrows smugly.

"Wrong." The old man spared him a single glance and stated flatly.

"Wrong? What’s wrong?" Xiao Yan was stunned. Someone actually dared to say his alchemy was wrong?!

The old man took the bottle, poured out a small amount of powder, and began to explain. "Though this is just basic ingredient refinement, controlling the heat based solely on the ingredients themselves isn’t enough. Their age is critically important."

"Ingredients of different ages have slightly different fire resistance. While this minor difference won’t prevent pill formation, the final quality will be affected."

"Growing environment matters as well. Identical ingredients of the same age, grown in different locations, will exhibit subtle variations. For ordinary pills, you needn’t worry about such things, but for top-tier pills, even these minute differences must be factored in. You can’t just blindly follow what the recipe says."

"Learn to question the pill recipe itself."

"Now come. Watch carefully how your Master does it."

The old man swept his sleeve and set to work using the exact same ingredients. Xiao Yan stood beside him, his gaze locked unblinkingly on the cauldron. The sequence and temperature matched his own approach, yet the refinement technique bore subtle variations, changes so minute that an ordinary alchemist would never detect them.

Throughout the process, Xiao Yan could scarcely put his mental state into words. Shock mingled with sudden epiphany, layered over a deep, quiet understanding.

The entire refinement felt so utterly natural that watching it was a pleasure in itself.

The medicinal powder within the cauldron seemed to come alive. Its gradual emergence followed a rhythm, every shift and motion embodying the principles of the Great Dao.

The powder was soon collected in a bottle. Placed side by side, the two batches looked virtually identical. Only someone with exceptional talent and vast experience could discern the subtle distinction between them.

"See? You still have a great deal to learn. Don’t let arrogance cloud your judgment. Remember: the sea of learning knows no shore, and hard work is the only vessel that will carry you across." The old man clasped one hand behind his back, his tone earnest and heartfelt.

Xiao Yan coughed twice and fixed the old man with a peculiar look, blinking deliberately. "Master, you seem awfully practiced at making this particular medicine. You must have refined it quite a few times before."

The old man’s face went red in an instant. He waved his sleeve in flustered indignation. "Hmph! A top-tier alchemist can treat even an unfamiliar recipe as though he’s refined it a thousand times. You think I’m as improper as you?"

Xiao Yan, who knew the truth perfectly well, tugged the corner of his mouth into a smile, one eyebrow quirking upward.

"Since you’ve recovered, go practice the Flame Splitting Tsunami," the old man said with a resigned sigh.

Xiao Yan reached for the familiar Heavy Xuan Ruler. He gripped the handle, hauled it up with effort, and slung it across his back. "My Flame Splitting Tsunami has already reached perfect mastery!"

"Oh?"

Master and disciple arrived at the thundering waterfall. Water crashed against the rocks with tremendous force, each impact sending thunder-like reverberations echoing through the small valley.

Xiao Yan’s lips curved upward. He drew the Heavy Xuan Ruler in a single flourish, exhaled slowly, and let stillness settle over him. Moments later his eyes snapped open, and the energy of the world began to boil!

His cultivation hadn’t even reached the Dou Master realm, yet the world’s energy answered his call like a slumbering dragon jolted awake, surging violently from within his body.

Before that imposing force, the tranquil lake at his feet erupted as though it had been set to boil, white froth churning madly across its surface.

’My Dou Qi is still far too lacking... I can only compensate with the world’s energy.’

His left hand settled on the Heavy Xuan Ruler and swept slowly across its surface. The ruler trembled instantly. Dou Qi transmuted into flame, and a brownish-yellow fire ignited along its length.

The strange, unique patterns etched into the ruler’s face blazed with fiery red light. As the blade carved through the air, the surrounding space itself grew illusory and blurred.

Xiao Yan’s forward charge halted abruptly. His body rotated a full one hundred and eighty degrees in midair while the black ruler blazed ever brighter, until finally an intense burst of radiance erupted from its edge.

"Flame Splitting Tsunami!"

A sound like muffled thunder exploded through the empty valley, immediately followed by surging heat waves that swept across nearly the entire space.

BOOM!

Countless columns of water shot skyward across the wide lake’s surface in a spectacular display of raw destructive force.

Along the ravine’s edge, innumerable fine cracks spread across the stone wall like creeping ivy.

Xiao Yan slammed down with the ruler still clutched in both hands, gasping desperately for air. The Flame Splitting Tsunami had drained every last drop of his Dou Qi in an instant, and his head buzzed fiercely from the exertion.

"Ha... Master, how was that? Not bad, right?" he managed between ragged breaths, the world still spinning around him.

Above the cliff, the waterfall hung suspended for a full twenty seconds before its flow gradually resumed. The massive scar in the rock slowly disappeared beneath the rushing water once more. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

The old man drifted to Xiao Yan’s side and produced a Qi Recovery Pill from his storage ring, placing it in the boy’s mouth. He studied him for a moment, then spoke. "The power is acceptable, but..."

"But?" Xiao Yan blinked in bewilderment. He had already achieved perfect mastery. What ’but’ could there possibly be?!

"Your foundation is a mess. What have you been practicing, exactly? Go. Jump on those wooden stakes and start over from the very beginning!"

"Ah?"

Xiao Yan stared at the ten massive wooden stakes driven into the lakebed beneath the waterfall’s crushing torrent, utterly dumbfounded. He had already reached perfect mastery—how could he possibly start over?!

"Starting today, you will train under the waterfall’s full pressure. Three hundred cleaving strikes against the current." The old man’s voice had turned stern by the end, carrying an authority that brooked no argument.

Xiao Yan immediately shrank back and nodded like a pecking chick, not daring to utter a single word of protest.

"Oh, right. There’s also this. You’ll use it every day." As if suddenly remembering, the old man produced a small red bottle containing some liquid.

One look at the bottle was all Xiao Yan needed. His expression changed dramatically. "Burning Blood?!"

He had used this stuff on Xiao Yu and the others before. To put it simply: it hurt like hell and felt wonderful at the same time.

"Uh, I think this stuff is really difficult to prepare. No need to trouble Master with it." He laughed awkwardly while inching backward.

The old man’s eyes narrowed to slits. A bright, terrible smile spread across his face. One hand shot out and seized Xiao Yan before he could retreat another step. He stripped the shirt from the boy’s back and slathered Burning Blood directly onto his bare skin. The liquid blazed like living fire the instant it made contact, pouring scorching, relentless heat into his flesh. Every nerve screamed as though his entire body had been thrust into a furnace.

"AHHHHH!!!"