He had finally succeeded in bringing up the fire! Excitement flooded Austin's handsome face.
According to the tenets of the Elixir Foundation, making the fire was the first step to becoming a pill refiner. And his ability to call it forth meant that he had the potential to become a pill refiner. A lot of people who had just started learning to refine pills couldn't even make the fire.
Only ones with a strong, good-quality vital energy had a chance. Besides, it also required having good control of the vital energy. Not meeting these requirements meant that they couldn't conjure the fire.
At first, Austin had only wanted to try if he could make it. But he hadn't expected to be successful just days after his first trial.
Other pill refiners would surely be astonished at this fact. And they had reason to disbelieve it, because it usually took a regular pill refiner one, or even a few years to make the fire. And Austin bringing it up after mere days of learning was nothing short of a miracle.
Austin let out a happy sigh of relief as he looked at the fire glowing in his hand.
With just a flicker of his will, the fire disappeared immediately. What was more, it reached his elixir field through the energy meridian, and settled down in a quiet corner.
"So this is the fire of a pill refiner!"
Austin mumbled to himself. Willing it to change yet again, Austin made the fire pass back through the energy meridian into the palm of his hand, appearing with a sharp crack. He repeated the process a few times, and found that he was getting better at controlling the fire with each round.
It was a pleasant surprise to Austin that he was able to finish the first two steps of pill-refining in just a few days. All that remained was to buy some spiritual herbs to assist him in refining pills.
He also needed a cauldron. Once he had everything ready, he was going to learn how to do it.
The problem was, all those things were all very expensive, especially the spiritual herbs. Immersed in these distressing thoughts, Austin gently stroked the Space Ring. He knew that he would use up a lot of the vital energy crystals it held, and he couldn't help but feel a little sad about it.
But there was no other way. This was the money he needed to spend if he wanted to learn pill-refining. And if he could succeed in doing that, he would surely make a lot of money in the future.
This possibility was successful in quelling Austin's hesitation. He put on his black robe before opening the door that had been shut for five days now. After all, he had killed Marvin, and he knew that his uncle Johnson would be looking for him everywhere right now.
He finally left the room and the hotel that he had been staying in, to do a bit of shopping. He decided to look for some spiritual herbs first, and then a cauldron. He wondered where he could find a good-quality cauldron in Peace Town.
Johnson's cultivation base was probably at the medium stage of the Earth Realm. Austin wasn't afraid of confronting him, but he couldn't say for sure that he would definitely win against him. What was more, now was not a good time. He had neither the time nor the heart to fight.
He knew he had to keep a low profile for now and gain more power in the meantime. And when the time came and he achieved his goal, he would kill Johnson, because he was still a threat to him no matter what.
Austin walked into one of the two pill trading streets in town. Since he only needed the spiritual herbs to practice by burning them and extracting the liquid medicine, he'd only get the cheapest spiritual herbs that were of the lowest quality.
As he entered a random shop, he saw that there were two other martial artists dressed in black robes, also shopping for spiritual herbs.
Austin walked up where the spiritual herbs were on display and started to look for what he needed.
Austin seemed to have drawn the attention of the two martial artists, who kept glancing at Austin with confusion in their eyes.
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