While Drake was busy refining the three leaf healing pill, Blaze and Farisa were speeding towards the next inheritance. However, they encountered a problem.

“There are too many of them - crushing maelstorm!” exclaimed Farisa. Her hammer travelled in an arc while spinning rapidly, destroying a heap of demons in front of her. This created a small opening in the demon horde through which they could see the other side.

“Let’s go!” she cried and dashed towards the opening. Blaze followed, keeping the surrounding demons at bay with firestorm and fire blades.

The two had suddenly stumbled across a massive demon horde. They tried to break through but realised there were too many demons so decided to retreat. Luckily, they hadn’t travelled too deep into the horde, otherwise, they might not have been able to find their way out.

After escaping the horde, the two ran for a while before coming to a stop. They held their knees while panting for breath. A few seconds later, Farisa spoke.

“What do we do now?”

“I’m not sure…” Blaze sighed. In order to get to the inheritance, they needed to cross the demon horde, but it wouldn’t be possible for just the two of them. “Maybe we can wait for some time to see if it passes?” However, despite saying that, Blaze knew that they couldn’t just stand here forever.

“Yea…” Farisa took another deep breath before continuing. “That may be our only opti-”

Suddenly, she stopped speaking and narrowed her eyes. At the same time, Blaze also became wary. The dust storm shifted to their side as a shadowy figure walked forward. They didn’t sense any blood lust from it, otherwise, they would have attacked already.

A few seconds later, the figure came close and they could make out its features. It was a young man wearing black robes, holding a sword at his side. Blaze’s eyes widened upon recognising him.

“Cyrus!” Blaze exclaimed.

“Blaze!” he replied. The two jogged closer and Farisa followed. Once they were standing a few feet away, Blaze introduced Cyrus and Farisa to each other.

“It’s nice to meet you, Cyrus Blackthorne” Farisa spoke politely.

“Likewise,” he replied.

“So what are you doing here? Where’s the rest of your family’s disciples?” asked Blaze.

Cyrus sighed. “A while ago, we encountered a large demon horde and got split up. I’ve been looking for them since, but haven’t been able to find anyone.”

“I see,” Blaze lamented. “Well, until you do, you’re welcome to travel with us.” Farisa smiled in agreement and Cyrus became delighted.

“Really? Thank you so much!”

“No worries,” Blaze and Farisa responded together.

“So where are you two heading now?” asked Cyrus.

Blaze pointed in a particular direction. “There’s a massive demon horde there. According to Sylvia’s map, beyond that is a village ruin. So we are wondering how to get past them.”

“Oh! I might be able to help with that!” Cyrus exclaimed. Before they could ask any questions, Cyrus took out a mana recovery pill and consumed it. Then, he closed his eyes and gathered his mana.

“Sand hawk!”

A pale orange light floated out of his palm and quickly transformed into a small hawk spirit. With the hawk flying around him, Cyrus spoke.

“While I’m nowhere near as capable as your dryad friend, Sylvia, in scouting long distances, for long times, with numerous spirits, I can scout ahead a little,” he smiled and continued. “Moreover, due to its unique features, this spirit is better than most at seeing through the dust storm. I can use it to help guide us around the demon horde.”

“That’s amazing Cyrus!” Blaze exclaimed. He slightly regretted not learning any useful summoning spells when he was with his tribe. However, he ignored that feeling and laughed. “Haha, it’s our good luck to have come across you then!”

Cyrus smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. Then, he ordered his spirit to fly and it shot in the direction Blaze previously pointed, before turning. A few seconds later, Cyrus began running behind it, followed closely by Blaze and Farisa.

Neither of them noticed his lips curl into a smirk.

…

The only way Drake would have a chance of refining this pill was to use a special alchemy technique he had read about but had never had to use till now – circular flow.

Essentially, before adding a material with a powerful attractive force, you could use your mana to generate circular winds locally around the various materials inside the cauldron. The materials would move following the flow of the wind currents, so, if you made the circular currents have a small enough diameter, then it would essentially be the same as locking the materials in place.

However, the currents had to be powerful enough to resist the attractive force of whatever material you were adding. Additionally, you could not lose control of any of them until the aura of the material you were adding faded, and everything came under control.

It was a very difficult, mentally taxing move to execute due to the number of different things you’d have to control at once. Moreover, Drake didn’t have much experience with it as he had never used such a powerful material before. But, Drake had no choice.

‘I have to do it,’ he thought, steeling his resolve. After spending a few moments to compose himself, he prepared another batch of materials.

An hour later.

BOOOMMMMM!

Another huge explosion resounded through the underground passage. Black fumes rose from the cauldron.

Cough! Cough!

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Drake suffered a backlash due to the large failure. He managed to recover a few seconds later but, he did not look happy.

‘I was so close!’

He had added two leaves successfully but failed when adding the third and final one, as the materials went out of control again.

Drake took a deep breath. ‘This time for sure!’

An hour later.

BBBBBOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!

An enormous explosion erupted from the cauldron as flames leaked and smoke rose from its lid.

Cough! Cough!

Cough! Cough! Cough!

Sylvia burst opened her eyes, worried that something had happened to Drake again. She glanced at him and noticed him consuming a couple of pills to recover from the backlash. A few seconds passed, and then his breathing returned to normal and he appeared fine.

However, he was frowning deeply.

This time, unlike the others, he had done everything correctly. Even when adding the leaves of the Celestial Willow, Drake had controlled all of the materials properly and begun merging them.

However, this happened.

No matter how skilled the alchemist, every refinement always had a chance of failure. This was because the fusion process for combining various materials was always uncontrollable and unpredictable. If you did everything right, from processing the materials to controlling the temperature, speed, etc, you’d have a high chance of success, but it would never be one hundred per cent. Since you couldn’t physically control the way the different materials merged, there was always a chance that it could fail.

That was what had happened now. Drake had done everything correctly, but the refinement had failed due to pure chance.

Drake slapped himself on the cheeks.

‘Focus, Drake, focus. You still have enough materials to keep going a few times.’ Drake gave himself a little pep talk, not letting himself despair. He took some time to calm down and process everything, trying to recollect every step he did, and any and all mistakes that he might have made.

After a while, Drake opened his eyes and took a deep breath.

‘Let’s do this!’

…

While Drake was still refining his three leaf healing pill, Blaze and Farisa followed Cyrus and his spirit on his detour around the demon horde.

They had been running for over an hour when Blaze and Farisa noticed something in the distance. Several black specks appeared on the horizon, distorted by the sandstorm. As they rapidly got closer, the specks became bigger and clearer. Noticing this, Cyrus began slowing down while Blaze and Farisa furrowed their brows.

The two could now make out that the black specks were numerous figures standing together, but they couldn’t see who they were.

However, they got a bad feeling.

Soon, they got close to the figures and Blaze and Farisa’s eyes widened.

Standing at the centre was the dark grand mage. To his right was Theo with a wicked grin and two dark mages, and to his left were another two dark mages. Floating above them were over fifty rank two vulture spirits, and behind were three, towering lightning rhino beetles.

‘What the…’ Farisa gasped in horror as her heart sank.

‘How did they find us?’ Blaze unsheathed his sword and screamed in his mind. However, his thought was quickly replaced with an overwhelming sense of danger.

Dragon step!

Blaze activated his movement technique to shift to the right. However, he still felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. Blaze, along with Farisa, looked back to see a smirking Cyrus holding a dagger. The dagger was covered in blood and several drops fell to the floor.

“You… you are one of… one of them!?” Blaze and Farisa gasped simultaneously. However, Blaze felt the pain in his shoulder sharply increase.

Cough! Cough!

Blaze coughed and looked at his shoulder to see a large and gaping wound. The wound was covered in a layer of dark, poison elemental mana that continued assaulting him. If he hadn’t dodged at the last second that would have been his neck.

“Haha!” Cyrus laughed and jumped high into the air before landing next to the dark grand mage. “Bingo!”

“You!” Farisa couldn’t believe she had been taken for a fool. A member of the noble Blackthorne family was colluding with the dark mages? This was unbelievable!

However…

Farisa glanced at Blaze panting for breath to her side, and then looked at Cyrus again. Her attention was drawn by the six dark mages behind him, including the dark grand mage, then the horde of flying rank two vulture spirits, and finally, the three, huge lightning rhino beetles.

This is really bad!

…

Another hour passed.

Drake was focusing intensely. The lid of the cauldron vibrated as it struggled to contain the powerful and chaotic energy inside.

‘Pleaseee, don’t fail!’ Drake prayed while he took out the third leaf of the Celestial Willow. After ensuring that the circular flow was thoroughly locking all the materials in place, he added the final leaf.

Immediately, Drake felt an enormous pressure. As the leaf released the majestic aura of the Celestial Willow, all the materials wanted to dash towards it as if they were a pack of starving wolves who encountered a piece of raw meat. However, the circular currents locked them in place, preventing them from moving even a millimetre.

‘Just a little more, just a little more…!’

Every second that passed, the leaf’s aura waned. After ten seconds, it was completely gone and it became the same as any other material. At the same time, the rest of the materials stopped tugging on the circular currents so Drake could release them.

‘Ahh…’ Drake wanted to relax but he forced himself to focus.

‘DON’T MESS UP NOW!’ he screamed at himself.

He took a deep breath and controlled the three Celestial Willow leaves floating inside the cauldron to slowly move towards each other. Drake made them touch at the same time, transforming them into a ball of light as they began to merge.

Drake waited patiently. It took several minutes for the process to complete, at the end of which the ball of light emitted a mini wave of mana, before dimming and revealing a single, golden leaf.

Sweat trickled down his brow as Drake took a deep breath again. Then, while he kept the golden leaf in place, he controlled the other materials to slowly move towards each other. There were thirteen different pieces floating around, each made from other materials which Drake had combined earlier. Now, Drake needed to combine all these into one, and add the golden leaf during the final merging process.

Over the next twenty minutes, various flashes of light appeared and disappeared in the cauldron as the different pieces merged together. Drake was using his utmost focus to make sure that not even the smallest micro step went wrong.

By the end of the twenty minutes, only two balls of light remained. These represented pieces of materials that were still merging. However, Drake had to bring them together at a precise moment before they completed merging.

Drake willed, and the two balls of light zoomed towards each other. Their lights combined to become an even brighter flash of light. However, Drake stared at it unblinkingly, waiting for the right moment.

A few minutes later.

‘NOW!’ Drake screamed in his head as he willed the golden leaf to plunge towards the huge ball of light, which had now shrunk by thirty per cent. The moment the two collided, the entire cauldron filled with light. The light even spilt out of the edges of the lid and illuminated the circular clearing like a star.

Then, it changed colour. It wasn’t just white light that spilt out now, but a variety of them. An array of colours shone through the cauldron like a rainbow, which simultaneously released waves of mana one after another. Every second that passed, the colours became brighter, and the waves of mana became faster.

Sylvia opened her eyes again, curious as to what was happening now. Unlike before, there were no explosions, which could only be a good thing. She watched the cauldron, mesmerised by the colourful lights and the waves of mana.

Drake continued focusing and ensuring that everything was under control. All he had to do now was maintain the conditions and hope for the best.

Boom!

The sound of an explosion echoed across the clearing. However, unlike before, there was no fire or black smoke rising. The rainbow lights were still spilling out but they were dimming rapidly, and the waves of mana quickly came to a stop.

Drake had a huge smile on his face as he opened the lid. A small, round object floated out the cauldron glowing brilliantly with a multicoloured light. Once it left the cauldron, it released an aura, indicating itself as a rank three pill.

Drake opened his palm and the pill flew towards it. As it flew, its light dimmed and it quickly stopped releasing such a strong aura.

A few seconds later, the pill arrived on top of his hands, with its light completely gone. Drake observed the pill with a brilliant glint in his eyes.

It was round, like most pills, but its coating was unique. As Drake rolled the pill around his palm, it appeared as a different colour depending on which angle he was looking from.

This was it; this was the three leaf healing pill!

He finally did it!