Shen Nong Mountain Range.
This place is located in the extreme south of the Central Plains. Strictly speaking, this region has already separated from the Central Plains, making it seem quite remote.
However, just as the old saying goes: a mountain doesn't need to be high to be famous; it needs an immortal.
Although the Shen Nong Mountain Range is in a desolate area, infested with venomous insects and countless fierce beasts rarely seen in the Central Plains, its status as the Medicine Clan's ancestral land has made this region quite lively. Moreover, this mountain range is rich in various rare medicinal ingredients, attracting many Alchemists from thousands of miles away to search for ingredients for pill refinement, making the Shen Nong Mountain Range extremely popular.
Of course, these Alchemists only dare to search for medicinal ingredients in the outer areas, not venturing into the core region.
Because that is the territory of the Medicine Clan.
The Medicine Clan is one of the Eight Ancient Clans. They take 'Medicine' as their surname and consider themselves the foremost in alchemy. Throughout the clan, even those who are not Alchemists can speak a thing or two about alchemy, and their ability to appraise pills is unparalleled.
After countless years of development, the clan has numerous strong practitioners and an abundance of high-grade Alchemists, making its power extremely vast.
…
Dan Ding City, one of the cities in the Medicine World.
In the center of the square stood a bronze Medicine Cauldron, nearly three meters tall. The surface of the Medicine Cauldron was adorned with lifelike pill patterns, and a faint medicinal fragrance permeated the surroundings, invigorating the mind. Beside it, three figures stood.
Leading them were two stern-faced old men, both looking at the young man whose palm was pressed against the Medicine Cauldron's surface.
The young man was dressed in simple clothes, his long black hair casually tied behind him, and his slightly raised face was quite handsome. He was currently closing his eyes, seemingly sensing something. As time passed, the pill patterns on the Medicine Cauldron suddenly lit up.
A moment later, three pill patterns slowly emitted light, like stars.
Seeing these three pill patterns light up, the slightly older elder said indifferently, "Yao Yan, twelve years old, Six-Star Dou Practitioner strength, third-grade Bloodline level, talent is acceptable."
"Unfortunately, it's a bit lacking."
The other middle-aged man beside him sighed, seemingly dissatisfied with the result.
As a Dou Di Bloodline family, the importance of Bloodline is beyond doubt. The Medicine Clan has been passed down to this day, and its population has long exceeded ten million. Many of them are from intermarriage with other clans, or disciples taken in, or relatives, and also those who have attached themselves as in-laws.
Regardless of their origin, being able to live in the Medicine Clan's ancestral land means being a member of the Medicine Clan, with an inseparable kinship with the Medicine Clan, though they will be given the name of a branch family.
Only those whose Bloodline level reaches above fourth-grade are considered core clan members, who can be Focus on training by the clan, provided with a large amount of heavenly treasures and earthly materials to nourish their Bloodline power.
The young man in front of them was clearly quite lacking, failing to meet the Medicine Clan's requirements.
The difference between a branch family and the main family, though only a single word, is a world apart.
"He is still young. When he comes of age, his Bloodline level might reach above fourth-grade. Even if it's a bit lacking, if his alchemy skills can reach a certain level, it can make up for it. Our Medicine Clan doesn't just look at Bloodline level, young man. Work hard and strive to leave your name on the Ancestral Clan Stele after you come of age."
The older elder looked sternly at the boy, Yao Yan, in front of him and exhorted him.
He was an elder in the Dan Ding City clan school, responsible for teaching and selecting talents in Dan Ding City. He had some impression of Yao Yan, a junior with decent talent, so he said a few more words.
"Yes, Elder!"
Yao Yan opened his eyes, cupped his hands neither humbly nor arrogantly, and then glanced at the towering stone stele erected in the sky, his face full of longing.
That stele, no matter how far it was from here, was the Medicine Clan's Ancestral Clan Stele. Only those who had contributed to the Medicine Clan could be recorded on it. Basically, every Medicine Clan disciple regarded it as a goal and took pride in it.
Yao Shan saw Yao Yan's expression and nodded in satisfaction, saying, "You may go."
Yao Yan respectfully saluted the two and then turned to walk out of the square.
Today was the day of the Bloodline test, and the square was already surrounded by people, many of whom knew Yao Yan.
A black-faced uncle in armor saw Yao Yan's dejected expression and couldn't help but comfort him, "Don't be discouraged, young man. A third-grade Bloodline is good. You can still be a captain in my Iron Guard later."
The Iron Guard, the Medicine Clan's army dedicated to protecting the safety of the clan's territory, was responsible for dispelling fierce beasts and outsiders around the city and guarding the city's safety.
"Okay, Uncle Tie."
Yao Yan forced a smile in response, his face more or less showing some dejection.
"Don't talk nonsense, Little Yanzi's alchemy talent is still good. There are few stronger than him in this generation."
"Right, right, right, look at my brain, I almost forgot, haha."
…
Yao Yan politely responded to everyone's comfort, his face still showing dejection, and slowly walked towards home, seemingly very disappointed.
Seeing this, everyone did not go forward to continue comforting him, because they saw such a scene every year.
Not everyone is a favored child of heaven.
There are many cities within the Medicine Clan's ancestral land, and each city has a population of hundreds of thousands. Each has a school, and all Medicine Clan disciples can enroll. From a young age, they can access alchemy, which is difficult for ordinary people in the outside world to access. This is the foundation of an ancient clan.
It is hard to imagine how difficult it is to stand out from them.
What's more, there are also core clan members. Compared to those prodigies, these people can truly only be considered ordinary people.
As he left the square, the look of dejection on Yao Yan's face lessened considerably. In fact, he wasn't dejected at all, and was even unsurprised by this result, because his deceased parents in this life were merely a Dou Wang and a Dou Ling, and his father didn't even have the Medicine Clan bloodline. He had long anticipated this outcome.
He even found the three-grade bloodline a bit surprising. It was higher than expected.
After all, in the world of Battle Through the Heavens, for Dou Di families, bloodline inheritance is a certainty. If the parents' bloodline concentration isn't high enough, the difficulty for their descendants to produce powerful bloodline offspring is akin to a gacha game, completely relying on a mutation.
How strong could the bloodline power of ordinary Medicine Clan disciples be, without powerful bloodlines and without being nourished by heavenly treasures from a young age?
Yao Yan never thought he was an exception, even though he had transmigrated.
He transmigrated in his mother's womb. Not long after he transmigrated, his father died in the Shen Nong Mountain Range, reportedly at the hands of a group of fourth-tier magical beasts. His mother also passed away shortly after, leaving him a lonely young child, as if to confirm the saying: transmigrators' parents are a high-risk profession.
For this, Yao Yan felt very sorry.
He didn't know if it was a coincidence or something else.
At that time, Yao Yan even wondered if he was the so-called protagonist, with a system by his side. He ultimately found that he wasn't. His only advantages were perhaps his Soul Power, which was much stronger than his peers, and his familiarity with the plot. This allowed him to quickly grasp new knowledge from a young age, which also contributed to his excellent alchemy talent.
After several years of effort, at the age of twelve, he was already a two-grade Alchemist, capable of refining dozens of one- and two-grade medicinal pills.
Yes, it was that exaggerated.
In the outside world, this would be an almost heaven-defying existence, but in the Medicine Clan, it could only be considered good, far from being called a genius or a prodigy.
For Medicine Clan disciples, refining low-grade medicinal pills was truly not difficult. They had ample medicinal ingredients from a young age for practice, and Alchemists taught them hand-in-hand. Therefore, most Medicine Clan members were basically three- or four-grade Alchemists by adulthood, even the guards.
For them, the difficulty lay in breaking through to six-grade and above.
"It's fine if the bloodline concentration is ordinary, at least it won't attract attention."
Yao Yan comforted himself inwardly. He was actually a bit worried that his bloodline concentration would be too high, leading to him being specially nurtured by the Medicine Clan. If that happened, he would truly be finished; he wouldn't be able to escape, and might even be targeted by the Soul Clan.
Yes, in recent years, he had already started planning his escape.
Because staying in the Medicine Clan truly had no future, and the future was even bleaker.
In the original work.
The entire Medicine Clan, except for a few individuals, was refined by the Void Swallowing Flame, including tens of millions of branch clan members, all turned into resources for Soul Emperor to advance to Dou Di. The textual description was incomparably tragic; if not for Xiao Yan, the original protagonist, being present, it is estimated that not a single person would have escaped.
In fact, when Yao Yan learned that he had transmigrated to this world, he began to consider his future path.
As for changing all of this… without Dou Di strength, what could he use to fight the Soul Clan?
The Soul Clan, that was the peak power on the entire Dou Qi Continent.
Especially Soul Emperor, that ruthless character, who plotted for a thousand years to break through to Dou Di, and at the end directly sacrificed half of Central Plains and several ancient clans, slaughtering trillions of lives. If not for the appearance of Xiao Yan, the original protagonist, he would have been the ultimate victor.
Compared to him, the patriarchs of the other ancient clans were undoubtedly unremarkable, all content to muddle along in their comfort zones.
This might also be why Soul Emperor only held Xiao Xuan in high regard; at least Xiao Xuan dared to take a gamble, to risk the strength of his entire clan.
Thinking of this.
Yao Yan couldn't help but think of the Burning Flame Skill.
Having transmigrated to the Battle Through the Heavens world, how could he not have thoughts about the Burning Flame Skill? Even if the risk of cultivating it was no different from shooting oneself, it was the only cheat in Battle Through the Heavens. Although the risk was extremely high in the early stages of cultivation, the returns in the later stages were ridiculously high, a path directly to Dou Di.
As for the path of the emperor pill… if you don't have the strength of a Nine-Star Dou Sheng Peak, you don't even have the right to glance at it.
Therefore, a few years ago, Yao Yan had inquired about Yao Chen, partly because of the Burning Flame Skill, and partly to determine the timeline.
The name Yao Chen was quite taboo in the Medicine Clan, because he was a discarded son of the Medicine Clan, and in his youth, he had even clashed with Yao Wan Gui, the elder of the Medicine Clan's Disciplinary Hall. Yet, he had made a great name for himself in the outside world, not only winning the championship of the Dan Tower's grand assembly but also establishing a power like Starfall Pavilion.
His own strength had even reached Dou Zun, and he was known as Medicine Venerable.
This series of events was quite stimulating for ordinary Medicine Clan members; everyone likes to hear gossip, let alone gossip related to an elder.
So Yao Yan easily obtained information about him.
About a dozen years ago, Yao Chen suffered a backlash from alchemy and died…
Yes, he died.
Evidently, Yao Chen's 'good disciple' Han Feng had already betrayed him, backstabbing the teacher who treated him like his own son. The gears of the plot were rolling forward.
As for Xiao Yan, he had not yet appeared.
Unfortunately, Yao Yan couldn't obtain an accurate timeline from this. To determine it, he either needed to find out how old Gu Xun'er was now, or travel to the Gama Empire. Both of these things were impossible for him at the moment.
"Thinking so much is meaningless."
Yao Yan sighed softly. For him at present, accumulating strength in the Medicine Clan was the right path. With strength, he would have the qualifications to plan for the future.
After all, in the world of Battle Through the Heavens, strength determines everything.