The cave was silent except for the slow, heavy bubbling of lava.
Hao Tian sat on a jagged rock, his back pressed against the rough stone wall. The faint red light from the magma illuminated his pale face and the small jade bottle in his trembling hand.
Three pills.
Three chances.
Or three deaths.
He had already examined them carefully. Even without any alchemy knowledge, he could tell that these pills were not ordinary. The surface of each pill was covered in faint, natural-looking patterns that resembled flame veins. They were not carved, not drawn—more like they had grown that way.
When he opened the bottle, the heat that escaped made his heart tighten.
"These aren't normal pills…" he muttered.
The skeleton of Yan Guichen sat quietly not far away, as if watching him.
Hao Tian took a slow breath.
He did not rush.
He had survived in the mines for years because he knew one simple truth: acting blindly got people killed faster than weakness ever did.
He picked up the Nine Yang Pill Refinement Manual again and flipped through a few pages.
He still couldn't understand most of it.
The diagrams were complex, the text profound, and many of the terms were completely beyond him. But compared to before…
He could at least tell which parts were introductions, which parts were advanced sections, and which parts were completely out of his depth.
Just that alone made his heart tremble.
This thing… is far beyond anything this world normally has.
His gaze fell back to the pills.
At the very front of the manual, in a part that seemed more like a personal note than a technique, Yan Guichen had written a few lines:
"Origin Reconstruction Pills. Divine grade. Extinct in the world.
An individual may consume at most three in their lifetime.
They destroy the old vessel and rebuild a new one.
Success is rebirth. Failure is death."
Hao Tian closed his eyes.
He did not have the luxury of hesitation.
His original body was trash. His foundation was broken. Even if he left this cave, he would still be a miner, still be stepped on, still be unable to change anything.
He picked up the first pill.
It was hot.
Not burning his skin, but hot in a deep, uncomfortable way, like holding a piece of metal that had been sitting near a furnace.
He swallowed.
The world exploded.
Pain slammed into him like a collapsing mountain.
It wasn't like being burned. It was like being unmade.
His bones screamed.
His muscles twisted violently.
His internal organs felt like they were being torn apart and kneaded by an invisible hand.
Hao Tian's body slammed into the stone floor as he lost control, his limbs spasming uncontrollably.
"G—AAAAH!!!"
His scream echoed madly through the cavern.
His dantian was the first to collapse.
Not metaphorically.
He felt it crack.
Then shatter.
A terrifying emptiness spread from his lower abdomen, followed by a wave of nausea so intense he vomited blood onto the ground.
Then came the meridians.
One by one, they ruptured.
It felt like countless red-hot needles were being dragged through his body, ripping everything apart from the inside.
Hao Tian clawed at the ground, his fingers bleeding.
His vision blurred violently.
His ears rang.
He could barely even think.
At some point, he realized he was crying—but he couldn't tell if it was from pain, fear, or instinct.
So this is… divine-grade…
This is not something a human should endure…
His consciousness began to fade.
And right at the edge of collapse, something inside him moved.
The Nine Transformations Origin Flame.
It drifted from the depths of his ruined dantian like a dying ember.
And then it burned.
Not outward.
Inward.
It burned away the shattered remains of his dantian.
It burned the broken meridians.
It burned the impurities hidden deep in his flesh, blood, and bones—things that had accumulated since birth.
The pain did not lessen.
If anything, it became more refined. More focused. More absolute.
But within that destruction, something new began to take shape.
Hao Tian did not know how long he was unconscious.
When he opened his eyes, the first thing he felt was cold.
Then heat.
Then… a strange, hollow comfort.
Like lying in a furnace that no longer wanted to kill him.
He tried to move his fingers.
They moved.
He tried to breathe.
It hurt—but it worked.
He slowly sat up.
His clothes were in tatters. His body was covered in dried blood and black filth. The ground around him looked like something had crawled out of a corpse.
He looked down at his abdomen.
He could feel it.
A dantian.
Not the old, leaky, useless one.
A new one.
It was empty.
But it was… whole.
He closed his eyes and carefully sensed his body.
His meridians were still sore, still burning faintly, but they were wide. Smooth. Complete.
Not twisted.
Not blocked.
Not broken.
His breathing became rapid.
"I… survived…"
He laughed weakly.
Then stopped.
Because he remembered.
This was only the first pill.
He looked at the jade bottle.
Two remained.
His hand hesitated for a long moment.
Then he picked up the second.
The second pill did not begin with an explosion.
It began with heat.
A deep, penetrating warmth that spread from his stomach to every corner of his body.
Then came pressure.
Like invisible hands were kneading his flesh, compressing his bones, tightening his tendons.
Hao Tian groaned, his teeth clenched.
His muscles swelled slightly, then compressed.
His bones creaked faintly.
His internal organs felt like they were being wrapped in a layer of protective heat.
Black filth began to seep out of his pores again, accompanied by a sharp, foul smell.
He almost passed out from the stench alone.
But he endured.
This pain was different.
It was not destruction.
It was tempering.
He could clearly feel that his body was becoming denser. Stronger. More resilient.
When the sensation finally faded, Hao Tian lay on the ground for a long time, breathing heavily.
Then he slowly sat up.
He clenched his fist.
This time, the movement felt… solid.
He did not feel weak.
He did not feel hollow.
He felt… grounded.
He looked at the bottle.
One pill left.
His heart pounded.
He did not hesitate anymore.
He swallowed it.
The third pill went straight into his dantian.
The Nine Transformations Origin Flame trembled.
Then it flared slightly.
Not violently.
Just enough to guide.
A powerful warmth spread from his dantian outward.
His entire body seemed to fall into a strange rhythm.
His heartbeat.
His breathing.
Even the subtle movement of blood in his veins.
Everything began to align.
At the same time, he felt something else.
The world around him…
He could faintly sense something.
Thin.
Scattered.
Hard to grasp.
But real.
Qi…?
He instinctively recalled the breathing method from the manual's introduction.
It wasn't a cultivation technique.
It was just a supporting alchemy breathing art used to stabilize flame control and perception.
He followed it carefully.
Slow inhale.
Slow exhale.
A tiny thread of warmth entered his body.
It was so weak it was almost imaginary.
But when it passed through his meridians, he felt it.
It was real.
He guided it, clumsily, awkwardly.
The moment it completed a full cycle—
HUM.
His dantian trembled.
Something inside him clicked into place.
A faint, but unmistakable change spread through his body.
Body Tempering — First Layer.
Hao Tian froze.
He did not cheer.
He did not laugh.
He just sat there, stunned.
He knew this.
This was not real cultivation progress in the normal sense.
This was a side effect.
A result of his body being forcibly reconstructed into something that could finally hold Qi.
Even so…
It was the first time in his life he had stepped into the path of cultivation.
He exhaled slowly.
He picked up the Nine Yang Pill Refinement Manual again.
This time, when he looked at it…
It was still profound.
Still complex.
Still far beyond him.
But…
Some of the outermost concepts no longer felt completely alien.
He could understand the purpose of certain steps.
He could vaguely grasp why some flame control methods were arranged in that way.
But anything deeper?
Anything truly core?
It was still like looking at a mountain through thick fog.
He frowned slightly.
Then relaxed.
Good.
If I could understand a divine manual immediately, that would be the real problem.
He flipped to the beginning and started reading from the most basic parts.
Slowly.
Carefully.
He forced himself not to rush.
Not to fantasize.
He understood very well:
This was not something he could finish in days or months.
This was something that could take years.
He looked at the skeleton again and bowed deeply.
"Senior Yan Guichen… I don't know why you left this here."
"But I will not insult it."
After that, he began to clean himself in the small pool of relatively cooler water near the edge of the cave.
When he saw his reflection, he froze.
He looked… different.
Not handsome.
Not dramatic.
But cleaner.
Straighter.
His eyes looked clearer.
His posture felt more stable.
Even his breathing felt deeper.
He clenched his fist again.
He could clearly feel the difference between this body and his old one.
It was like comparing rotten wood to tempered iron.
He did not overestimate himself.
He knew:
Right now, he was still weak.
Very weak.
But…
He finally had a path.
He searched the skeleton again and found:
A small, nearly empty storage pouch
Some flame-related notes
And a final warning carved into the stone:
"Below Body Tempering Third Layer, do not attempt to leave through the upper tunnels. The beasts will eat you alive."
Hao Tian looked at the dark passage above.
Then back at himself.
"…Looks like I'm not leaving yet."
He sat down.
Closed his eyes.
And began practicing the breathing method again.
Not to become strong quickly.
But to become stable.
The lava bubbled quietly.
The flame in his dantian flickered faintly.
And in the depths of the cave, a boy who had once been nothing finally began to build a foundation that could carry the weight of heaven.