I Am A Notorious Hidden Boss In The Alternate World

"Look at you, all sparkling and refreshed now. How do you feel?" Albion asked while gazing at Fenriri and her lustrous skin akin to that of a newborn baby.

"Great, Master! I feel so light and alive!" Fenriri replied excitedly. 

She deeply inhaled the cold air before gasping in satisfaction, as if she is learning what it was like to truly breathe for the first time. 

The sensation hit differently with all her pores cleansed and opened. 

"Then what are you still waiting for? Quickly start cultivating and see the difference," Albion urged. 

"Yes, Master!"

Fenriri quickly sat down and began running her breathing technique, absorbing the cold spiritual energy from the atmosphere. 

She had yet to learn how to breathe through her pores, but the body itself naturally adapted and already started absorbing spiritual energy subconsciously.

Even though Fenriri was not consciously controlling her pores, she could immediately feel the increased speed in the amount of spiritual energy she could gather. 

As Fenriri devoured the surrounding spiritual energy greedily, Albion shortly found himself a spot inside the cave and took out his pill cauldron. 

"Guess I'll practice my alchemy," Albion mulled. 

"According to the art of pill refining, greater concentration and fire control are demanded, the higher the level of pill being refined, which in turn, requires the pill refiner to expend a lot of mental energy."

"At the same time, actively using Empyrean's Decree to control the flame while practicing alchemy is practically killing two birds with one stone, allowing me to improve both my alchemy and my soul."

The soul was like a muscle; the more he uses his mental ability, the stronger his soul becomes, which in turn, improves the strength of his mental ability. 

"But what should I refine, I wonder?" Albion pondered for a short moment before he took a brief glance at Fenriri and decided, "Maybe something useful for her cultivation."

Fenriri's present cultivation was equivalent to an Early-stage Innate Realm Martial Artist.

But unlike regular Early-stage Innate Realm Martial Artists, Fenriri did not have any innate energy but spiritual energy instead. 

"Seems like the usual cultivation pills for the Innate Realm will not work, not to mention she cultivates a cold attribute. Seems like I will have to make use of these Grade-3 Frigid-attribute Spirit Herbs I just gained from Blue Wyvern City…" 

After briefly musing over the Dark Emperor's memories integrated with him, Albion quickly found a suitable Frigid-attribute Spirit Pill to refine with the herbs he had on hand. 

"The Grade-3 Resplendent Snow Pill it is… But, alas, I can't deny that I am still an amateur at pill refining even if I have some portion of the Dark Emperor's alchemy knowledge integrated with my soul."

Albion also did not have many spirit herbs to play around with, so he could not be extravagant for his alchemy practice either. 

"Guess I will have to cheat a bit." 

Ding!

<You have expended 5 units of divine energy to acquire Expert-level Alchemy>

<Intermediate-level Alchemy → Expert-level Alchemy>

<Balance: 18/1000 Divine Energy>

After upgrading to Expert-level Alchemy, Albion did not have to worry about the prospect of failure in refining Grade-3 Spirit Pills.

+1 Fire control proficiency

+1 Pill refining proficiency

Albion commenced his pill refinement immediately, starting with the preheating on the pill cauldron with his Ashura Flames before he directly tossed the spirit herbs. 

+1 Fire control proficiency

+2 Pill refining proficiency

+4 Pill refining proficiency

Ding!

<You have successfully refined a batch of 7 Grade-3 Resplendent Snow Pills>

+13 Pill refining proficiency

A few minutes later, Albion received a string of notifications before killing the flames and taking a look inside the pill cauldron.

Among the 7 Grade-3 Resplendent Snow Pills, there was 1 pill of Mid-rank quality, 2 pills of Low-rank quality, and 4 pills at the so-called Garbage-rank quality.

Furthermore, there were two black smudges besides the batch of pills, which failed to form pills and become burnt medicinal dregs instead.

Albion's lips immediately twitched before he rubbed his forehead with distress, "How come I am still refining pills of such terrible quality?"

Ding!

[Expert-level Alchemy only guarantees the host to refine at least 1 Grade-3 Spirit Pill successfully and has little to do with its quality.]

Goldfinger informed.

'What's the point of being called Expert-level if the pills I refine are still considered trash?' Albion asked with a look of speechlessness.

[To increase the quality of the spirit pills, the host can either increase your alchemy level or learn some alchemy techniques to enhance it.]

Goldfinger suggested.

'Ah? No wonder the quality of my pills is so bad. I haven't been using any alchemy techniques! To think that the portion of Dark Emperor's memories I integrated would miss such a vital piece of information!' 

Albion quickly understood the root of his problem; alchemy techniques! Without technique, anything would lack finesse and efficiency!

"To think that I would overlook such a simple truth… I am a failure as a reader of cultivation s…." Albion muttered self-deprecatingly.

"Haiz, I'm running a bit low of divine energy… If I want to acquire some alchemy techniques, I will need to be specific with the next memory fragment I absorb."

Absorbing another memory fragment also meant taking another step closer to the Dark Emperor, but at this point, Albion could not care less about the Dark Emperor's influence. 

He was already in too deep to give a sh*t about it.

After taking out a pill bottle from the Ashura Ring to store the freshly refined Grade-3 Resplendent Snow Pills, Albion stowed away the pill cauldron and sat down in a meditative position. 

Shortly after closing his eyes and entering the sea of consciousness, Albion surfed the cluster memory fragments with his mind like he was taking a casual stroll in the supermarket, wondering what item he should buy.

'The Dark Emperor—No, I should say the Ashura Emperor contains far too many memories of carnage in the Nine Divine Heavens… These memory fragments are a big no-no, at least for now.'

It was no surprise for Albion that the path of Ashura was all about battle and slaughter.