Seventh-Tier Alchemist

While Yun Yun and Cai Lin set up the barrier, Xiao Tian used his soul power to add another layer inside it. Even if a celestial phenomenon descended, unless someone came specifically to investigate, no one would know what had happened here!

As for Xiao Yu, Xiao Tian directly tossed her into a room and told her to cultivate peacefully and send away anyone who came.

After the three of them finished setting up the barrier in the backyard, Xiao Tian said, "I'm going to focus on refining pills now. I prepared the materials when I went out yesterday. All you need to do is make sure no one disturbs me."

"Mm."

"Alright."

Xiao Tian took out a high-grade red medicinal cauldron from his storage ring. He had purchased it from the system for 4,500 points! It was ridiculously expensive, but the high-grade alchemy cauldrons produced by the system were no worse than those on the Heavenly Cauldron Ranking.

After Xiao Tian threw all the ingredients for the Life Devouring Pill into it, he began refining the pill. A violet-red Heavenly Flame ignited in his hand, with tiny flecks of green flame flickering within it.

As the cauldron blazed, the refining began. This was Xiao Tian's first attempt at refining a seventh-tier pill. Although his soul had already broken through to the realm of a seventh-tier Alchemist, it was still his first time, so Xiao Tian was exceptionally serious.

Feeling the inherent power of the medicinal ingredients and the energy resonating with heaven and earth, Xiao Tian could not help but marvel. A seventh-tier pill already possessed such energy—what would an eighth-tier pill be like?

Xiao Tian controlled the fused Heavenly Flame as he refined the ingredients, constantly adjusting the temperature of the flames and extracting the ingredients' essence. Under the scorching fire, the medicinal herbs shed their useless portions, and clanging collision sounds rang out from within the cauldron.

"It seems that without a good high-grade medicinal cauldron, a high-level Alchemist really can't refine high-grade pills!" With this kind of backlash, an ordinary cauldron would have exploded long ago.

He added another surge of flame around the inside of the medicinal cauldron, melting the discarded medicinal residue so it would not cause trouble.

Watching Xiao Tian refine a seventh-tier pill, Yun Yun stared at him in fascination. She recalled their first meeting, when he had been no more than a Da Dou Shi. When they met again, he had nearly lost his life. Yet as time passed, she had followed him all the way to this point, and he had transformed into a true man. At such a young age, he could already refine seventh-tier pills!

I really have to thank the Purple Crystal Winged Lion King. If I hadn't carelessly been sealed by it, perhaps I would have missed the most important person in my life.

Unfortunately, Yun Yun did not know that even without being sealed, her fate had long since been decided. After all, he had not read the original novel for nothing.

When Cai Lin turned to inspect the barrier, she saw Yun Yun watching Xiao Tian beside her. What was with that reminiscing expression on her face?

She then flicked a pebble over. Yun Yun felt a sharp pain in her leg and looked at Cai Lin. "Crazy woman, why did you sneak attack me?!"

"Stupid woman, watch the barrier properly!" Cai Lin snapped back without hesitation. Since she had heard Xiao Tian call Yun Yun "stupid woman" before, she had gotten used to it as well.

"You—"

"You what? Watch properly," Cai Lin said flatly.

At that moment, Xiao Tian's side began to react as well. Dark clouds started gathering in the sky, while the pill in front of Xiao Tian was about to finish fusing.

Looking at the Pill Lightning in the sky, Xiao Tian thought, Looks like it's about to succeed. My first seventh-tier pill is about to be born!

He said to the two women beside him, "Control the barrier's power properly later, and be careful. If you truly can't stop it, then don't force yourselves. Your safety comes first!"

The flames ceased and the pill rose. Dark clouds gathered as lightning descended with crackling peals. As long as Xiao Tian stopped the Pill Lightning's assault, he would successfully refine his first seventh-tier pill!

He shook his head. Unfortunately, he had no puppets, so all this Pill Lightning would go to waste! With a sigh, he thought that life could not possibly always go exactly as one wished.

A bolt of lightning blasted toward the pill.

Without hesitation, Xiao Tian circulated his Dou Qi and struck out.

Mountain Splitting Seal!!

Boom~

The lightning tribulation's strike was comparable to an attack from a Dou Zong expert. Even Xiao Tian found it extremely taxing.

Sea Turning Seal!!

Boom~

Only after unleashing two high-level Dou Techniques in succession did he manage to withstand the Pill Lightning's bombardment.

Xiao Tian successfully collected the first seventh-tier pill into a bottle.

Yun Yun and Cai Lin, however, were not having an easy time. To prevent the energy within the barrier from running wild, the two of them had to join forces to disperse it.

After putting away the pill, Xiao Tian walked over to the two women and asked, "How was it? How powerful was it? Could you take it?"

"This King can take at most two strikes right now. After all, it was the energy released jointly by Xiao Tian and the Pill Lightning. Even though Yun Yun and Cai Lin are both Dou Zongs, dispersing the aftershock consumes even more energy."

"Me too."

Xiao Tian said, "This will be our training for the next year. We'll start with once a day. Once you adapt, we'll begin doing it twice."

"Alright, cultivate for now. We'll refine the second pill tomorrow," Xiao Tian said.

After returning to his room, he began sensing the fluctuations in his soul power from today's alchemy. I really didn't expect it—my soul power has actually reached the Heavenly Realm!

Meanwhile, while Xiao Tian had been refining pills, Yao Chen's soul seemed to have sensed it as well. He said to Xiao Yan, "Little Yan, cultivate properly. That brat Xiao Tian may have already become a seventh-tier Alchemist! I seemed to sense it just now."

Although he did not know why that kid had set up a seal, if it was a Heavenly Realm soul, it could still detect it.

"What? Xiao Tian has already broken through to become a seventh-tier Alchemist? He's really amazing." Xiao Yan spoke with a face full of envy.

"That's why you need to work hard too. Not only must you cultivate your strength, but you must also practice alchemy properly. The higher an Alchemist's rank, the more convenient it is to travel this continent!" Seeing Xiao Yan brimming with fighting spirit, Yao Chen felt that with Xiao Tian serving as a source of pressure, Xiao Yan would grow even faster.

However, haste made waste. It would not do to focus only on breakthroughs while neglecting a stable foundation. Seeing Xiao Yan's fighting spirit ignite, Yao Chen was very satisfied.

With Xiao Yan's fighting spirit aflame, Yao Chen began urging him to learn fifth-tier alchemy. Xiao Yan cultivated during the day and refined fifth-tier pills at night. He barely slept at all.

As for Pan Gate's affairs, he threw them all to others. All the fifth-tier pills he refined were turned into operating funds for Pan Gate.

Xiao Tian had no idea that Old Yao had long since detected his barrier, much less that Xiao Yan had developed even stronger fighting spirit because of him!

After Xiao Tian had recovered almost completely, he looked at Cai Lin and Yun Yun beside him. Sensing their auras, he found that they had nearly recovered as well.

He walked into the room and saw Xiao Yu sitting there.

Cousin Xiao Tian asked, "What's wrong? Why are you spacing out here?"

"Hmph, you won't let me go out, and the commotion coming from inside makes it impossible for me to cultivate properly! Of course I'm upset." Xiao Yu glared at Cousin Xiao Tian.

"Hehe, don't be angry. I'll take you to the Outer Academy to see Xiao Ning." Cousin Xiao Tian smiled.

"Really? I can go out? I miss my friends so much. And I haven't seen my little brother or Cousin Xiao Mei in ages." Xiao Yu smiled upon hearing that.

Xiao Yu grabbed Cousin Xiao Tian and ran outside. As they rushed out the door, she said, "But how are we getting out? We don't have a flying magical beast, and we need the elders' approval."

Cousin Xiao Tian pulled Xiao Yu into his arms, spread the wings on his back, and flew toward the Outer Academy.

"With your man here, do you still need to worry about getting out?" he said with a smug look.

After arriving at the Outer Academy, Xiao Yu found Xiao Ning and Xiao Mei. They were both delighted to see Xiao Yu. After all, only the two of them from the Xiao Family were still outside, and seeing family naturally made them happy.

When they saw Cousin Xiao Tian standing beside Xiao Yu, they called out at the same time.

"Brother-in-law!"

"Cousin Xiao Tian!"

Cousin Xiao Tian nodded, then took out two storage rings and tossed one to each of them.

"The resources inside are enough for you to break through to the Dou Emperor realm. Make good use of them. Try to enter the Inner Academy next time. If anything comes up, look for Hu Gan," Cousin Xiao Tian said.

The two stared excitedly at the storage rings in their hands. Dou Emperor! These rings actually contained enough resources to break through to the Dou Emperor realm. And Cousin Xiao Tian had simply tossed them over without a second thought.

Xiao Ning felt that his sister was amazing. With a brother-in-law like this, his future would be limitless.

Xiao Mei looked at Xiao Yu with undisguised envy and asked, "Sister Xiao Yu, what cultivation level are you at now?"

"Just a five-star Dou Ling, that's all," Xiao Yu replied.

The two were shocked, and as they looked at Cousin Xiao Tian, they became even more aware of how powerful he was.

If I had chased after Brother Xiao Tian from the start, I probably would have become stronger too, Xiao Mei thought as she looked at him.

Unfortunately, Cousin Xiao Tian had no such thoughts. To him, they were merely members of the Xiao Family. Although Xiao Mei had grown into a striking beauty, she did not draw much of his attention.

After giving them the resources, he accompanied Xiao Yu to meet some old friends, such as Xue Ni from the recruitment period. Cousin Xiao Tian gave her a few medicinal pills as well. They were useless to him anyway; he merely refined them for fun whenever he had nothing else to do.

On their way back, Xiao Yu said to Cousin Xiao Tian, "Maybe if I hadn't gone looking for you that day, I would still be outside working hard now. Maybe if you hadn't been so overbearing that day..."

"There are no so-called maybes. Even if you hadn't come looking for me that day, your personality would still have caught my attention. So don't overthink it." Cousin Xiao Tian smiled.

"Didn't you notice what Cousin Xiao Mei feels for you?" Xiao Yu asked.

"I only see her as a clanswoman." With that, he picked Xiao Yu up and flew toward the Inner Academy.

Hearing that, Xiao Yu wrapped her arms around Cousin Xiao Tian's neck and gave his cheek a light kiss. Thank you, she thought.

At least it meant Cousin Xiao Tian was not the kind of man who pounced on every beautiful woman he saw.

Cousin Xiao Tian looked at the little woman in his arms, smiled, and said nothing. Then he accelerated toward the Inner Academy.