Vermillion Bird Street, Medicine Manor.
"Grandfather, Grandfather, I successfully refined Foundation Building Liquid!"
A young woman came rushing into the hall, holding something in her hands, her words brimming with joy.
She had skin as smooth as jade and features of breathtaking beauty. Her waist was slender as a willow branch, and her three thousand strands of black hair cascaded down to her waist like a waterfall. Her eyes, in particular, were pure and lively.
"Outrageous! How can a young woman be so hasty? In front of all these Elders, how can you behave so disgracefully?"
"And stop devoting all your time to studying the Art of Pill Dao. Pill Dao has fallen into decline. You should spend less effort on this unorthodox path."
Yao Qingyin, scolded by her father, Yao Xuan, looked at the hall full of Elders, stuck out her tongue, and quietly stood to one side.
"Xuan, don't talk nonsense. How can Pill Dao be an unorthodox path? Our ancestor, Yao Xingchen, was the greatest Pill Dao master in Dali in a thousand years."
"To speak like that is to show great disrespect to our ancestor!"
Yao Qingyang, Clan Leader of the Yao Family, sat in the seat of honor. His brows drew together, and his expression showed displeasure.
"Father, I meant no disrespect to our ancestor."
Seeing the displeasure on Yao Qingyang's face, Yao Xuan hurriedly explained, "We're in the Age of Dharma's End. The path of alchemy has fallen into extreme decline."
"Even if you possess powerful Art of Pill Dao, without Spiritual Herbs and immortal materials, you still can't refine powerful pills."
"Qingyin's Martial Arts aptitude would place her among the top three of the younger generation in Medicine Manor. If she put her mind to cultivating Martial Arts, how could she still be only in the Innate Realm?"
Yao Xuan had long been dissatisfied with his precious daughter's obsession with alchemy. But Yao Qingyin had Yao Qingyang's backing, so there wasn't much he could do.
"All right. Our Yao Family was once the foremost Pill Dao Family, after all. But times have changed, and we have no choice but to abandon Pill Dao and take up Martial Arts."
"Still, we can't cast aside our ancestors' legacy. Since Qingyin is devoted to the Art of Pill Dao, let her study it. If she can become a Fourth-Rank alchemist, she'll be a great help to Medicine Manor."
Three hundred years ago, for the sake of the family's development, the ninth Clan Leader of the Yao Family had decided that the entire family would abandon Pill Dao and take up Martial Arts.
But Yao Qingyang still felt some reluctance. He always dreamed of restoring Medicine Manor's reputation as the foremost Pill Dao Family, and he had placed all his hopes in Yao Qingyin.
"Come, Qingyin. Let Grandfather see your Foundation Building Liquid."
"Yes, Grandfather."
Yao Qingyin ran up to Yao Qingyang with a broad smile and placed the porcelain bottle containing the Foundation Building Liquid in his hand.
He pulled out the stopper and held the Foundation Building Liquid beneath his nose. His expression changed instantly, and the bottle in his hand nearly slipped from his grasp.
"This... This is... top-grade Foundation Building Liquid! Judging by its color, it's already nearly... nearly at the pinnacle grade."
Yao Qingyang's heart churned like a storm-tossed sea. He looked at Yao Qingyin with a complicated expression.
Only the most exceptional Pill Dao masters could refine a pill to the pinnacle grade. Although Foundation Building Liquid was only a second-rank pill, Yao Qingyin was just an eighteen-year-old girl.
To achieve such a level at her age—such Pill Dao Talent would have been rare even in Dali a thousand years ago, at the height of Pill Dao's Prosperous Era.
What a pity she was born at the wrong time. If another Heaven and Earth Cataclysm came, with Qingyin's talent, she might seize the opportunity and become a figure like their ancestor, Yao Xingchen.
"Hahahaha! To have achieved so much in the Art of Pill Dao at not even eighteen—if she'd been born in a Prosperous Era, she might well have become another Yao Xingchen."
As Yao Qingyang sank into thought, a cool voice echoed through the hall.
"May I ask which distinguished expert is there? Please show yourself and join me for a conversation."
The sudden voice made the faces of all the Medicine Manor Elders in the hall change dramatically.
Yao Qingyang was equally shocked. He considered his Martial Arts attainments formidable, and his cultivation had already reached the Great Grandmaster Realm. Across all of Dali, fewer than ten people could silently slip past his senses, aside from those old monsters in the Great Li Imperial Palace.
Moreover, the voice had come from barely thirty feet away. Yet he hadn't sensed it at all.
In other words, if the visitor meant them harm, Yao Qingyang could be dead in an instant.
Yao Qingyang faced the threat like a great enemy, staring fixedly at the doorway, beads of sweat covering his forehead.
Before long, two figures, one black and one white, gradually appeared outside the hall.
"Who are you? What business do you have at Medicine Manor?"
The two figures entered together. Yue Ji, dressed in white robes, spoke first. She had been the one to speak just now.
"Clan Leader Yao, I am Yue Ji, the Demonic Cult Flag Bearer. I've come to Medicine Manor to ask you for something."
"The Demon Sect? You're with the Demon Sect!"
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
Yao Qingyang's expression changed drastically. Disbelief filled his eyes, and he cried out hoarsely, "If you really are Yue Ji, the Demonic Cult Flag Bearer, how could you have evaded the Night Watch Division's search?"
"The Night Watch Division has a Peak of Humanity stationed there. Someone like you from the Demon Sect would be sensed by such an expert the moment you set foot in the Imperial Capital."
A trace of mockery appeared in Yue Ji's eyes. "Can't you really figure it out?"
"Without the Great Li Imperial Family's permission, the entire Demon Sect could throw all its strength into it and still never set foot in the Imperial Capital."
After hearing Yue Ji's words, Yao Qingyang turned deathly pale. In truth, he had recognized her identity the instant she appeared.
But he had never been willing to believe that the Great Li Imperial Family would sacrifice the Yao Family. Now that Yue Ji had admitted it herself, a sense of helplessness rose in Yao Qingyang's heart.
Yet he quickly regained his composure. Looking at Yue Ji, he asked the last question that still troubled him.
"That pill was only a half-finished product. It couldn't prolong anyone's life. Why would the Demon Sect go to such lengths to demand the Pine Crane Pill from Medicine Manor?"
Yao Qingyang wasn't a fool. The moment Yue Ji had asked Medicine Manor for something, he'd known the Demon Sect was after the Pine Crane Pill—the pill their ancestor, Yao Xingchen, had tried to defy Heaven to refine a thousand years ago, only to suffer a terrible backlash.
After all, Medicine Manor had long since fallen into decline. There was nothing else it possessed that would make the Demon Sect go to such lengths.
He didn't believe that a figure of the Demonic Cult Flag Bearer's stature could enter the Imperial Capital without paying a tremendous price!
Yue Ji glanced at Yao Qingyang in surprise. There was a note of astonishment in her voice. "You're quite a character. With death staring you in the face, you've managed to calm down so quickly."
"But since you're a dead man, I don't mind telling you."
"The Sixth Heaven and Earth Cataclysm is coming. Our Demonic Cult Leader is nearing the end of his Lifespan. But with the Pine Crane Pill, he can live another five hundred years."
"Then, with the opportunity brought by the Sixth Heaven and Earth Cataclysm, his cultivation will surely reach even greater heights."
"As for the Pine Crane Pill being only a half-finished product, you needn't worry. Our Demon Sect will have an Outer Domain Sixth-Rank Pill Master refine it anew."
"But you needn't worry either. When our Leader eventually uses Dali as a sacrificial offering, Dali's people will soon join you."
"Rest assured, that day won't be far off."
Yue Ji glanced at Yao Qingyang's ashen face, a trace of mockery flickering in her eyes.