"Mm!"
Yun Yun's consciousness had drifted for what seemed like ages in endless darkness, like a little boat adrift.
At last, it touched the shore!
Excruciating pain was the first sensation to return.
Her meridians felt as though they had been torn apart inch by inch, while her internal organs seemed to have shifted out of place and not yet settled back.
Even the slightest breath tugged at the pain throughout her body.
A faint moan escaped her, laden with pain she could barely suppress.
Her long eyelashes trembled as she struggled to open her heavy eyelids.
At first, her vision was a blur. She could only make out that the ceiling above her was not the familiar dome of the Misty Cloud Sect's sleeping quarters.
Instead, it was a stone ceiling with an exotic air, carved with patterns of snakes.
The unfamiliar surroundings made her heart clench. Instinctively, she tried to summon her Dou Qi and go on guard.
But the effort immediately aggravated her injuries, drawing a muffled groan from her. Fine beads of cold sweat appeared at her temples.
"If you're awake, don't move around. You're badly hurt."
A calm voice, tinged with a hint of childishness, sounded beside her.
Yun Yun struggled to turn her head and looked toward the voice.
A boy who looked no older than eleven or twelve came into view.
His features were so handsome they seemed almost perfect, and his skin was fair.
A pair of deep, dark eyes gazed quietly at her. There was nothing childlike in his expression.
It was calm and unruffled, yet held an indescribable allure.
He sat casually on the edge of the bed, holding a thick book that exuded an ancient air.
"You... you are..."
Yun Yun's voice was hoarse and dry, and she could barely get the words out.
She looked at the boy before her, her heart full of confusion and wariness.
Her last memory was of being struck by the combined force of four Snake-People Dou Emperors.
That devastating power had nearly torn her apart, and then she had completely lost consciousness.
How had she ended up here?
And who was this child?
"This place is safe. Just focus on recovering for now."
Lin Chen closed the Insights on Refining High-Grade Pills. He had already mastered the book completely.
He stood up, poured a cup of warm water, and walked to the bedside.
Bending down naturally, he brought the cup to Yun Yun's lips.
From this close, Yun Yun could see his face more clearly.
The uncanny blend of childishness and maturity left her momentarily dazed.
She parted her lips almost unconsciously and took a few sips of warm water.
The water soothed her parched throat, making her feel a little better.
"Thank you... little brother..."
Yun Yun thanked him softly. Seeing Lin Chen's obviously young face, the words had almost slipped out on their own.
She simply couldn't associate a child like him with words such as "expert" or "savior."
She assumed that a child from some larger desert tribe had found her.
At the words "little brother," Lin Chen's brow lifted almost imperceptibly, but he didn't correct her.
He set the cup back on the table and said evenly:
"Your meridians and internal organs are badly damaged. Ordinary pills would take too long to work."
At his words, a bitter smile touched Yun Yun's lips.
How could she not know? Even with the Misty Cloud Sect's resources, injuries like these would take a very long time and precious pills to heal completely.
She took stock of herself. Though she was still in terrible pain, it seemed that a gentle medicinal energy was protecting her heart and slowing the worsening of her injuries.
"Did you give me a pill?"
"Thank you, little brother. Where is this...?"
Yun Yun tried to prop herself up, but the pain made her fail once more.
"The Snake-Person Holy City."
Lin Chen replied calmly.
"What?! The Snake-Person Holy City?!"
Yun Yun's delicate body jolted, and her beautiful eyes widened at once.
All color drained from her pale face, which was filled with shock and disbelief.
"How... how did I end up in the Snake-Person Holy City?!"
"Did you bring me here?"
"It's too dangerous! You need to leave!"
She spoke urgently, not even sparing a thought for her own injuries.
All she wanted was for the child who had "saved" her to get out of this dangerous place as soon as possible.
For the people of the Jia Ma Empire, the Snake-Person Holy City was undoubtedly a dragon's den and tiger's lair!
At her reaction, the faintest hint of amusement flickered through Lin Chen's eyes.
It seemed she had no idea what had happened afterward.
Nor did she know just how terrifyingly powerful the "little brother" before her was.
"It's fine. This place is safe."
Lin Chen's tone remained calm.
"Just rest easy."
His unruffled composure calmed Yun Yun's racing heart a little.
But the suspicion in her eyes did not lessen in the slightest.
How could a human child claim that a place in the Snake-Person Holy City was "safe"?
It was inconceivable!
She was about to ask more when Lin Chen had already returned to the table.
He picked up an even thicker tome, the Illustrated Compendium of Ten Thousand Herbs, and lost himself in it once again.
Only then did Yun Yun notice the table in the room, piled high with books and scrolls like a small mountain.
Quite a few gave off a strong medicinal scent and spiritual fluctuations.
They were clearly precious inheritances of alchemists!
Was this child... reading them?
Could he understand them?
The thought had barely arisen when she felt foolish.
How could a ten-year-old understand the profound knowledge that even many renowned alchemists dreamed of mastering?
Perhaps he was just flipping through them out of curiosity.
She said no more and lay quietly on the bed.
She tried to circulate the Misty Cloud Sect's cultivation art, slowly absorbing the remaining medicinal power of the Fifth-grade Pill.
At the same time, she secretly observed the room and its surroundings, as well as the boy quietly reading.
The longer she watched, the deeper her confusion grew.
The boy was far too quiet—not quiet like a child at all.
He turned pages at a startling pace, barely glancing at one before moving on to the next.
That was no way to read. It was more like... he was looking for something.
But his gaze was utterly focused, and now and then a flash of understanding passed through his deep eyes.
As if he truly grasped the profound principles within the books.
Time slipped by in this strange silence.
About half an hour later, Lin Chen set down the last set of notes on alchemy.
All the knowledge he had obtained from the alchemist's Storage Ring had been thoroughly absorbed, digested, and assimilated by the terrifying comprehension his Spirit Realm soul and the Blood Scripture had bestowed upon him.
From the most basic first-grade pills to the obscure heights of sixth-grade pills,
every formula, every property of medicinal herbs, every detail of temperature control, every method of pill formation, every subtle manipulation of the soul...
It was all imprinted in the depths of his soul, as if it were instinct.
And he had deduced and refined everything to the utmost limits of his current understanding!
All he lacked now was practice.
And he could begin practicing right away.
His gaze swept over the medicinal herbs he had acquired.
In an instant, he picked out several ingredients suitable for refining the sixth-grade healing pill, the Bone-Growing Blood-Melting Pill.
This pill worked wonders in repairing meridians and restoring internal organs, making it just right for Yun Yun's injuries.
He acted as soon as the thought came to him.
With a wave of Lin Chen's hand, a dark red pill cauldron of fairly good quality appeared in the middle of the room.
It was the possession of some unlucky alchemist.
At the same time, dozens of medicinal herbs radiating powerful energy fluctuations floated beside him.
They were wrapped in pure Dou Qi.
"Little brother, what... what are you going to do?"
Yun Yun was utterly stunned by the sight, forgetting her injuries entirely.
She struggled to prop herself up halfway, her beautiful eyes wide as she stared at Lin Chen and the precious herbs beside him—ingredients enough to tempt even a Dou Huang expert.
Refining pills?
A ten-year-old child was going to refine pills?
Judging by the grade of those herbs, was he planning to make a high-grade pill?
How was that possible?!
Lin Chen didn't answer. His expression became utterly focused.
He slowly raised his right hand and spread his five fingers.
In the next instant, an extraordinarily eerie, blood-red flame shaped like a lotus appeared out of thin air above his palm!
The moment the flame appeared, the room's temperature did not rise sharply.
Instead, an aura of strange purification and judgment spread through the room, making the soul shudder!
The flame turned slowly, its layered petals exquisitely beautiful.
Yet it contained the terrifying power to burn away every sin in the world!
"Is that... a Heavenly Flame?!"
Yun Yun cried out. She had never seen a Heavenly Flame in this form.
But the quiver deep in her soul and the terrifying power contained in the flame let her recognize it instantly!
This child not only possessed a Heavenly Flame.
The aura of this flame was stranger and more powerful than any Heavenly Flame she had ever heard of!
Hai Bodong outside the door had clearly sensed this unique and powerful aura as well.
Unable to resist, he peered through a crack in the door. At the sight, his eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"Again... again?!"
"What kind of commotion is that brat making now?!"
"Wait, what kind of Heavenly Flame is that?!"
Lin Chen paid no attention to the shock around him.
At a thought, the Red Lotus Karma Fire drifted gently beneath the pill cauldron.
"Boom!"
The karma fire surged upward, enveloping the cauldron. Its body quickly turned red-hot.
The terrifying heat was contained, yet it made the air around them ripple and warp.
Pill refining began!
Lin Chen's movements flowed like water, nothing like those of a novice refining pills for the first time.
He seemed more like a master who had spent centuries immersed in the art!
One precious medicinal herb after another, each valuable enough to spark a scramble in the outside world,
was placed into the cauldron with perfect timing and in the optimal order.
Under the Red Lotus Karma Fire's terrifying, precise heat,
the herbs were refined almost instantly, turning into drops of incomparably pure medicinal liquid, free of any impurities!
The purifying power of the karma fire was on full display.
Every impurity in the herbs, even the faint negative energy they contained, was completely purified and obliterated by the karma fire!
The refining speed was astonishing!
The quality was beyond imagination!
Yun Yun and Hai Bodong were completely dumbstruck, their mouths hanging open wide enough to fit an egg.
Was... was this really pill refining?
Even Gu He himself couldn't have achieved that speed or purity!
And what kind of monstrous flame was that?!
Lin Chen's expression remained unchanged as the power of his Spirit Realm soul surged forth.
He controlled the fusion of every drop of medicinal liquid with exquisite precision.
Under his control, the various medicinal properties blended perfectly, complementing one another without the slightest conflict.
Wrapped in the karma fire, the fusion proceeded just as smoothly—so smoothly it beggared belief!
His alchemy was far faster than that of other alchemists of the same rank!
Soon, an intensely rich medicinal aroma, thick enough to linger in the air, spread from the medicine cauldron.
Just one breath of it made Yun Yun feel as though her injuries had eased a little!
The fragrance grew stronger and stronger, gradually seeping out of the room and spreading beyond the temple.
"What a rich medicinal fragrance!"
"Could this be... the sign that a Sixth-Grade Pill is about to be completed?!"
Outside the temple, a bewitchingly beautiful figure appeared in a flash. It was Queen Medusa, drawn by the commotion.
She sensed the medicinal fragrance and the strange purifying power contained within it.
Shock filled her cold, serpentine eyes, and she immediately darted toward its source.
Inside the room, the process had reached the final stage of pill condensation!
Lin Chen's hand seals shifted, leaving a trail of afterimages.
Vast soul power poured into the medicine cauldron like a surging tide.
The cauldron shuddered violently, humming and shaking!
An invisible force suddenly blasted the lid open!
"Vooom!!!"
A dazzling pillar of azure light shot into the sky, piercing straight through the temple roof and reaching into the clouds!
Faint dragon roars and phoenix cries echoed from within the pillar of light.
The rich pill fragrance enveloped nearly half of the Holy City!
Countless Snake-People powerhouses were startled. They turned toward the temple in astonishment.
"Pill aura taking form! Dragons and phoenixes singing in harmony!"
"This is... a top-tier Sixth-Grade Pill! It's infinitely close to a Seventh-Grade Sect Pill!"
Hai Bodong's jaw nearly hit the floor. He rubbed his eyes frantically.
The azure light slowly faded, finally revealing a pill the size of a dragon's eye. It glowed with a soft blue-green radiance, and natural dragon-and-phoenix patterns adorned its surface.
It hovered quietly above the medicine cauldron.
The pill's surface was smooth as jade, without the slightest trace of medicinal energy escaping. Its power had been contained to the utmost degree!
This was the mark of perfect purity!
He wrapped the pill in Dou Qi and held it out to Yun Yun's lips. She was still frozen in shock.
"Eat it. Your injuries will heal soon."
"But you'll owe me for this."
His tone was as casual as if he were offering her a piece of candy.
Yun Yun stared blankly at the pill by her lips. Its pill patterns were dazzling, and its fragrance soothed the spirit.
Then she looked up at the calm-faced boy before her, her mind utterly blank.
A Sixth-Grade Pill... a top-tier Sixth-Grade Pill, at that...
He'd just refined it as casually as that?
How long had it been since he started? Two hours?
Three?
Could a ten-year-old child really do this?
Who on earth was he?!
The immense shock rattled Yun Yun's mind, leaving her unable even to swallow.
Only when Lin Chen gave her a meaningful look did she instinctively part her lips.
She let the priceless Top-Grade Bone-Growing Blood-Melting Pill fall into her throat.
The pill melted as soon as it entered her mouth, instantly transforming into a gentle yet overwhelmingly powerful warm current.
It quickly surged through every part of her body.
Under the force of its medicine, her severed meridians and damaged internal organs began to mend and heal at a visible rate!
The effect was a hundred times better than she had imagined!
A fierce wave of comfort replaced the pain, and she couldn't help letting out an almost inaudible moan.
Color quickly returned to her pale cheeks.
Just then, Queen Medusa appeared at the doorway.
She happened to see Lin Chen feeding Yun Yun the pill, and Yun Yun's bashful, blissful expression.
(The pill's effects were astonishing)
The two emotions mingled on her face!
She also sensed the terrifying medicinal fragrance still lingering in the air, along with the astonishing pill-aura phenomenon.
Even Queen Medusa, with all her aloofness and pride, parted her red lips slightly.
Her cold eyes brimmed with stunned disbelief.
"You... you refined it?"
Queen Medusa looked at Lin Chen, her voice trembling with a hint of uncertainty she didn't even notice.
She couldn't believe that the pill responsible for such a world-shaking spectacle had come from this boy.
Lin Chen nodded calmly, as if he had done nothing more than a trivial task.
His gaze swept over the remaining ingredients on the floor.
Then he looked at Hai Bodong, still staring blankly, and Queen Medusa, whose expression was complicated.
"Good thing there are still some ingredients."
"Alchemy's pretty interesting."
His tone was casual.
"I'll refine two more."
Before anyone could react, he waved his hand again.
The Red Lotus Karma Fire rose once more, wrapping around the medicine cauldron.
This time, he added the ingredients for an Imperial Extreme Pill and a top-tier Sixth-Grade healing pill Queen Medusa needed—the Purple Spirit Recovery Pill!
He was refining two different Sixth-Grade Pills at once, splitting his attention between them!
The sight struck Hai Bodong and Queen Medusa like another heavy blow to the heart!
With the Red Lotus Karma Fire's almost cheat-like ability to purify and refine, and Lin Chen's precise control using his Spirit Realm soul power,
the process was still as smooth and graceful as flowing water, yet so fast it took one's breath away!
Just over an hour later,
"Boom!" "Boom!"
Two pillars of pill light shot into the sky, one after the other. They were slightly less impressive than the first, but still astonishing!
A radiant golden Imperial Extreme Pill, encircled by imperial patterns,
and a Life-Restoring Spirit Pill wreathed in violet aura and brimming with vitality, were freshly completed!
Both were of perfect quality, with pill patterns forming naturally and their medicinal power contained to the utmost degree!
Lin Chen casually tossed the gleaming golden Imperial Extreme Pill to the wide-eyed Hai Bodong.
"Here. It should be enough to help you break through by one star."
Then he flicked the violet-aura Life-Restoring Spirit Pill toward Queen Medusa.
"This can cure your visible and hidden injuries."
"Consider it my way of making amends. I'll discuss a deal with you later."
Hai Bodong fumbled to catch the long-coveted Imperial Extreme Pill.
Feeling the pure, immense energy within, his weather-beaten face flushed with excitement.
His lips trembled, but he couldn't get a word out.
He... he had gotten it just like that?
So easily?
Queen Medusa instinctively caught the Life-Restoring Spirit Pill. Though cold to the touch, it felt warm in her hand.
The immense vitality and purifying power it contained stirred even the minor ailments within her body.
It seemed they were about to be healed.
She looked up at the boy, who had picked up a book again, as though he had merely tossed aside a couple of pebbles.
Her feelings were more complicated than ever.
Shock, disbelief, confusion—and even a hint of something she hadn't noticed in herself... a flutter of her heart.
Just who was this unfathomably mysterious boy?
His strength was impossible to fathom; he could suppress a Dou Emperor with a wave of his hand.
Now he had revealed a godlike talent for alchemy as well.
He casually refined perfect Sixth-Grade Pills as easily as eating or drinking...
And he was still so young!
The room remained thick with medicinal fragrance.
Yun Yun was immersed in the crucial stage of healing, her body enveloped in a blue-green glow.
Hai Bodong held the Imperial Extreme Pill, as motionless as a statue.
Queen Medusa clutched the Life-Restoring Spirit Pill, watching Lin Chen with a complicated gaze.
And Lin Chen seemed utterly unaware of the shock he had caused.
He had already immersed himself once more in the ocean of knowledge, leafing through notes on the use of soul power.
He pondered how to combine them with the Blood Scripture and the Blood Sea Domain.
The silence was profound, yet it made their minds thunder more than any crashing lightning.
Everything that had happened in the Snake-Person Holy City that day was destined to be etched forever in the depths of everyone present's soul.
Never to be forgotten!
Before you continue