Back at the Xiao Clan's courtyard, Yao Chen was carefully instructing Xiao Yixian on how to identify several medicinal ingredients with conflicting properties, while Xiao Yan was cultivating diligently nearby. The Dou Qi around him was even denser than before.
When Lin Hai returned, all three immediately turned their eyes toward him.
Lin Hai said nothing. He went straight to Yao Chen and handed him the spatial ring containing the medicinal ingredients.
Yao Chen took the ring with a hint of confusion and sent his soul power inside.
The next moment, his illusory body jolted violently. His face was instantly overtaken by extreme shock and delight, and even his soul form wavered unsteadily!
"Th-this... Dragon Blood Ganoderma! Bodhi Heart! Ten-Thousand-Year Rehmannia Essence! And... Nether Flower, Seven-Colored Moon Orchid... Th-this is a complete set of ingredients for refining a Supreme Pill?! And they're all of the finest age and quality!" Yao Chen's voice turned piercing with excitement. The hand holding the ring trembled.
A Supreme Pill! An Eighth-Tier Pill! Even when he was alive, he had rarely refined such a top-grade pill. The birth of every one of them could shake the Central Plains!
He knew better than anyone how rare its ingredients were and how difficult it was to gather a complete set!
How long had it been? This gentleman had gone out once and actually returned with a complete set?!
Xiao Yan and Xiao Yixian didn't know exactly how powerful a "Supreme Pill" was, but seeing Yao Chen lose his composure like this, they knew it had to be something extraordinary. Their gazes toward Lin Hai grew even more reverent.
"Sir... you... where did you..." Yao Chen was so excited that he could barely get the words out.
"Traded for them." Lin Hai's tone was casual, as if he'd merely bought some vegetables. "Now that we have the ingredients, when can you begin?"
Yao Chen took several deep breaths before he could barely suppress the storm raging in his heart. His gaze turned razor-sharp and utterly focused, and the powerful confidence of an Eighth-Rank Alchemy Grandmaster returned to him. "With ingredients this perfect, my condition has also recovered to its peak! I can make my preparations now. Tomorrow at dawn, when the sun rises and yang energy is at its strongest, will be the ideal time to begin refining the pill!"
He looked at Lin Hai, his tone solemn. "However... the birth of an Eighth-Tier Pill will inevitably bring Pill Lightning, at least Five-Colored Pill Lightning. The commotion will be enormous, and it may alarm the entire Gama Empire, even the surrounding regions..."
"Don't worry." Lin Hai interrupted him, his tone utterly unruffled. "Just focus on refining the pill. Leave everything else to me."
With those words, Yao Chen was completely reassured. He nodded firmly. "Good! I'll go calm my mind and adjust my condition at once!" With that, he drifted to a corner of the room, sat cross-legged, and closed his eyes. His powerful soul energy began surging rhythmically like the tides, and he entered a profound state of preparation.
Xiao Yan and Xiao Yixian also sensed the solemn atmosphere. Not daring to disturb him, they voluntarily stepped aside.
The next morning.
The first rays of dawn had yet to fully pierce the darkness when Yao Chen's soul form was already floating in the air above a broad, level clearing on the back mountain of the Xiao Clan, which Lin Hai had cleared with a casual sweep of his hand.
Before him stood a pitch-black medicinal cauldron, its design ancient and imposing. Intricate flame patterns were carved across its surface, and it radiated astonishing energy fluctuations. Its grade was clearly extraordinary.
Yao Chen's expression was solemn, his gaze focused to the utmost. He drew a deep breath, then swept his illusory hand forward.
Bang!
A bone-white flame suddenly erupted from his palm, transforming into a giant fire dragon that plunged beneath the cauldron. The terrifying heat warped the surrounding space! It was Bone Spirit Cold Flame!
Preheating the cauldron, adding the ingredients, extracting their essence, merging their medicinal properties... Yao Chen moved with the flowing grace of a grandmaster. Every step was perfectly precise, and his control over the flames was astonishingly refined.
One after another, rare medicinal ingredients that would have sparked a scramble anywhere else were tossed into the cauldron without hesitation. Under the scorching Bone Spirit Cold Flame, they quickly melted into the purest medicinal essences.
Throughout the process, energy surged inside the cauldron. Radiant clouds blazed, an intoxicating fragrance filled the air, and one strange sight after another appeared.
Xiao Yan and Xiao Yixian watched from a distance, dazzled. They didn't dare so much as breathe too loudly, afraid of disturbing this sacred scene.
They could clearly feel the terrifying energy gathering inside the cauldron!
Lin Hai stood farther away with his hands behind his back, his expression as calm as ever, as though he were merely watching ordinary fireworks.
Time passed, from early morning to midmorning, then to the height of noon.
The energy inside the cauldron grew more and more turbulent. Its lid shuddered incessantly, letting out a rumbling hum, as if some peerless fiend were about to burst free!
Brilliant seven-colored light poured through the gaps in the cauldron, illuminating the entire back mountain like a celestial paradise!
Yao Chen's soul form had grown somewhat translucent, clearly drained by the effort, but his eyes shone brighter and brighter!
At last, the moment came!
Hummm—!!!
A resonant hum, as if from the primordial wilderness, burst from inside the cauldron! Its lid blasted skyward!
A massive pillar of seven-colored light, condensed from unimaginable quantities of pure medicinal power, shot out of the cauldron and straight into the heavens!
Within the pillar, a pill the size of a dragon's eye rotated slowly. Its entire body shimmered with seven-colored auspicious light, and natural Pill Patterns encircled its surface. It radiated an immense energy that made the soul shudder!
The Supreme Pill was complete!
The instant the pill took shape, the cloudless sky was swallowed by thick clouds!
Dense thunderclouds gathered at a terrifying speed, covering the skies above all of Wutan City!
Silver lightning writhed within the clouds as destructive power gathered furiously. The lightning shifted from silver to azure, then red, gold, and finally seven colors!
Six-Colored Pill Lightning! It was even trending toward Seven-Colored Pill Lightning!
A terrifying pressure from heaven and earth crashed down. Every person in Wutan City felt a fear that rose from the depths of their soul. They stared at the sky in terror, unaware of what cataclysmic disaster had befallen them!
"Pill Lightning! It's approaching Seven-Colored Pill Lightning!" Yao Chen's expression changed. Though he had expected it, the power of the Pill Lightning still exceeded his expectations.
Yet just as the devastating seven-colored Pill Lightning, powerful enough to level the entire Xiao Clan, was about to strike—
Lin Hai, who had stood with his hands behind his back all along, finally moved.
He didn't even look up at the thunderclouds that threatened to destroy heaven and earth. He merely raised his right hand and gave the sky a casual downward press.
No energy erupted. No space shattered.
Only an invisible, intangible will of supreme law—one that seemed to transcend nature itself—spread outward with that single press.
His word became law. The rules were rewritten!
The seven-colored thunderclouds, which had been roaring and churning as they amassed their destructive force, froze as if someone had pressed a pause button!
Every flash of lightning and rumble of thunder vanished without a trace!
The terrifying Pill Lightning, powerful enough to make even a Spirit Venerable stand on guard, seemed never to have existed at all. Just like that, it was silently... erased!
The dark clouds in the sky turned as docile as sheep and quickly dispersed. Warm sunlight shone down once more, as if the apocalyptic scene had been nothing but an illusion.
The pressure over all of Wutan City vanished at once, leaving only countless shaken townspeople staring at one another in bewilderment.
On the back mountain clearing, Yao Chen stared blankly at the cloudless sky, then at Lin Hai below, still standing with his hands behind his back as though he had done nothing. He struggled to swallow, despite having no throat.
He'd erased the Pill Lightning from heaven and earth with a wave of his hand?!
What kind of heaven-defying power was this?! It was entirely beyond anything he could comprehend!
Xiao Yan and Xiao Yixian were even more dumbstruck, their minds completely blank.
They had known Lin Hai was powerful, but for him to be this powerful was practically... divine!
Lin Hai, however, acted as though he'd done something trivial. He turned his gaze to the Supreme Pill, still floating in the air and radiating seven-colored light, and spoke calmly:
"The pill's done. Put it away."
Only then did Yao Chen finally come back to his senses. He hurriedly and carefully placed the perfect Supreme Pill, brimming with terrifying energy yet untouched by even a trace of Pill Lightning, into a specially made jade bottle. His hands trembled slightly with excitement and lingering fear.
Looking at the jade bottle in his hands, Yao Chen's heart surged.
With this gentleman around, forget Eighth-Tier Pills—even the legendary Ninth-grade Pill could probably be refined without a second thought!
Lin Hai had already begun considering how many peerless ingredients for refining Eighth-Tier Pills he could trade this freshly made Eighth-Tier Pill for in the Central Plains.
The snowball of resources was growing at a terrifying rate.
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