"Crack."
That faint sound should have been insignificant beneath the thunder filling the sky.
Yet to everyone in Danta, it was more startling than the eighth bolt of Pill Lightning.
A cracked pill meant failure.
A pill spirit breaking free of its shell meant the final step before the pill was completed.
The difference between the two was razor-thin.
On Star Furnace Square, every Alchemist stared fixedly at the silver-purple pill silhouette within the furnace. A fine crack had appeared on its surface. Starlight flowed through the crack, and within it, a vague spirit silhouette seemed to open its eyes.
Xuan Kongzi's hand unconsciously clenched.
Tian Leizi said in a deep voice, "It isn't a pill crack."
Xuan Yi's eyes brightened slightly.
"The pill spirit has awakened."
The moment her words fell, the ninth bolt of Pill Lightning fully took shape in the deepest reaches of the heavens.
It was not merely a single bolt of lightning.
Black, purple, and gold lightning intertwined within the clouds before finally transforming into an enormous eye of thunder. The giant eye overlooked Sacred Pill City, lightning patterns revolving within its pupil as though it carried the will of heaven and earth, determined to erase the Ninth-Rank Profound Pill that should not have been so easily born.
The entire Sacred Pill City fell silent in an instant.
Countless Alchemists went pale.
"Is that... the Pill-Annihilating Lightning Eye?"
"The Pill Lightning summoned by a Ninth-Rank Profound Pill has actually developed a hint of heavenly punishment?"
"If that lightning falls, not only the pill—even the Star Furnace could be damaged!"
Zi Yan stood above the Star Furnace, the purple-gold dragon silhouette still coiled behind her. Though she had forcibly crushed the eighth bolt of Pill Lightning, the color of her lips had grown paler than before.