Furnace Explosion

Azure Cloud Sect, rear mountain, Oak Garden.

On an oak tree so thick it would take three people joining arms to encircle it, a young man was hanging in midair, pruning the tree's branches and leaves.

"Clouds rolling and unfurling, flying on swords... I'm so jealous."

Li Jun looked at the endless mountains in the distance.

Sunlight slanted into the clouds; everywhere the eye could see was a scene of golden mountains bathed in sun.

At the end of his sight, cranes occasionally sped past, longswords split the air, and the figures coming and going all had immortal robes fluttering around them, free and unrestrained beyond measure.

Li Jun was envious of this, but all he could do was sigh.

Ten years ago, he had transmigrated here and become a carpenter of the Azure Cloud Sect.

Unlike what he had expected, after transmigrating, he had no cheat, no old grandpa mentor, and not even a spiritual root!

Over these ten years, he had kept trying to search for one, even offering incense and praying for blessings every day, but none of it had any effect.

As time passed, he slowly accepted it.

Only when he occasionally saw the disciples of the Azure Cloud Sect flying on swords would a faint stir still rise in Li Jun's heart.

"If only I could cultivate. At the very least, I wouldn't have to hang myself up to prune this damned tree."

Li Jun sighed. Just as he was about to go down, he felt a fierce gust of wind sweep over, nearly flipping him down.

"You are Li Jun?"

Li Jun clutched the rope tightly and looked up.

The newcomer appeared to be around seventy or eighty years old, dressed in a brown robe, riding a spiritual beast crane as he looked down at him from above.

"Zhao Wenjie? Why is this guy looking for me?"

Li Jun's heart tightened. He hurriedly descended the rope and bowed in salute.

"Reporting to Steward Zhao, this commoner is indeed Li Jun."

"You are twenty-six this year, your birth characters are: ji-mao, bing-zi, ren-yin, jia-chen, and you have no spiritual root. Is that so?"

Li Jun froze, thought for a moment, and said, "Reporting to Steward Zhao, everything is correct."

On the crane, Zhao Wenjie nodded, stroked his beard, and said, "You need not perform your labor for the next few days. You will become a medicinal catalyst and assist Eldest Senior Sister in refining pills. Set out at once; there must be no mistake."

Before Li Jun could ask anything, in the next second, he only felt his head swim, and a rope directly bound him.

After that, Zhao Wenjie grabbed the other end of the rope and drove the crane surging explosively upward.

Azure Cloud Sect, Medicine Peak.

After fifteen minutes of "forced flight," Li Jun was now sprawled on the ground, gasping for breath, his face deathly pale.

At this moment, quite a few people had already gathered around him. Judging by their clothing, they were all bottom-level laborers of the Azure Cloud Sect.

Li Jun looked around and discovered that many people were lying on the ground, vomiting nonstop.

Clearly, after being flown like kites across several mountain peaks, it was already not bad that they had not fainted to death.

"This is Medicine Peak's alchemy room. Could all these people have come to act as medicinal catalysts?"

Li Jun carefully sized up his surroundings.

Besides the bottom-level laborers who had been captured and brought here, quite a few inner sect disciples had also come, and even several personal disciples had appeared.

Many of them looked arrogantly at those people who were vomiting, and some went even further, casting minor spells to make the vomit return into those people's mouths, provoking roars of laughter.

"Silence! Welcome Eldest Senior Sister!"

The instant the words rang out, everyone present tensed up at once. The clamor vanished, and it became so quiet a falling needle could be heard.

Immediately afterward, a graceful, enchanting woman in a red dress stepped out.

Li Jun secretly took a glance. This Eldest Senior Sister's appearance was exceptionally fine; even "beauty enough to topple nations and cities" could not describe that kind of loveliness.

She was the current Eldest Senior Sister of the Azure Cloud Sect, Shen Xiyue.

A Foundation Establishment Late Stage Cultivator who was only twenty-four years old.

In addition, she possessed high-grade dual fire and wood spiritual roots, her talent astonishing, and she was a strong contender for the position of young sect master of the Azure Cloud Sect.

It would have been one thing for this woman to be strong and talented, but Shen Xiyue just so happened to be extremely beautiful as well.

Moreover, she had always treated her fellow sect members kindly and never acted arrogantly toward others, so her popularity in the Azure Cloud Sect was extremely high.

"Welcome, Eldest Senior Sister!"

Everyone present shouted in unison.

"No need for such courtesy, everyone. The pill being refined today is called the Purple Foundation Pill. It is a variant of the Foundation Establishment Pill, and it is presumed to be able to greatly increase the success rate of Foundation Establishment."

Shen Xiyue looked around and spoke slowly.

The moment these words came out, the scene erupted in an uproar.

The path of immortal cultivation was filled with hardship and ten thousand perils.

Even for a great sect like the Azure Cloud Sect, ranked among the foremost in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, there were not many disciples under its banner with truly outstanding talent.

In fact, across the entire Nine Provinces Continent, most cultivators possessed only mediocre aptitude.

Forget dual spiritual roots—even a cultivator with three spiritual roots could already be considered a dragon or phoenix among men.

Yet even with three spiritual roots, and even with the aid of a Foundation Establishment Pill, no one could say they would definitely succeed in establishing their foundation.

If one's foundation was poor at the foundation establishment step, then forming a core in this lifetime was even more hopeless.

Therefore, the major sects had never stopped researching Foundation Establishment Pills. All of them were trying to modify and perfect the pill, hoping to raise the success rate of foundation establishment.

"I gained some insight into this pill while browsing ancient texts. Today, I have invited all you junior brothers and sisters with talent in alchemy because I wish to gather everyone's wisdom and perfect this formula, thereby aiding the great rise of my Azure Cloud Sect!"

"Senior Sister is righteous!" everyone cried out excitedly.

If this pill could be completed, every disciple in the entire Azure Cloud Sect would benefit.

Quite a few people made up their minds that in a moment, they would stare fixedly at the pill furnace and strive to lend Eldest Senior Sister a hand.

Shen Xiyue nodded. This was exactly the effect she wanted.

"This pill needs to be combined with formations, and it requires people with special birth dates to serve as medicinal catalysts. But there's no need for you to worry. Serving as a medicinal catalyst won't kill you. At most, you'll probably just be weak for a period of time."

As soon as these words came out, the odd-job laborers present instantly breathed a sigh of relief. After all, no one wanted to die.

"In addition, for this alchemy session, anyone who can propose an effective method of improvement will be rewarded!"

After saying this, Shen Xiyue went to the high platform in the center and sat down cross-legged.

With a wave of her slender jade hand, the entire ground trembled, and an ancient, unadorned red pill furnace rose up from the earth.

"Medicinal catalysts, take your positions. Everyone, hold your breath and focus your mind!"

As her words fell, the stewards present also moved into action, grabbing medicinal catalysts like Li Jun and then directly tossing them onto the platform on top of the pill furnace lid.

"Open the furnace! Refine the pill!"

Shen Xiyue pointed a finger, and purple flames rushed into the pill furnace. Immediately afterward, the temperature in the vast pill room soared.

"So hot!"

Li Jun sat on the platform. Even with the formation separating him from it, he still felt unbearably hot and dry.

More importantly, he discovered that something seemed to be flowing out of his body.

At this moment, he felt a little hollowed out. His essence, energy, and spirit had all grown worse.

"Don't tell me this medicinal catalyst is my life essence."

Li Jun smiled bitterly. Was he really going to die here?

He crawled to the edge of the platform and looked at the somewhat distorted red pill furnace below. In a daze, a line of scarlet text appeared in his field of vision.

Furnace temperature too high

"Hmm? Are my eyes playing tricks on me?"

Li Jun rubbed his eyes, but that line of text still appeared on the pill furnace.

He turned again to look at the others, even at Shen Xiyue.

But whether it was the people around him or the objects, none of them had any text.

Only the scarlet text on the pill furnace floated there, extremely eerie.

Bang!

Just as Li Jun was puzzled, the pill furnace suddenly shuddered violently.

Then it exploded.

"This..."

The Azure Cloud Sect disciples present stared at the pill furnace belching black smoke, their faces blank.

It had clearly been fine just now. How had it exploded?

Shen Xiyue also frowned. This pill furnace had exploded too suddenly, without even the slightest warning sign.

"Continue!"

Shen Xiyue took a deep breath and decisively started over.

Problems were already easy to encounter when refining a new pill. Perhaps she had overlooked something in certain steps before.

On the furnace lid, Li Jun looked at the pill furnace. At the instant the furnace exploded, that line of text had actually vanished.

And as Shen Xiyue opened the furnace again, that line of text appeared once more.

Furnace temperature too high

Before long, the alchemy furnace exploded again.

"This..."

Li Jun's heart pounded wildly. It seemed only he could see this text.

Moreover, it was closely tied to the success or failure of the alchemy!