"Lady Xuan." After hearing Xuan Yi's meaning, Xiao Yan spoke up to stop her. "I understand what you mean, but my teacher has shown me kindness as vast as a mountain. I will not abandon Starfall Pavilion."
"Don't mention your teacher!" Xuan Yi suddenly became emotional. "If his character had been a little more proper back then, and he had joined the Pill Tower, how could he have vanished without a trace for so many years, impossible to find? He gained his freedom and had his fun, but did he ever consider the people who cared about him?!"
Hearing this, Xiao Yan could only respond with silence.
"You are only in your twenties, yet you have already advanced to an eighth-tier alchemist. But have you thought about the future?"
"Your progress has indeed been astonishingly fast. Reaching the ninth tier is probably only a matter of time. But the leap from the eighth tier to the ninth is also a chasm. Every Pill Convention sees more or less some eighth-tier alchemists emerge from the younger generation, but those who ultimately reach the ninth tier remain exceedingly rare!"
Xiao Yan understood this perfectly well. There were indeed quite a few eighth-tier alchemists in the Pill Tower, and its three great heads should all be at that level. Yet as for ninth-tier alchemists, he had not heard of such an existence even within the Pill Tower.
The further one advanced in alchemy, the more difficult it became. Yao Lao had once explained to Xiao Yan that the difficulty of advancing from the eighth tier to the ninth was greater than advancing from the first tier all the way to the eighth!
"I understand all that you are saying..."
"The Pill Tower is an immense treasury for alchemists, the best opportunity to break