Three-Year Pact

[Yan Li, the vice president of the Cloudrise Empire Alchemist Association, was a fourth-tier alchemist. He stood a very good chance of winning this Alchemist Tournament.]

[If he won the championship, the Jia Ma Empire Alchemist Association's reputation would be utterly disgraced.

Yet he had long since made arrangements. If he were killed, news that the Jia Ma Alchemist Association had wantonly murdered a contestant would spread through the surrounding empires, making the outcome even worse.]

[To prevent this, Fa Ma, president of the Alchemist Association, sought you out. He gave you the formula and ingredients for the Three-Pattern Azure Spirit Pill, hoping you could claim the championship.]

The Three-Pattern Azure Spirit Pill was a fourth-tier pill. Each additional pattern greatly enhanced its medicinal effect, but also required an additional flame to refine.

In other words, refining the Three-Pattern Azure Spirit Pill to its highest grade required three different flames.

[In the final round, everyone brought out their true abilities. The moment your Green Lotus Core Flame appeared, every flame in the arena was suppressed. It was as though, "When a Heavenly Flame emerges, all flames submit."]

[After a long while, Yan Li refined a peak fourth-tier pill and looked down upon the rest.]

[To win the championship, you used the Green Lotus Core Flame, Purple Flame, and a portion of the Bone Chilling Spirit Flame left behind by Medicine Elder to refine the highest-grade Three-Pattern Azure Spirit Pill.]

[Under the scorching heat and violent surges of medicinal power, your two ordinary pill cauldrons exploded. Just when everyone thought you had failed, your pill was completed.]

[The Three-Pattern Azure Spirit Pill was worth more than the Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill Yan Li had refined, and you won the Alchemist Tournament.]

[Nalan Yanran congratulated you and invited you to join the Yunlan Sect. She even brought up her engagement, saying it would soon be settled once and for all.]

[You noticed something unusual about Nalan Yanran, but your thoughts were not on her. In a daze, you remembered Yun Zhi, who had practically given you a Heavenly Flame for free. In the desert, she had also said she could recommend you to join the Yunlan Sect...]

[Afterward, you not only obtained the formula for the Soul Melting Pill, but also became an honorary president of the Alchemist Association.]

[After completely purging Nalan Jie's Luo Poison, you obtained the Seven-Illusion Green Spirit Saliva, along with Nalan Jie's promise to repay the favor whenever he had the chance.]

[As you walked out of the Nalan Clan with the Seven-Illusion Green Spirit Saliva, you paid no attention at all to that old Nalan dog's bullshit.]

[That night, you began trying to save Medicine Elder. Yet after using the medicinal liquid from the Seven-Illusion Green Spirit Saliva, Medicine Elder did not appear.]

[With no other choice, you consumed the last Earthfire Lotus Seed and the Three-Pattern Azure Spirit Pill, breaking through to the Dou Ling realm.]

[You entrusted the Xiao Clan to Ya Fei's care. Thanks to Hai Bodong's status as the Mitel Clan's grand elder, along with her own outstanding capabilities, her influence had risen greatly. The next day, you set out for the Three-Year Pact.]

[Step by step, you climbed the Yunlan Sect. Three years of frenzied cultivation had made you far more mature.]

[To you, the Three-Year Pact was not about winning anything. It was more about drawing a conclusion to this period of cultivation.]

"Xiao Clan, Xiao Yan."

The calm, simple words drifted slowly across the enormous plaza. Countless Yunlan Sect disciples stirred as they looked toward the black-robed youth.

His talent was simply astonishing within the Jia Ma Empire, yet he had divorced Nalan Yanran merely because she wanted to postpone their engagement. Everyone found it inconceivable.

After all, as the lofty young sect mistress of the Yunlan Sect, she was regarded as a goddess by countless Yunlan Sect disciples.

Even if her talent was not as exceptional as Xiao Yan's, with a behemoth like the Yunlan Sect supporting her with everything it had, her future achievements were destined to be extraordinary.

Could the Xiao Clan, whose origins were hardly impressive, rely on talent alone to defeat Nalan Yanran, who had cultivated profound techniques and Dou Skills?

Those who had grown up in the Yunlan Sect held a pessimistic view of this. Thus, they also felt that Xiao Yan was far too arrogant.

"Nalan Clan, Nalan Yanran."

Slowly rising to her feet, Nalan Yanran stood as straight as a blood lotus with unyielding bones, her bright eyes fixed on the black-robed youth.

Her gaze rested on that delicate face. Over three years, the handsome features that had once been youthful and immature had shed their boyishness.

Nalan Yanran's gaze was somewhat complicated. She knew she disliked this person somewhat, yet she had to admit that such a face was quite attractive.

Xiao Yan could not help but smile.

Back then, Nalan Yanran had come to the Xiao Clan in grand fashion as a disciple of the Yunlan Sect's leader. Ignoring the wishes of elders such as Nalan Jie, she had dealt with the engagement solely under her sect leader's orders.

Yet today, here in the Yunlan Sect, she remembered her identity as a member of the Nalan Clan...

Taking Xiao Yan's laugh as a contemptuous sneer, light flashed from the Storage Ring on Nalan Yanran's slender fingers. A long, pale-green sword appeared. With its blade tilted, sunlight fell upon it and reflected a chilling gleam.

Her beautiful eyes met Xiao Yan's dark gaze as Nalan Yanran said calmly, "What happened back then had nothing to do with right or wrong. If time could be rewound, I think I wouldn't give you any chance at all. I would forcefully dissolve the engagement on the spot. There are many outstanding people, and you're not the only one..."

Yan Xiao? Xiao Yan found it somewhat strange. In a low voice, he said, "Make your move. Let me see how much you've improved over these three years."

With a light tap of her toes against the ground, Nalan Yanran drifted and flickered like a fallen leaf in a gale under everyone's watchful eyes. Within a few breaths, she had arrived ten meters in front of Xiao Yan.

Strangely, whenever Nalan Yanran moved a certain distance, she left behind a sword-shaped afterimage that seemed almost tangible.

"Wind Spirit Splitting Sword!" With a sharp cry, Nalan Yanran's longsword suddenly pointed at Xiao Yan. She tapped the ground again, but rapidly retreated instead.

The five illusory energy swords she had left behind suddenly trembled and shot toward Xiao Yan like arrows released from a bowstring.

Facing the swift and fierce wind-attributed attack, Xiao Yan remained unhurried. He raised his hands as though holding a ball and slowly rotated them. Vast, powerful Dou Qi surged forth, forming an incomparably mysterious azure lotus.

It was the Cosmic Life-and-Death Way, one of the six moves of the strange Dou Skill, the Lava Heaven-Burning Art. Using one's own Dou Qi as a millstone, it gradually weakened the opponent's attack. Even a strike capable of overturning mountains and seas would eventually become spent force.

In a flash, the energy swords struck it one after another. Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, the azure lotus did not shatter. Instead, it slowly bloomed.

More and more petals blossomed vividly, leaving less and less space for the energy swords. Under the constant pressure of those delicate petals, the energy swords shattered one after another before everyone's disbelieving eyes.

Nalan Yanran stood still, her bright eyes fixed on Xiao Yan.

No one knew the power of the Wind Spirit Splitting Sword better than she did. Even some Great Dou Masters would have to exert considerable effort to block that attack, yet Xiao Yan had dispelled it with ease.