Nine Turns to Restore the Soul

Nine Turns to Restore the Soul

Seeing Xiao Yan's delighted face, Han Feng merely waved a hand and told him to go back and rest.

He admired the young man's unyielding spirit, but a bowstring pulled too tight was liable to snap. He understood that better than anyone.

After sending off his junior brother, who was so excited he could barely tell east from west, Han Feng did not linger in the meditation chamber. He first went to check on Yaoxin and Qing Lin, who were cultivating separately, asked about their progress, and only relaxed after confirming that everything was on the right track.

With everything settled, he headed alone for the most heavily guarded building in Sacred City—the Starwatch Tower.

The tower stood ninety-nine zhang tall at the highest point along Sacred City's central axis. Han Feng had built it specifically for refining high-grade pills. Its roof was forged from a single piece of Starsteel, capable of gathering starlight to the greatest extent while concealing the aura released when pills took form.

Here, he would refine a true Ninth-Grade Treasure Pill for his teacher—the Nine-Turn Soul-Reviving Pill.

Over the years, he had traversed countless secret realms and slaughtered the guardian magical beasts of innumerable cave abodes. Sacred City's treasury had long been filled with top-grade spiritual herbs enough to drive any alchemist mad.

With a flip of his palm, a lingzhi herb wreathed in nine-colored radiant light and shaped like a coiled dragon appeared in his hand.

Nine-Leaf Dragon Lingzhi.

Next, a Soul Infant Fruit the size of a baby's fist appeared as well. It was crystalline and translucent, with what looked like a nascent soul seated in meditation within it.

These soul-nourishing sacred medicines, enough to make even Dou Sheng experts green with envy, were now merely supplementary ingredients for Han Feng's pill refinement.

"Rise!"

With a low shout, the enormous pill cauldron atop the Starwatch Tower boomed.

Han Feng flicked a finger, and an eerie crimson lotus rose from his palm.

Red Lotus Karmic Fire!

Driven by Han Feng's Late Heaven Realm soul power, the karmic fire capable of incinerating all things was as docile as a housecat. It transformed into countless strands of flame, precisely wrapping around every medicinal ingredient thrown into the cauldron.

Purification, fusion, shaping, nurturing...

The entire pill-refining process was like a flawless artistic performance. Han Feng's expression remained focused and calm, as though he were not refining a Ninth-Grade Treasure Pill capable of shaking the continent, but a batch of the most basic qi-restoring pills.

Time quietly passed amid the spreading pill fragrance.

Seven days later.

When the medicinal power of the final main ingredient perfectly merged into the pill embryo, a boundless radiance suddenly erupted from within the cauldron!

A pill the size of a longan, perfectly round, its surface flowing with nine colors. Its fragrance had condensed like mist, slowly swirling inside the cauldron.

The pill was complete!

Rumble—!

Above Sacred City, the previously clear sky was instantly swallowed by endless black clouds. Thick as ink, they churned with ferocious black lightning dragons that roared within, and a destructive heavenly might capable of making Dou Venerables tremble crashed down!

Black Demon Lightning!

The pill lightning drawn by the birth of a ninth-grade pill was actually the legendary Black Demon Lightning, capable of obliterating low-level Dou Sheng experts!

Yet faced with this apocalyptic scene, Han Feng merely lifted his eyes impatiently.

"Noisy."

With a casual wave, the Green Lotus Sword at his waist automatically left its sheath, transforming into a streak of azure sword light that tore through heaven and earth as it shot skyward.

The sword light was impossibly fast, striking after yet arriving first. Before the ferocious black lightning dragon had even fully formed, it precisely split it in two from head to tail!

"Rumble!"

The black clouds in the sky churned violently, seemingly enraged by the provocation.

The first lightning dragon had been cut down, and then four even thicker, more ferocious black lightning dragons roared as they successively struck toward the Starwatch Tower!

Five bolts of Black Demon Lightning!

Han Feng did not even furrow his brow. He merely stood where he was, his thoughts stirring slightly.

"Sever."

The Green Lotus Sword light traced profound arcs through the air. Each flash precisely met a bolt of Black Demon Lightning.

Those violent bolts of lightning, each capable of destroying mountains and rivers, were like paper tigers before the Green Lotus Sword qi, effortlessly split in two.

They immediately dispersed into pure lightning energy.

After five strikes, the black clouds in the sky churned unwillingly a few times before finally dissipating. Not even a single spark fell.

Such a massive disturbance naturally alerted Yao Chen, who was recuperating in the Soul-Gathering Hall.

When he arrived at the Starwatch Tower, he immediately saw the pill in Han Feng's hand, flowing with nine colors and brimming with spiritual energy.

"Nine... Nine-Turn Soul-Reviving Pill?!"

Yao Chen's soul body trembled violently, his illusory face filled with shock and comfort.

"Now you... can already refine Ninth-Grade Treasure Pills."

"This disciple has not failed his duty." Han Feng handed the pill over. "Teacher, take it."

Yao Chen looked at the disciple standing taller than himself, at the sincere concern in his eyes. The aged eyes of the man once known as the continent's greatest alchemist suddenly grew moist.

He accepted the pill without the slightest hesitation and swallowed it directly.

"Boom!"

A pure and vast medicinal force exploded within his illusory soul, turning into a warm torrent that frantically repaired the dried-up and damaged Soul Essence caused by his self-destruction.

Yao Chen's body rapidly became more solid.

The illusory sensation that had once threatened to disperse at any moment vanished completely, replaced by a condensed quality almost physical in nature. He could feel that his soul power had recovered!

"Xiao Feng..." Feeling the changes within himself, Yao Chen's voice was full of emotion. "In all my life, I never imagined that one day I would need my disciple to prolong my life."

"You're joking, Teacher." Han Feng sat down on a stone stool nearby and condensed an energy chair for Yao Chen as well. "You have treated me like a son. Doing anything for you is simply my duty."

The Soul-Gathering Hall fell silent.

After a long time, Yao Chen spoke again. He looked into the void as if his gaze had pierced through time and space, returning to those darkest years.

"Aren't you curious? About how I ended up in such a state back then?"

Han Feng froze.

He had waited a long time for this answer. He had always wondered how his teacher had fallen into Soul Hall's trap.

He said nothing, merely watching Yao Chen quietly like a patient listener.

Yao Chen gave a bitter laugh and slowly recounted the sealed memories of the past.

"Back then, I received your message saying that you had discovered a newly born Red Lotus Karmic Fire in a secret realm and were going into seclusion to refine it. I was happy for you too. In order to give you a better chance of breaking through to become an eighth-grade alchemist after emerging from seclusion, I set out to find you an exceedingly rare soul-nourishing sacred medicine—the Nine-Pattern Soul-Nurturing Lingzhi."

"That day, at the invitation of an old friend, I went with him to explore an ancient ruin. That old friend was named Gu You. We had known each other for nearly a hundred years. He had challenged me several times and lost each time, but we respected one another. I considered him a true confidant."

At this point, an irrepressible pain entered Yao Chen's voice.

"I never doubted him."

"Yet that ruin had been a trap tailored specifically for me from the very beginning."

"The moment I entered the ruins, four elders from Soul Hall appeared at once and laid down an inescapable net around me. Every one of them was a Dou Venerable!"

"Though I was not afraid, two fists could not defeat eight hands. A bloody battle was inevitable." A trace of pride flashed through Yao Chen's eyes. "In that battle, I gave everything I had and killed two of their elders on the spot, severely wounding another. But just as I was about to break out..."

His voice became hoarse and cold.

"Gu You attacked me from behind."

"He used a bone spike coated in Soul Hall's most sinister poison, Soul-Dissolving Saliva, and pierced my heart."

Han Feng's pupils suddenly contracted!

An icy killing intent spread uncontrollably from his body, and the temperature throughout the Starwatch Tower plunged to freezing. A phantom of an eerie red lotus flickered into existence behind him.

A sneak attack from behind! Soul Hall's people were still as incapable of showing their faces as ever!

"I still remember the way he looked at me." Yao Chen's tone was filled with self-mockery. "It was full of morbid jealousy and fanaticism."

"He said, 'Yao Chen, you always stand high above everyone else. You are hailed as the continent's greatest! Why? Why do all the honors belong to you? Today, I will personally drag you down from your pedestal!'"

"So it turned out that after associating with me for a hundred years, he had never regarded me as a friend. He only saw me as a nightmare he could never surpass in his lifetime."

"Once the Soul-Dissolving Saliva entered my body, both my Dou qi and soul began dissolving rapidly. I knew I could not be saved. Soul Hall wanted to capture me alive, but how could I, Yao Chen, endure such humiliation?"

"At the final moment, I detonated my Dou qi and destroyed my physical body, leaving only a wisp of remnant soul attached to the ring. With my last bit of strength, I hid inside a spatial rift and barely escaped with my life."

The story was over.

The Starwatch Tower was deathly silent.

Han Feng said nothing. He merely sat there quietly.

Yet the killing intent around him, enough to nearly freeze space itself, was rising madly.

His teacher had been open and honorable throughout his life, with friends across the world, yet in the end, he had been shoved into an abyss by the person he trusted most, through the most despicable means.

How ironic. How tragic.

"Teacher."

Only after a long while did Han Feng slowly speak, his tone terrifyingly calm.

"Where is that Gu You now?"

Yao Chen shook his head, a trace of exhaustion passing through his eyes.

"I don't know. Perhaps because he rendered great service to Soul Hall by helping kill me, he is already in a high position within Soul Hall now."

"A high position?" Han Feng smiled. That smile was cold and cruel enough to make even Yao Chen's heart shiver.

"Teacher, rest assured."

He stood and walked before Yao Chen, speaking one word at a time as if swearing an eternal oath.

"This disciple will find him."

"No, not just him."

Han Feng looked beyond the hall. His gaze seemed to pierce through Sacred City and endless space, falling upon that mysterious land shrouded in black mist.

"Soul Hall, Gu You..."

"This blood debt, this disciple will collect every bit of it for you, principal and interest included."

"Not one of them will escape."