At that moment, things were far from quiet inside a ring on Ye Yan's hand.
A wisp of an old man's divine sense resided within the ring.
The old man had suffered grievous injuries, hidden inside the ring, and fallen into slumber.
A year earlier, Ye Yan had picked up the ring by chance.
The old man had unwittingly absorbed the spiritual power Ye Yan cultivated, causing his cultivation to regress over the past year.
Just now, when Ye Yan had fallen into mortal danger, the old man had been startled awake and fed some Spiritual Qi back to him. Combined with Ye Yan's extraordinary talent, this had allowed him to break through in battle and advance another step.
Finally, when that leader had tried to finish Ye Yan with a single slash, the old man, left with no other choice, had been about to intervene. He had never expected a young man to deal with the attacker before he could.
This young man gave off no presence whatsoever and seemed to have appeared out of thin air, leaving even him unable to fathom him.
Still, he did not particularly mind.
His divine sense had been grievously injured and had only recovered a tiny fraction. It was perfectly normal that he could not see through him.
If the young man harbored ill intentions, he could certainly kill him, even at the cost of suffering severe injuries and falling back into slumber.
Fortunately, the young man bore no ill intentions and instead took out a pill.
"Wait, isn't that... isn't that a legendary immortal pill?"
"Hey, hey, hey! How can you use such a precious pill to heal a brat at Meridian Condensation?"
"He can't handle it! Give it to me! Give it to me!"
He stamped his feet in agitation, cursing "wastrel" as he tried to rush out and give Ye Chen a lesson.
Pills were divided by grade into yellow-grade, profound-grade, earth-grade, heaven-grade, saint pills, and immortal pills.
The first four grades were further divided into low, middle, high, and supreme quality.
Saint pills were divided into nine ranks, with first rank the lowest and ninth rank the highest.
The classification of immortal pills was more complicated and would be left aside for now.
Before he could emerge, Ye Chen put the immortal pill away.
He breathed a sigh of relief and patted his nonexistent chest. "Thank goodness, thank goodness!"
Then he saw Ye Chen take another pill, this one saint-grade, out of his storage ring.
"Holy shit! A ninth-rank saint pill!"
"Why are all this brat's pills such high-grade ones? Did he dig up an immortal's ancestral grave?"
"That should be all of them, right? My poor heart can't take any more!"
"Wait, what are you doing?"
"You can't feed him that! It'll kill him!"
He could no longer hold back and wanted to rush out to stop him.
Yet after Ye Yan swallowed it, not only did his body fail to explode, but his injuries healed at a rate visible to the naked eye. Even his severed meridians reconnected, becoming larger, thicker, and tougher.
The old man was utterly stunned!
What... what kind of technique was this?
He, too, could have perfectly dissolved medicinal potency inside another person's body before he was injured. But this was a saint pill, and the very highest kind at that-a ninth-rank saint pill.
What level of strength would that take?
A Saint King?
Or perhaps a Quasi-Emperor?
But how old could this young man possibly be?
He had truly been frightened today. Never in his life had he questioned his existence like this.
He had always considered his own talent top-tier, but beside Ye Chen, he was truly like a speck of dust compared with the blazing sun.
He had lived so many years, only to have them all go to the dogs.
What he did not know was that Ye Chen had not only perfectly integrated the saint pill's medicinal potency into Ye Yan, but had also sealed away the remainder, allowing it to seep into Ye Yan's body little by little and improve his aptitude.
No one on the Heavenly Profound Continent could accomplish such a feat. Only the immortals of legend could.
Meanwhile, after taking the pill, Ye Yan's complexion grew rosy, and his eyes slowly opened.
"You're awake!"
Ye Chen stood with his hands behind his back, smiling at him.
Ye Yan stood up and looked at Ye Yan, his eyes filled with confusion.
Then, as though something had occurred to him, his eyes widened as he examined his entire body.
"My... my injuries are all healed!"
He then looked at Ye Chen, his eyes brimming with gratitude. "You saved me and healed my injuries too?"
"Yes."
Ye Chen answered with a smile.
Towering waves surged through Ye Yan's heart. Only he knew how severe his injuries had been.
All his internal organs had been shattered, his meridians completely severed. Not a single part of his body had been intact.
"How... how did you do it?"
He asked with wide eyes, then realized he had lost his composure and said bashfully, "I... I'm sorry. Thank you for saving me!"
Inside the ring, the old man wished he could leap out and smack Ye Yan on the head.
Of course, if he had not felt that he was no match for Ye Chen, he would certainly have smacked him on the forehead too.
A ninth-rank saint pill!!!
That was a ninth-rank saint pill!!!
No one in the world could currently refine one. Only a few top ninth-rank sacred lands could produce a handful.
And who did not enshrine them like treasures? Before using one, they would kneel three times and kowtow nine times to pay homage to their founding masters before finally bringing themselves to use a single pill.
Every pill used meant one fewer left.
And now one had actually been given to a Meridian Condensation brat!
He felt his heart bleeding.
How much better would it have been to give it to me? Once I recovered, wouldn't saving this brat have been as easy as reaching out my hand?
Ye Yan did not know that Ye Chen had fed him a saint pill countless people dreamed of obtaining. He only knew that his body felt warm all over, and his cultivation kept rising. He would soon break through to Meridian Condensation Eighth Heaven.
This excited him immensely.
"No need to be so polite. You and I share something of a connection!"
Ye Chen smiled faintly.
Ye Yan did not understand. Seeing that Ye Chen looked about his age, he said, "Big brother, why don't you come sit for a while at my Ye Lineage's home? I could repay you a little, too."
"Very well!"
Ye Chen had intended to visit the Ye Lineage anyway. Having Ye Yan lead the way could not have been better.
"But before we go back, let's finish dealing with things here!"
With that, Ye Chen struck with a sword finger, and the ring shattered at once.
The old man jumped in fright at Ye Chen's sudden strike.
He had never expected that Ye Chen had not only discovered him, but could also destroy the ring so effortlessly.
That ring was a saint artifact!
Now that the ring had been destroyed, he was completely exposed before the two of them.
"Speak! Who are you?"
Ye Chen spoke calmly.
He had discovered the old man as soon as he arrived, but since he posed no threat, he had only now gotten around to dealing with him.
Ye Yan was startled by the old man's sudden appearance. He had never expected the ring he had casually picked up to contain something unclean.
He gave Ye Chen an even more grateful look.
The old man smiled awkwardly. "I am Xuan Danzi, sect master of the Mysterious Pill Sect!"
Inside, however, he was cursing, You brat, you have no martial honor! Tricking and ambushing an old man over a thousand years old! If there's one thing I've hated all my life, it's people who launch sneak attacks!
"Oh?" Ye Chen looked at the old man with a faint, ambiguous smile.
Xuan Danzi could no longer keep up appearances. "The... the former sect master!"
"Enough. Get to the point. What were you doing in this ring?" Ye Chen curled his lip.
"Three hundred years ago, a disciple ambushed me while I was refining pills, leaving me gravely wounded. A wisp of my divine sense escaped and hid inside the ring. This young friend picked it up a year ago!"
Not daring to be remiss, Xuan Danzi told him everything in full.
"All right, then. You can go!" Ye Chen waved a hand.
The old man was just about to flee when he realized something was wrong.
The ring was gone. Once his divine sense was exposed to the air, it would soon dissipate.
Looking troubled and on the verge of tears, he said, "Young friend, my ring is gone. I have nowhere to go!"
"True." Ye Chen casually reached in and pulled out an ancient-looking ring before them.
The ring was shrouded in five-colored radiance and gave off Immortal Spirit Qi.
"This... this is an immortal artifact!" The old man's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, his heart pounding wildly.