Refining Tier-Three Pills

In the aftermath of Chu Yunfei's ambush, Yunxiaozi personally went to Heaven-Soaring Peak.

That day, the sea of clouds atop Heaven-Soaring Peak was cleaved open for ten thousand zhang by Sword Qi.

"If you don't believe me, senior brother, then consider this sword strike the interest on the debt your martial nephew Chu owes."

Yunxiaozi stood with his hands behind his back atop the severed peak, mountain rocks crashing down beneath his feet.

Lingxiaozi looked at the junior brother who had been at his side for over a hundred years. In the end, he merely swept his sleeve and turned away in silence-the bond between master and disciple, forged over more than a decade, made it impossible for him to fully believe his junior brother.

That day was the first time Yunxiaozi had fought since that incident. It was also the first time Lingxiaozi learned that, even with less than a tenth of his cultivation remaining, his junior brother, the Carefree Sword Immortal who had once topped the Heaven's Chosen Ranking, was still more than a match for an ordinary Integrated Body Realm Cultivator.

But from that day on, Carefree Peak never knew peace again.

Before the morning dew had dried, sword cultivators would "accidentally" wander into the medicinal fields; as dusk fell, spell cultivators would get "lost" on the mountain.

They never said outright that they had come because of Chu Yunfei. They only claimed they had long heard of Feng Zhuo's reputation on Carefree Peak and had come to challenge him.

Yet the waist tokens of Heaven-Soaring Peak disciples jingled at the belts of those Qi Refining sword cultivators. Eight out of ten had shifty eyes, while the other two stumbled over the taunts they had memorized.

Few people lived on Carefree Peak. Apart from a few cave abodes with protective barriers, the entire mountain was practically open to all.

If Feng Zhuo ignored them, they did not dare make trouble in front of Yunxiaozi. They only dared resort to petty tricks-

One day they carved the word "coward" into the stone steps. The next day they drew a turtle. The day after that, they found a battered plank somewhere and wrote "no one dares accept the challenge" on it in crooked letters.

At first, Feng Zhuo paid them some attention. Then, one rainy night, Yanba came back carrying the thirty-sixth fire-scorched "challenge notice" in his mouth, his nine tails lashing out sparks in anger.

The next day, a charred stone stele appeared at the foot of the mountain, bearing a message in wild cursive: "Those who cross the boundary must provide for their own cremation."

The tier-five calamity beast sat atop the stele, his lion's head raised. Magma flowed between his scales, roasting the stone red-hot.

Whenever someone blind to danger forced their way in, they usually had not even reached the mountain gate before a chainlike tail caught them by the ankle, hung them upside down to roast rare beneath the sun, and tossed them beyond Carefree Peak's boundaries.

Peace had returned, all right, but the grudge kept growing deeper.

Chu Yunfei was twenty-one and had the advantage of age, but Feng Zhuo and Cang Wuya had agreed that once they both reached Foundation Establishment, they would join forces to teach this "genius" a lesson.

Chu Yunfei had reached Foundation Establishment at fourteen, comprehended sword intent at eighteen, and formed his Golden Core at twenty.

But the two martial brothers were no slouches either!

Cang Wuya had successfully comprehended sword intent at twelve and was about to reach Foundation Establishment at thirteen.

Although Feng Zhuo was a spell cultivator and did not cultivate the sword, he possessed a wisp of tier-three spirit fire, powerful enough to hold his own against a Golden Core cultivator.

He only needed to emerge from the Azure Wood Illusory Forest Secret Realm and complete Foundation Establishment, increasing his spiritual power reserves so he could control the spirit fire in battle for longer.

Moreover, the Everlasting Spring Scripture he cultivated had reached the second layer through absorbing Yi Wood Qi.

His wood-attribute spiritual power flowed through his meridians in the form of vines, not only increasing the efficiency of its circulation but also greatly reducing its consumption when he cast spells.

All of this would give Feng Zhuo the confidence to fight Chu Yunfei.

Feng Zhuo rose, picked up his wooden sword, and resumed practicing his amateurish swordplay.

Yanba, accustomed to the sight, lazily tipped an entire bottle of tier-two supreme-grade Spirit-Feeding Pills into his mouth, then flew down the mountain on clouds of fire beneath his four paws-it was time to guard the mountain gate.

As it happened, Yun Yao from Formation Peak came to Carefree Peak to see Ling Shuanghua. Yanba received a wisp of earth fire used for pill refining and helped deliver a letter as well.

By now, everyone in the Supreme One Divine Sect who was on good terms with Carefree Peak knew there was a peculiar Demon Beast here who loved to devour all kinds of flames.

Yanba was also clever and knew how to deal with people, so those who often visited Carefree Peak were happy to feed him flames they could not use.

Only Yunxiaozi and his three disciples knew the truth-this was plainly a way to gather nourishment for Feng Zhuo's lifebound spirit fire.

But they all tacitly kept silent, and often even fed flames to Yanba in front of outsiders, precisely to conceal the secret that Feng Zhuo's spirit fire could keep advancing.

The Feng Household's reputation was known far and wide, but it had no shortage of enemies either.

The surname "Feng" alone was enough to arouse suspicion. If anyone discovered that he also possessed a spirit fire matching the rumors about the Feng Household, he might find it difficult even to leave the mountain.

Fortunately, this was only because Feng Zhuo's cultivation was still shallow. Once his realm improved in the future, he would naturally no longer need to hide it like this.

Yun Yao had come this time to ask Ling Shuanghua to put her in touch with Feng Zhuo and have him refine a high-grade Golden Core Formation Pill.

Feng Zhuo had accumulated quite a few pills, and leaving them unused would be a waste, so he had asked his second senior sister to help sell some.

Before long, people learned that a genius pill cultivator had appeared on Carefree Peak.

Besides Yun Yao from Formation Peak, Qin Xiao from Artifact Peak, Shui Xinyao from Law Peak, and Yushang from Body Peak also often came to see Ling Shuanghua.

The four were close to Ling Shuanghua in age, and all were at Peak Foundation Establishment.

Ling Shuanghua conveyed Yun Yao's request, along with three sets of materials for a Golden Core Formation Pill and ten thousand high-grade Spirit Stones. Feng Zhuo readily agreed.

His junior senior brother had already gone into seclusion, and practicing swordplay alone had lost its appeal. Trying to refine a Golden Core Formation Pill, which he had never attempted before, would be a welcome change.

That was right: ever since the Everlasting Spring Scripture had broken through to the second layer that day, Feng Zhuo had begun attempting to refine tier-three pills.

With his Golden Core Realm Divine Sense and the special benefits of two cultivation methods, Feng Zhuo's spiritual power reserves were comparable to those of a Foundation Establishment Middle Stage cultivator.

Not to mention the astonishing speed at which the Everlasting Spring Scripture restored his spiritual power, allowing him to make some progress in refining tier-three pills over the past few months.

The thousand-year purple lingzhi, the main ingredient of the Golden Core Formation Pill, was simply too hard to come by.

Feng Zhuo had none in his storage ring and had never made a point of gathering any, so he had never had a chance to try refining the pill.

"Here, these three bottles of Spirit-Feeding Pills are for you."

Feng Zhuo casually tossed Yanba several bottles of pills. After sitting cross-legged and regulating his breathing for a while, he prepared to refine a Golden Core Formation Pill for the first time in his life.

His Divine Sense swept over the first set of ingredients like a fine net, precisely pinpointing every impurity that needed to be removed.

His ten fingers flew in swift, clean movements, and he soon finished preparing the supplementary ingredients.

Next came the real challenge-the thousand-year purple lingzhi.

The moment his fingertips touched its surface, Feng Zhuo frowned.

He probed it with his Divine Sense and immediately detected the turbid yin Qi accumulated within its channels.

That was why thousand-year purple lingzhi was so hard to find.

At a hundred years old, purple lingzhi contained both yin and yang Qi within its channels. By a thousand years, however, only turbid yin Qi remained, and few purple lingzhi could adapt to it.

Tier-three spirit fire rose from his palm, and a hazy phoenix silhouette could faintly be seen within the crimson flames.

The lingzhi let out a piercing shriek in the fire. Black mucus seeped from its skin and was burned away by the spirit fire in an instant.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on Feng Zhuo's forehead, but with the Everlasting Spring Scripture circulating, his depleted spiritual power was recovering at an astonishing rate.

Twelve supplementary ingredients flew into the Pill Furnace one after another.

Feng Zhuo concentrated completely, executing eighteen fire-control Instructions in one smooth motion.

The medicinal liquids in the furnace began to merge. Jade marrow lingzhi became a stream of emerald, while fire lotus blossomed into crimson crystals...

Just as the fusion reached eighty percent, a sharp crack suddenly sounded, and the medicinal liquids threatened to separate!

Feng Zhuo gritted his teeth and channeled his spiritual power. The Everlasting Spring Scripture circulated rapidly through his meridians, replenishing some of his exhausted spiritual power in an instant.

He formed a seal with both hands and forcibly brought the separating liquids back together.

Spiritual Qi surged through the pill chamber, setting his hair flying as he sent the final pill-condensing Instruction into the furnace.

"Open!"

The lid lifted, revealing two golden pills lying quietly at the bottom of the furnace.

A full batch of Golden Core Formation Pills contained three. On his first attempt, Feng Zhuo had obtained two: one mid-grade and one low-grade.

To an ordinary person, that would have been a feat of genius, but Feng Zhuo was not particularly satisfied.

Still, he knew he could not rush it. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and tossed three more bottles of Spirit-Feeding Pills to Yanba, who had come over and was staring at him expectantly.

He then calmed himself and reviewed what he had learned from this attempt, closing his eyes and regulating his breathing as he prepared for the next.

Three days later.

Feng Zhuo looked at the two supreme-grade Golden Core Formation Pills in his hand and could not help feeling a little proud.

After reviewing his first attempt, Feng Zhuo had successfully produced a full batch on his second try. None were supreme-grade, but all three were high-grade, with no mid- or low-grade pills.

On his third attempt, he had again produced a full batch, and pill clouds had appeared on two of them. Those were supreme-grade pills.

Feng Zhuo planned to give Yun Yao the three high-grade Golden Core Formation Pills, and present the two supreme-grade pills to his eldest senior brother and second senior sister, one each.

He would still give the mid- and low-grade pills to his second senior sister, hoping she could exchange them for some useful medicinal ingredients.

He would keep the remaining high-grade pill for himself, in case it might come in handy someday.

As soon as Feng Zhuo emerged from his cave abode, he saw his second senior sister teasing Yanba with a chicken leg.

"Senior sister, Yanba ate nine bottles of my Spirit-Feeding Pills over the past three days. If he keeps eating, he'll get as fat as a pig."

"Did you hear that? Your master won't let me give it to you. It's not that I'm stingy!" Ling Shuanghua had never intended to give Yanba the chicken leg she had fought so hard to get in the first place.

"Junior brother, did you finish refining them?"

"Fortunately, I didn't fail you!"

Feng Zhuo pushed Yanba aside in annoyance and handed Ling Shuanghua a porcelain bottle containing three high-grade Golden Core Formation Pills.

"Three?"

"I happened to have refined Golden Core Formation Pills before, so I had some feel for it," Feng Zhuo said. Rather than stating outright that this was his first time refining them, he gave Ling Shuanghua two more jade bottles.

"Senior Sister Yun Yao only asked me for one Golden Core Formation Pill, yet she gave me three sets of materials and ten thousand high-grade Spirit Stones. I really don't deserve so much."

He then explained the other two jade bottles to Ling Shuanghua. "Each of these contains a supreme-grade Golden Core Formation Pill. Eldest senior brother and you are both already at Peak Foundation Establishment, so it won't be long before you can use them."

"Junior brother!"

Ling Shuanghua was so happy she nearly jumped. "Two more supreme-grade pills, and tier-three Golden Core Formation Pills at that!"

"You want flames, right? I know Master has a wisp of Divergent Flame. Just watch, I'll steal it for you tonight!"

"Sure, but don't go giving me away again, senior sister."

"Haha..."

Ling Shuanghua gave an awkward smile. "Last time, didn't I only give you and Junior Brother Cang away because I really had no other choice?"

In the end, the matter of stealing the Divergent Flame came to nothing. Yanba merely got a few more roast chickens to eat.