Ch. 7520 May
[POV: Wang Shu]
It was well past midnight.
High above the wilderness outside Verdantree City, a small spirit boat flew through the falling snow. Wang Shu kept both hands on the controls, continuously feeding spiritual energy into the boat's propulsion array while trying not to think about how expensive the thing was.
A spirit boat was basically three meters of wood, formation arrays, and stress.
Behind him sat three alchemist elders from Coldstream Sect. Elder Liu and two others whose names Shu could never fully remember. They had spent most of the trip meditating, which suited him just fine. The less they talked, the less they complained about his flying.
They were already more than a day late for the Alchemy Alliance gathering after a storm had forced them to take shelter in some remote village. The elders had spent the entire delay complaining about how much damage this would do to the sect's reputation.
Shu personally thought the sect's reputation was already terrible, but he wasn't stupid enough to say that out loud.
As he adjusted their descent toward Verdantree City, a strange light appeared through the thin snow and mist about fifteen kilometers away.
It wasn't the warm glow of lanterns or the steady shine of formation arrays. The light pulsed with a faint purple tint that immediately made him uneasy.
He slowed the spirit boat at once.
"Kid," Elder Liu said over the wind, "we're still some kilometers from Verdantree. Why are we slowing down?"
Shu resisted the urge to sigh after being called "kid" again. He was 43 years old and an inner sect steward. Unfortunately, correcting an elder was a good way to end up scrubbing chamber pots for the next month.
"Elder Liu," he replied as respectfully as possible, "there's an unusual light source below. I thought it might be worth checking out."
"An unusual light?"
The other two elders, who'd been so deep in meditation they might as well have been statues, suddenly opened their eyes and moved to the railing. All three of them stared down at the glowing structure barely visible through the snow.
"That's strange," one of them muttered. "There shouldn't be anything out here. We're in the middle of nowhere."
"And judging by the size," the other added, "that's not a small light source."
Elder Liu stroked his beard. Because apparently all cultivation elders did that whenever they wanted to look wise. Then he nodded slowly. "Take us down. Let's have a look."
Shu hesitated. "Are you sure that's wise? We don't know what's down there. It could be dangerous."
"Dangerous?" Elder Liu laughed. "What could possibly be dangerous this close to civilization? Stop being paranoid and lower the boat."
Easy for you to say, Shu thought. You're not the one who has to pilot this thing back if something goes wrong.
Still, he was only a steward. A newly promoted one at that. He had practically begged to join this trip just for a chance to get closer to the alchemist elders. Advancing in a sixth-rank sect required connections, and connections required sucking up to people more powerful than you.
The hierarchy of suffering, as always.
"Yes," he said, and began the descent.
The spirit boat curved through the snowy sky as Shu guided it downward. Probably more carefully than necessary, but spirit boats were expensive. Even this small three-meter model cost five or six thousand low-grade spirit stones. The larger models with proper storage reservoirs started at tens of thousands.
For a sect like Coldstream, that was equal to four or five years of income. Their sect master only brought out the larger spirit boat for important occasions, and even then, several stewards had to take turns supplying it with spiritual energy because the thing burned through more than two spirit stones per kilometer.
If he scratched it, crashed it, or accidentally damaged something, they would probably dock his salary for the next ten years.
So naturally, he was being careful.
When they got within four hundred meters of the structure, the three elders suddenly jumped off the boat.
Shu could only hover there and stare after them.
"Why would you wait for the transport to land properly? That would be sensible."
He spent another few minutes searching for a good landing spot before finally setting the spirit boat down in the middle of a snow-covered clearing.
He jumped off, locked the formation arrays to make sure nobody could steal it, then flew over to where the three elders were standing.
All three of them were staring at the structure with the same greed in their eyes.
Shu couldn't really blame them.
The thing was massive, and it was built from materials he had never seen before. Some of the blocks were smooth and dark like obsidian, while others were made from reddish-brown bricks or pale stone that gave off a faint glow.
The architecture itself was completely unfamiliar. It didn't resemble anything from the Eastern Territory or the outer regions, nor any style he had ever seen before.
At the center of the structure stood a rectangular frame filled with swirling purple light. Every so often, small motes of energy drifted out from it.
Just looking at it made him deeply uncomfortable.
He couldn't explain why, but something about the structure felt wrong. It was almost like it was pulling at something inside him, perhaps his spiritual sense, or maybe even his soul.
"Elder Liu, maybe we should..."
"Shu," Elder Liu interrupted without looking at him, "we need you to go inside and scout ahead."
Shu's brain stuttered to a halt.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Go inside," one of the other elders said. "Take a look around and see if it's safe."
Shu stared at them. "You want me to go in there first?"
"Well, we can't just walk in blindly," Elder Liu said. "What if there's a trap or a formation? Someone needs to test it."
"And that someone is me."
"You're a steward. This is part of your duties."
Shu almost choked.
No, it isn't. My duties involve managing spirit boat schedules and filing requisition forms. Not getting sacrificed to death-gates.
But what he said out loud was: "I really think we should reconsider..."
"Shu," the third elder cut him off. "You're overthinking this. There's probably no danger at all. Just look at the structure. It's obviously some kind of entrance. Most likely to an ancient secret realm or inheritance site. As the first person to enter, you might even receive special benefits. Opportunities like this don't come along often."
Shu looked at the swirling purple void and thought, If it's such a great opportunity, why don't you go in first?
"Besides," Elder Liu added, "if you do this for us, we'll put in a good word for you once we return to the sect. Advancing to a better position won't be difficult. You might even have a chance to enter the inner administrative circle."
And there was the carrot dangling in front of his face.
Shu had spent years trying to climb the sect hierarchy, flattering superiors, taking on extra work, and volunteering for every miserable task nobody else wanted to touch. Now, the three elders were offering to support his advancement.
All he had to do was walk into a strange gate that might kill him.
The worst part was that he couldn't even refuse. If he backed out now, those three would definitely remember it once they returned to the sect. Any future promotion would become impossible, his requests would mysteriously start getting denied, and before long, they would probably find some excuse to suppress him or throw him out entirely.
That was simply how sect politics worked. Once you ended up on the wrong side of the higher-ups, your future was finished.
"I understand" Shu swallowed hard. "I'll... I'll take a look."
"Good man," Elder Liu said, smiling like a proud grandfather. "We knew we could count on you."
I hope you all get hemorrhoids, Shu thought.
He approached the structure slowly, spiritual energy circulating through his meridians in case he needed to make a quick escape. The purple light rippled as he got closer. The pulling sensation grew stronger.
"Go on," one of the elders called from behind him. "Don't be afraid."
Shu thought bitterly. You're not the one walking into the scary portal.
He took a deep breath, and leaned forward to stick his head through the purple light.
The moment he pushed his head through the portal, his senses went completely out of control.
The sound around him twisted into something unbearable. At the same time, his vision warped violently. Colors blurred together, and his sense of distance disappeared so completely that he could no longer tell how far away anything was.
For one second, he thought he was dying.
Then the distortion gradually faded, and his vision cleared.
Beyond the portal was a room. At least, it looked like a room.
The floor was made of smooth grey stone laid out in a perfect square. Red-brown brick pathways stretched from the center toward the surrounding walls, while strange lamp posts stood evenly spaced throughout the area. Each post held two lanterns, one glowing softly and the other completely dark.
He pulled his head back out of the portal.
The world snapped back to normal.
Cold air brushed against his face. Snow drifted through the forest. The three elders stood nearby, watching him expectantly.
He blinked several times, trying to process what he had just seen. Even now, he could see the ordinary world through the portal's semi-transparent purple surface. Snow continued to fall, and the trees swayed gently in the wind.
But whenever he looked through the portal itself, he saw that room instead.
"What is this?" he whispered.
"Well?" Elder Liu called. "What did you see?"
Shu didn't answer. Instead, he stuck his head back through for a second look, just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.
The room was still there.
This really is an entrance to a cultivation site...
He pulled his head back out and turned to face the elders, about to report what he'd found.
Then he paused.
If he told them what was inside, they'd rush in and claim everything for themselves. And he would be left with nothing except maybe a pat on the head and a "good job, steward."
But if he went in first... If he went in first and found something valuable, he could take it before they even knew it existed.
The thought was dangerous. Defying the elders was a good way to end up dead. But the opportunity...
Screw it. I'm already risking my life going in there anyway. No reason to walk away empty-handed.
Before the elders could say anything else, he stepped through the portal.
The disorientation hit him again. That strange pulling sensation twisted his senses for a brief moment, but it faded almost as quickly as it appeared.
A second later, everything stabilized.
He found himself standing inside a large room. The first thing he noticed was the heat. Compared to the snowy landscape outside, this place was much warmer, though still comfortable enough that it didn't bother him.
Then he noticed the spiritual energy.
The density here was astonishing. It was at least two or three times richer than the ambient energy outside, and he could already feel his meridians absorbing it without any effort on his part.
Now that he was fully inside instead of merely peering through the portal, he finally took a look around.
The room was built in a perfect square, roughly twenty meters across. The stone platform beneath his feet had stairways leading down in all four directions, while red-brown brick paths stretched outward in a cross pattern toward each wall. Those strange lamp posts he had seen earlier were arranged evenly throughout the room.
Behind him, the purple portal had changed shape completely. What he had seen outside was now a massive rectangular frame nearly six blocks wide and eight blocks tall.
Other than that, the room appeared empty.
After observing the area for another moment, he stepped down from the platform and began exploring further.
The moment he stepped off the platform, he felt the surrounding spiritual energy weaken sharply. It dropped from roughly three times normal density to only twice normal. The concentration was still impressive, but the difference was obvious enough for him to notice immediately.
He stepped backward.
As soon as he returned to the platform, the spiritual energy surged back to its previous density.
"What?"
He paused for a moment before testing it several more times. He walked back and forth across the same area. After a while, he finally realized what was happening.
The closer he moved toward the lamp posts, the denser the spiritual energy became. Even stranger, the surrounding energy remained stable no matter how much he absorbed. It didn't thin out in the slightest, as though the lamps were continuously generating spiritual energy on their own.
He walked over to the nearest lantern and raised a hand toward it.
The spiritual energy surrounding the lamp was terrifyingly dense. This wasn't something that should exist anywhere near an ordinary city. Even many cultivation grounds controlled by major sects couldn't compare to this level of concentration.
Without hesitation, he began circulating his cultivation technique at full speed, drawing spiritual energy into his meridians. When he realized the surrounding energy remained just as dense as before, his heartbeat quickened.
He increased the speed of his cultivation even further, greedily absorbing as much spiritual energy as his meridians could handle, yet the concentration around the lamp still showed no signs of decreasing.
At that point, he finally understood.
These lamps were somehow producing spiritual energy endlessly.
His breathing grew heavier as countless thoughts flashed through his mind.
If he could take control of this place, cultivators would pay unimaginable sums just for the chance to cultivate here. He could easily monopolize access to the lamps, establish himself within Verdantree City, and accumulate wealth faster than he had ever imagined possible.
All those years spent flattering elders and handling tedious administrative work suddenly didn't seem meaningless anymore.
"I've really struck gold this time..."
A grin spread across Shu's face.
The others were probably still waiting outside for his signal, wondering why he hadn't contacted them yet.
Let them wait.
Before telling anyone else about this place, he intended to explore every corner himself. If he happened to discover additional treasures in the process, then that was simply his own good fortune.
---
Shu stood in the middle of the strange room with blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. His right arm trembled slightly as he held his life-bound spirit seal.
Three chips had appeared on its surface.
Every one of those chips felt like a direct blow to his soul, because life-bound artifacts were spiritually connected to their owners. Any damage done to the artifact would also affect the cultivator tied to it.
And during the last twenty minutes, he had repeatedly smashed that spirit seal against objects that simply refused to break.
His gaze settled on the lantern hanging from the stone pillar.
The thing hadn't moved even once.
He had tried spiritual techniques, brute force, and even attacks enhanced with ice spiritual energy, yet the lantern continued to hang there as steadily as before, as though it had been fused directly into the pillar itself.
That was what made no sense to him.
The lantern was clearly hanging from a chain. He could see the iron links. The chain didn't even look particularly thick, yet no matter how much force he used, the lantern wouldn't budge in the slightest.
"What kind of chain is this supposed to be? Why make it look like a normal chain if it doesn't even behave like one?"
His grip tightened around the spirit seal, causing the artifact to pulse weakly in response to his unstable emotions.
Twenty minutes ago, he had been excited after realizing that this place was most likely an ancient inheritance site. He had entered before anyone else, which meant the treasures inside should have belonged to him alone.
At the time, he had thought he had stumbled upon a great opportunity.
Now he only felt pain.
His arm hurt from the recoil of striking indestructible objects over and over again. His hand hurt from punching the stone pillar. And his soul hurt from the damage to his life-bound spirit seal.
Even his pride hurt.
He was a Spirit Condensation cultivator. Early stage or not, he still should have been capable of breaking something as simple as a lantern.
Yet after trying his best, the lantern remained completely intact.
"I refuse to believe this."
He gathered spiritual energy in his hand again and circulated his ice technique. Frost spread from his fingertips and quickly crawled up his forearm until his entire arm was encased in solid ice.
He drew his fist back and gritted his teeth.
"This has to work..."
BOOM!
His fist slammed into the stone pillar.
The ice coating shattered instantly, sending sharp fragments flying in every direction. Several pieces sliced across his face and chest, drawing blood. The impact made his entire arm go numb, and pain shot through his shoulder.
But the stone pillar itself remained completely untouched.
There wasn't even a scratch on it.
"Son of a..."
He swallowed the rest of the curse and grabbed his bleeding hand. Several knuckles had probably cracked from the impact, and his arm was throbbing badly. Even his cultivation base trembled slightly from the repeated spiritual backlash.
Still, he finally understood.
These pillars were definitely treasures. There was no way ordinary stone could withstand that kind of attack without taking any damage at all.
Which only made him want them even more.
Gritting his teeth against the pain, he moved to the next lamp post and tried again, then the next, and then the next after that.
By the time he finished testing all nine lanterns in the main chamber along with the four in the side passages, his life-bound spirit seal had gained two more cracks. Several cuts had opened across his hands, leaving them covered in blood, while his soul felt as though it had been torn apart and stitched back together again.
Standing in front of the purple portal, he breathed heavily as blood dripped from his fingertips. For the first time in a long while, he seriously began questioning his own life choices.
Then he remembered the three elders waiting outside.
A plan slowly formed in his mind.
After taking a deep breath, he wiped most of the blood from his face and hands with his sleeve before hiding his injured hands inside his robes. Once he was sure nothing looked too obvious, he stepped through the portal.
---
The moment Shu stepped out of the portal, the pain on his face disappeared and was replaced by excitement.
"Wonderful news! Amazing news!"
He quickly looked around, only to find the clearing completely empty.
"...Hello?"
He frowned.
Where had they gone?
He was about to spread out his spiritual sense to look for them when three figures suddenly shot past him at incredible speed. Before he could even react, the elders had already rushed straight into the portal behind him without saying a single word.
He stood alone in the snow as a vein twitched on his forehead.
Those old bastards had obviously been hiding nearby the entire time, secretly watching from a distance. The moment they saw him come out alive and looking excited, they immediately rushed into the portal to grab the treasures for themselves without even bothering to hear his report first.
He felt so frustrated that he almost laughed.
Still, there was nothing he could do about it. When you lived under someone else's authority, sometimes you simply had to endure this kind of treatment.
After calming himself down, he put the pained expression back on his face and stepped into the portal once more.
Fortunately, he didn't need to fake it too much. His entire body was still aching badly.
---
By the time Shu stepped back into the room, the three elders were already gathered around the lanterns.
He quietly slipped his bloodied hands back into his sleeves before forcing a flattering smile onto his face.
"Is it really as miraculous as you claimed?" Elder Liu asked without turning around.
"Yes," Shu replied respectfully. "The spiritual energy around the lanterns is at least two or three times denser than normal."
The three elders began testing the lanterns for themselves.
Shu remained off to the side as they moved around the room, occasionally letting out surprised reactions after discovering the same things he had noticed earlier. After nearly ten minutes, the three elders finally stopped and turned back toward Shu.
"You did well bringing this matter to our attention," Elder Liu said with a satisfied nod. "You showed good judgment. Once we return to the sect, we will make sure your contribution is properly rewarded. Arranging a promotion for you shouldn't be difficult."
Shu bowed deeply, his hands still hidden within his sleeves. "I'm honored by your praise."
In other words, they planned to take all the valuable treasures for themselves and toss him a single lantern as compensation.
"Since you were the first to discover this place, you may keep one lantern artifact. The three of us will each take four," one of the elders said.
Shu quickly calculated the numbers in his head. There were nine lanterns in the main hall and another four in the surrounding passages, making thirteen in total. If the three elders each took four, that left exactly one for him. On the surface, the offer sounded surprisingly generous, but after a moment, he realized the reason behind it.
The three elders believed they could take the lanterns. In their eyes, his failure earlier had nothing to do with the artifacts themselves. They simply assumed his cultivation had been too weak to handle them.
Shu almost wanted to laugh.
"Thank you," he said with another respectful bow. "I'm grateful for your generosity."
"Good," Elder Liu replied as he turned toward the nearest lantern. "We'll collect everything first and divide it properly after we leave this place."
The three elders split up and walked toward different lanterns.
Shu remained near the portal and quietly watched them go.
----------
Elder Liu walked up to the first lantern and grabbed it with both hands before giving it a hard pull.
But the lantern didn't move at all.
A slight frown appeared on his face as he increased his strength, but the lantern remained still.
Seeing this, he directly circulated spiritual energy through his arms and pulled again. Even then, the lantern didn't move in the slightest.
The other two elders were running into similar problems.
One of the elders tried cutting the chain with a spiritual blade, but the blade cracked the moment it struck the metal. Another attempted to pull the entire pillar out of the ground, only to discover that it wouldn't move at all. It felt as though the pillar had been fused directly into the mountain itself.
After that, the room gradually fell silent.
Ten minutes passed, then twenty, yet none of the three elders managed to make any progress. By the time half an hour had gone by, they had all gathered in front of the portal again, breathing heavily with dark expressions on their faces. Their robes were wrinkled and disheveled from all the effort.
Elder Liu's knuckles were bleeding badly from repeatedly striking the chain. One elder had damaged his sword, while another had somehow managed to sprain his wrist.
Shu stood quietly off to the side with his hands tucked into his sleeves. His face remained calm, but internally he was already laughing himself half to death.
"What exactly are these lanterns made of?" Elder Liu muttered while staring at his injured hands.
"I don't know. But they appear to be extremely durable."
Shu almost wanted to laugh after saying that.
The three elders exchanged glances. They were thinking the same thing. If these objects were this indestructible, then they had to be valuable treasures.
The problem was that none of them could take anything away.
After a moment, one of the elders spoke up.
"Perhaps we should examine the rest of the room. There may be other items we can collect."
The others nodded and spread out to search the area. Before long, they found eight wooden notice boards hanging on the wall opposite the raised platform, arranged neatly in two rows of four.
The writing on the boards looked strange. Some of the characters were written in standard continental script that any cultivator would recognize, but other characters looked noticeably different. The strokes were uneven and poorly formed, and several characters seemed slightly distorted, as though the writer had only learned the script recently and still lacked proper practice.
Still, the meaning was clear enough:
[DANGER OUTSIDE!]
[NOT RECOMMENDED FOR CULTIVATORS BELOW FOUNDATION ESTABLISHMENT!]
[All items in this room are indestructible to you. Before leaving, make sure you have enough spirit stones to return in time. Throw low-grade spirit stones into the designated slot in the passage to open the iron door. Other items thrown in will be returned shortly. Spirit stones, once inserted, are non-refundable. Oh, and freeloading off someone else's spirit stones is shameful.]
The four cultivators stood in silence as they read the signs again and again.
"So the items in this room can't be destroyed or taken away?" Shu asked slowly.
"That seems to be the case," Elder Liu replied. "And according to this, we need to insert spirit stones into some kind of slot if we want to open the exit."
The group turned toward the passages branching out from the main room.
Shu had already checked them earlier. All four passages looked exactly the same. Each corridor was around three meters long and ended with an iron door. Beside every door was a hopper built into the wall, angled upward like a container meant for receiving items.
"The writing style is somewhat bad," the third elder said while studying the sign closely. "But the meaning itself should be correct. We insert spirit stones, and the door opens."
Shu frowned slightly.
"Then what does 'freeloading' mean?"
Elder Liu thought for a moment before answering.
"It probably refers to entering without paying for yourself. In other words, using someone else's spirit stones to pass through."
The room suddenly became quiet.
A moment later, everyone turned to look at Shu.
Shu's expression stiffened.
"I didn't bring any spirit stones."
Elder Liu sighed before taking out a low-grade spirit stone from his storage ring and handing it over.
"Go test it first."
Shu accepted the spirit stone, walked over to the nearest passage, and dropped it into the hopper.
The spirit stone vanished the moment it touched the slot, seemingly absorbed by whatever mechanism controlled the door.
Everyone waited, but nothing happened.
"Did we misunderstand how the..."
Click.
The iron door suddenly opened, revealing nothing but darkness beyond it.
"Shu, get in there bef..."
SLAM.
The door shut before anyone could finish speaking. The group stared at the closed door in silence.
After a few seconds, one of the elders finally spoke, "...How long was it open for?"
"Maybe half a second," Shu replied.
Elder Liu frowned.
"So we spent one spirit stone for half a second of access."
"It would seem that way."
The chamber fell silent again.
----------
[POV: Alexei]
The next morning, Alexei woke up earlier than usual and headed down to the cargo hold.
Technically speaking, the portal had only been operational for one night. The chances of anyone finding it, using it, and paying spirit stones were probably slim. But there was always a chance. And honestly, even finding a few spirit stones would be enough to make his entire day.
He reached the cargo hold and pulled open the first chest near the door.
[Low-Grade Spirit Stone Ore ×201]
"What?"
He blinked, then checked the number again.
"There are people using it already?"
He immediately turned to the other four chests.
[Low-Grade Spirit Stone Ore ×204]
[Low-Grade Spirit Stone Ore ×217]
[Low-Grade Spirit Stone Ore ×209]
[Low-Grade Spirit Stone Ore ×199]
He stared at the numbers.
"How is this possible? Did word spread that fast? How would anyone even know about it this quickly?"
Verdantree City was huge, and cultivators could fly, which meant news traveled faster than it would among normal people. But this seemed excessive.
Unless someone had stumbled across the portal by accident and decided to explore it extensively. Which, knowing cultivation world luck and the way ancient inheritance sites worked, was probably exactly what had happened.
He pulled all the spirit stones out of the chests and stacked them against the wall of the cabin to save inventory space. The pile glittered in the lamplight.
Unfortunately, even with over a thousand stones, he was still short of the amount needed to mine a single MC-grade low-grade spirit stone. Those required sixteen stacks and even with his Fortune pickaxe multiplying the drops, he wasn't quite there yet.
At this rate, he would probably get about one MC spirit stone per week.
But this was just the beginning.
The portal had only been open for one night. As more cultivators discovered it, the traffic would only increase. And there was no way they would refuse to pay.
The spirit stone lamps alone were enough to make the portal worthwhile, but the real value came from the experience orbs dropped by piglins after death. Those orbs could purify spiritual energy, remove impurities from the body, and even clear away pill toxins to some extent, which made the Nether an unexpectedly useful cultivation resource.
The effect of a single orb was minor, of course, but that hardly mattered when there was an endless supply. Given enough quantity, even small gains could accumulate into something terrifying over time.
By the time Alexei headed back upstairs, a grin had already spread across his face as he started thinking about where to place the next portal.
----------
[POV: Coldstream Sect]
Meanwhile, inside the Nether portal chamber, three elders from the Coldstream Sect stood around a massive pile of glittering gold.
After splitting up and working through the entire night, the four of them, including Shu, had managed to gather more than 50,000 kilograms of raw gold from the pig-like monsters beyond the iron doors. Along the way, they had also collected a large number of yellow-green beads that turned out to be surprisingly easy to refine, with noticeable effects on purifying both the body and spiritual energy.
The golden swords were even more shocking.
They had recovered somewhere between twenty and thirty of them over the course of the night, and every single sword weighed close to 5,000 kilograms while remaining completely undamaged no matter how they tested it. None of the elders believed such weapons could be ordinary. Otherwise, there was no way they could possess such absurd weight and durability.
What made the situation even harder to believe was that there were still hundreds of those pig monsters roaming outside, and nearly all of them carried the same kind of golden weapon.
The only thing they still couldn't understand was why the swords didn't always remain behind after the monsters died. Sometimes the weapons disappeared together with the corpses, while other times they remained intact for collection. Although they had yet to figure out the pattern, the inconsistency hardly mattered at this point since they had still managed to gather more than thirty swords in a single night.
The chamber door opened, and Shu stepped through the portal while catching his breath.
"The spirit boat is already full. We can't fit any more gold inside."
The three elders exchanged glances, but none of them looked particularly concerned. Elder Liu simply waved his hand dismissively.
"It doesn't matter. The Sect Master should arrive soon enough anyway. We only need to wait a little longer."
Another elder stroked his beard and smiled at Shu.
"You've done well this time. Once we return to the sect, your contribution in discovering this place will definitely be rewarded."
Shu lowered his head and thanked them, but inwardly, he could only sneer.
Last night, when they reported the inheritance site to the Sect Master, the three old bastards had left his name out. They took all the credit for themselves and never once mentioned that he had been the first person to enter the portal.
At this point, he would already consider himself lucky if they gave him fifty spirit stones as compensation.
As for all this talk about promotion and merit, he honestly didn't believe much of it. The elders needed someone to do the hard labor, so naturally they had to throw out a few promises to keep him obedient.
Unfortunately, he had no choice except to continue working.
For the rest of the morning, he hauled gold nuggets back and forth through the portal while the three elders stood nearby directing the operation. In the end, the exhausting work still fell entirely on him, just like it always did.
Ever since they discovered that the brainless pig monsters outside the iron doors dropped gold and magical artifacts after death, the elders had become completely obsessed with exploiting the place. If their remaining spirit stones weren't barely enough to maintain passage through the portal, he suspected they would have continued farming the monsters without rest.
The biggest problem was the sheer number of pig monsters roaming the area. Hundreds of them wandered through the crimson forest outside the portal, and there were probably even more deeper inside. Because of that, leaving the area around the portal had become nearly impossible. The moment anyone tried to push too far out, they would get swarmed from every direction.
On top of that, three of the four passages leading away from the portal were blocked by pig monsters wearing full sets of golden armor. Those armored monsters were incredibly difficult to deal with. Even when all three elders attacked together, they still couldn't force one back even a single step, and their weapons barely left marks on the armor no matter how many times they struck it.
The worst part was that the situation kept getting worse over time.
At the beginning, most of the pig monsters had only worn one or two pieces of armor, which made them manageable. But after they started killing them, they quickly realized something was wrong. Whenever one died, its armor would somehow appear on another nearby pig monster instead of disappearing with the corpse.
As more battles dragged on, fully armored pig monsters gradually began appearing one after another until there were already seven or eight of them wandering around the area. Fighting them had become exhausting. Pig monsters that once died after only a few strikes now required long battles just to bring down a single one, while their own swords had become chipped and dull from constantly crashing against golden armor.
Even so, none of them were willing to leave. The rewards here were simply too valuable.
---
Several days passed before the Coldstream Sect Master finally arrived, bringing a large group of sect cultivators with him. Disciples, elders, stewards, and even outer sect members capable of carrying supplies had all been mobilized for the operation.
Fortunately, no other cultivators seemed to have discovered the portal during that time. Some people had probably noticed the strange structure from afar, but with multiple spirit boats parked nearby, most simply assumed the area had already been claimed by a powerful sect and chose not to investigate further. That misunderstanding suited the Coldstream Sect perfectly, so nobody bothered correcting it.
Meanwhile, the snowstorm showed no signs of stopping. After several continuous days of snowfall, the deeper drifts already reached as high as a person's thighs, covering the surrounding wilderness in endless white. Even so, the camp built around the Nether portal remained lively day and night.
Disciples constantly moved between the camp and the portal, hauling gold out in large quantities while stewards organized and recorded everything nearby. Elders occasionally stopped to inspect the strange weapons and armor being transported back, turning golden swords, crossbows, and armor pieces over in their hands with undisguised excitement.
To them, this place was an ancient inheritance ground overflowing with treasures. The portal continuously produced valuable materials, and there seemed to be no end to the divine artifacts hidden inside.
At least, that was what they believed.
---
Tap tap tap.
Creak.
The wooden door creaked open as an elderly man stepped into one of the newly built structures.
"Sect Master," he said with a slight bow, "we've already transported more than 100,000 kilograms of gold back to the sect, along with nearly 600 golden swords, over 30 crossbows, and more than 70 defensive artifacts taken from those pig monsters. If we don't start selling some of it soon, the sect's spirit stone reserves won't last much longer."
The Coldstream Sect Master continued sipping his tea. Only after setting the cup down did he reply, "There's no need to panic."
In his view, the elder was focusing too much on short-term losses.
They had temporarily monopolized an ancient secret realm. Compared to an opportunity like that, a temporary shortage of spirit stones was hardly worth worrying about. As long as they could secure enough divine weapons and eventually take control of the inheritance site, the sect would naturally recover everything it had spent several times over.
By then, selling even a fraction of those treasures would bring in an unimaginable amount of wealth.
Besides, he didn't believe the divine weapons were unlimited. More likely, the portal connected to some special location left behind by an ancient civilization, with a hidden stockpile of artifacts that had yet to be discovered.
Eventually, the supply would run dry, but until that happened, they needed to extract as much value from the secret realm as possible.
"But..." the old man said with some hesitation, "we barely have enough spirit stones left to continue opening the outer area. If we exhaust our reserves now, how will we obtain more treasures later?"
The Sect Master paused midway through lifting his teacup before giving the old man an odd look.
"So that's what you've been worrying about."
After setting the cup down, he leaned back slightly and stroked his beard as he considered the problem more carefully. The concern wasn't unreasonable. Selling small amounts of gold outside the sect was manageable, but once too much began circulating, it would inevitably attract attention. People would investigate where it came from, and if enough powerful factions started digging, it would only be a matter of time before someone traced everything back to Coldstream Sect and discovered the portal.
Still, secrets were only valuable while they remained hidden, and every extra day bought them enormous profit.
"In that case, go borrow spirit stones from the neighboring sects. Borrow as much as you can and do it quickly."
The old man was startled.
"If word spreads that we're suddenly seeking large amounts of spirit stones, people may become suspicious..."
"There is no need to overthink it," the Sect Master interrupted. "With the wealth this secret realm produces, repayment will not be a problem."
The old man fell silent after hearing that.
After all, the indestructible golden swords alone were already priceless, and the sect was obtaining more than a hundred of them every single day. Once the gold, armor, and those strange crossbows were included as well, the value became almost unimaginable.
He cupped his fists respectfully.
"Understood. I'll depart immediately."
----------
[POV: Alexei]
Back in Verdantree City, aboard the spirit vessel parked near the Alchemy Alliance plaza, Alexei had been in an extremely good mood these past few days.
The transmission ender chest in the cargo hold was generating more than 30,000 regular low-grade spirit stones every day, to the point where he had to empty it manually once daily just to keep it from overflowing. After running everything through his Fortune pickaxe, the final yield came out to nine MC-grade low-grade spirit stones, which meant that if things continued at this pace, he would be able to accumulate a high-grade spirit stone in less than two months.
The entire setup was earning far more than he had originally expected.
At the same time, though, something about the situation felt strange to him.
Over the past several days, he and Qingxue had spent most of their time wandering around Verdantree City, especially near the Alchemy Alliance district. Considering how many spirit stones were passing through the ender chest every day, there should already have been many cultivators entering the Nether through the portal. Even if the exact details hadn't spread yet, rumors alone should have started circulating by now.
But he hadn't heard anything.
It was as though the portal simply didn't exist.
"That's weird. You'd think someone would've talked about it by now."
He looked out the spirit vessel's window at the snowy city below, still trying to figure out what he was missing.
Ch. 7626 May
Another five days passed after the Nether portal started generating income, and during that time Alexei's collection of spirit stones grew to an absurd amount. At this point, he was making more money than most small sects without doing much beyond keeping the portal running.
More importantly, Yan had finally finished the public alchemy lectures she'd been conducting for the Alchemy Alliance over the past several days. According to her, the lectures had been part of some professional obligation tied to her status, though he never bothered asking for the details.
When she returned to the spirit vessel yesterday evening, however, something about her expression caught his attention. She looked oddly disturbed, as though she had just witnessed something unpleasant and was still trying to process it.
Naturally, he asked what happened.
In response, Yan was quiet for a moment before simply shaking her head.
"The standards of modern alchemy have declined far more than I expected."
That was all she said on the matter.
He considered asking further, but eventually decided against it. Anything related to cultivation world politics or internal Alliance matters usually turned into a massive headache sooner or later.
---
Early the next morning, Alexei sat in the vessel's common room eating a bowl of rice porridge Qingxue had prepared for breakfast. Like most cultivator food, it barely had any flavor at all, and after weeks of traveling with them, he was starting to suspect seasoning simply didn't exist in this world.
As he set his spoon down against the side of the bowl, he glanced over at Yan, who was sitting at the table with several notes spread out in front of her.
"So today's the big exam?"
Yan looked up briefly from her papers. "The Fifth-rank Alchemist assessment begins at one in the afternoon."
"You nervous?"
The question earned him a flat look.
"I've been refining pills for 600 years. At this point, the examination is little more than a formality."
"Yeah, fair enough."
Across the table, Qingxue smiled faintly as she poured herself tea. "Duan and Jianqiang will also be coming with us. The examinations are open to spectators, so many younger alchemists attend to observe the process."
Alexei leaned back slightly in his chair. "Public exams... Sounds miserable."
Qingxue nodded. "It's considered a valuable learning opportunity."
Alexei just sighed. Somehow, the sarcasm missed her every single time.
---
They left the spirit vessel around noon, so they had plenty of time to reach the Alchemy Alliance before the examination started.
Duan and Jianqiang were already waiting near the entrance when they arrived. Duan seemed unusually excited, talking the entire way inside about how rare it was to witness a fifth-rank examination in person and how much Jianqiang could learn from the experience. Jianqiang himself looked exhausted by the lecture and kept nodding.
Alexei sympathized.
The Alchemy Alliance building was just as excessive as he remembered. Cultivators flew in and out through different entrances built into the upper levels while ordinary people were forced to enter through the ground floor, which felt like the architectural equivalent of rich people inventing separate entrances for themselves.
"The examination hall is on the sixth floor," Yan explained as she led them toward an ornate doorway built into the wall. "We'll need to wait for the lift."
Alexei slowed slightly and looked at her. "I'm sorry. Did you just say lift?"
"The cloud lift," she corrected while pressing a crystal button beside the doorway. "It's a spirit-powered mechanism used to transport people between floors."
Alexei stared at the doors for a moment before looking back at her. "So it's an elevator."
"A what?"
"Never mind." He pointed at the doorway. "Why is it called a cloud lift?"
Yan looked confused by the question. "Because the design was inspired by cultivators ascending through the clouds. It allows ordinary people to experience the feeling of rising into the heavens."
Alexei opened his mouth, paused, then slowly nodded.
"...Alright, that's a pretty good name."
Ding.
A soft chime echoed through the hall, and the doors slid open.
He regretted giving them credit.
It was basically an elevator with polished wooden floors, formation scripts carved into the walls, and a neatly organized diagram showing which floors contained which facilities. They just gave it a more mystical name, and acted like the concept was different.
"See?" Qingxue said cheerfully as they stepped inside. "A cloud lift."
"Yeah. I can see that," Alexei replied while staring at the floor indicator above the door.
He stepped inside, trying not to think about how much easier his life would have been if someone had mentioned on day one that this world had elevators.
The doors slid shut behind them, and the lift began to rise almost silently. The movement was smooth enough that he barely felt it at all, honestly better than most elevators back on Earth. Formation arrays were probably handling the entire thing.
"Why not just fly up with swords?" he asked as he watched the numbers on the floor indicator light up one by one. "Wouldn't that be faster?"
"It's for security," Yan said. "The higher floors store more valuable materials and finished pills, so the Alliance limits access through the lift system. That way, they can keep track of who goes up and down. The Artificer's Guild, the Formation Alliance, the major merchant houses, scripture repositories, and most sect compounds all use similar systems. Once enough resources are involved, controlled access points become standard."
Alexei nodded while glancing at the glowing floor indicator again.
Ding.
The elevator doors opened on the fourth floor, and two cultivators stepped inside. One was an elderly man dressed in expensive robes, while the other looked to be in his thirties, though appearances meant very little among cultivators. For all Alexei knew, the man could have been a few centuries old.
The moment they entered, both of them recognized Yan.
"Master Yan," the old man greeted with a nod. "I didn't expect to see you taking the examination today as well."
"I happened to be nearby. It was simpler to finish it now rather than come back later."
The old man immediately sighed and shook his head as he glanced at the younger cultivator beside him.
"If only he had the same level of discipline. He's been stuck at sixth-rank for nearly a century already."
The younger man's expression stiffened slightly. He didn't argue back, though. Instead, he simply stood there while the old man continued criticizing him.
After listening for a while, Alexei started feeling a little bad for him.
Then he noticed the younger cultivator occasionally glancing toward Yan whenever the conversation paused.
At first, Alexei didn't think much of it, but after the third or fourth time, the pattern became hard to ignore.
The cultivation world was apparently full of people who convinced themselves they still had a chance no matter how unrealistic it was, and this guy was obviously one of them. That also explained why he looked like he wanted the elevator floor to swallow him whole every time his master compared him to Yan.
Once Alexei noticed it, the atmosphere somehow became even more awkward.
Thankfully, the elevator chimed again before things could get worse.
"Sixth floor," Yan said as the doors opened.
Alexei stepped out right behind her.
---
The sixth floor opened into a massive entrance hall that was easily over 1,000 square meters in size. Small groups of cultivators stood scattered throughout the hall, chatting with each other in relaxed tones while attendants moved between them carrying trays of tea and spirit fruits.
The moment Yan entered, several people noticed her.
"Master Yan! I didn't expect to see you here today."
"It's been a while. Are you finally taking another apprentice?"
"We still haven't finished discussing that refinement method you mentioned last year."
Yan responded to each greeting as she continued walking forward. Alexei watched the exchanges for a moment before glancing at her with disbelief.
"Does everyone here know you?" he muttered.
"More or less. There are only around 700 alchemists above eighth rank in the entire Verdantree region. Once you narrow it down to sixth-rank and above, there are fewer than 100 of us left. We all buy from the same suppliers, attend the same gatherings, and occasionally collaborate on research. After several hundred years, people naturally become familiar with each other."
Alexei nodded slowly as they moved deeper into the hall.
That honestly made far more sense than the explanations cultivation novels usually came up with. He had half expected some dramatic story about Yan saving an entire sect from a plague or refining some legendary pill that made her famous overnight. Instead, it was basically just professional networking stretched across centuries.
The two of them eventually passed through the entrance hall and entered the examination area. The layout reminded him of a university auditorium, probably intentionally. The center of the room had been cleared out for the examination itself, while the raised seating area surrounding it looked large enough to hold several hundred spectators.
More than a dozen stone tables had been arranged in neat rows across the testing area, and each table held a bronze furnace roughly half a meter tall.
"Those are the standardized furnaces used for the examination," Qingxue explained quietly as they took their seats in the spectator section. "The Alliance provides the same equipment and materials to every participant so the results stay as fair as possible."
Alexei looked toward the rows of furnaces below. "Then what about spirit flames? Don't those still give some alchemists an advantage?"
"They do. But once a spirit flame has been absorbed, it's considered part of the alchemist's own strength rather than an external aid."
Alexei let out a breath. "So if someone is wealthy enough or lucky enough to obtain a spirit flame early on, they basically keep that advantage forever."
"That's usually how it works."
"Then this doesn't really feel like standardized testing."
Qingxue turned to him. "The cultivation world was never built on fairness, Alexei. Talent, inheritance, wealth, sect backing, and bloodlines have always mattered."
Alexei leaned back slightly in his seat and glanced down at the examination grounds again.
"Yeah," he muttered. "I'm starting to notice that."
---
Yan made her way down to the testing area, where three other cultivators had already taken their seats. Each of them sat with a furnace pulled close. The guy from the elevator was among them, although he still looked faintly miserable.
After finding an empty table near the center, she sat down and pulled her assigned furnace closer before resting her hands on it. Compared to the others, she looked completely relaxed.
As the appointed time approached, more examinees entered the testing area until there were seven people in total, four men and three women. Most of them looked nervous, and the atmosphere in the room slowly became more tense, although she still didn't seem particularly concerned.
A few minutes before one o'clock, five elderly cultivators entered through a side door and took their seats behind a long table at the front of the hall facing the examinees. After quietly discussing something among themselves, one of them stood and waved a hand. Formation scripts lit up around the edges of the testing platform before fading into a faint shimmering barrier.
"That's a soundproofing array," Qingxue explained quietly from beside Alexei. "It's one-way. We can hear what's happening inside, but outside noise won't interfere with the alchemists."
The head examiner clapped twice, and the hall quickly fell silent.
Alexei leaned slightly toward Qingxue. "Is it starting already?"
"Not yet. They still need to announce this year's test parameters."
Almost as soon as she finished speaking, more than twenty attendants entered the hall carrying small wooden boxes that emitted a faint golden glow. They moved to the front one after another and placed the boxes on the long table before the five examiners.
The examiners didn't touch the boxes at all. They simply sat behind the tables with calm expressions while the examinees stared at the boxes with obvious nervousness.
"What's in them?" Alexei asked.
"The examination assignments," Duan explained from nearby. "Each box contains the materials for refining a specific fifth-grade pill. Once the exam starts, the examinees will draw lots to determine which pill they have to refine."
"So the assignment is random?"
Duan nodded. "And that's where the difficulty comes from."
Qingxue picked up the explanation before he could continue. "The fifth-rank Alchemist examination isn't just testing whether someone can refine a fifth-grade pill. The real requirement is producing pill patterns. They're markings that appear on high-quality pills after refinement. The more stable and refined the process is, the greater the chance of forming them. Pills with patterns are worth far more than ordinary pills of the same grade."
"I see."
"To pass the examination, the examinee has to produce a pill with at least three patterns. The problem is that not every fifth-grade pill has the same difficulty. Some pills are much harder to form patterns on than others, even within the same rank."
Alexei frowned as he tried to process that. "So someone could be an incredible alchemist and still fail the exam just because they got unlucky with the draw?"
"Yes."
Qingxue pointed toward the boxes sitting on the examiner's table. "Everyone taking the exam is hoping they don't draw one specific pill."
"Which one?"
"The Foundation Establishment Pill."
"What's so bad about it?"
"It's notoriously difficult to pattern. The pill itself isn't especially hard to refine, but forming even a single pattern requires almost perfect control over both timing and pill fire. As for three patterns, most fifth-rank alchemists can't manage it consistently."
She glanced toward the examinees below before continuing. "People call it the assassin pill because if you draw it, you've basically failed before the exam even starts."
Alexei looked down at the seven alchemists seated at their tables.
"So it's basically a trap."
"More or less."
He let out a quiet breath and shook his head. "Whoever designed this system sounds like an asshole."
Qingxue understood the word 'asshole' itself, but not the way he used it here. Still, judging from his tone, it was obviously not praise, so she chose not to comment.
At the front of the hall, the head examiner rose to his feet again and slowly swept his gaze across the room, enjoying the nervous atmosphere he had created before finally speaking.
"Approach and select your assignments."
GONG.
A deep bell rang through the examination hall, officially marking the start of the Fifth-rank Alchemist assessment.
All seven examinees, Yan included, stood and walked toward the long table where the five examiners sat waiting. Since everyone present was already a sixth-rank alchemist preparing for advancement, nobody needed the rules explained again.
After choosing three sealed boxes, they could still exchange them with others before opening them, which was why most of the examinees studied the containers before making their selections.
Yan, however, didn't bother wasting time on any of that. She walked up to the table, picked up the three nearest boxes, then returned to her seat and opened all of them at once.
---
Up in the spectator section, Alexei watched the examination for a few minutes before his interest started fading.
Everything was moving unbearably slowly. Since Yan had taken her seat at the testing platform, nobody had spoken a single word. The contestants just sat there quietly refining pills while the audience watched in silence.
After another few minutes, Alexei leaned back slightly and muttered, "This is boring..."
He had expected at least some explanation from the judges, maybe an announcement about what pills the contestants were refining to make things a little more interesting. Instead, the entire event felt weirdly lifeless.
"What would you know about alchemy?"
Alexei turned toward the voice and found a girl around thirteen glaring at him from the seat to his left. She had her arms crossed tightly over her chest, and the offended look on her face made it seem as though his comment had personally insulted her.
A bronze flame-shaped badge was pinned prominently to her robes.
He glanced at it for a moment before looking back at her. "Am I supposed to recognize that badge or something?"
The irritation on her face shifted into smug satisfaction.
"You really don't know?" she asked as she straightened slightly, making the badge even more noticeable. "It's an Apprentice Alchemist badge."
She paused there, obviously waiting for a more impressed reaction. When none came, she continued on her own.
"I started studying alchemy when I was five years old. By eight, I had already memorized the entire Compendium of Spiritual Medicine. I refined my first ninth-grade pill at nine, and I produced my first pill pattern at eleven."
Her chin lifted slightly as she finished proudly, "I'm the youngest person in the last three generations to earn this badge."
Alexei took a moment to process that before nodding slowly. "That's pretty impressive."
The girl's smug expression weakened a little, like she suddenly wasn't sure how to react to praise. She looked away and waved a hand awkwardly.
"Well, I mean, it's not that impressive. Plenty of people have done similar things before. I was just a little faster than average. And memorizing the Compendium wasn't even that difficult either. It's only around 4,000 pages, and most of it repeats the same herb types over and over again with minor variations in properties, environments, extraction methods, and compatibility ratios, so once you understand the underlying patterns, the rest becomes pretty eas..."
She trailed off when she noticed Alexei looking at her quietly.
"...What?"
"Do you mind if I just watch the exam in peace for a bit?"
She blinked. "But they haven't even started yet. They're still preparing the furnaces."
"I know."
"That's boring."
Alexei shrugged. "I know. But some people like boring than the alternative."
The girl frowned at him like she couldn't understand that mindset. Unfortunately, instead of stopping, she seemed to take it as motivation to explain even more.
She started pointing at the different examinees around the plaza, rapidly explaining their setups, furnace adjustments, flame control methods, and what each choice revealed about the pill they had drawn.
Alexei honestly tried to follow along at first. The problem was that alchemy theory hit him harder than sleeping pills ever could.
"...and from the way Master Chen is adjusting his formation arrays, you can already tell he's planning to use a mid-tier flame cycling technique, which usually means either a Blood Renewal Pill or a Marrow Cleansing Pill since both require extremely precise temperature transitions during..."
Her voice gradually blurred together. Alexei's eyes became heavier and heavier until his head finally started tilting forward.
"...Are you even listening to me?"
He jerked upright. "I am."
The girl stared at him flatly. "You were falling asleep."
"No I wasn't."
"You were snoring."
"That was me practicing the breathing techniques you mentioned earlier."
"Nobody breathes like that."
"Maybe I'm just bad at it, okay?"
The girl looked completely unconvinced.
Before she could continue the lecture, Alexei quickly reached into his storage pouch and pulled out a piece of candy.
"Here," he said, holding it out toward her. "Try this."
The girl looked at the candy suspiciously instead of taking it right away. "What's it?"
"Candy. It's sweet."
"I know what candy is," she said flatly. "What kind is it?"
"I don't know. Just eat it."
Still looking unconvinced, she finally took it from him, unwrapped the small covering, and popped it into her mouth. A second later, her eyes widened slightly.
For the first time in a while, she stopped talking completely.
Alexei watched her quietly as she sat there savoring the taste, and for nearly twenty whole seconds, the world remained peaceful.
Then she swallowed.
"What exactly is this made from? I've never tasted anything like it before. It's sweet, but there's also this slight bitterness underneath it. Not bad bitterness either. More like crystallized honey with some kind of weird sharp aftertaste, and I can't even tell what fruit this is supposed to b..."
Before she could continue, Alexei placed another candy into her hand.
"Have another one."
Her attention shifted instantly. "Thanks."
She unwrapped the second candy, and silence returned once more.
Alexei leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.
Honestly, twenty seconds of peace for one piece of candy was an incredible deal.
---
The examination went on far longer than Alexei had expected, and before long, most of the audience had clearly lost interest. When he glanced around the spectator section, he saw groups of alchemists quietly chatting amongst themselves while only occasionally looking back at the examination platform.
The girl sitting next to him, however, remained completely focused from beginning to end. She leaned forward slightly with both hands gripping the seat in front of her, her eyes fixed on the platform so intensely that it almost looked like she was afraid of missing something important.
A few times, she looked like she wanted to say something to him, but whenever she started to turn his way, he simply handed her another piece of candy.
After the fifth time, she seemed to understand what he was doing and quietly accepted the arrangement without further complaint.
---
Fifteen kilometers outside Verdantree City, the frozen wilderness surrounding the Nether portal had already been transformed into the Coldstream Sect's most profitable operation.
With spirit stones constantly flowing in and multiple groups of reinforcements arriving from the main sect over the past few weeks, the entire area had expanded rapidly. Around each of the four iron doors leading into the Nether, more than a dozen cultivators worked in rotating shifts, continuously killing piglins and collecting the drops they left behind. Nearby disciples sorted the loot into different piles before transporting everything out of the "mystic realm" at regular intervals.
CLANG.
A middle-aged cultivator dressed in expensive robes stepped aside just as a piglin's sword came crashing down toward him. Before the creature could recover from the missed strike, he drove a palm into its chest and forced it stumbling backward across the snow.
Unlike the ordinary piglins, this one wore a complete golden helmet that covered most of its face. After letting out a low grunt, it tightened its grip on the sword and charged again.
The cultivator simply sidestepped and struck out a second time.
BOOM.
The piglin's body exploded apart before dissolving into the familiar pixelated smoke the sect members had long since grown used to seeing.
As the smoke faded, two items slowly appeared where the creature had died: a fist-sized gold nugget floating in midair and a perfectly square golden helmet roughly the size of a bowl.
"Hm. Another piece of armor. Not bad."
The cultivator barely spared the gold nugget a glance. At this point, the sect no longer considered gold their main target. After realizing just how much of the stuff the piglins dropped, everyone had started focusing more on the equipment, weapons, armor, and especially those strange yellow-green orbs that seemed to benefit cultivation.
With a casual pull of spiritual energy, he drew the floating orbs toward himself and absorbed them directly into his body. A cool, refreshing sensation spread through his meridians, similar to drinking cold water on a hot day.
Afterward, he bent down and reached for the floating helmet.
The moment his fingers touched it, the small item rapidly expanded to full size, almost like it had been inflated in an instant. The shape remained square, though by now he was already too used to these strange items to care much about that anymore.
Every item dropped by the piglins behaved this way. If left untouched, they would disappear after eight hours. But once someone picked them up, they expanded to normal size and became permanent.
The yellow-green orbs were the only exception. If they weren't stored inside a spatial bag, they would eventually disappear no matter where they were kept.
Over the past few days, the sect had spent a great deal of time researching the piglin equipment, but the more they learned, the stranger the situation became.
When they first brought the armor back for testing, it had seemed completely useless. Despite being made of gold, the equipment behaved like nothing more than heavy metal cubes strapped to the body. It provided almost no defensive improvement at all, and several elders even questioned whether the piglins had simply been wearing decorative armor.
Still, the sect continued testing different sets taken from the battlefield. Most of the results remained the same until one Core Formation elder happened to notice that a direct strike during a sparring session felt weaker than expected.
At first, nobody paid much attention to it. They assumed that particular set of armor was special, or perhaps damaged in some unusual way. However, when they went back to retest the earlier sets that had originally shown no effect, they discovered that those armors were now functioning as well.
That was when the investigation truly began.
The sect spent the next several days testing every possible variable they could think of. They changed users, cultivation methods, spiritual attributes, and even bloodlines, trying to determine what had caused the armor to activate. Qi Refining disciples, Foundation Establishment cultivators, Core Formation elders, and Dharma Aspect experts all participated in the experiments.
In the end, none of it seemed to matter.
Every set eventually began working.
Individually, the effects were already impressive. The helmet strengthened the head enough that ordinary weapons struggled to leave injuries behind, while the boots reinforced the legs and noticeably improved stability. The chestplate and leggings produced similar effects across the rest of the body.
However, the real change only appeared once someone equipped the complete set.
The moment all four pieces were worn together, the armor's properties underwent a qualitative transformation. Not only did the user's body become as hard as steel, but any attack that struck them would mysteriously lose more than forty percent of its force before the impact fully transferred.
What truly shocked the sect was that the effect appeared completely unrelated to cultivation level.
A peak Core Formation attack carrying more than 10,000 kilograms of force would weaken to barely 6,000 by the time it landed, effectively reducing it to the level of an early Core Formation strike. Even attacks from Dharma Aspect cultivators would weaken to something closer to high-stage Nascent Soul power.
More frightening still, the protection wasn't limited to the areas covered by the armor. Even attacks aimed directly at exposed skin suffered the same reduction in force, as though an invisible layer of protection surrounded the wearer's entire body.
At that point, even Immortal-tier defensive artifacts started looking inferior by comparison.
Unfortunately, the armor itself created an entirely different problem.
The equipment was unbelievably awkward to wear. The design was completely square from top to bottom, and not just in appearance either. The leggings barely bent at the knees, while the chestplate remained rigid around the waist. Once someone equipped the full set, moving normally became almost impossible. At best, they could slowly shuffle forward like stiff golden statues.
The weight only made the situation worse.
A complete set weighed close to 51,000 kilograms, enough that even Dharma Aspect cultivators struggled to move properly while wearing it.
Which left the sect with one question they still couldn't answer.
If the armor was this heavy and inflexible, then how were the piglins using it so naturally?
After days of research, the sect's leading theory was that the Nether had once been an ancient battlefield that had completely vanished from recorded history. The lack of spiritual energy throughout the Nether seemed to support that conclusion, and the piglins themselves were likely remnants of whatever war had taken place there. Their minds had probably disappeared long ago, leaving behind only bodies that continued moving through some unknown method.
What truly unsettled everyone was the fact that they could still fight after countless millennia had passed. If these things were only empty remnants, then the beings they originally belonged to must have been terrifyingly powerful while they were alive.
The situation eventually became ridiculous enough that one elder summarized it during the latest status meeting.
"So, in summary, we've discovered priceless armor that can make the wearer nearly invincible, but nobody can wear it."
Another elder calmly nodded. "Correct."
"And our current objective is figuring out how to make square armor less square."
"Also correct."
The room went silent for a moment before the first elder finally sighed and leaned back in his chair.
"Well, at least we're getting rich from this."
Nobody disagreed with that.
---
Seven entire hours had passed since the examination began, and by this point Alexei felt completely numb.
If he had known it would drag on for this long, he never would have agreed to come watch in the first place. He could have spent the time doing literally anything else. Sleeping, organizing his inventory, or even staring at a wall all sounded more appealing than sitting through hours of alchemy refinement.
The examination platform, which had started with seven contestants, now only had four people remaining. The other three had already withdrawn after realizing the pills they were refining would never reach the minimum requirement of three patterns, leaving behind two men and two women still focused on their furnaces.
By now, almost nobody in the audience was paying attention to the other contestants anymore. Nearly every gaze in the hall had gathered around Yan, including the girl sitting beside him, who was leaning so far forward in her seat that she looked ready to fall over at any moment.
The reason for all the attention was obvious.
Yan had already completed two of the three required pills, and both had shocked the audience. The first had been a seven-pattern Earth Treasure Pill, while the second was a seven-pattern Sea Qi Pill. With results like that, nobody doubted she would pass the examination anymore.
From the discussions happening around him, Alexei gathered that refining two pills of that quality in a row was extremely rare. Across the entire history of the Verdantree Alchemy Alliance examinations, it had apparently happened fewer than three times.
Most people who exceeded the minimum passing standard only managed to produce four- or five-pattern pills. Anything higher required a level of control that even some fourth-rank alchemists struggled to maintain consistently.
Now Yan was working on her third and final pill.
Quite a few alchemists in the audience had already figured out from the ingredients Yan used earlier that she was refining a Foundation Establishment Pill.
The girl standing beside Alexei let out a small gasp as soon as she realized it, then turned toward him, expecting some kind of reaction. Instead, he continued watching the stage with the same expression as before.
The girl stared at him for a second before frowning. "You really don't understand how impressive this is, do you?"
Alexei glanced at her. "I'm not as clueless as you think. It's just taking a very long time."
"Of course it's taking a long time. Foundation Establishment Pills are notoriously difficult to refine." She crossed her arms as she spoke. "They're technically classified as fifth-grade pills, but every additional pattern makes the refinement several times harder. Even a three-pattern Foundation Establishment Pill is already comparable to most fourth-grade pills in difficulty."
Without waiting for a response, she continued, "As for five-pattern pills, only experienced fourth-rank alchemists can reliably make them. Eight-pattern pills are the limit of what anyone on the Eastern Territories can achieve."
Then she lowered her voice slightly and leaned a little closer.
"And the ingredients alone cost a fortune. Most alchemists never get enough chances to practice refining them in the first place."
Alexei nodded slowly after hearing all that.
"I see."
The girl looked at him with frustration, dissatisfied with how mild his reaction still was. But a moment later, her eyes suddenly brightened, as if she had just remembered something important.
She grabbed his sleeve and tugged on it excitedly. "Hey, do you want to hear a secret?"
Alexei glanced at her. "What secret?"
Her eyes lit up. "My grandfather told me about something that happened in Jade Prosperity City a while ago, around the time the Verdant Vine Mystic Crystal appeared. Apparently there was an alchemist there who everyone started calling the Pill Fairy because her refining skills were so ridiculous."
"Pill Fairy?" Alexei frowned slightly. The title sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had heard it before.
"My grandfather said her skill level was completely absurd. According to him, the only thing limiting the quality of her pills was the materials people gave her to work with. After she left, the Jade Prosperity Alchemy Alliance went through all her refining records to study them properly. During the month she stayed there, she refined fifteen different types of pills and produced a total of 135 successful pills."
She started counting on her fingers as she spoke.
"One first-grade pill, three second-grade pills, seven third-grade pills, two fifth-grade pills, one eighth-grade pill, and one ninth-grade pill."
"That sounds pretty insane."
"That's not even the craziest part." Before he could react, she suddenly stood up, grabbed him by the shoulders, and stared straight into his eyes.
"Do you know what the most terrifying thing was?"
He instinctively leaned back slightly. "...What?"
"The Pill Fairy refined nine successful pills in total, and every single one was a nine-pattern pill. Do you understand what that means?"
Alexei blinked at her. "I'm guessing that's not normal?"
"Not normal?" The girl stared at him in disbelief before quickly continuing. "My grandfather said that even in the outer regions, only a handful of alchemists can occasionally refine a nine-pattern pill, and that's usually under perfect conditions with a ridiculous amount of luck involved. Sometimes decades pass without a single one appearing. But the Pill Fairy refined nine of them in less than a week. My grandfather heard the entire batch was completed in only three days, and that's not even the most terrifying part. Out of the remaining 126 pills she refined, almost all of them were also nine-pattern pills as long as the ingredients themselves weren't low quality."
Her grip tightened slightly as she spoke, only loosening after she finally finished explaining. Then she let go of Alexei and sat back down, though the excitement in her eyes still hadn't faded.
"My grandfather said even the Pill Saints from the outer regions can't compare to her. The Pill Fairy already stands at the peak of the Alchemy Dao." The girl clenched her fist in front of her chest. "One day, I'll become an alchemist like her too. It's just a shame nobody really knows what she looks like. Apparently she always wore a veil whenever she appeared in public, and hardly any information about her ever spread outside the upper circles. Although my grandfather once described her as extremely top-heavy. I think he meant she's far above ordinary people. Someone standing at the peak of the Alchemy Dao would naturally see the world differently from everyone else."
Alexei nearly lost focus. At first, he thought he had misheard her, but the more he thought about it, the more familiar it sounded. A moment later, he finally remembered where he had heard it before.
Back in Jade Prosperity City, Yan had once delivered a batch of pills to an old alchemist. While thanking her, the man had respectfully addressed her as the Pill Fairy. At the time, he hadn't paid much attention to it. Cultivators loved exaggerated titles, and "Pill Fairy" had sounded no different from the dozens of other grandiose names he had already heard since arriving in this world.
But hearing the description now while looking at the girl beside him made the connection much harder to ignore.
He glanced toward the examination platform where Yan sat refining her pill, looking unconcerned with the attention surrounding the competition. Then his gaze shifted back to the girl, whose admiration was obvious from the way she kept staring toward the stage.
Slowly, a possibility formed in his mind.
There was a chance that "top-heavy" meant exactly what it usually meant.
And if that was true, then the girl currently sitting beside him had no idea that the legendary Pill Fairy she idolized was refining pills less than fifty meters away from her.
The whole situation was becoming harder and harder to take seriously.
---
The conversation between Alexei and the girl drew the attention of several nearby cultivators and alchemists, though most of them only listened out of mild curiosity rather than genuine interest.
An older alchemist sitting a few rows behind them overheard part of the story and let out an amused chuckle before shaking his head.
"Kids these days really will believe anything."
The middle-aged cultivator beside him gave a snort of agreement. "A legendary alchemist who can refine perfect pills? Her grandfather probably made the whole thing up to entertain her. Stories like that only exist in cheap adventure novels."
The others nearby clearly shared the same opinion. A few quietly laughed, while several more shook their heads.
After all, the story sounded ridiculous the more anyone thought about it. An alchemist skilled enough to refine hundreds of perfect pills in a single month would have shaken the entire region if they truly existed. There was no way someone like that could suddenly appear out of nowhere and then disappear without leaving behind a single trace.
To most of the cultivators present, it was nothing more than an exaggerated fairy tale meant for children.