Word Count: 3,366 Words
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Zi Yan sat cross-legged with her small back perfectly straight. A purple true dragon materialized before her, radiating endless cascades of light. The dragon coiled protectively around her, layer upon layer of its massive body forming a luminous, spiraling barrier.
This was no ordinary power of the Ancient Void Dragon Tribe. This was Ancestral Dragon Strength, a force only those with bloodlines at the Dragon King level or above could manifest. Zi Yan was a true Dragon Emperor who also carried the Dragon Phoenix bloodline. Though she still appeared young and delicate, the power flowing through her veins was nothing short of extraordinary.
The white wall floated silently before them, space twisting around it in slow, rippling waves. Its surface turned mirror-bright, shining like polished glass, yet the reflection it held was not of Zi Yan and Xiao Yan. Instead, countless powerful formation patterns flickered within that light, interlocking and overlapping into an exceptionally formidable seal.
Zi Yan's task went far beyond merely breaking through this barrier. She had to pass through without a sound, without leaving the slightest trace, without alerting whoever had placed it.
Rune after rune surfaced as she channeled the Ancestral Dragon Strength of the Ancient Void Dragon Tribe. Each symbol trembled, then loosened. Bit by bit, she unraveled the interwoven patterns, meticulously picking them apart and coaxing them aside to pry open a narrow gap.
This formidable blockade might not have been placed by the current Pill Tower Old Ancestor at all, but rather left behind by the Pill Tower's founder from a far more ancient age. Xiao Yan knew full well that the original founder had been a peak 9-star Dou Saint, a supreme expert among supreme experts!
"The Ancient Void Dragon Tribe truly deserves its reputation as the Dou Qi Continent's strongest magical beast race," Xiao Yan murmured, his astonishment growing with every passing moment. Zi Yan was actually about to crack it!
What kind of natural-born master thieves were these Ancient Void Dragons?! Even a place like the Small Pill Tower could be robbed clean! If he ever brought Zi Yan to the Hall of Souls, wouldn't their entire treasury be emptied stone by stone?!
A 4-star Dou Saint might be overwhelmingly powerful across the Dou Qi Continent, but that did not equate to invincibility. In certain places, even a 4-star Dou Saint simply wasn't enough.
"It's open!"
A soft hum rang out as a crack roughly thirty centimeters wide and two meters tall split the previously blank white wall.
Xiao Yan hurriedly clapped a hand over Zi Yan's small mouth. The two exchanged a glance and peered around with shifty, guilty eyes. Even though he had already sealed the entire Pill Recipe Hall with his Spiritual Strength, their hearts still pounded madly.
After all, every thief carried a guilty conscience!
Only after confirming that everything remained quiet did Xiao Yan release his hand. Both of them exhaled in relief.
"Let's go in."
"Hehe, hopefully there are other good things inside."
"Jie Jie Jie~~"
The tall figure and the small one looked at each other and broke into matching sly grins. For these two, petty theft had become second nature on their journey together. One could say they had stolen their way all the way from Jia Nan Academy to the Small Pill Tower.
Xiao Yan took the lead. They turned sideways and inched forward, bodies tense and wary as they squeezed into the narrow gap.
They moved along that spatial crack for roughly ten minutes before finally emerging on the other side and slipping into the hidden chamber. The room measured about a hundred square meters. The instant they stepped fully inside and took a proper look around, both froze.
"Huh?"
Their eyes went wide. Inside this hidden space sealed by a Dou Saint lay... nothing!
Forget the legendary Di Tier pill recipe; there wasn't even a single gold coin. The place stood utterly bare.
An empty vault!
Xiao Yan's eyes narrowed, and understanding struck him at once. This was a trap. The Pill Tower Old Ancestor was no fool. Ever since the former Pill Tower Head had been assassinated by the Hall of Souls, the Pill Tower had maintained extreme vigilance and naturally guessed that the Hall of Souls' true target was that pill recipe.
"Xiao Yan, there's a piece of paper on the ground." Zi Yan tugged on his sleeve and pointed at a small card lying on the floor.
Xiao Yan crouched and picked it up. It wasn't a pill recipe scroll, just a very ordinary piece of paper. Scrawled across it in rough pencil strokes were two simple words: Dongtian Town.
Xiao Yan naturally had no idea where this Dongtian Town was. The Dou Qi Continent stretched unimaginably vast, and small towns bearing generic names like 'Qingshan Town' or 'Dongtian Town' were surely scattered everywhere, many of them sharing identical names.
'Sigh, looks like getting that pill recipe won't be so simple after all.' He studied the card that bore only a place name. If he wasn't mistaken, this should be where the Pill Tower Old Ancestor currently resided.
Over these past months in the Small Pill Tower, Xiao Yan had quietly learned quite a few of the Pill Tower's secrets, and naturally, much about the Old Ancestor himself.
Just as he had learned from the Hall of Souls, this Pill Tower Old Ancestor was a Tier 9 Mysterious Pill that had taken human form. The senior who had refined him was one of the Pill Tower's founders, though that founder had long since passed away.
Before this founder passed on, he had expended all his effort and exhausted his essence blood to refine the most powerful medicinal pill of his life. During that final refinement, he poured out every last drop of his mental energy and fell quietly the moment the pill took shape. Yet at the instant of his passing, a wisp of his spiritual wisdom merged into that tier 9 pill in a strange and wondrous way, causing the pill, which had already reached the level of a Tier 9 Mysterious Pill, to undergo a mutation.
Later, this medicinal pill transformed into human form and inherited a fragment of that founder's memory. He did not leave the Pill Tower, but stayed behind as its guardian. In a sense, this Old Ancestor could be considered an unconventional avatar of that senior, though the relationship between original and copy was rather complicated.
Moreover, the personality of the Pill Tower Old Ancestor was rather strange. He loved to wander freely through the mortal world, appearing and disappearing without trace like a divine dragon that showed its head but never its tail. His favorite pastime was seeking out pregnant women, specifically those carrying fetuses that had lost their life breath due to accidents before leaving the mother's body.
He would then enter the pregnant woman's body through a special method and finally become an ordinary infant: being born, growing up, and living an entire lifetime under a new identity. Only when that body finally died would he depart. He used this process of experiencing life to bring himself ever closer to being a true 'human.'
In a certain sense, although a medicinal pill could transform into a human or continue to exist as a Pill Beast like Tuan Tuan, becoming a living individual either way, a pill remained a pill at its core. Truly becoming a life form was extremely difficult.
This Pill Tower Old Ancestor's cultivation method was to make himself human, cultivating through countless experiences and comprehensions of life. It bore a striking resemblance to the Bodhisattva Ancient Tree's hundred-cycle reincarnation, except that this Pill Tower Old Ancestor truly lived those lives himself.
Because he so frequently wandered the mortal world, the Old Ancestor remained perpetually elusive. In the entire Small Pill Tower, not even the First Elder could find him. He would only reveal himself when the Pill Tower faced true danger.
Clearly, the place recorded on the card in Xiao Yan's hand was the small town where the Pill Tower Old Ancestor was living in this current lifetime.
"Getting that pill recipe really won't be easy." Xiao Yan tucked the card away and shook his head with a helpless sigh.
"So what do we do now?" Zi Yan puffed out her cheeks. She had obviously expected treasure after all that effort of sneaking in like grave robbers, and discovering an empty vault left her in a thoroughly foul mood.
"What else can we do? No matter what, I'll have to meet this Pill Tower Old Ancestor in person." Xiao Yan shrugged. "Come on. It's about time we left the Small Pill Tower anyway."
Fortunately, this trip hadn't been entirely without harvest. Using three peak tier 8 pills that had drawn nine-colored Pill Lightning as payment, he had exchanged for a Tier 9 Mysterious Pill recipe. This was now the first Mysterious Pill recipe he possessed.
…
Even so, Xiao Yan did not leave at once. He lingered in the Small Pill Tower for another three days, setting everything else aside to focus entirely on tutoring Cao Ying and Dan Chen.
For three months, the two girls had lived alongside him on that small mountain peak. They had endured their share of hardship during that time, constantly directed here and there by Xiao Yan, fetching ingredients, running errands, and handling all manner of trivial tasks.
In return, he had offered them plenty of guidance in passing, answering questions as they came up, correcting mistakes whenever he noticed them, and demonstrating a technique now and then when the moment allowed. But over these final three days, he devoted himself wholly to their instruction.
Both Cao Ying and Dan Chen possessed remarkable talent for alchemy. Many things clicked into place the moment he pointed them out.
"Alright. Anything else you want to ask?" Xiao Yan clasped his hands behind his back, his expression solemn in a way that made him look oddly like a university professor.
Over these three days, he had come to resemble Venerable Yao back when his master had taught him in that mountain cave during the hundred-cycle reincarnation.
Without realizing it, Xiao Yan had begun to change. He was no longer merely a successor receiving an inheritance. He was stepping, one careful stride at a time, into the role of someone who passed knowledge on.
Of course, a few days were nowhere near enough to teach Cao Ying and Dan Chen everything. He had simply transmitted some foundational elements of Venerable Yao's inheritance, though even those basics now carried his own insights woven through them.
He was no longer just gathering legacies. He was gradually walking an alchemy path that belonged to him alone.
Dan Chen's watery eyes dimmed a touch as she looked at him. "Big Brother Xiao Yan... are you leaving?"
Cao Ying's gaze tightened for an instant before slowly softening. A trace of reluctance surfaced in her beautiful eyes. Both girls understood that no banquet in this world lasted forever. Xiao Yan could not remain in the Small Pill Tower indefinitely.
Xiao Yan smiled and rubbed Dan Chen's head. This time, she reached up with both hands, caught his wrist, and pressed his palm against her cheek. Her skin was cool and smooth. She closed her eyes, as if trying to memorize the warmth that only he could give her.
"I've spent these months studying alchemy methods," Xiao Yan said softly, "and I've shown you several times how to refine the Bodhisattva Great Restoration Pill. It's time for me to leave."
He had not come here to wander the mountains and admire the scenery, much less to keep two pretty apprentices around for company. Over these months, he had fused the insights from the Bodhisattva Ancient Tree's hundred-cycle reincarnation with Venerable Yao's techniques to create his own Bodhisattva Hundred Revolutions Pill Refinement Method. Alongside that, he had refined several Tier 9 Treasure Pills to accumulate experience and lay a solid foundation for refining Tier 9 Mysterious Pills later.
In the modern Dou Qi Continent, the only publicly known Tier 9 Mysterious Pill was the one refined by the Pill Tower's founder before his death, the very pill that had eventually become the Pill Tower Old Ancestor.
As for whether the Yao Clan or Hun Huzi had managed to refine Tier 9 Mysterious Pills in recent times, that remained a secret outsiders had no way of confirming.
If he could not even refine a Mysterious Pill, what right did he have to speak of joining forces with Hun Huzi to refine a Di Tier Embryonic Pill?
The moment Cao Ying realized Xiao Yan truly meant to leave, the restraint she had clung to for three months tore apart in a single breath. She stepped forward in one decisive stride, opened her jade-smooth arms, and threw herself against him.
It was a collision of breathtaking, voluptuous softness. The tight lines of her black gauze dress did nothing to hide the rich curves beneath as she pressed fully against his chest. The warmth of her body seeped through the thin fabric, every supple inch of her carrying a desperate, unreserved affection.
Xiao Yan's heart jolted. Over these three months, Cao Ying had never concealed her feelings, yet she had kept her word from the very first day. She had 'behaved.'
Today, she crossed that line with both feet.
"...Cao Ying."
"You've known my feelings from the start," Cao Ying murmured, her voice trembling against his chest. "These three months, I tried. I really tried to keep my promise and not make you uncomfortable."
"I know you don't owe me an answer. I know I'm not qualified to fight for any place at your side."
"I just... want to be selfish once. Just this once."
"Let me hold you properly. A single time."
"You don't have to say anything. You don't have to promise anything. I won't take it as a vow... I only want this moment."
In Holy Pill City, she could call the wind and summon the rain. What man did not fall over himself for her? A single glance, a single smile could leave suitors sleepless for nights on end. Her beauty could topple cities. Her alchemy talent stood at the very peak. The men around her vied desperately for even one look from those clear eyes.
Yet before this man, all of that became useless.
Xiao Yan was no fool. He had long since seen through every careful step of her approach. But as the old saying went: your secret crush is very obvious, and the fact that he hasn't exposed it is already an answer.
Even so, with her clinging to him like this, he could not bring himself to be cruel.
He could not give her a future, but neither could he pretend she was nothing.
So he finally lifted his hands and folded one arm around her back, returning just enough warmth to ease the trembling in her shoulders. Cao Ying's breath caught. A shudder ran through her, and she pressed closer, burying her face against his collarbone.
A short distance away, Dan Chen stood with her lips parting and closing soundlessly, caught between panic and longing. Her fingers twisted together until her knuckles went white. She watched the two of them embrace, and something in her chest ached fiercely.
Then, as if making a decision that scraped against every one of her timid nerves, she took a small, hesitant step forward.
She pressed herself lightly against Xiao Yan's back, fitting the curve of her body along his spine. Her small, cool hands slid around his waist from behind and clutched at the hem of his robe with white-knuckled fingers.
Her cheek rested between his shoulder blades. Through that thin layer of cloth, she listened to the steady rhythm of his heart. Her own heartbeat fluttered frantically by contrast, like a frightened fawn that had finally found sanctuary.
For a moment, the courtyard on this small mountain peak inside the Small Pill Tower held a quietly outrageous tableau: Xiao Yan standing between two storms like a man rooted to the spot. One in front of him, lush and warm, fragrant and full. One behind him, clean and trembling, tender in a way that made the heart go soft.
Two different scents wrapped around him. Cao Ying's was mature and intoxicating, a fragrance designed to bewitch. Dan Chen's was fresh and almost herbal, like dew on morning leaves.
Was it uncomfortable? Not in the slightest.
Was it enjoyable? He would have been lying to claim otherwise.
This feeling of being caught between two soft embraces... back at the Flower Sect, he had tasted something similar once before.
High above in the void, the little Dragon Emperor's gaze grew sharper and sharper, and it seemed her little jar of vinegar was about to spill over entirely.
Three months ago, she might have erupted in fury on the spot. But after living alongside these two women for so long, she had grown reluctantly accustomed to their presence. Cao Ying's seductive charm no longer made her skin crawl, not entirely anyway. And Dan Chen... well, it was hard to hate someone that harmless.
Still, her tolerance had limits, and that limit was approaching very quickly.
"Hmph."
The cold snort echoed faintly inside Xiao Yan's heart. He coughed twice, forcing air back into his lungs.
"Ahem... I really do have to go."
Cao Ying's cheeks flushed crimson as she slowly, reluctantly drew back. A daze lingered in her expression. She was supposed to be the Witch who toyed with men in the palm of her hand. How had she ended up doing something so desperate?
It's over. I've really fallen head over heels!
Behind him, Dan Chen quietly released her grip, her lashes still fluttering as if she were waking from a dream.
Xiao Yan reached back and ruffled her hair, his voice gentle. "Focus on your alchemy. I hope that the next time we meet, you'll both be able to refine tier 9 pills."
"Mm! Mm!" Dan Chen nodded quickly, her eyes brightening with determination. "Big Brother Xiao Yan, don't worry. I won't let you down."
Xiao Yan glanced at Cao Ying. Those beautiful eyes still held the last traces of warmth, like spring water that had been stirred and had not yet settled.
He did not offer hollow comfort. He only gave her a faint smile and a small nod. Then he turned, stepped into the black flame channel, and vanished from the Small Pill Tower.
Cao Ying watched his figure disappear. A glimmer flickered in her eyes as her jade fingers slowly curled into a fist.
"Little Sister Dan Chen. I want to join the Yan Alliance. Will you come with me?"
Dan Chen jumped, shocked into blurting, "Sister Cao Ying, you... you're going to leave Holy Pill City and the Cao Clan?! Because of Big Brother Xiao Yan?"
Cao Ying's eyes dimmed slightly. She shook her head. "Not entirely..."
"I believe... in the future, the Yan Alliance may well become the true holy land for alchemists on the Dou Qi Continent. The most advanced alchemy methods, the rarest pill recipes, the highest-grade pills… they will no longer come from the Pill Tower or the Yao Clan. They will come from the Yan Alliance."
"If you want to learn higher alchemy... if you want even the slightest chance of refining a Tier 9 Mysterious Pill, or one day a Tier 9 Golden Pill... then perhaps the Yan Alliance is the only path."
Dan Chen slowly settled out of her initial shock. Timid she might be, but she was not stupid. Her own alchemy talent was outstanding, arguably even stronger than Cao Ying's in certain aspects.
What Cao Ying said was not wrong. Xiao Yan's alchemy had already surpassed even the First Elder's. Within the Small Pill Tower, no one could rival him.
Cao Ying lowered her gaze, and a faint, self-mocking smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
"But if I'm honest with myself... if he weren't there, I probably wouldn't be saying any of this."
"In the end... it really is for him."