"Where did those people go?"
Inside the towering building that served as Wild Bloom's stronghold, several senior disciples wore worried expressions as they discussed something urgent.
"I haven't been able to reach Senior Brother since yesterday."
"Same with Senior Brother Zhang. He went out on a secret mission and just vanished..."
"What are you all huddled up here for!?"
A middle-aged man happened to pass by moments later. He barked the question at the disciples with such displeasure that they all flinched, before one of them stepped forward and answered in a timid voice.
"Deputy Sect Head, sir... the senior brothers who went on the mission yesterday... they still haven't come back, sir?"
The man had to be the Deputy Sect Head. His brow furrowed deeply. Of all people, he was the one who should know the most about the mission those senior disciples had gone on. But had not one of them reported back just yesterday that the mission was already a success?
...So what on earth was going on?
And just as no one could make sense of it, a disciple from the intelligence unit burst into the room, drenched in sweat. His face was pale as he rushed to report.
"Reporting, sir! We've found the disciples who went missing yesterday, sir!"
"Where were they?"
"Um... well, you see..."
"Spit it out!"
"They're... being held captive at the Goddess Alchemy Palace, sir..."
"What did you say!?"
Shock flashed across the middle-aged man's face. He was about to rush straight to the top floor to report to the Sect Head, even without fully grasping the situation, but another disciple on watch duty downstairs came running up first.
"Deputy Sect Head! This is bad! This is really bad, sir!"
"I know already! I was just about to go consult with—"
"That's not it, sir!"
"...!?"
"Um... downstairs... it's downstairs..."
The stammering, hesitant tone was starting to irritate him. But the sentence that followed froze his body completely.
"Sage White-Beard... has surrounded our entire sect with his army, sir..."
"..."
Thud!
The middle-aged man rushed to the window. When he leaned out, he was met with the overwhelming presence of thousands of soldiers. They stood in full battle gear, and at their head was an imposing old man with a white beard streaming in the wind, leading the charge.
...This was—
What in the world was happening!?
.
.
.
"Your Majesty... I've brought the Crown Prince."
Yang Fujiu was one of the few who fully understood the situation. So once everything had been arranged, he was the one sent to retrieve the Crown Prince's body from the palace.
"Mm..."
Sage White-Beard was occupied with another critical matter. King Jongliean looked at his son's body and gave a light nod. At first, he had hoped Bai Fanxian herself would go retrieve him, but one look at her expression and mood made it clear that was never going to happen.
"..."
Bai Fanxian looked over the young man's body, wasted away as though from malnutrition. His face was ghostly pale, and his skin had begun drying out and flaking. If not for the faint pulse and the occasional rise and fall of his chest, she would have been certain he was already dead.
"All of you, step back."
The young woman stepped to his side. She swept her hand outward as though beginning a dance. At once, immense power from the Alchemy Palace's border surged out of thin air. It swirled around her, with Bai Fanxian at its center. Unfamiliar red characters materialized one by one, arranging themselves into a circle over ten meters across that blanketed part of the open square.
"What in the world is this?"
The townspeople who had gathered earlier over the misunderstanding watched, unable to believe their eyes. Some tried to reach out and touch the characters, only to be thrown back by a pressure beyond anything they could compare it to. This was a makeshift border Bai Fanxian had raised to guard against several things at once.
First, to keep anyone from interrupting her while she refined the Grade-7 medicine. Even for her, medicine at this grade demanded intense focus. If something disturbed the process, there was still a real chance it could fail, wasting the ingredients for nothing.
Second, the sheer force and pressure released while refining Grade-7 medicine was nothing ordinary. Even a Grandmaster-level cultivator would not be able to move freely under it. So if she wanted the gathered townspeople to watch safely, raising a border like this was necessary.
That's right — she meant for them to watch.
"You don't believe I'm the one who refined all that high-grade medicine, do you...?"
Thunk!
The moment Bai Fanxian finished speaking, an enormous alchemy cauldron materialized in midair beside her. It slammed down onto the ground with a thunk, kicking up a faint gust that sent dust and leaves scattering. Every set of eyes turned toward it, as though some unseen hand had forced them to look, unable to resist. Most people swallowed hard — none of them had ever seen an alchemy cauldron this massive before.
"Then let me give you all quite a show..."
Whoosh!
Purple flames ignited like a signal. Bai Fanxian turned to meet Luo Qingyan's eyes and said,
"Come be my assistant."
"I-it would be my honor!"
Luo Qingyan's face lit up with excitement. The instant Bai Fanxian gave her permission, she hopped into the circle with all the eagerness of a young girl. But the moment she stepped inside, her body shuddered violently, forcing her to brace herself against it.
It was a pressure that those outside could not even sense — one that left goosebumps on her skin, Ancient Sage though she was. She could not hide the smile tugging at her lips at the thought that she was about to witness a level of alchemy she might never see again in her lifetime.
"Me! Little miss, let me be your assistant too!"
The Greybeard Alchemist thrust his hand up to volunteer without a trace of shame, startling more than a few onlookers. Ever since this old man had earned the name "Greybeard Alchemist," no one had ever imagined seeing him become anyone's assistant or helper again. But to him, this might be the one chance in his entire life to glimpse a level of alchemy he himself could never reach.
"..."
Bai Fanxian did not answer. Instead, with a single flick of her hand, the Greybeard Alchemist's body was pulled straight through the border. Then she said,
"...Just stand there quietly. You don't need to do anything at all."
What Bai Fanxian had just done was her own quiet way of repaying the old man for everything today.
Though the Greybeard Alchemist was displeased at first, the moment he felt the pressure so intense it made breathing difficult, he understood that Bai Fanxian had not been looking down on him in the slightest.
Because within this border... there was nothing a Sage like him could possibly do.
"All right, then..."
Rumble...
The instant the sound faded, the enormous lid was lifted, and an overwhelming aura of life poured out. After refining the Eternal Myriad Heavens elixir within her own body, the residual power still lingering inside the cauldron had refined the vessel's own properties to an even higher degree.
"Little miss... this medicine formula..."
The Greybeard Alchemist tried to hand her the formula for the Celestial Path Elixir, but Bai Fanxian shook her head as though she did not want it. She turned to Luo Qingyan, who was watching every step without blinking, and said,
"Do you know why you can't make sense of that Celestial Path Elixir formula on paper?"
"Um... it's because I lack the ability..."
"Don't sell yourself short, Luo Qingyan." Bai Fanxian cut her off before she could even finish, looking at the young woman known as this era's Alchemy Empress with open fondness.
"It's because you haven't yet entered the Transcendent realm..."
"The... Transcendent realm?"
"..."
Bai Fanxian did not answer. Instead, she swept her hand through the air, and the ingredients she had stored away rose up to fill the sky. There were leaves of strange, twisted shapes, stones radiating a dark, ominous aura, and even bones from some creature that glowed with a faint golden light around them.
Before she continued,
"That's right. It's not that you don't understand — it's that you can't understand yet."
"I... can't understand it?"
Luo Qingyan was thoroughly confused. Knowledge about the seventh stage of cultivation was practically a mystery in her era. No one knew how to reach the next realm. What few records existed had either been lost or were so fragmented that they made no sense at all.
"Just as a Grandmaster must understand how to draw qi from within and shape it through form, entering the Transcendent realm requires understanding a different principle."
Bai Fanxian said, hinting at something more.
"Certain Grade-7 medicines and above require this principle during refinement. So it's nothing to be ashamed of that you, having only just become an Ancient Sage, don't understand it yet."
Bai Fanxian gave a faint smile. What she was sharing could only be heard by those inside the border, so aside from Luo Qingyan, only the Greybeard Alchemist stood there trembling after hearing something this extraordinary.
"..."
She let the two of them sit with the knowledge for a moment. It was still far too soon for the young woman in front of her. But in Bai Fanxian's eyes, Luo Qingyan certainly had the potential to reach the Transcendent realm one day. So for now, she just wanted to let her know it existed, and open her eyes to it a little.
"...Do you know why ordinary people call Transcendent-level cultivators 'gods'?"
The moment she finished speaking, a blinding light suddenly flared up behind her, accompanied by cracks in the dimension spreading outward.
Crack...
"...!?"
Something wrapped in overwhelming qi and shifting currents of air, impossible to make out clearly, appeared and unleashed a wave of pressure that spread out in every direction. The ingredients Bai Fanxian had prepared earlier all reacted to it, beginning to condense into liquid one after another.
The mysterious object floated not far behind Bai Fanxian. The Greybeard Alchemist squinted, trying to see through the swirling chaos, but it was no use.
He could not tell what it was at all.
But what he could sense was that the moment it appeared, Bai Fanxian's aura of grace and majesty seemed to draw power directly from it, until even he, a Sage himself, felt a deep sense of awe the instant his eyes met her icy gaze.
Not to mention the crowd outside. Even with the border softening much of its force, some of them nearly dropped to their knees on the ground, entirely willing to do so!
That thing... what was it?
"Just as an Ancient Sage extends their Intent outward into a Domain, a Transcendent-level cultivator forges their Intent into a form that can be touched and seen. And when ordinary people witness that form, it's no wonder they mistake the cultivator for a god descended from the heavens."
Bai Fanxian smiled once more, but this time the smile seemed almost enchanted — captivating, noble, and utterly commanding, all at once. Even Luo Qingyan, a woman herself, felt her face flush with warmth. Fortunately, it lasted only a brief moment before Bai Fanxian continued.
"We call this the Qi Raiment."
"..."
"The sole privilege of those who have truly entered the Transcendent realm."