Chapter 91: Eighth Tier!
"Leave it to me, don't worry!"
Zi Yan didn't grasp the deeper meaning in Jiang Yun's words. After all, who could imagine that a little beast left behind, who had to fight Magical Beasts for food since childhood, was actually the princess of the Taixu Ancient Dragon clan?
Even Zi Yan herself only thought she was a bloodline of the Taixu Ancient Dragon clan left stranded outside. She had never once imagined her bloodline was so noble.
But even so, faced with Jiang Yun's teasing remark, she still solemnly patted her chest in assurance.
Seeing this, the tenderness in Jiang Yun's eyes deepened. He turned his head, gazing in the direction of the valley, and said softly, "We've been out for a few days now. It's time to head back. Otherwise, I'd guess Qing Lin and Xiao Yi Xian have been waiting anxiously!"
"Then let's hurry back!"
With that, Zi Yan turned and grabbed Jiang Yun's hand, flying toward the valley.
Inside the valley.
Xiao Yi Xian and Qing Lin, having already finished absorbing the Earth Core Body-Tempering Milk, were cultivating distractedly while reading the books in their hands.
"Bai Ya, why haven't Brother Jiang Yun and Sister Zi Yan come back yet?" Eventually unable to restrain herself, Qing Lin quietly asked Bai Ya, who was cautiously standing by her side.
"They couldn't have run into trouble, could they? No, that's not possible. Brother Jiang Yun and Sister Zi Yan are so strong. What Magical Beast in the Magical Beast Mountain Range could threaten them?"
Watching its master begin to fret over imaginary worries again, Bai Ya's heart trembled. Being caught in the middle was truly too hard for this serpent!
"Sister Xiao Yi Xian, should we..." Qing Lin ultimately couldn't hold back. She turned to Xiao Yi Xian beside her, her eyes full of worry as she asked.
"No!" Unfortunately, Qing Lin's suggestion met with Xiao Yi Xian's resolute refusal. Seeing Qing Lin's disappointed face, a strong sense of guilt suddenly rose in Xiao Yi Xian's heart. She explained, "Qing Lin, don't you know Jiang Yun and Zi Yan's strength? The Magical Beast Mountain Range has nothing that can threaten them."
"They should be returning any moment now. If we go out on our own and they come back without seeing us, wouldn't that just add unnecessary trouble?"
"Alright then..."
After Xiao Yi Xian's explanation, Qing Lin also thought it through. She wrapped her arms around her legs once more and stared blankly into the distance.
"Qing Lin, your Sister Xiao Yi Xian is right. Next time you encounter something, you can't act recklessly."
Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out, followed by a familiar large hand landing atop her head. Qing Lin looked up in joyful surprise and saw Jiang Yun and Zi Yan standing right behind her, looking at her with faces full of smiles.
"Brother Jiang Yun!" Qing Lin's face lit up with delight. She leaped straight into Jiang Yun's arms.
Rubbing the top of the girl in his arms' head, Jiang Yun looked at Xiao Yi Xian, who was similarly delighted but more restrained. He said with a smile, "Not bad. Your Dou Zhi Qi has already reached perfection. Coincidentally, our luck this trip was quite good; I gathered all the medicinal ingredients needed for the pill I wanted to refine. Now, we can also start addressing the issue of your constitution."
In Jiang Yun's design, before becoming a Dou Zhe—before attributes manifested—was the optimal time to resolve the Calamity Poison Body. Thus, when he prepared the Earth Core Body-Tempering Milk medicinal solution for Xiao Yi Xian, he focused entirely on marrow-cleansing, vein-tempering, and foundation-solidifying. Increasing her strength had been of secondary importance.
"Really?" As expected, upon hearing Jiang Yun's words, Xiao Yi Xian immediately couldn't contain her joy. The Calamity Poison Body was a sickness in her heart. To resolve it sooner was naturally the best.
"I'll start right now!" With that, Jiang Yun flew toward an open area in the distance.
On that open ground, Jiang Yun sat cross-legged upon a huge boulder, eyes tightly shut.
At this moment, he was adjusting his Dou Qi and soul to their optimal state. Simultaneously, in his mind, he was recalling the refinement method for the Bone-Growing Blood-Melting Pill, its key points of caution, and so on.
That's right, it was precisely the Bone-Growing Blood-Melting Pill!
Although this pill seemed, in the original story, to be a pill used for resurrection, it was inherently a top-tier healing pill. It could revive the dying and regenerate flesh on white bones. As long as the injured person still had a single breath left, it could pull them back from the brink of death.
Next, for Jiang Yun to help Xiao Yi Xian resolve the Calamity Poison Body, a top-tier healing pill would be needed.
This pill was essentially a seventh-tier pill. However, if it contained sufficient spirituality, it could advance into the eighth tier.
Yao Chen's ring wasn't without even higher-grade healing pills. But for an ingredient combination that was relatively simple yet highly effective, Jiang Yun chose this Bone-Growing Blood-Melting Pill.
When a hint of dawn's white appeared on the horizon, Jiang Yun exhaled a mouthful of stale turbid air and slowly opened a pair of eyes brilliant as the stars.
Turning his head back to glance at the three girls—Zi Yan, Qing Lin, and Xiao Yi Xian—who were fully prepared and on high alert not far away, Jiang Yun nodded. No words were needed. Zi Yan already understood him; she remained vigilant of all movements in the surrounding area, ensuring absolutely nothing would affect Jiang Yun in the slightest.
Retracting his gaze, he raised his palm. Light flashed continuously from the ring on his hand. An enormous cauldron engraved with the image of ten thousand beasts charging surged forth, slamming heavily onto the ground with a resounding boom.
Though he already had the Black Demon, there was no apparent gap in the feeling the two gave him. So he chose the more domineering Ten Thousand Beast Cauldron.
Moreover, given Jiang Yun's identity, if he were to bring out the Black Demon, trouble might be hard to avoid in the future. It was better to choose and familiarize himself with the Ten Thousand Beast Cauldron from the very start!
Next, jade boxes containing medicinal ingredients floated out one by one, suspended around Jiang Yun, wrapped in Dou Qi.
An initial rough glance suggested at least a hundred different types. For pills reaching the seventh tier and above, the required ingredients were often an astonishingly costly number.
The demand on soul power was also exceedingly high. Someone whose soul manipulation wasn't up to par would likely just get dizzy looking at so many ingredients, let alone having to refine them.
After the ingredients were taken out, a white flame surfaced and was casually tossed into the cauldron by Jiang Yun. The flame churned fiercely, rapidly raising the surrounding temperature.
As the flame burned, the beast engravings covering the surface of the Ten Thousand Beast Cauldron seemed to come alive, emitting deafening roars, fully displaying their ferocious and malevolent aura.
Soul power, carrying faint fluctuations of spirituality, emanated from the center of Jiang Yun's brow. The inherently vibrant green meadow seemed strengthened at this moment. Countless weeds looked as if coated in a layer of green fluorescence—brimming with life—and rapidly spread outward.
Even deeper underground, grass seeds deeply buried by soil, under the influence of this spiritual fluctuation, displayed vigorous, flourishing vitality.
Soul power poured ceaselessly into the cauldron, manipulating the temperature of the white flame and monitoring every change within the cauldron. After about ten minutes, Jiang Yun flipped his palm over, palm facing upwards. Dou Qi circulated, erupting with a pulling force.
Of the jade boxes floating around him, one flew into Jiang Yun's hand. He reached out, opened the jade box, and inside lay precisely the Blood Essence Demon Fruit.
His gaze swept over this Blood Essence Demon Fruit, then with a flick of his finger, it was tossed into the cauldron. The white flame rolled and swept it inside.
The scorching temperature hit, making the surface of the Blood Essence Demon Fruit glow with a faint blood-red luster, resisting the burning of the heavenly flame.
Ultimately, however, it was just a medicinal ingredient. No matter how extraordinary, under the scorching of the Undying Sacred Flame, after holding out for about fifteen minutes, the blood-red fruit continuously withered. Puffs of blood-red mist appeared.
Finally, it gradually coalesced into a mass of blood-red, viscous liquid, glowing with pure energy fluctuations. What remained of the fruit's husk was, under the heavenly flame's burning, ultimately reduced to nothingness.
After the medicinal liquid was extracted, Jiang Yun did not immediately withdraw the flame. Instead, he guided it aside and continued nurturing it. Only then did he once again devote his full concentration and focus to the even more tedious refinement to come.
Unknowingly, the sky shifted from light to dark, then from dark back to light. A day and a night had passed.
By now, there were no more ingredients around Jiang Yun. During the extraction process, even Jiang Yun's soul power had felt a trace of fatigue. Fortunately, his soul cultivation method was of a high tier and could rapidly restore depleted soul power—achieving a balance between expenditure and recovery. This was how, even after a day and night of pill refinement, he could still remain so spirited and energetic.
Reaching out his palm, he gently raised it. Dou Qi circulated. The jade bottles all around trembled in unison, then broke their sealed state. Clumps of medicinal liquid, medicinal powder, and other substances, wrapped in white flame, flew out of the jade bottles and hovered around Jiang Yun.
Under the continuous nurturing of Jiang Yun's flame, the essence of these medicinal ingredients had reached an optimal state—the perfect moment for pill condensation.
His sleeve robe swept lightly. A gentle, forceful wind spread out. Instantly, the medicinal essences floating around Jiang Yun flew into the cauldron one after another.
Billowing white flames swiftly surged forth, taking full control of all these medicinal essences. Like a sea of stars, the hundreds of ingredients—mutually attracting and repelling—radiated pure medicinal power fluctuations.
Calming his mind and focusing his spirit, his gaze fixed tightly on the cauldron. Soul power, shimmering with spiritual fluctuations, spread to every corner of the cauldron, making all the medicinal essences glisten radiantly.
Forming a seal with his hand, instantly the soul power within his body began pouring out at a rapid pace, surging into the cauldron. Jiang Yun focused his mind and shouted deeply: "Condense!"
As Jiang Yun's voice fell, within the cauldron, the surging white flame began to spin, like a flame vortex, pushing the medicinal liquids and powders within to strive and draw together.
Boom—
Streams of pure medicinal power collided against one another, churning out ripple after ripple, causing the white flame to tremble violently and then crash against the inner walls of the cauldron.
The Ten Thousand Beast Cauldron trembled slightly. Every single ripple that impacted from within was no weaker than the attack of a Dou Huang.
The medicinal power contained within an eighth-tier pill was evident at this very moment!
Yet now, to stabilize the medicinal liquid inside the cauldron, Jiang Yun's soul power rapidly surged forth, guiding the fusion of the medicinal power within and preventing them from colliding and dissipating.
Under the guidance of Jiang Yun's soul power, the fiercely colliding medicinal essences finally and gradually calmed. Soul power seeped into the gaps like lubricating oil, giving the medicinal liquids an attitude of merging with one another.
"Spirit Gathering!"
As the medicinal liquids began to fuse, a miniature Spirit-Gathering Array formed in Jiang Yun's palm and shrouded the cauldron.
The invisible spiritual energy of the surrounding world, along with the fusion of the medicinal liquids, was, in an extremely precise manner, compressed entirely into the pill!
This was Jiang Yun's unique secret method for enhancing pill quality!
As the pill fused and the spiritual energy within continuously increased, Jiang Yun once again fell into silence.
Pill refinement was a lengthy process. The higher the tier of the pill, the more so. Especially the nurturing process within—even a moment's carelessness could not be afforded.
Thus, Jiang Yun once again settled into an endurance battle!
Zi Yan stood silently at the valley's highest vantage point, her gaze gently resting on Jiang Yun, who was seated cross-legged with closed eyes. From time to time, her sharp, fierce gaze would sweep across the surrounding Magical Beast Mountain Range.
Magical Beasts for hundreds of miles around felt the chill emanating from their very cores, and dared even less to approach this mist-shrouded valley.
Qing Lin, riding Bai Ya, also kept guard not far away!
Only Xiao Yi Xian's beautiful eyes remained fixed on Jiang Yun, observing his every move. She had always yearned to be an alchemist. Now, with Jiang Yun refining an eighth-tier pill right before her, even if she couldn't understand it, it didn't dampen the curiosity in her heart at all.
Thus, the cycle repeated. Sun rose, moon fell. Time was like flowing water, quietly slipping through one's fingers.
Three days later!
A pill cauldron hovered in the air. Within it, white flames churned ceaselessly like ocean waves, within which a pill, about the size of a longan and considerably round and smooth on the surface, flickered in and out of sight.
This Bone-Growing Blood-Melting Pill had already taken form and was just waiting to break out of its shell.
In that instant, the Ten Thousand Beast Cauldron suddenly trembled. A series of crisp "humming" sounds rippled outward.
After the cauldron emitted its humming sound, an unusually dense pill fragrance suddenly spewed out from the cauldron like a volcano. Faintly, one could see that the source of this fragrance was precisely a perfectly round pill.
The gushing of the pill fragrance grew increasingly swift and fierce, until finally it practically shot straight into the sky. And drawn by such a dense pill fragrance, above the valley, gales instantly howled, winds rose and clouds surged. The natural forces, as if pulled by something, swept in like ocean tides.
Layer upon layer of dense, heavy black clouds manifested, blanketing the sky so thoroughly even sunlight couldn't penetrate, pressing down over the valley.
"Rumble—"
Thunder roared. Under the watch of the four, the thunderclouds churned. Then, three colors—red, blue, and purple—slowly revealed themselves!
"A tri-color pill lightning?"
Jiang Yun gazed at the pill lightning overhead and murmured softly.
Zi Yan straightened her delicate frame, watching the dark-cloud-covered sky. She could feel the vast, overwhelming might transmitted from within!
"What terrifying pill lightning. So this is an eighth-tier pill?" Sensing the threat it contained, Zi Yan spoke in a somewhat subdued tone: "Damn it. My strength is still too lacking. I'm starting to fall behind!"
But, she still unhesitatingly circulated the Dou Qi within her body, ready to act at any moment.
"Colored pill lightning! Grandmaster Jiang really is an eighth-tier alchemist!" In the distance, Bai Ya, trembling uncontrollably beneath the pill lightning, stared dumbfounded at the heavenly might of this vast pill lightning, while also looking at the faintly visible dark-red pill within the pillar of light.
"Of course! Brother Jiang Yun wouldn't lie!" Qing Lin patted Bai Ya beneath her with slight dissatisfaction.
"Zi Yan, keep an eye on Xiao Yi Xian and Qing Lin. I have my own use for this pill lightning!"
Seeing Zi Yan ready to spring into action, Jiang Yun turned his head toward Xiao Yi Xian and Qing Lin, a confident smile appearing on his face as he spoke loudly.
With Zi Yan's current strength, she couldn't block this eighth-tier pill lightning. Besides, this rare delivery of highly nourishing energy had finally arrived; he wasn't willing to waste it.
Boom!
Just then, a tremendous roaring sound echoed. As the thunderclouds churned, a tri-color bolt of lightning abruptly shot downward, like a giant python bursting out from the cloud layer. The target of this lightning bolt was precisely that dark-red pill.
"Bring it on—"