Word Count: 2,914 Words
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With the matter settled, Xiao Yan had no intention of leaving and took up residence within the Small Pill Tower. After all, he had only half a year remaining; in six months, the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame would descend upon the world.
"The Small Pill Tower forms its own independent space, with various mountain peaks scattered throughout. You're free to choose any one of them as your residence, and the medicinal fields and spiritual soil within your chosen peak are yours to use as you please. At regular intervals, you may apply to the Pill Tower for a certain quota of resources, and anything beyond that requires an exchange of pills or pill recipes."
Cao Ying walked ahead, explaining everything to Xiao Yan as she went. A faint rose-colored blush still lingered on her porcelain cheeks from their earlier exchange, and her eyes sparkled with barely concealed delight. She and Dan Chen had planned to enter the Small Pill Tower early as apprentices, devoting themselves to cultivation and study, so she knew the Small Pill Tower's inner workings far better than a half-informed newcomer like Xiao Yan.
Xiao Yan's gaze drifted over Cao Ying's graceful figure as she led the way. The black gauze dress clung to her curves, accentuating the gentle sway of her hips with each unhurried step. Each motion was a subtle invitation. He allowed himself to enjoy the sight without pretense; her allure was genuine, not a hollow performance. Yet a faint smile was all it drew from him.
When it came to innate allure capable of bewitching all living beings, who could compare to Cai Lin? His wife possessed a charm beyond measure, yet she never wielded it against others; that intoxicating bewitchment was reserved for him alone.
"Big Brother Xiao Yan, where would you like to live?" Dan Chen asked softly from beside him.
"I have no particular preference," Xiao Yan replied with a casual wave. Then, as though the thought had only just occurred to him, he added in an offhand tone, "By the way, if I wanted to look over some ancient pill recipes or study alchemy techniques from bygone eras, where should I go?"
The Hall of Souls' Tianzun is standing right beside you!
There's a mole in your midst!
Cao Ying turned at his question with a fluid, graceful motion. Her eyes curved into bewitching crescents, that soul-stirring charm flowing from her as naturally as breath. "If Grandmaster Xiao Yan is searching for ancient pill recipes, you can visit the Pill Recipe Hall within the Small Pill Tower. Every recipe the Pill Tower has gathered since its founding is stored there."
A strange light flickered through Xiao Yan's eyes, though his expression betrayed nothing. "Even recipes created by the Pill Tower's founder?"
Dan Chen nodded timidly. "Mm. The Small Pill Tower has barely changed over the ages. However it was in ancient times, that's how it remains today, and the Pill Recipe Hall is exactly the same as it always was."
Xiao Yan's gaze shifted subtly. "I've heard the Small Pill Tower houses not only Tier 9 Mysterious Pill and Golden Pill recipes, but even Di Tier pill recipes."
It was only because these two were the people closest to him within the Pill Tower that he dared raise such a direct question without fear of arousing suspicion.
Both Cao Ying and Dan Chen frowned and shook their heads. Cao Ying's elegant brows knitted lightly. "I've heard there are Golden Pill recipes here, but Di Tier ones? That seems impossible."
Dan Chen nodded in agreement. "The Dou Qi Continent hasn't seen a new Golden Pill recipe appear in thousands of years. As for Di Tier pill recipes... I don't believe any exist."
Since neither woman knew anything of the Di Tier pill recipe, Xiao Yan let the matter drop. Though both had been born in Holy Pill City and counted Xuan Kong Zi and Tian Lei Zi among their masters, even those Pill Tower giants were likely ignorant of such secrets.
After all, despite the enormous commotion Hun Huzi had once stirred up over the matter, the actual whereabouts of the Di Tier pill recipe were almost certainly known only to the First Elder and the Pill Tower Old Ancestor.
As Xiao Yan pondered where such a treasure might be hidden, space tore open before them, and a small girl stepped through the rift onto empty air. It was, of course, Zi Yan, who had vanished off to who-knew-where earlier.
She walked toward them step by step, purple light blooming beneath her bare feet as she trod upon the void. The effect lent her an ethereal grace, as though a tiny fairy had descended into the mortal realm.
She caught Xiao Yan's eye and gave him a subtle wink. His eyebrows lifted a fraction, and in that instant, the two understood each other perfectly without a single word.
"You two go pick out a mountain and start building a courtyard. I'll go take a look at this Pill Recipe Hall," Xiao Yan instructed, hands clasped behind his back.
Cao Ying and Dan Chen naturally raised no objection. Though they followed Xiao Yan, they weren't even his true disciples yet, only apprentices, pill servants at best, and small matters like this naturally fell to them.
Once the two women had departed, Xiao Yan stepped over to Zi Yan. "Well? Any harvest?"
His pill refinement had drawn the attention of everyone in the Small Pill Tower, granting Zi Yan the perfect opportunity to work in the shadows. If humans could pilfer medicinal ingredients from magical beasts, why couldn't a magical beast help herself to herbs cultivated by humans? And Zi Yan was a magical beast through and through!
"Hehehe." A sly little laugh escaped Zi Yan's lips. Gone was any trace of the Ancient Void Dragon Tribe's Dragon Emperor majesty; she looked nothing like the sovereign who had felled three Dragon Kings with a single sword stroke. At moments like this, that ancient dragon emperor seemed almost like a tale someone had invented.
She reached into the void and produced several exquisite medicinal ingredients, each one bound by Spatial Strength. Every single piece was a tier 9 main ingredient of incomparable value.
The Small Pill Tower naturally maintained its own medicinal fields. Consider it. If even the vast Pill Realm had been abandoned by them, then surely they possessed an even better small world for cultivating rare herbs. Otherwise, where would the Pill Tower's Elders find ingredients for their alchemy research?
"We agreed on half and half," Xiao Yan reminded her, rubbing his hands together. The two of them truly were partners in crime, thick as thieves.
"Fine. Just turn them into pills for me. Whether I can break through to 5-star and deal with those traitors is entirely up to you." Zi Yan handed over all the ingredients without hesitation.
"Don't worry. The moment Xuan Kong Zi delivers the recipes, I'll start refining them for you." Xiao Yan stored the herbs carefully and then asked, "By the way, is there anything strange about this Small Pill Tower?"
Zi Yan nodded, her expression turning grave. "There is. Within that Pill Recipe Hall, I sensed a small hidden spatial chamber, concealed almost flawlessly. It's likely a spatial seal placed by a 6-star Dou Saint or higher. If I didn't carry the Dragon Emperor bloodline, I wouldn't have noticed it at all."
"A 6-star Dou Saint!" Xiao Yan's eyes narrowed sharply. He had assumed the Small Pill Tower housed a 5-star Dou Saint at most, never imagining it might harbor an expert at 6-star or above!
If their adversary truly stood at the 6-star level, then even with him and Zi Yan joining forces, they might not be able to stand against such an opponent.
The gap between 5-star and 6-star was simply too vast. Working together, the two of them could at best barely contend with an early 5-star Dou Saint. Against a 6-star, victory was out of the question.
Xiao Yan thought for a moment. "If our opponent is at 6-star, we can't take this head-on. We'll need to plan more carefully. Take me to the Pill Recipe Hall first."
Zi Yan nodded and tore open space. A few light steps later, the two stood before an ancient hall, its lintel bearing a plaque inscribed with three large words: Pill Recipe Hall.
They stepped inside and found that the hall was not especially large. Only a few scattered old men browsed the shelves, their footsteps echoing softly through the quiet space.
No guards stood watch anywhere within. Scrolls lined the walls instead, each one sealed by a special formation, and every scroll contained a pill recipe. Even the lowest among them was a peak tier 8 recipe; the Flame Demon Clear Mysterious Pill that Old Demon Hou had once refined had likely come from this very place.
Though the hall was modest in size, the recipes within represented the very apex of what the Dou Qi Continent had to offer. To find anything more advanced, one would have to journey to the Yao Clan.
Xiao Yan glanced casually at the introduction inscribed on one of the scrolls.
"Thunder-Metal Dual Element Pill, Tier 9 Treasure Pill. For Dou Qi practitioners. Upon consumption, it causes the user's Dou Qi constitution to mutate, generating dual-attribute Thunder and Metal Dou Qi. The result is a Thunder-Metal dual-attribute constitution, allowing the user to cultivate both Thunder-attribute and Metal-attribute Qi Methods simultaneously."
'Truly a pill that defies the heavens and rewrites fate, granting a special constitution outright...'
This kind of dual-attribute Dou Qi constitution was fundamentally different from an alchemist's Wood attribute. The Wood attribute within an alchemist's body was extremely faint, existing only to catalyze medicinal effects. The dual-attribute constitution granted by this pill was akin to Feng Qing Er's Wind-Lightning Physique.
Feng Qing Er had simply been fortunate enough to be born with such a constitution. This single pill, however, could artificially rewrite a person's fate, and that alone was enough to show just how terrifying tier 9 pills truly were.
And here, while such tier 9 pill recipes couldn't exactly be called plentiful, there were still several dozen of them. Xiao Yan spotted more than a few Tier 9 Mysterious Pill recipes among the collection. As for Tier 9 Golden Pill recipes, he found only two.
One was called the Golden Immortal Pill. Its effect was to heal any and all injuries below the Dou God realm, a healing pill in the purest sense. In the current Dou Qi Continent, where not a single Dou God existed, it was practically a universal panacea capable of curing any wound.
The other was called the Heaven and Earth Golden Pill. It bore some resemblance to the Break Calamity Pill that Hai Bodong had once given Xiao Yan, but its effects were countless times more powerful. Not only could it shatter seals and clear all negative statuses, it could even restore the consumer to the exact state they had been in before being sealed.
Xiao Yan estimated that if he had possessed a Heaven and Earth Golden Pill back then, the Bodhisattva Ancient Tree would never have needed such a complicated rescue. A single pill could have purged all the negative energy from its body. Truly capable of reversing heaven and earth!
However, these Golden Pill recipes were lone copies, remnants passed down from ancient times, and not a single one could be duplicated. To produce a Tier 9 Golden Pill recipe, one needed at minimum a perfected Heavenly State soul combined with a completely flawless refinement of the pill itself. Only then might a new recipe be born.
And in this world, there was simply no one capable of refining a perfect-quality Tier 9 Golden Pill. These two scrolls could each be used only once, and then they would be gone.
Exchanging for a pill recipe naturally required medicinal pills as payment. Both Golden Pill recipes demanded tier 9 pills in return. The Golden Immortal Pill required a top-quality Tier 9 Treasure Pill, while the price for the Heaven and Earth Golden Pill recipe was even steeper: a Tier 9 Mysterious Pill. Incomparably precious.
Xiao Yan and Zi Yan wandered the hall like visitors at some grand exhibition, peering at this scroll and that, taking their time. Eventually, they were the only two left in the Pill Recipe Hall.
They exchanged a glance, and Zi Yan led Xiao Yan toward a stretch of unremarkable white wall near the center of the hall.
"This wall has been sealed by a powerful force. There's a small space behind it," Zi Yan said through voice transmission.
Xiao Yan sent his Spiritual Strength sweeping across it. He could faintly sense something off, but his perception of space was far inferior to Zi Yan's. Forget breaking the seal; he couldn't even pinpoint its exact location.
"It's no use," Zi Yan explained. "If it were just a seal, I'd have a way to pass through. But this isn't simply a matter of powerful force. The entire space has been exiled into an inter-dimensional void, drifting at random. Without the exact spatial coordinates, unsealing it would be extremely difficult."
Meow!
Mao Wu's voice sounded within Xiao Yan's mind.
"Zi Yan, if I can anchor the space in place, how long would you need to undo the seal?" Xiao Yan's eyes lit up as he turned to her.
Mao Wu's message was simple: it could slip into the Nihility Space and lock down the entire sealed pocket, halting its drift. That way, coordinates wouldn't matter.
Zi Yan pondered for a moment. "One hour."
Xiao Yan's brow furrowed deeply. This was inside the Small Pill Tower. If they needed a full hour, someone might very well wander in. Should any alchemist step through the doors and sense the two of them sneakily locking down the void, even a fool would know something was amiss.
Back then, Hun Huzi might well have been discovered in exactly the same way.
"Let's leave it for now and head back. We can't rush this. We still have time." He needed a chance to observe carefully and gather more information before making his move.
"Mm."
Xiao Yan and Zi Yan left the Pill Recipe Hall and made their way to a mountain peak. With the combined strength of two Dou Venerates in Cao Ying and Dan Chen, erecting a temporary courtyard was hardly any effort at all.
…
The days that followed were genuinely comfortable for Xiao Yan. The three women around him were all beauties capable of toppling cities; just having them live under the same roof turned the courtyard into a breathtaking landscape.
Naturally, Her Majesty the Dragon Emperor stuck to Xiao Yan like a shadow. The two of them often roamed the Small Pill Tower together, poking their noses into everything and stirring up trouble wherever they went.
Before long, Xuan Kong Zi personally delivered the pill recipes Xiao Yan had requested. After exchanging some medicinal ingredients with the Small Pill Tower, Xiao Yan spent a full month refining the pills Zi Yan needed.
With the tier 9 pills he produced, restoring Zi Yan's depleted life force posed no problem at all. Her cultivation even rose slightly in the process.
The rest of the time, once he finished giving Cao Ying and Dan Chen pointers on alchemy, Xiao Yan would take Zi Yan along to visit the various alchemists of the Small Pill Tower, discussing pill techniques, refinement methods, and personal insights. Before long, he had grown familiar with practically everyone inside.
Some of his insights and explanations even granted the First Elder flashes of enlightenment.
Xiao Yan ended up staying within the Small Pill Tower for three full months.
…
Three months later, on a certain night, two black-robed figures, one tall and one short, silently tore through the void and appeared inside the Pill Recipe Hall.
"Xiao Yan, are you sure this is safe?" Zi Yan glanced left and right, nerves jangling like a thief on her first job.
"Relax. I've already asked around over these past few months. They've all gone into seclusion," Xiao Yan replied in a hushed voice.
Thanks to the insights he had shared, quite a few alchemists had experienced epiphanies of their own and entered closed-door cultivation one after another.
Hum—
A black cat materialized from the void. With a soft whoosh, it dove straight back into space and vanished. A moment later, fine strands of black flame, thin as needle-drawn threads, worked their way out of the empty air surrounding the white wall Zi Yan had indicated.
The Heaven Seed Flame of the Nihility Devouring Flame had locked the void in place. Zi Yan knew there was no time to waste. She bit the tip of her finger, and a drop of purple-gold blood welled up. Pressing that bloodied fingertip into the air, she sent the Dou Qi within her body surging into motion.
As the power of the Ancient Void Dragon circulated through her, the smooth white wall began to twist and warp. Xiao Yan could vaguely make out a space behind it, like a heavy safe embedded within the void.
The moment he confirmed that a hidden space truly existed, even Xiao Yan, Tenth Tianzun of the Hall of Souls, felt tension coil tight in his chest.
Whether he could obtain the complete Emperor Soul Technique would be decided here and now.