With only a few dozen votes separating them from the total tally on the main ranking board, brothers and sisters, if you could just give a little push, we’ll climb up there! Also, October 1st is National Day, and The Purple Mansion will officially go live at midnight. To celebrate, the most thrilling plotline—the Spirit Mist Grand Canyon—is about to unfold, and the unique function of the Purple Mansion will gradually be revealed.

Ye Qin settled into a small inn within the city.

He attempted to refine pills using the Copper Sand Alchemy Furnace. What astonished him most was discovering that the furnace could be transported into his Purple Mansion. Initially, he intended to refine inside the Purple Mansion, but it lacked a suitable heat source, forcing him to use the designated alchemy chamber provided by the inn.

In the alchemy chamber specifically set aside for cultivators, Ye Qin sat before the furnace, stoking the fire. The inn provided high-quality charcoal that burned with a blue flame, far more intense and remarkably stable than common wood, conveniently solving his fuel troubles.

He poured the Jianglu Pill ingredients, over ten sets of supplementary herbs, mixed with pure spring water, into the Copper Sand Alchemy Furnace. After tightly closing the lid, he lit the charcoal. This was at least his thousandth attempt at refining the Jianglu Pill; his movements were practiced and fluid. The Copper Sand Furnace was somewhat small, allowing him to refine only five pills at a time. As long as he monitored the fire, occasionally adding charcoal, and watched closely when the condensation phase approached, he didn't need to worry excessively otherwise.

Ye Qin took out the paper packet containing three seeds of the Tier One spirit plant, Wood Thorn, unwrapped one, and sent it into his Purple Mansion using his divine sense.

Inside the floating island of his Purple Mansion, next to the field dedicated to Jianglu Grass, he specifically cleared a new patch of land to plant the Wood Thorn. Using a cyan, wood-element spirit stone in his hand, he began cultivating the Wood Thorn seed.

He was already intimately familiar with cultivating Jianglu Grass: only cyan wood-element spirit stones or white, miscellaneous spirit stones could nurture it. If a fire-element spirit stone were used, the Jianglu Grass would immediately perish, as it contradicted its required growing environment.

If nothing unexpected occurred, a wood-element spirit stone should also be capable of cultivating this Wood Thorn.

He selected a cyan wood-element spirit stone to plant the single Wood Thorn seed. After placing the seed in the plot and sprinkling some pulverized spirit stone powder over it, the seed stirred, quickly cracking its hard shell, sprouting a tender shoot, and beginning to grow.

Ye Qin was overjoyed.

It worked! Once the Wood Thorn grew large enough to bear berries, he would soon reap a large harvest of Wood Thorn seeds.

He continued sprinkling spirit stone powder.

After using nearly half a spirit stone, the Wood Thorn had grown into a small shrub and started to flower, bearing over a dozen pink buds. Then, everything halted.

No matter how much wood-element spirit stone powder Ye Qin added, the Wood Thorn refused to absorb the spiritual energy from the stones or continue growing. Naturally, it failed to produce the berries Ye Qin desired.

Ye Qin was thoroughly frustrated. A small white orb of light floated above the Wood Thorn, offering no clue as to the cause.

Since the seed successfully germinated and flowered, everything seemed normal—the missing piece was the final stage: fruiting!

Why could Jianglu Grass directly produce seeds, but this Wood Thorn would not bear fruit?

Ye Qin pondered for a long time but couldn't understand the situation.

His divine sense retreated from the Purple Mansion, returning to the alchemy chamber.

Ye Qin took another Wood Thorn seed from the paper packet. This time, he didn't send it into the Purple Mansion. Instead, he channeled a large amount of magical power, enveloping the seed, and cast the Entangling Spell.

He wanted to test what effect the Wood Thorn would exhibit if magically stimulated.

The Entangling Spell was cast.

Ye Qin scanned the alchemy chamber, searching for a target.

With a flick of his finger, the Wood Thorn seed, encased in magical power, shot out, striking a table in a corner of the chamber. The Wood Thorn seed immediately sprouted, its tendrils growing wildly, rapidly coiling around the sturdy table. With a sharp crack, the hard table was crushed and fractured by the Wood Thorn’s ferocious grip.

After a considerable pause, the Wood Thorn’s entanglement ceased.

Ye Qin walked over and picked up one of the tendrils.

The tendril was as thick as a finger, iron-cyan in color, its bark shimmering with a faint greenish glow, covered in sharp, half-inch-long cyan thorns that looked rather menacing. Legend claimed they contained potent wood poison; just how toxic, he couldn't say without testing, which he dared not do without an antidote.

Since the Wood Thorn seed relied on magical power for rapid growth, it seemed to be exhausting its vitality, resulting in a short lifespan. Not long after the spell ended, the stimulated growth began to wither and die. The Wood Thorn grown through magical excitation did not flower at all, let alone bear berries.

Ye Qin carefully pinched a thornless section of the branch and pulled hard, finding the Wood Thorn exceptionally tough; normal strength could not snap it. He suspected even using the Divine Strength Embodiment technique might not break it.

He tested it with the small herb-gathering knife he carried. It took him a full half-cup of tea time just to manage to cut through a small section of the bark. To sever it completely would take at least half a day. He wondered if a spiritual artifact could cleave it in one strike.

Ye Qin was quite satisfied with the Wood Thorn’s resilience.

Did this Wood Thorn have any weakness?

Ye Qin considered, silently reciting the incantation for the Fireball Spell. A small ball of intense, scarlet flame soon materialized above his palm. He shot it out, striking the Wood Thorn. The small fireball adhered to the plant as if a thirsty person encountered a spring; it erupted into violent flames. Within mere dozens of breaths, the Wood Thorn branch was burned entirely to ash.

Ye Qin blinked in surprise.

Although the Wood Thorn was incredibly tough, resisting ordinary blades, it couldn't withstand the direct heat of Yang fire. Amidst the acrid smoke of the burning Wood Thorn, Ye Qin suddenly caught a faint aroma of medicinal pills wafting from the alchemy furnace.

"Ah, the pills are almost ready!"

He quickly returned to the furnace, keeping a close eye on the heat, preparing for the extraction. The extraction time for the Copper Sand Alchemy Furnace was several times shorter than that of an iron alchemy furnace.

In the small inn, refining pills, cultivating behind closed doors.

In the blink of an eye, nearly half a year passed. It was nearing the time when the major sects traditionally issued the written assignments for selecting disciples.

Over this past half-year, Ye Qin had consumed a massive quantity of low-grade Jianglu Pills, striving to break through to the fifth level of the Qi Condensation stage. Although the Jianglu Pill was a low-grade spirit elixir, compensating for its inferior quality with sheer quantity should still yield some effect, right?

One day, a tiny streak of golden light suddenly flew in from outside the window and darted into Ye Qin’s room.

Ye Qin, meditating on his couch, noticed the golden light, raised an eyebrow, and snatched it with his left hand. When he opened his palm, he saw a golden talisman paper, several inches long—a Hundred-Mile Sound Transmission Talisman, sent by the Zhang siblings, inviting him to meet and discuss their plan to venture into the Spirit Mist Grand Canyon together in a few days.

Ye Qin paused.

Going to the Spirit Mist Grand Canyon so soon? He had been diligently cultivating behind closed doors for over a month and hadn't left the inn once. Well, he had already broken through to the fifth level of Qi Condensation; it was time to venture out and see the world.

On the streets of Xian Yuan City, the number of hurrying cultivators was noticeably higher than usual. Normally, only a few hundred people passed by daily, but now there were at least a thousand, comprising rogue cultivators and members of immortal cultivation families from hundreds of nations, giving the place a bustling, surging atmosphere.

Ye Qin left his inn and headed to the West Gate Inn where the Zhang siblings were staying.

The two inns were not far from each other.

Whenever Ye Qin finished a period of secluded cultivation, he would take time to visit Zhang Zhe and Zhang Qiao, as well as Old Man Xia and Fan Qiongsuan. When the Zhang group occasionally acquired raw materials for alchemy, they would seek his help in refining. Over the past six months, the five of them had become quite close.

Ye Qin ascended to the third floor of the pavilion. The center of the third floor was a main hall furnished with some seats and low tables holding tea sets; on the left and right sides were six private rooms. The entire third floor had been booked by the Zhangs, Old Man Xia, and Fan Qiongsuan; currently, the four cultivators were staying there together for joint practice.

In the hall sat a youth dressed as a swordsman in a blue robe, and a dark-skinned, square-jawed man in a short shirt, deep in discussion. A young girl dressed as a swordswoman in a blue dress listened quietly nearby.

In the corridor outside the hall stood a middle-aged scholar wearing a simple, white Confucian robe, his hair tied up with a white sash, looking somewhat stiff and unworldly, his face betraying an undeniable scholarly air. He held a bamboo scroll, reading aloud a few phrases from the "Zhi Hu Zhe Ye" (classical Confucian phrases) from time to time.

As Ye Qin entered the floor, the middle-aged scholar immediately saluted and said, "Brother Ye, greetings! We have been waiting for you! Please come in!"

"I dare not, Brother Fan, please," Ye Qin replied.

Ye Qin’s ancestors had produced one Xiu Cai (scholar), so he always held scholars in high regard.

This scholar was none other than Fan Jiasheng, who cultivated alongside the Zhang siblings and Old Man Xia. Because he loved to use obscure literary allusions, Zhang Qiao nicknamed him Fan Qiongsuan (Fan the Pedant). He was a Xiu Cai from the Southern Liang Kingdom.

It was rumored that this man claimed that in his youth, due to poverty, he studied diligently in a dilapidated temple where he coincidentally found a secret manual. He practiced it casually for physical conditioning, not realizing he was actually cultivating immortality. At that time, he had little interest in cultivation, focusing instead on achieving official success to bring glory to his ancestors. Unfortunately, this scholar Fan was slow in his academic pursuits, only managing to pass as a Xiu Cai. After repeated failures in subsequent examinations, he became disheartened and finally abandoned the pursuit of official status. By chance, he encountered other cultivators and realized, quite unexpectedly, that he had unintentionally become a "half-immortal." Guided by that cultivator, he traveled thousands of miles to Xian Yuan City, where he met the Zhang group and began cultivating alongside them.

When Ye Qin first heard Fan Jiasheng’s origin story, he secretly chuckled inwardly, thinking that the Southern Liang Kingdom truly lived up to its reputation as the Land of Immortals; perhaps not all those legendary immortal tales originated this way?

He followed Fan Jiasheng into the main hall and greeted the Zhang siblings and Old Man Xia with a slight bow. "My apologies for keeping everyone waiting."