"My husband, that Twelfth-Rank Fire Phosphor Crimson Beast bone, I picked it up from Kong Shi. It was useless before. Trading it for this Three-Azure Feather is a fair exchange. Wang Shiwei has always been stirring up trouble between Du Qingliang and you. That man is quite insidious. Today, as the Young Palace Master of Wanluo Palace, he lost face; he certainly won't let this go and will seek revenge when he gets the chance. However, although Wang Shiwei is the Young Palace Master of Wanluo Palace, he can’t do anything against you, an Elder of the Purple Sword Palace," Huangfu Bing'er said softly, staying close to Ye Qin and watching his expression.

"It's not this Young Palace Master I'm worried about."

Ye Qin shook his head, a hint of gravity creeping into his expression. "Du Qingliang, Meng Yu, and Wang Shiwei are supposed to be close friends. The fact that the latter two stood by and watched as Young Master Wang lost face in public surprised me. It seems the struggle for the Northern Sect Leader position of the Heavenly Dao Alliance among the Four Great Immortal Palaces has reached a fever pitch, to the extent that they are setting aside personal friendships among their direct disciples."

"Then what should we do?"

"We’ll wait and see. Ultimately, this is a conflict between the four great sects—Zhou, Du, Meng, and Wang. We are outsiders; we should avoid getting too deeply involved."

Ye Qin and Huangfu Bing'er returned to their residence to focus on cultivation. Most of their free time was spent refining elixirs, preparing their warship, and gathering spirit stones, rarely leaving Linhai City. Linhai City was under the jurisdiction of the Heavenly Dao Alliance, heavily guarded by patrols, with very few mid-air duels occurring within the city walls.

As for the intelligence on the Sea of Blood required by the Purple Sword Palace, that task naturally fell to the resident Golden Core cultivators of the Purple Sword Palace; Ye Qin did not need to venture out to investigate personally.

Time slipped by like a white colt flashing past a crack in a wall.

More than twenty years passed in the blink of an eye.

In the cultivation world of the East Sea, the two most powerful factions, the Heavenly Dao Alliance and the Heavenly Demon Alliance, were becoming increasingly open about their shared intention to expand their influence into the Sea of Blood.

Of course, the two Immortal Alliances had not formally declared war on the Demon Race, but they were furiously engaged in preparations for the conflict. They were dispatching large numbers of Golden Core cultivators, openly and covertly, to Linhai City, from where they were teleported to various strongholds within the Sea of Blood to gather intelligence. This included detailed reports on sea charts, star maps, island topography, distribution maps of sea beast hordes, rankings of sea beasts, distribution maps of spiritual resources and spirit stones, and maps detailing the whereabouts of Demon Race cultivators—a massive amount of precise intelligence.

It was crucial to remember that the geographical location of the Sea of Blood was paramount, serving as a buffer zone between the East Sea Islands and the Demon Sea. It was precisely the existence of the vast Sea of Blood that prevented direct clashes between the East Sea cultivation world and the Demon Sea. If the East Sea cultivation world were to expand fully into the Sea of Blood and establish Immortal Cities, it would inevitably trigger a fierce counterattack from the Demon Race cultivators.

Given the current circumstances, this war was unavoidable; it was only a matter of time before the major conflict erupted.

Naturally, all of this was within the control and planning of the higher echelons of the Heavenly Dao Alliance and the Heavenly Demon Alliance; it was not a matter that required the worrying of a Golden Core cultivator like Ye Qin.

Unknowingly, while cultivating diligently in Linhai City, Ye Qin and Huangfu Bing'er had both advanced into the late stage of the Golden Core realm.

Although both were only at the seventh layer of the Golden Core stage, among Golden Core cultivators, this level of attainment was considered quite high.

One day, within the Ye family residence.

In the Pill Refining Chamber.

Ye Qin sat calmly on the central cushion, his expression serene. He manipulated his hand seals, laying down several protective restrictions around the pill furnace in the center of the room, then waved his hand, sending several wisps of Samadhi True Fire to settle beneath the furnace base.

The temperature within the refining chamber began to climb accordingly.

As he controlled the leaping blue flames at the base of the furnace, Ye Qin found his mind wandering slightly.

His Dao of Pill Refining had stalled at the peak of the Grandmaster realm for decades, unable to break through to become a Divine Pill Master.

Even the best furnaces available to a Grandmaster only offered a decent success rate for spiritual pills below the Ninth Rank. For pills of the Tenth Rank and above, refinement was virtually impossible; any chance of success was purely accidental and unreproducible.

This was a massive bottleneck.

It was not a threshold that could be crossed simply through constant refinement. To some extent, it depended on one's inherent talent for alchemy.

The professional Pill Grandmasters in the major Immortal Palaces of the East Sea cultivation world possessed ample spiritual materials and time for their practice, yet very few among them ever achieved the realm of Divine Pill Master.

"Everyone envies the wealth of a Pill Grandmaster and the ability to refine elixirs for their own use. But how many truly know the cost in materials and wealth required to become one, and how difficult it is? To leap from Pill Grandmaster to Divine Pill Master is even rarer than a Golden Core cultivator ascending to the Nascent Soul stage," Ye Qin mused to himself, half-mockingly. He then retrieved several mature Tenth-Rank spiritual materials from his Wood Mansion. If he didn't possess the Wood Mansion, which allowed him to cultivate spiritual herbs rapidly using spirit stones, he probably wouldn't even be close to the Grandmaster level yet.

He usually focused his pill refining practice on the more difficult Ninth-Rank Dark Jade Spirit Pills to improve his Dao.

However, in recent years, Ye Qin had been attempting to refine the Tenth-Rank Essence-Gathering Infant-Forming Elixir...

The Essence-Gathering Infant-Forming Elixir was a Tenth-Rank spiritual pill used to aid in the condensation of a Nascent Soul, significantly increasing the success rate during the shattering of the core and the formation of the nascent soul. While this elixir was far less rare than a Nascent Soul Pill, it was still uncommon on the market, often fetching a price but no seller.

Ye Qin refined this elixir both to push his Dao of Pill Refining and to prepare the necessary auxiliary elixirs for his and Bing'er's own future Soul Formation. "I hope to refine a few Essence-Gathering Infant-Forming Elixirs today!"

Ye Qin recalled his thoughts and brought his focus back to the pill furnace and materials before him. Over these years, his technique for refining Tenth-Rank spiritual elixirs had become quite adept. But every time the condensation phase neared, a strange spiritual fluctuation would erupt within the medicinal liquid in the furnace, causing the nascent form of the medicine to dissipate, resulting in copious amounts of wasted pills.

These Tenth-Rank, Nascent Soul-level materials were prohibitively expensive. If he couldn't rapidly mature medicinal herbs using spirit stones in his Purple Mansion, or recover some spirit stones by recycling the failed pills through his Earth Mansion, he simply could not afford such colossal losses and would have long since become destitute.

"Purple Crystal Profound Flower, Seven Spirit Snow Ginseng, Spirit-Calming Root..." Ye Qin manipulated his finger seals, adding the spiritual herbs according to the prescription's ratios, not daring to relax for a moment. Each of these Tenth-Rank materials was thousands, even tens of thousands, of years old, brimming with potent spiritual energy.

"Open the furnace!"

Seeing that the base of the pill furnace was burned cherry-red by the Samadhi True Fire and the furnace body was radiating circulating halos of light, Ye Qin exclaimed softly. The lid sprang open, and a wave of intense heat surged out.

Upon opening the furnace, he immediately tossed the Purple Crystal Profound Flower, which shone with a soft, crystal-like purple light, into the crucible. He activated his Fire Control Art, causing the Samadhi True Fire at the base to flare up, licking the inner wall of half the furnace until it glowed crimson.

As soon as the Purple Crystal Profound Flower entered, several invisible lines of energy immediately wrapped around it. The flower simultaneously emitted a soft 'squeak' as large quantities of spiritual energy leaked from its body, which Ye Qin fiercely contained within the furnace.

Soon, the Purple Crystal Profound Flower, enveloped in the heat current, began to melt, gradually transforming into a shimmering pool of medicinal liquid that floated slowly within the furnace.

After completing this step, Ye Qin's forehead was beaded with light sweat. Refining this Tenth-Rank material into liquid form was the first stage; any slight mistake could destroy the liquid or ruin its medicinal properties, preventing it from liquefying and wasting a precious Tenth-Rank ingredient.

Ye Qin dared not relax, subsequently adding the Seven Spirit Snow Ginseng and other spiritual materials, refining each one into a pool of medicinal liquid emitting a rich fragrance and potent spiritual essence.

"Merge!"

Once most of the impurities had been refined out of the pools of liquid, which now glowed with soft radiance and exuded intoxicating aromas, Ye Qin instantly shifted his pill seals. The medicinal liquids in the furnace sank to the bottom, and the lid slowly descended, sealing the entire pill furnace.

Only then did Ye Qin let out a breath of relief, activating his Fire Control Art to intensify the furnace heat to its maximum. The blue Samadhi True Fire entirely engulfed the massive pill furnace, leaving only the dragon head sculpture atop the lid, which occasionally expelled a wisp of dark, impure vapor from its mouth.

The spiritual energy within the furnace grew progressively purer and denser.

"Next, I must refine this medicinal liquid into a purified elixir liquid."

Ye Qin calculated the required time with a flick of his finger, letting out a long breath. The pill refining process was extremely lengthy. He did not delay, swallowing a Dark Jade Spirit Pill, and began to cultivate within the spiritually saturated refining chamber. The Samadhi True Fire was stable; he only needed to replenish it periodically. Ye Qin did not need to constantly watch over it, merely maintaining the Fire Control Art during his cultivation.

Days flashed by during his cultivation.

When not a single wisp of dark vapor emerged from the dragon's mouth on the furnace lid, Ye Qin suddenly opened his eyes. He activated both his pill seal and his Fire Control Art simultaneously. The furnace whoosh-ed, floating into the air and rotating slowly, while the furnace fire immediately subsided.

Ye Qin focused all his attention, sensing the heat current, spiritual energy, and medicinal liquid inside the furnace all begin to swirl slowly. He controlled the liquid to begin the condensation phase. The liquid, having undergone several days of 'martial fire' refinement, was already so condensed and pure that it was nearly tangible, its volume greatly reduced, yet the medicinal essence it contained was far more concentrated.

"Combine the medicines!" Ye Qin whispered, activating his pill seal. Immediately, the purple, glowing liquid from the Purple Crystal Profound Flower and the milky-white liquid from the Seven Spirit Snow Ginseng slowly drifted toward each other.

The moment these two streams of liquid met, their intense medicinal properties clashed violently, emitting a barely audible 'hissing' sound. Ye Qin instantly added the third liquid, which served as the catalyst, integrating it with the two to quell the immediate conflict.

Driven by Ye Qin’s pill seal and the furnace's heat current, these three distinct medicinal liquids slowly merged, finally transforming into a single mass of dark-purple liquid.

By the time a liquid formed inside the furnace that was purple yet not entirely purple, its color subtly shifting, a full day and night had passed. Ye Qin breathed a slight sigh of relief, shaking his head with a wry smile.

"Refining this Tenth-Rank spiritual elixir is far more difficult and time-consuming than Ninth-Rank pills. I've spent a full several years just to barely manage to form the Tenth-Rank liquid without ruining it. If not for the experience accumulated over the years, synthesizing this liquid wouldn't have been this smooth. Condensing the liquid into a spiritual pill will be even harder!"

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