The Huayan Grotto-Heaven, spanning over ten li, was bathed in radiant light. All around, exotic, life-extending flowers and strange herbs grew... A small, spiritual deer, remarkably agile, trotted past, absentmindedly chewing on a Spirit Intelligence Ginseng. Within this space lay a powerful spirit-gathering formation laid down by a senior patriarch of the Nine Nether Dao. The spiritual energy in the air was so dense it was visible to the naked eye. From the left cave wall, a spirit spring erupted, the water containing an extremely rich concentration of spirit energy, making it heavy, almost like liquid mercury. The droplets sprayed out, each one resembling a tiny ball of pure silver, and when they collided, they produced a crisp, clear ding-dang sound.

In the center of the cavern, atop a patch of towering Wei grass, the five brothers of Xin Jia, along with Zhao Yi and their five hundred subordinates, had formed a massive Five Elements Transcendence Array. They were continuously transmuting the Five Elements spiritual energy into their bodies, thereby enhancing their cultivation. This Five Elements Transcendence Array was immensely powerful, and with Zhao Yi and the others acting as wings, the array's force drew in all the ambient spiritual energy within the grotto-heaven, condensing it into a spiritual energy vortex several zhang in diameter high above the array's focal point, emitting a terrifying, roaring whoosh.

Gu Ye Chen stood beside the great formation, watching for a while, and smiled with immense satisfaction. The Xin Jia brothers and their cohort were truly the subordinates he could rely on the most!

Sensing Gu Ye Chen’s gaze, Xin Jia slightly opened his eyes and used his divine sense to send a greeting, before reporting the events of the past few days to Gu Ye Chen.

The big-bearded commander had delivered over a thousand of his most loyal and reliable confidantes. With the help of Xin Jia and the others, they had successfully integrated the high-grade Crystalline Spheres obtained from the Pluto Hunt. Furthermore, to prevent any recurrence of the previous incident involving the rebellion of the Special Operations Bureau's officers, Xin Jia had unhesitatingly implanted restrictions deep within the souls of these men, securing complete control over their lives and deaths, thus eliminating any possibility of their betrayal. The restriction techniques employed by Xin Jia were subtle and profound, rumored to be the very methods immortals used to subdue their beast mounts, ensuring absolutely no one could escape.

"Very well done!" Gu Ye Chen praised Xin Jia for a few moments, then, not wishing to disturb their practice, proceeded directly to a stone room at the far end of the cavern.

The room covertly adhered to the principles of the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams. Within it was arranged an astonishingly complex formation. At its center was a bottomless pit as wide as a water vat, from which roared a blazing fire. This was a cyan flame of extreme temperature, a stream of 'Primal Chaos Earth Flame' drawn from an ancient subterranean fire source by a Nine Nether Dao elder. Not only did it possess the formidable power to melt gold and refine iron, but it was also rich in spiritual energy, making it a superior fire source for forging various magical artifacts and refining elixirs.

Suspended above the great pit was a purple-copper alchemy furnace, standing about two meters tall. The three-legged cauldron was intricately carved with topographical images of the Nine Provinces and Ten Thousand Waters’ terrestrial veins. Currently, streams of light flowed slowly along these image pathways, and occasionally, a stream of vermilion alchemic energy would erupt from near the furnace lid. A scorching fragrance washed over the face, lending an added layer of mystery to the air.

Carefully circling the cauldron a few times, Gu Ye Chen nodded slowly. Everything was under control; it seemed this batch of pills stood a good chance of success.

Tossing aside the green bamboo staff in his hand, Gu Ye Chen sat cross-legged on the cushion positioned in the Qian Palace sector of the cauldron. He casually picked up a banana leaf fan, three chi and six cun long. He exhaled a stream of Zhenqi onto the fan, diligently channeling his full Zhenqi to trace several runes across the fan's surface, and then swung it fiercely towards the Earth Flame beneath the cauldron. Dozens of streams of spiritual light shot out from the fan, grabbing the earth-fire and transforming it into dozens of serpentine tongues of flame that wrapped rapidly around the cauldron. The flames soared several zhang high, instantly spiking the temperature in the stone room to an unbearable level for any ordinary person.

The purple-copper cauldron glowed incandescent red as it heated, and the vermilion alchemic energy erupting from the lid grew ever denser, yet the fragrance within that energy began to fade.

Gu Ye Chen’s heart soared with joy. Dense energy meant the impurities in the medicinal ingredients within the cauldron were being extracted more completely; the fading fragrance, however, indicated minimal loss of the effective components of the medicine. Impurities expelled, active ingredients retained—the success rate for this refining attempt was much higher than the previous few.

This batch currently being refined was the Two Extremes Heaven-Seizing Elixir, the very one promised to Wolf of Poison. This spirit pill possessed the capability to allow those unable to cultivate the Dao to smoothly form a Golden Core and step onto the path of immortal cultivation.

Gu Ye Chen possessed sufficient medicinal ingredients to refine the Two Extremes Heaven-Seizing Elixir. Zhao Yi’s spoils from Paradise Star were not limited to that; the secret stash of ingredients he had hidden was enough to refine hundreds of batches of the Elixir. However, refining pills was extremely difficult. While Zhao Yi and the others possessed some rudimentary knowledge of artifact forging, they were completely ignorant of alchemy.

According to Xin Jia, the highly technical task of alchemy was only studied by a minuscule number of Great Immortals in the Celestial Realm whose cultivation was so high that they foresaw no hope of improvement over millions of years. Other figures, like Xin Jia himself, the Yellow Turban Warriors guarding the Southern Heavenly Gate, and the Heavenly Soldiers, focused their attention primarily on forging their own vital magical treasures and advancing their personal cultivation. If, occasionally, one like Zhao Yi became deeply immersed in formations, it was solely to bolster his own combat effectiveness.

The Dao of Alchemy, while infinitely profound, was a high-skill endeavor that consumed enormous resources and yielded no immediate results; thus, Xin Jia and his peers could offer no assistance.

Gu Ye Chen had no choice but to refine the Two Extremes Heaven-Seizing Elixir himself, following the records in the prescription and incantation. He truly couldn't ask the cultivators of Laojun Valley for help with this matter. The Two Extremes Heaven-Seizing Elixir was an elixir that defied the heavens. Unless Gu Ye Chen’s brain had been crushed by a bull's backside, he would never expose the incantation and formula publicly.

Sighing deeply, Gu Ye Chen waved the fan once more. He muttered to himself, "This is the seventh batch. My luck can’t possibly be this terrible, can it?"

As the words fell, a spiritual rune on the banana leaf fan became unstable. The fluctuation in the spiritual power Gu Ye Chen injected into the Earth Flame proved too volatile, causing the Earth Flame's temperature to suddenly surge by about one-tenth higher than what the cauldron required. The escalating temperature immediately destabilized the thirty-six nascent black-and-white energy cyclones, each the size of a fist, that had already taken shape inside the cauldron.

With thirty-six consecutive explosions—bang, bang, bang, bang—Gu Ye Chen’s heart ached, his brow furrowing into a tight knot. A massive volume of black and white gaseous currents erupted from the cauldron, spreading a rich, intense fragrance throughout the refining chamber.

Furious and frustrated, Gu Ye Chen dropped the banana leaf fan and opened his mouth, sucking the vast quantity of black and white gaseous currents into his body. Although the Two Extremes Heaven-Seizing Elixir had failed to form and lacked its heaven-defying ability to transform the innate aptitude of modified humans, the raw materials used in its refinement were still exceptionally rare and precious spiritual herbs. Absorbing this medicinal power still bestowed significant benefits upon Gu Ye Chen.

Having ruined several batches in succession, Gu Ye Chen’s physical strength had increased by at least another thirty percent. His Zhenqi cultivation had advanced by more than twofold. Now, the Zhenqi within him was compressed to a density several times greater than mercury, and the cyclones in his Dantian possessed a terrifying degree of density. However, due to the limitations of his innate physical constitution, no matter how powerful his Zhenqi became, he could not condense it into a true Golden Core.

(Mid-session rest reminder)

(Monthly tickets, monthly tickets, monthly tickets)

(Recommendations, recommendations, recommendations) (To be continued)