The capital city, on the day of the Great Pill Refining Contest, the golden sun hung high, and majestic clouds gathered like a canopy.
The entire imperial city was unusually empty of people, yet the roaring voices almost seemed to tear apart the drifting clouds on the horizon.
At the center of the arena, on a raised platform, sat an elderly man with crane-white hair and a youthful face, radiating the aura of an immortal.
He wore a simple gray pill refiner’s robe and his eyes were half-closed, as if the external clamor had nothing to do with him.
All the pill refiners present, regardless of their noble origins, restrained their arrogance and respectfully saluted upon seeing this elder.
This elder was one of the Great Pill Refining masters of the Great Yu Dynasty’s Pill Division, the chief examiner of this contest—Zhou Hua.
Zhou Hua was a man who had been obsessed with the pill refining path his entire life, stern in character, disliking the powerful and privileged, valuing only true talent and character.
In contrast to the examiner’s calm demeanor, the most prestigious seat reserved for the royal family was cold and frost-like in atmosphere.
Wei Linger, the county lord of Qingyang County, wore a golden silk gown embroidered with orioles and flowers, a crown of seven treasures and colored glass on her head, poised with regal elegance and overwhelming nobility.
What she wanted was no longer a mere victory.She intended to publicly break the backbone of this so-called “pill refining prodigy,” dragging him down from the clouds in front of the entire world, shattering his reputation.
A mere flicker of firefly light, daring to compete with the bright moon.
Time rewinds to several days ago, deep inside the imperial palace.
Inside the resplendent Zhaoyang Palace, incense curls in the air.
The current third princess, Wei Linger’s mother, lazily reclined on a soft couch, gazing intently into a glass mirror, carefully inspecting her stunningly beautiful face.
She had bright eyes and pearly teeth, skin like congealed cream; though already a mother, her charm remained undiminished, and her eyebrows bore the dignity and pride of royal blood.
“Brother Emperor, what brings you to your little sister’s place?”
Seeing the Great Yu Emperor enter surrounded by eunuchs and palace maids, the Zhaoyang Princess rose lazily, her voice tinged with coquettishness.
“Just came to see my spoiled little sister.”
The emperor waved away the servants, sat beside her, his tone full of brotherly indulgence.
“I heard that that girl, Wei Linger, suffered some injustice at the prefectural academy?”
“You must stand up for her, brother!”
The princess’s eyes reddened instantly, tugging at the emperor’s sleeve as she acted spoiled.
“A mere mudfoot from the countryside dares to humiliate my royal bloodline, making Wei Linger lose face in public! I cannot swallow this anger, and neither can Wei Linger!”
“Alright, alright.”
The emperor patted her hand, smiling, “It’s just petty squabbling among juniors, no need to get so angry.”
“Not enough!”
The princess’s tone hardened, “The Great Pill Refining Contest is imminent. I want that brat Li Mengze to be utterly disgraced before the world, never to rise again! Let him know the consequences of offending my royal family!”
The emperor looked into her fiery phoenix-like eyes, finally sighing helplessly.
“Fine, fine, as you wish. Just don’t let anyone die, and I’ll pretend I know nothing.”
This sister of his had been pampered since childhood, growing into a reckless character.
If a common pill refiner provoked her displeasure, then destroying him was no more than dusting off a garment to him.
With the emperor’s tacit consent, the princess’s face broke into a satisfied smile.
After the emperor left, the coquettish and aggrieved expression on her face vanished without a trace, replaced by a cold and murderous aura.
“Bring me someone.”
A trusted eunuch silently knelt before her.
“Do two things.”
The princess’s voice was calm but filled with bone-chilling coldness.
“First, during the Great Pill Refining Contest finals, find a way to give Li Mengze the long-lost ancient formula of the ‘Reverse Dust Pill.’”
“Second, bribe the Pill Division’s steward to replace all the Dragon Whisker Fruit in his batch of medicinal materials with dead fruit corrupted by Yin Sha energy, and secretly mix ‘Spirit Dissolving Powder’ into the Calm Heart Orchids.”
“Remember, do it cleanly and decisively, leaving no traces.”
“Yes, your servant will obey.”
The bell of the contest rang.
When Li Mengze received the yellowed beast-skin scroll from the steward’s hand, the surrounding contestants sneered with malicious delight.
It was a long-lost ancient pill formula—the “Reverse Dust Pill.”
This formula was not lost because of profound mysteries.
Instead, it contained fatal flaws.
Among the hundreds of medicinal materials recorded, many ingredients violently conflicted, like water and fire, ice and charcoal.
The only outcome of forcibly combining them was furnace explosion.
Within the Pill Division’s vast archives, over the past century, countless pill refining predecessors had attempted to improve this formula, all without exception, ending in failure.
This was no longer a test.
It was a guaranteed trap.
Among the medicinal materials Li Mengze received, several core main ingredients had been carefully “tampered with.”
Those seemingly plump and round, filled with spiritual energy “Dragon Whisker Fruits” had long been corroded inside by extremely insidious Yin Sha energy, their vitality severed, leaving only hollow shells.
Meanwhile, the “Calm Heart Orchids,” which were used to moderate the formula’s overwhelming medicinal power, had been quietly mixed with barely visible “Spirit Dissolving Powder.”
This powder was colorless and tasteless itself, but once heated by fire, it did not calm the medicinal power. Instead, like a death curse, it instantly catalyzed all the medicinal energies, turning them wild and chaotic, triggering apocalyptic changes.
Rumors immediately spread across the arena.
“Did you hear? That Li Mengze is immoral and only succeeded by relying on some shady forbidden technique!”
“I told you, how could a mudfoot from the countryside possibly refine a Nine-Pattern Divine Boat? He must have cheated!”
“Now that he faces a genuine ancient formula, he’s about to be exposed! Let’s wait for the show!”
Fueled by Wei Linger’s deliberate incitement, the contestants cast scornful, distant, or gloating glances at Li Mengze.
He was completely isolated in the center of the arena, as if already a criminal destined for public execution.
Feeling the malice from all directions, Li Mengze did not panic or fear.
Instead, an ice-cold fury surged within him.
He recalled his father’s earnest instructions by lamplight,
and even more, Wei Linger’s venomous eyes on the high platform, openly enjoying the sight of a hunted prey’s final struggle.
There was no retreat in today’s battle.
This was not only to clear his name.
More importantly, it was for the sole qualification to enter the “Royal Secret Treasury.”
To seek the secret about the “Blood Maple Forest” his father spoke of, to touch the deepest truth of this world.
His mind was like the sea before a storm.
After fierce turmoil, it suddenly calmed.
Li Mengze ignored the outside noise.
Before him remained only the ancient pill furnace and the ancient formula that countless people had declared “impossible.”
He quietly examined the incomplete formula.
In his mind, the “Hundred Herbs Spiritual Realm” quietly surfaced.
There, countless rare flowers and herbs existed, endless chances for experimentation, and countless experiences of failure and retrying in pill refining.
All these flooded into his consciousness like a tide.
Though this formula was dangerous, it was not unsolvable.
Its core, true to its name, was “reversal,” not “fusion.”
He slowly closed his eyes and activated his spiritual power.
His fingertips gently brushed over each medicinal material in front of him.
In an instant, the “emotions” of these herbs within his perception became vividly clear.
The deathly “wails” of the Dragon Whisker Fruit and the hidden malicious “screeches” within the Calm Heart Orchid were crystal clear to him.
Wei Linger’s assumption of invincibility was laughable before his nature-born druidic talent; nothing escaped his perception.
Li Mengze slowly opened his eyes, retrieving from his storage ring the bronze pill furnace that his father had personally modified for him.
Caressing the warm and heavy array patterns carved by his father on the furnace body, a familiar warmth slowly rose from his heart.
It felt as if his father’s broad and warm hand was gently resting on his shoulder.
The tension in his heart, caused by anger, was completely settled at this moment.
“Light the furnace!”
Li Mengze commanded in a low voice, a gentle yet vibrant pale blue flame rising in his palm, pouring into the furnace.
Immediately afterward, he performed an action that stunned everyone present.
Faced with those deadly poisonous medicinal materials everyone avoided, he did not discard them.
Instead, he used them as the first step in breaking the impasse!
Using his divine consciousness as threads, he precisely controlled the Dragon Whisker Fruit filled with Yin Sha energy, throwing it into the furnace first.
Then, he triggered the Calm Heart Orchid mixed with Spirit Dissolving Powder in a mysterious rhythm, stimulating its medicinal properties.
“He’s crazy! He’s really crazy!”
“Is he asking for death?!”
Even the chief examiner Zhou Hua on the platform suddenly stood up, and Elder Zhao almost couldn’t stop himself from intervening.
Wei Linger’s excitement flushed her beautiful face with a faint red.
“Fool! Die! Blow yourself to smithereens right in front of the whole world!”
But the anticipated explosion never happened.
Under Li Mengze’s terrifying divine consciousness control, the wild spiritual energy catalyzed by the Spirit Dissolving Powder was forcibly restrained at the bottom of the furnace.
It violently collided with the Yin Sha energy in the Dragon Whisker Fruit, triggering a controllable “miniature spiritual energy storm” inside the furnace!
This storm did not destroy the furnace; instead, it acted like the most efficient filter.
It swept away, purified, and refined impurities from the other materials thrown in afterward through rotation and collision!
This divine move of “fighting poison with poison, using strength against strength” shook Zhou Hua to his core.
He then sat back heavily, clapped his hands, laughing heartily, his eyes shining brilliantly as he muttered to himself.
“Good boy! Good boy! This is not pill refining, it’s clearly performing magic! It’s debating the Way!”
As the storm calmed and impurities vanished, leaving only the purest medicinal essence,
The pill refiners watched Li Mengze’s next moves dumbfounded.
He completely abandoned the formula’s recorded instructions, boldly discarding several conflicting ingredients.
Instead, he added several substitute ingredients from his spare materials, learned from the “Hundred Herbs Spiritual Realm” experience, which had a similar neutralizing effect but much milder medicinal properties.
This was no longer pill refining; this was “creating a formula”!
Every move he made was filled with the rhythm of nature’s Dao.
Sometimes like spring rain nourishing silently.
Sometimes like a gentle stream guiding with the current.
This contrasted sharply with Wei Linger’s approach, relying entirely on top-grade “Crimson Phoenix Furnace” and “Heart-Protecting Spirit Jade,” forcibly suppressing the wild medicinal power with brute magical force.
One was a child of nature communicating and dancing with substances.
The other was a tyrant trying to enslave everything with money and power.
The difference was obvious.
When the last trace of medicinal energy was perfectly guided back, a wondrous phenomenon suddenly appeared!
No towering flames, no overpowering pill fragrance.
From Li Mengze’s ancient bronze furnace arose a vast green glow like a boundless mist.
Within the glow, countless plants seemed to take root and sprout; countless flowers quietly blossomed, filled with endless vitality and the breath of life!
Everyone present only needed to inhale lightly to feel refreshed and invigorated, as if their souls were cleansed.
“Medicinal energy transforming into a phenomenon! A life phenomenon! My goodness! In my lifetime, I never thought I’d witness such a heavenly phenomenon recorded only in ancient scriptures!”
A respected old pill refiner trembled with excitement, tears streaming down his face.
Li Mengze remained calm, lightly tapping the furnace.
“Ding!”
A clear, crisp sound rang out, and a crystal-clear pill, flawless as a perfect gem, slowly floated above his palm.
On the pill’s surface, a golden divine pattern of profound Dao shimmered, appearing as if naturally formed by the heavens!
“Ten-Pattern… Divine Pill!”
The entire venue fell into deathly silence.
Ten pill patterns—legendary pills—completely shattered all pill refiners’ established knowledge. If they hadn’t seen Li Mengze refine it themselves, they would have thought the kid had drawn the patterns on.
Against all odds, this young pill refiner won first place in the Great Pill Refining Contest with undeniable strength!
On the imperial throne, the Great Yu Emperor’s eyes revealed astonishment.
A Ten-Pattern Divine Pill was a symbol of good fortune; this was no mere toy to please a sister.
After a moment’s calculation, the emperor’s face brightened greatly.
He personally issued an edict, praising Li Mengze as the “Great Yu Pill Champion.”
He also bestowed a pure gold token, allowing him to enter the “Royal Secret Treasury,” a place only accessible to emperors of past dynasties, anytime to browse and select items for three days at will!
Wei Linger stood dumbfounded on the spot.
She glanced at the seven-pattern pill in her furnace, painstakingly refined with the help of two magical treasures.
Then she looked at Li Mengze’s Ten-Pattern “Reverse Dust Pill,” which resembled a work of art and triggered a heavenly phenomenon.
She felt dizzy and her vision darkened.
Those dazzling divine patterns were like the loudest slaps, mercilessly striking her face again and again, burning with pain.
“Pft—”
A mouthful of blood suddenly sprayed from her mouth, soaking the splendid clothes in front of her.
Li Mengze held the golden token to the “Royal Secret Treasury” tightly, feeling the murderous gaze from Wei Linger as if she wanted to devour him alive, and his killing intent surged in his heart.