The mysterious elder's cultivation pierced the heavens and penetrated the earth; with a single thought, no situation on the entire continent could escape his perception.
He had discovered something odd about Yang Kai.
His divine sense swiftly gathered toward the cave where Yang Kai was located.
Inside the cave, Yang Kai—who had been attempting to refine a Saint King grade pill—suddenly froze, his body going rigid. He opened his eyes and jerked his head upward, his expression grave.
In some vague, instinctive way, he felt as though a pair of invisible eyes were peering into his every movement, and that made him tense up involuntarily.
But when he probed more carefully, he found nothing out of place. He couldn't help but shake his head, looking puzzled, wondering if he was being overly jumpy.
This interruption caused the Saint King grade pill he had been attempting to refine to fail immediately. A burnt smell wafted from the pill furnace, and the medicinal liquids he had painstakingly condensed became contaminated and unusable.
Yang Kai let out a quiet sigh, extracted the ruined liquids from the furnace, and set aside his divine sense fire for the time being, instead closing his eyes to rest and restore his energy.
Having witnessed this entire scene from tens of thousands of li away, the mysterious elder withdrew his divine sense and murmured to himself with a trace of suspicion: "That sharp an instinct?"
He was certain that with his methods, there was no way that brat could have detected his divine sense probing—yet the boy had still grown wary. This was clearly an innate, instinctive awareness of approaching danger.
Shaking his head, the elder stopped paying attention to Yang Kai and turned his focus back to his own affairs.
A minor cultivator like Yang Kai was simply not worth much of his attention.
Inside the cave, Yang Kai shut himself away and continued refining pills without pause.
He lost track of time. Over what felt like an eternity, he refined several hundred mid-grade and high-grade Saint grade pills, many of which bore pill veins.
His alchemy skills had improved enormously—now he could even produce Saint King grade pills.
One day, Yang Kai's expression grew solemn as he withdrew a collection of herbs from the Demon God's Secret Canon. Each herb brimmed with incredibly dense energy, every last one of them at the Saint King grade.
He was going to start refining the Boundary Breaking Pill!
He knew the Boundary Breaking Pill's recipe by heart. It was an existing formula native to the Profound Continent, and its grade varied depending on the quality of ingredients used.
Now, with Saint King grade ingredients, the Boundary Breaking Pill he produced would naturally be Saint King grade as well.
A few of the required herbs he didn't have on hand, but he had found suitable substitutes.
Yang Kai was now a talented enough alchemist that altering a recipe posed no real challenge for him.
He steadied his breathing and focused his mind, adjusting himself to peak condition, then began the refinement.
His movements flowed like clouds and water, without the slightest hesitation. His expression was calm—neither nervous nor eager—as though he were refining an ordinary pill.
Because he was absolutely confident in his ability to produce this pill!
He did not believe he would fail.
And indeed, in barely half a shi-chen, a Boundary Breaking Pill—pale yellow throughout, its energy restrained within—sat in his palm.
He took the pill from the furnace and held it silently, sensing it. After a moment, he slowly shook his head.
This pill was a genuine Saint King grade product.
But by his estimation, it was only lower-grade Saint King.
He wasn't sure whether a pill like this could break the seal. If Lü Guichen's strength was at this same level, there would be no question—but Yang Kai guessed that Lü Guichen was at least at the second or even third layer of the Saint King Realm.
He didn't have much confidence.
Frowning in thought for a while, Yang Kai popped the pill into his mouth and swallowed it.
He closed his eyes and sat cross-legged on the ground, quietly waiting for the medicine to take effect.
Moments later, his face twisted in agony. He felt waves of scorching heat surge from his lower abdomen—heat like lightning, like a torrential flood, exploding outward and spreading through every limb and bone.
His clogged meridians were being forced wider. A tearing pain shot through his entire body.
Yang Kai clenched his teeth and held firm, using his divine sense to follow the medicine's flow and observe his own condition.
He could clearly see lines of illusory chains appearing within his flesh—chains that contained Lü Guichen's aura. These were the seals he had placed.
The Boundary Breaking Pill's power surged like a trapped dragon breaking free of an abyss, using Yang Kai's body as a battlefield, fighting those chains in a desperate struggle.
The entire process brought him unimaginable pain.
Although the Boundary Breaking Pill was effective, it was clearly not enough to shatter those chains and restore Yang Kai's freedom. Through collision after collision, the pill's power was gradually consumed, yet the chains remained unmoved as mountains—steadfast and unchanging, locking down Yang Kai's Saint Yuan and meridians.
Half a day later, Yang Kai opened his eyes, his face gaunt and exhausted, resignation etched into his features.
A lower-grade Saint King Boundary Breaking Pill was indeed useless.
But with his current abilities, this was the best he could produce.
It wasn't a problem with materials, nor was it a lack of skill—it was simply a matter of cultivation level.
Yang Kai was currently only at the first layer of the Saint Entry Realm. Being able to refine pills that crossed an entire major realm was already a testament to his refined technique. To produce anything of higher grade, he would need to advance his strength first.
But Yang Kai was not discouraged. Instead, his eyes blazed bright.