Four months had passed since entering the Xuandan Sect. Excluding the first month, Yang Kai had spent the remaining three months refining the Ten-Turn Heartless Pill every single day. He could honestly say he had mastered the refinement of this Heaven-grade Pill to perfection—now, even with his eyes closed, he could produce it without a hitch.
He even had enough mental bandwidth to secretly observe the reactions of the Sect Master and the two Elders. Spiritual energy rippled faintly among the three of them; they were clearly communicating through some secret channel.
However, he had already prepared himself mentally to reveal certain things, so this refinement required some deliberate effort on his part.
The white Pill Fire churned as Yang Kai shifted through hand seals, and time flowed onward.
Several hours later, he formed the Condensing Seal, gave the pill furnace a firm slap, and a soft cracking sound immediately rang out from within. At the same time, a rich medicinal fragrance spread through the hall.
Yang Kai took a gentle breath, stepped back two paces, and clasped his fists. "Reporting to the Sect Master and the two Elders—your disciple has completed the refinement. Please inspect!"
The three figures above stared at him in a daze, each face bearing an expression of undisguised shock and utter disbelief. As senior leaders of the Xuandan Sect, they had seen more than their share over the course of their lives. They had weathered every kind of storm imaginable, and even during the recent conflict over the Divine Weapon with the major alchemy factions, they had remained composed.
Yet now, none of them knew how to process what they had just witnessed.
Everything that had transpired defied their comprehension. If they hadn't watched it happen with their own eyes from start to finish, none of them would have believed such an extraordinary thing was possible in this world.
"How long?" Baili Yunsang was the first to recover, turning to look at the Grand Elder.
Wu Fenghua silently calculated for a moment before answering in a grave tone: "Less than three hours!"
Yu Boyang sucked in a sharp breath. Despite having anticipated something remarkable, hearing the actual number still shook him to the core.
Refining a single batch of Ten-Turn Heartless Pill in less than three hours—and by a Heaven-grade Alchemist at that! Even if they old veterans took a turn, it would take a minimum of four to five hours. They were seasoned Spirit-grade Alchemists, after all. Any other Heaven-grade Alchemist would need at least six hours!
This achievement had surpassed the Xuandan Sect's record—no, it had surpassed the refinement record of the entire Divine Weapon World.
Baili Yunsang nodded slightly. "The time has been cut by at least half. Now it remains to see the quality of the pills." With that, he descended from his seat, and the Grand Elder and Third Elder followed close behind.
In just a few steps, the three stood before the pill furnace. Anticipation and nervousness appeared simultaneously on all their faces, as though something of utmost importance lay inside.
"Open it," Baili Yunsang ordered.
Wu Fenghua acknowledged the command, raised his hand, and slapped the furnace. The lid flew off, revealing the interior in an instant.
Yu Boyang cried out in astonishment: "Five pills!" He reached in with a wave of his hand and pulled the five pills into his grasp. After a careful examination, his expression grew even more shocked. "Two superior-grade, three middle-grade!"
Wu Fenghua quickly took the five pills from Yu Boyang's hands and performed his own inspection. He even scraped off a tiny bit of powder with his fingernail, placed it in his mouth, and tasted it before finally speaking. "The medicinal efficacy is flawless."
He turned to look at Yang Kai, his eyes wide with shock. What he had just witnessed could only be described as divine mastery.
Baili Yunsang suppressed the excitement surging within him, forced his voice to remain calm, and addressed Yang Kai. "How did you accomplish this?"
Yang Kai clasped his fists. "Your disciple modified the recipe for the Ten-Turn Heartless Pill and employed some alternative alchemy techniques."
Wu Fenghua nodded. "The recipe you used during refinement was indeed different from the original one you were given when you joined. Many of the steps were streamlined, and certain techniques were entirely unique—I've never seen anything like them before. Such improvements could certainly reduce refinement time dramatically while increasing both the quantity and quality of the output. But... how did you come up with these modifications?"
The Xuandan Sect's recipe for the Ten-Turn Heartless Pill had been refined and perfected over countless generations of alchemists before reaching its final form. Moreover, it was a Heaven-grade Pill recipe—only a Spirit-grade Alchemist was qualified to attempt modifications. Baili Yunsang himself had tried to improve the recipe many years ago, but his efforts yielded nothing. He had wasted two full years before finally giving up.
Something that even Baili Yunsang couldn't achieve had been pulled off by a Heaven-grade Alchemist who had only been with the sect for four months—and the modified recipe was more than twice as effective as the original!
It was beyond the bounds of what any ordinary person could accomplish.
"Even your disciple doesn't know!" Yang Kai replied with a clasped-fist salute.
"You don't know?" Yu Boyang stared at him wide-eyed. "How could you not know? You're the one who modified the recipe!"
Yang Kai answered, "Reporting to the Third Elder—the recipe was indeed modified by your disciple, but even I don't know why it turned out this way. I simply felt that making those changes during refinement would produce better results, so I did."
His words left Baili Yunsang and the other two utterly bewildered.
"Here is what happened..." Yang Kai quickly produced the explanation he had prepared in advance. "After your disciple was fortunate enough to join the Xuandan Sect, I initially used the original recipe when I began refining the Ten-Turn Heartless Pill publicly. But then one night, in a state somewhere between dreaming and waking, I heard a peculiar voice from somewhere in the depths of my consciousness. I can't describe it or make sense of it—I had no idea what it was saying. But after waking, when I refined the Ten-Turn Heartless Pill again, I instinctively made certain changes. And after that, the voice would appear every few days. Each time, it gave me some new insight. Over the course of several months, those accumulated insights led me to modify the recipe to its current state and learn several unique alchemy techniques!"
This was the explanation Yang Kai had prepared from the start. After all, his performance had been genuinely extraordinary, and without a plausible reason to account for it, no one would accept what they were seeing.
To his surprise, all three wore expressions of profound shock upon hearing his account.