All manner of strange and unusual pill-refining techniques, flame control honed to perfection — even these Spirit Pill Masters who had devoted their entire lives to the Dao of Alchemy could only admit their own inferiority. Every movement seemed to contain profound mysteries of the pill dao. The figure standing before the Medicine King Cauldron appeared to be personally demonstrating the ultimate truths of alchemy.
Faint sparks of enlightenment flickered in everyone's minds. Even the grand dao's subtle resonance, which normally sounded so vague and elusive, suddenly became crystal clear. That wondrous sound of the great dao echoed through their consciousness, cleansing their minds, rendering what had once been hazy and indistinct sharp and unmistakable.
Every one of them was beyond excited. They were all Spirit Pill Masters — in this Divine Weapon World, they had already reached the pinnacle of their lives' work in the Dao of Alchemy, with nowhere left to advance. Yet today's experience had shown them the possibility of taking another step forward.
A burning urge to seclude themselves for cultivation surged in every heart.
A hum rang out, pulling everyone from that mystical state.
As their minds cleared, they mourned the loss but then witnessed something even more shocking. Yang Kai's hands were rhythmically striking the Medicine King Cauldron, each blow sending out a visible ripple across its surface. With each strike, the medicinal fragrance within the Forbidden Grounds grew ever richer.
The pills were about to form!
Every Spirit Pill Master stared at Yang Kai's movements without blinking, their hearts full of curiosity. No one had ever used the Medicine King Cauldron to refine pills — what would pills born from this divine artifact look like?
Everyone in the Forbidden Grounds held their breath, terrified that even the slightest exhalation might interfere with Yang Kai's refinement.
Then, with the final palm strike, Yang Kai formed the pill-condensing hand seal, and a streak of seven-colored, misty light shot out from the Medicine King Cauldron.
Everyone squinted to see more clearly. What had appeared to be a beam of light was in fact a string of Spirit Pills radiating seven-colored radiance! The pills followed one after another in a straight line, creating that optical illusion.
"Nine pills — a full harvest!" Baili Yunsun cried out, staring into the air in a daze. In his field of vision hung nine Spirit Pill, each one perfectly round and flawless, each one brimming with spiritual vitality.
The Elders were shaken.
Nine was the ultimate number. In theory, every batch of Spirit Pills could produce nine pills, and yielding nine from a single refinement was called a full harvest. But in practice, no matter how masterful a Pill Master might be, achieving a full harvest was exceedingly rare. It required the refiner to fully utilize every last trace of the herbs' medicinal properties and to commit absolutely no error throughout the entire process — a feat that was virtually impossible.
Only on the rarest of occasions, with tremendous luck, would a single batch of pills emerge as a full harvest.
In all his years of pill-refining, Baili Yunsun had only managed two full harvests, both of Heavenly Pills at that. As for Spirit Pills, even he — a veteran Spirit Pill Master — had never achieved a full harvest.
If he couldn't do it, what chance did anyone else have?
Yet the pills Yang Kai had just refined were clearly of the Spirit Pill grade, and even so, they had emerged as a full harvest!
This scene might owe something to the Medicine King Cauldron, but accomplishing this much only proved that Yang Kai's pill-refining skill had already surpassed everyone present!
A sense of his own twilight years surged unbidden in Baili Yunsun's heart. Then suddenly he noticed something — peculiar patterns on the surface of those Spirit Pills. They resembled the meridian lines of the human body, exquisitely mysterious, and he had never seen anything like them before.
Under Yang Kai's spiritual energy, the nine Spirit Pills flew back into his possession. Despite having just produced a remarkable batch, he still wore a deep frown, standing there lost in thought.
No one dared to disturb him. They all waited in silence.
Ten years was not a short time for Yang Kai. The first two had been spent neutralizing the hidden dangers of the Heaven Devouring Art, while the remaining eight had been split between cultivation and refining the Medicine King Cauldron.
By now, his cultivation had reached the eighth layer of the Spirit Grade!
That was secondary, though. The truly important thing was that the Medicine King Cauldron was nearly fully refined — just one final step remained!
It wasn't a matter of insufficient time, nor was the refinement difficult. Yang Kai was confident that if he wished it, he could fully refine the Medicine King Cauldron in the very next moment.
But somewhere deep in his intuition, he sensed that once he took that final step, he would immediately be rejected by this world and forced to leave.
Thinking it over carefully, this was perfectly normal. After all, the reason he had come to the Divine Weapon World in the first place was to seize a trace of this world's origin power. Once that objective was achieved, there was no way he could continue to linger here — that was simply the rule of this realm.
Yet he was unwilling to leave just like that. One could even say he had never anticipated this situation at all.
When he had first entered the Divine Weapon World, he had assumed he would need to wait a hundred years, biding his time until the next Divine Weapon Conflict erupted so he could seize a divine weapon. But now it seemed he had been mistaken.
Joining the Xuandan Sect and gaining early access to the Medicine King Cauldron had given him the chance to refine it ahead of schedule.
Moreover, he had finally made it to a Small Source World — there was no way he was leaving without wringing every last benefit from it!
A vague plan began to take shape in his mind, though how exactly to implement it would require careful deliberation.
Pulling his thoughts back to the present, he saw the crowd below gazing up at him with eager eyes. Yang Kai gave a slight nod and cupped his fists. "Greetings, Sect Master, Master, and honored Elders!"
Baili Yunsun could barely contain himself. Trembling with both excitement and nervousness, he asked, "Grand-nephew, what you just refined… what kind of Spirit Pill was it? Might I have a look?"
"It was the Spirit Origin Pill — used to assist cultivation at the Spirit Grade. Didn't I already submit the recipe to the Sect?" As he spoke, Yang Kai produced a single Spirit Origin Pill and handed it to Baili Yunsun.
The group immediately crowded around, practically wishing they could gouge out their own eyes and place them right on the pill to get a better look.
After examining it for a moment, Dan Chengzi furrowed his brow. "We all know the recipe for the Spirit Origin Pill by heart, so why does this one look different from what we just witnessed you refine?"