In the Holy Master's Garden, Yang Kai was sensing the movements and internal structure of the long shuttle Artifact, probing its uses.
There was something peculiar about this Artifact—not only was it exceptionally difficult to refine and fuse into his body, but getting it to resonate with him was incredibly time-consuming as well.
It had already been a full four months since he'd drawn it into his body and begun nurturing it with his True Essence and Divine Sense, yet it still showed no sign of response whatsoever.
The Artifact had been stained with Yang Kai's aura, but it still refused to resonate with him, leaving him completely at a loss.
A subtle disturbance sounded from outside, and moments later, Xu Hui's voice came through: "Holy Master, your subordinate requests an audience!"
"Come in!" Yang Kai called out.
Accompanied by the sound of footsteps, Xu Hui quickly entered. Once inside the chamber, he clasped his fists with a strange expression on his face and said, "Holy Master, someone has come to beg the Holy Land's help in refining pills..."
"Oh?" Yang Kai's expression perked up, and he said in a low voice, "They've finally come?"
"That's right... they've finally come." Xu Hui smiled bitterly.
It had been one full month since Yang Kai had instructed the various Elders to use their personal connections to spread the word. In all that time, today's visitor was the very first person to come requesting pill refinement.
The main issue was that although the Nine Heavens Holy Land was reasonably well-known throughout the world, it had never produced a saint-grade Alchemist. When the news went out, few people believed it, let alone the claim that Xu Hui and the others had put out—that they could even refine mid-tier saint-grade pills.
That would mean the Nine Heavens Holy Land had at least one mid-tier saint-grade Alchemist!
Mid-tier saint-grade Alchemists were exceedingly rare in this world—you could count them on one hand. Those masters' names were household words, and none of them had any connection to the Nine Heavens Holy Land.
Most people simply didn't believe that someone here could produce such pills.
After a bitter month of waiting, only a single person had shown up.
"Where are they?" Yang Kai rubbed his hands together, looking full of energy.
"I've arranged for them to wait in the guest hall," Xu Hui replied promptly.
"Mm, the first bit of business—I'll go have a look myself," Yang Kai said as he headed out, flying alongside Xu Hui toward the peak where the guest hall was located.
"Did they say what kind of pill they want refined?" Yang Kai asked during the flight.
"A spirit-grade upper-tier Soul Condensation Pill..."
"Just a spirit-grade upper-tier?" Yang Kai was taken aback. He'd assumed anyone who would specifically come here to request pill refinement would want at least a saint-grade pill, but it turned out to be only a spirit-grade upper-tier one.
That was a bit of a letdown.
Then again, he reasoned, the Holy Land's reputation hadn't spread yet. Having even one person come requesting pill refinement was already pretty good. Yang Kai immediately perked himself up, resolving to greet the Holy Land's very first guest in peak form.
A month ago, when he'd learned about the Holy Land's current predicament, a flash of inspiration had struck him with this idea.
If he managed it well, it could not only alleviate the Holy Land's immediate financial crisis but also sweep away the current atmosphere of low morale and restore the Holy Land's prestige.
Most importantly, he could use the pill refining requests to improve his own alchemy skills!
That was what he wanted most.
Saint-grade materials were simply too difficult to find. Relying on his own efforts to hunt them down and improve his alchemy would take who knew how long.
But martial artists across the world mostly had a habit of collecting medicinal herbs. Using the herbs they'd already gathered to refine pills was a perfectly good method for honing his craft.
Since he'd first started learning alchemy, aside from the occasional failure in the very beginning, he hadn't failed a single time after that. That was why he'd dared to have Xu Hui spread that bold claim—that if refinement failed, they would provide full compensation—to attract martial artists in need to come to the Holy Land.
"Soul Condensation Pill..." Yang Kai mused. "This person must have a relative or friend whose soul has been damaged."
"The Holy Master has also studied alchemy?" Xu Hui looked at him in surprise. Being able to deduce a pill's purpose just from its name was something Xu Hui knew he himself couldn't do.
"More or less," Yang Kai chuckled.
Before long, the two of them arrived at the guest hall.
Inside the grand hall sat a middle-aged man in a gray robe. He seemed somewhat ill at ease, sitting ramrod straight and perfectly still.
A few maidservants stood off to the side. Tea had already been served, but he hadn't touched it, looking instead weighed down with worry, a gloomy cloud hanging over his brow, his mind clearly full of concern.
Yang Kai swept the man with his Divine Sense and found that he was only a first-level Transcendent cultivator. He immediately understood why the man had come to the Nine Heavens Holy Land for help with pill refinement.
This martial artist's strength wasn't particularly high, and he wore no particularly valuable Artifacts on his person. He looked like someone from a minor family or small faction.
For a martial artist like this to gather the full set of materials for a spirit-grade upper-tier pill, he had surely endured no small number of setbacks and troubles, going to tremendous lengths.
If he'd found an unreliable Alchemist to do the refinement and it failed, he'd have to start from scratch and go hunting for those ingredients all over again.
But coming to the Nine Heavens Holy Land was different. Xu Hui had already spread the word—even if the refinement failed, full compensation would be provided. So he had nothing to worry about.