The Divine Tree's movements only made the Moonlight Grass more panicked. After darting around in every direction, it plunged headfirst into the Myriad Medicine Spirit Liquid.
In an instant, the Moonlight Grass calmed down. The Spirit Liquid was visibly being absorbed by it, and a moonlike radiance flowed across its three leaves.
Yang Kai's face darkened, and he was just about to reach in and pull the Moonlight Grass out of the Spirit Liquid when the Divine Tree beat him to it.
An invisible force enveloped the three-leaf spirit herb and pulled it out.
Immediately after, Yang Kai sensed that the Divine Tree's divine consciousness seemed to be communicating with the Moonlight Grass.
A faint smile crossed his face, and he paused.
After a good while, the Divine Tree transmitted a thought: "I've already scolded it, and I'll keep watch to prevent it from going in there whenever it pleases. But this little thing's intelligence is like mine from long ago—not quite complete. Communicating with it is rather difficult. Is this what you called a Heaven and Earth Spirit Treasure before?"
"Mm." Yang Kai chuckled. "Take it slow. One day you'll be able to communicate smoothly. When I get the chance, I'll find you some other Heaven and Earth Spirit Treasures so you'll have company."
"Good!" the Divine Tree replied.
Yang Kai had asked Xu Hui to inquire among the pill-seekers about Heaven and Earth Spirit Treasures—he'd suddenly remembered the promise he'd made to the Divine Tree. There were quite a few people who came seeking pills, hailing from every corner of the continent. Surely some of them had been lucky enough to obtain Heaven and Earth Spirit Treasures at some point.
He hadn't expected to succeed right away, but his luck turned out to be decent—among that group, someone actually possessed one and was willing to part with it.
After observing for a while and confirming everything was fine, Yang Kai withdrew his consciousness from the Black Book's space and returned to his great pill-refining endeavor.
For over a month now, he had been refining pills in this place without stepping outside even once.
Spirit Grade upper pills, Saint Grade lower pills—countless numbers had rolled from his hands, and not a single one had failed.
Because he possessed the Divine Sense Fire and had mastered many intricate pill-refining spirit arrays, his speed of pill refinement far exceeded that of ordinary alchemists.
With his current level of mastery, refining a single Spirit Grade upper pill took less than the time of a burning incense stick, while a Saint Grade lower pill required only half a shichen.
Neither more nor less—exactly ten pills per day.
The rest of his time was spent recovering and reflecting on the insights gained during pill refinement.
He found joy in it!
He didn't feel the slightest bit frustrated or bored.
With a plentiful supply of high-grade herbs to practice on, his previous hypotheses about pill patterns were also confirmed through practice.
Pill patterns could indeed be artificially created, but it was extremely taxing on both mind and body. It required fusing countless spirit arrays together in the instant before the pill completed, refining them into the pill itself.
Once successful, a pill pattern would form, and the pill would be preserved indefinitely without deteriorating.
He could now produce pill patterns on upper-grade Spirit Pills at will, but for Saint Grade pills it still depended on luck—sometimes his technique wasn't smooth enough and the pattern failed to manifest.
Throughout the pill refinement process, the Divine Sense Fire was deployed constantly. After over a month, Yang Kai not only didn't feel exhausted—he actually sensed that his Divine Sense Fire had become slightly more refined and dense.
The insights gained from pill refinement also transformed into cultivation experience, settling and fermenting within him, solidifying his realm and pushing his strength ever forward.
Pill refinement and martial cultivation complemented each other, advancing hand in hand with gratifying progress.
Without even deliberately cultivating, his realm continued to steadily advance. At this rate, within three to five years, Yang Kai felt he could touch the threshold of the Saint Realm.
If he encountered other opportunities, that timeframe could be shortened even further.
His strength had already reached the third stage of the Transcendence Realm—only a single step away from the Saint Realm.
This was unlike the advancement from the Zhenyuan Realm to the Shenyou Realm, or from the Shenyou Realm to the Transcendence Realm—that single step into the Saint Realm was harder than anything he had faced before.
The Thousand-Year Demon Flower's liquid could indeed help Transcendence Realm warriors break through. Yang Kai still had two drops left, refined during his last time in the Starry Sky but never used.
He had refined a total of six drops that time, given four to Cang Yan and the others, and kept the rest in the Black Book's space.
The Thousand-Year Demon Flower's liquid had no side effects whatsoever. Senior Uncles Cang Yan, Fei Yu, and the others had used it to break through to the first stage of the Saint Realm, their foundations unaffected, and it wouldn't hinder their future cultivation and advancement.
But Yang Kai wasn't planning to rely on external aids for the time being. He'd decided to attempt the breakthrough with his own strength first—only what he comprehended and experienced himself would be the most profound.
And pill refinement was the best auxiliary—through the process, it allowed Yang Kai to gain countless unexpected insights, cleansing his body and mind while elevating his soul.
Day after day passed.
The Nine Heavens Holy Land's reputation for pill refinement grew tremendously, spreading across the entire Tongxuan Continent.
Some traveled tens of thousands of miles, enduring great hardship, all for the chance to have the Holy Land's mysterious grandmaster refine a single pill for them.
Beyond the Nine Peaks, the queue stretched for several li, with hundreds of people waiting every day, and pill-seekers still arriving in an endless stream.
The Holy Land's nameless grandmaster possessed pill-refining skills that bordered on the divine. Since he had begun his work, there had never been a single failure—and he had even produced many pills bearing pill patterns.