Four streaks of light tore through the sky.

“Senior Brother Meng,” the young woman on the flying sword couldn’t help but ask, “where exactly are we going for this trial? We’ve been flying around for so many days.”

Senior Brother Meng didn’t even turn his head. “The trial task given by the Branch Sect is to refine a Fourth-Grade Pill, and the grade of the main ingredient cannot be lower than Fourth-Grade. The Spiritual Qi in this place is thin, and Spiritual Herbs of the Fourth-Grade and above are rare to begin with, so we need to travel to more places.”

“But Senior Brother,” the young man on the other side said with a bitter expression, “we’ve practically combed through this entire mountain range. Forget about Fourth-Grade, we haven’t even seen a Third-Grade one. If this keeps up, we won’t be able to complete the trial task. How will we report back?”

Senior Brother Meng was just about to say something when he suddenly paused. Hovering in midair, he looked toward the northwest.

“What’s wrong?” The young woman followed his gaze, but only saw rolling mountain peaks and the last streak of dark red afterglow on the horizon. She noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

Senior Brother Meng didn’t speak. Frowning slightly, he closed his eyes and pushed his Spiritual Sense out with full force.

A moment later, he opened his eyes, his expression changing.

“The Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth… is gathering in that direction.”

The two people behind exchanged a glance and simultaneously released their Spiritual Sense. A few breaths later, their expressions also changed. The Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth within a radius of a hundred miles was surging in the same direction, like an invisible river pouring backward in the sky.

“What kind of phenomenon is this?” the young girl’s voice was a bit tight. “Is an extraordinary treasure emerging?”

The black-clad Dao Protector, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up: “It is a celestial phenomenon.”

The three of them turned their heads at the same time.

“A celestial phenomenon?” Ye Shuang blinked. “Senior, are you saying…”

“Perhaps it is a Pill Tribulation.”

“That’s impossible, right?” the young man laughed dryly. “The Spiritual Qi in this mountain range is so thin. What expert would refine pills in a place like this?”

The black-clad man did not answer. He just quietly looked in that direction, the gaze beneath his cloak flickering uncertainly.

Senior Brother Meng was silent for a moment before making a decision: “Let’s go take a look.”

The two behind him nodded simultaneously. The four of them transformed into streaks of light and flew toward the horizon, which had already begun to take on a dark purple hue.

They did not know that by going, they would witness a scene capable of overturning their entire understanding of the world.

Inside the cave, Lai Li’an watched the liquid in the stone pot shrink at a visible rate, condensing from a full pot of water into a fist-sized mass, and then into a single drop the size of a pigeon’s egg.

That drop of liquid was completely silver-white, like a solidified full moon.

The Moonlight Spiritual Elixir was complete.

Lai Li’an withdrew the Life-Protecting Pearl of the Great Void and carefully cupped the silver-white droplet in his palm. The elixir felt slightly cool to the touch, exuding a clear and crisp moonlight aura.

An uncontrollable surge of excitement welled up in his heart. As long as he consumed it, he would have a chance to open up an Acquired Spiritual Root. With a Spiritual Root, he would be able to truly practice those Heaven-Grade Cultivation Techniques. His Cultivation Base would no longer be an empty shell, and he would truly become an immortal cultivator.

Taking a deep breath, Lai Li’an sent the elixir into his mouth.

The moment the elixir entered his throat, a refreshing coolness rose from his abdomen, spreading along his meridians to all his limbs and bones.

That power was not overbearing; rather, it was gentle and nourishing. Lai Li’an closed his eyes, guiding the Moonlight Power to converge toward his Dantian.

Silver-white light flowed slowly through his meridians. Wherever it passed, his meridians seemed to be injected with a soul and began to circulate on their own.

The process of opening an Acquired Spiritual Root was, in essence, creating a channel out of thin air within the body to connect with the Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth.

For ordinary cultivators, this was an almost impossible task. A Spiritual Root is innate, something one is born with; forcibly creating one later in life is no different from defying the heavens to change one’s fate.

But the power of the Moonlight Spiritual Elixir lay precisely in “transformation.” The Moonlight Power absorbed by the Silver Moon Grass over a century inherently contained the property of condensing a physical entity from nothingness.

At this moment, this power was slowly condensing deep within his Dantian, like a seed breaking through the soil to sprout.

Lai Li’an could feel something taking shape in his Dantian. It was an extremely fine meridian extending from the Dantian to his limbs, like a newborn spider thread that would snap at the slightest touch.

The embryonic form of the Acquired Spiritual Root had already appeared. All that remained was for this meridian to completely stabilize and establish a connection with the Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth.

This step required time.

Lai Li’an sat motionless in place, his entire consciousness immersed in that newborn meridian within his body.

The process was very slow and tedious, but he did not dare to be distracted in the slightest. If, by any chance, something went wrong, this century-old Silver Moon Grass would be completely wasted. As for the next time he would encounter a Spiritual Herb capable of creating an Acquired Spiritual Root, heaven only knew how long he would have to wait.

Of course, his stomach was still hungry, but compared to a life-long matter like the Spiritual Root, being hungry for a while was nothing.

By the time he finished opening his Spiritual Root, Su Wan’er should be back. Then, eating roast meat and practicing a Heaven-Grade Cultivation Technique, just thinking about those days was beautiful.

Outside the cave, Su Wan’er walked back carrying a wild boar on her shoulder. She had seriously pondered the Senior’s words earlier.

Cultivating her State of Mind, understanding the mundane, and making up for her shortcomings. The Senior told her to hunt without using Spiritual Power definitely to let her experience the hardships of mortals, thereby making her cherish the path of cultivation even more.

Using one’s own hands to complete the simplest task was a form of cultivation in itself. Having figured this out, Su Wan’er suddenly felt full of motivation. She quickened her pace, preparing to go back and report her cultivation insights to the Senior.

Then she froze in a daze, the wild boar dropping from her shoulder. In the sky above, thick dark clouds had gathered at some unknown point.

The dark clouds came extremely fast, surging from all directions and converging into a massive vortex at the peak of the mountain. Deep within the clouds, lightning faintly flickered, and muffled thunder rolled from the horizon, shaking the ground beneath her feet so much that it trembled slightly.

Su Wan’er’s pupils suddenly shrank. This was… a Lightning Tribulation!

She had read in the sect’s ancient records that when high-grade pills were successfully concocted, their medicinal power would soar to the heavens, triggering a resonance with heaven and earth and bringing down a Lightning Tribulation.

The higher the grade of the pill, the stronger the Lightning Tribulation. For a pill to attract a Lightning Tribulation, it had to be at least Seventh-Grade or above!

That vortex-like dark cloud covered the entire mountain peak, its edges constantly expanding outward. The lightning snakes roaming within the cloud layer became increasingly dense, and their color gradually shifted from a common silver-white to an eerie dark purple.

Su Wan’er’s heart pounded wildly.

What kind of pill was Senior refining? To actually attract a Lightning Tribulation of such a scale!

She subconsciously wanted to run towards the cave, but just as she took a step, she stopped herself abruptly. Since Senior was refining a pill, he must have been prepared. If she rushed in rashly, in the off chance she disturbed Senior’s crucial moment of refining the pill, she would only ruin things.

Su Wan’er bit her lip, stood in place, and stared fixedly at the thundercloud. Right at this moment, several auras rapidly approached from a distance. She suddenly turned around, her hand resting on her sword hilt.

Four people walked out of the woods.

Leading them was a young man in his early twenties, dressed in a cyan brocade robe with a small Alchemy Cauldron pattern embroidered on his chest. Behind him followed two young people in similar attire, a man and a woman, both appearing to be in their twenties.

But Su Wan’er’s gaze immediately fell upon the last of the four.

It was a person completely wrapped in a black cloak. Their face could not be seen, and they just stood quietly behind the three like a shadow.

When Su Wan’er’s Spiritual Sense swept over that person, she only sensed a bottomless darkness. Her fingers turned slightly cold; that black-cloaked person was at least at the Golden Core realm or above.

“Who are you people?” Su Wan’er’s voice was cold, and her longsword was already three inches out of its sheath.

The leading cyan-robed man hurriedly waved his hands, an amiable smile on his face: “Fellow Daoist, please do not be nervous. We mean no harm.”

He cupped his hands, his tone polite: “I am a disciple of the Alchemy Sect Branch, Meng Qiuran. These two are my fellow disciples, Junior Brother Li He and Junior Sister Ye Shuang.”

The young man named Li He nodded at Su Wan’er, while Ye Shuang curiously observed the wild boar beside Su Wan’er. She then looked at the terrifying thunderclouds in the distance, a trace of doubt flashing in her eyes.

Meng Qiuran stepped half a pace to the side and bowed slightly toward the man in black. “This is our Dao Protector. Senior has a solitary temperament and does not like to speak. Please forgive him, fellow Daoist.”

The man in black showed no reaction whatsoever, like a piece of dead wood.

Alchemy Sect Branch? This name stunned Su Wan’er. The Alchemy Sect, defining the very craft itself, was the supreme holy land in the hearts of all alchemy cultivators in the world.

Although the few people before her were merely Branch Sect disciples, the fact that they could bear the title “Alchemy Sect” already proved their extraordinary origins.

“For what matter have you come here?”

Meng Qiuran’s gaze passed over Su Wan’er and landed on the mountain peak shrouded in thunderclouds, his eyes full of awe. “Why must you ask when you already know the answer, fellow Daoist? Such an anomaly can be seen for a hundred miles around. We came following these thunderclouds.”

He took a deep breath, his tone becoming solemn. “May I ask, fellow Daoist, who is the exalted Senior refining pills in the cave? And what grade of pill is this? Could it be… the legendary Eighth-Grade?”

Su Wan’er fell silent for a moment. She actually had no idea what pill the Senior was refining; she hadn’t even noticed when the Senior started refining pills in the first place.

That stone pot, that pile of Mortal Fire, she had watched with her own eyes as the Senior used these incredibly ordinary things to brew a drop of silvery-white spiritual liquid, and after that, she knew nothing else. But she absolutely couldn’t say that.

“Eighth-Grade?” Su Wan’er gently shook her head, the corners of her mouth curling into a faint smile. Imitating the Senior’s nonchalant tone, she said, “Fellow Daoist, you underestimate the Senior far too much.”

Meng Qiuran’s expression froze. Su Wan’er shifted her gaze toward the thunderclouds. “How can the Senior’s methods be something you can recklessly guess at? All I know is that a Pill the Senior casually took out had nine pill patterns.”

“Ninth-Grade?!” Ye Shuang cried out in shock.

Li He’s expression also changed. He subconsciously glanced back at the man in black, only to find that the perpetually silent Dao Protector had slightly raised his head beneath his cloak.

“Is what you say true, fellow Daoist?” Meng Qiuran’s voice grew strained.

Su Wan’er didn’t answer, merely offering a faint smile. That smile contained thirty percent nonchalance, and seventy percent “figure it out yourselves.”

After studying this art of managing her expressions from Senior for the past few days, she had already achieved quite a level of mastery.

Meng Qiuran felt a chill run down his spine at her smile. To casually take out a Ninth-Grade Pill… exactly what realm was the person refining pills in that cave?

Ye Shuang couldn’t help but mutter softly, “Ninth-Grade… even the Sect Master of the Branch Sect can’t refine an Eighth-Grade…”

Li He nudged her with his elbow, signaling her to shut up. Meng Qiuran took a deep breath and was about to ask something else when his expression suddenly changed drastically.

In the sky, the color of the thundercloud had changed.

The originally dark purple lightning snakes began to reveal a deep black hue. At the center of the cloud vortex, a bolt of lightning was slowly gathering, constantly spiraling and building momentum within the clouds. With every rotation, it grew thicker and darker.

A suffocating sense of oppression filled the air, and Meng Qiuran’s face turned deathly pale.

“Something’s wrong…” his voice trembled, “This isn’t a Pill Tribulation!”