Chapter 714

Just as Xiao Yan was thinking this, suddenly a familiar sensation came—his eyes narrowed: after nearly a year, the Burning Scripture had shown signs of advancement again!

Now, the entire Dou Qi Continent is severely depleted of resources; transformed from a supercontinent where emperors and divine beasts once roamed, it has become a weak land where even a Dou Emperor is hard to produce, let alone advancing the Burning Scripture or reaching a Dou Emperor's cultivation realm—nine-star Dou Sheng are rare too.

And now, the Burning Scripture has stirred—there's a sense of advancement—there's only one possible explanation!

Mao Wu is nearly finished devouring and refining the Emperor Flame Seed of Tuoshe Ancient Emperor and will soon awaken!

The only Dou Emperor resource on the entire Dou Qi Continent is the Emperor Flame Seed of Tuoshe Ancient Emperor; Mao Wu, backed by Xiao Yan's Dou Emperor power and the Burning Scripture, has spent nearly a year refining it and has only just begun to show signs of movement—imagine how difficult it is to forcibly refine Tuoshe Ancient Emperor's Emperor Flame Seed.

Even refining Void Devouring Flame didn't take Xiao Yan long, despite his Dou Emperor strength.

"It seems Mao Wu is about to awaken. With the Burning Scripture having devoured twenty-two Strange Flames, it has evolved to an extremely high level—if Mao Wu succeeds, perhaps the Burning Scripture can surpass even a Demi-God Grade cultivation method."

Xiao Yan began pondering: according to Void Devouring Flame's account, Tuoshe Ancient Emperor had devoured the other twenty Strange Flames and grown so powerful that even he and Pure Lotus Demonic Flame could not resist him—clearly, at that time, Tuoshe Ancient Emperor's Burning Scripture had already reached Emperor Grade. After devouring Pure Lotus Demonic Flame and Void Devouring Flame, his Burning Scripture likely evolved into high-level Emperor Grade.

Xiao Yan could feel his own cultivation realm still had room to grow, but the Heavenly Energy of the Dou Qi Continent was severely lacking for a Dou Emperor—his advancement was extremely slow.

Xiao Yan's eyes flickered with an unusual expression as he gazed upward at the sky, lost in thought.

Soon, three more days passed; with Xiao Yan guiding her meticulously, Yue Er's pill refining process, though tense, remained without disaster—mistakes she hadn't even noticed were immediately pointed out by Xiao Yan.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!! At the instant the pill took shape, thunderclouds gathered overhead; with a hiss, the alchemy furnace lid burst open, and a ten-zhang-tall green light column erupted from the furnace, blasting the Pill Fragrance column straight into the sky!

Seeing the two-colored thunderclouds above, Yue Er's excitement spilled over—she had truly crafted an Eight Grade Pill!!

If not for the Pill Lightning still looming, she would have danced and screamed with joy right now!

Who could have imagined that twenty years after the Jia Ma Empire's royal family was so weak, an Eight Grade Alchemist would emerge? Even among the Five Great Families, an Eight Grade Alchemist is a patriarch-level figure—capable of becoming an Elder at Dan Tower!

Of course, that's the advantage of boarding the right ship—as the old saying goes: stand at the风口 of the era, and even a pig will fly.

Undoubtedly, the Jia Ma Empire, once a weak peripheral nation with not even a Dou Zong, became the largest, most populous, and most powerful empire on the Dou Qi Continent simply because it once boarded the Yan Alliance's great ship.

Below the refining platform, Jia Xingtian, the retired emperor of the Jia Ma Empire, was ecstatic, shouting: "Good! Yue Er, you're amazing!"

Yao Ye, the current king of the Jia Ma Empire, smiled with her beautiful eyes, then glanced at that figure—something she recalled made her laugh.

"Two-colored thunderclouds!" Liu Ling, Gu He's disciple, stared in shock, then helplessly shook his head. He had once competed on the same stage as Yue Er and Xiao Yan, even surpassing Yue Er's pill alchemy skills—but now, not only him, even Gu He remained at Seven-Grade, unable to break through the Eight-Grade barrier.

Yet Yue Er broke through first.

Gazing at the two-colored thunderclouds in the sky, the entire Guang Chang erupted in chaos, and even the entire Black Horn Region buzzed with excitement.

Though Xiao Yan's pill alchemy had reached its peak, for the Dou Qi Continent, an Eight Grade Pill was still exceedingly rare—outside the Pill Gathering, ordinary people rarely saw one.

"But Yue Er's cultivation hasn't reached Dou Zun—how will she withstand the Pill Lightning?" said a blue-haired elder, worried. He was the seven-rank, shape-shifted Deep Sea Wyrm Beast.

Yao Ye smiled calmly: "Didn't Xiao Yan say? Alchemists shouldn't be bound by form or pride—they should use external aids to help refine pills."

Seeing the thunderclouds above, Yue Er's eyes flickered with cunning; she flicked her finger, and with a whistling sound, a shadow shot out and blocked her front.

"Puppet?!"

A puppet with a striking resemblance to Xiao Yan appeared! When Xiao Yan once resisted Pill Lightning, he didn't rely solely on his own strength—given his pill alchemy talent, he often refined pills beyond his level, even refining Imperial Grade Pills while still below the required realm.

Xing Tian had aided Xiao Yan countless times, shielding him from countless Pill Lightnings. Xiao Yan's tactic of using a puppet to absorb Pill Lightning was naturally copied by this little fangirl, Yue Er.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!! The Pill Lightning struck instantly; the puppet, like a lightning rod, spread its arms to shield Yue Er behind it, its skin tinged with gold greedily absorbing the lightning energy.

The two-colored Pill Lightning, equivalent to a full-power Dou Zun strike, was blocked before the eyes of all.

"Holy shit! That puppet's so strong—it can block Pill Lightning?!!"

"Puppets are this useful? How do you even get one?"

"What's the point? Only Seven-Grade or higher pills summon Pill Lightning—can you even refine a Seven-Grade pill?"

"Hmph, can't I just ask? After attending Xiao Yan's pill alchemy classes, maybe I'll reach Seven-Grade too."

Through special Soul Information transmission, many Alchemists in the Black Horn Region flashed envious glances—this puppet could even absorb Pill Lightning! It had huge potential!

"If you want a puppet, go to the Spirit Stone Sect—the Spirit Gate, formerly the Ling Clan, possesses the Sealing Array lineage, and the Stone Gate excels in forging—not just body forging, but also weapon and puppet crafting. The Spirit Stone Sect recruits disciples every year—if you have the talent, go apply."

Xiao Yan watched the puppet in the sky, helplessly shaking his head—he approved of using puppets to block Pill Lightning, but why did this puppet look so much like him?

"Hehe, Teacher Xiao Yan, look!" Yue Er bounced over, holding the Pill Bottle triumphantly, urging Xiao Yan to inspect her achievement.

Xiao Yan glanced and nodded: "Good. Quality is excellent. Remember the feeling just now—return and meditate on it. I believe you'll become a true Eight Grade Alchemist."

"But this puppet…"

Yue Er's eyes curved like crescent moons; she tiptoed close to Xiao Yan's ear and whispered softly: "This puppet is called Yan Yue. When I'm lonely at night, he's the only one who eases my longing."

Xiao Yan's eyes widened; he stared at this mischievous little princess, his eyelids twitching.

Kuang! What are you using it for?!

"Hehe, Teacher Xiao Yan, I'll take my leave now." Yue Er winked at Xiao Yan, then skipped away with a smile, returning to sit cross-legged below, fully absorbing the insights from her pill refining.

Xiao Yan shuddered—he now understood how terrifying celebrity stans could be.

But Xiao Yan quickly regained his focus, turning his gaze to the last four alchemy furnaces; watching the pills slowly merging inside, he nodded inwardly—these were the leading Alchemists of the Dou Qi Continent after his departure.

Xiao Yan was never one to kill the goose that lays the golden egg; even though he knew he would eventually leave the Dou Qi Continent for the Great Thousand World, before leaving, he had to leave something behind.

The Dou Qi Continent was his home, his family's root. The disappearance of the Dou Emperors fifty thousand years ago devastated this land; Xiao Yan was now doing everything he could to mitigate that impact.

"I'll find time to search the Earth's Core for the Bodhi Ancient Tree—if it recovers sooner, perhaps it can emerge again before long." Xiao Yan had once made a transaction with the Bodhi Ancient Tree—he worked for the tree, the tree paid him; it was purely an exchange, not a favor.

But the Bodhi Ancient Tree had given so much back then, and the Dou Qi Continent now had so few Dou Sheng precisely because it had been corrupted by the negative energy of ancient Dou Emperors, causing it to remain hidden for tens of thousands of years without offering anything.

Now that Xiao Yan had obtained the Life Flame, combined with his own pill alchemy and Xiao Yixian's herb-growing techniques, he could likely accelerate the Bodhi Ancient Tree's recovery.

This would be Xiao Yan's gift to the Dou Qi Continent.

"I wonder how Xiao Yixian's seclusion is going." Xiao Yan gazed into the distance—Xiao Yixian was also in seclusion, but unlike Cai Lin and Xun Er, she was using the Origin Flame Seed of the Life Flame to neutralize the Eternal Calamity Poison in her body.

The Life Flame was not currently on Xiao Yan.

Another week passed—"BOOM!"

With a thunderous roar, the refining platform's fluctuations intensified; soon, a deafening crack split the sky, and everyone felt the entire world suddenly darken—the clouds rapidly gathered from all directions.

This time, the gathered clouds were not the colored Pill Lightning of an Eight Grade Pill, but an extremely profound, deep black.

Black Clouds blanketed the sky, silent—no thunder echoed—but when one gazed into that abyssal darkness, so deep it seemed to swallow vision itself, even the Spiritual Soul trembled slightly.

At this moment, even the most experienced Pill Masters turned pale with shock.

"Could it be that Cao Ying and Dan Chen and the other two actually succeeded in refining it?!" At this moment, the faces of Xuan Kongzi and Tian Leizi, the two Pill Giants of Dan Tower, were utterly stunned—for they were the masters of Cao Ying and Dan Chen, and yet neither of these so-called Pill Giants had ever succeeded in refining a Nine-Treasure Pill, while their disciples had?!!

(End of Chapter)