Profound Origin Sacred Soul Pill, Complete!

Watching the heavenly tribulation thunderclouds churning and coiling overhead, Li Guanqi could not help the flash of delight in his eyes. Meng Wanshu squeezed his hand even tighter in her excitement, a hint of nervous tension visible in the furrow of her brow. Rumble! Thunder boomed, reverberating through the entire Gu clan domain! The gathering alchemists tilted their heads up toward the heavens, their gazes filled with deep awe. To their eyes, the successful forming of this cauldron of medicinal pills meant that those with damaged divine souls finally had a cure! Once word of this spread, countless experts would descend in droves, willing to squander their entire fortunes just to obtain a single Profound Origin Sacred Soul Pill! Any expert whose cultivation had stalled at a bottleneck would pay any price imaginable to purchase one. Among the crowd, an eighth-grade alchemist on good terms with Gu Changsheng watched with gleaming eyes. He murmured under his breath, "I wonder how many pills this batch will yield! With several types of heavenly flame blending their might together, the quality of this cauldron will be beyond imagination..." Rumble! Xiang Huaizhi's robes whipped wildly in the wind, his long hair thrashing through the air. His brows drew sharp and straight as he barked, "Merge the pills!" Boom! Every flame inside the cauldron was submerged beneath the Chiyang Flame in that instant. In a flash, scarlet fire surged from all the flame vents below the massive cauldron. The temperature of heaven and earth spiked so abruptly that the protective primal energy of many surrounding cultivators melted, unable to withstand the blistering heat. Rumble! The clouds churned violently. Bright, translucent arcs of violet lightning crackled before a thick bolt crashed straight down upon the green cauldron! Successive bolts of pill tribulation lightning fell in such rapid succession that they practically merged into a single continuous strike. The power of pill tribulation lightning was purer than ordinary tribulation thunder; the higher the grade and the rarer the pill, the more it relied on that lightning to scour away its impurities. As the thunder pounded down in deafening crashes, everyone except Xiang Huaizhi stared nervously at the cauldron. Cao Yan sat cross-legged on the ground, having slipped into a mysterious state of sudden epiphany. Five pinnacle eighth-grade grandmaster alchemists had joined forces to refine this pill, and the profound principles of the alchemical dao woven into their work had completely captivated Cao Yan's mind. In this brief span, he had gleaned his own fresh insights into the path of alchemy. Xiang Huaizhi noticed all of it, a glint of appreciation passing through his eyes. It seemed his deliberate choice to slow his hand movements earlier had not been in vain. Hum! A powerful wave of energy slowly radiated from within the cauldron. The enormous green cauldron had turned a scorching crimson throughout. More than that, it began trembling violently, as if something within were battering to break free. Boom! When the final bolt of pill tribulation lightning—as thick as a water barrel—struck down, a frantic clattering erupted from the cauldron. It sounded as though several objects were furiously slamming against the inner walls. As the racket rang out, the alchemists watching all around went wild! The highest-ranking elder present flushed with excitement. His ears twitched as he listened intently, and he cried out in ecstasy, "Nine! Nine pills! This is a perfect batch!" The rest of the crowd watched on in immense excitement, while Li Guanqi's ears filled with the noisy clamor of their chatter. Xiang Huaizhi, Gu Changsheng, and the others let out long breaths, the stones weighing on their hearts finally dropping. Guo Feng and Jiang Qizhi exchanged a glance, smiles finally breaking across their faces. Guo Feng turned toward Xiao Chen, whose face was pale as paper, and patted his shoulder with a laugh. "Little fellow, you've worked hard. I can't believe you hung in there until the very end." Xiao Chen waved a limp hand, furiously drawing in the surrounding spiritual energy to recover. "For... for my eldest brother's pills, even if I... couldn't hold on... I had to!" "Isn't that right, Thir—fuck! He had an epiphany?" Boom! The cauldron's lid flew into the air! Nine round, pale-purple pills, each the size of a hen's egg, hovered above the opening. A rich, intoxicating medicinal fragrance instantly spread across a radius of a hundred fathoms. A single breath of that scent left everyone feeling thoroughly refreshed, their divine souls sighing in pure comfort. A sharp-eyed alchemist's pupils shrank as he watched the nine pills darting erratically in midair, gasping, "Pill... pill markings!" "A perfect supreme-grade batch!" Sure enough, across the surface of the nine pills lay naturally formed, mysterious patterns—the pill markings the alchemists spoke of. Roar! Just as the crowd was marveling over the markings, the nine pills transformed into nine violet-tinged thunder qilin. They raised their heads and let out ferocious roars at the cultivators standing beside the cauldron! Xiang Huaizhi let out a cold snort. Raising a hand, he condensed boundless flame energy into a massive palm, trapping and sealing all nine pills within a tight sphere of space. Watching this, Li Guanqi inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. With a flick of his hand, Xiang Huaizhi teleported Li Guanqi and Meng Wanshu directly in front of him and offered the nine pills to Li Guanqi. "It wasn't easy. Take them." Within Li Guanqi's perception, Guo Feng and Jiang Qizhi were practically drooling as they stared at the pills. Li Guanqi smiled, reaching into the Chiyang Flame's seal to retrieve two of the round pills. Then he clasped his hands and bowed deeply to the elders, speaking warmly. "Junior Li Guanqi thanks all of you seniors for your tremendous assistance." "Junior originally intended to take only one pill from this batch, but... I gave in to selfishness and took a second." "As for the remaining seven, please divide them among yourselves, seniors." Guo Feng and Jiang Qizhi's eyes lit up instantly. Shamelessly, they trotted right up to Xiang Huaizhi and held out their hands. "Heh-heh, Huaizhi, you heard little friend Li..." Xiang Huaizhi twitched his mouth. As he handed two pills over to them, he remarked, "You really have no idea just how precious this batch of pills is, do you?" Li Guanqi smiled calmly. "On the contrary. It is precisely because I know how precious they are that I believe you seniors deserve your share." Jiang Qizhi stroked his beard as he looked at the pill in his palm and let out a hearty laugh. "Hahaha! See that? Little friend Li truly has great breadth of mind!" Gu Changsheng did not hold back either. He carefully cupped a pill in his hands and muttered under his breath, "It really wasn't easy... Truly worthy of an ancient formula!" Noticing the awkward elder Han Yuan standing off to the side, Li Guanqi did not hesitate. He picked up another pill, walked up to the old man, and presented it with both hands. "Senior, please accept this pill." The observing alchemists nodded inwardly in approval. Many had not expected Li Guanqi to voluntarily offer such an invaluable pill to Han Yuan, given that the refining process would not have been nearly so precarious had Han Yuan not slipped up. Han Yuan sighed and waved his hand in refusal. "This old man cannot take it. If Xiang Huaizhi hadn't stepped in, I would have ruined the entire cauldron." Li Guanqi pressed the pill directly into the old man's hands, speaking softly. "You cannot say that, Senior. The outcome was good, and besides, you worked tirelessly over this period as well." "You deserve this pill by right. If you don't take one, wouldn't my father-in-law feel embarrassed to keep his?" Han Yuan glanced toward Meng Jiangchu, whose mouth was twitching, and burst into loud laughter. "Fine! Then this old man shall accept it! When you have free time in the future, little friend Li, come visit our Han clan for a few days!" Li Guanqi smiled. "Most certainly." Meng Jiangchu paid no mind to any of that; no one in their right mind would think they had too many treasures like this. Besides, why shouldn't he accept a gift of filial respect from his son-in-law? Xiang Huaizhi looked down at the last remaining pill in his hand. After a moment's thought, he said softly, "Keep this one for yourself. Don't you run that Guanyun Pavilion? You could put it up for auction." "Then again... for a pill of this caliber, my advice is to keep it in your own hands." "Who knows? It might just earn you a staggering favor from a supreme expert!"