Silver flames flickered, welling up ceaselessly from below the ground, radiating gentle luminescence — a spiritual energy pulsing and rippling — as sacred radiance poured continuously into the pill cauldron.
The entire stone chamber swirled with a white, flowing light — like a faint mist drifting through it — a blur of haze and shimmer, like the cave dwelling of an immortal, thick with spiritual energy.
This Fire-Sha was no ordinary thing. Beyond possessing an appropriate temperature, its most essential quality was that it could supply a unique form of spiritual energy — one that dissolved medicinal herbs, condensed vital life essence, and consecrated the refinement of divine elixirs.
The silver flames danced; the bronze pill cauldron was enveloped in a milky-white spiritual haze that made it seem to have taken on a life of its own, the patterns carved upon it appearing to stir and move.
Elder Han sat cross-legged silently to one side, his eyes shut, standing watch over the cauldron — his withered body without the faintest pulse of life.
At this moment, inside the sealed cauldron, Ye Fan experienced only one sensation: searing, unbearable pain. All four limbs pierced through, his chest skewered as well — blood had flowed, and the five wounds were severe. He felt utterly drained of strength. Yet, as Elder Han had said, his life was not in immediate danger — his body was submerged in the jade-green medicinal fluid, and as the wounds were nourished, the bleeding had gradually stopped.
Just then, the cauldron’s interior grew hotter and hotter. Countless bubbles appeared in the medicinal fluid; the temperature continued to rise. The fluid rose to just below Ye Fan’s chin. He wanted to move, but Elder Han’s sealing technique had bound his body — he could barely stir.
“To die this way is too suffocating. I am truly unwilling…”
Glug glug glug!
Ye Fan began gulping down mouthfuls of the medicinal fluid. At this moment only his mouth could move. If his hands could also move, he would have reached out and swallowed the brilliantly blazing Nine-Leafed Phoenix Herb nearby.
Having lost so much blood, Ye Fan’s consciousness was growing hazy. He bit down on his lip and said, “I cannot die!”
He had lost vast amounts of blood — any other person would have long since perished — and though the wounds had stopped bleeding in the nourishing fluid, he was still giving way, sinking into a state of semi-consciousness.
“I must not fall completely unconscious… or I will die…” Ye Fan’s mind swam between clarity and darkness as he fought to hold on.
In this dazed, half-conscious state, many familiar faces and scenes surfaced in his heart — his white-haired parents calling him home; his cousin, who had married after an unplanned pregnancy, urging him to attend the wedding; his eighteen-year-old younger female cousin who had just been accepted into her ideal university, laughing and holding out her hand for a gift; friends reproaching him for disappearing for so long…
All his relatives and friends from his homeland appeared in Ye Fan’s mind, many of them calling loudly, reaching out their hands, trying to pull him toward them. He ran forward without ceasing, yet could never draw close to any of them.
Then, people and events from this world also surfaced in his heart, one by one — Pang Bo, radiating demonic energy, struggling desperately; little Tingtingt at the Jiang household, eyes brimming with tears; Elder Han wearing a grotesque cold smile…
Even Li Xiaoman’s figure flickered through — the journey from gazing at each other across the sea to forgetting one another, and finally to that cold, distant face-to-face, telling him that the mortal and the immortal were two separate worlds, urging him not to harbor unrealistic fantasies, telling him to be content as an ordinary person.
“I cannot die… I want to go home… there are so many family members and friends still waiting for me…” Ye Fan murmured in a dreamlike voice, his consciousness slipping.
By the cauldron, Elder Han opened his eyes. “Savor slowly the taste of death.”
At this moment, the Fire-Sha beneath the cauldron released even more spiritual energy — the sacred, silver flames blazed and danced, gradually enveloping the bronze cauldron entirely.
Inside the cauldron, countless bubbles appeared in the jade-green fluid, surrounding Ye Fan — and streams of silvery radiance flowed through it: the unique spiritual energy of the Fire-Sha.
At the instant Ye Fan was about to lose consciousness, a gentle trickle surfaced in the garden of his heart — several hundred ancient characters flowing slowly past, steadying his spirit and slowly bringing him back to awareness.
Ye Fan gradually came back to himself, his heart giving a jolt of surprise. The last time the Jiang Family knight had gravely wounded him and he had fallen unconscious, it had been the ancient scripture that called him back — and now it had happened again.
At this moment, the temperature inside the cauldron climbed ever higher; the jade-green fluid was nearly boiling. Ye Fan had no other option — he silently recited the ancient scripture and endured through gritted teeth.
Just then, he sensed a strange change. Streams of silver radiance charged into his body and coursed through his flesh and blood with tremendous vitality.
This was the spiritual energy contained within the Fire-Sha — the force that could dissolve medicinal herbs, condense life essence, and consecrate the refinement of elixirs. At this moment it treated Ye Fan himself as a medicinal ingredient, flowing into his sealed body and moving about. The sealed life essence within him was thus stirred into activity, and the sealing power Elder Han had left behind began to slowly loosen.
At last, Ye Fan was both shocked and elated — he found that he could move. He had broken free of the bindings! No matter how Elder Han might have imagined things, he could never have foreseen that the Fire-Sha‘s unique spiritual energy would break through his sealing technique.
At this moment, the fluid inside the cauldron had reached a full boil. Ye Fan felt the excruciating sensation of flesh splitting open — he quickly circulated the mysterious techniques of the Classic of the Dao, sending vast life essence flooding out from his Bitter Sea into his four limbs and hundred channels. His body surface flickered with a crystalline sheen, shielding him from the boiling fluid.
Ye Fan remained still and silent, sitting quietly as he circulated the Classic of the Dao‘s techniques, drawing the abundant life essence within the cauldron to himself, making it his own, using it to mend his injured body.
Half a shichen later, Ye Fan opened his eyes — two cold flashes of lightning appeared inside the cauldron. He reached out and seized the lotus seed born of the Black Jade Divine Lotus.
The lotus seed was large — shaped like a pigeon’s egg — translucent throughout, as though carved from black jade, its radiance flowing and shimmering with a dreamy brilliance that cast Ye Fan’s palm in a wash of luminous light.
A supremely rare spirit medicine of this caliber could not possibly dissolve in a short time — otherwise Elder Han would not have spoken of refining for seven days and seven nights.
Ye Fan took the lotus seed into his mouth, slowly chewing and quietly swallowing. It was as though countless slivers of shattered divine jade were glittering inside his mouth, powerful life essence overflowing — as if something divine were dissolving on his tongue — radiant and magnificent beyond words.
By the bronze cauldron, Elder Han seemed to hear a faint sound. He sat cross-legged without moving, a merciless smile playing at the corner of his mouth. “Can you bear it no longer? Soaked in the original fluid of life — even as the temperature rises, flesh splits, and suffering is extreme — you won’t breathe your last for a while yet.”
Elder Han showed not a shred of mercy or sympathy. He closed his eyes once more, falling into deathly silence.
Inside the bronze cauldron, Ye Fan’s face was expressionless, vital energy flowing between his teeth and lips, with dark light flickering — the lotus seed was crushed and entirely swallowed. Then he shut his eyes and began silently circulating the mysteries of the Classic of the Dao; his body surface immediately shimmered with a crystalline, lustrous glow.
A full shichen passed. Ye Fan’s Bitter Sea suddenly blazed with golden radiance — all the qi and blood he had lost was fully restored, vital energy surging powerfully. At the same moment, the golden Bitter Sea began to swell and churn — on the verge of a tidal eruption, a fearsome anomaly about to manifest!
Ye Fan held it back with tremendous willpower, suppressing the expansion of the Bitter Sea. At the same time, he deliberately let a faint sound escape — hoping to attract Elder Han’s attention so the lid would be lifted, allowing him to summon the golden scripture and deliver a thunderstrike.
“What’s that sound? It sounds almost like waves surging…” Elder Han opened his eyes, his expression changing, and murmured to himself: “Before an extraordinary divine elixir is complete, anomalous signs will appear — could it be that not only will this batch succeed, it might even yield a supreme-grade elixir?”
Ye Fan gritted his teeth. He desperately wanted Elder Han to come and lift the lid — but after hearing those words, he had no choice but to withdraw part of his power. The roaring sound escaped from the bronze cauldron faintly, hovering between audible and inaudible.
“It really is the sound of waves…” Elder Han’s face showed a flicker of excitement. “In the records of ancient pill-refinement, this anomalous sign appeared — it is said that the sound, at its peak, is deafening, like truly facing a surging and boundless ocean. Could it be that I am about to produce an exceptional divine elixir?”
“Your grandfather!” Ye Fan inwardly cursed. Elder Han had absolutely no intention of opening the lid — and his decisive killing blow remained unusable.
Rumble rumble rumble…
At this moment, Ye Fan made the commotion even louder — wave after wave of crashing seas roared forth, his entire body blazing with golden light as the Bitter Sea slowly expanded.
“The ancients did not deceive me!” Beside the bronze cauldron, Elder Han marveled again and again. “Throughout Han’s lifetime of pill-refinement, I have truly encountered such an anomaly — this must surely be a batch of supreme-grade divine elixirs.”
Ye Fan could hold on no longer. He could not suppress the violent spiritual energy raging inside his Bitter Sea — in that moment, the golden Bitter Sea raged with towering waves, and the fearsome tidal eruption fully exploded.
In an instant, divine light blazed fiercely — surging tides beyond counting, monstrous waves crashing to the heavens, deafening beyond all measure!
Like a thousand armies of cavalry thundering in charge — or like endless meteors shattering the earth.
Amid the terrifying sound of crashing seas, there was also the rumbling of thunder — lightning tearing through the sky, interweaving above the golden Bitter Sea — a spectacle of awe-inspiring magnitude.
In this moment, Ye Fan was in a state of extreme tension — the golden scripture flickering, ready at any instant to be summoned out to strike down the enemy!
Yet Elder Han was now so excited he had lost all composure, exclaiming: “The ancients did not deceive me… the legends are true!”
He stood up, pacing back and forth around the bronze cauldron, practically ready to dance with joy.
“There is the sound of crashing waves, there is the sound of thunder — exactly as recorded in the ancient texts. Legend has it this is the sign that heralds the completion of a supreme divine elixir!”
Ye Fan did not know whether to be furious or amused. He had planned everything carefully for a decisive strike — yet Elder Han had no intention of lifting the lid and had even managed to find a reason that perfectly convinced himself.
“Your grandfather!” Ye Fan cursed inwardly, then composed himself and focused wholeheartedly on expanding the golden Bitter Sea.
“The ancients did not deceive me…” Elder Han kept exclaiming, beside himself with excitement, dancing with joy.