With a muffled explosion, the pill furnace shook briefly before calming down. Nine plump medicinal pills lay quietly within.

A dense, refreshing pill fragrance came from them. Long Chen smiled in satisfaction.

He reached in and took out one of the medicinal pills. It was completely smooth and round with a faint luster, and there was even a layer of faint lines.

“Although the pill lines are faint and its color isn’t at its peak which means that the pill has lost some spirituality, it is just barely at the middle grade pill level.”

This was the first batch of middle grade medicinal pills that Long Chen had refined. The quality of a medicinal pill was dependent on the pill furnace, the Pill Flame, the Spiritual Strength, etc. Not a single one of them could be lacking.

Long Chen’s current Spiritual Strength was definitely good enough, but the pill furnace was too weak. And as for the Pill Flame, well that was even worse.

To use an average first tier pill furnace as well as the worst kind of Pill Flame to refine a middle grade medicinal pill… Well, in the entire pill refining world, perhaps only Long Chen who had fused with a Pill Sovereign’s soul could do such a thing.

In just a short time, he had refined twenty batches of pills, creating over a hundred low grade FengFu Pills that were now quietly lying within his spatial ring.

Long Chen had been quietly listening to what was happening outside his seclusion. Li Hao had been killed, so naturally, he wasn’t a threat anymore.

The imperial capital had offered a reward for the capture of whoever had killed him, but the urgency surrounding this case had faded extremely quickly.

Long Chen sneered; even if they were just putting on an act, they should have at least followed through. Did they think that Long Chen was an idiot?

A noble heir had been killed just like that! To simply end the affair just like that, it was crazily bold and easy to see through.

Although he knew this, Long Chen didn’t dare to take action now. Without a certain amount of strength, he had to wait to keep himself protected.

His father was currently guarding the barbarian border and didn’t know anything about what was going on here. Furthermore, according to the rules of the imperial capital, all generals that were stationed outside were not allowed to have their families leave the imperial capital. To be honest, this was just to force them to follow orders.

Long Chen knew nothing about what was going on with his father at this time. All he knew was what he had inferred so far. His father would not be coming back to his side.

Their noble estate used to be extremely rowdy and busy. But as he grew up and his father continued to fight on the border, fewer and fewer people would come to visit. Eventually, their estate wouldn’t even have friends come over to celebrate the new year.

Over the past few years, the Long household had continuously declined, its position within the imperial capital becoming lower and lower. Furthermore, Long Chen had become the target of all his fellow noble heirs.

But not even the slightest news came from the Border Suppression Marquis. Long Chen couldn’t help but feel a bit resentful of his father, but he was always fiercely reprimanded by his mother whenever he brought it up.

After his awakening a few days ago, Long Chen had finally realized that something was wrong. He had been thinking far too simply about the situation before.

For his father to refuse multiple summonings, he naturally had to have his own reasons. It couldn’t be just because of the battle against the barbarian tribes.

If he had refused just once or twice, that would have been one thing. But he had refused to answer his summons multiple times, causing many of the nobles in the imperial capital to feel dissatisfied with Long Tianxiao.

There were also people who secretly spread rumors that he was plotting a rebellion, but no matter how wildly these rumors spread, no response came from Long Tianxiao.

Three years ago, the royal family ceased to issue any further summons to him, but from then on, the days of the Long household became even worse.

First, the Long family’s stipend was cut. No income came in any longer, immediately forcing them into poverty. Then, even the noble heirs started to bully Long Chen.

Also, the last time Long Chen had been beaten, that old swindler had conned the Long family out of so much money. With that, Long Chen had finally realized that something was up.

Someone was slowly forcing him and his mother into desperate straits. It was obviously to force Long Tianxiao to surrender, but as for what secrets were behind this, Long Chen had no idea.

But what he was sure of was that there was at least one person in the shadows who was conspiring against his father, and he was definitely extremely powerful.

“I can’t deal with that now. A hungry wolf will eventually reveal his fangs; what I need to do now is to increase my strength.”

After giving Bao-er a few simple instructions, Long Chen immediately began his seclusion. The FengFu Star’s embryonic form had already been condensed, so what was next was simple. All he needed to do was to continuously feed it with medicinal energy.

The FengFu Star on the bottom of Long Chen’s foot was continuously absorbing the FengFu Pills’ medicinal energy and was quickly growing larger.

Under Long Chen’s crazy consumption of the pills, the originally small FengFu Star became several times larger over seven days. It was as if an entirely new space was forming on the bottom of Long Chen’s foot.

After growing to the size of a longan fruit, it no longer continued to grow. Under the continual absorption of medicinal energy, countless faint lines had started to appear over the FengFu Star. The faint lines began to slowly revolve.

BOOM!

When the final middle grade FengFu Pill was absorbed, that originally completely silent FengFu Star finally trembled and started to wildly absorb the outside world’s spiritual energy.

“Yes, I finally succeeded!”

Long Chen roared as he felt his entire body become full of energy.

“But right now it’s just the initial success. According to the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, each star requires ‘nine transformations’ to become perfect. My FengFu Star has only just reached an initial complete form, so if I were to describe it as how the outside world cultivates, it might not even be as far as reaching the first Heavenstage of Qi Condensation.”

Letting out three punches into the air, the wind’s roar shook his eardrums as the wall wildly shook and nearly collapsed.

He was able to release such a force without using any spiritual qi and relying solely on the strength of his physical body.

Long Chen couldn’t help but go mad with joy. Although there were drawbacks, the main one being how slow training in it was, the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art’s strength was absolutely amazing!

At only the first Heavenstage, the current him was already so much stronger than when he had crushed the stone grinder with just a single fist.

“Hehe, if I can continue like this, I’ll definitely be able to take back my fiancée soon,” laughed Long Chen. Thinking about Meng Qi’s face, a burning desire lit up within him.

Next time I see that damn crap-brother Xi, I’ll beat him up so badly he won’t know up from down.

Suddenly, Long Chen clapped his head; after focusing on his seclusion so much, he had forgotten that today was the day to go to the Imperial College!

Seeing that the day was already starting to brighten, he hastily put on a new set of clothes and rushed to the Imperial College. He had a bright smile along the entire journey.

He had happily found out that his FengFu Star was able to store an extremely great deal of spiritual qi. When he refined pills in the future, he wouldn’t have to worry about his spiritual qi being insufficient anymore.

Last time he had fought with Li Hao, Long Chen had used Spirit of the Bull and had found it to be extremely powerful. He had defeated Li Hao in just one blow.

But that one blow had consumed almost all of his spiritual qi. Now he wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore.

Sensing how much spiritual qi was stored in his FengFu Star, he estimated that he had enough to use Spirit of the Bull dozens of times. This was the difference between the embryonic and initial FengFu Star!

The greatest impact, however, was that with the increase of his cultivation base, his physical strength had also risen rapidly. Although he hadn’t tested it, it was definitely enough to intimidate his enemies.

In the midst of his self-celebration, he arrived at the Imperial College. He once more became well-behaved as he walked through its gates and hurried over to the literature hall.

As soon as he entered, the originally noisy literature hall became completely silent.

Li Hao’s death was something many people had trouble accepting. All the noble heirs had personally gone and witnessed Long Chen’s single domineering fist. The noble heirs that had originally ridiculed Long Chen now couldn’t help being afraid.

“Haha, brother Long!”

Fatty Yu and the others all laughed and hastily came over to him.

“Brother Long, you’re becoming more and more handsome.”

“Brother Long, please sit.”

“Brother Long, have some tea.”

“Brother Long, I’ll give you a back massage.”

Long Chen laughed and scolded, “No need for all this nonsense. But if you can get me some food, that would be good; I still haven’t eaten any breakfast.”

Long Chen found a corner to sit at. Fatty Yu had already brought over the refreshments, and all the rest of them were completely fixed on Long Chen.

He really was hungry at the moment, as for the past few days, he had basically only consumed pills to the point that he was sick of them now. He quickly devoured the refreshments.

After eating for a short while, Shi Feng also arrived and waved at him.

Once he walked over, Long Chen handed him a jade bottle. “Take this. In just a short time, you’ll become our generation’s first Blood Condensation cultivator.”

Long Chen’s voice wasn’t very loud, but fatty Yu and the others clearly heard it. They were shocked speechless.

Shi Feng was also shocked and hastily opened the jade bottle. An extremely dense pill fragrance wafted out the instant he opened it. A single round medicinal pill could be seen inside.

“What is this?”

Long Chen smiled and indifferently said, “Condensation Pill.”

Others might not know what a Condensation Pill was, but the eighth Heavenstage of Qi Condensation Shi Feng knew. To ninth Heavenstage Qi Condensation cultivators, the Condensation Pill was an absolute treasure that they all dreamed of obtaining...

It had a great deal of energy that could allow someone at the peak of Qi Condensation to quickly break through to the Blood Condensation realm.

Condensation Pills were extremely precious to Qi Condensation cultivators, but had no use whatsoever for the later stage cultivators.

It was extremely difficult to refine. The failure rate was extremely high, especially at the most crucial pill condensation point. It was a nightmare to refine for most alchemists.

An ordinary Condensation Pill would be worth more than a million gold coins, and there were basically none on the market.

A million gold was something Shi Feng would never be able to obtain.

“Long Chen, this…”

“Don’t worry about it. Since I’ve given it to you, take it. I didn’t hesitate to take what’s yours, so don’t get all sentimental on me now.” Long Chen waved his hand.

Shi Feng nodded. At this point, there was nothing more to say. Pushing down his strong emotions, he said, “Fine, I’ll consume it as soon as I reach the ninth Heavenstage of Qi Condensation.”

“There’s no need to wait. Can’t you see the lines on top of it? You can take it as soon as you get home. You’ll quickly rise to the Blood Condensation realm.”

Only now did Shi Feng notice that the medicinal pill had faint lines on it. He almost shouted in surprise; this was a middle grade medicinal pill! That meant the value had multiplied several times.

“Hurry up and take it. Amongst us brothers, there’s no need to say useless things,” said Long Chen.

Shi Feng’s eyes turned red as he took the medicinal pill. Compared to the medicinal pill, Long Chen’s friendship moved him far greater.

“Brother Long!”

“Brother Long!”

Fatty Yu and the others might not know what the Condensation Pill was, but they naturally knew that medicinal pills were treasures. They were now staring at Long Chen like hungry wolves.

Their urgent shouts caused goosebumps all over Long Chen, and he quickly stopped them, saying, “Don’t worry, I’ve already said that I’ll handle your problems.”

The real reason why these people were unable to cultivate was due to how deficient their Spirit Roots were. It was due to this that they were unable to sense qi.

Others might have no solution, but who was Long Chen? He had the fusion of a Pill Sovereign’s memories! If he couldn’t handle something as simple as that, how could he possibly have been called a Pill Sovereign?

“Each person take a bottle. Take three drops a day. No strong foods, no alcohol, and no sex. You’ll see the effect in seven days and should be able to sense qi within half a month. As for how long it’ll take to enter Qi Condensation, that’ll be up to how hard you work.”

Long Chen handed each of them a bottle of medicinal liquid that he had personally made.

The medicinal liquid wasn’t very valuable, and it should just barely be able to have an effect on these people’s Spirit Roots. Long Chen wasn’t a god; there was a limit to how great the effect would be.

It wasn’t a problem to let them enter Qi Condensation, and as long as they weren’t unlucky, they should be able to enter the Blood Condensation realm. However, any future advancements past that were impossible.

But to fatty Yu and the others, just that was something of unimaginable value. They all stared hungrily at the bottles, wanting to take a drop right now.

“Brother Long, if this really can let us cultivate, wouldn’t that bring trouble to you?” Fatty Yu might be fat, but his brain wasn’t small. He was the first to realize the problem.

If Long Chen really could help them who were considered trash, it might have a negative impact on Long Chen. If some unscrupulous people were to notice, then it would be troublesome.

Fatty Yu’s intention was to ask whether they should help Long Chen hide this matter. But Long Chen laughed, “No need to worry. These medicines were all made by grandmaster Yun Qi. If they want to, they can go find grandmaster Yun Qi.”

“Grandmaster Yun Qi?!”

All of them were shocked and were about to ask whether he was joking when steps sounded behind them. Turning their heads, several of them became panicked.