As soon as he opened the lid, a dense pill fragrance floated out along with bursts of light. The entire cave was lit up by nine longan-sized medicinal pills. Long Chen excitedly cried out:

“Three-ring high grade pills!”

Those nine pills shone like jade, and three rings of light slowly revolved around each of the pills as if alive.

This manifestation was something that would appear at the peak of high grade medicinal pills. When the medicinal energy and spiritual qi joined together, it would form a defensive layer on the outside of the pill.

Not only would this lock the medicinal energy inside the pill, but as those rings of light revolved around the pill, they would absorb energy from the outside, continuing to nourish the pill almost as if it were alive.

However, this nourishing was incredibly slow, so Long Chen didn’t really care about it. What he did care about was that he had refined three-ring high grade pills.

Normally, only those who had reached the Pill King tier could do that. But refining pills wasn’t the same as cultivation base; cultivation realms were not exact standards for what tier an alchemist could reach.

There were two standards required for Pill Kings. One was that they could refine fourth tier medicinal pills, while the other was that they could refine at least one-ring medicinal pills. Only once you met both standards could you be considered a Pill King.

If you wanted to reach such a level, other than needing great talent, plentiful spiritual qi, and vast soul energy, you also needed a Pill Flame that had reached a high enough level.

With those things as a foundation, you also needed skillful control and techniques. Otherwise, no matter how high your cultivation base was, even a Xiantian alchemist would be unable to satisfy those two requirements.

There were two kinds of Pill Kings. One had official credentials, while the other was essentially a wanderer.

In the pill refining world, there was only Pill Valley. Pill Valley was the holy land for pill cultivators, and ordinary pill cultivators did not even have the qualifications to learn anything about it.

Thus, the Pill Tower had become the temple for pill cultivators. If you wanted the credentials of a Pill King, you would have to go there to be examined.

They had alchemists specialized in performing those trials. Once you passed, you had two options: one was to join the Pill Tower, becoming one of its members and enjoying the luxurious treatment of a disciple of the Pill Tower.

You could also choose to leave. The Pill Tower would grant you a Pill King’s status tablet, and each year the Pill Tower would distribute a certain amount of resources to you. However, that small amount of resources could not be compared to what true members of the Pill Tower obtained.

In fact, those pitiful resources were essentially bait that the Pill Tower threw at alchemists to lure them into being one of their members. Those resources were mostly for pill cultivators to confirm just how vast and powerful the Pill Tower was.

Pill arts, spirit medicines, beast flames, peak grade pill furnaces, all kinds of treasures were present. Those possessed a fatal attraction to pill cultivators, and there were few people who could resist their temptation.

The Alioth Pill he had refined just now could be considered a third tier medicinal pill by its pill formula. But the difficulty in refining it, especially the control required for the heat changes during the process, had definitely already reached the level of a fourth tier medicinal pill.

In other words, after obtaining the Phoenix Sparrow violet flame, Long Chen could be considered a Pill King. That meant he had reached the requirements of the tablet grandmaster Yun Qi had given him.

The current Long Chen now had the qualifications to use that tablet to join Pill Valley and study pill refining.

However, he had his Pill Sovereign memories, and those pill refining techniques were complete. He didn’t care about other people’s pill refining arts. He cared more about the resources given by Pill Valley.

In order to enter Pill Valley, he would need to first go through the Pill Tower. But for this beast flame, Long Chen had completely offended Huo Wufang. It would not be so easy for him to enter Pill Valley.

However, Long Chen didn’t think too much about that. He just carefully took out a jade bottle and placed those Alioth Pills inside.

Looking at those sparkling Alioth Pills that almost seemed alive, Long Chen was incredibly excited. He even felt as if consuming them would be such a shame.

But in the end, he swallowed one of the Alioth Pills. It dissolved the instant it reached his stomach.

That was one of the effects of ‘ringed’ pills. As long as you consumed it, it would instantly release its medicinal energy. They weren’t like other medicinal pills that needed time before showing their effects.

When the medicinal pill dissolved, an enormous energy surged out, seeming like a surging ocean within Long Chen’s body.

That kind of energy was incredibly vast, but it wasn’t berserk. Instead, it was extremely gentle, and Long Chen slowly circulated the energy in accordance with the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, sending it to the center of his right hand.

When the medicinal energy reached Long Chen’s right hand, it didn’t need Long Chen to do anything. The hollow of his palm trembled in the same way his foot had been when he had condensed the FengFu Star.

The medicinal energy condensed quickly, forming a vortex, while at the center of that vortex, a little kernel was gradually growing.

Long Chen didn’t need to do anything. This entire process happened automatically in accordance with the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art. Long Chen suddenly noticed his FengFu Star that had been remaining silent up to this moment had now suddenly begun to rapidly circulate. An extremely pure energy slowly flowed into the vortex.

That energy wasn’t exactly spiritual qi. Even Long Chen didn’t know what that energy was. But as soon as that energy flowed in, the tiny kernel grew much larger.

At the same time, a terrifying force soared out of his hand, causing the entire cave to shake.

BOOM!

The cave collapsed, burying Long Chen within. But Long Chen wasn’t even paying attention to that, as all his focus was on the changes occurring within his hand.

Back when he had condensed the FengFu Star, everything had occurred too quickly, and he hadn’t even understood what was going on before his FengFu Star had condensed.

But this time, he wanted the Alioth Star to form slower so that he had enough time to examine what was going on.

“Yes, as I thought. To condense the first star required my body’s core energy, while to condense the second star requires the first star’s assistance.”

Long Chen was closely examining the entire process. That small kernel was like a seed that was receiving nourishment as it absorbed the energy coming from the FengFu Star.

The Alioth Pill’s medicinal energy was slowly being absorbed by that seed as well. When that seed reached the size of a sesame seed, Long Chen felt a mental connection from it.

With a thought, he tried to control that little thing. He smiled when he found it really was completely under his control.

That let Long Chen finally relax. He had experienced far too many bumps on the road. No matter what he did, he always ran into multiple difficulties.

The fact that he had finally condensed the Alioth Star without any surprises or danger made him feel relieved from a great burden. Originally, he had been ready to face all kinds of various difficulties he had assumed would pop up.

Although the Alioth Star was only the size of a sesame seed, Long Chen was able to control it and even increase the rate at which it grew.

However, what was a bit out of his expectations was that the growth of the Alioth Star didn’t just depend on the nourishment of the Alioth Pills, but it also required the energy coming from the FengFu Star.

That energy was passively flowing from the FengFu Star, and Long Chen didn’t need to actively draw it out. The only thing he needed to do was increase the Alioth Star’s absorption rate.

But Long Chen felt a slight chill when he saw that even after absorbing all the Alioth Pill’s medicinal energy, his Alioth Star had only grown ever so slightly.

He had no choice but to consume the rest of the Alioth Pills. When he consumed the ninth one and finished absorbing all its energy, he found that the Alioth Star had still only grown slightly, just barely reaching the size of a small pea.

Long Chen began to sweat. Although he had felt that the few Qilin Fruits he had found would not be enough for him to fully condense the Alioth Star, he had still felt some hope when he had seen that he was able to refine three-ring high grade pills.

But now all nine of them were gone, and Long Chen felt an icy chill. According to this speed, the Alioth Pill’s condensement would be even more difficult than the FengFu Star’s.

To condense the FengFu Star, Long Chen had used up probably almost a thousand FengFu Pills.

He only had twenty-four Qilin Fruits on hand, and of those, only nine of them were fully matured. The rest were temporarily not mature enough to be used in pill refining.

Furthermore, Qilin Fruits matured extremely slowly. Not to mention that new ones would only grow once the old ones matured. From the flowering process to the time where the fruit was matured, a single Qilin Fruit would require a hundred years of sunlight and constant absorption of heaven and earth’s spiritual qi.

That fiery excitement in Long Chen’s heart immediately extinguished.

Long Chen suddenly stood up, and his aura exploded out in order to release his frustration. A terrifying wave of qi shot out.

The mountain exploded, the ground sank, and a powerful qi wave crushed the surrounding rocks and trees to smithereens. That terrifying power even stunned Long Chen.

“What the… my strength?”

Long Chen was filled with disbelief. Everything within several miles had been turned to dust. The ground had also sunk several hundred meters.

His jaw dropped. He was both delighted and shocked. Looking at the center of his right hand, that frustration was swept away.

“HAHAHA!”

Long Chen raised his head up the sky and roared, his aura exploding out without the slightest reservation. It was as if an angry sea was trying to wash away heaven and earth, causing the sky’s clouds to shake.

Long Chen hadn’t realized before, but now he found that it wasn’t just his FengFu Star rapidly circulating when he released his aura. That small pea-sized Alioth Star was also quickly circulating, and a powerful energy was constantly pouring into his body. That energy was not at all inferior to the complete FengFu Star.

“Amazing, absolutely amazing!” Long Chen crazily laughed. He felt as if he might start crying from joy. He had barely condensed an embryonic form of the Alioth Star, but it was already on the same level as the FengFu Star. Just what level of awesomeness was that?!

His frustration was swept away, and he was so excited he wanted to dance. He could no longer stay in this place since just his aura had destroyed it. He found another hidden place where he refined the rest of the matured Qilin Fruits into Alioth Pills.

He nourished the Alioth Star with those Alioth Pills, and ten days later, all his Alioth Pills were gone. As for the Alioth Star, it had grown to the size of a longan, and there was even some mist revolving around it, looking like a true star.

Furthermore, Long Chen noticed that as his Alioth Star condensed, his physical body once more advanced to a new level, his strength explosively growing. That filled him with confidence. Even if he ran into a Yin Luo who had already advanced to Bone Forging, he would have no fear of him.

After thinking about it, Long Chen spent the next five days refining almost a thousand Three Connecting Flower Tendon Pills for himself. With his new gains, his pill refining speed had reached a practically abnormal level.

These medicinal pills should be enough for him for the next while. He couldn’t waste the rest of his time. Long Chen opened his map and quickly found his next target: the Abyss of Fiends.