The Fang Mansion was located in the city’s west, but was still considered part of the city’s core. From here, it was even possible to see the Seven Treasure Jewel Tower.

Currently, there was a lively celebration going on within the Fang Mansion as the Fang family celebrated everyone smoothly passing the preliminaries.

In truth, those that could be pulled into the Fang family’s side were all elites amongst elites. This level of pill refining test was not difficult for them.

The Chai family’s people were also present. The two families’ relations were good, and they decided to celebrate together. Even the two families’ heads made a personal appearance that made the festivities livelier.

“Good job Long San.” Fang Mingyuan patted Long Chen’s shoulder. This praise wasn’t toward Long Chen’s talent, but toward his display today. It was toward his character.

In front of everyone, he had dared to insult Huo Changsheng, tying his life to the Fang family’s survival, expressing his absolute loyalty. Currently, it was still unclear which family would be the final winner. The fact that he dared to do so was truly daring.

“You’re too courteous. Brother Fang and brother Chai have given me the kindness of their patronage. If it weren’t for them, how could I have obtained the beast flame and passed this test? I might come from poor origins, but I’ve always believed that anyone human should know how to repay gratitude a thousand times,” said Long Chen.

Long Chen didn’t actually have any good feelings toward the Fang and Chai families. But Fang Chang and Chai Liehuo were to his liking. Despite being noble disciples, they didn’t give him a loathsome feeling like Huo Wufang.

Most importantly, Long Chen felt guilty about using them. He didn’t like that feeling, so he had to help them handle the Huo family.

“Well said! A person who gives you a drink when you’re thirsty can’t be forgotten. Nowadays, most people are filled with such treachery that they change sides like the changing of the wind. It’s rare for someone to possess such a pure heart now. Come, accompany this old man for a drink.” What shocked everyone was that Fang Mingyuan actually took the initiative to toast Long Chen. What level of honor was that?

The alchemists that had sided with the Fang and Chai families all felt intense envy. But there was also no way around that.

After finishing their drink, Fang Mingyuan said, “Long San, there’s no need to mention anything about your talent. I’ve never seen someone with such vast Spiritual Strength. But a good blade needs to be tempered. No matter how high your talent is, you still have to bitterly train to have accomplishments. Right now, your fatal weakness is that you haven’t studied enough.

“You are lacking knowledge on many medicinal ingredients, making it difficult for you to use your vast Spiritual Strength. It was extremely dangerous today. So, starting today, I will send Fang Chang with you to the medicinal ingredient repository. You’ll learn to identify various medicinal ingredients and gain experience with various pill formulas.

“There’s still one month until the elimination round. The preliminaries are just a starting round in the rules. The elimination round is ten times more difficult. So this one month’s time is very crucial to you. If you pass the elimination round, you’ll get another month until the finals. At that time, you’ll be competing with Huo Wufang.

“This Pill Emperor Competition isn’t just a chance for the Fang, Chai, and Huo families to compete. It’s also a chance for you to change your destiny. The top ten will all be given special badges that will allow them to enter Pill Valley later. The top ten are given bountiful rewards, and as for the top three? Hehe, according to previous years, the rewards were so amazing that even I am greedy for them,” laughed Fang Mingyuan.

Other than Long Chen, everyone present desired to become Pill Valley disciples as soon as possible. Pill Valley was a holy land to alchemists.

“So Long San, treat this time importantly. I will lock you in the repository and have you lay down a solid foundation without rest. You don’t have any problems with that, right?” asked Fang Mingyuan.

“No problems. Many thanks for your patronage.” Long Chen was incomparably excited. That wasn’t acting.

Hadn’t he acted so long before just for this opportunity? He could finally enter the medicinal ingredient repository. Long Chen could practically see the Enlightenment Palace Pill before him.

Seeing how happy Long Chen was, Fang Mingyuan nodded. Long San wasn’t just loyal, he was also hardworking and clever. He knew this opportunity was a rare one.

Long Chen’s mood was now excellent, and he continuously raised his cup to Fang Chang, Chai Liehuo, and the others. When Fang Chang told the story about how he had met Long San, the two families’ higher-ups cried tears of laughter. They had actually gotten along because of slapping the Huo family’s people.

Chai Liehuo drank a bit too much, and his tongue had loosened. He suddenly said, “Tch, who does the Huo family think they are? Aren’t they just in charge of selling pills? Those despicable cheats, who knows how much profit they’ve swindled?! Now they’re getting more and more arrogant, actually stretching their hands toward my Chai and Fang families’ territory. Fucking hell, they even want to expel us from the Pill Tower! Who do they think they are?!”

Hearing this stunned the higher-ups. Chai Gaoyang was just about to chide him, as saying such things in front of everyone would affect them negatively.

But before he could, Long Chen suddenly said, “Exactly! From top to bottom, there’s not a single good person in the Huo family! That Huo Changsheng even wanted to prostitute himself to me! Tch, but I don’t have such tastes. Brother Chai, If you dare to face the Huo family, then I, Long San, will be the first to charge up! I’ll destroy that group of bastards for you. Fuck, this time I’m going to go all-out training! When the time comes, I’ll take first place, and then once I’m in Pill Valley, we’ll work together to exterminate them!”

“Haha, good brother! I knew you were the most courageous! Come, let’s drink!”

Thump. Chai Liehuo had truly drunk too much. Furthermore, alchemists naturally had weaker constitutions. This wine was so strong that Chai Liehuo collapsed on the ground.

Once everyone returned to their rooms to rest, Fang Mingyuan quietly asked Chai Gaoyang, “What do you think about this Long San? Is he dependable?”

“When he speaks, his spiritual fluctuations match his words. There’s no sign he’s lying. He should have been speaking from his heart, so it seems he’s very dependable,” said Chai Gaoyang.

“How regretful. If only we had encountered him a year ago. With just a year’s training, then with his abnormal Spiritual Strength, he could definitely defeat Huo Wufang,” sighed Fang Mingyuan.

“The Huo family is slowly encroaching on us. There are already several traitors in our families. But although we know that, we’re helpless. The Huo family has accumulated an immense amount of wealth, and they’ve made countless connections.

“If Huo Wufang takes the first place, then with Pill Valley’s grooming, the two of our families really might be either forced out of the Pill Tower or exterminated. I’ve already made my preparations to make a final struggle, but this Long San has caused a change of plans. Let’s keep watching. I really don’t want to use our last resort. Hopefully, Long San can bring us a new opportunity,” said Chai Gaoyang.

“That would be good. But we also can’t place all our hopes on him. We should also quicken the pace with the other matter. If Long San doesn’t work out, we’ll continue with our other plan. Hmph, they want us to scram? Then they’ll have to pay a terrible price,” said Fang Mingyuan.

“Alright, then I’ll order the entire repository to be open to Long San. He’ll have full access to any medicinal ingredients and secret tomes. This is for the best because Long San has drawn all of the Huo family’s attention. It’s even more favorable for our plan.”

The next day, Long Chen had just gotten out of bed when a maiden brought him back to the Seven Treasure Jewel Tower. Long Chen’s wish was finally achieved, and he entered the medicinal ingredient repository.

“Heavens, this is too spectacular! How did they do this?!”

When he entered, Long Chen was stunned. This storage room was over a hundred miles wide. How was this possible? The tower wasn’t even that big!

“The medicinal ingredient repository is different from the other storage rooms. There’s a formation here, one that increases the space. The principles aren’t that different from a spatial ring, but it’s much, much more complicated,” explained the maiden.

Spatial rings were only filled with static space. But this space was the same as the outside world. It was just that the outside world looked small, but the inside world was extremely vast.

“The medicinal ingredients here are organized from the first tier to the sixth tier. There are millions of kinds per tier. You don’t need to waste your time with fourth tier ingredients and below. You just need to go through the region with the fifth and sixth tier ingredients.

“Of course, you technically only need to go through the fifth tier region. Learn to identify the ingredients, their uses, their properties, and their limitations. There’s a detailed explanation in front of each ingredient. Furthermore, they are also split into common and rare ingredients. You should focus on the common ones,” said the maiden.

Long Chen was brought to the fifth tier region. He saw practically endless shelves filled with medicinal ingredients. Each medicinal ingredient had a label in front of it that was filled with detailed information.

Even with Long Chen’s calm, his heart was pounding. The Pill Tower was truly the Pill Tower. This level of ability was shocking.

The few ingredients in Long Chen’s primal chaos space paled in comparison to this place. He only had a few thousand kinds of ingredients, and that referred to all tiers. But here, they had millions of different ingredients per tier.

“Thank you. I’m going to start now. You… if you have anything to do, you should go do it.” Long Chen smiled.

“Alright. I’ll wait outside the repository. If you have any questions, just directly come ask me.” After saying that, the maiden left.

“Hahahaha! I’ve struck gold!” Long Chen was laughing crazily inside. But he didn’t display it too much. He noticed that he wasn’t the only one in the repository.

Others were perhaps taking out ingredients or in charge of replenishing them. Long Chen went directly to the rare section with ingredients that were parts of very neglected branches of alchemy and very rarely used.

These precious medicinal ingredients were extremely difficult to gather in the outside world, or the Huayun Sect would have long since managed to find them for Long Chen.

“Hehe, Enlightenment Palace Star, just wait for me.”