“Candy?”

Everyone was flabbergasted. They had been gathered to get candy?

“Gu Yang, Guo Ran, come and distribute the candy to the Dragonmark warriors.” Long Chen tossed a case to Guo Ran.

Guo Ran opened it and saw that they really were candy. What he didn’t know was that these were medicinal pills Long Chen had added a layer of sugar to. That was to prevent their scent from spreading. Otherwise, once this case was opened, nobody on Crouching Dragon Mountain would be able to keep their eyes open.

“Dragonmark warriors, listen well. Now you’ve joined the Dragonblood Legion. I trust the Dragonblood warriors have told you about the Dragonblood Legion’s history. In the Dragonblood Legion, you don’t need to have high talent. You just have to be absolutely loyal. You can never betray your brothers and sisters. They will also never betray you, and I also trust you. Starting today, you’ll become true members. Swallow the candy in your hands. That little ball of sugar will be your first step toward the peak of the martial path,” shouted Long Chen.

“Yes, boss!”

The Dragonmark warriors directly swallowed the little balls in their hands. In their hearts, Long Chen was a god. Even if he wanted them to swallow a ball of dung, they wouldn’t hesitate.

“Heavens, my stomach is burning!” cried a Dragonmark warrior.

Following him, the others also began to feel like a fire was burning in their stomachs. Red vapor began to come from their mouths and noses when they breathed.

Then it wasn’t just their nose and mouth, but also their ears. In fact, even their eyes were emitting some of it. It was a ghastly sight.

“Brothers, don’t be afraid. This is the effect of the Bitter Earth Mortal Molting Pill. With our points, we couldn’t buy peak grade Divine Mortal Molting Elixir, so you’ll need to experience some bitterness. The Bitter Earth Mortal Molting Pill can greatly increase your talent, stabilize your foundation, and cleanse your bone marrow. Because your cultivation bases are high, you’ll have to experience some extra pain, but everything you go through now is so you can survive on the battlefield. Endure it, because it’s all worth it,” said Long Chen.

“Don’t worry boss, we can still endure!”

One person cried out, but as soon as he spoke, he coughed up red vapor, looking comical. Crouching Dragon Mountain became covered in a red haze.

“Guo Ran, don’t cry. They’ll definitely be able to bear it,” comforted Gu Yang.

“Who’s crying? This smoke… it’s irritating to my eyes. Ugh, I can’t handle it, I have to leave.” After saying that, Guo Ran vanished like a wisp of smoke. His constitution was too weak, and he couldn’t even handle this vapor.

The Dragonmark warriors had turned completely red now, like prawns that had been thoroughly cooked.

Long Chen had the Dragonblood warriors constantly splash water on their bodies. When the water touched them, it was like water splashing on red-hot iron. A crisp boiling sound came from them.

The Dragonblood warriors couldn’t help but rejoice in their good luck. They had already consumed the peak grade Divine Mortal Molting Elixir, or they would also be experiencing this pain now.

The Dragonmark warriors looked like they were being cooked in flames. Their skin was roiling, and black liquid was seeping out of it. That liquid was extremely disgusting to smell.

Seeing this, the Dragonmark warriors firmed their resolve. They weren’t fools. They knew this was the impurities that the medicinal energy had forced out of their bodies. That was an immensely beneficial thing to them.

Although they felt unbearable pain, they were also grateful to Long Chen. They had heard of Divine Mortal Molting Elixir, and they also knew they couldn’t afford to buy it. However, they hadn’t thought that Long Chen would be able to use a different method to achieve the same effect as peak grade Divine Mortal Molting Elixir.

Long Chen nodded. Although these Dragonmark warriors only had average talent, that battle of blood and fire had strengthened their wills. That was something many experts did not possess.

“The pain should last around three days. Once those three days are over, you should feel like you’ve completely transformed.”

After saying that, Long Chen left Crouching Dragon Mountain. Just as he was leaving, he suddenly thought of something and had Guo Ran send an application for him.

That application was for the Alchemy Pavilion. Long Chen was applying to be one of their disciples and enjoy the benefits of such a position. He clearly listed his alchemy abilities and his experience in that regard.

“Boss, even if you used your butt to think, it’s clear you’ll be refused. You beat up one of their teachers. Aren’t you asking me to go and get cursed?” said Guo Ran bitterly.

“If you could figure it out, so could I. They definitely won’t approve my application. What I want is to record their attitude and reason,” said Long Chen.

“Alright then.” Guo Ran helplessly thickened his skin and went over. He knew he was probably about to receive a bout of cursing.

Long Chen continued to seclude himself in the outer sect. This time, he was refining a different pill. This was the very famous Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pill.

This was a pill all Sea Expansion experts required. Its medicinal energy was extremely powerful, and it could raise a Sea Expansion expert’s cultivation base the quickest. As long as your realm was high enough, you could consume it without any side effects. It was an extremely miraculous, but also precious medicinal pill.

In the Xuantian Dao Sect, one nine-ring Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pill cost one point. An inner sect disciple might spend all their points on them, and they would only get one hundred.

That sounded like a lot, but the Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pill was different from ordinary medicinal pills. It could be classified as a lukewarm pill. Although its medicinal energy was extremely strong, its effect was very slow. In order to see a rapid effect, you had to constantly consume them.

One hundred of them could be eaten in three days. Only at that speed would the medicinal effect be apparent.

That was why many disciples would store up hundreds, or even thousands of points to exchange for a huge number of Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pills. When they felt that they were about to advance a level, they would buy as many as they could and go into seclusion to attack the next barrier.

The Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pill was an important pill for this realm. It could be compared to the Bone Forging realm’s Bone Tempering Pills. These two realms were both realms based on piling up a mountain of medicinal pills.

Bang!

Long Chen slowly opened his furnace lid. He let out a startled cry, “Huo Long, you really are amazing!”

There were nine pills inside, seven of which were nine-ring pills. And this was the result of his first attempt. For other alchemists, just the rate of success in forming the pills would not surpass thirty percent.

Even with his Pill Sovereign memories, he hadn’t thought that he would be able to refine nine-ring pills in his first try. Furthermore, there were seven of them.

Huo Long flew out of his arm and rubbed against him. It sent him a mental message.

That message startled Long Chen. Previously, Long Chen could sense Huo Long’s feelings, but this was his first time getting a complete mental message.

Although it wasn’t very clear, similar to a baby’s babbling, he could comprehend the general meaning. Huo Long was expressing that it had grown up and could help Long Chen with some things now.

Although it was just an unclear message, it delighted Long Chen. This meant that Huo Long’s spirit was fully formed and it could properly communicate.

If it possessed a full spirit, it would also possess Spiritual Strength. When it refined pills in the future, it could use that Spiritual Strength to increase the quality of the pills. There was no need for Long Chen to be actively refining in order to refine nine-ring pills.

However, right now, Huo Long’s Spiritual Strength was still very weak. It needed some more time to grow.

This discovery delighted Long Chen. After devouring two powerful Earth Flames, Huo Long was now displaying its terrifying potential. If it could devour more Earth Flames, it would become his strongest trump card.

After calming himself down, Long Chen continued refining. With Huo Long’s assistance, his speed increased and he was capable of refining over ten thousand Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pills in one day. They were basically all nine-ring.

However, after all that refining, Huo Long needed to rest. Long Chen gave it that time. As for himself, he took advantage of that time to refine medicinal ingredients into powders.

In truth, the most time-consuming part of refining a pill was refining the ingredients into powders. Because there were so many ingredients, all of which required different processing, refining a pill was extremely complicated. But there was no way around that. Refining pills was not the same as cooking soup.

While he refined the medicinal ingredients, he also consumed a few Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pills to strengthen his own cultivation base. For half a month, Long Chen refined pills and cultivated like this. As he consumed Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pills like food, he advanced to the seventh Heavenstage of Sea Expansion.

As for the number of Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pills he had, that number had broken past a hundred thousand, delighting Long Chen.

It had to be known that it hadn’t cost him a single point to refine all of these. And compared to the Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pills on the market, the effect of his pills was several times greater.

To say that one of his was worth ten of what was on the market was a bit of an exaggeration, but its effect was definitely no lower than seven times greater. His pills were just a little bit off from reaching top grade, or he wouldn’t be able to advance so quickly.

The thing that delighted Long Chen the most was that as Huo Long absorbed the Earth Flame essence within its body, it suddenly split into two and then from two into four. Long Chen now had four flame dragons.

“You awakened an ability?”

Long Chen was shocked by this. He hadn’t expected Huo Long to awaken its own abilities as it grew stronger. It was now able to create split bodies, and each one of them was its own body, capable of moving freely.

Four flame dragons swam around Long Chen with delight. Huo Long was indescribably excited to have awakened its own innate ability.

“I wonder… could this work?”

Long Chen suddenly had a thought and took out another pill furnace. Communicating with one of the flame dragons, he sent it toward the pill furnace.