The capital existed before the Great Qin Empire was founded. At that time, it still wasn’t the imperial city. But the royal family had been managing the empire diligently for the past ten thousand years.

Strictly speaking, the imperial city should be the inner city. The outer city was constructed at a later date and only had a thousand year history.

A brief moment later, Lin Yun was finally certain of the fluctuation coming from his foot. It was similar to the runes that he grasped, but it also felt different. It felt more complicated like a towering mountain.

“What’s the matter?” Li Wuyou asked when he saw the changes on Lin Yun’s face.

“Can you sense the fluctuation coming from the ground? It might be faint, but you can sense it every time you take a step forward,” said Lin Yun after briefly pondering.

“That’s it? This is an ancient defensive array that covers the entire inner city. It can allow the royal family to gain firm control of the entire capital. In the inner city, the Great Qin Imperial Guard has absolute strength. Even someone whose cultivation was higher than the Profound Martial Realm wouldn’t dare to provoke them,” smiled Li Wuyou.

“I see…” said Lin Yun.

Lin Yun had to admit that the inner city was under stricter control than the outer city. He couldn’t see any Houtian Realm cultivators along the street. He could, however, see Profound Martial Realm cultivators around here. Perhaps even the Profound Martial Realm couldn’t be considered an expert in the capital’s inner city.

The two of them strolled briefly before they settled down in an inn. Although they no longer needed to consume food since they had unlocked their mouth orifice, they still had cravings. Back in the barren land, the two ate and slept together. The conditions were harsh, so it was inevitable that they would feast once entering an inn.

When it was time to rest, Lin Yun closed the door and continued to study the bamboo slip. Lights flickered on his fingertips as he painted complicated runes on the ground. After half the time it took for an incense to burn, the runes flickered and vibrated as if they were alive.

He was already familiar with the runes, so it wasn’t hard for him to draw them. The hundreds of runes began to take shape before him. After contemplating something, Lin Yun took out a Xiantian pellet and placed it at the center of the runes.

Ever since he was able to draw out all the runes, Lin Yun had been thinking of imprinting them on pellets. He was trying to do so during the journey, but all of them ended in failure.

“Let’s hope that it’s successful this time,” thought Lin Yun.

Despite the failures he went through, he was quite confident about this attempt. He stretched his hand out. Complicated runes joined together following his finger and started forming a complete picture. At first glance, it looked like droplets of water joining up together before they began to compress.

Boom!

When the runes finally merged with the Xiantian pellet, the pellet soared into the sky and made crackling sounds. At the same time, the spiritual energy within Lin Yun’s body was flowing away from him like a tidal wave.

His face turned pale and the Iris Flower in his Dantian opened up, releasing spiritual energy like tidal waves. The pure spiritual energy flowed into the Xiantian pellet. In just a short moment, Lin Yun was covered in sweat. It felt as if he had undergone a tough battle. Not only was the majority of his spiritual energy consumed, but he was also mentally exhausted.

Hisss!

The pellet began to release white smoke, reaching a higher purity.

“Did I make it?” Lin Yun’s expression was solemn. He wiped the sweat on his forehead. When the smoke was cleared, he carefully went up to the pellet. He wasn’t sure if he succeeded, but then he saw a white pellet right before him.

“If I remember correctly, the pellet should be crimson red.” Lin Yun reached out for the pellet with perplexion. When the pill fell on his palm, he took a deep breath and looked at it. The pellet felt heavy!

Lin Yun could sense that the pellet was instantly ten times heavier than before. What surprised Lin Yun, even more, was that there was a small concentrated Iris Flower at the bottom of the pill. But the flower looked rather rough. It wasn’t as delicate as he had imagined.

But from the outline, he could tell that it was the Violet Iris Flower. As he counted, there were exactly thirty petals.

“Why is the Violet Iris Flower branded on it? Interesting…” A smile rose on the corner of Lin Yun’s lips. He played around with the pellet and started to think.

He had no knowledge about alchemy, but thanks to the bamboo slip, he managed to re-refine a pellet. If the effects of this pellet were decent, it would prove that the true essence of alchemy was in the runes.

He had no reason to refuse to eat it. If it were someone else, they would probably hesitate over eating the pellet. But Lin Yun was decisive. When the white pellet entered his mouth, he gently swallowed and brought it to his stomach.

Compared to other pellets, it felt like he was eating stone. The pellet showed no signs of dissolving in his stomach. Furthermore, there wasn’t a slightest trace of medicinal effect releasing from the pellet.

“What’s going on?” When Lin Yun started to feel baffled, the white pellet started traveling towards the Iris Flower in his Dantian. With a thought, he opened up the Iris Flower and swallowed the pellet before he sat down and circulated the sword sutra.

Whoosh!

The instant he circulated his cultivation technique, the white pellet began to release an astonishing amount of medicinal effect. The rate that the pellet was releasing the medicinal effect was explosive. It had exploded inside the Iris Flower. Most of the spiritual energy that he had exhausted was recovered in an instant. But that wasn’t all because the majority of the medicinal effect was still in the pellet.

His cultivation that was stopped in the fifth orifice began to grow under the pellet’s medicinal effect. Lin Yun’s heart jolted when he discovered that because the pellet was only a Xiantian Pellet! In the past when he refined Xiantian Pellets, it was just like eating and drinking. There was no way he could improve his cultivation unless he ate hundreds of them.

Xiantian Pellets were important for cultivation, just like how mortals drank water. The cultivation in the Xiantian Realm relied heavily on Xiantian Pellets. But those were just foundation pellets and there wasn't anything special about them.

But right now, this white pellet had completely supplanted Lin Yun’s thoughts. The spiritual energy coming out of the pellet was so pure that it could be completely absorbed by his sword sutra without being wasted. So how could this still be considered a foundation pellet?

After he finished refining the white pellet, Lin Yun was shocked to discover that the Iris Flower in his Dantian had grown from thirty petals to thirty-one! But he still hadn’t reached completion in it. After all, he needed thirty-six petals for the sixth orifice of the Xiantian Realm.

When Lin Yun opened his eyes, they sparkled with unconcealable joy. The Age Sutra had given him a great surprise!

At the same time, in a luxurious courtyard located in the inner city, Wang Yan was huddled with a group of youths. This was Wang Yan’s private residence that was given to him by the Wang Clan. For the Wang Clan to distribute houses in the capital’s inner city meant that they were extremely wealthy.

On the other hand, it also signified Wang Yan’s importance in the Wang Clan. Aside from Wang Yan were the teenagers who were seeded candidates of the Sword Firmament Pavilion. Their demeanors were extraordinary, containing just a touch of arrogance.

One of the teenagers even had cultivation in the Profound Martial Realm. It was an indifferent youth, the genius of the Leng Clan, that Wang Yan had placed great hope in.

The Leng Clan could be considered an aristocratic clan with thousands of years of heritage. It might not be comparable to the four major clans, but it wasn’t simple.

“Brother Yan, why didn’t I see the second young master around?” asked one of the teenagers.

“He’s currently in secluded cultivation. The clan gifted him a Profound Breaking Pellet for him to reach the Profound Martial Realm in three days.” Wang Yan replied.

As soon as he said that, the eyes of the other youths lit up with envy. The Wang Clan truly deserved to be one of the four major clans. Their foundation ran so deep that they could even give out the Profound Breaking Pellet so casually. Although their families also had Profound Breaking Pellets, it wasn’t something that could be given out so easily.

“Brother Yan, I looked into it... that brat is pretty smart to hole up in an inn located in the inner city.” Another teenager spoke out. “Do you want me to get someone to cripple him?”

Wang Yan waved his hand and replied, “There are too many eyes and ears around because many elites are gathered in the capital. Since that fellow is hiding in the inner city, let him enjoy his life for a few more days. There’ll be a chance for us to get rid of him three days from now.”

“You mean the examination three days from now?” Leng Mo raised his brow.

“You don’t have to worry about this. You have other tasks in the examination. He’s just a piece of trash in the fifth orifice of the Xiantian Realm. Not to mention that he still hasn’t grasped the complete sword intent, so there’s no need to worry about him.” Wang Yan nodded his head.

“But Elder Luo seems to be rather fond of him. What if…”

“I’ve naturally thought of that. With that old geezer around, it’s practically impossible to kill that brat. But I already have a countermeasure in place. Don’t worry about it.” Wang Yan replied indifferently. “The reason why I called you guys here is not for that brat. That brat isn’t worthy of our time. I’m calling you guys here because of the examination three days from now.”

“What’s the examination?”

“I can’t tell you about the details, but I can give you guys some gifts in advance.” Wang Yan smiled mysteriously and clapped his hands.

A few disciples wearing the Sword Firmament Pavilion’s uniform walked in with a few sword cases. “You’re not allowed to use Cosmic Treasures in the examination, so I got people to prepare top-notch Profound Artifacts. All of them have been soaked in the Sword Firmament Pavilion’s Blood Pool. Go ahead and pick one.”

“Thank you, Brother Yan.” The teenagers were feeling excited. They were strong and the addition of the swords would raise their strength by a notch.