"Patriarch, you promised me that I would have complete authority over the apothecary! How do you explain what happened today?"

Luo Xiang demanded angrily. Although he was only a family elder, as the Luo family’s strongest Alchemist, he wasn’t afraid of Luo Min.

Luo Min frowned. "I came here today to discuss something with you. Young Master Ye plans to enter the Pill market and take charge of the apothecary, so I brought him to have a look. What just happened was an accident."

"What? He’s going to enter the Pill market?" Luo Xiang glared at Ye Xuan, his face a mask of disbelief. He ground out, "Patriarch, this man knows nothing about Alchemy! He speaks casually during a refinement and ruins the whole process. A person like that is going to enter the world of Pills? He’ll bankrupt the Luo family! Patriarch, you have to reconsider!"

Ye Xuan gave him a pitying look, as if staring at an idiot. He said, speechless, "Patriarch Luo, now I finally understand why the Luo family’s Pill business is failing. How could it possibly succeed with an Alchemist like this? Someone who can’t even figure out why his own refinement failed... and he’s your chief Alchemist?"

"What the hell do you know? I am a top-tier Fifth Grade Alchemist with profound skill! If you hadn’t spoken and ruined my refinement, my Venerable Ascension Pill would have been completed long ago!"

Luo Xiang roared.

"Is that so? The Venerable Ascension Pill requires twenty-one ingredients in total: four primary and seventeen auxiliary. The entire process requires twenty-four refinement techniques. Not only did you add the Giant Fleeceflower at the wrong time, but you also made five mistakes in your technique before that. That’s why you failed. What in the world does that have to do with me speaking?"

Ye Xuan said with a cold smile.

Luo Xiang was stunned. ’How does this kid know the number of ingredients and techniques for the Venerable Ascension Pill?’ he thought.

But he quickly recovered and roared, "Kid, don’t think you can act all high and mighty just because you know the formula! Before I began, I conducted meticulous research. The timing for every Hand Skill and every ingredient was calculated with extreme precision to achieve a perfect result! Where exactly did you see me make a mistake?"

After talking for a while, Luo Xiang slapped his own forehead and said angrily, "Why am I explaining myself to this little brat? Patriarch, we can discuss anything else, but I will absolutely not agree to letting a kid like this take charge of the apothecary."

Ye Xuan looked at Luo Xiang as if he were an idiot, an expression of utter hopelessness on his face. "’The timing for every Hand Skill and every ingredient was calculated with extreme precision’? If this is what passes for a top-tier Fifth Grade Alchemist, I suggest you go back to the beginner classes at the Alchemist Association and start over."

A sharp light gleamed in Ye Xuan’s eyes. "The Venerable Ascension Pill is difficult, a top-tier Fifth Grade Pill, precisely because its refinement method isn’t set in stone. You should know that even between different stalks of the same Spirit Medicine, there are subtle variations. For most Pills, these minor differences can be ignored. But the Venerable Ascension Pill is different. The attention to detail must be perfect. An Alchemist has to constantly adjust their techniques based on the reactions inside the Pill Furnace, not just rigidly follow a memorized set of steps like you do."

Ye Xuan walked up to the Profound Fire Array, swept Luo Xiang’s Pill Furnace aside, then took out his own Pill Furnace and placed it above the Array.

He rapidly formed a series of Hand Skills. After a dazzling, butterfly-like flurry of movements, thirty-six streams of Profound Fire erupted from the Profound Fire Array. Like stars gathering around the moon, they cradled the Pill Furnace, suspending it in mid-air.

Next, Ye Xuan began pulling ingredients from his Storage Ring. All twenty-one were quickly laid out. Then, in full view of the stunned crowd, he swiftly tossed the first eleven ingredients into the furnace and began the refinement.

Luo Xiang’s eye twitched, and his heart pounded in shock.

Before, he had thought Ye Xuan merely knew the number of ingredients and techniques required. But from the ingredients he chose and the refinement methods he was now using, it was clear that Ye Xuan knew the *complete* formula for the Venerable Ascension Pill.

What shocked Luo Xiang even more was that Ye Xuan had casually produced all twenty-one ingredients from his Storage Ring. He had no idea where the boy had acquired them.

But what he found most unbelievable was that Ye Xuan had actually begun to refine the Venerable Ascension Pill right in front of everyone.

"You’re an Alchemist too, kid?"

Luo Xiang cried out in astonishment, glancing at Patriarch Luo Min.

Patriarch Luo Min was just as confused. He’d heard that Young Master Ye was skilled in Artifact Refining, but he had no idea the young man was also an Alchemist.

"Hmph. What’s so surprising about me being an Alchemist? The Venerable Ascension Pill might be one of the most difficult Fifth Grade Pills, but that’s only for incompetent Alchemists. Since it’s classified as Fifth Grade, it means any Fifth Grade Alchemist *should* be able to refine it. Once you master its key principles, it’s actually quite easy."

Ye Xuan sneered as his hands moved, forming one Hand Skill after another. The movements were as fluid as running water, possessing a captivating, artistic grace.

"What, he’s going to refine the Venerable Ascension Pill?!"

"Could this young man be a Fifth Grade Alchemist?"

"Unlikely. Look at his age—he can’t be more than twenty. He’s younger than the youngest person here. When I was his age, I wasn’t even a First Grade Alchemist."

"He must be bluffing."

Everyone in the room was stunned. They stared, dumbfounded, shaking their heads in disbelief.

"He’s definitely bluffing. Can’t you see? The guy isn’t giving off any Profound Sense fluctuations at all," a Second Grade Alchemist sneered after observing for a moment.

"Idiot! It’s not that he has no Profound Sense fluctuations; it’s that they are perfectly contained! He’s not wasting a single shred, focusing it all on controlling the Profound Fire Array and the reactions in the Pill Furnace. His Profound Sense has to be at least at the Fifth Grade!"

a Fourth Grade Alchemist said, his face a mask of shock.

"No way, Elder Fang... Doesn’t that mean he’s at least a Tier Five Martial Sect? When I was his age, I think I was still playing in the mud!"

"Bullshit! Playing in the mud my ass! You were still playing in the mud at eighteen? Your own bastard son is probably the one playing in the mud!"

"And who was it that said he had no Profound Sense fluctuations? Can you activate a Profound Fire Array without Profound Sense? Can you control a furnace for Alchemy? I’m ashamed to be in the same room as such an idiot."

The room erupted with noisy chatter as everyone stared, dumbfounded.

But what Ye Xuan did next was so shocking their jaws dropped and their eyes nearly popped out of their heads.

They watched as Ye Xuan rapidly tossed in herb after herb. In the space of just a few breaths, he had thrown all of the nearly ten remaining ingredients into the furnace.

"Holy hell, who refines like that?!"

"Oh no, the furnace is definitely going to explode again!"

"He’s got a death wish, and he’s taking us with him!"

All the Alchemists looked terrified, as if facing a mortal enemy. They hastily channeled their Profound Power, forming protective shields in front of them.

In the refinement process of any Pill, there are strict requirements for the timing of adding materials. It must be done step by step, with absolutely no room for error.

An act like Ye Xuan’s—tossing all the final-stage ingredients into the Pill Furnace at once—would absolutely cause the furnace to explode. It was no different from suicide.

Behind their Profound Power shields, the Alchemists were on high alert. Some covered their faces, others their crotches, creating a pathetic spectacle.

"Explode, my ass!" Ye Xuan scoffed. "There are no fixed rules or timing for refining a Venerable Ascension Pill! It all comes down to the Alchemist’s control. A true Fifth Grade Alchemist who has perfectly mastered the pharmacological properties and has absolute control over the reactions can add the ingredients however they want and still perfectly refine the Pill!"

Ye Xuan scoffed, and the Hand Skills formed by his hands became a blur, like incorporeal phantoms. He shot one Profound Seal after another into the Pill Furnace, weaving them into the refinement.

"This technique... This feeling..."

Though Ye Xuan’s speed was incredible, in Luo Xiang’s eyes, it evoked a completely different sensation. He felt that Ye Xuan’s every movement was exquisitely refined to the highest degree, like a work of divine craftsmanship, possessing a transcendent, otherworldly grace.

A faint, divine aura emanated from the process, something profoundly elegant and utterly indescribable.

He simply stared, completely mesmerized.

It wasn’t just him. All the other Alchemists’ eyes grew hazy, completely entranced. Alchemists of different ranks gained different levels of insight from watching, and a feeling of comfort washed over them, like returning to a mother’s embrace.

Their gazes became reverent. As they watched Ye Xuan’s movements, inspiration flashed through their minds. Problems that had stumped them for years suddenly melted away like ice under a scorching sun. It was a moment of pure epiphany.

At this moment, tears welled up in the eyes of many.

Even Patriarch Luo Min, who knew nothing about Alchemy, felt an incredible sense of comfort. At that moment, Ye Xuan seemed to be radiating a brilliant light, his flashing figure the only thing visible in the entire room.

An unknown amount of time passed before Ye Xuan’s movements finally stopped.

A rich, pure fragrance permeated the room. Everyone who smelled it felt the Profound Power within them stir restlessly, on the verge of surging.

"The Venerable Ascension Pill... he actually succeeded in refining the Venerable Ascension Pill."

Everyone snapped out of their enlightened state, tears streaming down their faces.

"This medicinal fragrance... that’s a supreme-grade Venerable Ascension Pill!"

"Too incredible... Could this boy be the Pill God descended to the mortal world?"

"Pills can actually be refined like this... It’s been a real eye-opener, a real eye-opener."

The Alchemists were all shell-shocked, muttering to themselves. They were so stunned they couldn’t muster any other emotion.

"Such godly skill... The most terrifying part is that he added so many ingredients at once and didn’t cause the furnace to explode."

"Explode, my ass! Who was it just now that said it was going to explode?"

WHAM! BAM! THUD!

The Alchemist who had just predicted an explosion was pummeled by a flurry of fists until his face was swollen like a pig’s head.