After looking at the place, Gu Han and the others let out a heartfelt exclamation. “It’s so grand!”

The palace was almost ten times larger than the outer palaces. Though dilapidated and worn, it still retained some grandeur. One couldn’t help but imagine how majestic and imposing it must have been in its prime.

A large plaque hung high above it, mottled beyond recognition. Only the two words “Profound Pill” were faintly visible.

Gu Han took a deep breath. “Let’s go in. There must be plenty of good stuff in here!”

Judging solely by its scale, he was certain there would be pills even those above the Transcendent realm could use. Saint realm pills were extremely likely as well!

Thinking of this, he set aside his thoughts and entered the palace. Nothing could have prepared him for the sight that awaited him.

Like Di Kan earlier, he was somewhat dazed. “Where are the pills?! Where are my pills?!”

The other three were also dumbfounded. Well, the place wasn’t exactly empty. A massive pill furnace stood at the center. It was three zhang tall, black, and missing a small portion. Countless patterns of spirit herbs and exotic fruits, along with indecipherable names, were engraved on the furnace. Under the erosion of time, most had become blurry and indistinct, requiring closer inspection.

The area behind the pill furnace was divided into over a hundred pill chambers, each about one zhang square. The restrictive formations had long since disappeared, allowing one to see the furnishings at a glance. They were astonishingly simple and uniform—just two rows of decayed jade shelves and a damaged pill furnace. Other than that, there was nothing else. Perhaps there once was, but now there wasn’t.

Unlike the outer palace, the jade shelves had neither restrictions covering them, nor any pill bottles remaining. They were even cleaner than the wooden shelves Gu Han and the others had looted earlier. At least those wooden shelves still had many ruined pills left.

Gu Han turned to the humanoid figure in utter bewilderment. “How could there be nothing?”

Of course, the humanoid figure couldn’t answer him.

Shen Xuan frowned slightly. “Logically, this palace is definitely an important site. If all those pills outside could be preserved so well, there should be even more such pills here. But now...”

Yang Ying sighed. “You can also look at it from another angle. Perhaps there were originally no pills here, so there was no need for protection.”

Shen Xuan’s frown deepened. “But that doesn’t make sense. Since there are pill chambers here, it implies that alchemists existed. Even if they didn’t refine pills frequently, they absolutely wouldn’t be short of pills.”

As a side note, the Yuqing Sect also had an alchemy institute. Their alchemists were all extremely wealthy, like walking treasure vaults. They would want nothing to do with this place.

Yang Ying didn’t speak, clearly a bit puzzled as well.

Suddenly, Murong Yan pointed at one of the pill chambers. “Here! It looks like there are still a few pill bottles in there!”

The jade shelves within were similarly decayed, as if the slightest touch would turn them to powder. However, there were several pill bottles on them, covered by a thick layer of dust.

Gu Han’s spirits lifted. “Let’s go check it out!”

Upon entering the pill chamber, he was disappointed again. Unprotected by restrictions, the pill bottles had long since faded from their original color. Their contents had either crumbled to dust or completely lost their medicinal efficacy, leaving only ruined pills.

Shen Xuan sighed. “Forget it. Let’s head back since there’s nothing here at all.”

Gu Han shook his head. “No! Since we’re here, at the very least, we should see what kind of pills were once in these bottles!”

With a wave of his hand, the thick layer of dust on the jade shelves and pill bottles was swept clean.

After seeing the somewhat blurry descriptions on the pill bottles, they frowned again.

“What kind of pills are these?”

Green Wood Profound Spirit Pill... taken by those below... realm, immune to divine power for half an hour.

... Profound Armor Pill: taken by those below the Saint realm, immune to divine might suppression for half an hour.

Wu Fire Profound Divine Pill: taken by those in the Saint realm, immune to divine core for... hours...

Divine might? Divine power? Divine core? What are these things?

Murong Yan scratched her head. “It sounds familiar...”

Shen Xuan’s heart stirred. “Could it be related to the thing inside the God-Slaying Formation? The supreme elder also said that a divine corpse was sealed there!”

After the secret realm incident, the two had specifically sought advice from Murong Yuan about the God-Slaying Formation matter and had learned some of the secrets. However, since Murong Yuan’s knowledge was limited, their understanding of the divine corpse was far less than Gu Han’s.

Gu Han was very certain that it was related to the God-Slaying Formation. The divine power and divine might were definitely inseparable from the three-eyed, six-armed giant. After all, according to the shadow, only they dared to call themselves gods among the myriad species.

His heart stirred. Could the Profound Pill Pavilion be connected to the earth-shattering battle from the Primordial Era that the black shadow had mentioned?

Just as he was lost in thought, Shen Xuan’s voice came over. “Brother Gu, since there are no pills here, let’s go check elsewhere.”

Gu Han shook his head. “Hold on. I have a really strange feeling about this place.”

When he swept his sleeve, spirit qi instantly rolled through, sweeping the dust inside this pill chamber clean in one go. A somewhat blurry number was revealed on the mottled black stone.

They were stunned again. “Hmm?”

Ninety-seven? What does that mean?

***

Meanwhile, having guessed the truth of the matter, Chu Kuang and the others grew even more exasperated.

“This is too much!”

“Exactly! Eighty percent of the opportunities were taken by him!”

“He actually dared to hog it all!”

“He took the prize and left us crumbs? That’s unfair!”

The group of followers cursed Gu Han loudly. In fact, Gu Han actually wanted to leave them some.

Wu Han’s face was dark. “No! We can’t let him take everything!”

Qi Jun nodded. “Yeah! We have to make him give up half—no, give up seventy percent and share it with us!”

Di Kan was full of sarcasm. “Go ahead then! After being beaten and sent running for your lives by him, how do you still have the face to say such things?”

“I—”

Chu Kuang raised his voice slightly, stopping their argument. “That’s enough! Now is not the time for arguments. As you can see, he has almost swept all the pills clean. Where do you think he will go next?”

Their hearts sank. The central region!

Having cleared the outer palaces, Gu Han would definitely go to the largest palace and the giant tower. In fact, that was also their plan. Gu Han had simply beaten them to it.

Chu Kuang’s gaze was deep. “Moreover, he breaks restrictions so quickly, far surpassing us. He clearly has special means to break them! If we keep dragging our feet, there won’t be any left for us! Our trip would’ve been for naught!”

Di Kan listened with a cold laugh. “That’s not a bad analysis. Why don’t you go find him? Haven’t you suffered enough at his hands?”

Chu Kuang’s gaze intensified with coldness. “I learned it the hard way. No one can beat him in one-on-one combat for now. Even with the three of us combined, he still had the upper hand. But what if the five of us cooperate?”

Zhao Mengyou’s heart stirred. “Us five? You mean—”

Chu Kuang took a deep breath, suppressing his hatred for her. “Exactly! Let’s work together and corner him! No matter how strong he is, he definitely cannot withstand the combined force of all of us!”

Di Kan was somewhat tempted. “You saw that humanoid figure behind him. It was very strange!”

“Don’t worry. That humanoid figure doesn’t seem to have its own consciousness. It just follows him instinctively. As long as we suppress him, we don’t have to fear that humanoid figure!” Chu Kuang seemed to have thought of this long ago. “Think about it carefully. He had taken all the pills. Even if the pavilion were to appear again in the future, it’d just be some useless ruins!”

Di Kan fell silent. He knew very well that Gu Han was uprooting the very foundation of the Profound Pill Pavilion. Its opportunities were essentially gone for good.

In an instant, he made up his mind. “Let’s make one thing clear! If he refuses to give in and it becomes a life-or-death struggle, I won’t be the first to step up. Of course, I won’t take advantage of you either. If you contribute more, I won’t mind you taking a larger share.”

Earlier, he had gotten his hands on pills for increasing cultivation. Knowing full well how precious such pills were, he didn’t want to give them up unless absolutely necessary.

Zhao Mengyou said calmly, “Me too. Going together is fine, but I won’t go all out against him. It depends on how you decide to plan this out.”

Only she knew that Gu Han was backed not only by the Great Flame Imperial Dynasty, but also by Zuo Yang’s Holy Land, with its unfathomable depths and heritage.

Wu Han sneered. “You wish! So you’re just planning to tag along, scare him a little, and leave the fighting to us! There’s no such good deal in the world—”

Chu Kuang waved his hand, interrupting him. “Whatever. I agree.”

“This absolutely won’t—”

Chu Kuang glanced at him. “Oh? Do you have any other plans then?”

Wu Han’s words caught in his throat. Of course he didn’t. If he disagreed, he feared he could only watch Gu Han feast here while silently drooling, wondering whether any leftover bones would be thrown their way.

Upon seeing that an agreement had been reached, Chu Kuang stopped hesitating. “There’s no time to lose. We need to hurry over. The later we go, the more he’ll take.”

Di Kan pointed at that palace. “Wait! What about the things here?”

Suppressing the anger in his heart, Chu Kuang spat. “Split them equally!”

In his confrontations with Gu Han, he had failed repeatedly. By now, the bit of mindset he once had as a Saint realm expert had nearly been worn away.

***

Inside the pill chamber, Shen Xuan frowned deeply. “Ninety-seven? What does it mean?”

Gu Han thought for a moment. “Let’s check if the other pill chambers have similar numbers.”

“Alright!”

They inspected all the pill chambers in an instant.

“There’s one here!”

“There’s one here too!”

“The number here is somewhat blurry and hard to make out, but there is one too!”

After gathering again, they had already figured out the meaning of these numbers. Ninety-seven was most likely the pill chamber’s number. Every pill chamber had one, the smallest being forty-six, the largest one hundred fifty-seven. They exactly corresponded to the one hundred and twelve pill chambers inside the palace.

Gu Han was deep in thought.

“Forty-six? It seems the numbering of the pill chambers here starts from forty-six. Where are the previous pill chambers?” He subconsciously looked at the humanoid figure. “Do you know where they are?”

As usual, the humanoid figure didn’t react. Gu Han didn’t actually expect it to. Still, after spending so much time with the humanoid figure, he formed a habit of talking to him.

“Well... Since there’s a number forty-six, there must be a number forty-five. Where exactly is this number forty-five pill chamber?”

Unexpectedly, it seemed the number forty-five held special significance for the humanoid figure. He trembled slightly and moved again.

Their eyes widened. “He moved again?”

The humanoid figure ignored them and slowly drifted. For the first time, it left Gu Han’s side, passing through numerous pill chambers and walls, disappearing from their sight.

The direction it was heading in was unmistakably the giant tower!