129: Chapter 129 This is for Master; Yu Yao is extremely jealous.

Below the Alchemy platform.

Lu Chen took the white jade bottle from his bosom and weighed it in his hand.

Ten pills.

He calculated in his mind: one pill extends life by two hundred years, so ten pills meant two thousand years.

His Revered Master, Ling Yuling, lay within the undying divine coffin; he knew the rate at which her Lifespan was exhausting better than anyone.

Two thousand years would be enough for her to hold on until he found a permanent solution.

Lu Chen's thumb brushed over the bottle, then he tucked the jade bottle back into his bosom, close to his heart.

Of these, not a single one could be missing.

Ye Qingxian hung onto his arm, looking up at him with her small face.

"Revered Master, is Grandmaster's condition very serious?"

"It's fine." Lu Chen patted her head.

"With Revered Master here, the sky won't fall."

Ye Qingxian nodded and buried her face in his sleeve, asking no more.

Lu Chen turned, preparing to lead them away from the square.

A white shadow drifted down from the nine-layered high platform.

There was no spiritual light or fluctuations of magical power; only the hem of her clothes caught the wind as her plain white skirt unfurled in mid-air, kicking up not a single speck of dust as she landed.

Yu Yao stood three paces in front of Lu Chen. Her jasper hairpin atop her Flying Immortal bun reflected the setting sun slightly, while a few stray strands of hair fell from her ears onto her collarbone.

The belt of her plain white palace dress was neither tight nor loose, cinching her waist into a curve. Above, the fabric was stretched full, and below, the skirt fell along the long outline of her thighs.

She stood there without makeup, her entire aura composed to the bone.

But those eyes were not composed.

Her phoenix eyes slanted upward slightly, the light in them complex: three parts amusement, three parts resentment, and four parts deeply hidden grievance.

The noise in the square instantly quieted as tens of thousands of eyes looked over in unison.

Former Holy Lord of Yaochi, emperor grade Alchemist, Fifth-level Quasi-Emperor.

For a figure of this level to personally fly down from the judges' seats, and specifically toward that black-robed youth.

Lu Chen's footsteps stopped. Yu Yao sent a voice transmission.

"Lu Chen."

Two words, the final sound lingering slightly, carrying a charm refined over hundreds of years.

"It's been hundreds of years; you've finally deigned to show yourself."

She took a step forward, leaving only two paces between her and Lu Chen. She looked up, her phoenix eyes fixed on his, her lips curving slightly, though the smile didn't reach her eyes.

"This Divine Pill—don't you plan to leave one for an old friend?"

When she said the words "old friend," she raised her right hand and lightly tapped her chest with her index finger.

The movement was light and casual, but combined with her slight forward lean and those misty phoenix eyes, she exuded a laziness and coquettishness unique to an older sister figure.

It wasn't a questioning; it was acting spoiled—the spoiled behavior of a Fifth-level Quasi-Emperor.

The square was silent for three breaths.

Then it exploded.

"Old friend? What old friend!" "The former Holy Lord of Yaochi has a history with that youth?" "My god, here comes another one?"

Lu Chen's temples throbbed twice.

He gave a dry cough, pulled Ye Qingxian off his arm, and took half a step back.

"Sister Yu Yao."

His tone was as steady as possible.

"It's not that I won't give it to you; this is life-saving medicine for my Revered Master. All ten must be kept."

Yu Yao's eyelashes trembled.

She didn't respond but tilted her head, her gaze passing over Lu Chen's shoulder to sweep behind him.

Ji Ziyue stood on the right, holding a fruit plate. The narrow waist of her purple Flowing Immortal dress was cinched tight. Her phoenix eyes were full of smiles as she watched.

Nangong Ziyi leaned against a stone pillar with her arms crossed, the scrutiny in her peach-blossom eyes completely undisguised.

Yu Yao withdrew her gaze, her lips curling slightly.

"Your Revered Master?"

She tilted her head, her phoenix eyes curving, her voice slow and leisurely.

"I don't believe you."

Lu Chen: "..."

These few words left him unable to respond.

He indeed refined them for his Revered Master, but with three women standing around him, Nangong Ziyi's dragon-inverting phoenix-overturning pill in his bosom, and Ji Ziyue having just touched him in public...

To anyone looking at this scene, it didn't look like he was refining pills for his Revered Master.

Yu Yao didn't give him a chance to explain.

She took another step forward.

There was only half an arm's length between them. Yu Yao's height reached Lu Chen's chin; as she tilted her head slightly, her breath brushed against his collar.

A jasper anklet was partially visible beneath her skirt, her fair ankles slender.

"Do you know?"

Yu Yao's voice suddenly dropped, her smile vanished, and the light in her phoenix eyes changed.

"That girl Yao Xi, for your sake, spends all day staring blankly at that wooden hairpin you gave her."

She paused for a breath.

"She has already developed a Heart Demon. She's stuck at the Peak of the Saint Realm, unable to Breakthrough to the Supreme Realm."

The discussions in the square grew louder, but Lu Chen could no longer hear them.

A Heart Demon—a Heart Demon born because of him.

He thought of Yao Xi, the current Holy Lord of Yaochi back then. Her personality had been fierce; she had hunted him for three months after he stole her bellyband.

Later, they became friends and explored Secret Realms together. Even after he became an Emperor, Yao Xi had long stopped hunting him, the little thief who stole her bellyband. Instead, every few decades, she would have someone bring a letter to Yunxiao Holy Land.

The content of the letter was always just one sentence: Return my bellyband.

He had never returned it—not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't dare go back.

Because he knew in his heart that what Yao Xi wanted wasn't the bellyband.

A while ago, to coax her into leaving, he had promised he would visit Yaochi later.

Now, hearing the words "Heart Demon," Lu Chen's chest felt tight.

He was silent for five breaths, then sighed.

He reached into his bosom, took out the white jade bottle, uncorked it, and poured out one green creation green lotus longevity pill.

The pill landed in his palm, green light swirling, medicinal fragrance diffusing.

He held the pill out to Yu Yao.

"This one is for Yaochi."

His voice transmission was audible only to Yu Yao and himself.

"When I have time in the future, I will naturally visit Yaochi to see Yao Xi."

The moment Yu Yao's fingers touched the pill, her fingertips trembled slightly.

She looked down at the green pill in her palm, her eyelashes lowering to hide the light in her eyes.

Three breaths later, she looked up.

The resentment in her phoenix eyes faded slightly, replaced by a very complex expression.

"There's no day like..."

Her words stopped halfway because the sky changed, without any warning.

Above Holy Pill City, the horizon originally dyed red by the setting sun suddenly lost all color at this moment.

It wasn't darkening; it was being erased.

As if someone were using an invisible hand to wipe away the colors of the entire sky.

Then, the Emperors Might arrived—overwhelming, vast, and holy to the extreme.

That Emperors Might didn't come from afar; it descended directly above Holy Pill City, without direction or source, as if an ancient, indescribable existence had appeared out of thin air between heaven and earth.

Ji Ziyue's void mirror manifested of its own accord, yet it buzzed and trembled before the Emperors Might.

She gritted her teeth, barely managing to half-kneel to protect Ye Qingxian and Nangong Ziyi.

Yu Yao recognized this Emperors Might.

Lu Chen didn't kneel. He stood where he was, his black robes flapping loudly.

He looked up at the sky that had lost its color.

Deep in his eyes, a flicker of extremely rare solemnity passed; time and space here seemed to be completely frozen at this moment.