405: Chapter 405 The Solution!

Lu Li turned his head and, in a very uncertain, questioning tone, murmured in a childish voice: "Wouldn't this blow up the Pill Furnace? I remember when my father was doing Alchemy at home, he told me that Yin and Yang must be in harmony and cannot clash head-on; there must be a neutral medicinal ingredient capable of bearing these two extreme forces.

"Is the most critical missing ingredient in this incomplete puzzle... the Zhongtian Xuanhuang Ginseng?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the corridor, which had been filled with sighs, instantly fell into a deathly silence. You could hear a pin drop!

Those Alchemy Elders, who had just been frowning and looking as if they would pass away the next second, were stunned upon hearing that name. Then, their entire bodies shook violently, and they instantly widened their bloodshot eyes, their mouths agape wide enough to fit a spiritual fruit, as if they had been struck by the Nine Heavens Profound Thunder in broad daylight!

"Zhongtian Xuanhuang Ginseng?"

"That's it! That's it! How did I not think of that!" One Elder slapped his thigh in excitement and sprang up from the ground: "The medicinal properties of the Nine-Leaf Soul-Returning Herb and the Blazing Sun Vermilion Fruit clash like water and fire; ordinary Immortal Plants would be destroyed upon contact! Only the Zhongtian Xuanhuang Ginseng, which contains a trace of the Earth Mother Qi and possesses an extremely gentle and inclusive Earth-element power, can serve as a bridge to perfectly achieve the Fusion of these two extreme medicinal forces!"

"Wonderful! Simply marvelous! This isn't just completing an incomplete Pill Formula; this is a stroke of Genius that brings the whole thing to life!"

These few old monsters, who had lived for over a hundred thousand years combined, were trembling with excitement, their beards quivering.

They even scrambled toward the gate, immediately following the train of thought Lu Li had "inadvertently" suggested, and began to re-derive the Formation runes.

Standing to the side, Fairy Linglong looked at Lu Li in utter disbelief, her red lips slightly parted, unable to close for a long time.

This brat... a greenhouse flower pampered by Ancestor Qingyun, actually understands ancient Pill Formulas?

Moreover, he actually solved this ancient deadlock in one sentence, a puzzle that even several Alchemy Grandmasters couldn't crack together?

"Little Li, you..." She walked quickly to Lu Li's side, her gaze filled with scrutiny and shock: "How did you know it was the Zhongtian Xuanhuang Ginseng?"

Lu Li turned his head, looked at Fairy Linglong's shocked expression, reached out to scratch the back of his head, and revealed a "simple and clear" smile.

"Sister Linglong, what do I know about profound ancient Pill Formulas?"

He pouted, his tone very innocent: "I just looked at those two names, one with 'soul' and one with 'sun', and felt they definitely wouldn't get along and would fight, so I just said it randomly.

Before, when my father was refining those black Medicinal Pills at home, he liked to throw the Zhongtian Xuanhuang Ginseng into the Pill Furnace at random. He even lied to me and said that it was a universal ingredient, and that it would never be wrong to put it in.

Sister Linglong, did I guess wrong? Why do those old grandpas look like they've gone crazy..."

With this appearance of being naive and innocent, no one who saw him would think he was a hidden, deep-thinking Alchemy expert.

"So that's it..."

Fairy Linglong's tense heartstrings secretly relaxed, and the suspicion in her eyes dissipated accordingly.

"So it was just a lucky guess, a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse."

She secretly slandered in her heart: "This Ancestor Qingyun is truly wasting precious things. To think he would treat the Zhongtian Xuanhuang Ginseng, which is worth a thousand gold in the outside world, as a universal ingredient to be thrown around casually? However, this brat's luck is just too Heaven-Defying, isn't it?"

Now that they had the most critical Breakthrough point, the remaining complex derivations were just a matter of time for these experienced Alchemy Elders.

In the following derivations, whenever the Elders got stuck at some subtle Law node, Lu Li would occasionally "unintentionally" interject a sentence or two. For example, he would point to a certain rune and say: "Eh? It looks like a leaf is missing from that plant..."

Or he would point to the Formation patterns at the bottom of the Pill Furnace and mutter: "The rune for that heat is drawn larger than when my father does Alchemy. Won't the medicine get scorched?"

These seemingly childish and illogical ramblings, when heard by those Elders, were like the ringing of a great bell, each time causing them to have a sudden realization and exclaim repeatedly.

In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, this ancient Alchemy deadlock, which had once left several Profound Immortal Elders helpless and even nearly cost them their lives, was miraculously and perfectly completed under Lu Li's "unconscious" guidance!

"Rumble—!"

As the last incomplete rune was lit, the entire gate erupted with a brilliant purple-gold light.

Immediately after, a dull and ancient mechanical roar sounded, and the door to the side hall, which had been tightly closed for who knows how many ten thousand years, slowly opened to both sides.

In an instant, a peerless medicinal fragrance, so dense that just taking a breath made one's pores relax, surged out from behind the door like a tide, accompanied by an ancient and vast Immortal Qi.

"It opened! It really opened!"

Those Elders were so excited that tears streamed down their old faces. If not for their status, they would have likely knelt on the ground to thank the sages by now.

At this moment, the look in Fairy Linglong's eyes when she looked at Lu Li had quietly undergone a subtle change.

Although Lu Li kept insisting that it was a lucky guess and that everything was due to his father's "blind teaching," one time could be a coincidence, but could two or three times all be coincidences?

This child's innate Comprehension Ability in Alchemy, or rather, that Dao intuition capable of ignoring complex appearances and pointing directly to the Origin, was simply terrifying to the extreme!

"If I can find a way to completely subdue him, erase Ancestor Qingyun's mark, and bring him back to the Taixuan Immortal Sect..." Fairy Linglong calculated secretly in her heart, her heartbeat involuntarily accelerating: "The Sect will not only gain his Heaven-Defying Chaos Body as a super combat force, but perhaps, in time, we could even cultivate a future Alchemy Grandmaster capable of refining a Nine-Turn Immortal Pill!"

Such dual value was enough to make the entire Cultivation World go crazy!

In Fairy Linglong's gaze toward Lu Li, in addition to the original calculation and utilization, there was inexplicably a trace of strange emotion and importance that even she herself had not noticed.

It seemed... this little brother, whom she had always regarded as a useless burden, was not truly devoid of merit.

"Little Li, you're amazing!"

Fairy Linglong rarely shed her hypocritical disguise and revealed a heartfelt, bright, and moving smile.

She even took the initiative to reach out her jade hand and tightly grasped Lu Li's hand: "Let's go, sister will take you in to see what treasures this Golden Immortal expert has left behind."

Lu Li let her pull him along, feeling the warm and soft sensation from her palm, but in his lowered eyes, he sneered repeatedly.

"This woman, she doesn't actually think this young master is a lucky Genius, does she? If it weren't for Father packing the answer to this Formation-breaking puzzle and stuffing it directly into my brain before we set out, I wouldn't bother playing this boring puzzle game with you people here."