438: Chapter 438 Pill Pavilion

There was no door at the end of the corridor; the stone steps simply ended as they reached a flat stretch of ground.

Su Mingyuan stood on the last step and looked up.

The ceiling of the cave overhead was at least forty to fifty meters high.

This was a massive space created by artificially expanding a natural karst cave. Chisel marks could still be seen on the surrounding rock walls, arranged neatly in rows. A row of extinguished illumination stones was embedded in the ceiling, their surfaces covered in a layer of dust, completely devoid of luster.

As Chen Rong's wrist light swept across, the beam of light seemed very thin in such a massive space, only illuminating a small area.

Su Mingyuan pulled three glow sticks from the Storage Pouch at his waist, cracked them to light them up, and threw them in different directions.

As the cool white light spread, the full view of the Pill Pavilion was revealed.

To the left, along the cave wall, rows of stone rooms were neatly arranged.

Above the door frame of each stone room hung a small stone plaque, engraved with a number and text.

Su Mingyuan walked closer and glanced at the nearest one—"Area C, Rank Three, Room Seventeen."

Walking a few steps further, the next one was—"Area C, Rank Three, Room Eighteen."

The numbering was sequential, and the divisions were clear.

He glanced deeper in the direction of the stone rooms.

Behind Area C was Area B, and behind Area B was Area A.

The Ranks marked on the stone plaques also increased—Rank Three, Rank Four, Rank Five.

On the stone plaques of the furthest stone rooms, it read "Area A, Rank Six."

The entire pill room area was divided into zones based on the Rank of the Medicinal Pills, with the Rank increasing from the outside in.

Su Mingyuan did not waste time in the lower-Rank areas.

"Area A," he said. "Go straight to the innermost part."

The team walked quickly inward along the alignment of the stone rooms.

As they passed Area C, Han Li's pace slowed down by a beat.

She tilted her head, her nose twitching.

"Did you smell something?" Su Mingyuan asked, turning back.

Han Li did not answer immediately.

She closed her eyes, stood there for two seconds, and then opened them again.

"Residual medicinal properties," she said. "Very faint, but still present. The scent of the Spirit Medicine used in these pill rooms hasn't completely dissipated yet."

She turned to look at the half-open stone door of the Rank Three pill room beside her.

"At least a hundred batches of Medicinal Pills have been refined inside. The medicinal Qi has seeped into the stone of the walls and the furnace platform, and it hasn't completely dissipated even after a hundred years."

Su Mingyuan nodded and did not make her stop, continuing to walk inward.

After passing Area C, the stone rooms in Area B were noticeably larger.

The stone material of the door frames had changed, with a darker color and a finer texture. Although most of the Restrictions on the doors had failed, the remaining formation patterns still showed their original level of refinement.

Area A was at the very back.

There were only eight Rank Six pill rooms in total, and the spacing between each was more than three times larger than those before.

The door frames were made of a black stone material that Su Mingyuan could not name. Its surface had very fine patterns, and it felt ice-cold to the touch.

Han Li walked to the door of the first Rank Six pill room and stopped.

The door of this pill room was closed, but the Restriction on it was already shattered, and it could be opened with a gentle push.

She glanced back at Su Mingyuan.

Su Mingyuan nodded.

Han Li reached out and pushed open the stone door, the hinges making a dry, grating sound.

The inside of the pill room was larger than the ones outside, looking to be about forty to fifty square meters.

Right in the center was a Pill Furnace.

The furnace was larger than any Han Li had ever seen, reaching up to her chest. Its body was perfectly round and dark green all over. The furnace walls were densely engraved with formation patterns, the lines so fine they were almost invisible to the naked eye, but scanning with Divine Sense revealed that fluctuations of spiritual energy still lingered within these patterns.

Even after a hundred years, the spiritual energy within the formation patterns had not completely dissipated.

Han Li circled the Pill Furnace once, her finger hovering an inch above the furnace wall. She didn't touch it, but she could feel a faint warmth radiating from it.

"The Rank of this furnace's formation patterns is extremely high."

The tone in Han Li's voice was different from usual. Although she usually spoke quite casually, there was now a serious caution, as if she were afraid of disturbing something.

Randan Spirit drifted above the Pill Furnace and leaned down to take a look.

"A Rank Six pill room is naturally equipped with a Rank Six Pill Furnace." The old man's tone carried a trace of pride that was barely perceptible, but it was quickly suppressed. "In the Danding Heavenly Palace, there are only eight Rank Six Alchemists in total. Each has their own independent Pill Furnace and Spirit Medicine storehouse. The formation patterns on the furnace were carved line by line by the Alchemists themselves, matching their own spiritual energy frequency, so others cannot use them."

Han Li squatted down to look at the inscription at the bottom of the Pill Furnace.

The inscription was very short, only a single line of extremely small characters—"Qingyunzi, crafted in the year 4721 of the Era."

"Qingyunzi."

Randan Spirit muttered the name but did not say anything more.

Han Li stood up and walked to the stone shelf next to the Pill Furnace.

The stone shelf had three tiers. The bottom tier held several clay jars, their mouths sealed with clay, and simple preservation formation patterns were drawn on the clay seals.

On the middle tier was a row of porcelain bottles of various sizes, their mouths all sealed with wax.

The top tier held only three items—a palm-sized jade plaque, a bamboo scroll, and a medicine-cutting knife.

Han Li first took one of the porcelain bottles, scraped off the wax seal with her fingernail, turned the bottle upside down, and a Medicinal Pill rolled into her palm.

The Medicinal Pill was not large, about the size of a fingernail, its surface dull, and most of its medicinal efficacy had already dissipated.

But the shape of the Medicinal Pill was extremely regular and perfectly round, without any rough edges. Although its color had dimmed, its base color could still be seen as a very even deep red.

Han Li brought the Medicinal Pill to the tip of her nose and sniffed it, then gently probed its internal structure with her Divine Sense.

"A realm breaking pill," she said. "It's so much better than what my Master and I refine. Although sixty to seventy percent of the medicinal efficacy has been lost, the internal structure of the Medicinal Pill is almost perfect—distinct layers, evenly distributed medicinal properties, and not a single trace of Impurities. When this Medicinal Pill was first refined, it must have been at least a High Grade among High Grades."

She put the Medicinal Pill back into the bottle and opened several other porcelain bottles.

spirit gathering pill, ningshen pill, rejuvenation pill—they were all Medicinal Pills she recognized, but the quality of each was a notch higher than those she refined herself.

Tao Zhe was squatting in front of a stone table on the other side of the pill room.

He had pulled open the drawer of the stone table, which contained several bamboo scrolls. The scrolls were tied with thin strings that snapped at the slightest touch.

He unrolled the first scroll and scanned it.

"Alchemy notes," Tao Zhe looked up. "This Qingyunzi recorded his insights on refining Rank Six Medicinal Pills, including fine-tuning the formulas, furnace temperature control nodes, and the sequential order of putting Spirit Medicines into the furnace. It's extremely detailed, even precise down to the number of breaths in some places."

He carefully rolled up the bamboo scroll and put it into his Storage Pouch.

"Take everything that can be taken from this pill room," Su Mingyuan said.

Han Li and Tao Zhe began to get to work. Porcelain bottles, clay jars, bamboo scrolls, jade plaques, and medicine-cutting knives—the items on the stone shelf were packed into their Storage Pouches one by one.

The other Rank Six pill rooms were also opened one by one.

The layout was similar to the first one, but the design of the Pill Furnace in each room was slightly different, and the names on the inscriptions were also different.

One of the pill rooms had an exceptionally large number of porcelain bottles on its stone shelf—thirty-seven in total—and the types of Medicinal Pills inside were also more varied than in the other rooms.

Inside, Han Li discovered two Medicinal Pills she had never seen before—one was entirely jade-green, and the other was a translucent amber color. The medicinal efficacy of both pills had barely dissipated.

She showed the jade-green one to Randan Spirit.

"A Marrow Cleansing Pill," Randan Spirit said the name with a single glance. "A Rank Six Medicinal Pill, used to cleanse the Impurities and hidden injuries accumulated in the Meridians. It is especially useful for Cultivators at or above the Foundation Establishment Stage, and can improve the efficiency of spiritual energy circulation."

Han Li held up the amber-colored one again.

"A Peiyuan Pill," Randan Spirit said. "Also Rank Six. It is used to repair Dantian damage and is extremely precious. Even the entire Danding Heavenly Palace can only refine a few of them a year."

Han Li packed both Medicinal Pills away carefully.

There was an even greater number of Rank Five and Rank Four pill rooms. Su Mingyuan did not have them search every single one thoroughly, only asking Han Li to pick a few with the strongest residual medicinal properties to go in and check, taking some porcelain bottles and notes.

They would come back for the rest later.

One-third of the space in the Storage Pouches had already been used.

Su Mingyuan checked the time. Two and a half hours had already passed since they entered the main vein.

"That's enough for the pill room area for now," he said. "Let's go to the Scripture Pavilion."

Han Li was rummaging through a stone shelf in a Rank Five pill room. Hearing this, she paused, feeling a bit reluctant to leave.

But she did not dawdle. She stuffed the last porcelain bottle in her hand into her Storage Pouch and turned to catch up with the team.

Su Mingyuan looked at Randan Spirit.

"Where is the Scripture Pavilion?"

Randan Spirit turned around and drifted toward the deepest part of the cave.

"Follow me. It's at the very back."

The old man's voice echoed slightly in the empty cave.

"All of the Sect's Pill Formulas, Cultivation Techniques, and chronicles from the past five thousand years are stored there."