69: Chapter 69 Sudden Changes and Settling the State Amidst Chaos

"I cannot fall!"

This thought was like a red-hot branding iron, searing fiercely into Lin Chen's heart.

He could clearly perceive that Su Qingyao's Spiritual Qi, which had originally been as tenacious as a flowing stream, was now dried up to the bottom, with only the last shred of her mental will struggling to hold on.

Her hands pressed against the Pill Furnace had knuckles turned pale from excessive force, and tiny traces of blood were slowly seeping from her bitten lower lip, a shocking sight.

On the walls of the furnace, fine, spiderweb-like cracks were spreading, and the energy of the Medicinal Pill about to take shape inside was like a trapped Vicious Beast, letting out a final, violent hiss.

In the next breath, the furnace would be destroyed, and lives would be lost!

"No!"

A suppressed low roar erupted from Lin Chen's throat, and his eyes instantly turned bloodshot.

The dam of his reason was completely breached at this moment by a torrent named "Protection."

He no longer held anything back; the Spiritual Qi within his body, like floodwaters released from a dam, surged madly into the thick earth shield in front of him.

But this was not enough!

Seeing the shield flickering under the continuous impact and ready to collapse at any moment, he steeled his heart, and a wave of resolute ruthlessness surged into his mind.

"Burn!"

He actually forcibly reversed his Cultivation Technique and ignited a wisp of his own life-blood essence!

A scorching and majestic life energy, far exceeding the Foundation Establishment Stage, exploded within his Meridians.

His complexion turned as pale as gold paper in an instant, but the earth-yellow shield before him suddenly shone with great brilliance, becoming as heavy and solid as a real mountain, blocking all impacts firmly on the outside.

Just at the moment this violent energy erupted, the rough stone ring on the thumb of Lin Chen's right hand, which had accompanied him for many years, suddenly became scalding hot!

A stinging pain, so hot it felt like it would ignite his Soul, rushed from his fingertips, along the Meridians of his arm, and slammed straight into his heart meridian!

This heat was not isolated.

It was like the center of a vortex, instantly drawing in all related energy in the vicinity.

There was the faint scent of pill fire with the characteristics of the Ice Crystal Flame, dissipating from Su Qingyao's side due to the depletion of her pill essence; there were the invisible fluctuations of Family Luck gathered from Qin Ruowei, Liu Ruxu, and others in the audience due to their extreme fear and worry; and even more, there was the purest and most intense life Origin produced by Lin Chen himself burning his life-blood essence!

Three completely different energies, yet mysteriously and closely connected with him at the core, collided violently deep within the stone ring, producing an unprecedented, chaotic, and intense resonance!

"Hum—"

It was as if thousands of great bells were struck simultaneously in Lin Chen's mind; his vision went black, and his consciousness blurred for an instant.

In this brief darkness and void, he seemed to "see" the System interface deep in his mind that had existed for a long time but had always remained simple.

At this moment, that interface was flickering, distorting, and restructuring violently!

Countless golden runes, which he completely could not understand, flowed madly on the interface like a rushing galaxy, finally slowly settling into place.

A brand new line of golden text, emanating a warm luster, slowly emerged:

[Extreme environmental pressure, intense will to protect, and violent fluctuations in Family Luck detected... Conditions met...]

[Core Function Unlocked: Offspring Talent Directional Guidance · Elementary (Details later)]

Almost at the same time this line of text appeared, as a concomitant effect of the System unlocking, an indescribable, strange fluctuation that seemed capable of smoothing out all agitation in all things silently spread outwards with Lin Chen as the center.

This fluctuation was invisible and intangible, yet it was undeniably real.

Where the fluctuation passed, within a radius of three zhang, a series of inconceivable changes occurred.

Those violent embers of pill fire raging everywhere due to the explosion were gently brushed by a gentle, invisible hand; the momentum of the flames suddenly subsided, becoming docile.

Those Spirit-Devouring Gu, fearless of death and crashing madly against the shield, seemed to collectively hit a soft and viscous invisible barrier; their flying movements instantly became slow and sluggish, the sharp hissing from their mouthparts lowered, and their desire to attack greatly diminished.

Even the Spiritual Qi in the air, which had become chaotic due to the explosion and the Gu, miraculously calmed down a little.

This strange fluctuation was extremely weak and lasted for less than three breaths before quietly dissipating.

But within those short three breaths, it created a miracle in a desperate situation.

On the high platform, Master Chiyang, who was closest to Lin Chen, was the first to notice this heart-palpitating anomaly.

He had just swung his palm, using vigorous fire-type Spiritual Qi to disperse a patch of exploding flames, and his Divine Sense was about to turn to the next chaotic area when it suddenly paused.

In his vast Divine Sense perception, the area where Lin Chen was, which had originally been a chaotic energy field like a raging storm, had suddenly become much more "docile" in an instant, as if an enraged lion had been instantly tamed.

"What is going on?!"

Master Chiyang turned his head abruptly, his eyes as sharp as a hawk's piercing through the smoke and fire that had not yet dissipated, locking tightly onto Lin Chen.

With his Golden Core Stage cultivation, he clearly "saw" the complete trace of that strange fluctuation spreading and then disappearing!

It was a power he had never seen, and could not even understand!

It was peaceful, vast, and carried a charm of harmonizing all things, definitely not something a mere Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator could master.

This youth must be hiding a world-shaking secret!

Master Chiyang's heart was stirred with stormy waves, but he forcibly suppressed the impulse to rush over and investigate immediately.

At the moment, controlling the overall situation of the venue was the priority.

But his peripheral vision never left Lin Chen for a single moment.

On the other side, Su Qingyao, who was at the center of the fluctuation, felt it most clearly.

Inside her Pill Furnace, that violent pill fire energy which had already completely lost control and was about to tear the furnace walls apart, just at the moment that strange fluctuation swept past, was like being doused with a basin of cold water; it suddenly became docile and miraculously returned to a controllable range.

Although Su Qingyao did not understand why, her mind a blank, her well-honed Alchemist instinct made her subconsciously grasp this fleeting, once-in-a-lifetime window of stability!

She didn't even have time to think, forcing herself to lift the last trace of remaining Spiritual Qi in her body; her hands, trembling slightly from exhaustion, moved like butterflies weaving through flowers driven by instinct, dancing rapidly above the Pill Furnace, quickly casting the last few complex and profound Pill-Retrieval Techniques!

"Condense!"

With a soft cry, she poured all her remaining mental energy and Spiritual Qi into the Pill Furnace.

"Hum..."

The Pill Furnace gave a slight tremor, and the lid slowly floated upward.

There was no earth-shattering fragrance of pills as expected; most of the medicinal power and energy had been severely depleted in the chaos that had just been on the verge of collapse.

However, the moment the lid was completely lifted, three pills, the size of dragon eyes, crimson red as blood throughout, each surrounded by three incredibly clear silver lines on the surface, lay quietly at the bottom of the furnace, emitting an introverted yet majestic scorching aura.

chi yang bone-tempering pill, three pills formed!

Three-patterned pills!

Under such a tragic and desperate situation, not only was the Medicinal Pill successfully refined, but its quality had also reached the extremely rare "Three-Pattern" Peerless Grade.

This could no longer be described as a miracle.

The moment the pills were formed, that strange fluctuation completely dissipated.

Lin Chen only felt an irresistible, intense sense of collapse, as if his Soul were being drained dry, instantly sweeping through his entire body.

His vision went black, his legs went soft, and he almost fell directly to the ground.

If not for his long sword supporting him on the ground in time, he would likely have fainted by now.

Within his body, the Spiritual Qi was nearly dried up, and every Meridian sent waves of piercing pain as if being torn apart; this was the terrifying sequela of forcibly burning his life-blood essence.

The stone ring on his thumb had long since returned to its normal temperature, as if the scalding heat just now had only been an illusion.

But in his mind, the line of golden text [Core Function Unlocked: Offspring Talent Directional Guidance · Elementary] was clearly branded there, though in his current state, he did not even have the strength to concentrate on looking at it closely.

He understood that the life-saving transformation just now had cost him an unimaginable price.

At this time, under the all-out rescue efforts of Master Chiyang and several other high-level Association experts, the main explosion points of the venue had been controlled, and most of the Spirit-Devouring Gu had been burned to death in droves by powerful fire-type Spells. The remaining scattered Gu, having lost the instructions of the mother Gu, no longer posed a major threat.

The chaos was being quelled.

Amidst the ruins, Ge Yuan was charred all over, his chest collapsed, and he was long unconscious; he was hurriedly lifted by several equally disheveled Ge Family attendants and carried away in a panic.

And the culprit, that Hermit Poison-Heart named Hermit Duxin, had realized that things were not looking good the very first moment the Gu went out of control and triggered the mother Gu; he had already used the cover of the chaos to quietly escape and disappear without a trace.

The entire venue was a mess; fragments of Pill Furnaces, charred herbs, and the wails of injured Alchemists were everywhere, like ruins after a war.

Su Qingyao stared blankly at the three hard-won Spirit Pills in the furnace, then slowly raised her head to look at the man who was pale as paper, his figure swaying and tottering, yet still firmly blocking her with his back.

Her eyes instantly reddened.

Just then, steady footsteps approached from afar.

Master Chiyang slowly walked up to the two of them; his complex gaze first lingered for an instant on Lin Chen's bloodless face, then fell toward Su Qingyao's Pill Furnace. When he saw the silver lines on the surface of the three pills, his pupils contracted sharply in a way that was hard to notice.

After a moment of silence, he took a deep breath, and his vigorous voice, containing Spiritual Qi, clearly spread throughout the dilapidated venue.

"Su Qingyao of the Lin Family, chi yang bone-tempering pill, three pills formed, three-patterned, quality... Peerless."

This announcement, amidst the wreckage and wailing everywhere, sounded exceptionally clear and exceptionally shocking.

Countless gazes, mixed with shock, envy, jealousy, and disbelief, instantly focused on that cold and stubborn figure, and the man in front of her who was swaying but stood as firm as a mountain.

The crisis was temporarily eased, but everyone knew that this storm triggered by the Alchemy Competition had only just begun.

The subsequent treatment of the wounded, the cleaning of the scene, and the investigation into this malicious incident would immediately drag all factions into an even deeper vortex.