Chương 24: Chapter 25: Interference Out of the Blue

Reyn snapped his eyes open, his expression clouded with a flicker of irrepressible frustration. At the very precipice of the pill's formation, a microscopic tremor in his Divine Sense control had caused a fatal deviation. The delicate balance within the cauldron shattered, resulting in the total failure of the entire batch. He closed his eyes for a moment, allowing his racing mind to settle and his spirit to stabilize.

Once the internal turbulence subsided, Reyn moved with practiced efficiency to clear the blackened dregs from the furnace. Without a word, he commenced his second attempt. This time, Reyn proceeded with agonizing caution. From the initial tempering of the herbs to the final condensation of the essence, he allowed not a single error to mar the process. Half an hour later, a rich, intoxicating medicinal fragrance wafted from the vents of the cauldron, filling the room with a refreshing aroma.

A trace of joy finally touched Reyn's face. He unsealed the lid, revealing over a dozen Foundation Establishment Pills resting at the bottom. He plucked one out, scrutinizing its luster and texture; it was an exact match for the sample he held. Satisfied, he nodded to himself and swept the remaining pills into a jade bottle. With the initial success fueling his confidence, Reyn's refinement speed increased exponentially.

By the time the shadows of night draped over the valley, he had processed all thirty sets of materials. Aside from that single initial failure, twenty-eight batches were successfully refined, yielding exactly four hundred Foundation Establishment Pills. Staring at the four bulging jade bottles, Reyn couldn't help but feel a surge of pride. Even the core disciples of the great sects likely hadn't laid eyes on such a staggering quantity of Foundation Establishment Pills at once in their entire lives.

However, his gaze lingered on the four hundred pills, and a hint of hesitation flickered in his eyes. He eventually stowed three of the bottles into his storage bag.

"Three hundred should be more than enough for my breakthrough," he mused.

"As for these remaining hundred, I might as well attempt to purify them. If I can produce mid-grade or even high-grade Foundation Establishment Pills, the efficacy for my cultivation will be far superior." Five hours later, Reyn looked at the nineteen pills laid out before him. Their luster and fragrance were leagues beyond the standard version, yet his heart ached at the cost.

Despite his tenth-level Qi Condensation and significantly bolstered Divine Sense, the difficulty of purifying these pills surpassed his expectations. After a string of over a dozen consecutive failures, he had finally grasped the rhythm. Out of a hundred attempts, he had only secured nineteen mid-grade pills—a success rate of barely twenty percent. With a heavy sigh, he carefully tucked the mid-grade treasures away, swallowed a few recovery pills, and entered a meditative state to restore his spent energy.

Refining and then purifying had drained his Divine Sense and True Essence to their limits. Even with the aid of high-quality recovery medicine, it took three full hours before he returned to his peak state. Taking a deep breath, Reyn retrieved a single Foundation Establishment Pill and swallowed it. Instantly, the cool, docile spiritual energy within his body turned into a raging torrent. It surged through his meridians, circulating with violent intensity.

As the medicinal power was absorbed, the volume of his spiritual energy expanded rapidly, becoming denser and more refined. Reyn anchored his mind at the center of his consciousness, refusing to interfere with the chaotic internal shifts, allowing the energy to run its wild course. An hour later, the boiling energy finally subsided. Reyn opened his eyes, a self-deprecating smile tugging at his lips.

Cultivators with average talent could usually break through to the Foundation Establishment stage after reaching the eighth level of Qi Condensation by consuming these pills. Yet here he was, at the tenth level, and the breakthrough had eluded him. His aptitude was truly as abysmal as he had feared. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Fortunately, Reyn had prepared for this. After the brief moment of self-mockery, he regained his composure.

Upon closer inspection, while the breakthrough had failed, his internal spiritual energy had grown significantly. This confirmed the pill's potency. With renewed determination, he flicked another pill into his mouth. With the experience of the first attempt, the refinement of the second pill was much faster. Reyn remained expressionless, swallowing one pill after another, relentlessly refining the medicinal power. Upon consuming the third pill, a shift occurred.

As the medicinal essence integrated, his boiling spiritual energy seemed to undergo a qualitative change. A spark of hope lit up in Reyn's heart—had he succeeded? When the power was fully absorbed, he opened his eyes and carefully probed his new state. His spiritual energy had expanded again and was noticeably purer than before; even his Divine Sense had sharpened. However, a bitter smile soon replaced his hope. While he had indeed made a breakthrough, he had not reached the Foundation Establishment stage.

What was this realm? The eleventh level of Qi Condensation? He had never even heard of such a thing existing. Deep in thought, Reyn realized that while the pills weren't triggering the qualitative leap to Foundation Establishment, they were continuously pushing his current cultivation higher. If he continued, he would eventually hit a limit that would force a transition to the next major stage.

Steeling his heart, he tossed another pill into his mouth, thinking fiercely: I have more pills than I know what to do with. If one doesn't work, I'll take ten. If ten don't work, I'll take a hundred. I refuse to believe I can't break through! Two months passed in a blur of seclusion. Swallowing pills, meditating, and refining energy—the cycle repeated day after day. By the twenty-fifth pill, Reyn felt the sensation of a breakthrough for the second time. Still, he did not reach Foundation Establishment.

He tentatively labeled this state the twelfth level of Qi Condensation. By the sixty-fourth pill, a third breakthrough occurred. Still no Foundation Establishment. The thirteenth level... Then the hundred and fifty-seventh pill brought the fourth breakthrough, the fourteenth level... followed eventually by a fifth breakthrough to the fifteenth level of Qi Condensation. Reyn opened his eyes, which were now filled with a stubborn, unyielding light.

After refining a mid-grade Foundation Establishment Pill, his spiritual energy had only become slightly more refined; the quantity hadn't increased by a single drop.

"Sigh. It seems this is the absolute limit of the Qi Condensation realm," Reyn muttered.

"But why can I still not break through?" This was his tenth attempt at this peak. After refining nine low-grade pills with zero change, he had switched to a mid-grade one, but the effect remained marginal. After a long period of brooding, a trace of bitterness colored his expression. The fifteenth level of Qi Condensation—to have reached such an unheard-of height and still be stuck. Was he destined to have this god-defying alchemy but remain a mere Qi Condensation practitioner forever?

Unwilling to accept this fate, Reyn activated the Breath-Concealing Art from the Hunyuan True Scripture, masking his aura to appear around the seventh level of Qi Condensation. He then swallowed a Transformation Pill and slipped out of the valley. The Transformation Pill was a niche medicine, expensive to craft, designed to alter the user's physical appearance for three hours. It had its flaws; anyone a full major realm above the user could see through the illusion.

However, at the fifteenth level of Qi Condensation, Reyn's spiritual energy and Divine Sense were no weaker than an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator. He had little fear of being exposed. The only person with the power to truly see through him was the Sect Leader, who was currently in seclusion acting as a protector for Dan Chenzi's attempt to reach the Golden Core realm. This gave Reyn a significant window of safety. Leaving the medicinal garden, Reyn took to the air.

Though he didn't use a spirit tool, his speed was blistering. Within moments, he arrived at the Xuanxiao Sect's Library of Scriptures. He landed a distance away; the library was protected by a powerful flight-restriction array that grounded anyone below the Foundation Establishment stage. Though Reyn possessed the raw power to bypass it, he had no intention of drawing unnecessary attention to himself.