The sky above the Western Cloud Sect was calm — but Mo Yunjie's eyes were sharper than any storm.
Within a floating jade pavilion, he watched a flickering spirit recording of Zhao Fenglin's humiliating defeat. His fingers traced a porcelain teacup as Ren Wei's defiance played again and again.
> "Fenglin... You were never the sharpest sword. But this?"
> *He smiled.*
> "This is entertainment."
He waved a hand. The talisman Zhao once used lit up with residual soul energy. Mo Yunjie formed a **Soul Mark Tracker**, letting it hover like a ghost flame.
> "You, child… are interesting. Let's see if you still smile when I pluck your soul through your teeth."
---
Elsewhere, Ren Wei walked alone.
He paused in a shadowed alley, frowning. His breath misted despite the warmth.
> *Ding!*
> **Tracking Curse Detected**
> *Source: Mo Yunjie (Foundation Establishment Realm Level 5: Middle of the Grandmaster Realm in Earth )*
> *Estimated Arrival: 48 hours*
He chuckled.
> "The world sends bigger dogs now."
He raised his palm, Qi forming a seal around his heart.
> "But I don't kneel anymore."
In His past life Foundation Establishment didn't even dare to look at him but now? *SIGH
Later, he slipped into the side alleys of **Drunken Mortar Street** — a hidden stretch of black-market apothecaries behind the old steel district. Incense fog clung to the air. Alchemists in crooked robes whispered in backrooms.
Ren Wei moved with purpose.
> "Crimson Wolf Lotus. Blackroot Orchid. Dustveil Mushroom…"
He listed herbs like counting old friends.
A merchant grinned slyly, "You buying, kid?"
> "No. I'm correcting you. You've mislabeled three ingredients and dried them at the wrong temperature."
He named the exact alchemical reactions. The stall fell silent.
He left with ten rare herbs, a sealed pouch of sulfur Qi powder, and a crude map to an underground alchemy forge.
---
Mo Yunjie watched from his mirror.
> "Let's test your arrogance, boy. Let's see if it hardens... or shatters."
The forge beneath Drunken Mortar Street was a graveyard of ambition. Burnt cauldrons, collapsed walls, and soot-scarred floors whispered of failures long forgotten. Ren Wei stepped into the silence like a ghost, a sealed pouch of rare herbs in one hand, fire in his veins.
He knelt before the rusted furnace, its spirit basin cracked and blackened. With a flick of his blade, he sliced his palm and let blood drip into the mouth of the forge.
The air stirred.
"This place has been waiting. Just like me."
Flame sputtered to life. Weak. Angry. Real.
He laid out the ingredients on a jade slab — Crimson Wolf Lotus, Blackroot Orchid, Dustveil Mushroom, and Sulfur Qi Powder. His fingers moved with eerie precision, guided by the Heaven-Flaying Vein Scripture.
The herbs dissolved in perfect succession. Qi surged, twining through the chamber like smoke.
A sharp whine broke the trance. The glyphs around the furnace began to flicker, unstable.
The spirit fire pulsed violently — too fast, too wild.
Ding!
Furnace Core Overheating
User HP: -3% (Burn) — [Iron Blood Meditation] Activated
Flames lashed his arm. Flesh seared. He gritted his teeth, steadying the reaction.
"Break me if you must. I'll forge myself harder."
With a final burst of Qi, the fire calmed.
A crimson pill hovered inside the cauldron, glowing faintly — pulsing like a heartbeat.
He reached for it.
"Impressive."
The voice was soft, Female Cultivator.
Ren Wei didn't turn.
"I sensed you watching."
She stepped into view. Veiled in gray, eyes sharp as polished obsidian. Her aura shimmered — solid, unyielding. Foundation Establishment. Level Nine. On Earth, that meant only one thing: Perfect Grandmaster.
She eyed the pill.
"That refinement… it's not something a Qi Refinement cultivator should be capable of."
"Yet here I am."
"You're still bleeding."
"It helps me focus."
She took a cautious step closer, stopping just short of the boundary his Qi had unconsciously carved.
"I've been stuck for three years. One step away from breaking through. Tell me—can you refine a pill to push me further?"
Ren Wei glanced at her from beneath his brows.
"You want a Half-Immortal's elixir… brewed by a 'mere Master.'"
She didn't flinch.
"You can do it."
He looked down at the pill in his hand.
"This one cost me blood."
He stepped past her, the furnace's dying light casting flickering shadows across his face.
"The next will cost you more."
"Name your price," she said.
"We'll see."
He walked toward the exit. She watched him go, eyes unreadable.
As the silence returned, a whisper rippled through Ren Wei's mind — unbidden.
A memory.
A corridor of gold. A woman beside him, eyes filled with cruel affection.
"You fail again, Wei."
"Good. Let it scar."
His steps faltered for a breath — then resumed.
"Even failure was a forge."
Ding!
Pill Refined: Blood-Nectar Recovery Pill (Earth Grade)
Alchemy Proficiency: +120 (Intermediate Tier)
Title Unlocked: [Ash-Forged Alchemist]
Pill backlash resistance: +5%
Outside, the storm winds began to rise.
But in the depths of the earth, a fire had already been lit.