The Third Plateau was quickly swallowed by the shadows of the rising moon as Qin Feng and Ye Chen sought refuge in the "Whispering Gorges." This jagged scar in the mountain's side, located in the turbulent no-man's-land between the Third and Fourth Plateaus, was the perfect sanctuary. Here, the spiritual winds were so violent that they masked the massive Qi fluctuations required for a high-tier refinement.
In the center of a damp, crystalline cave, Qin Feng slammed the Black-Dragon Furnace onto the earth. The impact caused a tremor that rattled the hanging stalactites. The ancient cauldron, carved from the fossilized bones of a prehistoric sovereign dragon, seemed to inhale the surrounding darkness. Its surface was etched with primordial runes that flickered with a rhythmic, violet pulse, perfectly synchronizing with the glowing marks on Qin Feng's own skin.
"The Eclipse-Mending Pill is more than just a remedy, Qin Feng," Ye Chen warned. She moved with a grace that was returning to her body, though her face remained pale. She laid out the soul-mending herbs, ingredients that would have cost a common cultivator a century of life to acquire. "It is a bridge between life and death. It will mend my shattered foundation, but the energy released will act as a beacon. To the city below, it will look like a legendary treasure is being born. To the Heavens above, it will look like a mortal is trying to steal the authority of the gods."
[DING! Quest Started: The Refinement of the Overlord.] [Objective: Successfully forge the 'Eclipse-Mending Pill' (Perfect Grade).] [Secondary Objective: Survive the 7th Layer Foundation Tribulation.]
Qin Feng wiped the soot from his forehead and looked at his calloused hands. "I've spent my entire life looking for a way out of the dark. If the Heavens want to block my path now, I'll just have to mine through the sky until it breaks."
He placed both hands on the furnace's rim and funneled his 6th Layer Foundation Qi into the ancient bone. The Black-Dragon Furnace didn't just light up; it roared with a sound like a thousand trapped beasts. The dark flames inside didn't merely cook the herbs; they disintegrated them at a molecular level, stripping away every microscopic impurity until only the glowing, liquid "Divine Essence" remained.
Hours bled into a full day. Qin Feng's eyes were bloodshot, his muscles twitching from the strain of maintaining the exact temperature needed to merge the Heart of the Deep-Walker with the herbs. Ye Chen stood guard at the cave entrance, her Moon-Severing Blade humming a low, mournful tune.
Outside, the clear sky above the City of Nine Cauldrons began to warp. A massive vortex of obsidian clouds gathered, swirling with a malevolent intelligence. Thunder, heavy and bone-shaking, rumbled across the plateaus, signaling that the Divine Laws had noticed the "impurity" being forged in the cave.
[WARNING: Heavenly Tribulation Imminent!] [Target: The Birth of a Perfect Grade Pill & The Advancement of the Host.] [Detection: This is a 'Five-Elemental Void' Lightning Storm.]
"It's here!" Ye Chen cried out, her voice barely audible over the sudden roar of the wind.
A bolt of violet lightning, as thick as a temple pillar and jagged as a broken soul, tore through the clouds. It struck the mountain with the force of a falling star, aiming directly for the cave. Qin Feng didn't flinch. He couldn't. If he let go of the furnace now, the compressed energy would explode, erasing the gorge from the map.
"Protect the pill, Ye Chen! I'll handle the sky!" Qin Feng roared, his voice echoing with a new, deeper resonance.
Ye Chen leaped into the storm. "Lunar Aegis: Nine Heavens Frost!" She spun her blade, creating a massive, shimmering shield of moonlight and absolute-zero ice. The lightning struck the shield, and the sound was like a hammer hitting an anvil. The shockwave shattered the nearby rock faces, sending tons of stone tumbling into the abyss below.
Inside the cave, Qin Feng felt the feedback through the ground. His skin began to crack, and golden-violet blood seeped from his pores, steaming as it hit the hot floor. The Eclipse Overlord System flared in his mind, its interface turning a deep, warning red.
[TRIBULATION MODE ACTIVATED.] [Analysis: The host's physical body is reaching its limit.] [Option: Absorb the Heavenly Lightning to temper the 'Eclipse Sunderer' and the Host's Bones?]
"Do it! Give me everything!" Qin Feng growled through gritted teeth.
He reached out his left hand, grabbing the raw lightning as it bypassed Ye Chen's fractured shield. The power of the Heavens surged through his arm, charring his flesh and turning his veins into lines of molten white light. He funneled the energy into the Eclipse Sunderer resting against the furnace. The pickaxe screamed in a metallic voice, its black crystal head turning a brilliant, terrifying white as it feasted on the divine wrath.
At that exact moment, the Black-Dragon Furnace let out a final, triumphant chime, a sound so pure it momentarily silenced the thunder outside. A single pill, black as the deepest void and ringed with nine swirling silver halos, shot out of the cauldron, hovering in the air like a tiny, captured moon.
[DING! Pill Forged: Perfect Grade 'Eclipse-Mending Pill'!] [Requirement Met: Break through to the 7th Layer!]
The energy from the pill's birth and the absorbed lightning collided inside Qin Feng's dantian. It felt like a supernova was exploding in his gut. The 6th Layer barrier, which usually took decades for geniuses to overcome, didn't just break, it was obliterated by the sheer, violent force of his advancement.
[LEVEL UP: 7th Layer Foundation Establishment!] [Weapon Evolution: Eclipse Sunderer has reached 'Spirit-Grade' (High).] [New Passive: 'Thunder-Tempered Soul' — 30% resistance to all elemental attacks.]
Qin Feng stood up, his aura so dense it distorted the very air around him, creating a shimmering ripple in space. The storm above, sensing its target had surpassed it, began to dissipate into a fine, glowing mist. He walked to the mouth of the cave, catching the exhausted, bloodied Ye Chen before she could fall.
He handed her the black pill. It felt cold, yet it throbbed with a life of its own. "For you, Empress. It's time to take back what's yours."
Ye Chen looked at the pill, then at the man who had literally fought the Heavens and offered her the spoils. Her eyes softened for a fraction of a second before her old, imperial fire returned. She swallowed the pill.
The effect was instantaneous. Her shattered meridians, which had been like dried, cracked riverbeds, were flooded with a torrent of violet lunar energy. The Bone-Piercing Nails that had been lodged in her soul for years were forced out by the sheer pressure of her returning power. They shot out of her back and shoulders, clattering onto the stone floor like useless, rusted scrap metal.
She stood up, and for the first time, Qin Feng felt the true weight of her presence. She wasn't just his wife anymore; she was a goddess of the moon restored. Her aura expanded, chilling the air until the entire gorge was encased in a layer of diamond-hard frost.
"Husband," she whispered, her voice carrying an authority that made the wind itself stop. "The cowards on the Ninth Plateau... they just felt my heart beat again. They are coming, and they are terrified."
Qin Feng leaned his white-hot Sunderer on his shoulder, his eyes glowing with a violet light that matched hers. "Let them come. I've spent ten years digging for scraps. I think it's time I started digging some graves."
[NEW SUB-QUEST: 'The Fall of the Nine'.] [Objective: Reach the Fourth Plateau and win the Heavenly Selection Tournament.] [Reward: Clue to the 'Eclipse Sovereign's' true identity.]