Bang!
The lid of the furnace, freed from its heavy suppression, was blown apart by a violent surge of power, scattering into four or five pieces.
The shards, still carrying residual force, shot out like blazing stars, smashing deep pits into the surrounding stone walls.
Elder Yang's escaping spirit was unlucky enough to be struck by one of the fragments. Before he could flee the pill room, he was slammed into the wall with a muffled impact.
Yao Ranran, who had been gathering her strength, stopped abruptly and turned in surprise toward the half-bodied figure drifting out of the furnace.
"You saved me?" The half-man, missing his legs, fixed her with stark black-and-white eyes. As he spoke, tendrils of black smoke coiled out of his throat.
Yao Ranran's eyes widened. The elder's body was coated in a thin sheen of mucus, the viscous liquid sliding down his exposed flesh as if he had just crawled out of something unspeakable.
Her thoughts stalled for a moment. Had Elder Yang actually used people as ingredients in his alchemy?
This damned alchemist!
Stars of fury flashed in Yao Ranran's gaze. With a flick of her wrist, she cast out the Nine Lotus Ring, pulling the weakened, helpless spirit into her grasp.
"You dare refine living people into pills? What is it your master is really plotting?"
Her voice was sharp, each word like a whip. Elder Yang's spirit shuddered, his clouded eyes widening in disbelief.
"You… you… you already know?"
This secret—using living people in alchemy—was known only to him and the Yan Fortress Master. The rest of the Yan family only knew he collected corpses, never realizing what he did with them.
Terror filled Elder Yang's gaze. When had this woman discovered the truth about Yan Fortress?
Why had the Fortress Master never sensed her strangeness? He had even once told Elder Yang that her eyes were clear and foolish, the gaze of an inexperienced, kindhearted girl.
Now that Fortress Master was nothing more than ash.
Elder Yang's spirit trembled violently, like a beast cornered and quivering in fear.
"Was it him who refined me?" The half-man's eyes blazed with fire, his teeth grinding audibly as he suddenly burned away the pus clinging to his body. His glare locked on Elder Yang, and he hoisted him up as though seizing prey.
"Who… who are you?" Elder Yang's voice shook as his spirit dangled in the air. Only then did he realize that a stranger had appeared in the pill room.
The old man, Shang, bared his teeth. "You really don't know who I am?"
The murderous hatred surging from him pressed like an overwhelming tide, crushing Elder Yang's spirit until he could hardly breathe.
This woman had someone this powerful by her side?
Hopelessness consumed Elder Yang. He shut his eyes. There would be no escaping today.
"Still pretending ignorance? The moment you threw me into that furnace, you should have known what end awaited you!" Elder Shang raised his hand, invisible force clutching Elder Yang's spirit and slowly crushing it, his form growing faint.
"I—I never… when did I ever throw you into the furnace?" Elder Yang forced out the words, his voice shaking.
Elder Shang's fingers clawed tighter. "Still feigning? At death's door?"
"I was that paper talisman man! When you forced me to swallow those poison pills, you must have suspected. That puppet treasure held a soul within it! That is why you never let me awaken, waiting until this very moment to refine me into an immortal pill, so you could achieve your ascension!"
By the end, Elder Shang's eyes burned red with fury.
If he hadn't been careless, assuming this man was nothing more than a weak Foundation Establishment cultivator, he would never have strolled unguarded through the black-smoke-shrouded courtyard, been stunned by the furnace's explosion, then seized, force-fed poison pills, and thrown into a cauldron as mere alchemy material.
Centuries of his cultivation, burned away alive!
Elder Shang's heart ached as his gaze fell on the cracked furnace. At its base lay a single quiet, gleaming pill.
That was hundreds of years of his hard work.
"Fairy, tell me—is this man not guilty beyond measure? Is his death not deserved a hundred times over? Does he even deserve to be called human?"
Spittle flew from Elder Shang's lips as he cursed, his eyes bloodshot and feral.
Yao Ranran stood frozen, clutching her sleeve tightly to keep Tang Xiangyin hidden.
"Fairy, what say you?" Elder Shang turned his gaze on her, clearly wanting her to share in his fury.
Yao Ranran swallowed hard and nodded quickly. "He… he… how could someone like him still be called human?"
"Bah! Dog! Thief! Cursed old wretch! You dared refine me—I'll see every last soul in Yan Fortress buried with the centuries you stole from me!"
Shang cursed Elder Yang with the vilest words he knew, spittle soaking the elder's spirit until it dripped.
Elder Yang felt wronged to his core. He had indeed refined humans before, but he had never once seen this man before today. Yet that didn't matter anymore.
His consciousness unraveled under the tirade, but he summoned the last of his strength to look at the purple-robed beauty before him and whisper faintly, "Fairy… what level is your cultivation, truly?"
Shang blinked. Of all things, that was what he cared about as he died?
The old man shifted his gaze to the woman. So this must be the heart demon, Yao Ranran, who haunted little Pei.
Yao Ranran faltered, then, meeting the fading eyes of Elder Yang, she pressed her lips together and answered softly.
"Qi Refinement, first layer."
Heh… Qi Refinement, first layer.
Even as she faced a dying man, she still refused to tell the truth.
A bitter smile twisted Elder Yang's mouth.
He had been wrong. They had all been wrong. This woman was no naïve, kindhearted rabbit.
She was a hawk.
Circling high above Yan Fortress, her gaze sharp with hidden cold light, she swooped down to strike, draining her prey dry before they even realized.
His last trace of divine sense had been destroyed by her avatar in the courtyard. Even then, his only glimpse was of her graceful figure walking toward him, before it all dissolved into nothing.
And then he lost even the chance to speak.
Elder Shang's blood-red eyes softened slightly. His fist clenched, crushing Elder Yang's spirit like glass.
At the same time, a flicker of green flame leapt from the furnace, igniting Elder Yang's body, burning it into ash.
But even this did not ease Elder Shang's wrath.
Not even in the Upper Realm, where mighty figures clashed endlessly, had he ever endured such humiliation. If not for this woman's intervention, he truly might have been refined into pills by this wretch.
"Fairy Ranran…"
"Um…"
Both spoke at the same time after Elder Yang perished.
"You first," Yao Ranran muttered, shrinking back slightly.
Shang swept his robe with grand authority, his voice steady and resonant. "Thank you, Fairy, for saving me. This pill belongs to you."