Dawn broke over the Alchemy Peak, painting the poisonous smog in shades of bruised purple.
The heavy iron doors groaned open.
Elder Han bustled in, smelling of fresh tea and dried blood. He looked at Jiang Chen, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor, looking pale but alive.
"Still breathing?" Elder Han smiled, his yellow teeth showing. "Excellent."
He placed a small jade box on the table. It was cold, radiating a chill that frosted the stone surface.
"Yesterday, we tempered the bone," Elder Han said, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Today, we test the spirit. This is the Soul-Rot Pill."
He opened the box.
Inside sat a pill the color of a festering bruise—blue and green, swirling with a mist that looked like screaming faces.
"It is designed to dissolve the ego," Han explained, his eyes wide with scientific madness. "It breaks down the walls of the mind to allow for... expansion. Most subjects just go insane and claw their own eyes out. Let us see if your 'Furnace Body' extends to your soul."
Jiang Chen stood up. His stomach tightened. This wasn't corrosive acid; this was madness in solid form.
[Item Detected: Soul-Rot Pill (Failed).]
[Toxicity: Severe (Psychoactive).]
[Effect: Induces hallucinations, memory degradation, spiritual corrosion.]
[Venom Heart (Lvl 2): Resistance Probability 80%.]
80%. Those were good odds. But the 20% failure meant permanent brain damage.
"For the Elder's research," Jiang Chen said, forcing his voice to remain steady.
He picked up the pill. It felt slimy, like a slug.
He swallowed it.
It didn't burn. It froze.
A wave of absolute zero cold washed over his brain. Jiang Chen's vision blurred. The laboratory walls began to melt, turning into flesh. Elder Han's face elongated, his eyes turning into black pits.
Voices.
"Trash..."
"Die..."
"You are nothing..."
Thousands of whispers crawled inside his skull like maggots. He felt his memories of his mother, his childhood, his name—all starting to dissolve into gray slush.
"Argh!" Jiang Chen fell to his knees, clutching his head. He screamed, not in act, but in genuine terror.
"Yes! Yes!" Elder Han leaned in, watching Jiang Chen's pupils dilate. "Fight it! Or let it consume you!"
Inside the chaos, a cold blue light flashed.
[Mental Incursion Detected.]
[Venom Heart (Lvl 2) Engaging.]
[Purging Neurotoxins...]
The maggots in his brain shrieked and burned. The cold turned into a warm, soothing wash. The hallucinations shattered like glass, leaving Jiang Chen panting on the floor, his mind clearer than it had ever been.
DING!
[Consumed Soul-Rot Pill.]
[Mental Toxin Absorbed: +10 EV.]
[Spirit Attribute Increased: 2.5 -> 2.8]
Jiang Chen lay on the floor, drooling slightly to sell the effect. He twitched.
"Who... who am I?" he mumbled, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Elder Han frowned. "Did it break him?"
"I... I am... Jiang Chen," he whispered slowly, as if rebuilding the name. He sat up, shaking his head. "I had a nightmare, Elder. I saw... I saw a snake eating the sun."
Elder Han gasped. "A vision? You didn't lose your mind; you had a spiritual vision! Incredible!"
The Elder paced around the room, clapping his hands. "Your Spirit is resilient! You survived the Rot! This means... yes, this means you can handle the Repository."
Jiang Chen's ears perked up. Repository?
Elder Han stopped pacing. He looked at Jiang Chen with a new level of trust. To him, Jiang Chen was a simpleton with a god-tier body—a perfect tool.
"Jiang Chen, the ingredients for my experiments are running low. I am too busy to fetch them. Since you have proven you can resist the ambient toxins..."
Elder Han reached into his robe and pulled out a heavy iron key.
"Go to the Inner Storage behind the main furnace. Fetch me a jar of 'Ghost Fire Oil' and a crate of 'Spirit Bone Dust'."
He tossed the key to Jiang Chen.
"Do not go through the black door at the back of the storage," Elder Han warned, his voice turning icy. "That is the Great Pill Vault. Only the Sect Master has the seal to open it. If you touch it, the formation will turn you to ash."
Jiang Chen caught the key. His heart hammered against his ribs.
The Pill Vault. The treasury of the entire Alchemy Peak. The place where the successful pills were kept.
"I understand, Elder," Jiang Chen bowed, his face the picture of obedience. "I will get the oil."
"Go. And be quick."
Jiang Chen walked out of the lab, clutching the heavy iron key.
He walked down the corridor, past the screaming cages of spirit beasts. He reached the massive furnace room. Behind it was a reinforced door marked "Storage."
He unlocked it.
The smell hit him instantly—a mix of rare herbs, dried blood, and high-grade minerals. The storage room was huge, filled with crates of ingredients worth a fortune.
But Jiang Chen ignored them.
He walked to the back of the room.
There it was. The Black Door.
It was made of obsidian, humming with a terrifying red energy barrier. Through the faint cracks in the doorframe, a golden light spilled out. And the smell...
It smelled like heaven. It smelled like pure, concentrated power.
[Detection: High-Grade Energy Source.]
[The Pill Vault.]
[Contents Estimate: 10,000+ Spirit Pills.]
[Barrier Level: Foundation Establishment (Peak).]
Jiang Chen approached the barrier. He raised a hand, but the System stopped him.
[Warning: Contact will result in disintegration.]
[However...]
[Scan reveals a flaw in the array. The energy circulation pauses for 0.3 seconds every hour to vent heat.]
Jiang Chen smiled. A flaw.
He couldn't enter today. He needed to time it perfectly. And he needed a way to carry the loot.
He turned away from the Vault and grabbed the 'Ghost Fire Oil' Elder Han asked for.
A thief's grin spread across his face.
"I'll be back," he whispered to the obsidian door. "And I'm taking everything."