Nonsense! How could my adopted son be a villain?

Xu Lingguang spent some time refining the spiritual herbs into pills.

He stored the pills in his storage ring, then carefully cleaned and polished the Cloud Piercing Crossbow before continuing his journey with great pride and high spirits.

He had only taken two steps when a huge creature suddenly rushed out from the side. Xu Lingguang nimbly dodged it and instantly took out his Cloud Piercing Crossbow, aiming three spirit energy arrows at the approaching creature.

The rampaging creature stopped, and seeing his tense demeanor, it lowered its head and hummed twice, looking somewhat guilty.

It turned out to be that Jue Ru.

Xu Lingguang put down the Cloud Piercing Crossbow, somewhat speechless: "Why is it you?" Then he narrowed his eyes: "Are you trying to take advantage of this opportunity to ambush me?"

Jue Ru's little scheme was exposed, so she quickly took small steps forward, bent down in front of him, and called out twice in a fawning manner.

Xu Lingguang: "..."

Isn't this attitude changing way too quickly?

She's like a completely different person since we first met; she's lost all trace of her cunning and treachery, and is now just a lackey.

Seeing how obsequious it was, Xu Lingguang condescended and sat on its lap: "Let's go, it seems we're going to climb a mountain next."

Jue Ru stood up and carried him happily up the mountain.

Xu Lingguang looked it over and found that it was indeed quite different from Sangzhi. For example, when Sangzhi transformed into its original form, its body was more slender, and its white fur was a big plus. Sangzhi looked like a very elegant and beautiful Jue Ru.

The one in front of us looks much uglier.

Fortunately, it's not bad as a means of transportation.

Moreover, because of the mulberry branch, Xu Lingguang now found it rather pleasing to the eye, and his tone softened as well: "I thought I could only use you in the first level, but it turns out I can use you all the time."

So all the effort he put into taming this Jue Ru wasn't wasted.

However, he found it a bit strange: "Why didn't you show up when Fengqiu was established?"

Upon hearing the words "Fengqiu," Jue Ru staggered and let out two angry howls, though she dared not speak out.

Xu Lingguang patted its head: "You've got quite a temper."

But he quickly figured out the reason: "You're afraid of mulberry branches, aren't you?"

Jue Ru snorted in a muffled voice.

Sure enough.

Xu Lingguang found it somewhat amusing: "Sangzhi is so small, still a little cub. You're so big, you should be an adult by now, right? Why are you still afraid of him?"

Jue Ru silently quickened her pace.

Sangzhi devoured Tai Sui and gained soul fire; now, which Jue Ru wouldn't be afraid of him?

Unfortunately, Jue Ru couldn't speak, so she could only sulk by herself.

Jue Ru was very fast; Xu Lingguang reached the mountain in half a day.

After two rounds, Xu Lingguang had a pretty good grasp of the rules of the Hundred Refinements Tower.

Each level here isn't really defined; they're more like real-life dungeons that Xu Lingguang has to figure out on his own to clear. Only after clearing one can he move on to the next.

There are also hidden side quests like Jue Ru and Sang Zhi, which Xu Lingguang guesses would likely earn him bonus points if completed.

I just don't know the specific calculation method.

However, he believed he had figured out a pattern, so he was really looking forward to the third level.

However, when Jue Ru carried him halfway up the mountain, he found that things were not as he had imagined.

On a platform halfway up the mountain, there was a huge alchemy furnace, and in front of the furnace sat an old man with white hair and beard.

When the old man saw him coming, he smiled slightly and said, "I've been waiting for so long, and finally someone has come again."

Xu Lingguang jumped off Jue Ru in a daze. Seeing that Jue Ru was still clinging to him and unwilling to leave, he knew that it wanted to beg for food. He casually stuffed some pills into its mouth to get rid of it, and then stepped forward and returned the greeting somewhat awkwardly: "Old sir."

The old man sized him up and said, "Since you're here, don't waste time, let's get started."

Xu Lingguang exclaimed "Ah!" and before he could react, he was grabbed by a tremendous force and thrown into the largest alchemy furnace.

Xu Lingguang: ? ? ? ? ?

No, why are you doing this?

He scrambled to his feet, dizzy and disoriented, at the bottom of the alchemy furnace, when he heard a voice outside say, "Once the alchemy furnace is filled with the refined pills, you can come out."

Xu Lingguang: ? ? ? ? ?

Fill the alchemy furnace with elixirs?

This alchemy furnace must be at least ten square meters, how many pills would it take to fill it?

This Hundred Refinement Tower is just too overpowered!

Xu Lingguang kicked the bronze wall of the alchemy furnace hard and walked around inside.

No wonder he returned the Cloud Piercing Crossbow so readily; it turns out it wasn't even needed for this level!

Xu Lingguang sulked for a while, but quickly cheered himself up.

He didn't rush to refine the pills; he first took a turn around in the pill furnace.

He soon discovered that there were characters engraved on the bronze wall of the alchemy furnace. The characters were very small and easy to miss if you did not look carefully.

The requirements for the elixir in the alchemy furnace are written in detail above.

To summarize:

This alchemy furnace is alive; it has its own consciousness.

If an alchemist wants to leave the alchemy furnace, he must continuously refine pills to feed it.

If you use pills to make the furnace vomit, it will be released.

The higher the grade of the pills, the more satisfied the alchemy furnace is, and the less pills are needed to fill the furnace.

Xu Lingguang slowly exhaled. That's alright. As long as he practices making more high-grade pills, it shouldn't be too difficult.

However, the question remains: where will the elixir come from?

The elixirs he carried with him were simply not enough.

Just as Xu Lingguang had this idea, the copper walls of the alchemy furnace began to bulge outwards, eventually turning into four rows of copper racks filled with all sorts of spiritual herbs.

For an alchemist, this was like seeing a Manchu Han Imperial Feast.

Apart from seeing such a rich collection at Wuyao's place a long time ago, Xu Lingguang had never seen such a complete collection of spiritual herbs.

It has everything imaginable, and all of them are in excellent condition.

Xu Lingguang looked at them one by one and realized that this level wasn't actually that annoying.

He pondered for a moment, then took out the alchemy furnace and the soul fire that the mulberry branch had given him, and began refining pills.

For him now, alchemy is a very simple thing.

Xu Lingguang started by practicing with pills he was already familiar with.

The alchemy manual flipped through the pages in his mind. He used his spiritual power to retrieve the medicinal herbs, put them into the alchemy furnace, and then controlled the soul fire to refine them. The whole set of movements was so smooth that it seemed to be engraved in his bones.

One batch of pills after another was refined, and without Xu Lingguang lifting a finger, an invisible force devoured them.

There was no change of time inside the alchemy furnace. In order to get out as soon as possible, Xu Lingguang refined pills day and night. When he was tired, hungry, or lacked spiritual energy, he would take a few pills and then meditate to regulate his breathing for a while before continuing to refine pills.

However, after refining it round and round, and who knows how much time had passed, the furnace still showed no sign of letting him out.

By this time, Xu Lingguang had become very skilled at refining all the pills in the alchemy manual.

He felt that something was wrong.

Although he didn't deliberately keep track of the time, he had been refining pills day and night since he came in, and every batch was full of top-grade pills.

Logically speaking, this alchemy furnace should be released.

But the large alchemy furnace seemed completely still.

He kicked the bronze wall of the alchemy furnace: "You've eaten so many top-grade pills, why won't you let me out? Trying to dine and dash?"

The alchemy furnace remained unmoved.

However, the shelf where the elixirs were kept was quietly replenished again.

Xu Lingguang: "..."