After Crossdressing and Provoking Long AoTian

“Arrogant!”

The Tianyuan Pill King swept out his long sleeve, finally dropping the kindly, benevolent facade. He thrust out one enormous hand, and for an instant it seemed to blot out the sky.

If that palm came down, a handful of Nascent Soul cultivators wouldn’t be enough to withstand it.

Scholar Xiao raised his folding fan slightly to shield his eyes.

A small black flag appeared in his other hand—the strange black flag Ye Chenyan had once obtained in the Ancient Academy Realm.

It was also one of the many mysteries dog Xiaosa had dug up and never bothered filling back in.

Except now, the flag looked completely different from before.

The incomplete demon-race script on its surface had been restored, and a faintly murderous aura emanated from it.

Scholar Xiao flicked his wrist.

The small flag expanded into a great war banner, which he planted behind his back.

He raised his eyes, all traces of his usual frivolity vanishing beneath a sudden razor edge.

“Form the array!”

Before the hall, the old Pill King’s former followers—who had seemed to be sprawled haphazardly all over the ground—struggled to raise their hands one after another, pouring spiritual power into the air.

The Tianyuan Pill King’s previously fluid motion abruptly stalled.

Scholar Xiao lifted his head. His long hair streamed backward beneath the crushing pressure of the wind, but his smile remained as easy as ever.

“Tianyuan Pill King, please enter the array.”

The Tianyuan Pill King swept his gaze around, looking down on Scholar Xiao from above.

“You think these people can stop me?”

Scholar Xiao laughed and brought the war banner horizontally before him.

“This is a formation.”

“A fragment of the battle array used tens of millions of years ago, when that Demonic Sovereign led countless members of the demon race to meet the enemy.”

“I searched through more records in Nanzhou than I can count and visited who knows how many old acquaintances before I finally managed to restore it.”

Gripping the banner, he stood at the eye of the formation.

“Of course I know the gap between our cultivation levels is enormous.”

“But formations exist precisely to combine the strengths of many and allow the weak to overcome the strong.”

He flashed a brilliant smile.

“Besides, I was never arrogant enough to think I could defeat you.”

“I only need to delay you for a while.”

“If you’re willing to cooperate by staying inside the formation and not moving, that would naturally be ideal.”

“Dream on!”

The Tianyuan Pill King unleashed his spiritual power.

The surrounding spiritual energy churned like a vortex as he drew it toward himself. His robes moved without wind, as though he meant to drain the spiritual energy from heaven and earth themselves.

Scholar Xiao sighed.

“Ah. So I really do have to fight.”

The Girl in the Bamboo’s expression turned grave.

“Here it comes!”

A stream of pillfire descended from the sky.

It roared down with enough force to set the heavens ablaze and swallowed Scholar Xiao’s figure almost instantly.

“Cough!”

The disciples maintaining the formation spat blood.

One after another, they collapsed like a field of wheat swept down by a scythe, utterly incapable of resisting.

“Careful!”

The Girl in the Bamboo moved instinctively, chasing after Scholar Xiao as the blast of fiery force sent him flying.

Then something caught her attention.

She abruptly stopped.

The heaven-scorching flames dispersed.

A single war banner remained standing at an angle.

The flames clinging to it dissolved into wisps of smoke, yet the banner still stubbornly held.

Scholar Xiao sat sprawled on the ground, one hand bracing the tilted banner, the other locked tightly around the threshold of the old Pill King’s chambers.

He coughed up blood as well, his face smeared black with soot.

Yet he threw back his head and laughed.

“Hahaha! See? I told you I could block one move!”

“One move. Nothing more.”

The Tianyuan Pill King’s expression shifted several times before settling into a cold sneer.

He raised his hand, and clusters of flame appeared suspended in the air.

“You nearly killed yourself stopping one casual strike.”

“What do you plan to do now?”

Scholar Xiao stared up at the flames without moving.

Instead, he relaxed his grip and lay down, using the threshold as a pillow while still loosely holding the banner.

Then he howled,

“Brother Ye! Brother Yu! I can only stop one move! If you still don’t show up, we’ll have to meet on the road to the underworld!”

“Hmph.”

The Tianyuan Pill King snorted.

The clusters of pillfire screamed toward him.

The Girl in the Bamboo’s expression shifted, and she spun in front of Scholar Xiao.

But before the flames could arrive—

a pitch-black spear came roaring upward from behind her, carrying an overwhelming tide of demonic energy.

The Girl in the Bamboo turned her head.

A giant wolf transformed into a young man in midair.

Ye Chenyan caught the spear and charged straight into the pillfire.

Scholar Xiao’s eyes lit up.

“Brother Ye!”

A streak of green light followed close behind.

A flute note like the cry of a phoenix rang out as Qingzhu, jade-green bamboo flute in hand, stepped through the flames with killing intent.

Scholar Xiao let out a breath of relief.

“Senior Qingzhu!”

Behind them, another streak of light came a beat late—

and was hurled upward with tremendous enthusiasm.

Scholar Xiao stared up, then burst out laughing.

“Brother Yu, why are you throwing your qin at people?”

“It was an emergency! I threw whatever I had!”

Yu Qingtang nearly tripped over his own pink skirt as he hurried over to help Scholar Xiao up.

“Brother Xiao! You’re still breathing, right? You’re not about to die, are you?”

Scholar Xiao reassuringly patted his hand.

“Relax. I’m only a little injured. Let me rest for a moment.”

With that, he tipped backward and peacefully closed his eyes.

“Brother Xiao!”

Yu Qingtang went pale.

“Don’t fall asleep! What if you sleep straight through to your next life?”

Scholar Xiao forced one eye open by a sliver.

“Not dying. Just weak.”

As he spoke, someone shoved a pill into his mouth.

He struggled to open his eyes wider but only caught sight of a retreating back.

In a flash of inspiration, he realized this must be the legendary old Pill King.

He chuckled weakly.

“A pill from the old Pill King himself? I really hit the jackpot.”

Yu Qingtang leaned closer curiously.

“How is it? What does it taste like?”

“Bitter.” Scholar Xiao closed his eyes and savored it.

“Really bitter.”

“Bitter enough to kill me.”

Then he stopped talking.

Yu Qingtang: “...”

“Relax.”

Senior Brother Du Heng, exhausted from forcing open the Reincarnation Pill from outside, stuffed a pill into his own mouth and glanced at Scholar Xiao.

“His injuries aren’t severe. He may even gain something from this.”

“Master’s pills have always been bitter.”

“The more bitter they are, the better they work.”

Yu Qingtang immediately regarded the unconscious Scholar Xiao with newfound respect.

“Then I guess they aren’t something just anyone can stomach.”

“If the bitterness didn’t kill him, let him lie there for a while.”

Yu Qingtang lifted his skirt and stepped over Scholar Xiao with a degree of grace that could only generously be described as nonexistent.

Then he headed outside and called back to Du Heng.

“We already got the old Pill King out! Senior Brother Du, you should lie down for a while too!”

Du Heng: “...”

Watching Yu Qingtang’s hurried retreating figure, he couldn’t help the faint curve of his lips.

He shook his head in amusement.

Ye Chenyan and Qingzhu, both being rather hot-tempered, had already charged ahead.

But the old Pill King flew up after them, calling, “Young friends, do not be rash,” and stopped them.

On the way, he even returned Yu Qingtang’s qin.

Ye Chenyan landed beside Yu Qingtang with a dark expression and glanced back into the room.

“They’re both all right?”

“They’re fine. Sleeping very peacefully.” Yu Qingtang nodded and tugged at Ye Chenyan soothingly. “Don’t rush.”

Ye Chenyan pressed his lips together and stood beside him, spear in hand.

“That attack I threw just now was like tossing a clay ox into the sea. I couldn’t feel a thing.”

His eyes remained locked on the Tianyuan Pill King.

“Has he already reached Mahayana?”

Qingzhu stepped back [N O V E L I G H T] and looked upward.

“Peak Integration. Not Mahayana yet.”

Ye Chenyan said nothing.

Qingzhu glanced at him.

“After Nascent Soul, every major realm is separated by a chasm. You’re merely at Nascent Soul, yet you want to shake an old monster at Integration.”

“Rather arrogant, don’t you think?”

Ye Chenyan finally looked away.

“Eventually.”

Qingzhu turned his eyes toward the two of them and, unexpectedly, gave a slight nod.

“Good.”

Yu Qingtang did not even notice whether Qingzhu had just praised Ye Chenyan alone or both of them.

He was too busy nervously watching the two Pill Kings—old and new—facing each other in the sky.

He lowered his voice.

“The old Pill King isn’t going to go soft, is he?”

The old Pill King had only this one junior brother.

Even in Young God-King: Unifying the Immortal Sects, he had never killed the Tianyuan Pill King, merely imprisoned him for the time being.

“He cannot.”

Qingzhu looked upward.

“If he goes soft now, what of all the people who died or were trapped because of this?”

The old Pill King gazed at the Tianyuan Pill King before him, a trace of nostalgia crossing his face.

“It has been a very long time since I called you by that name, Omphalia.”

“When I heard that name inside the Reincarnation Pill, I thought you must have encountered some trouble.”

The Tianyuan Pill King had discarded his amiable mask completely.

He looked coldly at him.

“Then why didn’t you come save me, Senior Brother White Perilla?”

The old Pill King slowly shook his head.

“I do not understand.”

“Omphalia, what exactly is it that you want?”

“The position of sect master of Fire Cauldron Sect?”

“That elusive immortal pill formula?”

“Or is it simply resentment you cannot let go of...”

“All of it.”

The Tianyuan Pill King stared straight at him.

“I want all of it.”

The old Pill King stared back in silence, unable to speak for a moment.

“Hahaha!”

The Tianyuan Pill King burst into laughter and threw back his head.

“Senior Brother, why look at me with such disappointment?”

“You should have known long ago that this is the kind of person I am.”

“Weren’t you and Master guarding against me from the beginning?”

The old Pill King closed his eyes.

“Master loved you dearly. She never wronged you.”

“You’re lying!”

The Tianyuan Pill King’s eyes snapped open.

All the resentment buried inside him erupted at once.

“She favored you!”

The old Pill King watched him silently.

“I once believed she was fair too.” The Tianyuan Pill King sneered. “My talent was worse than yours. My alchemy was worse than yours. So of course you became sect master.”

“That was unavoidable.”

“That was fair.”

The old Pill King gave a faint nod.

“Master decided according to—”

“But she didn’t!”

The Tianyuan Pill King clenched his fists.

“I made a mistake once.”

“She said she forgave me, but she never actually forgot!”

“Back then, I couldn’t refine the Beast-Illusion Pill, so I directly used demonfolk blood as a medicinal ingredient.”

“Master nearly crippled my cultivation for it!”

“It took so much—so much—for her to forgive me and allow me back into the sect.”

“I thought it was over.”

His eyes reddened as he raised his head.

“But she remembered everything!”

“She kept saying she treated us both equally, yet behind my back she told you that my talent was passable but my character was unstable, and that you needed to keep a close eye on me.”

“She kept saying she held nothing back from either of us, that once you became sect master and I assisted you, any pill formula you could read, I could read too.”

“But that immortal pill formula—that formula—she gave only to you!”

He advanced step by step.

“So tell me...”

“Was it because I was inferior to you in every way that I could never obtain the immortal formula or become sect master?”

“Or was she simply biased from the very beginning?!”

“There was no immortal pill formula.”

Grief filled the old Pill King’s eyes.

“Omphalia, there never was one.”

“You’re lying!”

The Tianyuan Pill King did not believe him at all.

“I heard you discussing that immortal formula with your own disciple!”

He laughed wildly.

“See?”

“You really are exactly like Master.”

“You only told your own eldest disciple!”

“Hahaha!”

The old Pill King slowly shook his head.

Then, as if finally reaching a decision, he spoke.

“If you insist on knowing, then I will tell you everything Master said back then.”

“The immortal formula you speak of is connected to the Heaven-Mending Art the Esoteric Sect has been searching for.”

The Tianyuan Pill King’s eyes widened instantly.

“I knew it!”

“I knew it was connected to the Esoteric Sect!”

“And to their collection of naturally extraordinary geniuses!”

“If heaven and earth are the furnace, then geniuses are the heavenly materials!”

Fanaticism burned in his eyes.

“I wasn’t wrong.”

“So that really is the path—”

“No.”

The old Pill King looked at him with pity.

“Even that peerlessly brilliant ancestor failed to refine the Heaven-Mending Pill.”

He looked up at the sky.

“During the great war in ancient times, the Esoteric Sect proposed the Heaven-Mending path.”

“They invited our ancestor out of seclusion and brought forth the divine artifact known as the Heaven-Mending Furnace.”

“They asked him to refine a single Heaven-Mending Pill—one capable of sealing the hole in the heavens.”

“Heaven and earth were facing catastrophe.”

“Countless prodigies fought to the death.”

He raised one finger, grief filling his eyes.

“When cultivators fell in bloody battle, they willingly cast themselves into the pill furnace and became part of the Heaven-Mending Pill.”

The Tianyuan Pill King laughed quietly.

“Senior Brother, willing or not, they were still refining pills with human lives.”

“No matter how you dress it up—”

“And even then, he failed.”

The old Pill King closed his eyes.

“In the end, our ancestor sacrificed his own body to the furnace.”

“He entrusted the young master of the Esoteric Sect at the time, Bu Yetian, with opening the furnace and retrieving the pill.”

A strange light flickered in the Tianyuan Pill King’s eyes.

“Could it be...”

The old Pill King spoke with absolute certainty.

“The Heaven-Mending Pill was never completed.”

“Master and I both concluded that this road leads nowhere.”

“This Dao cannot succeed.”

“But back then, you had already begun showing signs that you wanted to walk that very path.”

“That was why Master—”

“Impossible.”

The Tianyuan Pill King took a step backward.

“It must have succeeded.”

“The Heaven-Mending Pill was successfully refined back then!”

“You’re trying to deceive me!”

“You’re afraid I’ll surpass you.”

“You’re afraid I’ll accomplish the great feat even our ancestor failed to achieve!”

The Tianyuan Pill King pointed at him and laughed.

“You old bastard, you’re afraid!”

“Hahaha!”

“In the end, even you are afraid of me!”

The old Pill King closed his eyes and released a long sigh.

“Omphalia.”

He looked at his junior brother.

“If heaven and earth are the furnace, then you and I are nothing but two lives among the countless masses.”

“What gives us the right to call ourselves the alchemists?”

The Tianyuan Pill King raised a finger.

“You—”

The old Pill King raised his hand as well.

One finger pierced straight through the center of the Tianyuan Pill King’s brow.

He lowered his eyes and watched him fall.

Many years ago, when Omphalia had committed that mistake and knelt outside Master’s door, the old Pill King had reached out his hand in much the same way.

Only then, he had taken his junior brother by the hand.

He had helped him to his feet and led him inside to see Master.

And he had warned him:

There will be no next time.

The old Pill King closed his eyes.

This time, there truly would be no next time.

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