“Huo Long, you’re truly, truly amazing!”

Long Chen was startled to see that he was able to control any of the flame dragons to help him refine pills, and he could use two at the same time.

In his delight, he ran over to Tang Wan-er, took the crystal card, bought three more seventh tier furnaces, and tried them all at once.

The result was four bangs. And those bangs weren’t from the formation of the pills. All four refinements had failed.

Long Chen looked at the four flame dragons, the four flame dragons looked back at him. For a long while, no one said a thing.

“Ah, I really should calm down a bit.”

Long Chen finally came to the conclusion that both he and Huo Long were too excited. Furthermore, Huo Long had only just managed to split into four. Its control over its split bodies was still rough, and there was no way to perform alchemy like that.

It would require Long Chen to use a great deal of soul energy to control all four, and right now, he was also too excited, leading to the failure. Such a tumultuous state was not suitable for alchemy.

But with this experience, Long Chen quickly adjusted himself. He had to use his spiritual control over the four flame dragons instead of relying on their own control.

The results came quickly. The four refinements all succeeded at the same time, with each furnace having nine pills. However, the highest quality pill was only seven-ring, while the worst was three-ring.

Huo Long’s intelligence was very high, so it knew this wasn’t a good result. But Long Chen said, “This is very normal, so don’t grumble. We need to work on our cooperation. Since you brought out three more bodies to refine pills at the same time, we’ll need some time to raise the quality. Just succeeding in the refinement so quickly is already amazing.”

Long Chen comforted Huo Long and continued refining with four furnaces. The difficulty of the refinement was high enough, so refining four at the same time was something that would probably be viewed as impossible in the alchemy world.

For him to succeed in his second attempt was absolutely shocking. This was the result of their spiritual connection.

Long Chen directly consumed the pills of this attempt, treating them as nothing more than a snack before continuing.

After thirteen tries, Huo Long’s control over his flame was growing, and adding in Long Chen’s cooperation, they were finally able to refine furnaces full of nine-ring pills.

For their efficiency to multiply four times delighted Long Chen. Like this, he would be able to easily obtain forty thousand Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pills in one day.

When he wasn’t refining pills, he was helping Huo Long rest by helping it absorb the Earth Flame essence.

Another half a month passed. Long Chen had refined over a million Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pills.

After another three days of refining, the number of Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pills he had accumulated was over one million three hundred thousand, including the hundred thousand he had refined before. Only once he was close to one million four hundred thousand pills did he stop.

In this month, Huo Long grew stronger and stronger, and its spirituality also rapidly rose. Long Chen suddenly had a thought and handed the process of refining pills to Huo Long on its own.

The current Huo Long now had control over its own Spiritual Strength. Although the pills it refined on its own were of lower quality than when they cooperated, its quality was still high enough.

When it refined Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pills on its own, it could also refine nine-ring pills. Although they were no longer close to top grade like when they worked together, they were about the same as the pills sold by the Alchemy Pavilion.

Refining pills on its own was taxing to Huo Long’s Spiritual Strength. Long Chen was worried it wouldn’t be cautious and told it not to go all-out. If it got tired, it could focus on digesting the remaining Earth Flame energy in its body.

With his help, Huo Long had digested the majority of the Earth Flame energy. He guessed that once Huo Long refined all that energy, it would not be any weaker than the flame leopard.

After making sure that Huo Long would rest properly, Long Chen finally came out of seclusion. The city was still peaceful, with everyone following the rules obediently. The law enforcers didn’t dare to cause any trouble.

The outer sect disciples had become the commoners’ guardians. They had completely taken the place of the law enforcers and were able to keep the peace.

In fact, some of these outer sect disciples would help the commoners when they had time. They would go out hunting with them to increase their combat experience and teach them survival tricks.

After all, just relying on the Xuantian Dao Sect’s rations was like waiting for opportunities to fall into their lap. With Long Chen as an inspiration, the outer sect disciples would bring some young disciples amongst the commoners to go hunting so they could get experience. They could hunt in regions that were less dangerous so their families could eat.

When Long Chen came out of seclusion, he felt like the outer sect had gone through a heaven-toppling transformation. The outer sect disciples were now interacting very well with the commoners as if they were a family.

Seeing this, Long Chen went directly to the inner sect. This time, he saw that the inner sect was basically deserted. There was no longer a sea of people.

He guessed that everyone was training during this time because the inner sect competition was about to start. They didn’t dare to waste any more time.

“Boss, you’re back!” When Long Chen returned, Guo Ran was in the midst of drilling the Dragonmark warriors. With a proud expression, he said, “Look, what do you think of these brothers now?”

The Dragonmark warriors looked at Long Chen with emotional expressions. Ever since they had consumed the ‘candy’ Long Chen had fed them, they felt like they had completely transformed.

Furthermore, after a month of hellish training, they were finally beginning to release their own light. If they were previously rusty blades, then they had now shed that rust to reveal their sharpness.

“Excellent. Now you’re finally showing your sharpness. You won’t bring dishonor to the name of the Dragonmark warriors,” praised Long Chen.

After one month, these disciples seemed to be new people. That wasn’t just the effect of the Bitter Earth Mortal Molting Pill. It was definitely related to how Guo Ran and the others had patiently drilled and trained them.

This praise made them feel endlessly grateful. For a god-like existence to say a single word of approval to them made their blood heat up.

“Counting the days, there’s still half a month until the competition. I came over this time to give everyone some encouragement: each person is getting one hundred nine-ring Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pills,” said Long Chen.

“Really, boss?” Guo Ran was shocked.

It wasn’t just Guo Ran who was shocked. Everyone was confused. Didn’t that mean each person was using up a hundred points?

Weren’t all their points sold? How did they still have so many? They were flabbergasted.

Long Chen said, “As for how they came about, there’s no need for you to care. Since I’ve been called boss by all of you, I won’t let my brothers starve. You’re all at mid Sea Expansion or even lower. These one hundred Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pills are enough for you to rise one realm at least.

“Although that’s not enough for you to compete with those so-called elite geniuses, due to your transformation through the Bitter Earth Mortal Molting Pill and your hellish training, your chances of survival on the battlefield have risen a great deal.

“For this competition, we don’t care about our achievements, and we don’t care about the rewards. We just have one mission: to stay complete. However many people are going into the competition is how many people I want to see alive in the end.

“If any of you die, I’ll have to charge my way into the netherworld to drag you back. Tch, after eating what’s mine and drinking what’s mine, do you think you can die like this? Wouldn’t your boss have ended up losing out like that?”

Everyone laughed, but the emotion in Long Chen’s words made them feel protected, cherished.

“Other than that, you don’t need to feel inferior compared to those so-called heavenly geniuses. In reality, you should feel like they’re the inferior ones. If your positions were switched, they wouldn’t necessarily be able to reach the heights you’ve currently reached. Furthermore, despite the setbacks you encountered, you were still able to persevere. That will be the greatest thing you rely on as you climb toward the peak of the martial path. This is also why your boss says that if you have to suffer, you should suffer as early as possible.

“The majority of the so-called elites managed to reach their level smoothly like boats floating down a river. But as soon as they stumble, it will be difficult for them to ever climb back up. Cultivation is a marathon, and it’s not about who runs the fastest or who runs the handsomest. It’s about who can run the farthest. I see self-inferiority in your eyes, so I want you to release that useless feeling from today onward. If you can’t find any aspect to be proud of, then just look at me. Just being able to follow me, Long Chen, is something worthy of pride.” Long Chen patted his chest.

“Boss!”

Those disciples were all affected emotionally and began to cheer.

Although Long Chen didn’t like this kind of skill-less showing off, there was no way around that. He had to have them build up their own confidence. Someone without any confidence couldn’t walk far on the martial path.

If they couldn’t find their own confidence, then they could just worship him. As long as he didn’t fall, their confidence wouldn’t shake either.

“Guo Ran, distribute the Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pills. You brat, do you need a spanking? They aren’t candies!”

Long Chen saw Guo Ran stealthily check the pills he gave him, so he gave him a kick.

Each person obtained a hundred Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pill. That made Long Chen sigh emotionally. As expected, there was not enough meat to go around. Once all these pills were distributed, none of them remained standing here.

They quickly went into seclusion to refine the medicinal energy within the Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pills. For the Dragonmark warriors, advancing one realm with a hundred pills was no problem. Even two realms was possible.

But for the Dragonblood warriors who had advanced to the late stage, advancing would depend on how much they had accumulated beforehand.

As soon as the Heavenly Star Sea Merging Pills were divided, a disciple suddenly came to report that Crouching Dragon Mountain had a visitor. When he saw the weary Zheng Wenlong arrive, Long Chen finally sighed with relief.

“I prayed to the stars, I prayed to the moon, and finally, you’ve come.”