Just now, a spiritual message had appeared in his mind. Although it was very weak, Long Chen was sure it had come from the Moon and Star Refining Furnace.

“Moon and Star Refining Furnace, is it really you? You’re awake?” Long Chen was ecstatic. The Moon and Star Refining Furnace was finally recovering.

Another message came from it. It said that as long as it was given enough Spiritual Strength, it could automatically refine the pills for Long Chen.

“Will you be alright? You’re very weak right now.” Long Chen was worried. The Moon and Star Refining Furnace’s item-spirit had almost died. Even if it had been recently nourished by Long Chen, that was far from enough.

This time, the Moon and Star Refining Furnace didn’t reply. It began to suck the medicinal powders Long Chen had placed nearby inside of it.

“Meng Qi, give your Spiritual Strength to the pill furnace!” said Long Chen.

Meng Qi didn’t understand, but she sent her Spiritual Strength inside. Long Chen also had Huo Long send one of its split bodies inside the furnace.

One medicinal powder after another merged inside. Huo Long only maintained a constant output, while the pill furnace controlled the heat itself.

The heat control was perfect, and the alchemy process was being done even faster than Long Chen had managed. The starry images around the Moon and Star Refining Furnace began to move. Meng Qi hadn’t had to use up much of her Spiritual Strength before the refinement was finished.

What shocked Long Chen the most was that the Nethergate Pills inside were still in slumber. They weren’t as fierce as when he had refined them.

“Too miraculous!” Long Chen saw that the pills were all top grade and not at all inferior to his own refinements.

He once more asked the furnace if this process hurt it, and it said that refining pills was beneficial to its recovery. It wanted to recover as fast as possible.

Meng Qi calculated it. WIth her Spiritual Strength, she could refine over ten furnaces of pills in one go.

However, just then, the Nine Lotus Soul Condensing Pill flew out and the two began to communicate.

“Long Chen, we shouldn’t refine pills inside. It says that we should refine in a spacious place. That way, the Moon and Star Refining Furnace can use its astral power better, and it can help me recover my Spiritual Strength faster. We can refine even more Nethergate Pills then,” said Meng Qi. By it, she was referring to the Nine Lotus Soul Condensing Pill connected to her soul.

Long Chen directly left the room. He found a tall mountain in the northwestern part of the Cloud Chasing Heaven Swallowing Sparrow race’s territory. From there, it was possible to see Chu Yao and the others in the distance.

Meng Qi began to refine pills, while Long Chen consumed them. As he consumed more Nethergate Pills, the whirlpool above his Dantian spun faster and faster. It quickly grew.

At the same time, he felt the FengFu, Alioth, Life Fate, and Enlightenment Palace Stars start to react as they formed some kind of connection with the whirlpool.

The energy of the medicinal pills continued to be first absorbed by the Divine Gate Star. It then underwent some kind of transformation before being sent to the Nethergate Star.

There seemed to be some kind of special connection between the Divine Gate Star and the Nethergate Star. However, Long Chen could not tell what that connection was.

After three days, the whirlpool above his Dantian had grown from the size of a sesame seed to three feet. He could feel a subtle transformation in the other five stars as well.

At this time, Gu Yang came over to find them. Long Chen and Meng Qi ceased refining and eating pills.

“Boss, what is going on?” Gu Yang had come straight from the Wild World. The Skyscraping World was mostly cut off from the Martial Heaven Continent, so Gu Yang only learned now that their side had faced an attack over here. The transportation formation was not something convenient to use and required a few days in between uses.

“It’s fine. Our enemies’ necks have gotten itchy. I didn’t tell you because there’s no need to bother. How are things in the Wild World?” asked Long Chen.

“Everything’s fine there. The devil race continues to attack, but the original devil race has gathered so many of their devil cores that their divine seals have grown incredibly powerful. They’re more than enough to suppress even the stronger devil races. No one manages to leave alive. If they didn’t leave a few of the devil race experts for us as training, we wouldn’t even have a chance to fight,” said Gu Yang.

The original devil race’s divine seals continued to grow stronger, while the Dragonblood warriors were also fighting happily, gradually coming to control the power of awakened Empyreans.

“What about Guo Ran?” asked Long Chen.

“He’s finished with the armor and weapons. Xia Chen is in the middle of adding runes to them. They should be usable within ten days,” said Gu Yang.

Gu Yang had tried out the armor and weapons. He found that his power doubled while using them. But more importantly, the Dragonblood warriors would be able to freely transfer energy between themselves thanks to the large formation linking them.

“Good. We’re going to be doing something big soon,” said Long Chen, a chilly light appearing in his eyes.

“Boss, I heard many bad rumors about the Dragonblood Legion on my way back here…” Gu Yang said.

“I know. They’re definitely saying something about colluding with the original devil race and trying to destroy the Martial Heaven Continent,” said Long Chen. “The Martial Heaven Alliance’s members aren’t fully loyal. There are some accomplices inside telling them that smart people would leave the alliance to avoid being implicated. I’ve long since gotten used to this play from Pill Valley. Let them be. It’s not like we have time to prove anything. That would just waste our time and make us fall for Pill Valley’s trap.”

“But there are some idiots who have been tricked and started joining them,” said Gu Yang irritably. He had seen quite a few on the streets shouting about Long Chen’s sins.

“Tricked? Not really. Most of them are well aware of the truth. They’re not stupid. In fact, they think themselves clever for getting some extra profit out of this. It’s fine. Why hate pitiful people? We just have to look after ourselves-”

BOOM!

Suddenly, the entire territory of the Cloud Chasing Heaven Swallowing Sparrow race shook. A powerful pressure descended that caused Gu Yang’s expression to change. He turned, ready to fight any enemies, when he was grabbed by Long Chen.

“It’s Wan-er!”

Long Chen saw a hurricane atop a distant mountain. It tore into the sky and blasted apart the clouds.

“Wan-er’s manifestation has awakened!” exclaimed Meng Qi.

The hurricane tore through space, leaving cracks in the void. It became a sea of wind blades.

Within that sea of wind blades stood Tang Wan-er, looking unspeakably beautiful with her white dress and black hair dancing in the wind.

The wind blades slowly faded, and the world returned to calm. Tang Wan-er opened her eyes. A windmill-like rune forced of wind blades appeared in her eyes, slowly spinning. Those runes slowly faded, and only then did her dress and hair stop fluttering.

Tang Wan-er looked at Long Chen and smiled. Spreading her arms, she flew over like a breeze.

Long Chen laughed and extended his arms to hug her. As a result, just as his arms closed around her, she vanished, reappearing in front of Meng Qi and hugging her. “Big sister Meng Qi, I’ve also awakened my manifestation!”

Long Chen’s arms hung there. He awkwardly put them down while Gu Yang looked into the distance like he hadn’t seen anything.

“You…” Meng Qi shook her head as she hugged Tang Wan-er.

“Hehe. Long Chen, are you angry?” Tang Wan-er finally released Meng Qi and held Long Chen’s hand.

“Why would I be angry? A big figure with a heavens’ soul manifestation can be considered a peerless expert. Someone like that naturally doesn’t care about a little person like me,” sighed Long Chen.

Before Tang Wan-er could reply, the sound of something cracking rang out. They hastily looked over to see an ice mountain fracture.

“Zhiqiu is also coming out of seclusion!” Long Chen was delighted.

The ice mountain suddenly exploded, transforming into ice crystals that sparkled with all the colors of the rainbow.

A jade-like figure walked out, looking like a flawless ice sculpture. Ye Zhiqiu was surrounded by flying ice crystals.

Before Long Chen could greet her, the vegetation on a mountain covered in greenery began to rumble. The plants there suddenly grew explosively as a vast life energy erupted.

“Chu Yao is also coming out!”

Long Chen’s jaw dropped. The three of them were coming out of seclusion together. Now there would be nothing to fear.