"Third Elder…" Seeing the Third Elder personally take a towel to wipe Su Xuan's brow, the dan apprentice Xiaoyun couldn't help but raise her hand, her lips twitching.

The Third Elder was the most skilled in Dan Art within the Jiuding Sect. Almost everyone who visited was humble and deferential in his presence. Who had ever seen him personally wipe the sweat from someone's brow?

But Xiaoyun quickly let it go. After all, Su Xuan is no ordinary person. He's a Heavenly-ranked Pill Master, and so handsome at that!

It was just moments after the Third Elder had wiped Su Xuan's brow that something completely unexpected happened.

BANG!

A deafening explosion shook the alchemy room, filling it with dust. The Third Elder was blown backward, his back slamming into a wall. Xiaoyun rolled several times across the ground before skidding to a halt, her face a mask of horror.

The furnace exploded! The Pill Furnace actually exploded! The Pill Furnace left behind by the Third Elder's Immortal Master has actually burst apart!

The Third Elder scrambled to his feet, ignoring his own injuries. He rushed into the cloud of dust, searching for one person: Su Xuan. He desperately hoped Su Xuan, the Pill Master at the center of it all, hadn't been killed. His fear was not unwarranted, as the Pill Master always suffers the most in a furnace explosion.

The Third Elder breathed a sigh of relief. Through the dissipating dust, he saw Su Xuan still sitting there, completely unharmed. He just looked dazed, as if he hadn't processed what had just happened.

"Xiaoyun, open the windows!" the Third Elder bellowed.

"Right away!" Xiaoyun scrambled up from the floor and threw open the alchemy room's windows, allowing the smoke and dust to clear out quickly.

The blast had torn the fabric on Xiaoyun's shoulder, revealing a patch of fair skin—the kind of pale, delicate skin unique to a young woman, a sight that might normally make a man drool. But at this moment, no one was paying any attention.

"Hahahaha!" The Third Elder suddenly burst into inexplicable laughter, seeming not to mind that the Pill Furnace had been destroyed.

The Pill Furnace was a pitiful sight. A shocking, jagged crack ran down its side, hissing with plumes of white smoke.

"Third Elder, it was my fault…" Su Xuan began. "I seem to have overdone it. My apologies."

He said the words, but he truly didn't understand why the furnace exploded. All the steps were carried out according to the original plan, and he was confident he'd made no mistakes. After all, the system had maxed out his skills! His Dan Art was supposed to be flawless! He even suspected that blowing up the Pill Furnace had caused the Third Elder to have a mental break. After all, the old man had compared the furnace to his Immortal Master's wife before gifting it to him. He had essentially just blown up the wife of both the Third Elder and his Immortal Master! This was a serious matter!

"A superior-grade pill!" The Third Elder seemed not to hear Su Xuan, exclaiming wildly. "If the Pill Furnace hadn't failed to withstand the pressure, the pill refined would have undoubtedly been superior-grade! Ever since Ancestor Meng left, it's been a long time since a superior-grade pill has appeared in this mountain realm!"

Xiaoyun straightened the torn cloth on her shoulder and blinked her large eyes. "Third Elder, are you saying that Lord Su just refined a superior-grade pill?"

"Yes! Yes!" The Third Elder raised his hand high, pointing at the cracked Pill Furnace. "I am certain it was a superior-grade pill! The Pill Furnace would not lie to me!"

After saying this, the Third Elder approached the Pill Furnace and pointed to a specific marking on it, exclaiming excitedly, "My Immortal Master told me time and again that whenever there was a sign of a superior-grade pill being refined, this Heaven and Earth Sigil would light up. This sigil is the clearest indicator of a pill's grade. Just now, it didn't just light up—it was at full capacity!"

Su Xuan's mouth twitched. So it's like a cell phone signal bar? He hadn't noticed that at all. Then again, it wasn't surprising that he'd refined a superior-grade pill of the highest quality. His Dan Art was perfect, after all. It would be strange if it *wasn't* superior-grade! But why did the furnace explode? That's what he was concerned about. And why wasn't the Third Elder upset about it? Why did he seem so… excited?

"Brother Su, it's like this!" The Third Elder's tone was more fervent than ever. He clapped Su Xuan on the shoulder and grabbed his hand, looking as if Su Xuan had just won the grand prize. "My Immortal Master once told me that this Pill Furnace was forged in imitation of Ancestor Meng's Furnace of Longevity. It can only withstand the pressure of refining superior-grade pills. The fact that it exploded proves the pill you just refined is *supreme-grade*! Do you understand? If this furnace hadn't shattered, you would have created a miracle in the world of pill refinement on this mountain!"

"Uh…" Su Xuan scratched his head, unsure how to respond. There's a level beyond superior-grade?

He didn't voice his confusion. Instead, he asked the Third Elder, "Were Ancestor Meng and your Immortal Master from the same era? Did he already have his Furnace of Longevity back then?"

"You don't know about the Furnace of Longevity?" The Third Elder stared at Su Xuan in shock. "The Furnace of Longevity was the one used by Ancestor Meng's *teacher*!"

"Teacher?" Su Xuan was puzzled. "What teacher?"

"You…" The Third Elder was speechless. He had been treating Su Xuan as a veteran Pill Master, so he truly didn't know how to answer such a basic question.

"Ancestor Meng's mastery of Dan Art… was a lot like yours. He was self-taught and had no teacher," the Third Elder said patiently, taking a deep breath. "His Pill Furnace, however, has a great history. He didn't forge it himself. Before Ancestor Meng's rise to prominence, the path of pill refinement was in decline. But during its golden age, there was a pill-refining genius whose name was…"

"Third Elder," Su Xuan interrupted the story, speaking gravely. "The Pill Furnace is broken."

"Right, right, the furnace exploded! After all, it is merely a replica of Ancestor Meng's Furnace of Longevity. But the fact that it shattered proves your Dan Art has reached its apex." The Third Elder made an odd gesture, rubbing his face. "I'm not exaggerating when I say your Dan Art has already surpassed mine by a slight margin!"

"Third Elder…" Xiaoyun pursed her delicate lips, holding back her words.

She had watched the Third Elder refine pills countless times. Forget pushing the furnace to its breaking point; that sigil indicating pill grade had rarely ever lit up for him. What did that mean? It meant that, at best, the Third Elder could only refine high-grade pills and had never even come close to superior-grade. And he was saying Su Xuan was only *slightly* better than him? In her opinion, Su Xuan's Dan Art was ten times, no, twenty times better… it was beyond comparison!

"Now that the Pill Furnace is broken, what should we do next?" Su Xuan asked with a wry smile. "Is there a sturdier one available? Also, do I need to compensate you for this one?" He had, after all, borrowed the Third Elder's Pill Furnace, which had originally belonged to his Immortal Master.

"No need for compensation," the Third Elder said, waving his hand. "Before my Immortal Master passed away, he left a final wish. He said that if I ever managed to make this Pill Furnace explode, it would mean I had surpassed him. I was never capable enough to do so, but you were. In a way, you've helped fulfill one of my Immortal Master's regrets."

"As for a sturdier Pill Furnace…" The Third Elder's expression suddenly turned grave, a complex mix of emotions flickering across his face. "There is one. But I can't get it for you. The person who owns it… is an enemy of mine."

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