The Alchemist threw three pouches of powder that exploded into yellow mist across the chamber floor, hissing as they corroded the granite stone.Grand Alchemist Yun then ignited furnace fire from his own palms, thrusting both hands forward to ignite the toxic gas. "Perish beneath the Scorching Dragon Blaze!"Yun screamed with manic fury. "My alchemical flames will melt your flesh and turn your bones into yellow slag!"Melvin held back the mist with a layer of Yin-Ice, projecting a dense crystalline barrier from his outstretched palms that froze the acidic vapor into harmless dust.Kaelen circled to the left side to cut off the escape route, raising his black iron sword with lethal intent. "Your path is blocked, traitor, so surrender your weapons!"Grand Alchemist Yun swung his flaming right arm toward Kaelen in wild desperation. "Out of my way, insolent envoy!"Melvin blurred across the chamber floor with Half-Step Heavenly speed, appearing at Yun's right flank in a fraction of a mill

The heavy bronze doors burst open violently as Kaelen sprinted into the sanctuary, his chest heaving with desperate breath.Kaelen ran directly toward the central table, carrying a silver medical tray in his trembling hands.Kaelen dropped to one knee, holding the tray up with pure terror in his eyes. "Supreme Master... a disaster has occurred in the northern cave!"Resting upon the silver tray were the nine specialized gold-silver needles that Melvin had planted in Sect Master Shen's body earlier.All nine celestial needles had expelled themselves from the elder's flesh, their once-glowing shafts now turned pitch black and dripping with foul necrotic slime.Melvin looked at the blackened needles, his golden pupils narrowing with chilling Sovereign intensity. "The explosive necrotic trigger inside his Dantian has bypassed my sub-zero seal, initiating its final countdown!"Sprinting through the northern corridor with Half-Step Heavenly velocity, Melvin reached the seclusion cave in les

Thousands of disciples and wandering rogue cultivators crowded the spectator tiers, murmuring in eager anticipation of the grand opening.Chief Elder Mo led the party down the ship's boarding ramp, his eyes scanning the bustling arena. "Twenty-two sects have assembled to contest the Primordial Dragon Pool, creating the most intense summit in fifty years!"Melvin walked toward the central registration pavilion, accompanied by Chief Elder Mo and Kaelen.At the registration table, the organizers rejected Melvin's name on the grounds that he came from the secular world and had no lineage from any sect.The chief organizer pushed the parchment registry away with cold elitist disdain. "The rules of the Nine Cauldron Summit are absolute! This young man possesses zero sect pedigree, so his registration is formally refused!"The argument stopped the moment Melvin placed the Supreme Golden Elder Token on the table, along with Shen's sect master token beside it.Melvin looked into the organizer'

A ghostly grey thread finer than a hair emerged directly out of Shen's chest, carrying a faint pulse of corrupted life essence.The invisible grey thread crossed fifty paces of open plateau devoid of touching the stone ground, floating horizontally through the cold mountain air.Melvin tracked the trajectory of the spectral thread, his golden pupils widening in profound realization as it sank directly into the subterranean base of the first bronze cauldron.Melvin looked toward the three-story bronze furnace, his voice echoing with chilling Sovereign clarity. "Sect Master Shen's vital pulse is anchored directly to the first refinement cauldron, so igniting that furnace will detonate his heart in thirty seconds!"The chief tournament official struck the bronze gong a second time, signaling the commencement of the inaugural refinement trial. "Every competing sect shall deploy one designated alchemist to utilize the shared central cauldron!"The official pointed at the identical trays of

The entire spectator crowd focused their complete attention upon the elevated fighting ring, cheering loudly as the blood-warriors prepared their weapons. Melvin guided Chief Elder Mo toward the secluded northern edge of the stone plateau, turning away from the main spectacle to investigate a deeper mystery.Cold mountain winds whipped aggressively across the rocky perimeter, snapping Melvin's tailored suit jacket against his frame. Melvin knelt beside the plateau boundary, brushing aside thick layers of damp green moss clinging tightly to the stone rim.Hidden beneath the dense vegetation, the foundation stones displayed deliberate, complex architectural modifications. Long, precise channels measuring exactly two fingers wide ran continuously along the perimeter, all angling inward toward the exact center of the arena.Melvin scraped a patch of the stone channel completely clean using a silver diagnostic needle, examining the exposed grooves under the morning sunlight. "The friction