Chapter 1157: An Army at the Gates

"This... failed?"

"What a pity! He had already lit five stars. If all nine had been lit, it should have succeeded, right?"

"What's there to pity? Only five stars, still far from enough! This Master Ye, praised to the skies before, now it seems he's nothing special!"

"Alas! Is Young Master Xun really unable to get through this? He's so good, it's so不甘心!"

...

The Nine-Star Array shattered, and disappointment showed on everyone's faces.

On Tong's face, despair was even more evident.

One failure meant half of Xun's life was gone.

If Ye Yuan had condensed seven or even eight stars, Tong wouldn't have been so desperate.

After all, that would have been close to success.

But Ye Yuan had only condensed five stars!

Even a fool could see that the Nine-Star Array required all nine stars to be lit to form the pill.

Five stars barely made it past half.

Seeing this result, Tong could no longer sit still.

He was about to step forward when Li pulled him back.

Li shook his head at Tong, then said to the others in a deep voice, "All of you, shut up!"

At his shout, everyone understood: they were not to disturb Ye Yuan.

At that moment, Ye Yuan sat cross-legged, resting his chin on his knees, staring blankly into space.

But everyone knew he wasn't really spacing out.

"Great Priest, he is..." Tong whispered in confusion.

Li shook his head. "I don't understand either. But now is not the time to disturb him. It seems he intends to continue refining."

"Continue refining!"

Tong couldn't help raising his voice, drawing many glances, but quickly realized his mistake and lowered it: "At this time, shouldn't he summarize the failure and try again in a few days?"

Li said, "Logically, yes, but... this Ye Yuan, I really can't figure him out. However, no matter what, our only hope rests on him."

As they were discussing, Ye Yuan suddenly curled his lips and jumped up.

This time, everyone exploded!

"What is Master Ye going to do? It's only been a moment; is he going to continue refining?"

"He... he isn't giving up on himself, is he?"

"Yes, this is too reckless! How can he continue refining at a time like this?"

But Ye Yuan treated them all as if they were air, completely immersed in his own world.

He hadn't heard a single word of their议论 from start to finish.

Without any hesitation, Ye Yuan began refining the remaining half of the medicinal embryo and threw it into the Dragon Emperor Cauldron.

The Nine-Star Array opened again!

Once again, it was smooth and dazzling.

But everyone's confidence in him was even weaker.

Tong said in a deep voice, "This guy is too reckless! If he wastes this last chance because of arrogance, I will not forgive him!"

Li glanced at Tong and gave a bitter smile.

To be honest, he too found Ye Yuan's behavior hard to understand.

That Ye Yuan could light five stars had already greatly surprised Li.

Li felt that if he calmed down and deduced the pill formula again, there might really be hope of refining it.

But Ye Yuan had only sat chin in hand for a quarter of an hour before starting to refine again.

What could be done in a quarter of an hour?

Yet Ye Yuan just kept refining as if no one else was there.

One star, two stars, three stars...

Gradually, one by one, the stars were lit.

When the fifth star was lit, everyone held their breath, staring intently at the Nine-Star Array.

Last time, Ye Yuan had fallen here!

Would it be the same this time?

Time passed minute by minute, and the merman experts dared not even breathe loudly.

They felt this was sheer torture.

Finally, a beam of light shot from the Dragon Emperor Cauldron into the Nine-Star Array, and the sixth star was lit!

Seeing this, everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.

This refining was truly thrilling.

But Li scowled and said in a low voice, "What are you all so excited about? From now on is the hardest part! At any moment, he could fail! All of you, shut your mouths. If your noise causes the refining to fail, I'll destroy you!"

Hearing this, everyone wisely shut up, not daring to make a sound.

But the subsequent refining went surprisingly smoothly.

Seven stars, eight stars, nine stars!

"Nine-Star Array, gather!"

With Ye Yuan's light shout, the Nine-Star Array was drawn directly into the Dragon Emperor Cauldron!

"Condense!"

The light faded, and everyone crowded around.

Tong, looking anxious, asked Ye Yuan, "Master Ye, how... how is it? Can it reach... lower grade?"

"Lower grade?" Ye Yuan raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.

Seeing Ye Yuan's expression, Tong said in disappointment, "Could it be... just a defective product?"

Although he didn't care much about the grade of the Purple Void Qi-Gathering Pill, there was still a difference between lower grade and defective.

A defective product would essentially mean Xun was ruined.

If it were lower grade, Xun might still have hope of recovering to his peak in his lifetime.

But Ye Yuan gave a slight smile and said, "You underestimate me too much! See for yourselves!"

With that, Ye Yuan opened the cauldron and with a single hand gesture, a pill flew out and landed on a jade plate.

The entire place fell silent!

They gathered around the table, their mouths agape in shock.

After a long while, Li came to his senses and stammered, "Sup... sup... supreme grade! How... how is this possible?"

He simply couldn't understand how Ye Yuan, having failed the first time, could refine a supreme-grade Purple Void Qi-Gathering Pill on the second try.

This was the Purple Void Qi-Gathering Pill!

The pill refined for the first time was still a Profound-grade pill, yet it turned out supreme grade!

How... how was that possible?

Ye Yuan smiled and asked back, "Possible or not, haven't you already seen it?"

Li opened his mouth to speak but didn't know what to say.

Everything before him felt extremely unreal.

His best expectation for Ye Yuan was only lower grade. The gap between lower grade and supreme grade was enormous.

How could any alchemist achieve this?

Yet, Ye Yuan had done it!

"Don't just stand there dumbfounded. Since the pill is refined, hurry up and give it to him," Ye Yuan urged.

"Ah? Oh, right! Stop staring! Stop staring! Quickly give the pill to Xun'er!" Li shouted, shooing away his clansmen.

A crowd bustled about, attending to administering the pill to Xun.

But just then, someone came to report: "Your Majesty, it's bad! It's bad! The Black Shark clan has an army at the gates; they've surrounded us completely!"