Lin Ye found Liu Qingyu beneath a tree.
She wasn't dead—only unconscious.
He sent a thin stream of mystic qi into her body, and her eyelids fluttered open.
"Hng… what happened…?" she groaned, rubbing the back of her head. "I feel like someone hit me…"
"You were knocked out," Lin Ye said flatly.
He scanned the surrounding traces, his eyes narrowing.
The attacker had likely been alone.
But there was no guarantee they wouldn't return with reinforcements.
A small sect like Wind-Thunder Mystic Sect should've been focused on cultivation.
Instead, it had bred nothing but petty schemes and poisonous ambition.
"W-what…? Why—how—" Liu Qingyu stammered.
Lin Ye didn't bother answering.
Instead, he took out several storage rings and began sorting through everything inside with calm efficiency.
Liu Qingyu's gaze flicked to the rings in his hand—
and her face changed instantly.
Those rings…
belonged to Xu Ming and the others.
They even had their personal seals.
"S-Senior Brother…" she swallowed. "Where… where are Senior Brother Xu Ming and the others?"
"They got eaten by the crocodile," Lin Ye said, his expression completely unchanged.
Eaten?
The excuse was… almost too casual.
Xu Ming and the others were elite core disciples. Even if they couldn't kill the beast, escaping shouldn't have been a problem.
But Lin Ye's face was icy.
And that mist rising from Mad Crocodile Pool made the entire area feel like something dark and bloodthirsty was lurking inside.
Liu Qingyu didn't dare investigate.
She instinctively shrank closer to Lin Ye, feeling more unsettled the longer she stayed with him.
Everything around him was strange.
But the strangest thing of all…
was Lin Ye himself.
His transformation was too extreme.
And even more unsettling—
her beauty didn't seem to affect him at all.
"The one who shot the arrows earlier is close to the Earth Transformation Realm."
Lin Ye's voice was calm, but his eyes were sharp.
"At minimum… Qi Sea Realm Eighth Layer."
He had judged it quickly.
If the attacker had dared to come closer, Lin Ye was confident he could've kept them here.
But the person had retreated immediately—cautious and disciplined.
"Fine," Lin Ye murmured.
"Let them run for now."
"When my cultivation recovers a little more…"
His fingers tightened around the two pills in his hand.
"Not one of them will escape."
"Those are… Jade Blossom Pills?!" Liu Qingyu blurted out before she could stop herself.
Her eyes widened.
Even inner disciples never received pills like that.
Only core disciples had access to them—two per month.
Lin Ye had also retrieved his own storage ring.
Inside, he found five Jade Blossom Pills.
Two were his monthly allocation.
The other three…
had been gifted by the senior sister who was actually close to him.
And from Xu Ming and the other two core disciples, Lin Ye found six more.
Eleven total.
He glanced down at the pills, then sneered.
"Which idiot refined these?"
Before Liu Qingyu could even react—
Lin Ye crushed the pills.
Crack.
One after another.
He ground the powder in his palm, sniffed it once, then frowned in disgust.
Liu Qingyu stared like her soul had left her body.
"S-Senior Brother Lin Ye… y-you…!"
Those were Second-Grade pills!
Two of them!
And he just… crushed them?!
Was he insane?!
Did the bloodshed earlier break something in his head?!
He was even insulting the sect's alchemy elder—
the one who refined these!
Lin Ye's eyes were cold with contempt.
"So much Jadeheart Grass wasted."
"Sloppy refining. Crude condensation."
He flicked the powder with his finger.
"If I see the fool who made these outside this cave…"
"I'll cut off both his hands."
Lin Ye had once been a Ninth-Grade Alchemist.
His skill had reached the peak.
And there was one thing he hated more than anything—
waste.
Jadeheart Grass was precious.
And whoever refined these pills had ruined most of it.
But it wasn't fully melted.
Because the alchemist's flame control was too weak—
meaning parts of the Jadeheart Grass remained intact inside the pill.
Which made it…
perfect for Lin Ye.
He crushed the remaining nine pills without hesitation.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
Each time he did, Liu Qingyu felt like someone carved a knife across her heart.
Those poor, innocent Jade Blossom Pills…
She wanted to rescue them.
After all eleven were crushed, Lin Ye collected most of the powder into a porcelain vial.
Liu Qingyu noticed something—
within the powder, tiny leaf fragments remained.
So the pills truly had been refined poorly.
Then Lin Ye asked abruptly:
"You have Wind Spirit Fruits, right?"
Liu Qingyu's entire body stiffened.
She immediately clutched her storage pouch like someone guarding their life.
So this is it.
So this is what he wanted.
His wolfish intentions finally showed!
She regretted everything instantly.
She should've left earlier.
Lin Ye wasn't the sect's "waste."
He was a madman.
A butcher.
And now he wanted her treasure.
"S-Senior Brother Lin Ye…" she said weakly, testing her words, praying he'd let her go.
Then she swallowed and forced herself to negotiate.
"I… I can keep one… right?"
"Fine," Lin Ye nodded.
One Wind Spirit Fruit was enough.
Liu Qingyu obediently handed over two Wind Spirit Fruits.
Inside, she was screaming.
First he destroyed Jade Blossom Pills.
Now he was taking her Wind Spirit Fruits too.
What sin did she commit in her past life to deserve this?
Lin Ye raised his palm.
Mystic qi surged.
Blood-Asura energy condensed into a flame-like sphere—dark, violent, and pulsing like a living heart.
He poured the Jade Blossom Pill powder into it.
Before he reached Qi Sea Realm, his mystic qi wouldn't have been rich enough for this.
Now it was.
Liu Qingyu took a step back, eyes wide.
His movements were too smooth.
Too practiced.
Her heart pounded.
"He… he's not…"
"…Is he actually refining pills?"
Alchemy was one of the most difficult arts.
Wind-Thunder Mystic Sect had nearly eight thousand disciples.
True alchemists?
Less than ten.
That was why pills were scarce.
That was why core disciples monopolized resources like Jade Blossom Pills.
Inner disciples only received three basic Qi Refining Pills a month—
not even a tenth of the effect.
Lin Ye crushed the Wind Spirit Fruit in his bare hand.
Juice streamed into the blood-flame.
The liquid immediately churned, boiling and twisting.
It looked chaotic—
but Liu Qingyu could sense an invisible rhythm beneath it, a special circulation pattern.
Lin Ye added several unknown herbs—materials he'd found in the rings of Xu Ming and the others.
Blood-Asura Mystic Qi wasn't true flame.
But Lin Ye had created a method that worked anyway.
By spinning the energy at high speed and compressing it with force, he condensed the medicinal essence into solid form.
Finally—
three pills formed and dropped into his palm.
Compared to the Jade Blossom Pills, they were smaller.
Only the size of soybeans.
Liu Qingyu stared suspiciously.
Maybe he messed up.
Maybe these were just emergency "face-saving" pellets.
Lin Ye tossed one toward her.
"This is a simplified version of a Wind-Spirit Heart-Tempering Pill."
"It'll help your cultivation."
Liu Qingyu caught it quickly.
Even though her heart doubted…
this pill came from her Wind Spirit Fruits.
She wasn't about to waste it.
The pill's aura was sealed perfectly, not a hint of scent escaping.
Then Lin Ye turned away, already thinking ahead.
"Find a cave. We rest for the night."
He glanced toward Mad Crocodile Pool.
Everyone there was dead.
But he'd sensed something earlier—
there was likely a treasure hidden beneath the water.
Otherwise, Xu Ming and the others wouldn't have risked so much.
The Dragon Void Cave trial lasted seven days.
Four days had already passed.
If they didn't leave by day seven…
they'd be trapped inside forever.
Since he was already here, Lin Ye wasn't leaving empty-handed.
He would find anything that could strengthen him.
Night fell.
Inside a cave, icy wind howled outside like the cries of ghosts.
As usual—
Liu Qingyu was assigned to guard the entrance.
The cold seeped into her bones. She had to circulate her cultivation method just to keep warm.
But her mind wasn't on the cold.
It was on the pill in her hand.
Can I even eat this?
What if he poisoned it?
What if it explodes?
She swallowed nervously.
Then clenched her teeth.
"Screw it."
"At least there's Wind Spirit Fruit juice inside…"
"Even if it's weak, it should do something."
She popped the pill into her mouth and swallowed.
The moment it entered her stomach—
BOOM.
A wave of pure energy exploded inside her body.
Liu Qingyu's eyes snapped wide.
"What—?!"
Her heart slammed.
That power…
was at least a hundred times stronger than the Qi Refining Pills she'd been taking!
A violent surge roared through her meridians.
Liu Qingyu immediately sat down, focused her mind, and began circulating her technique—
forcing that overwhelming energy into her cultivation base.
She was breaking through.
Right now.