Today, the weather is gentle and sunny, and the resounding high-pitched cries of eagles echo in the sky outside the Five Elements Sect, with five azure cliff eagles piercing through the heavens.

Half a year ago, the disciples embarked on a journey to South Dipper Mountain, and now they have finally returned. The inner disciples carry hope in their hearts, while the elders of the sect are filled with anticipation.

The azure cliff eagles land in front of the main hall of the sect. This year, only a little over a hundred people have survived, resulting in substantial losses. However, the harvest of spiritual herbs is quite abundant.

The sect master and the elders also offer words of encouragement. The remaining disciples walk in silence, many bearing bloodstains, with occasional flashes of cold light in their eyes.

They descend the mountain with the elders, silent. The competition this year has been fierce, with some of the top ten disciples even resorting to using high-grade, yellow-ranked artifacts that are unstoppable by anyone.

Below the sect master's peak, a person with a black ox stands at a distance, seemingly waiting for something.

Disciples start flying on their swords in various directions after descending the mountain, but it seems they still haven't met that person.

The big black ox keeps snorting heavily, and as the descending disciples become fewer and fewer, Chen Xun clenches his fists, his gaze fixed in that direction. He constantly glances at the disciples, but none of them have seen that person, not even a resemblance.

"Moo?"

The big black ox looks at Chen Xun with an unusually tense expression. The disciples are almost gone, but why hasn't he shown up?

Chen Xun, with a trembling voice, says, "Old ox, I dare not directly give Senior Ji the Foundation Building Pill. Otherwise, for him and for us, it would be a catastrophe."

The big black ox looks at Chen Xun, its expression nervously abnormal. The disciples have become sparse in descending; there are almost none left.

"Moo~" The big black ox gives a low call, and there are no more people descending from afar.

"Hehe... Old ox, let's go. We've really done our best." Chen Xun forces a faint smile, holding the ox's head with one hand. "Do what we can; accept fate. Senior Ji has at least tried his best. He has no regrets, and neither do we."

"Moo~" The big black ox snorted at Chen Xun, its mood low.

The fallen leaves rustle as they leave, their backs carrying endless loneliness.

The scorching sun flickers on the sect master's peak, slowly descending. The few clouds in the sky disperse, turning into a colorful evening glow.

At the foot of the mountain, the residual sunlight falls on a hurried figure. Because he won first place and was personally encouraged by the sect master, he came down later.

Suddenly, this figure halts, as if seeing something. His eyes widen instantly, seemingly exerting all his strength, and he shouts in a direction:

"Senior Chen! Junior Ox!"

A familiar voice suddenly comes from afar. Chen Xun and the big black ox, as if struck by lightning, tremble, and their steps come to a sudden halt. Their eyes quiver slightly in a half-dazed state.

Chen Xun turns slowly, and at the foot of the mountain, there stands a figure. And this person is indeed Ji Kun!

Ji Kun seems to be stuck with countless words in his throat. His eyes are slightly red, full of spirit, and the bloodstains on his body add a touch of masculine air.

His temperament from the past seems to have returned, with white hair but no signs of aging.

Ji Kun doesn't say a word; he just nods heavily toward Chen Xun.

"Moo moo moo!!" The big black ox is excited, jumping up and down. Its momentum shakes the fallen leaves on the ground.

Chen Xun's gaze is deep, with a faint smile on his lips as he also nods heavily toward Ji Kun.

He leads the big black ox away, and the two of them never exchange a single word throughout. Ji Kun bows respectfully to their retreating figures, slowly looking at his storage bag. The contribution value for this high-grade, yellow-ranked artifact is at least three thousand, and only Foundation Building cultivators can exchange it.

He had inquired about it months before his departure, and Chen Xun had deceived him. The great favor without words was enough to leave a lifelong impression on him.

Ji Kun stood with his hands behind his back, gently looking up at the sky with a sigh. His heart was filled with mixed emotions. The path of cultivating immortality is full of deception, but meeting friends like this is truly goodtoo good...

...

After Chen Xun and the big black ox returned to the medicine garden, they felt invigorated. They exchanged a deep glance, shared a knowing smile, and added this year's longevity point to their cultivation base.

"Old ox, I'm planning to refine a Foundation Building Pill for Senior Ji, but not like the ones given by the sect. Otherwise, the Foundation Building is bound to fail."

Chen Xun spoke seriously, slightly furrowing his brow. "The Foundation Building Pills provided by the sect may have some issues. I will volunteer to offer the pill and exchange it when the time comes."

"Moo moo?" The big black ox asked nervously, not understanding the art of alchemy.

"It may be a substandard product, but it's definitely not a high-grade Foundation Building Pill."

Chen Xun said in a deep voice, looking at the big black ox. "However, this is just my personal speculation. Regardless of its quality, I will exchange it for him. Senior Ji has only this last chance."

He didn't go to the alchemy hall to pass the time. After all, he had learned quite a bit, such as the fact that pills also have four grades: low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, and top-grade.

As for information about pill patterns, he hadn't heard of it yet and couldn't get in touch with it. Regarding pill identification, he was still exploring slowly. At present, he could roughly discern the general purpose of pills used in the Qi Refining stage, but Foundation Building Pills were still beyond his understanding.

"Moo!" The big black ox nodded heavily, always cautious in its actions, never making mistakes.

"We've figured out the rules of this array's detection. We just need to avoid the two daily time points, and no one will know what we're doing."

Chen Xun squinted slightly, looking at the occasional streaks of light in the sky. If not for the warning and concealment of the essence of all things, they would have long been thoroughly detected, and they wouldn't have been aware.

"Moo~"

The big black ox also raised its head solemnly to look at the sky. There's something dirty here, not as casually beautiful as imagined.

"Old ox, let's get to work." Chen Xun smiled slightly. With the current essence of all things, they could cultivate a 120-year-old spirit medicine in a month.

"Moo!"

The big black ox hurriedly ran towards the cave they had opened at the foot of the hill, where its storage bag still contained a large number of Foundation Building spirit medicines.

They had dared to try pulling out a spirit medicine from the spiritual field, and the array had not reacted. It was quite normal to change the growing place, as long as it was not taken out or damaged. Everything was fine.

But if the age of the spirit medicine was not right, then it would be the matter of those people in the alchemy hall picking spirit medicines. The array did not have this kind of detection effect yet.

They had also casually planted a few ordinary spirit medicines, and the array showed no reaction. It seemed that it only reacted to the spirit medicines recorded in the register. They had too many secrets and had to be extremely careful.

Inside the cave.

Chen Xun began to refine pills, controlling the pill fire quite ordinarily. This time, he did not integrate all the spirit medicines together but distributed the medicinal liquid.

The big black ox continued to cultivate spirit medicines on the side. When there was nothing to do, it would read a book and remind Chen Xun to avoid certain times. Time passed like this as Chen Xun refined pills.

He experimented every day, and depending on the different medicinal powers of the medicinal liquid, the quality of the pill varied greatly. However, none of the pills showed the pill patterns they had.

Now, with divine consciousness, the success rate of pill refinement has greatly increased. He could precisely control the spirit medicines in the alchemy furnace. In fact, his alchemy technique, coupled with the enhancement of the pill fire, had reached a terrifying level.