The three-legged, two-eared Pill Furnace burned fiercely with crimson flames within, as a pure golden pill floated up and down.

Song Lin focused his gaze and discovered that within the furnace was none other than a star!

Using a star for alchemy?

Who exactly is this person?

Such alchemical proficiency was beyond even Song Lin's attainment. This person was definitely no ordinary cultivator.

Seeing the white-haired elder greet him, Song Lin nodded in acknowledgment.

The elder said nothing and instead turned back to observing the star within the pill furnace, unabashed before Song Lin.

Song Lin stood by, carefully observing the elder's alchemy technique.

The elder's methods were modest, employing the simplest techniques—boiling, roasting, rotating, returning, separating, combining… Techniques that Song Lin knew yet found transformed into divine wonders in the elder's hands.

The star, akin to a child's toy, was being casually forged within the furnace.

As the fire intensified, the star gradually took shape, even revealing some grand Dao for cultivation. This was a real star, not an ordinary glowing rock.

The sun set and the moon rose; spring passed and autumn came.

No one knew how much time elapsed before a strange fragrance emitted from the furnace—Star Pill, complete.

The white-haired elder, ignoring the searing heat, reached directly into the flames, grasped the star, and weighed it in his hand as though playing with a marble.

Then, with a flick of his fingers—

Boom!

The star flew off, suspending itself high in the heavens.

Song Lin strained his eyes to observe and saw that the star had returned to its normal size, functioning as it should in its cosmic duties.

"I borrowed some herbs earlier. Deep apologies for the inconvenience," the elder said, stowing away the pill furnace. Then, he reached into his robe and pulled out a pill. "Please pass this to the child from before as an old man's apology."

Song Lin accepted the pill while courteously replying, "It was but a handful of herbs; your gesture is too generous. I am Song Lin. May I know your esteemed name?"

"My mundane name is long forgotten. Just call me Wuhua Zi. No need for 'senior' or any formality; we are all seekers on the immortal path—why bother with hierarchical distinctions?"

"Taoist Wuhua's wisdom is profound. If you have no pressing matters, would you care to ascend the mountain for a visit?"

"Then, I shall shamelessly impose," Wuhua Zi replied with a smile.

Without further polite refusals, Wuhua Zi followed Song Lin up the mountain.

By a stream stood a simple thatched hut, where the two sat down out front.

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Song Lin finally voiced his curiosity: "Is it truly possible to refine stars?"

"Naturally. At the dawn of chaos, before stars existed, if left to natural evolution, their formation would take billions of years. But if artificially created, that timeline can be shortened significantly. For someone skilled in alchemy like me, forging stars is no different from refining immortal pills," Wuhua Zi explained with ease.

Why refine stars? Simply because he excelled at it.

A single star, evolving over billions of years versus being refined in merely three days and nights during alchemy.

Seeing Song Lin still puzzled, Wuhua Zi chuckled, "Don't you see? Alchemy requires metals, water, fire, herbs, and rare stones—all subjected to precise heat. A star, at its core, also embodies fire and minerals…"

"I humbly ask for your instruction," Song Lin said with a deep bow.

Wuhua Zi waved it off with a laugh, saying, "Ah, no need for such formalities. I don't take disciples, but since you're interested in the Alchemy Path and I happen to have free time, I don't mind teaching you a thing or two."

Thus, Song Lin began cultivating under Wuhua Zi's guidance.

Though they addressed each other as Taoist companions, Song Lin treated Wuhua Zi as a mentor in daily interaction.

The respect wasn't for Wuhua Zi's unfathomable cultivation but for the knowledge he imparted.

In the days that followed, Wuhua Zi, true to his word, only taught the Alchemy Path.

However, from Wuhua Zi's techniques concerning outer pills, Song Lin also gained insights into the profound arts of inner-pill refinement.

Combining the cultivation of both inner and outer pills, Song Lin progressed rapidly over the years.

The Innate Eight Diagrams Pill seemed to vaguely hold the Breaking Core Method within.

One day, Song Lin sat carefully managing the flames of the Lord's Eight Trigrams Furnace.

Inside the furnace, not pills but a stone effigy resembling a peony blossom was being baked by the flames.

In alchemy vernacular, this was known as a Pill Seat—upon which Pill Hua gestated in the center.

If a Pill Seat absorbed millennia of fire chi, it could evolve into a Jade Seat Spirit Pill; if a Jade Seat endured six millennia of fire chi, it became a Gold Seat; should a Gold Seat receive ten thousand years of fire chi, it achieved the rank of a Heavenly Seat.

A Heavenly Seat, entirely emerald, bore five to nine layers of pills, each filled with divine presence and safeguarded by the blessings of unseen divinities. Such pills were immortal pills.

The pill Song Lin was refining was the Purple Dragon Mysterious Flower Pill.

One pill could extend a mortal's lifespan by a millennium or instantly allow a cultivator to achieve Core Formation.

Song Lin had already spent 120 years refining this pill.

Refining pills, of course, couldn't always match such exaggerated timelines, and alchemical techniques allowed shortcuts with controlled fire.

"Once this pill is refined, your journey to achieving the Tao Golden Pill will only be a step away," Wuhua Zi remarked from the side.

Upon refining the pill and consuming it,

the Tao Golden Pill could be formed.

This was no shortcut.

The act of refining pills itself was cultivation. Advanced alchemical techniques combined inner pill and outer pill paths.

Refining an inner pill while refining an outer pill; refining an outer pill while refining an inner pill.

Outer pill achieved, inner pill achieved.

Another ten years passed.

One day, golden light erupted from the mountain's summit, accompanied by the resonant sounds of great bells and drums. A fragrance akin to sandalwood permeated the air, causing vegetation to grow wildly wherever it reached.

Within the Lord's Eight Trigrams Furnace, there appeared an emerald Pill Seat. Upon it floated five purple pills, their golden light faintly forming a divine shadow as though blessed and guarded by celestial beings.

Pill Hua ascended, divinities safeguarded.

This was an immortal pill.

Song Lin swallowed all five golden pills in one gulp, then shut his eyes to refine their medicinal effects.

Above his head appeared a shadow of the Innate Eight Diagrams.

Beside his spirit platform primordial spirit, an eight-sided golden core resembling the Eight Diagrams began to coalesce.

The fourth Tao Golden Pill—complete!

A subtle transformation overtook Song Lin's demeanor immediately.

He now fully mastered the methods for refining both immortal and inner pills.

"Impressive. The foundations are sound. The fifth through ninth can also be refined using this method. Reaching new heights is merely a matter of time," Wuhua Zi praised.

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