Yun Jin took out one Soul Nourishment Pill, placed it into a separate porcelain bottle, and handed it to Ye Liuqin. "Senior Sister Ye, as promised, once the pill succeeded, one of them is yours."
Ye Liuqin hesitated.
Originally, whether Yun Jin succeeded or not, she had never intended to take advantage of her.
But…
This was a perfect-grade Soul Nourishment Pill.
To any alchemist, that was an enormous temptation. If she could carefully study it, it might even push her own alchemy to the next level. The words of refusal reached her lips, but in the end, she couldn't say them.
Yun Jin had already stuffed the porcelain bottle into her hand.
Ye Liuqin showed a slightly embarrassed smile and didn't decline further. "This pill holds great research value for me, then I'll accept it. But the pill's value far exceeds the herbs I gave you. I still have some other—"
"Senior Sister Ye, we already agreed beforehand, so let's follow the rules we set," Yun Jin said with a light smile and gave the porcelain bottle in her hand a cheeky little shake. "Besides, it's just a perfect-grade pill. I have plenty. Since I started refining, I've never produced a pill that wasn't perfect."
Ye Liuqin fell silent.
She wanted to thank Yun Jin.
But for some reason, she also wanted to smack her.
This girl…
She was seriously infuriating.
A perfect-grade pill.
Did Yun Jin think it was something easy to make?
Ye Liuqin had been refining pills for years, and even she had only managed to produce perfect pills once or twice—and even then, only for low-grade ones.
But Yun Jin?
She had never produced anything except perfect-grade pills.
How was that not maddening?
"I'll head to the stone chamber now," Yun Jin said, taking the pill and entering the chamber designated for Alchemy.
The others, full of curiosity, followed her.
As expected, there were no surprises. Yun Jin was once again the first to complete the trial. A box appeared on the table, and she claimed it with perfect ease.
The group fell into another silence.
They had thought the ten stone chambers' treasures were already in their grasp.
Yet Yun Jin had already claimed two, and Yue Zhao, out of nowhere, had claimed one.
As for the ones that didn't require a spiritual imprint, aside from the one Yue Zhao took, only the Talisman and Spirit Cuisine rooms had their treasures taken—those had gone to Kunlun Sword Sect and Xuandan Gate respectively.
That left the Beastmaster Sect with a chance to reclaim the beast-taming room's treasure.
Right now, the only one who had gotten nothing at all… was Qingxiao Pavilion.
At that moment, Duan Yiwei could clearly feel everyone casting strange looks at him. His face darkened visibly.
He couldn't stop himself from saying coldly, "Junior Sister Yun engraved six stone chambers in total. What, are you planning to take all six treasures?"
No matter how talented someone was, they had to have some kind of focus.
He didn't believe it.
Yun Jin couldn't possibly take all six treasures.
"No rush, no rush," Yun Jin replied lazily. "I practiced sword techniques for so long earlier, I think I'll go check out the Weapon Room."
The expressions of the sword cultivators changed slightly.
This time, their reactions were different from before. There was no longer any scorn, only solemnity.
If Yun Jin truly managed to claim the treasure of the Weapon Room, it would mean her talent in swordsmanship was ranked first among them all.
To be defeated in swordsmanship by someone from outside a Holy Land—none of them wanted to admit that.
Jin Yu, however, looked unusually calm.
If—
If Yun Jin really was, as he suspected, an innate sword body…
Then this treasure in the Weapon Room would be hers whether she wanted it or not.
Inside the stone chamber, Yun Jin entered the array and was transported directly into a virtual space.
No one knew what kind of sword technique she demonstrated inside. But the moment she came out, the formation lit up and displayed the treasure.
The first place had been decided.
Yun Jin, once again, was Yun Jin.
The disciples from the Beastmaster Sect, who had still been feeling indignant just a moment ago, suddenly felt oddly at peace.
Maybe… this loss wasn't all that hard to accept.
Besides, Yun Jin had promised to let their spirit beasts fight again. They might still have a shot.
"Next chamber is…" Yun Jin arched a brow.
"The Weapon Room is right next to the Forging Room. Why not take a look at both?" Jin Yu suggested.
"I'll follow Senior Brother Jin's advice," Yun Jin replied with a sweet smile.
The Forging Room's trial method was similar to the Alchemy Room. It tested the artifact a forger had personally crafted, judging it based on how perfect it was.
Yun Jin had only ever forged one artifact—Tai'a Sword.
She placed Tai'a directly onto the pedestal.
With her current strength, she could already upgrade Tai'a's star rating, but she hadn't had the time yet. At the moment, Tai'a was still two-star.
From a pure ranking standpoint, it was at a disadvantage.
However—
The Forging Room didn't rank artifacts purely by level. It judged them by perfection. The closer an artifact was to perfect, the higher its score.
Usually, the higher the grade, the more perfect the artifact.
But Tai'a Sword was different.
It had been forged using a perfect simplification method, making it absolutely flawless at every stage.
When the results came out—
Yun Jin, with just a two-star Tai'a, claimed first place again.
Jin Yu's mouth twitched.
Alchemy, forging, swordsmanship, beastmaster… just how many surprises was this Junior Sister Yun hiding?
Duan Yiwei narrowed his eyes and said, "Junior Sister Yun hasn't gone to the Array Room yet, right? I participated in that trial. Why don't we see which of us is stronger?"
Duan Yiwei was already a fifth-grade array master and had full confidence in his array formation skills.
After all, arrays relied heavily on inheritance.
Without a proper legacy, one wouldn't even have the blueprints needed to lay formations, let alone become a skilled array master.
No matter how talented Yun Jin was, she did come from humble origins. The entire Canglan Kingdom's array manuals couldn't even compare to a fraction of what Qingxiao Pavilion had in its vault. And certainly not someone like Yun Jin.
The trial in the Array Room tested the most perfect array one could create from their own mastery. Duan Yiwei had directly engraved a fifth-grade array inherited from his sect. There was no way he could lose this time.
Yun Jin was usually polite to people like Jin Yu.
But when it came to Duan Yiwei…
She rolled her eyes, hard, and said coldly, "You? You think you're worthy of being compared to me?"
"You—" Duan Yiwei's face turned a shade of green.
Yun Jin ignored him and brushed past him without a glance.
In the Array Room, Yun Jin looked at Gu Jinghong. "What happened? I taught you all those arrays myself, and you still didn't take first place?"
Gu Jinghong looked utterly ashamed. "The arrays Master taught me, I haven't mastered all of them yet. If I had, you wouldn't need to step in yourself."
Gu Jinghong actually had decent talent in arrays. Plus, Yun Jin had given him a few cheat codes.
Recently, Gu Jinghong had already risen to a second-grade array master, and Yun Jin had been passively upgraded to third-grade.
But truthfully, Canglan Kingdom lacked advanced resources. Yun Jin hadn't gotten access to any of those rare array blueprints. All she could do was continue upgrading the ones she already had by using Emotional Value.
At present, she had mastered several third-grade formations.
Yun Jin thought for a moment, then entered the formation and began constructing a third-grade Spirit Gathering Array in midair.
The Spirit Gathering Array was the most common formation in the realm.
Duan Yiwei had only seen the first few lines before letting out a laugh.
He couldn't help but scoff, "I thought it'd be something profound, but it turns out it's just a third-grade array."
The one he had just engraved was a fifth-grade array, and not just any fifth-grade formation—it was one of the more intricate ones, the Mind Maze Formation.
How could a mere third-grade Spirit Gathering Array compare to that?
It looked like Qingxiao Pavilion would finally claim a treasure after all. Duan Yiwei's expression relaxed slightly.
If they really walked away empty-handed, he'd never be able to show his face again.