The silence in the Grand Alchemy Guild's hall was no longer just a lack of sound; it was a physical weight, a suffocating pressure that made the lungs of every candidate in the room ache. The three-veined Clear Spirit Pill sat in the proctor's trembling palm, its pearlescent glow mocking the years of "refined" study the other disciples had endured. Young Master Huo stood frozen, his jaw hanging slack, his expensive jade fan forgotten on the floor. He looked at his own charred, failed pill and then at Qin Feng, his mind unable to process how a "miner" had just achieved what his father, a Master Alchemist, struggled to do.
[DING! Reputation Surge: 'The Ghost Alchemist' of the Third Plateau.] [Face-Slapping Multiplier x40: You have shattered the confidence of the region's elite.] [Relationship Perk: Ye Chen's pride has reached a new peak. Resonance: 100%.]
Qin Feng didn't wait for the applause that would never come from this bitter crowd. He turned toward the exit, his heavy boots thudding against the polished jade floor, a sound that felt like a hammer striking an anvil. But as he reached the halfway point of the hall, the temperature in the room didn't just rise; it ignited.
The air grew thick with the cloying, heavy scent of burning sandalwood and ancient embers. Three figures descended from the high, shadowed balconies of the upper sanctum. They didn't walk; they drifted on clouds of crimson Qi. These were the Elders of the Flame Council, the undisputed rulers of the Third Plateau's economy. Their auras, vibrating at the 8th and 9th Layers of Foundation Establishment, hit the room like a tidal wave, forcing the weaker candidates to drop to their knees.
"Hold your step, young man," the lead Elder, a man named Gu with a beard of flickering orange flames, commanded. His eyes weren't looking at Qin Feng's face; they were locked onto the Eclipse Sunderer wrapped in its crude, grease-stained cloth. "A talent of your magnitude is not a 'gift' of nature. It is a secret. And in this city, secrets belong to the Guild."
"I have passed your exam," Qin Feng said, stopping his stride but not turning around. His voice was low, vibrating with a suppressed power that made the stone beneath his feet groan. "The rules state that a Perfect Grade allows me access to the vault. I am here for a Tier 3 Cauldron, not to be a guest in your interrogation room."
Elder Gu let out a cold, dry chuckle that sounded like parchment rubbing together. "The rules are written by us, for us. You utilized an 'irregular' fire, a violet flame that carries the scent of the abyss. That fire is a danger to the city. You will hand over that pill, surrender your weapon for inspection, and follow us to the Inner Sanctum for 'cleansing'."
It was the classic move of the Central Continent: if they couldn't understand a power, they would steal it. If they couldn't steal it, they would destroy the one who held it.
"Husband," Ye Chen whispered, her hand resting lightly on the hilt of the Moon-Severing Blade. The frost began to crawl from her boots, turning the jade floor into a sheet of white ice. "They don't want a conversation. They want a slave."
"I know," Qin Feng replied. He finally turned, and for the first time, the Elders saw his eyes. They weren't the eyes of a commoner; they were twin voids of swirling violet and gold. "I spent ten years digging in the dark so that no one would ever tell me where to walk again. You think your 'Council' is higher than the mountain? Let's test that theory."
Elder Gu's face twisted into a mask of indignant fury. "Arrogant whelp! Arrest him! Strip his meridians!"
Gu raised a single, withered finger. A thread of liquid, concentrated sun-fire shot toward Qin Feng's throat, moving with the speed of a strike from a Golden Core master. It was meant to cauterize his vocal cords and bind his limbs in a single move.
[ACTIVATE: Vein Seeker (Combat Mode).] [System Analysis: Elder Gu's Qi flow is 92% concentrated in his right index finger. Flaw detected in the elbow joint.]
Qin Feng didn't draw the Sunderer. He didn't even move his feet. He waited until the fire-thread was inches from his skin, then he swung the wrapped pickaxe in a short, brutal vertical arc. He didn't hit the fire; he hit the air beside it.
The Eclipse Sunderer released a pulse of "Shattering Qi." The air itself fractured, creating a localized vacuum that sucked the liquid fire into a void. But Qin Feng didn't stop there. He followed the momentum, the blunt end of the wrapped tool slamming into Elder Gu's extended finger.
CRACK.
The sound of the Elder's finger shattering was followed by a roar of backfiring Qi. Elder Gu was sent reeling back, his expensive robes catching fire from his own misdirected technique. He tumbled across the floor, his face pale with a shock that transcended physical pain.
"He... he broke a 9th Layer technique with a stick?!" Young Master Huo cried out, backing away in terror.
The other two Elders roared in unison, summoning two massive fire-dragons that spiraled toward the ceiling. "Sacrilege! Die!"
"Enough," Ye Chen stepped forward.
She didn't scream. She didn't charge. She simply drew her blade three inches from its scabbard.
SHING
A wave of absolute-zero frost swept through the hall. It was so fast and so cold that the two fire-dragons were frozen mid-flight, turning into statues of jagged, black ice before shattering into a thousand pieces. Every furnace in the hall, all thirty of them, went dark instantly. The Elders found themselves pinned against the wall by a pressure so cold it began to turn their blood to slush.
Ye Chen stood at the center of the hall, her veil fluttering in the frigid wind she had created. "My husband asked for a cauldron. If you do not provide it within the next ten breaths, I will turn this 'Grand Guild' into a frozen tomb. The Nine Cauldrons will become eight. Choose."
Elder Gu, clutching his broken hand, looked at the woman and then at the man with the pickaxe. He realized with a terrifying clarity that these two weren't "ascending" the plateaus, they were invading them.
"The... the vault," Gu gasped, his breath coming out as white mist. "The Black-Dragon Furnace. It is an Ancient Tier 3 artifact... too heavy for any man to lift. If you can take it, it is yours. Just... stop this madness!"
[DING! Hidden Ending Unlocked: 'Sovereign Negotiation'.] [Reward: Tier 3 'Black-Dragon Furnace' (Ancient Grade).] [Loot: 10x Sets of Soul-Mending Herbs, 50,000 Cauldron Tokens (Forced 'Donation').]
Ten minutes later, the doors of the vault groaned open. In the center sat a cauldron carved from the bone of a prehistoric dragon, wreathed in dark, eternal flames. It weighed ten thousand pounds.
Qin Feng walked up to it, placed one hand on the rim, and with a single grunt of effort, hoisted it onto his shoulder as if it were a bag of coal. He looked at the trembling Elders one last time.
"Next time I come here," Qin Feng said, his voice echoing in the frozen hall, "don't ask questions you aren't prepared to hear the answer to."
As the couple walked out of the Guild and back onto the jade bridges of the Third Plateau, the sun was setting, casting long, golden shadows across the city. Qin Feng felt the Black-Dragon Furnace humming against his back, its energy reacting to his Eclipse Qi.
"Tonight, Ye Chen," he said, looking at her. "Tonight, we stop being the hunted. We reach the 7th Layer, and then... we go for the Fourth Plateau."
Ye Chen took his hand, her grip firm and warm despite the cold she commanded. "Tonight, Husband. The world is finally starting to see you for what you are."
[NEW ACT UNLOCKED: The Alchemist Overlord.] [Next Objective: Forge the 'Eclipse-Mending Pill' and trigger the 7th Layer Tribulation.]