My CEO Bai Fumei’s wife

"Because you do not possess the power of chaos."

Qin Yu's voice became very calm, as if he were stating a fact as ordinary as the weather.

"The condition for the Chaos Refining Furnace to recognize a master is the power of chaos. You don't have it, so you will never be able to obtain it, even if you wait for another five hundred years, the result will be the same."

These words were more damaging than any magic weapon. Tie Wuhen swayed slightly because he knew in his heart that Qin Yu was right.

The power of chaos is a product of the fusion of the true dragon's energy and the heaven-defying tribulation lightning. He has neither of them, and even if you turn the Heavenly Craft Pavilion upside down, you won't find it.

"you can go now."

Qin Yu took the third piece of armor that had been refined from the furnace and attached it to his right leg. The upgrade of the entire set of divine armor was now halfway complete. Under the tempering of the chaotic furnace fire, the spiritual power in his body was becoming more and more solid, and the foundation of his early Nascent Soul stage was beginning to undergo a qualitative change.

Tie Wuhen didn't leave; he still held the hammer, the runes flashing wildly. He hesitated whether to smash it down regardless of the consequences.

Just then, a second noise came from outside the secret room.

It didn't come from the direction of the forbidden area entrance; it came from deeper inside.

Below the third level of the forbidden area, there is a fourth level.

Ouyang Lian had no memory of the fourth level; even the deputy pavilion master was unaware of its existence.

"Who's down there?"

Qin Yu's question was not addressed to Tie Wuhen, but to the spirit of the Chaos Refining Furnace.

The furnace spirit remained silent for two breaths, then spoke in a tone that Qin Yu had never heard before.

"You're unlucky, you woke him up."

"who."

"The true owner of this forbidden area."

As soon as the furnace spirit finished speaking, a crack appeared in the floor of the secret room. What poured out of the crack was neither spiritual energy nor killing intent, but a pressure that made one's bones feel weak. It was stronger than the late stage of the Nascent Soul stage and its level was between the peak of the Nascent Soul stage and the half-step Divine Transformation stage.

Tie Wuhen's suppressing hammer slipped from his hand, and his legs buckled uncontrollably under the pressure. His cultivation at the peak of the mid-stage Nascent Soul realm was as fragile as paper in the face of such pressure.

The Third Elder and the other elders immediately knelt down, their knees hitting the ground with a dull thud. No one could remain standing under such pressure.

Qin Yu was the only one still standing, not because he was stronger than Tie Wuhen, but because the Chaos Furnace Fire had formed a protective film on his body. The power of the furnace spirit and his chaotic power combined to withstand the pressure.

The cracks in the floor grew larger and larger, and a withered hand emerged from underneath. Its skin was grayish-white, its fingernails were three inches long, and its fingertips were covered with a layer of black grime.

"Who moved my furnace?"

His voice was so hoarse, as if someone who hadn't spoken in centuries was suddenly talking.

Tie Wuhen recognized the ring on that hand.

"Master...Grandmaster..."

The Third Elder's forehead slammed to the ground, and he dared not lift it.

"The hand of Ouyang Xu, the fifth generation pavilion master, was hidden in the fourth level of the forbidden area. He left a letter three hundred years ago saying that he had ascended to immortality."

Qin Yu had found an inconspicuous note in the corner of Ouyang Lian's memory: Ouyang Xu, the fifth generation master of Tiangong Pavilion, was a half-step Nascent Soul cultivator. It is said that he failed to break through to the Nascent Soul stage three hundred years ago and died.

Failure to break through is not death, but becoming what you see before you.

Zhuge Chuchu's voice rang out in his soul link.

“He is different from Zhuge Qingyun. Zhuge Qingyun was turned into a puppet by someone else, but this Ouyang Xu refined himself. He used the Chaos Refining Furnace to refine his physical body into a half-alive, half-dead state to prolong his life. For three hundred years, he hid down there and relied on absorbing spiritual vein nutrients to prolong his life.”

"You stole my furnace."

Ouyang Xu's upper body emerged from the floor, his face ashen, his eyes sunken, and only two eerie green lights within them. "Or do you think you can just come and take it whenever you want after I'm dead?"

Qin Yu attached another piece of the newly forged armor plate to his body, and his answer stunned everyone present.

"Whether you're dead or alive, this young master doesn't care. The furnace has recognized me as its master, so it has nothing to do with you anymore."

"The power of chaos".

Ouyang Xu's two green lights swept over Qin Yu. He sensed the bond between the furnace and Qin Yu, as well as the purple-gold energy.

"Back then, I was just one step away from refining something like this. My failure to break through to the Nascent Soul stage was because I was just one step short."

His body crawled out of the floor completely, his grayish-white skin covered with cracks, each crack seeping black liquid—the aftereffects of being forcibly extended to live for three hundred years.

"I have been waiting for this thing in your hand for three hundred years. Hand it over, and I will use it to break through to the Nascent Soul stage. You can then become the next head of the Heavenly Craft Pavilion."

Tie Wuhen trembled upon hearing this. If Qin Yu agreed, all fifty years of his life would be wasted. How could he stay in the Heavenly Craft Pavilion if an outsider came to become the Pavilion Master?

But Qin Yu's answer rendered his little scheme meaningless.

"I have no interest in becoming your sect leader."

Qin Yu threw all the remaining armor pieces into the furnace, causing the furnace temperature to surge. In an instant, the temperature in the secret chamber rose to a level that even a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator couldn't withstand. Tie Wuhen and several elders were forced to retreat ten steps, leaving only Ouyang Xu and Qin Yu in place.

"Your chaotic power was forged by me myself. You want to trade your life for it?"

Ouyang Xu's two green lights flashed, and after three hundred years of not fighting, he released his full pressure. His aura as a half-step Nascent Soul cultivator pressed down on every corner of the secret room like a mountain, distorting and deforming the air. Tie Wuhen and the elders went from retreating to scrambling and crawling out.

Qin Yu remained motionless, the Chaos Furnace Fire forming a protective barrier around his body, combined with the power of chaos, forcefully withstood the oppressive force.

"It's interesting that you're using my hearth fire against me."

Ouyang Xu's tone became slightly playful.

"You built the furnace, but now it belongs to the Qin family, so it has nothing to do with you anymore."

Qin Yu placed his hand on the lid of the Chaos Furnace, the dragon head handle trembling slightly in his palm. It was the furnace spirit making a choice—it had long been fed up with being trapped in the forbidden area as a decoration for three thousand years and being sucked dry by a half-dead body underground for three hundred years.

"I choose him."

The furnace spirit's voice echoed throughout the forbidden area, and those four words caused Ouyang Xu's two green lights to dim for a moment.

The temperature of the Chaos Furnace Fire surged again, but this time it didn't burn outwards but rather inwards. All the flames poured into Qin Yu's body, and his meridians began to be reshaped under the infusion of the furnace fire. The nascent soul in his dantian was like being hammered in a furnace, solidifying with each hammer blow.

Instead of progressing to the middle stage of cultivation in the early Nascent Soul stage, the cultivators focused on deepening their roots within the initial framework, resulting in a multiplied increase in foundation density.

Ouyang Xu could see what Qin Yu was doing: instead of rushing to break through to the mid-stage, he was consolidating his initial foundation to the extreme, waiting until his foundation was deep enough before breaking through. At that time, his mid-stage Nascent Soul would be more solid than others' late-stage Nascent Soul.

"You're clever, but it's too late."

Ouyang Xu took three steps forward, his gray-white palm, carrying the death energy accumulated over three hundred years, slammed towards Qin Yu's crown. This palm strike was enough to turn a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator into a meat patty.

Qin Yu did not dodge, because the process of pouring the Chaos Furnace Fire could not be interrupted, otherwise all previous efforts would be in vain.

But he doesn't need to hide.

The iron door to the secret chamber was blasted open from the outside by a force, and a white python shadow darted in from the passage. Its thousand-foot-long body could only reveal its head in the narrow space, but one head was enough.

The extreme cold aura of the Xuanbing Giant Python collided with the deathly aura of Ouyang Xu. The two completely opposite forces exploded into a shockwave in the secret chamber, and Tie Wuhen's body, which had just run to the door, was bounced back into the depths of the passage.

Ouyang Xu's palm stopped three inches above Qin Yu's head. The icy cold air froze his wrist, and the attack, which had not been blocked by anyone for three hundred years, was stopped by a python.

One of the twelve zodiac animals.

Ouyang Xu's two green lights stared at the vertical pupils of the Xuanbing Giant Python. Having lived underground for three hundred years, he was unaware of the changes outside, but he recognized the twelve zodiac-level demonic beasts. (End of Chapter)