Reaching the pinnacle from Doupo

Chapter 581 Recent Events in the Dan Tower
Holy Dan City, Dan Pagoda.

Inside a grand hall, numerous bookshelves filled the space, creating a somewhat chaotic atmosphere. The hall was also filled with flames of various colors, their intertwined glows creating a dreamlike and enchanting effect.

Before the bookshelf, an elderly man in white stood casually, flipping through an ancient scroll in his hands. A powerful aura emanated from him...

"It really is your aura, Elder Xuan... Congratulations on your advancement to Half-Saint."

Suddenly, a space in the hall distorted, and Lin Yuan slowly walked out of that distorted space, smiling as he congratulated the white-robed elder.

Xuan Kongzi turned to look at the young man, his eyes lighting up with joy. "Lin Yuan, you're back!"

"If you don't come back soon, I'll have to send people to look for you!" Shaking his head, he put the ancient book back in the bookcase, turned back to his desk, and said, "Come and sit down. A lot has happened recently, let me tell you..."

"It took me quite a while to break through to a higher realm through seclusion. Please forgive me, Elder Xuan!" Lin Yuan sat down opposite Xuan Kongzi and explained with a smile.

"Breakthrough? Young Lin, you...you've broken through to the Dou Sheng realm?"

Upon hearing Lin Yuan's words, Xuan Kongzi, who was pouring tea, suddenly froze, the overflowing tea from his cup soaking the table. Only then did he come to his senses and look at Lin Yuan in astonishment.

Lin Yuan touched his nose and nodded slightly, "A lucky breakthrough!"

"Hiss, truly... the younger generation is formidable!" Upon confirmation, Xuan Kongzi gasped, suppressing his surging emotions, and exclaimed in amazement, "Tsk, such a young Dou Sheng has not been seen in thousands of years!"

Only the legendary son of a Dou Di could possibly surpass this young man before me!

For the Pill Tower, this is even more significant—Lin Yuan's advancement to Dou Sheng signifies a surge in the Pill Tower's strength, making the next thousand years a time to look forward to.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, it is almost foreseeable that the Pill Tower will completely surpass the Medicine Clan.

Hearing Xuan Kongzi's praise, Lin Yuan simply smiled and did not echo it—compared to a certain twenty-one-year-old girl who had advanced to the Dou Sheng realm, his own achievement was nothing!
Some people have special constitutions; they are truly blessed by God.

"Speaking of which, Elder Xuan, haven't you also reached the Saint realm?" Lin Yuan picked up his teacup and chuckled, "You have accumulated a wealth of experience; I believe it won't be long before you break through to the Dou Sheng realm as well."

"Haha, then I'll take your good wishes!" Xuan Kongzi said with emotion when the topic came up.

"Speaking of which, it's all thanks to your gift of the Bodhi Seed, the Grand Elder's refining of the Bodhi Pill, and a bit of luck. Otherwise, I don't know how long I would have been stuck... It's just a pity that Xuan Yi and Tian Lei Zi didn't have my good fortune."

"Hmm? What happened to those two?" Lin Yuan raised an eyebrow, his expression becoming slightly more serious.

"Ugh--"

Xuan Kongzi sighed and explained, "Previously, you gave each of us a Bodhi seed, and the Grand Elder stepped in to try to help us refine Bodhi Pills."

"Unfortunately, an accident occurred halfway through, and Tian Leizi's Bodhi Pill failed to be refined."

"As for Xuan Yi, although her Bodhi Pill was successful, she didn't have my luck. She failed to break through to the Half-Saint realm in seclusion several months ago and has been recuperating for a month... In the end, although the Bodhi Pill is miraculous, it can only increase the success rate by 20%!"

"The three of us have cultivated together for so many years and obtained Bodhi seeds together, but so far only I have successfully broken through, which is really a pity."

"I see!" Lin Yuan nodded in understanding.

He wasn't surprised that the Bodhi Pill had failed to be refined.

Alchemy is an extremely complex art with many variables in the process. Even high-level alchemists cannot guarantee 100% success when refining low-level pills.

Without the aid of a different kind of fire, and with the three Bodhi seeds not being very potent, it was normal for the refining process to fail.

Rather, it's quite remarkable that the Grand Elder was able to refine two of them.

"Elder Xuan, there's no need to be disappointed. This... please help me pass it on to the two presidents." After a moment's thought, Lin Yuan took out two jade bottles, placed them lightly on the table in front of him, and then slowly pushed them in front of Xuan Kongzi.

"These are... two Bodhi Pills?" Xuan Kongzi's face lit up with joy as he looked at the emerald green pills in the bottle.

Lin Yuan nodded slightly and chuckled, "I no longer need these two pills, so I'll give them to Guild Master Xuan Yi and Guild Master Tian Lei Zi. They'll definitely be of great help to them..."

Previously, in order to ensure that the group could successfully break through to the Half-Saint realm, Lin Yuan refined eight Bodhi Pills.

However, he, Qinglin, Medusa, and Xiaoyixian are all exceptionally talented individuals who successfully entered sainthood with just one Bodhi Pill. Therefore, they still have four Bodhi Pills in stock, which they can use to do favors.

Xuan Kongzi shifted his gaze from the two pills on the table, gave Lin Yuan a deep look, and without politely declining, put away the two Bodhi Pills after a moment of silence.

He truly didn't want his two old friends to fall behind, given their long-standing friendship among the three leaders of Danta.

"Lin Yuan, thank you!" He cupped his hands in thanks and said solemnly, "I thank you on their behalf. If there's anything we can do to help in the future, the three of us will do our utmost..."

"We're all on the same side, Elder Xuan, there's no need for such formalities." Lin Yuan waved his hand, then changed the subject and got down to business: "Let's continue with our previous topic! I've been in seclusion, so please inform me of what has happened during this time, Elder Xuan."

Xuan Kongzi nodded, took a sip of tea, put down the teacup, and began to recount the events in detail.

The Reverse Soul Alliance and its actions against the Soul Palace, matters related to the reform of the Pill Tower, the progress of the Dou Qi Continent's Foundation Strengthening Plan, and the preparations for the Pill Gathering and the Heavenly Pride Competition...

Three points are worth mentioning:

The first point worth mentioning is the vigorous development of the Reverse Soul Alliance and the remarkable achievements it has made.

Due to the Soul Palace's lack of human intervention, the influence of Yao Lao's breakthrough to Dou Sheng, and the secret support of the Pill Tower, the Reverse Soul Alliance developed quite rapidly.

This hidden force, independent of the Four Directions Pavilion, has more than forty Dou Zun!
Within the Pill Tower, many elders who harbored grudges against the Soul Hall joined anonymously. Even a half-saint surnamed Xu from the Grand Elder Council went to seek revenge under the guise of "Ancient Flame Saint."

With such a powerful force gathered, the Reverse Soul Alliance's actions naturally yielded considerable results.

The specific results of the battle were similar to what Lin Yuan had learned from the Soul Palace.

Currently, they are active in the Northern Continent and plan to travel to the Northwest Continent in a month to purge the Soul Hall branch there.

Upon hearing this, Lin Yuan couldn't help but feel secretly fortunate that he had gone to the Northwest. Otherwise, if the Reverse Soul Alliance had encountered the Soul Purity Saint, they would have suffered a severe blow!

If they're not careful, the Pill Tower will lose a lot of power, and the Reverse Soul Alliance will be exposed and wiped out prematurely.

Even the most meticulous plans can face unexpected risks. But Lin Yuan didn't intend to say much about the Reverse Soul Alliance yet—he needed to observe the Soul Palace's reaction and how they handled Hun Qing's death before deciding on his next steps.

The second point worth mentioning is that the unification of alchemist guilds from various countries by the Dan Tower has been basically completed.

After a year of hard work, the three giants have established a network for information, resource and talent exchange centered on the Danta's "advanced training" system. On the surface, Danta's strength has not changed much, but its influence and potential have undergone a qualitative leap.

The Pill Tower, though powerful in the past, was merely a force in the Central Plains. Now, however, it is a true continental power, with its influence extending to the very edge of the continent.

With the alchemist guilds of various countries as the transmission nodes, the decisions of the Dan Tower's high-level officials are enough to urge all countries on the continent to take action.

Through this network, the Pill Tower can aggregate resources and information from across the continent. More importantly, it can search for alchemy geniuses across the continent and bring them under its command.

This also allows these geniuses to receive formal training as early as possible, reducing the chances of their talents and abilities being buried.

If nothing unexpected happens, in one or two decades, the Dan Tower will usher in an era of explosive growth of geniuses—Xuan Kongzi, who is in charge of the reform, is extremely confident about this.

In fact, in the past two years, there have been many talented geniuses among the border people of Danta.

Gu He, who was born in Jia Ma like Lin Yuan, has quite good talent. After being nurtured by the Pill Tower System, he is already a high-level seventh-grade alchemist and is expected to become an eighth-grade alchemist in the future!
Outside of Zhongzhou, there are still quite a few talents of this caliber who have potential.

Now, Xuan Kongzi has finally come to understand one thing—just how huge an advantage it is to have a large population base under his command!

The difficulty of finding a genius among 100 million people is not on the same level as finding a genius among 10 billion people.

For this reason, although the reform was criticized by some people in the tower and even went to the Grand Elder Council, with many people opposing it on the grounds of "ancestral laws", Xuan Kongzi remained extremely determined and, with the strong support of Xuan Yi and Tian Leizi, persisted in the reform.

The reason is simple: just like the scene a few years ago when Chu Lei Dianyi was in charge, the Pill Tower had almost no direct disciples to rely on, except for Lin Yuan who came from outside. He absolutely did not want to see that happen again...

As the results of the reforms gradually become apparent, the number of talented individuals within the organization has increased, and the voices of opposition have diminished considerably.

Ultimately, the Pill Tower is different from other forces that do not have the bloodline of a Dou Di. The succession of its high-level alchemists is mostly between masters and disciples rather than between families.

It's not uncommon for parents to be high-level alchemists, but their children lack the aptitude to become alchemists!
It is almost impossible for ordinary people to stably pass on their talents.

The ability to stably pass on talents such as alchemy and cultivation through bloodline power is one of the charms of the Dou Di bloodline and the magical beast bloodline.

This is why, apart from the ancient races, the master-disciple tradition is the mainstream in the Dou Qi Continent.

The fact that more alchemy geniuses come to the Pill Tower is in the interest of most high-level alchemists—the more talented juniors come to the Pill Tower, the greater the chance that they will receive an excellent successor.

With their silent support, the reform of the Dan Tower is now taking shape, and the opposition, centered around a few "alchemy families," has completely lost its influence.

Lin Yuan was naturally quite satisfied with this change.

Even if Xuan Kongzi doesn't push forward things that are beneficial to improving the Pill Tower and the overall level of the Dou Qi Continent, and things that are beneficial to selecting true geniuses, he will still push forward them with all his might after he takes office.

The more true geniuses there are on the Dou Qi Continent, the more knowledge they can generate, and the more wisdom they will reap in the future.

Alchemists who are not good at fighting are natural scholars and researchers, and Lin Yuan attaches great importance to this group.

The third point worth mentioning is the progress of the Dou Qi Continent Foundation Strengthening Project.

In order to meet the requirements of this Pill Gathering, the Pill Tower invested considerable resources, making its progress faster than Lin Yuan had anticipated.

"Is this the fifth edition of 'Three Revolutions of Qi Gathering'?" Lin Yuan put down the scroll in his hand and pondered it carefully. He praised, "Compared to the first edition I created, it's much richer in content, has more choices, and the difficulty level is more user-friendly..."

In just one year, the "Three-Turn Qi Gathering" secret technique he created has completed four version iterations with the support of the Pill Tower.

After being improved, this secret technique is more effective and has a wider range of applications.

According to the calculations of the Pill Tower, if an ordinary person cultivates this secret technique, even without the Qi Gathering Powder, the success rate of condensing the Qi vortex can be increased by about 60%.

This achievement greatly benefits ordinary people who lack resources.

Although it takes them about a year to complete the "three transformations of Qi gathering", the possibility of wasting time due to failure in Qi gathering will be greatly reduced.

Even wealthy family members can still use "Qi Gathering Powder" to gather Qi 100% and save a year.

It can be said that after the 'Three Flowers Gathering Qi' technique is promoted, the average age of ordinary people in the Dou Qi Continent to advance to Dou Zhe will be greatly reduced. In the peripheral areas, Dou Zhes who are currently considered geniuses around the age of twenty will be difficult to be considered geniuses in the future!

Hearing Lin Yuan's words, Xuan Kongzi smiled slightly and said, "Xuan Yi put in a lot of effort in this matter, personally overseeing it and mobilizing a huge amount of manpower and resources to complete it!"

In order to improve the "Three-Turn Qi Gathering" technique and make it more universally applicable, the Pill Tower gathered tens of thousands of cultivators at the Dou Qi stage for experiments.

In addition, many powerful individuals were mobilized to research and improve the plan, and many alchemists provided elixirs as support.

The "Nourish the Essence Elixir," whose effects are comparable to the "Foundation Building Elixir," alone consumed tens of thousands of doses, resulting in an overall expenditure of hundreds of millions of gold coins on the pills alone.

The total manpower and resources consumed in the experiment were no less valuable than several grade-eight pills.

Only Danta has the money, the time, and the influence to complete this improvement experiment.

The person in charge of coordinating this matter was none other than Xuan Yi, one of the three giants.

"Senior Xuan Yi? Then I really have to thank her!"

Upon hearing Xuan Kongzi's words, Lin Yuan nodded, a smile of appreciation appearing on his face... For this alone, the Bodhi Pill was rightfully Xuan Yi's.

"No need for gratitude. Xuan Yi himself is enjoying this matter." Xuan Kongzi waved his hand, his voice somewhat sentimental.

"And such a smooth process is also inseparable from the great support of the Grand Elder!"

"In the past, we stood too high in the clouds, forgetting that ordinary people make up the vast majority of the Dou Qi Continent."

"From you, from your plans, we suddenly realize that the top geniuses who represent the future often emerge from among the masses. And they are precisely the best help for the further development and expansion of our Dan Tower—the strongest human force outside of this ancient lineage!"

(End of this chapter)