Cultivation of immortality begins with an eighty-year-old eunuch.

Chapter 558 Killing the Dog! Rank 4 Alchemist!

In the courtyard, Black King was dozing under the stone table, his mouth wide open, drool dripping all over the ground.

Hearing footsteps, it twitched its ears, opened one eye to peek, saw it was the old eunuch, and then closed it again.

"Get up." Chen Fan walked up to it and handed it the newly refined Rejuvenation Pill to its mouth.

Black Emperor opened his eyes, looked suspiciously at the pill, then at Chen Fan, and a look of vigilance immediately appeared on his dog face.

It scrambled to its feet, staggered back several steps, and glared with wide, bulging eyes: "Old eunuch! Are you going to poison me with another pill? I still remember the one you fed me last time; I had diarrhea for three days and three nights and almost lost my life!"

"That was an accident." Chen Fan said expressionlessly, handing the pill forward again. "This time it's a proper fourth-grade Rejuvenation Pill. It will be good for you if you take it."

A fourth-grade elixir?

Black King leaned closer to smell it with some skepticism. A strong medicinal fragrance filled his nostrils, and his eyes immediately lit up.

It sniffed it again, then stuck out its tongue and tentatively licked it before swallowing the pill in one gulp.

"The taste is alright," Black King smacked his lips, "much better than last time..."

Before it could finish speaking, its dog face suddenly contorted.

A churning sensation surged from the dog's stomach, and it let out a miserable howl. Its four legs went weak, and it collapsed to the ground with a thud, foaming at the mouth.

"Old eunuch! You really did poison me! I'm dying! Help! Kill the dog!"

Chen Fan frowned slightly, squatted down, and used his divine sense to probe into the Black Emperor's body.

The Rejuvenation Pill had only dissolved halfway in its stomach, while the other half of its medicinal power condensed into a small lump that blocked its meridians, causing a blockage of spiritual energy.

The fourth-grade Rejuvenation Pill is inherently yin in nature, and the Black Emperor's body is dominated by fire-attribute spiritual power. The conflicting properties of the two medicines caused a strong rejection reaction.

Fortunately, the Black Emperor was tough and resilient; this blockage of spiritual energy would only cause it to vomit and have diarrhea for a while, but it wouldn't really kill it.

Chen Fan dissolved the remaining medicinal power in its stomach, then channeled some spiritual energy to clear its meridians. He then stood up and said calmly:

"He won't die, he'll be fine after a couple of days of diarrhea."

Black King lay on the ground, tears welling in his eyes, whimpering, "Old eunuch, I have always been loyal to you, why did you have to harm me..."

Chen Fan ignored it and turned back to the quiet room.

He had already figured out the problem with that pill!

Although the fusion of medicinal properties was successful, the distribution of medicinal power inside the pill core was not uniform enough, resulting in uneven release of medicinal power after ingestion, with half of the pill dissolving and the other half clumping together.

This is not a problem of the heat or the fusion of medicinal power, but rather that the compression of spiritual power was not even enough when condensing the core.

The solution is quite simple!

That is, in the final stage of the core condensation, all you need to do is add a wave of divine sense to redistribute the medicinal power inside the core, and the problem will be solved!

Subsequently, Chen Fan found a record about the shock of divine consciousness in Danyangzi's manual. With this in mind, he put the medicinal materials back in and started a new round of refining.

This time, he didn't rush things, but instead did his best in every step!

For example, the speed of medicinal fusion was slowed down by 30%, two more layers of condensation membrane were added, the spiritual power compression during the condensation of the core was divided into three levels that increased gradually, and finally, at the moment when the core was initially condensed, the internal medicinal power was redistributed using the divine sense vibration technique.

Another batch of elixirs was completed.

A cyan pill flew out of the Qiankun Furnace. The pill had a smooth and round surface with five faintly flowing pill patterns. Its medicinal fragrance was subtle and did not dissipate. Its quality was a whole grade higher than the previous one.

Chen Fan examined the Rejuvenation Pill and nodded in satisfaction.

Although it's still far from the top-grade Rejuvenation Pill with seven Dan patterns described in the Danyangzi Manual, this pill with five Dan patterns can already be considered a high-grade one.

More importantly, he found the crux of the problem. All he needed to do was practice repeatedly to improve his success rate, and his status as a fourth-grade alchemist would be completely solidified.

Lost in thought, Chen Fan was about to put the pill away when Qin Dao's rough voice suddenly came from outside the courtyard:

"Fellow Daoist Chen! Are you there? The city lord wants to see you!"

The sound entered Chen Fan's mind through the golden bowl.

With a thought, he left the golden bowl and returned to the house, pushing open the door to the side room to look inside!

Qin Dao stood in the courtyard, his hand on the hilt of his sword, his black armor gleaming coldly in the midday sun.

Standing beside him was Han Yueshan, wearing an iron crown and black robe, his face looking more relaxed than a few days ago.

"Fellow Daoist Chen, the talismans for the national competition have been distributed." Han Yueshan took out three palm-sized golden talismans from his sleeve. The talismans were engraved with intricate spatial array patterns, and faint spiritual light flowed around them.

"The entrance to the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons is located in the Forbidden Garden, three hundred miles north of the Imperial City. It will open precisely at noon tomorrow. At that time, the candidates from all thirty-six prefectures will enter the valley together, and the talisman will automatically record the points earned from hunting demonic beasts. After one month in the valley, the talisman will automatically teleport everyone out."

He handed the two talismans to Chen Fan and Qin Dao respectively, and said solemnly:

"This journey is fraught with danger and unpredictability. Be extremely careful once inside. Besides the demonic beasts, we must also be wary of people from other prefectures in the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons. Our Desolate Prefecture and Liang Prefecture have already formed an alliance. Once inside, let's first meet up with Ma Chengkong's men and then make further plans."

Chen Fan took the talisman, scanned it with his divine sense to confirm that it was correct, and then put it into his sleeve.

Han Yueshan then said:

"You all rest well today, and set off early tomorrow morning. Once you enter the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons, you will be at my command."

"Okay!" Chen Fan nodded slightly.

……

The following morning, three hundred li north of the imperial city, in the forbidden garden.

When Chen Fan arrived with Han Yueshan and Qin Dao, hundreds of cultivators had already gathered on the plain outside the Forbidden Garden.

The candidates from the thirty-six prefectures were arranged according to their respective prefectures, with banners fluttering and lights shining brightly, creating a magnificent spectacle.

The desolate state remained on the very edge, right next to the ranks of Liang state.

Ma Chengkong cupped his hands in greeting to Han Yueshan from afar, and the two exchanged a glance, understanding each other without saying a word.

Chen Fan stood in the Huangzhou formation, his gaze slowly sweeping across the entire scene.

In the Youzhou ranks, Dugu Jian stood with his hands behind his back, his sword intent sharp and fierce, and no one dared to approach him.

In the Yunzhou queue, Zhou Yuanhua was staring intently at him, his eyes almost overflowing with resentment.

Chen Fan didn't even lift his eyelids.

On the high platform, an elderly man in the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm, dressed in a purple-gold official robe, sat in the main seat. He was none other than Qin Taiyue, the governor-general and vice minister of the Ministry of War of the Great Yu Kingdom.

Behind him stood two rows of black-robed deacons, each holding a formation plate.

Qin Taiyue slowly rose to his feet, his gaze sweeping across the entire room like lightning, his voice not loud but clearly reaching everyone's ears:

"Life and death are irrelevant within the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons. Points are automatically recorded by the talisman. Hunting a Nascent Soul level demon beast earns 100 points, a Core Formation level demon beast earns 10 points, and a Foundation Establishment level demon beast earns 1 point. The talisman will automatically teleport you out of the valley after one month. Those who fail to appear within the specified time will be considered dead in battle."

After he finished speaking, he waved his sleeve, and a spatial rift a hundred feet long suddenly opened up in the sky above the plain, through which the outline of a vast mountain range could be faintly seen.

"Iriya."