The thin mist in the valley churned violently, whipped up by the razor-sharp sword aura, while Old Man Li's bronze chain dragged across the ground with a harsh, grating screech. Golden light flickered in his turbid eyes as he stared at the Jiuxiao Huanpei at Ye Fan's waist. "Three trials: pass and you enter the pavilion; fail and you forfeit your life." Before his voice even faded, he flicked his wrist and tossed three bronze tokens. With a series of clangs, they landed at everyone's feet—the first was engraved with an alchemy furnace, the second with sword markings, and the third with a Star Map.
Ye Fan gazed at the mottled patterns on the tokens, and memories of his past life suddenly surged back. He had seen similar Tianji Tokens back in the Inquiry Realm; they were tokens used by secluded sects to test prospective inheritors. As his fingertip brushed lightly against the Heavenly Dao Fragment, the green mountains within his Inner World suddenly trembled, and the sound of wind through the pines echoed straight into his Sea of Consciousness—this was his golden finger giving a warning, yet also resonating in response.
"The first trial: alchemy." Old Man Li flicked his chain, the tiger head at the end suddenly parting its rust-covered jaws to spit out a ball of deep blue flame. "Choose your own pill recipe, and form the pill within three incense sticks' time."
Chapter 203