In the cultivation world, pills were divided into nine tiers. The first three were the ones most people had heard of, the wondrous spirit pills and miraculous medicines that circulated through the lower reaches of the world. From the fourth tier onward, however, their medicinal properties became far more profound, and such pills were collectively known as Golden Pills. Even at the ninth tier, the name remained, though pills of that tier were more often called Nine Revolutions Golden Pills.

Among the nine tiers, fifth-tier pills occupied a special place. They carried a mark of divinity that none of the lower-tier ones did, and those who could speak of them called them divine pills or sacred medicines; all were said to contain a measure of the fortune of heaven and earth. It was this that gave rise to the title of Saint Alchemist in the Central Continent of the Mountains and Seas Realm, for only those capable of refining sacred medicines were worthy of such a title.

Luo Chen faintly remembered how he had once declared, in the reckless confidence of his younger days, that he would one day stand shoulder to shoulder with such figures. At the time, it had been nothing more than a young man's boast, words spoken without any real...