Yang Che realized something was wrong and decided to secretly open his Pill Furnace and refine the Pseudo Overlord Pill that very night.
He still had two complete sets of medicinal ingredients in his Storage Pouch, which he had kept without refining.
Inside the small stone room.
Yang Che adjusted his essence, Qi, and spirit to their optimal state.
Only then did he take out his Pill Furnace, summon the Nine Heart Thunder Flame, and begin refining the Pseudo Overlord Pill.
The Nine Heart Thunder Flame seemed to know that the Medicinal Pill Yang Che was refining was the same kind it had snatched before, and it worked exceptionally hard.
However, in the end, one batch still failed, while the other barely succeeded.
Yang Che only obtained one Pseudo Overlord Pill.
Recalling the Nine Heart Thunder Flame's previous act of snatching the Medicinal Pill, he dared not swallow the Medicinal Pill rashly.
"Lei Yan, I originally intended to refine two and have one each for you and me. But now only one has succeeded, which makes things difficult. Look, I'm in a hurry to restore my Cultivation right now, so please don't snatch this one. Next time I refine more, you'll get to eat first, okay?"
Yang Che spoke for a long time, but the Nine Heart Thunder Flame remained as unresponsive as ever.
Yang Che pondered repeatedly, then gritted his teeth and simply divided the Medicinal Pill into two halves.
"Lei Yan, one half each, and no cheating allowed. Otherwise, I won't refine Pseudo Overlord Pills anymore."
After speaking, he directly threw half of the Medicinal Pill into his mouth.
As expected, the Medicinal Pill was immediately swept away by the Nine Heart Thunder Flame, sinking into his Dantian to be refined and absorbed.
Yang Che immediately threw the other half into his mouth.
This time, the Nine Heart Thunder Flame truly did not snatch it again.
After absorbing half of the Pseudo Overlord Pill, Yang Che successfully restored his Cultivation to Qi Refining fifth level.
According to the Qing Jian Sect rules, reaching Qi Refining fifth level allows one to apply to leave the Sword Washing Pond and open an Immortal Cave anywhere in the Xuanqing Mountain Range, excluding the Nine Peaks.
The next day.
Yang Che directly submitted his application to Jiang Wu.
Seeing that Yang Che had actually Broken Through to Qi Refining fifth level so quickly, Jiang Wu's suspicion towards Yang Che grew stronger.
He refused Yang Che's application on the grounds that Yang Che was new and unfamiliar with the matters there.
Yang Che had anticipated this.
Therefore, although he was frustrated, he didn't say much.
Thus, after quietly waiting for several days, Yang Che continued to submit his application to leave.
Without surprise, it was once again rejected by Jiang Wu.
Another half month passed.
Yang Che submitted again. He wanted to see what kind of excuse Jiang Wu would use this time.
Jiang Wu did not refuse this time.
However, he said that Yang Che needed to complete the final batch of one hundred sword blanks, including hammering and quenching.
Yang Che thought about it and, not wanting to cause further trouble, agreed.
Sword Washing Pond.
Jiang Wu specifically selected one hundred sword blanks for Yang Che.
He wanted to personally supervise Yang Che's completion.
Yang Che carefully inspected these sword blanks; there were no issues.
So, he placed them on the stone platform for ground fire forging and began hammering.
With a 'bang', the sword blank snapped.
Yang Che frowned, then began hammering the second one.
Another 'bang', and the sword blank snapped again.
Consecutively, the third, the fourth...
After six or seven consecutive breaks, one finally succeeded.
Then, after four or five more breaks, another one succeeded.
In this manner, out of one hundred sword blanks, only twenty ultimately succeeded.
The Sword Washing Pond had a rule: for every sword blank broken, two more must be added.
Thus, Yang Che's final one hundred sword blanks turned into one hundred and sixty.
Yang Che's Divine Sense once again meticulously swept over these 'new sword blanks', confirming multiple times that there were indeed no issues.
So where exactly was the problem?
Yang Che was eager to leave, so he continued to hammer the sword blanks while searching for the problem.
This time, half of them were ruined again.
According to the Sect rules, he still needed to complete 'one hundred and sixty' more.
This was already the number Yang Che barely managed to complete with extreme caution; otherwise, it would have definitely increased even more.
Yang Che knew this was Jiang Wu retaliating against him.
But it was also very strange; Yang Che simply couldn't find any fault with these sword blanks.
Was it the hammer? The forging stone platform?
Yang Che had carefully checked both, but found no problems.
It was truly too strange.
Yang Che no longer proceeded blindly, but temporarily gave up.
He began to spend a lot of time carefully contemplating and summarizing.
If he were a sword smith, how would he handle these nearly ruined sword blanks?
Throw them away or re-forge them?
Re-forge them.
"Re-forge?"
A light suddenly flashed in Yang Che's mind.
"Could those sword blanks that appeared fine on the surface all have been re-forged?"
Thinking this, Yang Che immediately returned to the Sword Washing Pond, threw the already forged sword blanks back into the smelting pond, melted them into molten iron, and then re-cast them.
Soon, after trying it, Yang Che discovered that some of these sword blanks were very strong, while others were overly fragile.
The overly fragile sword blanks, when hammered again, snapped immediately.
Yang Che found the problem, but he was also very confused: where did Jiang Wu get these re-forged sword blanks?
Re-forged sword blanks were still sword blanks; even if they easily led to hammering failures, Yang Che couldn't really argue about it.
Yang Che initially thought of reporting to the Sect or seeking help from other Disciples, but after some thought, he decided to face this challenge himself.
He re-entered the hammering process.
Yang Che first hammered them as usual.
Sure enough, there was a snapping sound with every hammer blow.
After five consecutive failures, Yang Che began to summon the Nine Heart Thunder Flame. At the moment he raised the heavy hammer, he cautiously attached the Lei Yan to it, making sure others couldn't see anything amiss.
"Lei Yan, you'll sense it first in a moment and help me control the force of the hammer," Yang Che transmitted with his Divine Sense.
After three more failures, the subsequent sword blanks, with the help of the Nine Heart Thunder Flame, all succeeded.
Jiang Wu grew more and more alarmed as he watched, completely unable to understand how Yang Che did it.
Yang Che finally successfully left the Sword Washing Pond.
Jiang Wu, on the other hand, was depressed for a long time.
It wasn't until the Nine Peaks began recruiting official Disciples again that he found an excuse and also left the Sword Washing Pond.
However, his curiosity and suspicion towards Yang Che grew stronger. After leaving the Sword Washing Pond, he had more opportunities to retaliate against Yang Che.
According to Sect rules, Jiang Wu knew Yang Che would definitely open an Immortal Cave in the Xuanqing Mountain Range.
Therefore, after leaving the Sword Washing Pond, he immediately began searching in the Xuanqing Mountain Range, hoping to find Yang Che's Immortal Cave in one go.
After many days of inquiries and tracking.
Jiang Wu finally found Yang Che's Immortal Cave.
It was in the most remote part of the Xuanqing Mountain Range.
That night.
Jiang Wu directly intercepted Yang Che in an uninhabited dense forest outside his Immortal Cave.
When Jiang Wu, with a smug expression, prepared to kill Yang Che, he found that Yang Che's smile was even more smug and brilliant than his own.
Without any wasted words, Yang Che secretly held a Mid-Grade Spirit Stone in his palm, then fiercely launched a furious attack towards Jiang Wu.
Jiang Wu was stunned for a moment before he scoffed, "How dare a mere fifth-level trashy Magical Power challenge me?"
He casually threw out a Talisman, which transformed into a spiritual light shield to protect him.
And Yang Che, without any protection, charged straight towards Jiang Wu.
Jiang Wu completely failed to understand Yang Che's suicidal behavior. A cold glint flashed in his eyes, and his Flying Sword shot out.
Yang Che's heart pounded, but he still showed no intention of defending himself.
The moment the Flying Sword shot towards him, Yang Che's Magical Power surged, and his entire Physical Body immediately filled with a metallic luster.
With a loud 'ding', the Flying Sword struck Yang Che's body.
Jiang Wu's face was filled with disbelief.
Yang Che, however, was ecstatic.
His Physical Body's strength had unknowingly reached the level of a high-grade Magical Artifact through his continuous Cultivation of the Heaven and Earth Chaos Art.