752 Crucible Failure and the Perfect Sneak Attack

Alchemy wasn't a skill that could be mastered in a short time, because both the portion of herbs used, and the temperature control, required lots of experience.

Furthermore, the better the grade of the pills, the more the details mattered.

A single tiny error made in the meticulous process could result in failure or low-quality pills, or even the legendary 'crucible failure'.

Of course, Dao Hun would never make such mistakes.

The 7 undeveloped pills in Dao Hun's hand were pure as snow, meaning that he had purified them as much as possible before he was going to put them into the crucible.

All that he had to do now was to control the temperature well.

As the best alchemist in the Holy Region, Dao Hun was familiar with the recipe and temperature requirement for any high-grade pills. He was also capable of maximising their quality.

After he carefully placed the 7 undeveloped pills into the crucible, Dao Hun closed his eye and started moving his hands around in front of his chest. He seemed to be performing a simple ritual.

After all, even the best alchemist couldn't ensure that every pill made would be of high-quality. Hence, many alchemists would perform rituals to improve their luck, including Dao Hun.

He finished the ritual within a few moments.

Dao Hun's eyes opened slowly, and a faint purple flash appeared in his eyes, only to disappear almost instantly.

Dao Hun then carefully removed the crucible's cover from the metal chain and covered the crucible again.

"Rise!"

With that, the crucible started burning fiercely again. Everything was going smoothly.

Although Dao Hun had done this thousands of times before, he still looked satisfied with his work. Then, he was ready to leave the room.

He believed that the shameless fellow who dared to ambush him with a bear trap would be outside the 1000 Herb Hall and waiting for his punishment now.

However, just as he turned around, he felt a sense of crisis. This was an expert's intuitions towards approaching dangers.

"Sneak attack?"

That was the first thought that crossed Dao Hun's mind, following which, he heard a deafening bang.

"Boom!"

With that, he felt a burning sensation as if he was in a volcano. The entire room seemed to be engulfed by flame.

"No, it's not a sneak attack! It's crucible failure?!" As the best alchemist in the Holy Region, Dao Hun could never believe that crucible failure would happen to him, but the intense heat coming toward him told him otherwise.

Given the structure and prohibitions set up in this room, the only possible explanation for such an intense heat was if the fire burst out of the crucible after a crucible failure.

As the best alchemist in the Holy Region, how could he experience crucible failure from making a few high-grade Frosty Dew?

Dao Hun couldn't wrap his head around this, but he still took a few steps forward in order to exit the fire's range.

However… Before he could take the third step, he felt a sharp pain coming from his right foot.

Most importantly, he felt that he lost control over his right foot in an instant.

"Rumble, rumble…"

Five chains of different colours appeared before his eyes. These chains came from underground, and one of them had even penetrated his right foot.

"Hell Near-life Chains?!" Dao Hun was truly speechless. He couldn't understand how the Hell Near-life Chains had appeared in his stone room.

After all, there was hardly anyone who knew how to enter this room.

"It isn't crucible failure, it's a sneak attack!"

"Furthermore, it's Fang Zhengzhi's sneak attack!"

"Wait!"

"Something's off."

"Did Fang Zhengzhi sneak up on me when the crucible failed?"

These thoughts crossed Dao Hun's mind multiple times, but Dao Hun denied them repeatedly. From the first moment when Dao Hun realised something was wrong and thought that it was a sneak attack, to the moment when he denied that possibility and deduced that it was a crucible failure, till finally when he confirmed that Fang Zhengzhi took advantage of the crucible failure and snuck up on him, very little time had passed.

However, this caused Dao Hun to make a wrong judgement against a sneak attack for the first time.

Of course, the most important reason was that he had never expected Fang Zhengzhi to know about his habit of making pills when the first flash of purple light appeared in the sky.

Furthermore, not only did Fang Zhengzhi find out about his habit, but he also entered the stone room before him, planned an ambush, and took advantage of the exact moment of crucible failure to sneak up on him.

Dao Hun did not see this coming, because there were too many impossibilities involved.

Even by now… Dao Hun still could not understand how Fang Zhengzhi managed to set all these up, enter his stone room, and even foresaw that the crucible would fail.

However, this was not the time for him to think about these questions. Although Dao Hun was puzzled, he immediately defended himself when he saw the Hell Near-life Chains.

He twisted his body sideways and punched behind him.

However, his enemy seemed to have seen it coming. Dao Hun's punch didn't hit a thing.

"Hmm?!" Dao Hun was startled. After a series of misjudgements, he could already foresee what was going to happen.

Just as he had expected, Fang Zhengzhi had never stood up. He was laying on the floor since the beginning and he crawled toward Dao Hun's feet like a lizard.

At this moment, Dao Hun felt an excruciating pain coming from his other foot as well.

A Hell Near-life Chain had penetrated his other foot, and the other chains were coming for his arms and throat.

Dao Hun couldn't help but feel that this was a perfect sneak attack!

Even though he still had yet to figure out how Fang Zhengzhi appeared in the room, he had to compliment his sneak attack, which was incomparable to the bear trap at the doorstep.

"Did he put the bear trap at the doorstep on purpose?"

Dao Hun thought to himself.

In fact, he was right. Fang Zhengzhi did that on purpose.

Was a bear trap enough to trap the mighty Hallmaster of Yin Yang Hall, Dao Hun?

Fang Zhengzhi wasn't that naïve. He did that to find out if Dao Hun was better at handling a sneak attack from above, or from below.

Fang Zhengzhi used a bear trap and Heavenly Descent simultaneously so that he could find out about Dao Hun's weakness.

Dao Hun stepped into the bear trap, but he successfully blocked his Heavenly Descent.

Hence, Fang Zhengzhi decided to attack Dao Hun from below.

This was how his Hell Near-life Chains penetrated Dao Hun's right foot.

It wasn't a coincidence that Fang Zhengzhi appeared in the stone room either. The woman in the pavilion told Fang Zhengzhi everything, including Dao Hun's favourite time to craft a pill, the layout of 1000 Herb Hall, and obviously the location of this stone room, as well as the method to unlock it.

Fang Zhengzhi didn't know why that woman knew about all these, but he did discover the gigantic purple gold crucible after doing what she had told him.

Fang Zhengzhi knew that the woman didn't lie to him as soon he saw the crucible.

He just needed to plan his sneak attack after that.

It was obviously extremely difficult to sneak up on Dao Hun, the Hallmaster of Yin Yang Hall.

Fang Zhengzhi thought of attacking Dao Hun when he opened the crucible, but he knew that Dao Hun could kill him as soon as he made a move.

No one had ever said that an alchemist couldn't move while he was crafting pills.

Someone like Dao Hun wouldn't care about a batch of pills at all.

Fang Zhengzhi understood that that was the reason why the woman was willing to be 'honest' with him and told him everything about the stone room.

She was sure that Fang Zhengzhi's plan to sneak up on Dao Hun while he was crafting pills would fail.

Fang Zhengzhi knew what she was thinking.

However, he had to follow what she said, so he immediately hid below the crucible once he entered the stone room.

Luckily, the room was cool enough that Fang Zhengzhi could even remain below the crucible.

However, there was a small change of plans. After Dao Hun placed the undeveloped pills into the crucible, he closed his eyes and started 'praying'!

Fang Zhengzhi was almost overtaken by his impulse at that moment!

It felt like 10,000 ants were crawling on his body, and he couldn't wait to storm out and slap Dao Hun's face or even end his life.

However, if he killed Dao Hun, who'd save Yan Xiu?

Fang Zhengzhi was impetuous, but his reason told him that he had to suppress his urges. It was then that an idea came across his mind.

Crucible failure!

The best alchemist in the Holy Region couldn't possibly make such a lowly mistake, but Fang Zhengzhi could.

He could think of 100 ways to blow up the crucible.

This was so easy to achieve because he had 10 acres worth of herbs and jugs full of pills that he had stolen from the pavilion.

If he dumped all of them into the crucible, even deities wouldn't be able to stop the crucible from failing.

After he did that, the crucible blew up.

That marked the commencement of Fang Zhengzhi's sneak attack.

However, why did he crawl?

This was easy to understand. Since he was hiding beneath the crucible all this while, it was hard for him to stand up.

Luck… It was predetermined occasionally.

Instead of standing up, Fang Zhengzhi successfully approached Dao Hun by crawling.

After that, he didn't show any mercy.

Now that Dao Hun's feet were bounded by Hell Near-life Chains, Fang Zhengzhi executed his daring plan – kidnapping Dao Hun.

However, before that could actually happen, he needed to wear Dao Hun down. It was like sending your kid to school. If your kid didn't want to go to school, what should you do?

The first way was to reason with him nicely, "Since you must go to school, learn to enjoy it!"

However, Fang Zhengzhi obviously couldn't persuade Dao Hun verbally, so he had to choose the second way, which was violence.

Violence from bottom to above?

There wasn't much of a choice.

Fang Zhengzhi wanted to come up with something as well, but from this position and this angle, he couldn't think of a deadlier attack.

While 3 Hell Near-life Chains shot towards Dao Hun's arms and throat, Fang Zhengzhi held his hands together.

Following which, he stabbed upwards with his hands with all his might!

"Boom!"

Fang Zhengzhi felt like his fingers were going to break as if he hit a metal plate.

What the hell?

Wasn't he supposed to be weaker against a sneak attack from below?

Fang Zhengzhi was furious because the only possibility of stopping his attack was if Dao Hun gave up on his defence against the 3 Hell Near-life Chains.

Fang Zhengzhi looked up, and he was surprised by what he saw.

Just as he had expected, Dao Hun gave up on his upper defence, but he was only struck by 1 of the chains.

Two Hell Near-life Chain brushed past his body, and the other one penetrated his left arm.

Dao Hun's right arm… Well, it shielded his crotch. Although it was an ugly position, Dao Hun did manage to protect his crotch.

"…" Fang Zhengzhi was startled for a second. He couldn't see Dao Hun's expression because of the mask. However, he could sense Dao Hun's madness from his eyes, which contained a purple stream.

"I don't believe that you could stop me again!" As Fang Zhengzhi shouted that, his fingers stabbed towards Dao Hun's nether region again.

Dao Hun was clearly enraged, but he had to protect his crotch with his right arm.

At this moment… He saw a ball of white powder flying towards his eyes like a bloomed flower.