The Legendary F Rank

Haru looked around the room once again and began to question his hard work. He definitely didn't make enough pills for everyone to receive two each now. He would either have to refine more pills or just hand out one each which ruined his initial plan of making everyone as strong as possible. But the extra manpower would be worth it. Just as he considered creating more pills Sect Master Shen made an announcement. 

He stood up on a chair in the middle of the room to gain a height advantage and clanged the edge of his glass with a knife to gain everyone's attention. 

"I thank you all on the behalf of the black star sect. Here are some gifts. Hand them out amongst yourself equally and make sure everyone gets at least one bottle. You should try to make yourself as strong as possible not only to help fight but to survive." He smiled and then in a flash of light he released a large pile of jade bottles. 

'He didn't just ruin my plans did he?' Haru thought as he watched people rush over to see what was inside the bottles. As soon as someone released the lid to one of the bottles a medicinal smell made its way into the air and sure enough they were bottles filled with pills. They weren't as strong as the ones that Haru had made but they would get the job done by making the weaker cultivators advance a little bit. 

Haru sighed and then looked back at the old man from the Hong family. 

"Thanks a lot. I didn't expect so many people to come but I am glad that you're all here." Haru said and then put a hand on his shoulder before handing him three of the jade bottles that he had just made. 

"Make sure that your family's strongest cultivators use these and become stronger. It will help them reach the late stage of their realm. Just don't give it to anyone of the nascent soul stage. They might end up breaking through to the nirvana stage and then be forced to leave this place." Haru warned as he handed him the pills. 

"Pills? My family have quite a lot of pills. Will it not be better for you to take them?" The old man asked with concern. He didn't underestimate Haru's strength at all. He was simply speaking out of courtesy. He didn't want to accept such a gift since pills were expensive even for the richest people. Not many people decided to learn how to do so since it would take up time that could be spent cultivating or practising techniques. 

It wasn't efficient for someone to learn pill refining in a regular situation but with the help of a cultivator that once stood at the top of the universe, it would become more useful than anyone could have known. 

"It's alright. I made them to hand out. I have pills for myself don't worry." Haru said to reassure him but in doing so alerted him that he was capable of refining pills. It was a skill that was rare for people who had been cultivating for decades. Yet Haru wasn't even twenty and he had just admitted to being able to make pills. The old man was interested to see what was within them and immediately opened one of the bottles. 

As soon as he did so the smell of medicinal herbs overpowered the smell of the pills that Sect Master Shen had on him and everyone in the room was quick to turn their heads in Haru's direction. As they saw the old man standing there with the pills in his hand a few of the old men flocked over to see what the source of the smell was. 

The smell that pills produced was very specific and no one knew it better than pill refiners. They would smell it countless times while refining pills so it was no surprise that Sect Master Shen's wife, Cecilia ran over to see what the commotion was about. She looked at the bottle the old man was holding in his hands and then approached him slowly. 

"Do you mind if I take a look at that?" She asked. The old man was hesitant at first and looked at Haru for his permission but he didn't seem to care. So he gave the bottle to him to look at. Although he had never met her before he trusted that since they were in front of so many people that she wouldn't try to steal them from him so he didn't mind handing them to her. 

Cecilia took one of the bottles from him and then poured out the two pills into her hand. She looked at them closely for a second with a dumbfounded look on her face. Before speaking up.

"Hm… Seems like a Qi absorbing pill. But…" She spoke with hesitation as she rolled the little pills around in her hand as she tried to come up with something else to say.

"But what?" The old man asked. He thought that she might have found something wrong with the pill. 

"It's just. The production method for these pills is far beyond my comprehension. They are perfect. There isn't even the slightest sign of overheating. When using a pill furnace it's normal for pills to overheat slightly and have a crumbled texture to the surface. Even the masters at the highest level still deal with this issue. But these are like glass. It's so smooth… It's almost as if a furnace wasn't used to refine them at all.

Where did you get these from? Do you know the person who refined them? I would love to meet whoever it was." Cecilia said with excitement. Not knowing that she had already met the man who made them three times and was even standing in front of him as she was speaking. 

The old man looked at Haru and then gulped. 

'Masters at the highest level couldn't do something like this? Then how did he?' The old man thought for a moment as the whole room was now awaiting a reply from the old man. They were also curious about what kind of fortune he had come into to receive such a perfect pill.

Haru sighed.

"I said last night that I would have a gift for everyone but I'm afraid that the pills turned out a little better than I thought they would. If you take these while at the nascent soul stage then there is a chance you will break through the nirvana stage so I'm afraid you can't take these. And if you are under the manifestation stage then you won't be able to absorb the correct amount of Qi to become stronger.

So if you are at the manifestation stage feel free to take a bottle for yourself and then find a quiet room to cultivate within. I need you all to become as strong as possible." Haru smiled before a flash of light shot out from his hand and the floor in front of him became lined with jade bottles. They were all arranged in a triangular formation and the number of bottles stunned everyone. 

He kept three bottles for himself but everything else he had refined was now out on the floor for anyone to take. 

"You were the one who got these? Where did you get so many?" Cecilia asked, She thought that the pills she had just seen were a one-off and the greatest work of whoever refined them but as more people gathered around and began to take the jade bottles and empty them into their hands she realised that they were all of the same quality. 

"It took me three years to save up this many materials so I hope you all repay me by absorbing as much Qi as you can. They weren't easy to refine either." Haru ignored her question and addressed everyone at the same time. 

"You refined them? That's incredible. But I guess that is to be expected since you are the heir to "his" legacy." Cecilia smiled gently with both admiration and happiness. She was glad that she could see such a thing from someone so young. She was thinking that it wouldn't be long until the younger generation overtook the old generation like hers. 

Although he could have stayed and talked about pill refining with the people there, he was feeling a little bit overwhelmed and felt like he needed some time alone. And the best way he could do that was to go back to his office to absorb the pills that he saved for himself. He planned to take advantage of his flooded soul ocean as much as he could and since there wasn't a cap to the amount of Qi he could store within his body. 

He sat down on the floor facing the window and opened up the three bottles of pills. He took one of the pills and swallowed it whole. He felt all the Qi in the room rush towards him. It was a soothing feeling but it wouldn't be enough to help him fight against someone at the nascent soul stage. So he took another. 

The Qi from the air outside the window now began to rush towards him and strengthened the feeling he had by about double. But that still wasn't enough. He needed more power. He looked down at the two remaining bottles and hesitated for a moment. 

He knew that it was dangerous to take multiple pills at the same time but there was no helping it. He only had a short amount of time to prepare himself. If he wanted to become stronger then it was only natural that he would need to take a few risks. He emptied out the bottles into his hand and then looked down at the four Qi absorbing pills in his hand. 

"Here goes nothing," Haru said before tilting his head back and swallowing them all at the same time.