An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Mi Shuhua!

Luo Chen knew that Mi Shuhua valued him immensely, almost more than his own family. As long as he could continue generating benefits for Mi Shuhua, there was no way the elder would allow anything to happen to him.

That much was evident in the five bodyguards, including Zhou Yuanli, assigned to him. They were ostensibly there to protect him, but wasn’t it also a form of surveillance?

However, Luo Chen hadn’t anticipated that Mi Shuhua would go so far as to plant a mark directly on his body.

This wasn’t something accidental, some lingering trace left from casual proximity. Luo Chen was certain—there was no way he could have picked up this refined strand of spirit power unintentionally. He wasn’t close enough to Mi Shuhua for that.

And even if he had been, this kind of precise, highly purified spirit imprint couldn’t be transmitted by chance. It had been deliberately placed—a calculated move, hidden beneath layers of spiritual flow, where it would quietly sit, unnoticed.

Furthermore, the purity of this spirit power far exceeded the standard emanations of an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator. Clearly, this was a strand of Mi Shuhua’s highly refined spirit power, placed on his shoulder using a specific technique.

With this mark, Luo Chen realized that unless he fled to the ends of the earth, Mi Shuhua would be able to track him effortlessly. Even advanced concealment techniques, like those Shan Xiu had used, would likely fail to hide him.

What’s more, Luo Chen suspected something else. If this trace of spirit power were to be detonated, it could instantly obliterate any Qi-Refining cultivator.

”No wonder he never restricts my movements.” Luo Chen murmured, a genuine bitter smile forming on his lips for the first time.

His hand slid naturally from his shoulder. He refrained from attempting to purge the spirit power. Attempting to remove it would almost certainly trigger a reaction and alert Mi Shuhua in the process.

Even if Luo Chen managed to flee in time, he knew how slim his chances truly were. A Foundation Establishment cultivator could cover vast distances in the blink of an eye.

Not to mention, Mi Shuhua wasn’t just any ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator. He possessed a newly acquired enchanted treasure of incredible speed, which Luo Chen had seen briefly in action.

And run? Why should he run?

I still needed to rely on the Poshan Gang’s manpower and resources for his cultivation.

Mi Shuhua’s monitoring was entirely within his expectations. This trace of spirit power was simply an added insurance beyond the protection provided by the bodyguards.

Most importantly, Luo Chen now had a method to remove it. If he activated his Grandmaster level Cleanse with all his spirit power, he could entirely strip away the energy.

Foundation Establishment cultivators were strong, but they weren’t invincible. Once spirit power detached from the body, it was like rootless duckweed, adrift and unstable and If the distance was too far or the time too long, it would gradually dissipate.

Mi Shuhua wasn’t powerful enough to detonate this trace of spirit power from hundred li away.

”I’ll just let it stay on me!

”This way, Mi Shuhua will trust me more, tolerate me better, and make it easier for me to take advantage of him later. As long as we don’t openly fall out, he’ll continue to tactically underestimate me.”

Having figured this out, Luo Chen’s sense of discomfort, like a thorn stuck in his throat, eased significantly.

”That’s the life of a rogue cultivator! It’s just the way it is!”

He leisurely returned to the Alchemy Hall above, as if he had completely forgotten about the spirit wolves’ civil war and the Foundation Establishment cultivator’s covert methods.

Instead, he casually pulled out a piece of beast hide and began examining it.

If Wang Yuan were present, he would immediately recognize it as the very beast hide he had once given to Luo Chen. It contained a second-tier alchemical recipe that was very important to him.

A lot of time had passed since then. He had obtained this formula when he had just become the Hall Leader of the Alchemy Hall.

Thinking back, it had been more than half a year.

From the peak of summer to autumn, and now winter was about to end.

Unknowingly, time had flown by like an arrow.

For a moment, Luo Chen felt the poignant timelessness of a cultivator watching the years pass by. Luo Chen sighed wistfully, then focused on the beast hide, occasionally taking out a pen and paper to jot down notes in a small notebook.

That notebook was where he recorded his alchemical insights on a daily basis. Whenever he had an epiphany or discovered a new way to handle a particular herb, he would write it down there. It had to be said—this habit was something he had developed after reading The Treatise on Green Origin Pills.

That book contained many of Qing Yuanzi’s brilliant ideas.

Techniques such as the Jade Fracture and the Unadorned Heart were methods developed by Qing Yuanzi over time. Luo Chen has adopted this habit as well.

However, the portion of paper he was currently writing on was entirely filled with notes related to the Blood Fiend Pill recipe.

Cultivator essence blood is unusable; what if it were replaced with demonic beast blood?

Which type of demonic beast’s blood should be used?

Perhaps one with a bloodline similar to humans, like a monkey, an ape, or the fabled Hairy Men? Or perhaps the legendary Wuqi Beasts of the Eastern Wilderness?

Netherworld Yin Fiend is too rare. What if it were replaced with a slightly lesser but more common Earth Fire Fiend?

Earth Fire Fiend is completely opposite in nature to Netherworld Yin Fiend and cannot be used, but the concept could still hold merit. Heavenly Water Yin Fiend might work.

The Human Placenta is one of the three primary ingredients, included to capture a trace of residual innate qi. This is relatively easy to resolve, as there are many herbs containing innate qi that could be tested one by one.

***

The notebook contained numerous entries. Some were sudden flashes of inspiration, while others were the results of deep contemplation. He had considered nearly every aspect of the recipe, including connections to devil path cultivation, blood path cultivation, and rare medicinal herbs. Some components were replaced, others abandoned altogether—each decision carefully considered.

Luo Chen had never been dismissive of Wang Yuan’s treasured alchemical recipe. His casual greeting of ”Brother Wang” was not meaningless. The two had shared hardships together.

When Wang Yuan was down and out, Luo Chen extended a helping hand. Similarly, when Luo Chen was gravely injured and came into possession of a ”highly valuable” storage bag, Wang Yuan refrained from taking advantage of his vulnerability. In fact, Wang Yuan had offered significant assistance and support.

As long as the Scenes of the Six Domains book remained with Luo Chen, their relationship would never hit a dead end. This tacit understanding persisted, even if they didn’t communicate much on a daily basis.

Luo Chen valued this friendship and didn’t mind helping Wang Yuan whenever it was within his ability. After more than half a year of study, Luo Chen had gained some insights into the Blood Fiend Pill recipe.

He had come up with several improved versions of the recipe and took advantage of the resources at the Alchemy Hall and had even tested a few of them.

Most of them had ended in failure.

On rare occasions when he succeeded, it was only to confirm the efficacy of a particular auxiliary ingredient.

However, what Luo Chen truly cared about was the feedback from the system.

By dawn, Luo Chen had replaced one of the primary ingredients, and after feeling confident that the recipe was almost flawless, he attempted to use the system to initiate it.

Currently, with his achievements in techniques such as the Spirit Suppression, Cleanse, Mountain Cleaving Monument Breaking Palm, and Jade Essence pill all reaching Grandmaster level proficiency, his achievement points had surpassed the thirty-point mark.

Luo Chen hesitated to use his points to deduce incomplete recipes, as he had no idea how many points it would require to fully complete a recipe. If it turned out to be a bottomless pit, it wouldn’t be worth the cost.

However, if it was a recipe he had already refined, he could leverage the system’s feedback to verify its completeness.

Blood Fiend Pill Incomplete Recipe... First Tier Blood-Burning Pill, ready for initiation

Staring at the prompt, Luo Chen froze.

What I wanted to initiate was a pill meant for cultivation! But this so-called ”Blood-Burning Pill” doesn’t seem like a proper pill at all!

Luo Chen paused the initiation process and carefully reviewed the modified recipe again.

The primary ingredients were first tier Explosive Ape blood, Earth Fire Fiend, and Heavenly Yang Fruit. His intention was to avoid materials with predominantly yin attributes and instead create a cultivation pill with yang attributes. Even if it was just a first-tier pill, it should have been sufficient to support Wang Yuan’s Qi-Refining cultivation.

But the result was unexpectedly called the Blood-Burning pill instead.

”What would happen if someone took this thing?” Luo Chen muttered.

Inexplicably, Luo Chen thought of the countless cultivation and martial arts novels he had read in his previous life.

Things like the Heavenly Devil Disintegration Technique and the Blood-Burning Escape Technique. Could the blood-burning pill have a similar effect?

Luo Chen hesitated, unsure if he should initiate this recipe.

Strictly speaking, he already had a decent number of recipes at hand. But apart from the Myriad Wonders pill and the Jade Essence pill, the rest were all incomplete recipes.

The spirit passage pill was incomplete, as was the second-tier Jade Dew pill.

The Blood Fiend Pill recipe was complete, but the primary ingredients it required were highly dangerous to pursue. If he dared to collect them, the Jade Cauldron Sword Cultivators would come from thousands of li away to take his head.

In other words, aside from the Myriad Wonders pill and the Jade Essence pill, Luo Chen didn’t have any other complete recipes he could immediately initiate.

Now that he had a first-tier recipe of his own creation, Luo Chen couldn’t help but feel tempted.

Explosive Ape blood was easy to obtain. In the Ancient Plains region, ape-type demonic beasts were abundant, with Explosive Ape clans spread across several mountains.

Earth Fire Fiend was also readily available for purchase, whether at the Treasure Pavilion, Spirit Source Pavilion, or Immortal Build Residence.

As for Heavenly Yang Fruits, they were sold by the pound at the Hall of Hundred Herbs. Containing a trace of innate energy, Heavenly Yang Fruits were a minor supplement for Qi-Refining cultivators.

Even when eaten raw, they were highly beneficial.

Back when he lived in the SiHeYuan courtyard, Gu Caiyi often brought a few back after work. Luo Chen had tasted a few himself.

The flavor? Strong and intensely stimulating!

As for the various auxiliary ingredients he had modified, with Poshan Gang’s network and the Medicine Hall’s resources, they wouldn’t be a problem.

No, this recipe cannot be revealed to the Poshan Gang. Luo Chen thought.

The Jade Essence pill is already enough to elevate my status and importance. Another pill would be merely icing on the cake, or worse, it might expose the true extent of my alchemical abilities.

After a moment’s thought, Luo Chen decided to proceed with initiation.

What effects the Blood-Burning pill would only be clear after refining it. Besides, in this world, there were no useless pills—only useless cultivators who didn’t know how to utilize them. Even niche pills like the Myriad Wonders pill had their own market.

A first-tier pill derived from a second-tier recipe surely wouldn’t be worse than the Myriad Wonders pill!

However, when it came to refining, Luo Chen decided not to rely on the Poshan Gang.

”It seems I’ll need to find time to secretly gather the ingredients for the Blood-Burning pill,” he mused.

Luo Chen’s eyes flickered as he contemplated how to acquire what he needed without attracting attention.