An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

”I can understand you wanting to get last month’s dividend in advance,” Mi Junping said, frowning slightly. ”It’s only a matter of a day or two anyway. But this month’s dividend?”

Her eyes widened. ”The pills you made this month haven’t even been sold yet!”

”They will be,” Luo Chen replied calmly. ”It’s not like they won’t sell.”

”No way!”

”I’m still the gang’s only alchemist,” he countered, raising an eyebrow. ”Don’t I deserve at least this much privilege?”

”Still no!”

Bang! Luo Chen slapped the ledger onto the table, flipping it open to the prepared page and jabbing a finger at the numbers. ”Look at this month’s results and tell me—can it be done or not?!”

Mi Junping leaned in, scanning the ledger. Her expression shifted rapidly—first confusion, then disbelief. She looked up at Luo Chen, eyes narrowing.

”Are you sure this isn’t faked?”

Tch... Luo Chen clicked his tongue, too annoyed to even respond.

Mi Junping hesitated. Mi Shuhua had warned her not to offend Luo Chen too much, and given how impressive his work had been lately, continuing to shut him down felt... unwise.

”Give me a day,” she said at last. ”I need to ask my father.”

Luo Chen said helplessly, ”Your father’s a Foundation Establishment cultivator, can’t he at least prepare a few more sound transmission talismans for you? Do you really need to run around for such trivial matters?”

Mi Junping rolled her eyes. ”How far do you think a sound transmission talisman can travel?”

With that, she turned and hurried out of the room, leaving Luo Chen to wait yet another day.

He let out a long breath, hoping this could eventually become the norm. As an alchemist, it made no sense for his salary to be held back for an entire month. If the gang hadn’t recouped their costs yet, that wasn’t his concern—it was Poshan Gang’s problem to solve. And honestly, Mi Shuhua had more than enough money to cover the difference. He wouldn’t even miss it.

***

At the beginning of the month, Luo Chen didn’t attend the Radiant Moon Hall meeting, nor did Mi Junping. Instead, the two met directly in the pill storage chamber of the Alchemy Hall.

”See? I wasn’t lying to you!”

Mi Junping’s voice still carried a hint of disbelief as she finished tallying the Jade Essence pills for the second time. Her gaze lingered on the numbers, stunned.

One thousand six hundred mid-grade Jade Essence pills.

Compared to just over a thousand in previous months, this represented nearly a fifty percent increase in output. Luo Chen’s improvement in alchemy had been nothing short of astounding.

Taking a steadying breath, Mi Junping reached into her storage bag and retrieved several glittering spirit stones, placing them into Luo Chen’s hands.

”Wait—why are there only a few... oh!” Luo Chen paused, blinking at the thirty crystal-clear stones. ”Mid-grade spirit stones?”

”Yes.” Mi Junping sighed. ”The gang doesn’t have that many low-grade spirit stones on hand. Most of them go toward paying the wages of low-tier rogue cultivators. With the amount you’re due, this was the only way I could pay you.”

”But my dividends for the past two months should only be around three thousand, right?” Luo Chen asked, still frowning.

Mi Junping gave him a look like he was an idiot. ”Mid-grade spirit stones carry a premium. If you think it’s not worth it, you can exchange them for low-grade ones at the black market. I guarantee it won’t be less than your two months’ dividends.”

Smack!

Luo Chen slapped his forehead. Of course. He had forgotten about that.

In theory, the exchange rate between spirit stones followed a simple ratio—one hundred low-grade for one mid-grade. But in practice, mid-grade spirit stones were always worth more than that, especially in places like the black market. He wasn’t exactly sure why, but it was a well-known quirk of the cultivation world. Rogue cultivators who occasionally acquired mid-grade spirit stones were happy to exchange them at the black market, just to get a few extra low-grade spirit stones.

With the dividends issue resolved, Luo Chen was quite pleased. ”I hope this month’s pill production can also be settled early.”

”Then you’d better keep up your current pace—or, at the very least, don’t fall behind,” Mi Junping replied, already turning to leave.

Watching her departing figure, Luo Chen shrugged. He certainly wanted to improve further. But with Jade Essence pills already at Grandmaster level, without being able to mass-produce high-grade ones, achieving Perfected Mastery in the short term was impossible.

Just look at the Myriad Wonders pills, which had been at Grandmaster level for a while but were still stuck at over seven hundred proficiency. Sometimes, he couldn’t help but wonder what effect supreme-grade Myriad Wonders pills might have.

After Mi Junping left, Luo Chen yawned in front of everyone and returned to his stone room.

Today was the start of the month—a day for inventorying pill quantities, calculating material losses, and replenishing raw ingredients. By all accounts, it was one of the Alchemy Hall’s rare rest days, with most of the staff on holiday.

Luo Chen didn’t need to refine pills, so he planned to use this time to improve the proficiency of a few spells. His Wind-Control was on the verge of reaching Perfected Mastery!

***

Half a month later, beneath the dark night sky over Changyin Mountain, Luo Chen hovered high above the clouds, a look of surprise on his face.

”So this is Perfected Mastery of Wind-Control?” he muttered to himself.

He hadn’t expected that while the Perfected Mastery of the Wind-Control didn’t significantly increase his speed, it allowed him to barely ride the clouds. It was well known that riding clouds was one of the hallmark techniques of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Normally, one needed to project their spirit consciousness and use specialized techniques to ride clouds and fly.

However, the speed of cloud-riding was only slightly faster than that of controlling flying artifacts and was far inferior to enchanted treasures, so many Foundation Establishment cultivators rarely used it. Yet, unexpectedly, Luo Chen was now able to ride clouds after achieving Perfected Mastery in the Wind-Control.

”It seems like... there’s more to it?” Luo Chen glanced at his status panel and was startled to see that the name of the Wind-Control had changed, and the Carefree Wander skill under Martial Arts section had disappeared.

The two had merged into one, creating a new name.

Carefree Wind-Control

A new spell? Luo Chen focused his thoughts and activated the Wind-Controls incantation, immediately sensing something different from before.

Previously, the Wind-Control didn’t truly involve harnessing natural winds; instead, it relied on channeling one’s internal spirit power to envelop the body for flight.

Whether in terms of altitude, speed, or duration, it was extremely limited. When Luo Chen reached the Perfection level, the speed merely matched that of standard flying artifacts.

At the Grandmaster level, it surpassed most flying artifacts and rivaled some offensive artifacts known for their speed. But now, he truly felt as if a gentle breeze was carrying him through the air.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

This was truly the essence of Wind-Control flight!

In his excitement, Luo Chen increased his spirit power output, summoning a raging gale. His body shot forward like an arrow loose from a bow.

”The direction’s off—I definitely don’t want to venture too deep into the Howling Moon Mountains,” Luo Chen muttered, adjusting his course mid-air. Steering away from the ominous peaks, he began circling around Changyin Mountain instead. Below him, the silence of the night was broken by a series of beastly roars echoing up from the wilderness.

”This commotion a bit much,” he chuckled softly, descending with ease onto a familiar mountainside. His eyes gleamed with satisfaction. ”Still... this speed—it’s twice as fast as before. I’d say it’s on par with a Foundation Establishment cultivator now.”

If there had been any doubt before, Luo Chen was now certain—his speed had truly reached the standard of a Foundation Establishment cultivator. This transformation wasn’t just due to the Perfected Mastery of the Wind-Control; it was also because it had fused with the Perfected Mastery of Carefree Wander.

After the fusion of the two techniques, Luo Chen was now able to command the winds of nature. ”But why doesn’t the new spell have a proficiency display?”

In the status panel, Carefree Wind-Control was already at Perfected Mastery, with no room for further improvement.

Perhaps this is its highest limit. After all, it was merely a first tier spell fused with mundane lightness skills; its highest limit couldn’t be too high.

Luo Chen was already very satisfied—this meant he had gained yet another means of self-defense.From now on, as long as he didn’t face an attack from a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he could remain invincible.

***

With a powerful new means of self-defense under his belt, Luo Chen felt noticeably more at ease. Whether he was cultivating, refining pills, or practicing spells, his days flowed with calm precision and purpose.

Time passed quickly. Two months slipped by in the blink of an eye.

Luo Chen earned one thousand seven hundred and one thousand eight hundred spirit stones in pill dividends for each month, along with eight bottles of Dust Transformation pills and two boxes of calming incense.

But while his alchemical earnings held strong, the same couldn’t be said for his side businesses.

Business at his two snack shops had been dwindling steadily. In the span of two months, the combined revenue barely scraped together one thousand spirit stones. Feng Xia’s brand, Mi Xu Ice City, which had only just begun gaining recognition, was now teetering on the brink of collapse.

Luo Chen had already anticipated this. In chaotic times, cultivators no longer indulged in luxuries. They preferred to spend their spirit stones on cultivation resources, enchanted artifacts, or talismans.

Even a few spirit stones, which they usually didn’t care about, had become exceptionally precious now. Luo Chen had been waiting for the chaos in Dahe Market to end, but instead, it grew increasingly severe.

The outer district had descended into such chaos that even walking around in broad daylight had become dangerous. Just a few days earlier, in the southeastern area, more than twenty homes had been set ablaze, their roaring flames illuminating the entire night sky.

Arson! This was a serious crime that used to result in imprisonment or public execution. The enforcement team had merely dispatched a few people to put out the fire and left it at that, offering no further response.

As for the inner city, it was no longer the safe haven people imagined. Even the northern sector, where Luo Chen and his group lived, had begun to show cracks in its security.

Qin Liangchen had personally caught a thief not long ago. The man had attempted to break into a residence during the day, assuming no one was home. What he hadn’t expected was to find Qin Liangchen sitting inside, deep in meditation.

The outcome was predictable—and painful.

Most wealthy cultivators stored their valuables in personal storage pouches, and the poorer ones had little more than a few enchanted artifacts and a single enchanted robe to their name. It was a gamble with low rewards and high risks. The thief had chosen poorly.

The unlucky thief had stumbled upon Qin Liangchen meditating at home and was promptly beaten. He was later handed over to the enforcement team, who claimed they would send him to Red Pillar Prison for reformation.

Watching the unrest unfold, Luo Chen couldn’t help but reflect. His instincts had been right all along. What Shopkeeper Liu had meant by ”not for long” was clearly based on the time perception of Foundation Establishment and Golden Core cultivators. For a Qi-Refining cultivator like Luo Chen, three months of lawlessness already felt like an eternity.

If this continues, he thought grimly, Dahe Market will become uninhabitable—unsuitable for both living and cultivation. The rogue cultivators will start fleeing soon.

As if to confirm his thoughts, a messenger burst in, face pale and breathless.

”The Debate Platform... it’s been shut down!

”What?”

On a rare trip home, Luo Chen heard the news from Feng Xia.

Feng Xia, deeply worried, said, ”It’s said that the Golden Core Adept is going into seclusion, intending to draw on the main spirit vein of Fallen Phoenix Mountain for cultivation. So the Debate Platform will be temporarily closed for the next six months.”

”So casual?” Luo Chen said in utter shock.

Back when the Debate Platform opened with such fanfare, the investment made by the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect was clearly massive and now they just shut it down? What is this?

Was it really worth all this effort just to appease Ai Lao Mountain? Could there be some hidden reasons I didn’t know about?

Luo Chen couldn’t figure it out no matter how hard he tried. The gap in the cultivation realm, lack of connections, and limited knowledge all hindered his ability to deduce the truth. All he knew was that the closure of the Debate Platform would have an enormous impact.

Not to mention anything else, his two small shops were practically sustained by the thousands of spectators at the Debate Platform every day. Now that the Debate Platform was closed, what cultivator would bother going to Fallen Phoenix Mountain anymore? The Whitestone Plaza commercial district near Fallen Phoenix Mountain’s entrance would likely decline rapidly as well.

Luo Chen glanced at Feng Xia, catching the worry etched across her face. He didn’t need to ask—he knew exactly what she was concerned about.

But all he could offer was to console her, saying, ”The rent is paid for a year, so we still need to keep running the shop. Plus, over the past few months, we’ve probably built a base of wealthy returning customers, so maintaining basic profits should still be feasible.”

Feasible, yes, but it probably wouldn’t bring in much profit. There was nothing Feng Xia could do about it.

Luo Chen also felt it—one word from a high-level cultivator could result in a monumental change in the lives of low-level cultivators.

Originally, Feng Xia, Xiao Yue, and other rogue cultivators at Whitestone Plaza could earn substantial spirit stones due to the Debate Platform. Their days had been quite comfortable. But now, they were likely to be knocked back and the impact might not end there.

Luo Chen’s gaze fell on Duan Feng, who was sitting silently in the corner. ”Xiao Duan, what are your plans for the future?”