An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

In the martial arts section of his status panel, a new entry had appeared: Wang Secret Manual.

Over the past year, Luo Chen had devoted himself to the Clear Origin Mystical Pill Method, but that didn’t mean he had done nothing else. Aside from his usual routine, he occasionally practiced a set of fist techniques from the manual Wang Yuan had given him. It didn’t take much effort, just a casual set or two to stretch his limbs after long meditation sessions.

This particular martial art wasn’t known for its prowess in Physical-Refining or offensive power. Instead, it focused on wellness and defense. It incorporated elements of willpower and divine soul cultivation, emphasizing the projection of one’s intent outward with each motion. Every strike and stance was guided not merely by the body, but by the will behind it. Over time, Luo Chen found that this practice left him feeling noticeably more energized each day. It had become a form of daily mental cultivation.

However, what he hadn’t expected was that upon reaching Grandmaster level in Divine Breaker of Malevolence, a golden mental membrane had naturally formed and acted as a faint protective barrier over his sea of consciousness.

Maybe I should study this further to see if I can stabilize this golden membrane, wrapping it fully around my sea of consciousness. he thought.

Luo Chen knew well that divine soul attacks were among the most deadly and extreme in the cultivation world. One strike often meant life or death.

He still remembered vividly when Gao Tingyuan had unleashed the Soul-Intimidation technique on him. It had ended in spectacular failure, the technique backfiring and injuring its caster instead. That incident was something Luo Chen would never forget.

Defending against such attacks was nearly impossible. Most cultivators could only grit their teeth and take the hit head-on. There was no such thing as using weakness to overcome strength in this domain. If your divine soul foundation was deeper, stronger, and more refined than your opponent’s, you might be able to endure it. Otherwise, injury was inevitable. Even if you managed to withstand the assault, there was always the risk of a brief and involuntary pause. In battle, that moment could cost you your life.

With that in mind, Luo Chen hardened his resolve. Divine Breaker of Malevolence could not be set aside.

He glanced at his dwindling supply and murmured, ”I’m running low on fiend qi... I’ll need to buy more.”

His gaze slid downward, eyes settling on the spells section of his status panel. There was no need to review the first-tier spells. What mattered now were the two second-tier spells he had been focusing on, Landslide and Glazed Skyveil. Both had finally reached the Skilled level.

That was good news, but he was not overly concerned. Spells of that scale always came with significant weaknesses. The massive spirit power consumption was one thing. The slow casting time was another. Unless they could be cultivated to the point of instant casting like Fireball, or its evolved form, Solar Flare, there was little point in relying on them during real combat. Luo Chen only practiced these spells solely for their future potential.

”One step at a time,” he muttered to himself.

With that quiet reminder, he skimmed through the rest of his status panel. He paused when he reached the skills section.

The Blood-Burning pill and Spirit Passage pill had also reached the Skilled level. That was likely due to what he had refined throughout the past year. At present, he had little need for either of them, but that did not mean they lacked value.

The Blood-Burning pill was undeniably potent; it could sharply boost a cultivator’s combat strength in an instant. In a place like Tianlan Immortal City, where competition was fierce and battles could erupt without warning, that kind of enhancement was often the key to survival.

These pills were Luo Chen’s hidden trump card, reserved for the high-tier cultivators of the Luo Tian Society under his wing. Past events had already proven their worth.

During the Battle of Xiaohuan Mountain, the Blood-Burning pill had kept the Luo Tian Society’s casualties to a minimum. But afterward, Luo Chen had shifted his focus to preparing for Foundation Establishment and ceased production. As a result, during the Battle of Gaoling Plains, the Luo Tian Society suffered its greatest loss since its founding.

Out of more than three hundred members, just over one hundred and fifty survived. Even his close friend, Zeng Wen, had been lost forever on that battlefield. Had they carried a batch of Blood-Burning Pills at the time, at least dozens more might have lived. With such a bitter precedent, Luo Chen would rather spend the time to be prepared.

The Spirit Passage Pill, on the other hand, was intended for Luo Tian Society members nearing Perfected Mastery Qi-Refining, a stepping stone to Foundation Establishment. Luo Chen also wanted to test whether, after reaching Foundation Establishment, the standard-grade version would still have any effect on him.

If the low-grade proved ineffective, he would try the mid-grade, then the top-grade, and even the supreme-grade. Compared to the supreme-grade Myriad Wonders pill and Jade Essence pill, both of which had become underwhelming for him, the supreme-grade Spirit Passage pill still held potential. If it worked, Luo Chen would gladly pay the price to refine it.

After all, spirit medicines that could bolster the divine soul were incredibly rare, and in the process of refining for supreme-grade, those low-grade leftovers would never go to waste. They could be distributed to the Luo Tian Society cultivators as benefits.

Luo Chen understood the value of a strong divine soul. It could make a world of difference when breaking into Foundation Establishment. In fact, it wouldn’t take many pills; even a small batch could raise the chances of success rate for Duan Feng and the others.

”Achievement points, back to ten again,” Luo Chen muttered.

Staring at the number on his status panel, he felt a ripple in his heart. Now that he was in Foundation Establishment, he could finally spend those points to unlock second-tier techniques, spells, or alchemical formulas.

He had no pressing need for new cultivation techniques, and his natural talent had already taken him far in spellcasting. In short, all his achievement points were reserved for alchemical formulas.

At the mention of those, two alchemical formulas appeared in his hand. One, scrawled on a beast hide, recorded the Blood Fiend pill. The other, inscribed on a bamboo scroll, documented the Jade Dew pill.

Luo Chen thought, Originally, I meant to spend these points unlocking the Blood Fiend pill; it was my promise to Wang Yuan. But I’ve studied this formula for years, and even derived the Blood-Burning pill from it. I don’t need to spend points on this. Give me a little more time, and I’ll master it completely.

Luo Chen was now confident in his alchemical skill. While unfamiliar formulas might still slow him at the start, he had possessed the Blood Fiend pill formula for years and had nearly dissected it completely. Besides, the real challenge was never the refinement itself, but obtaining the primary ingredients. That alone was enough reason to save the achievement points.

Jade Dew pill...

As the name crossed his mind, the effects of the Jade Dew pill came to him. This pill was especially effective for female cultivators, particularly those practicing water- or ice-element arts. Its results far outstripped those of conventional cultivation pills.

This wasn’t just something written in theory. The Jade Dew pill was widely used and popularized in a distant major domain. Its reputation and efficacy were well-known among cultivators. But due to the distance and the difficulty of its refinement, it was scarcely seen in the Jade Cauldron Domain.

If I can refine it... it’ll become an enormous source of wealth! But that might also draw the attention of major factions. I’ll have to think this through carefully. If the Jade Essence pill can generate profit, then there’s no rush to refine the Jade Dew pill. Luo Chen came to a quiet decision.

As his thoughts settled, a sense of clarity took shape within him. He planned to end his seclusion tomorrow and visit the Luo Tian Society to check on Gu Caiyi’s market research. A full year had passed, and that batch of Jade Essence Pills should have circulated long enough to gather comprehensive feedback.

Time flowed quietly. By the time Luo Chen finished reviewing his status panel, dawn had arrived.

At last, the small vortex within his sea of qi had fully stabilized. Though it lacked the force it had when consciously activated, it now spun of its own accord. Any medicinal force from a pill would first enter the vortex for breakdown before dispersing.

With a thought, two bottles of pills appeared in his hand.

One was the Ascending Dragon pill, refined by the Green Pill Valley. The other was the Qi-Consolidation pill, produced by the Medicine King Sect and exclusively sold by the Spirit Herb Pavilion.

Unsurprisingly, both were low-grade. Major sects only released such pills to the public at steep prices, while mid- and top-grade versions were almost never available to rogue cultivators except at auctions. Even so, the Qi-Consolidation Pill carried a name in line with traditional classics like the Qi-Nourishing and Dust Transformation Pills, reinforcing its place as a trusted staple among cultivation medicines.

”Next step is to test the Foundation Establishment pills,” he murmured. ”See how much spirit power they give, how many I can take, and whether the Clear Origin Mystical Pill Method can keep the pill toxins in check. Then I’ll know which path to take from here.”

Luo Chen decided to start with the Qi-Consolidation pill. As a signature product of the Medicine King Sect, its quality was assured. A standard bottle held ten pills, and the current market price had risen to six hundred low-grade spirit stones per bottle from the Spirit Herb Pavilion. That was an exorbitant figure.

Though they had always been costly, they once sold for four to five hundred, which was still reasonable. With the war dragging on, prices had spiraled out of control. Enchanted artifacts remained expensive, and cultivation resources had become absurdly overpriced.

Haih... who knows when it’ll end. Luo Chen sighed softly and swallowed a Qi-Consolidation pill.

The moment it entered his mouth, the Medicine King Codex of Yimu circulated, sending spirit power surging through the designated meridians and acupoints to guide the pill into his stomach.

Normally, at this stage, the pill would erupt with medicinal power, swept up by his technique and merging like a stream into the river of qi, entering the dantian and becoming part of his spirit power. The process would involve digestion, release, conversion, purification, and then absorption.

However, this time, after the medicinal power entered his sea of qi through the Medicine King Codex of Yimu guidance, it didn’t immediately merge into the whole. Instead, it was guided toward the vortex created by the Clear Origin Mystical Pill Method.

No wonder minor mastery is the threshold for it to work, Luo Chen thought.

Most cultivators can only operate one technique at a time. When taking pills, they usually run their core cultivation technique, making it nearly impossible to operate another technique to deal with pill toxins. Over time, the toxins would accumulate. But once the Clear Origin Mystical Pill Method reached minor mastery, it operated autonomously.

Under Luo Chen’s focused attention, the medicinal power from the Qi-Consolidation pill flowed into the vortex. For a moment, the vortex nearly collapsed, but bolstered by the spirit power, it had liquefied and managed to stabilize.

The medicinal power spun at high speed within the vortex. Wave after wave of condensed medicinal essence was converted into spirit energy, then expelled outward in spiraling streams that merged seamlessly with Luo Chen’s spirit power. During this process, threadlike traces of nearly invisible gray and black impurities were flung out from his sea of qi.

Luo Chen monitored every stage of the process until it finally came to a close. He opened his eyes and lifted his robe. He touched the area around his navel, where faint dampness clung to his skin.

So this is what pill toxin suppression feels like?

With a casual flick, Luo Chen cast Clenase to refresh himself as he exhaled deeply in relief.

At last, he could rely on pills to support his cultivation again. Even if the autonomously spinning vortex wasn’t as effective as one formed through active control, it was already more than sufficient to suppress most of the new pill toxins. As for the remaining traces, he could slowly purify them over time.

If not for my innate talent in spells, anyone else would’ve needed several years just to reach this point. As for reaching major mastery? That would be a distant dream.

After his reflection, Luo Chen began estimating how much spirit energy a single Qi-Consolidation pill had yielded. Anyone else might only be able to make a rough guess, but he had the system.

He pulled up the panel again, eyes falling on the cultivation section.

Realm: Foundation Establishment Stage Two (24/100)

He frowned slightly and said, ”No change? So even the medicinal power of a Qi-Consolidation pill isn’t enough to raise the progress bar by a single point?”

Luo Chen’s gaze flickered as he began making calculations. Next, he would take his time to test thoroughly and build a full dataset for reference.