An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Luo Chen had promised to dedicate himself fully to refining mid-grade Jade Dew pills for the Ruthless Lineage. Yet in truth, he didn’t need to give it his all, and in fact, he wouldn’t be refining them anytime soon. The reason was simple: He already had a sizable stockpile of Jade Dew pills. At the very least, he wouldn’t need to worry about them for the next year or two.

Instead, he intended to focus his efforts on the Blood Fiend pill. That pill was something Wang Yuan had long desired in order to strengthen his body. Luo Chen had already promised to refine it for him back when he was still in the Qi Refinement Realm. Over the years, he had studied the Blood Fiend pill’s formula frequently until he understood it thoroughly. He had even extrapolated and created a first-tier Blood-Burning pill using his own understanding.

But even after all these years, he had never actually started refining the Blood Fiend pill. Not for fear of failure, but because the ingredients were simply too difficult to acquire.

The secondary materials were manageable and had been gathered long ago, but the three main ingredients were each more bizarre and rarer than the last. It wasn’t until recently that Wang Yuan had finally found the last of them.

Everything is ready. As far as I can tell, I’ve left nothing out. With my skills, can I succeed without using the system to initiate the formula?

This time, Luo Chen planned to test his own skills, and it was not because he was trying to save on achievement points. He had more than enough to spare; unlocking a single alchemical formula would hardly make a difference. He merely wanted to test whether his foundation in alchemy was deep enough to break away from the system’s crutch. There was no better candidate for this trial than the Blood Fiend pill.

Let’s hope everything goes smoothly!

Luo Chen took a deep breath and began preparing the cultivator’s blood essences. The moment he opened the Ocean-Swallowing Jar, an acrid, metallic stench filled the air.

Luo Chen frowned. Don’t tell me this is the blood essence Wang Yuan collected back in the Ancient Plains... I hope it hasn’t gone bad after all these years.

He emptied the jar, pouring out every drop of blood essence into a wide basin that radiated a bone-deep chill. Then, he turned to the medicine shelf and selected the supplementary herbs one by one, adding them carefully to the mixture.

Half a day passed as he proceeded with the meticulous preparation. When the final ingredient was added, Luo Chen pressed his palm to the side of the basin and guided his spirit power. Gradually, the flowing blood congealed under the cold into a single, translucent mass. It looked almost like jelly.

Fine strands of blood laced through it, resembling sinew.

Keep going!

***

It took Luo Chen a full ten days to process the primary ingredients. Each was rare, volatile, and demanded absolute precision. Only after every material had been carefully prepared did he summon the second-tier earth fire and begin the true refinement of the Blood Fiend pill.

He sliced off a small piece of the blood jelly and dropped it into the Ice Emperor Cauldron. Adjusting the earth fire, Luo Chen began gently roasting it. As the heat seeped in, Luo Chen began adding the remaining ingredients one after another, timing each addition with practiced instinct.

The most difficult stage of refining the Blood Fiend pill was the step where the Netherworld Yin Fiend was introduced. The Netherworld Yin Fiend is filled with the energy of death, directly opposing the life force in the blood essence. To balance them, one had to use a human placenta, which contained innate qi, to neutralize the clash.

Human placenta was nothing more than a post-birth remnant. Even mortals sold it in their markets. Yet it was special in that it was straddling the boundary between life and death; it thus contained contradictory forces that could be preserved through special methods. For this reason, it was recognized as a first-tier ingredient.

What Luo Chen needed to do now was activate its medicinal properties to reconcile the opposition between the yin fiend and the blood essence.

Under his focused control, the medicinal brew in the Ice Emperor Cauldron slowly began to transform.

***

The first attempt ended in failure. He could not determine the cause.

On the fifth attempt, the human placenta proved too weak to counter the force of the second-tier Netherworld Yin Fiend. Recalling his experience with the Blood-Burning Pill, Luo Chen reasoned that the Heavenly Sun Fruit should serve as a supplement, strengthening the innate qi.

The seventh attempt collapsed because the heat was lacking. He frowned in confusion. Why?

By the eleventh attempt, the problem persisted. The fire still could not meet the pill’s demands. Even the second-tier earth fire fell short.

When his fifteenth attempt failed, Luo Chen finally laid down his tools. He stepped out of the alchemy room and unrolled the beast-hide parchment that bore the formula. Though he’d memorized it long ago, he read it again, word for word. The repeated failures had begun to rattle his confidence.

“Where exactly did I go wrong? I followed every instruction exactly as written. Why does the fire fall short, even when I use Foundation Establishment true fire? It still doesn’t feel right!”

For a moment, Luo Chen seriously considered using the system to initiate the formula. It wasn’t just self-doubt. The supply of Netherworld Yin Fiend and blood essence was limited. If too much was wasted on failed attempts, he would have no way to justify it to Wang Yuan.

Even though Wang Yuan was unlikely to blame him, Luo Chen wouldn’t be able to accept that. After all, he’d already boasted about it.

He opened his status panel and stared at the thirty-one achievement points. He’d recently earned one from mastering Turtle Spirit Armor, having cultivated both Turtle Breath and Armor. Yet this was not the concern weighing on him.

What he struggled with was whether to use the points to unlock the formula. He had a strong feeling that he could master this without the system!

Among second-tier alchemists, Luo Chen was confident that he stood out. For most, reaching the second tier simply meant refining a single second-tier pill. But Luo Chen had refined countless first-tier pills of top and supreme quality, not to mention his considerable success with second-tier ones.

And over the years, he’d amassed a wealth of alchemical knowledge; even without the system’s help, his foundation had long absorbed the teachings and experience of countless sects. If he couldn’t succeed under such circumstances, then there was simply no justice in the world.

Don’t tell me every alchemist out there is some kind of monstrous genius... Nah, no way. So where exactly is the problem? The fire timing? No, my fire control is top-tier! The firepower? I’ve used both second-tier earth fire and Foundation Establishment true fire. That should be enough to handle any second-tier pill!

Thus pondering, Luo Chen slowly came to an understanding. What was holding him back wasn’t his technique. It was the hardware.

The system could only operate within the boundaries of his existing capability. It offered guidance, not miracles. If the task exceeded what he could handle, as it had when he tried to refine Imperial Nectar ahead of his level, then even the system couldn’t ensure success in a single attempt. That endeavor had devoured a staggering amount of achievement points.

Had his skill been high enough, even attempting to refine something above his level would have cost far fewer points. Therefore, everything still depended on Luo Chen’s own foundation!

The fire...

He closed the system and gently placed the beast-hide parchment aside.

With a focused thought, a droplet of spirit liquid appeared between his fingertips. Then, activating his cultivation technique, he drove that drop to its limit in the span of a breath.

In the blink of an eye, an overwhelming surge of pure spirit energy burst out before him. It was fierce, wild, and blazing.

This was true fire.

Maybe... I’ve overlooked something! Luo Chen rose to his feet, cast Cleanse on himself, and headed straight for Danxia Peak.

***

“President, what brings you here?”

“Uh... I’m just here to mess with you.” Luo Chen smiled and looked up at the sky.

Above Danxia Peak, a flock of Plume-Snatching Eagles soared in slow arcs, their snow-white wings stretched wide against the blue. Against the clear sky, their graceful silhouettes cut across the heavens like streaks of cloud and steel.

With a breath, Luo Chen lowered his gaze and turned to Sima Huiniang. “How has Xu Haizhen been performing?”

Xu Haizhen was the Beast Tamer Tantai Jin had introduced. He had formally joined the Luo Tian Society not long ago. His cultivation was nothing short of impressive, sixth-stage Foundation Establishment, backed by years of hands-on beast-taming experience.

His vast experience in taming beasts was what gave him the gall to demand a monthly salary of four thousand spirit stones. After all, he wanted nothing else, just spirit stones.

When Luo Chen spoke with him, the man had made his intentions clear. He simply wanted to save up enough to rent a top-grade second-tier cave residence on Tianlan Peak and push toward the late stage of Foundation Establishment. That was why he had only committed to ten years of service.

Luo Chen had taken the time to reach an agreement with him. Not only would he manage spirit beast breeding for Luo Chen, but he also agreed to train a group of apprentice beast tamers. Now, the man was officially head of the Beast Palace in the Luo Tian Society.

Sima Huiniang replied, “Ever since he took over the Beast Palace, things have become much more organized. Right now, we’re mainly raising Plume-Snatching Eagles, Jade Silkworms, and Green-Scaled Dragon Fish. Also, Palace Leader Xu suggests we expand our silkworm breeding by introducing Azure Golden Silkworms and Amber Silkworms. The Agriculture Palace will plant Goldenlight Mulberry and Amber Mulberry trees accordingly.”

Luo Chen asked in surprise, “Is there a reason behind this?”