An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Three figures hovered high in the sky, surrounded by towering walls that formed a triangular formation. In front of them stood an old man and a disheveled woman. Beneath the ground, yet another figure surreptitiously tapped a formation disc, making sure the second-tier trapping formation was airtight.

”You were born a beauty, so why stoop to thievery?”

The tone was smooth, almost playful, yet every syllable carried cutting ridicule. Ling Yuzhi cut a sorry figure; blood trickled down from the corner of her lips, and she looked utterly miserable. The moment she laid eyes on Luo Chen, her eyes widened in shock. ”You’re alive!”

Luo Chen gave a faint smile. ”Sorry to disappoint. I am rather hard to kill.”

Hearing his words, the old man beside Ling Yuzhi froze. His expression changed sharply, and with a flick of his wrist, a black orb appeared in his hand.

”Dan Chenzi, let me go right now!” he shouted.

Luo Chen’s eyes widened the instant he saw the orb. An ominous aura pulsed from it, and the moment he felt it, he instinctively took a step back.

Ling Yuzhi cried out in alarm. ”Old Feng, are you mad?! That’s a Lightning Immortal Pearl! If you detonate it, none of us will survive!”

Yet Old Feng remained unmoved, his sharp black eyes fixed firmly on Luo Chen. ”Dan Chenzi, I heard you’ve slain a Golden Core Adept and your strength is extraordinary. I thought those were exaggerated rumors, but after seeing you kill Fellow Daoist Lu in a single strike, I know they’re true. But let me tell you something: This is a Lightning Immortal Pearl. They came from the Divine Transformation pocket world, and they have the power to kill an Adept. If you don’t let me go, we’ll all die together!”

Luo Chen’s expression flickered uncertainly. For a moment, he was truly shaken. He turned his gaze to Wang Yuan and Chu Kui. Wang Yuan gave a slight nod, confirming the truth of the claim.

Chu Kui added, ”Old Feng isn’t lying. There were quite a few Lightning Immortal Pearls in the pocket world. I saw an Initiate detonate one, and it seriously injured an Adept from the Flame Alliance.”

Upon hearing this, Luo Chen couldn’t help but feel a twinge of regret. He had struck decisively earlier, instantly killing the strongest among the three—a grand cultivator at the eighth stage of Foundation Establishment. He hadn’t expected the seemingly weaker old man to be holding a true lethal weapon. So this is the kind of fortune that can be found in the Divine Transformation pocket world...

Luo Chen pressed his dry lips together. ”That’s a powerful single-use item. I doubt you can control it properly.”

”True enough. As Fellow Daoist Ling said, once it’s activated, none of us will survive. In fact, all life within ten li will be erased. So, Dan Chenzi, I suggest you think this through very carefully.”

Luo Chen looked once more at Wang Yuan, then turned his gaze to Ling Yuzhi. ”Who decided to hunt down Chu Kui?”

”It was Lu—” she began.

Before she could finish, Old Feng cut her off sharply. ”It was Ling Yuzhi’s idea! Fellow Daoist Lu and I aren’t from Tianlan Immortal City, and we barely knew Chu Kui. But she did. Not only that, she knew he had joined the Luo Tian Society. She knew that he would use your merit points to exchange for an Upper Path Core Formation secret art, and she sought us out to ambush him together!”

”Feng Buping, you bastard!” Ling Yuzhi screamed furiously. ”When I slept with you, didn’t you swear we’d advance and retreat together?!”

”Hehe, pleasure isn’t a Dao oath. Only a fool like you would take it seriously. Besides, I helped you reach the late stage of Foundation Establishment. I owe you nothing.”

”You vile old wretch...”

High above the formation’s exit, Chu Kui stood silently, gripping his long staff. As he watched the two former allies turn on each other, a murderous glint flickered across his face. He had been certain that his disguise while exchanging merit resources was flawless. From start to finish, he had moved quickly and cleanly. When some items required a long waiting time to retrieve, he had even chosen to forgo them entirely to minimize exposure. Yet someone had still taken notice, and it seemed to be his longtime neighbor Ling Yuzhi who had recognized him.

Now that he thought about it, it wasn’t that strange. She’d once had dealings with the Mistress of Fragrance, an Adept famous for her ability to identify people by scent alone. In front of her, even the best disguises and suppressed energy flow were useless. Ling Yuzhi had probably learned that craft from her, and then honed it over the years. Chu Kui hadn’t thought to mask his own scent that carefully, so being identified like this was nothing surprising.

Suddenly, Luo Chen spoke. ”Old Feng, you can leave. But Ling Yuzhi stays.”

As he spoke, a section of the towering wall opposite them began to shift, slowly parting to reveal a gap. Old Feng exhaled in relief. After casting Luo Chen and the others a long look, he started forward. But as soon as he stepped through, his footsteps paused again.

Luo Chen raised an eyebrow. ”Anything else you’d like to add?”

Old Feng chuckled. ”Add? Not exactly. I just heard that Fellow Daoist Chu Kui managed to exchange for three Core Formation arts at once. I wonder... would you be willing to part with one?”

As he spoke, he subtly lifted the black orb in his hand just a little higher.

Luo Chen gave him a mocking smile. ”Aren’t we getting a bit greedy now?”

”Greedy? I wouldn’t say that,” Old Feng said with a tone of forced calm. ”I’m old, and this might be my last chance at Core Formation. I have to fight for it while I still can.”

He had already seen through them. These Luo Tian Society cultivators valued their lives far too much.

Luo Chen lowered his head, his face darkening as if he was carefully weighing his options. Old Feng didn’t rush him. He knew it wasn’t easy to give up a Core Formation art after finally getting one. Still, he was sure Luo Chen would eventually agree.

Indeed, after a few moments, Luo Chen slowly raised his head. His eyes were deep and cold like an icy pool. ”So be it.”

Hearing this, Old Feng felt a burst of joy. It worked!

He could already envision himself obtaining the Upper Path Core Formation secret art, entering secluded cultivation for fifty years, and finally forming his core just before his end came. By then, he would be one of the rare Golden Core experts in the Jade Cauldron Domain! He could seize a spirit land, establish a sect, reign supreme, and who knew, maybe even touch upon the path to Nascent Soul...

No, something’s wrong!

Old Feng snapped out of his fantasy. ”You wretch, you tricked me!”

Instinctively, he tried to activate the Lightning Immortal Pearl, intending to take everyone down with him in one final explosion. But what he saw next left him horrified. His wrist had been sliced clean through, like tofu under a sharp blade, and his hand had entirely parted with his forearm. Worse still, the blood qi within his body surged into chaos. The energy in his meridians clashed violently, and he found himself unable to summon even a thread of spirit power.

At that precise moment, Wang Yuan clapped his palms together with a thunderous crack. ”Explode!”

In the next instant, Old Feng’s body swelled like a water-filled balloon on the verge of bursting. He tried to regain control, but his mind blanked again for a second, and he missed the critical moment.

”Luo Chen! Even as a ghost, I won’t let you—”

BOOM!!!

A thunderous explosion rang out. As blood rained down from the sky, Ling Yuzhi stood frozen, dazed and disoriented, staring blankly at the devastation before her. Her beautiful face was now dotted with specks of blood. When she finally lifted her head, still dazed, her eyes met a calm sight. Luo Chen was holding the Lightning Immortal Pearl in his hand, and he turned it over with mild curiosity.

”Kill her,” he said.

The command sounded ordinary and offhand, devoid of urgency. Yet for Ling Yuzhi, it might as well have been the voice of the King of Hell. She reacted instinctively, trying to summon her enchanted treasure, but it was already too late. Two figures moved at once, one descending from above, the other darting in from the left.

Their strikes were swift and ruthless. In just a moment, the once-famous socialite of Tianlan Immortal City lay dead in this remote forest.

Chu Kui stepped into the formation, shaking his head and frowning at the scene. ”You people are too cruel. One gets his heart ripped out, another explodes into chunks... I swear, I’m going to have nightmares tonight.”

Luo Chen chuckled as he thought, If we’re talking about cruelty, our fellow down there is the real monster.

Back in the Qi Refinement Realm, Min Longyu had killed Han Dang, the Poshan Gang’s Devouring Heart Tiger, with a formation in front of a live audience. Compared to that, Luo Chen and Wang Yuan were almost merciful. Their kills were clean and quick.

Chu Kui approached, his eyes falling on the black orb still resting in Luo Chen’s hand.

”I gotta say, you’ve got guts. Weren’t you afraid he’d blow that thing up on the spot?”

Luo Chen shook his head. ”I hadn’t planned to act so soon. Brother Wang’s technique takes time to activate. I was going to wait until the old man left, then wear him down slowly.”

Wang Yuan nodded. At the start of the battle, Chu Kui had sealed off their escape with a heavy strike, Luo Chen had instantly slain one, and he had used the Divine Blood Tribulation Finger to embed his qi into Old Feng’s body.

However, the amount of qi injected wasn’t much, and he couldn’t activate the blood-melting technique quickly. Therefore, if the old man hadn’t pushed his luck, and Luo Chen hadn’t used his powerful divine soul to cast the Spirit Beguilement, Wang Yuan wouldn’t have risked forcefully triggering the Blood Devil Transformation Finger. Even then, it had nearly failed. Fortunately, Luo Chen had followed up with a Soul Intimidation. Otherwise, the old man really might have recovered from his illusion.

”With something like this Lightning Immortal Pearl in our hands, we can have some confidence facing an Adept,” Chu Kui said, his eyes gleaming.

Luo Chen gave a slow nod. He had lost the Black Ice Talisman, but now, he had gained the Lightning Immortal Pearl. As life goes—after rain comes sunshine!

”Clean up the battlefield. Let’s leave quickly,” Luo Chen said.

He looked around the forest with a weight settling in his chest. The road back to Tianlan Immortal City would not be smooth.

Chu Kui and Wang Yuan moved to gather the spoils, while Min Longyu emerged from underground, activating a formation to disperse the remaining traces of spirit energy. Luo Chen followed up with a few waves of his sleeve, casting Cleanse again and again until no trace of their presence remained. He even gave Chu Kui an extra round of cleansing. If Ling Yuzhi could use strange tricks, who could say that others didn’t have something like that up their sleeves? These rogue cultivators had roamed around for decades; they were no fools. Each carried their own hidden cards. It was best to be cautious.

Once everything was settled, the four of them summoned the top-grade flying boat and departed without hesitation.

A long while later, several figures arrived above the dense forest. They examined the surroundings with suspicion, eventually stopping at the site of the battle.

”Is this the place?”

”This should be it. Although there are no traces left, the soil here is unusually compacted. This was clearly caused by immense spirit pressure.”

”What do you think happened here?”

”How should I know? They fought, that’s all I can tell. Can we track their path?”

”No, there’s an expert among them who erased every trace. Even my spirit beast can’t detect Tian Kuizi’s aura.”

”That complicates things.”

”Not necessarily. No matter which way they went, their final destination is still Danxia Peak. If we go straight there, we’ll find them for sure.”

”But that territory now belongs to the Ice Fortress. With Adept Ruthless watching over it, will we even get a chance?”

”We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

After a brief exchange, the group mounted their enchanted artifacts and flew off. Their destination was Danxia Peak!