An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Chapter 581: The Fire Spirit Lord Rampages Across the Battlefield, The Flame Alliance’s Adept Strikes (II)

”Everyone!” Zheng Xian strode forward and spoke in a low tone. ”The Luo Tian Society has exhausted its tricks. It is time for us to act.”

At his side, an unknown grand cultivator followed closely. Song Fengzi let out a hearty laugh. ”I wonder how long Wang Yuan and Chu Kui can keep themselves in check?”

As he spoke, he gestured, and two more grand cultivators from the Medicine King Domain joined them. Tuoba Lingfei and Xiang Zhonghe exchanged a glance and flew off to the side together.

Xiahou Kun remained silent, his face grim as he looked down at the battlefield where members of the Xiahou family fought bitterly. Yet in the end, his eyes settled upon Danxia Peak. He clenched his teeth, chose another direction, and charged toward it. Thus, all eight late-stage Initiates advanced in full force.

The path Zheng Xian chose led directly to the battlefield where the mid-stage Initiates clashed.

”Capture Gu Caiyi and use her to threaten the Luo Tian Society to hand over their Core Formation secret art.”

Another voice rang out with killing intent. ”Kill Xu Haizhen first!”

They settled on a strategy within moments. Yet before they could act, someone else was faster. From within Danxia Peak, a figure strode forth, steady and unshakable as a mountain. Above his head, vital essence surged like a rising plume of smoke, proof of his overwhelming blood qi. His steps appeared slow, yet each one carried him nine full zhang, and as he advanced, his hands flickered like shifting phantoms.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The moment he appeared, his ten fingers flicked in rapidly, sending crimson streams of force tearing into the ranks of the mid-stage Initiates. In the span of a single breath, two of them had already fallen.

Song Fengzi halted in shock, his eyes widening as he blurted out, ”Blood Devil Wang Yuan!”

Wang Yuan’s brow furrowed. He loathed that name. It had never belonged to him, but to Xuan Yu of Peach Mountain. The world had misunderstood and forced the title on him. But if that was the case, then today he would strike with such force that his own name would resound across the land.

”If you want to step on Danxia Peak, you’ll have to get past me first!”

He did not even glance toward the battlefield where Xu Haizhen fought. Instead, he stood alone, blocking the path of the eight grand cultivators.

Zheng Xian’s expression twisted with disdain as he sneered. ”You sure know how to boast for someone who’s all alone...”

Before he had even finished his sentence, a massive staff descended from above. The eight grand cultivators’ expressions hardened, and they struck out together, barely managing to block the blow.

Boom!

After the violent clash of forces, a lone figure stood tall in the sky, looking down upon the eight below.

”Well, what if he’s not alone?”

Zheng Xian lifted his head and spat out the name one word at a time. ”Tian! Kuizi!”

Chu Kui gave a low chuckle. ”That’s right. So what will you do about it?”

Zheng Xian sneered coldly. ”Do not think that just because you crossed blades with an Adept once, you can claim invincibility at Foundation Establishment. Today, I will show you what Perfected Mastery of the Foundation Establishment Realm truly means!”

As he spoke, an overwhelming surge of spirit power erupted from his body. The other seven did the same, each revealing their enchanted treasures.

”Wang Yuan is ours!”

Tuoba Lingfei cast a glance toward the battlefield, then shot forward without hesitation. Xiang Zhonghe, also at the eighth stage, flew beside him.

When Wang Yuan saw the two charging straight at him, he drew a deep breath and resolved to hold nothing back from the very start.

He drew a deep breath, and his body suddenly expanded. His feet pressed into the earth like mountain pillars, his arms turned into titanic trunks of ancient trees, and his massive eyes glowed like twin lanterns. As his form expanded, fragments of ancient armor flew out from the smoking pipe tucked in his belt and swiftly encased his entire body. Each wrist was bound with a heavy bracer, radiating a murderous aura that marked them as no common items. In the blink of an eye, an ironclad giant stood before Danxia Peak.

Tuoba Lingfei’s expression tightened at the sight, but Xiang Zhonghe did not hesitate. He charged forward, shouting, ”One more man!”

At Zheng Xian’s signal, the unknown grand cultivator who had been following him immediately charged forward. Thus, the battle became three against one.

Wang Yuan’s eyes gleamed with ferocity as he faced them. ”Come then! Come! Only one of us leaves here alive!”

As he spoke, his blood qi erupted violently, and crimson serpents hissed forth, rushing toward Xiang Zhonghe. Among the three, he appeared to be the weakest, the one who lacked true will to fight.

Still, the three showed no fear in the face of his assault. Each summoned their enchanted treasures and struck at him. In the blink of an eye, the battle had erupted into a searing clash at full intensity.

***

Zheng Xian cast a glance at the battlefield and saw that Wang Yuan had clearly fallen into disadvantage. A trace of scorn crossed his face. ”So much for his reputation. I doubt he’s really the Blood Devil who once roamed the battlefield of the Jilei Nine Mountains.”

With a disdainful smile, he lifted his gaze toward Chu Kui. ”And you, the so-called strongest of Tianlan Immortal City’s rogue cultivators... I wonder if that title of yours is anything more than an empty boast.”

As he spoke, five late-stage Initiates spread out in different directions, gradually encircling Chu Kui.

Faced with such a scene, Chu Kui let the laughter fade from his lips. His expression hardened as he drew out what seemed like a pill and swallowed it without hesitation.

The instant the five men saw what he had taken, their faces changed drastically, blanching in shock.

It was a Golden Core!

Once the Golden Core entered his body, Chu Kui’s expression twisted into a savage mask. Though he was surrounded, he appeared as if he was the one surrounding them instead.

”You bastards!” he roared. ”Today, I’ll smash you to pieces! Die!”

With a furious shout, he swung the Heaven-Equaling Staff in his hands. The might of that single blow made the onlookers tremble.

The targeted man hastily summoned his flying sword to block. Yet in the blink of an eye, the sword he had tempered for countless years gave a piercing hum and flew backward.Blood sprayed from his mouth as he screamed in agony, ”What are you waiting for? Attack!”

Zheng Xian narrowed his eyes at the sight. A feather fan materialized in his hand, and with a sharp flick of his wrist, he swept it toward Chu Kui. In an instant, a surge of fiery light erupted, making the very air scalding hot.

Chu Kui swung his staff backward, scattering the flames in an explosion of sparks. The scorching heat, however, blistered his palm until it swelled with glaring welts.

Zheng Xian gave a cold snort. ”You wield only a fragment of a Golden Core’s power, yet you lack the defenses of a Golden Core Adept. A reckless brute like you can be cut down in a few moves.”

As he spoke, he released his spirit consciousness, sweeping it across more than ten li of the Danxia Peak. The moment he did so, however, his brow tightened. It was not because of any setback on the other battlefields; on the contrary, aside from the struggle among the Qi Refinement cultivators, both the early-stage and mid-stage Initiates on his side were holding the advantage. In fact, some of the Luo Tian Society’s Initiates had already fallen.

What unsettled him was another matter entirely. Where is Dan Chenzi? So much has already transpired, yet Dan Chenzi has not appeared. Could it be true that he perished within the Divine Transformation pocket world?

Yet something felt wrong. When Chu Kui had redeemed the Upper Path Core Formation secret art, he had done so under the name of the Luo Tian Society. At that time, he had also exchanged for many other resources. The amount of merit points required was far beyond what Chu Kui alone could have accumulated.

In other words, Luo Chen must have walked out of the Divine Transformation pocket world alive and afterward handed his share of merit points to Chu Kui. The thought made Zheng Xian’s brow tighten further.

”Are you truly this patient?” he murmured. The question slipped from his lips like a chill in the wind.

Even as he whispered, a faint dissonance stirred at the edge of his awareness. Instinctively, he lowered his head in sudden realization.

The ground shuddered violently. From the depths below, fire surged upward in a torrent, roaring like a host of dragons as waves of searing heat rolled outward.

Zheng Xian’s expression darkened. ”It may work against those early-stage Initiates, but you dare use it on me?”

He gave a cold laugh and thrust out a palm. He intended to use his overwhelming spirit power to force the earth fire back toward the Luo Tian Society cultivators beneath the ground. Yet just as his crushing spirit power pressed down, another surge equally as strong erupted from within the earth fire.

”No!”

In that moment of shock, a blazing red hand shot out from the surging fire and clamped tightly around Zheng Xian’s palm. The fingers curled into claws, locking down with a ruthless grip!

Zheng Xian’s spirit power flared in full, and a torrent of violent energy gushed from his mouth. He used the recoil to hurl himself backward, retreating in a desperate rush.

Fire dragons soared into the heavens!

A crimson figure stood tall upon the writhing fire dragon. A sword gleamed coldly in his right hand, while in his left hand gripped the severed, bone-white arm of an unfortunate cultivator.

The sight resembled a flame demon bursting forth from the depths of hell, chilling the hearts of all who beheld it. The figure cast a cold glance at Zheng Xian, then turned away without another word. He guided the raging fire dragon straight toward the four cultivators who surrounded Chu Kui.

His speed was astonishing. From the moment he appeared to the instant he struck, only a fleeting breath had passed. The other cultivators had not even managed to react. When they finally realized what had happened, the crimson figure had already driven straight through the body of a grand cultivator whom Chu Kui had forced back.

Squech!

The Mystic Flame Sword descended, splitting the corpse cleanly in two.

This incredibly easy kill did not bring him any joy, and he did not pause even for a second. While the others stared in horrified disbelief, his sword twisted gracefully. The fire dragon beneath his feet answered his will and surged straight toward Xiang Zhonghe.

Wang Yuan seized the opening and launched an assault. Caught in a deadly pincer, he endured a strike from an enchanted treasure and joined forces with the crimson figure. Together, they brought their enemy down in a violent storm of blows.

After that strike, the crimson figure did not pause for a moment. He uttered a low shout. ”Chu Kui!”

That single call was enough. Their unspoken understanding allowed Chu Kui to respond without hesitation. The Heaven-Equaling Staff suddenly expanded, stretching for hundreds of zhang, blocking the two grand cultivators from retreat.

With their path cut off, the crimson figure lifted his sword in both hands. A blazing sun suddenly flared into being before their eyes. It erupted in dazzling brilliance, swallowing the two men in its radiance.

Chu Kui’s face shifted, and he frantically retreated.

”You crazy bastard!” one of the grand cultivators shouted.

The radiant sun burst apart, and the two grand cultivators resisted with everything they had. One of them sacrificed a supreme-grade defensive enchanted artifact, yet it melted in a heartbeat. He was consumed entirely by the boundless sea of fire.

The other cultivator turned out to be Xiahou Kun. In panic, he tore away his eyepatch. A strange eye with a reptilian vertical pupil appeared in the eye socket that should have been empty. A gray-white radiance burst forth, freezing and petrifying the raging flames in an instant. That brief stillness gave him the chance he needed to retreat.

The crimson figure frowned. He had clearly not expected such a strange technique to be used by an Initiate. Let alone that, the eye itself was unquestionably not something belonging to a human being. However, there was no time to linger on the thought, as a massive threat was already surging from the side.

”Xiahou Kun is yours.”

With that short command, he turned around, gripped the Mystic Flame Sword in reverse with his left hand, and thrust his right palm forward.

A massive azure log came crashing down in front of him with a deafening roar. It was the third-tier talisman that had broken through Danxia Peak’s grand formation, the Wall-Breaking Ram Talisman!

Zheng Xian stood in the distance, his face frozen in shock as he clutched the stump of his severed arm. Damn you, Song Fengzi. You claim that the talisman can only be used once in such a short span. So then how the hell can you use it again so quickly?

The truth was something he did not know. Song Fengzi had already sacrificed the talisman’s ability to be used repeatedly, burning it away for one desperate strike.

”A mere human dares to stand against a ram that can shatter mountains and topple cities? You are courting death!” Song Fengzi’s face twisted viciously as he poured everything into controlling the Wall-Breaking Ram.

In the next instant, the massive log collided with a man’s bare palm. The sight that followed froze Song Fengzi’s heart with terror.

The two forces met head-on, yet neither gave way. At the point of impact, they were in a deadlock.

The figure let out a low roar, then pushed forward with unstoppable momentum. He forced the ram back using nothing more than his flesh and bone! Where his palm pressed, the massive log conjured by the talisman shattered into fragments, falling apart piece by piece!

”What ferocity! This man is utterly unreasonable!” Song Fengzi’s voice trembled with disbelief.

Cold dread flooded his heart. Without daring to look back, he turned and fled in panic.

He was not some ordinary rogue cultivator. Aside from his mastery of wood-element spells, he also possessed a variant wind-element spirit root. Had he not already passed the prime age for cultivation, even a Nascent Soul sect would have fought to take him in. Although he possessed no suitable wind techniques, he still believed that when it came to fleeing for his life, few within the Foundation Establishment Realm could match his speed.

Yet though his escape was swift, the man behind him closed the distance even faster.

From afar, he only heard a voice cry out, ”Watch out.”

In the next breath, he saw the tip of a sword coming out of his chest.

”How... could this be...” he muttered. But as disbelief filled his eyes, flames surged across the blade, and in the blink of an eye, he was reduced to ashes.

Song Fengzi, a renowned rogue cultivator who had roamed the Medicine King Domain with unchecked pride, had perished in a mere instant. Three other grand cultivators had been dragged down to the underworld alongside him, and Zheng Xian, a Perfected Mastery Initiate, lay grievously wounded. Xiahou Kun suffered the same fate, his injuries no less severe.

Many lines were needed to describe this clash, yet in truth it was over before anyone could even process what was going on. From the moment the crimson figure had emerged from the earth fire to when Song Fengzi was incinerated, only a few breaths had passed. Within that fleeting span, four top-level Initiates had perished and two more lay severely wounded. The course of the battle was completely overturned.

Only then did the tens of thousands of rogue cultivators watching from the sidelines finally see his face clearly.

”Hiss!! It’s Dan Chenzi!”

”The leader of the Luo Tian Society has appeared!”

”What happened? Weren’t there eight grand cultivators besieging Wang Yuan and Chu Kui just now? Why are there only four left?”

”Not four—three!”

Amid the uproar, a surge of blood light exploded. A towering giant, several zhang tall, unleashed serpents formed from his surging blood qi. They coiled tightly around Tuoba Lingfei and crushed him to pieces!

The savage display only deepened the impression that the world already held of Wang Yuan. To them, he was the Blood Devil. Even so, the whispers of the countless onlookers no longer centered on him. Their attention had shifted to the figure who had appeared out of nowhere and slain several grand cultivators in the blink of an eye. That man was Luo Chen.

”How can this be? Isn’t he famous only for his alchemy skill? How can his combat strength be so terrifying!”

”Have you forgotten his other Dao title, Fire Spirit Lord?”

”He might be the Fire Spirit Lord, but his cultivation... Wait, no! He... When did he reach the late stage of Foundation Establishment!?”

While the crowd erupted in heated discussion, several figures suddenly broke away from the masses and soared toward the battlefield, where the clash still raged on.

”Luo Feng of Luosha Market comes to aid the Luo Tian Society!”

”Chen Xiuli of Tianyi Market has come to assist the Luo Tian Society!”

”Yue Chong of Shaohua Mountain...”

”The Grand Elder of the Lianyun Trade Alliance...”

One after another, figures rose into the sky, each revealing a formidable cultivation. Some kept silent and did not announce their names, yet Luo Chen’s discerning gaze recognized every one of them. Kang Dongyue, Xing Zhonghan, Li Yixian, and even Qiu Liangyue of Snow Lotus Market had all stepped forward.

Luo Chen’s expression remained utterly calm at their intervention. He cared nothing for their earlier indifference, nor did he value their present show of support. What mattered was the truth he clearly understood. The situation was far from simple.

Once these people found themselves caught between advancing and retreating, they would have no choice. If they wanted to ride the chariot of the Luo Tian Society, they had to accept the yoke as well. And that moment was upon them.

In the distance, Zheng Xian suddenly raised his head and let out a shrill roar. ”Elder!!!”

In the next moment, a voice filled with fury rumbled down from above. ”Useless trash!”

Along with that thunderous roar, a massive palm imprint descended, crashing down with unstoppable force. The massive palm stretched for a hundred zhang, enveloping the space around Luo Chen. Its surface glowed a sinister crimson, seething with violent fiend qi, while a suffocating spirit pressure surged within it. Wherever it passed, the air itself roared like rolling thunder. The strike descended as if a god had come to crush a mere insect beneath his palm.

Luo Chen shivered, and his eyes widened as streams of blood qi spread faintly across his frame. Deep within his mind, rings of dark radiance rippled outward, dispersing the suffocating pressure layer by layer.

Suddenly, Luo Chen’s figure surged forward. He ignored the descending palm entirely and charged straight toward Zheng Xian.

Obviously, if inevitable death was coming, he was determined to drag someone down with him. The sheer madness of that charge shook every witness to the core.