An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

While waiting for the alliance meeting in half a month, Luo Chen did not idle. He studied the iron scroll Tao Wan had given him. Perhaps it was because of his reputation for keeping his word, or perhaps it was due to his long-standing connection with Green Pill Valley, but this time, the sect had been remarkably generous.

Before Luo Chen had even lifted a hand to help refine the Nascent Soul Pill, Tao Wan had entrusted him with the iron scroll detailing the life-bound enchanted treasure. A matter such as this naturally commanded Luo Chen’s full attention.

Within his quiet cave residence, Luo Chen stroked the blank iron scroll as his divine consciousness spread over it. In the next instant, ancient characters emerged one by one.

”Primordial Unity Cauldron,” he murmured.

According to Tao Wan, Green Pill Valley had the blueprints to three major cauldron-type life-bound treasures: the Primordial Unity Cauldron, the Two Forms Cauldron, and the Glazed Cauldron.

The sect’s renowned Azure Sky Glazed Cauldron had been created through the Glazed Cauldron method. It was crafted by the founding ancestor himself and nurtured to top-grade before his passing. Over the years, through the continuous refining of many generations of disciples, its grade had never declined. Instead, its power had only grown more formidable.

Each of the three cauldrons had its own wondrous use. For example, the Glazed Cauldron could enhance the grade of pills to an astonishing level. In fact, if it was refined perfectly, it could even allow its master to refine pills beyond their tier! For an alchemist, it was an unrivaled treasure, one in ten thousand! Naturally, Green Pill Valley would never part with the method to craft such a priceless treasure. But the Primordial Unity Cauldron was extraordinary in its own right.

Primordial Unity was the moment when chaos merged into one and gave birth to primal qi. It contained all things and lacked none. The concept sounded lofty—of course, such words could not be taken literally. Not even a Sage or an Ascendant would dare claim something so absolute. But the strength of the Primordial Unity Cauldron did, indeed, lie in its versatility. When crafted as a life-bound enchanted treasure, it could be used to refine nearly any kind of pill.

The cultivation world possessed countless types of pills, each requiring its own unique method of refinement. Many common pills could be made with ordinary furnaces and tools, but powerful or rare pills often demanded very specific conditions. Some required furnaces made solely from single-attribute materials; for instance, the cauldron had to be made one hundred percent from metal-element materials. Others rejected any and all metals and instead demanded that the refiner had some kind of unique ability or innate affinity. There even existed so-called living refinement techniques, which used a living creature as the cauldron for pill making. Such methods were rare and harsh to the extreme.

Of course, Luo Chen had never encountered things like this before. His cultivation had been too low, and the pills he refined were too few in variety. But as his cultivation rose, if he wished to continue on the path of alchemy, he would very likely run into them.

And the Primordial Unity Cauldron could solve this problem before it even appeared! So long as the demands were not utterly perverse, the cauldron could accommodate almost any form of refinement. In other words, if Luo Chen crafted the Primordial Unity Cauldron, he would no longer need to carry any other alchemical tools when refining pills.

The Primordial Unity Cauldron also possessed several secondary effects, such as powers of suppression, of defense, and more. These were merely incidental, but still, they could not be ignored.

Lastly, it shared the defining trait common to all three cauldrons of Green Pill Valley: the ability to advance in grade by drawing on pill energies. Cultivators who refined pills year after year would naturally be tainted with faint traces of pill energy. In truth, far more lingering pill energy remained on the alchemical tool itself. Ordinarily, alchemists regarded such residues as impurities to be cleansed—a furnace filled with mixed vapors could easily disrupt future refinements. That was why Luo Chen had always ordered his assistants to clean the furnace whenever he refined another type of pill. It was because pill energies were considered harmful.

Yet the three cauldrons of Green Pill Valley turned that notion upside down. They absorbed the very energies other alchemists sought to purge, converting them into nourishment to raise the enchanted treasure’s grade.

It sounded unbelievable, but Green Pill Valley had indeed achieved it. Their sect’s treasured Azure Sky Glazed Cauldron had endured for generations without decline in grade precisely because it was constantly brought out for disciples of every stage to use. The lingering pill energies from their refinement were then drawn in to nurture the cauldron itself.

If Luo Chen created a Primordial Unity Cauldron as his life-bound treasure, then beyond daily nurturing with alchemical flame, the frequency of his refinements would surely raise its grade quickly. To him, these advantages indeed surpass those of any ordinary enchanted treasure.

No wonder alchemists were advised to use alchemy tools as their life-bound treasures. Even setting aside matters of offense or defense, the speed of nurturing and advancement alone outweighed any drawbacks. After only a few readings of the iron scroll, Luo Chen had already decided to make it into his life-bound treasure. The description was truly enticing!

”But the material requirements are just too damn ridiculous...” he muttered.

The Primordial Unity Cauldron’s ability to accommodate nearly every kind of pill and even possess powers of suppression and defense obviously meant it could not be crafted from ordinary materials. Luo Chen had expected this, but as his eyes swept down the list, the names of the materials made his eyelids twitch.

Geng Metal, Black Sinkwood, Cold Marrow, Fire Spirit Diamond, Tracing Mud.

All five principal materials were at least third-tier. From the attributes alone, one could see why the artifact was named the Primordial Unity Cauldron—the five elements of metal, wood, fire, water, and earth were all united into one. And beyond these, the list of auxiliary materials was simply staggering.

Black Iron, Black Lead, Quicksand Fine Gold, Soft Lightning Sand, Profound Luo Gold, Copper Essence...

Lastly, the iron scroll added that it would be even better if rare heavenly and earthly treasures could be incorporated—specifically, minerals with wind, lightning, ice, or darkness attributes.

After studying it closely, Luo Chen understood the intent behind this requirement. It was to embody the essence of Primordial Unity by merging all attributes into one whole.

”An ordinary Adept might spend a lifetime and still never gather it all. These requirements could only be met by someone truly wealthy. Thank the heavens alchemists are not poor.”

Alchemists were, in fact, the sort who dripped with wealth. As a renowned alchemist, Luo Chen himself was generally well off. Even though he had few spirit stones on hand at the moment, he had long prepared for this. During his Foundation Establishment years, he had set aside every special material he obtained, anticipating the need to craft his life-bound enchanted treasure once he reached the Golden Core Realm.

With his own list of possessions in hand, Luo Chen went through the cauldron material list one by one.

He had one piece of Geng Metal. For Cold Marrow, he had two bottles of Cold Marrow Ice Essence from Fairy Ruthless; she had offered them on behalf of the Ice Fortress at his Core Formation Ceremony. They filled the water element requirement and even carried an ice aspect. As for Tracing Mud, he still had three jin. He had acquired it from Fei Ming years ago to treat Murong Qinglian’s severed arm. The treatment had required only two liang, and even after giving her four liang as a gift, plenty remained to meet the cauldron’s needs.

”So among the primary materials, I’m missing Black Sinkwood and Fire Spirit Diamond. I also need to get a bit more Geng Metal. As for the auxiliary materials, there are many kinds, but after all these years, I’m missing only a few. I can have the Luo Tian Sect keep an eye out for them. But rare treasures of wind, lightning, ice, darkness... They must be intended to expand the elements beyond the basic five. There’s that batch of Profound Link Celestial Crystal. That can count as a heavenly material. But as for earthly treasures... where in the world would I find any?”

The term ”heavenly and earthly treasures” recorded on the iron scroll did not refer to ordinary rare resources. It literally meant materials born of heaven and earth.

Profound Link Celestial Crystal was a famed heavenly treasure. It was a fourth-tier mineral and one of the finest materials for artifact crafting, as it possessed the unique ability to harmonize substances of different elemental attributes, allowing them to blend seamlessly and resonate with each other. Moreover, the crystal could even imbue items with more growth potential. If used as the core material to craft a life-bound treasure, it could allow the item to evolve to a higher grade! And of course, as a fourth-tier mineral, it possessed many other remarkable properties—harmonizing qi flow, channeling spirit power, and purifying impurities, among others. It was for this reason that it had the word ”celestial” in the name; truly, it was a gift from heaven.

Years ago, Fei Changqiu of the Divine Craftsman Sect had used a piece of this crystal as payment to enlist Zuo Song of Iron Sword Hall for aid in battle. That piece had ultimately fallen into Luo Chen’s hands. Since then, through the spoils of countless battles, he had gradually gathered several more.

”Eh, one step at a time. After all, I have eighteen Millennial Lightning Essences. How many Adepts even have a centennial one, let alone a couple of millennial ones?”

He now had the blueprint for his life-bound enchanted treasure. Most of the auxiliary materials were already within reach. Once he assembled the five primary materials, he could just start crafting it. The other rare substances would merely enhance the final quality.

Yet to craft the Primordial Unity Cauldron required not only materials but mastery over formations. Otherwise, even if all the components were perfectly smelted together, the result would remain nothing more than a lifeless artifact embryo.

For the formations, Luo Chen planned to inscribe them onto something and hand them to Min Longyu for research while studying them himself. Moreover, he intended to learn the basics of artifact crafting from Duan Feng. Even a shallow understanding would be worthwhile. Otherwise, a misstep would definitely follow when refining the artifact embryo with his Withering-Flourishing Fire.

After some careful thought, Luo Chen sighed softly. ”So many matters to handle! This Frontier War may be an opportunity, but it’s also a tremendous drain on time. I only hope it ends quickly.”

He held no lofty hopes of Nascent Soul opportunities from the Frontier War. All he sought was a large third-tier spirit vein suitable both for personal cultivation and as a home for the Luo Tian Sect.

***

Luo Chen engraved the formations required to craft the Primordial Unity Cauldron and handed them to Min Longyu for study. He then visited Duan Feng to learn the basics of artifact crafting.

With his current cultivation, grasping the fundamentals of a craft was no challenge. In truth, it was common for most high-tier cultivators to pick up a common cultivation craft with ease. What limited them was innate talent. Without that gift, they could not go far or reach true mastery. Also, with lifespan ever pressing, few high-tier cultivators pursued more than one or two supplementary crafts. Luo Chen had no ambition for great achievements in artifact crafting; he merely wished to learn how to process ores and fuse their properties.

Naturally, Duan Feng did not refuse. He not only taught Luo Chen everything he could, but also copied the crafting manuals he had collected over the years and handed them to him.

At the same time, Luo Chen compiled a detailed list of the materials he required and entrusted it to Sima Huiniang, instructing her to mobilize Luo Tian Sect cultivators to seek them out. Even if they could not purchase the materials outright, they were to keep track of every lead.

***

Like this, half a month passed in a blink.

One day, Adepts gathered atop Danxia Peak. Among them, Diwu Qi and Jiang Yu arrived together, while Cen Qiusheng led the Cen family cultivators. The three turned their attention immediately to a red-faced middle-aged man standing nearby. It was Fu Jiusheng!

They all knew him; he was a rare rogue Adept from the Medicine King Domain, and one of the most famous herbalists around. Diwu Qi and Cen Qiusheng had met him once before at Luo Chen’s Core Formation Ceremony, where they had briefly introduced themselves. Now, seeing him appear at the alliance gathering could mean only one thing.

”Fellow Daoist Fu, are you joining the Luo Tian Alliance as well?” Diwu Qi couldn’t help but ask.

Fu Jiusheng looked toward Luo Chen. Luo Chen met his gaze squarely and said with a calm smile, ”Fellow Daoist Fu is now a guest elder of my sect. Naturally, he will take part in this alliance meeting.”

At these words, Diwu Qi, Jiang Yu, and Cen Qiusheng exchanged glances. Certainly, the alliance was centered around Luo Chen and its very name bore the word ”Luo Tian,” yet their true intent had merely been to borrow his status as a master alchemist. After all, alchemists were highly respected in the cultivation world. Even in conflict, others would show them some deference.

Borrowing his name was one thing, but when it came to leadership, Diwu Qi and the others had intended to keep the reins in their own hands. However, with Luo Tian Sect gaining Fu Jiusheng as a guest elder, their combined strength rivaled that of Stormwind Manor. As for who would take the lead...

As they hesitated, Luo Chen’s eyes narrowed slightly. ”What’s this? Could it be that the three of you do not welcome Fellow Daoist Fu?”