An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

A single strike had killed Sage Cloud Crane on the spot.

For three hundred years, across the Far Eastern Six Domains, his fame had stood unrivaled, only slightly overshadowed by Han Zhan in the past century. Yet now he had perished instantly, without even his Nascent Soul managing to escape. Such might made hearts quake with terror.

Inside the Wind Lightning Pavilion, thirty Adepts witnessed the scene, and for a brief moment their minds were seized in shock. Yet none of them were ordinary cultivators. In the next instant, they activated their mana to the absolute maximum and bolted in all directions.

But at that very moment, the demoness who unleashed the strike cast a glance at the Wind Lightning Pavilion and swept her wide sleeve. With that single motion, the once-overbearing Wind Lightning Pavilion was completely subdued. The Adepts who tried to escape felt an overwhelming suction force erupt from within the sleeve, dragging their bodies uncontrollably toward it.

Luo Chen was among them. In fact, he fared better than most. Years of practicing the Fine Dust Primordial Art allowed him to abandon stray thoughts far faster than ordinary cultivators, making him one of the earliest to attempt escape. More importantly, he also had the speed boost granted by the Moonbreak Wings, the Sky Roc True Form, and Ninety Thousand Li. In just an instant, the Sky Roc manifested with wings spread over ten zhang wide and surging flames wrapped around it. He shot away from the Wind Lightning Pavilion.

However, when the sleeve fluttered, no matter how much he pushed the Moonbreak Wings, he felt like a caged bird struggling in vain. A strange force dragged his massive body straight over. As he fell into that dim and eerie void region, a name surfaced in his mind—the name of a legendary divine ability.

Cosmos In A Sleeve![1]

Before absolute power, all marvelous arts and exotic techniques amounted to nothing. With two moves, Cloud Crane had been slain and all accompanying Adepts captured. Such overwhelming power filled countless demonic beasts of the Great Snow Mountains with awe and sent terror surging through the souls of Han Zhan and the others who had not fled far.

There was no mistake! Their instincts had been correct. The demoness who appeared so abruptly was undoubtedly a late-stage Demon Emperor! Measured by human cultivation standards, she was at least a seventh-stage Sage! How could such a being possibly be resisted?

At the Whitebone Dao Palace, the Whitebone Dark Serpent spoke cautiously, ”My Lady, what about those?”

The demoness cast him a glance and said indifferently, ”They cannot escape.”

As her words fell, she took a single step. In the next moment, she appeared hundreds of li away, right behind Han Zhan, slowly swinging her pale fist.

Han Zhan sensed the eerie force rushing up from behind, and he opened his eyes wide in fury. He disregarded all possible consequences and forcibly mobilized his already exhausted Nascent Soul, turning around in desperation.

”Take this!”

It was another divine soul attack. Yet the moment it struck, the demoness did not react at all. Instead, the black crow perched on her shoulder let out a bored caw.

Grah.

It didn’t seem like much to an observer, but this... was also a divine soul attack! This time, the invincible Han Zhan turned pale, and his eyes clouded with confusion. He had lost the divine soul clash! And in that fleeting instant of disorientation, the small fist crossed the distance and struck true.

BANG!

That single punch blasted Han Zhan into pieces, leaving behind a dazed miniature figure barely three cun tall. The tiny figure looked exactly like Han Zhan. Opposite it sat another miniature form, black and with indistinct features. Each extended one hand to support a nine-story pagoda. This was precisely the Dao Fruit formed from nearly five hundred years of Han Zhan’s arduous cultivation.

The demoness swept her sleeve and drew it into her sleeve. Then, she glanced toward another direction.

”Nether Spring, go and bring Pure Crane back.”

The black crow perched upon her shoulder let out a hoarse caw and flew toward the direction in which the white crane had fled. It wasn’t all that fast, but after the demoness extended a finger and pointed, it vanished abruptly into the void. When it reappeared again, it was already not far from Pure Crane. Only then did the demoness withdraw its gaze and look toward the direction in which Heaven Smelter and Jade Cauldron had departed.

”Since you have broken the agreement, pay the price.”

After murmuring these words, she took a step forward. Ripples like flowing water spread across the void before her. A flash of azure light passed over her body, and she stepped into the rippling void as naturally as walking on level ground.

In the distance, Heaven Smelter turned his head just in time to witness this scene, and his eyes widened in shock.

BBBOOOMMM!!!

Wind and thunder intertwined as azure light spread across the skies. A hammer spanning over a hundred zhang in size smashed violently toward the demoness. Yet it failed to achieve the expected result. Instead, it was sent flying back by a single punch. Heaven Smelter spat blood as his life-bound treasure, the Wind-Lightning Hammer, suddenly lost its connection with him.

Although the connection returned shortly after, that brief moment had allowed the demoness to close in. She slowly pressed a palm against his chest. The palm strike looked utterly ordinary, weak even; yet once it landed, a rapid series of crackling sounds erupted throughout Heaven Smelter’s body. He stared at the demoness in disbelief. ”How is this possible? You are only at the late stage. How could you have comprehended the laws of the void?”

But she remained indifferent. Only when she withdrew her hand did she blink slightly, as if acknowledging that Heaven Smelter’s physique was quite impressive. And that was all. With a flip of her sleeve, Heaven Smelter vanished from where he stood, along with the Wind-Lightning Hammer that lay upon the ground.

Then she looked toward a distant place and fell silent for a moment. After a soft sigh, she stepped forward once more and merged into the void.

***

”Activate the city’s defensive grand formation! Maximum output! Everyone, strike together and block the enemy!”

Above Moonbreak, a streak of rainbow light suddenly came to a halt. The vast might of a Nascent Soul spread out, filling in the space between heaven and earth. Under normal circumstances, such a presence would command boundless reverence from cultivators. Yet the panic in Jade Cauldron’s voice left everyone confused. For a Sage to be driven to such desperation, the enemy had to be unimaginably powerful. No matter who it was, activating the defensive grand formation was absolutely necessary.

Within Moonbreak, Meng Changshou of the Medicine King Sect and Huyan Zhuo of Skysail City activated the formation while questioning Jade Cauldron, naturally confused about the reason for such panic.

”Sage Jade Cauldron, what happened? Could it be that our forces were defeated at the Heavenly Drum Plains, and the Defiant Howl Wolf Court is counterattacking?”

Jade Cauldron did not bother explaining, however. He wrapped himself in sword light once more and vanished into the horizon at extreme speed. Only then did the fourth-tier defensive formation of Moonbreak barely begin to shine.

A few breaths later, a figure appeared where Jade Cauldron had previously paused. The moment it revealed itself, a massive white beam shot out from Moonbreak.

The demoness frowned slightly and threw an utterly ordinary punch. Yet with just that single punch, the white beam disappeared within the void. Not only that, the vast force it had carried rebounded and slammed into the light screen enveloping Moonbreak.

BOOOOOOMMMMM!

The light barrier shattered in an instant. The Adepts presiding over the formation suffered backlash from it and coughed up blood as if struck by a heavy blow. Immediately after, the ground shook and the mountains trembled as the immortal city began to collapse.

The demoness cast a brief glance at the city below and did not linger. She attempted to merge into the void once more, but the disturbance to the earth veins had thrown the spirit energy into utter chaos, causing the attempt to fail. Seeing this, she remained calm and unhurried. Azure light spread around her as she darted off in hot pursuit of Jade Cauldron.

As it turned out, even though she was flying normally, without any special technique, her speed did not lag behind Jade Cauldron’s Rainbow Transformation Flight. In fact, she was even faster.

***

Two streaks of light—one fleeing and one in pursuit—churned boundless wind and clouds as they crossed the Great Snow Mountains, the Howling Moon Mountain Range, and the Jade Cauldron Domain in succession.

Wherever they passed, immortal cities large and small were completely destroyed. Moonbreak, Thousand Leaves, Tianlan, and Green Pill[2], along with eight smaller immortal cities built on second-tier spirit veins, were all annihilated by the demoness in a green robe.

As the pursuit continued, the distance between them shrank to only several hundred li. Jade Cauldron refused to resign himself to death and unleashed life-preserving cards accumulated over several hundred years, one after another. Sword energy manifested into form, Sword Will surged, the Myriad Sword Slaughter Formation erupted, and even his final trump card, the Resonance of Sword and Cauldron, was brought forth. Yet all of it, before the woman’s effortless punch, amounted to nothing.

Finally, the demoness reached the Thundernet Nine Mountains, a golden cauldron in hand and the same plain look on her face. Ahead of her, Jade Cauldron, in an utterly miserable state, let out a shrill cry. ”Fellow Daoist Zhang, save me!”

It seemed their arrival had long been noticed. The Thundernet Mountains erupted with a deafening rumbling of thunder. In a scene that defied imagination, the nine mountains that had stood for a thousand years rose straight from the ground. As they rose, the sky that had been clear and cloudless for tens of thousands of li was instantly covered by boundless black clouds. Within the thick and oppressive clouds, the roars of lightning dragons echoed faintly.

”You have crossed the line!”

A gigantic lightning dragon lowered its head from above. Black clouds formed its scales, and lightning served as its whiskers. It gazed down as if it was as ancient as the world, yet its voice was that of a rather young man.

Yet even before this cataclysmic scene, the demoness remained unmoved. With one hand, she held the golden cauldron still, using nothing but the pure force of her body to endure the terrifying repellent force of the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect’s foundational true artifact. With the other hand, she slowly clenched her fingers into a fist. Ripples spread through the void, suffused with a frightening cutting intent.

”You people are the ones who crossed the line!”

Her voice was soft, yet her punch was anything but. When that white fist struck, the void exploded, and black spatial cracks appeared.

In the sky, the lightning dragon let out a low roar. ”You dare!”

However, the punch had already been thrown. It crossed space instantly and landed squarely on the back of Jade Cauldron, who had one foot already stepping through the gates of Bai Ye’s pocket world.

With great difficulty, Jade Cauldron lowered his head and glanced at his chest, where a fist-shaped bulge now protruded starkly and unmistakably. He let out a miserable laugh, and then... bang! A hundred years of painstaking cultivation were ruined in a single strike!

At the instant his body burst apart amid surging azure light, the lightning dragon in the sky flew into a rage. Shaking its head and swinging its tail, it was about to dive down. However, when it met the demoness’s cold and chilling gaze, its downward momentum stopped abruptly.

”This ends here. If you choose to make a move, I don’t mind tearing apart this place where you comprehend the laws of lightning.”

The lightning dragon fell silent. As it watched the demoness turn to leave, still holding the golden cauldron in her grasp—although now shrunken to a more compact size—it said in a deep voice, ”My Nether Origin Sect will not let this slide.”

The demoness stopped for a brief moment, yet she did not turn her head. ”If you have a problem, take it up to the Ancient Demon Heavenly Emperor. I am merely here on someone else’s behalf, to honor a promise from a while back.”

At the mention of the Ancient Demon Heavenly Emperor, the lightning dragon’s enormous eyes narrowed. But by the time it was about to speak again, the demoness had already left the bounds of the Thundernet Mountains and vanished into the void.

The lightning dragon shuddered violently. The thick black clouds slowly dispersed, and the nine mountains returned to the vast Quicksand Wasteland just as majestically as they had risen.

Deep within Bai Ye’s pocket world, a handsome black-robed man with a noble-looking nose[3] and lips pressed into a thin line slowly opened his eyes.

”Ancient Demon Heavenly Emperor!”

As he murmured this title, he abruptly rose to his feet. The moment he stood up, the world around him shook as strands of white lightning converged toward him. When he fully straightened, his back broad and shoulders appeared wide and his physique towering above that of ordinary men, while white lightning wrapped around his body with every step. From afar, he was like an immortal descending into the mortal world, lightning itself manifesting into being!

He walked step by step out from the depths of the pocket world and arrived at the entrance, where he reached out and clenched his hand. The shredded flesh and scattered blood immediately gathered together. Yet at the very moment they were about to fuse back into one, it suddenly exploded apart again, leaving behind nothing but thin, black threads that slowly dissipated—or so they seemed. But the young Daoist’s eyes widened, as though a venomous snake had suddenly bared its head, and he sharply withdrew his hand. Lightning flickered around his fingers as he struggled to purge the lingering traces of those black threads.

Zhang Che was outright shocked. He thought of himself as an outstanding figure of the Nether Origin Sect’s younger generation, but he had to admit that, compared to this demoness, he fell far short. ”Damn, when did such an expert appear in the depths of the Great Million Mountains? She’s clearly only a late-stage Demon Emperor, but she has comprehended law power that should only be accessible to Ascendants! And the law of void at that, the most obscure of all! No... this won’t do. This matter must be reported to the Ascendant!”

***

On this day, countless cultivators were thrown into panic. The five great Sages had slain the Wolf Emperor at the Heavenly Drum Plains and secured the Howling Moon Mountain Range. It should have been a day of great celebration, yet driven by greed, they had pressed onward to the Great Snow Mountains. And their advance ended up provoking some kind of monstrous being.

Upon emerging into this world, that being chased the Sages across eighty thousand li, leaving twelve cities destroyed in its wake. In the end, beneath the Thundernet Nine Mountains, she slew the only Nascent Soul elder of the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect, Sage Jade Cauldron himself.

After the news spread, the Howling Moon Mountain Range, the Jade Cauldron Domain, and even the Far East Six Domains were all shaken. Gradually, the entire Eastern Wilderness cultivation world came to hear of it.

The Nether Origin Sect, the Divine Transformation Holy Land with authority over this territory, threw open its gates and invited Sages from the thirty-six domains of the Eastern Wilderness to deliberate on this matter. Everyone understood that the Frontier War, once thought to be firmly within their grasp, had turned into a complete and utter failure with the emergence of that demoness in green.

What would follow? Would human cultivators launch a thunderous counterattack, or would the demon races of the Great Million Mountains strike in revenge with overwhelming force? All of it became a massive stone weighing heavily upon everyone’s hearts.

***

Within the Great Snow Mountains, in the Whitebone Dao Palace, three figures waited with uplifted gazes. One wore white Daoist robes and had a respectful expression on his face. One was an aloof black crow perched upon the eaves of the palace roof. The last knelt upon the ground and trembled uncontrollably.

Suddenly, the void above the palace trembled as ripples spread. A breathtakingly beautiful woman, fairer than frost and snow, slowly stepped out from within.

”Congratulations on your victorious return!” said Whitebone.

The demoness in a green robe glanced at him, then her gaze fell upon the kneeling woman. As she knelt, the lines of her waist were fully revealed, and her figure appeared quite striking.

”Sister Azure Frost, I was wrong...”

A trace of disgust appeared on Azure Frost’s face. Before Pure Crane could finish speaking, Azure Frost swept her wide sleeve, and Pure Crane had vanished into it. At this sight, fear crept across Whitebone’s face.

He hurriedly spoke. ”My Lady, you have vanquished the five Sages. The Howling Moon Mountain Range and the Jade Cauldron Domain are now empty. Should I take the opportunity to reclaim those two territories?

”Go to the Demon Court and ask the Heavenly Emperor. My task is done here,” Azure Frost replied indifferently.

With a beckoning gesture, the black crow landed upon her shoulder. She then stepped into the Whitebone Dao Palace without even turning her head. A ripple of formation power came from deep within the palace, and then... she was gone. No trace of her presence remained.

Whitebone finally let out a breath of relief. He straightened his back and looked toward the vast white scenery of the Great Snow Mountains. It was truly pristine, as if nothing had happened at all. Yet he knew it, and so did everyone else—everything that should have happened had in fact happened. And from this day onward, the many demon territories bordering the human race would never again know peace.

He sighed softly, then turned and flew toward the depths of the wild lands.

1. This ability appears in Journey to the West, where the great immortal Zhenyuan Daxian uses it to capture Sun Wukong and his company. ☜

2. In case anyone’s wondering, the raws are 青丹仙城 Green Pill Immortal City, not Valley. ☜

3. The original here is 鼻若悬胆 (bí ruò xuán dǎn, literally ”nose like a hanging gall”) which refers to a nose that has a thin bridge but a somewhat bulbous tip, giving it the appearance of a hanging gallbladder. This is not an insult; in traditional physiognomy, it’s regarded as a symbol of wealth and nobility, and a sign that the owner would gain wealth in their middle age. ☜