An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

In the Daylight Palace, a tall figure looked helplessly toward the visitor.

”Why have you been coming in so often lately?”

Nether Spring seemed not to notice Azure Frost’s irritation at all and replied firmly, ”Because it’s time for you to step in.”

Azure Frost froze for a moment and subconsciously looked in a certain direction. It was as if her sight could pierce through layers of stone and vast distances, settling on that supreme-grade third-tier cave residence. ”He has begun?”

”Yes. To be fair, his comprehension is quite good. He figured out the key to the First Nirvana Realm on his own. But the scripture the Primal Sovereign left behind only records the Three Nirvanas and says nothing about the Nine Tribulations. I’m worried he might not be able to endure them. When the time comes, you’ll need to step in if the situation turns bad.”

Azure Frost came to a sudden realization. She then nodded lightly. ”Don’t worry. If anything goes wrong, I’ll act at once.”

A moment later, a strand of powerful divine consciousness descended upon Luo Chen without him noticing in the slightest. Yet the instant it made contact, Azure Frost frowned. ”The Sea of Qi Tribulation has already begun.”

Almost at the same time she said this, Luo Chen trembled violently inside the cave residence. His sea of qi was vast like an ocean, and it ignited in an instant. Raging flames surged through it, as though the very environment of the sea of qi was being remade into an endless domain of fire.

At the same moment, Azure Frost’s expression changed. ”Something is wrong. His foundation is far too deep. His sea of qi expanded according to the standards of a five-spirit-root cultivator. The Sea of Qi Tribulation is occurring together with a Spirit Root Tribulation.”

Before she even finished her sentence, Luo Chen let out a muffled groan inside the cave residence. His Golden Core spun rapidly and erupted with an overwhelming force that swept away the Withering-Flourishing True Fire that had wrapped around it. Within the cave residence filled with dense spirit energy, his Golden Core rotated as the surging five-element spirit energy rushed toward him in unison.

There was no distinction nor separation of attributes; the five elements were perfectly balanced. Under the reinforcement of these five streams of spirit energy, the originally flawless process of converting wood into fire developed a flaw. Although fire-element mana still held dominance, the other four types of mana were bolstered by their respective spirit energies and somehow managed to contend with the fire element.

Nether Spring wore a perfectly flat expression, as though she had long anticipated this. ”The Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture conceals the spirit roots and creates a state where fire dominates, which forms the illusion of cultivating as a heavenly spirit root. Naturally, this is accompanied by a Spirit Root Tribulation. And since five spirit root cultivators are no weaker than a heavenly spirit root to begin with, the backlash is just terrifying. That’s why I told you to keep an eye on him. Just in case something went wrong.”

Catching the meaning behind her words, Azure Frost cast her a sidelong glance. ”Then should I isolate him from the spirit energy now?”

Nether Spring flicked her wing. ”Not now. Actually, the more violent the spirit energy, the better. As long as he gets through this tribulation, the fire-element mana he produces will be not only exceptionally pure but abundant as well. In terms of sheer depth and strength, it won’t be any weaker than what he had with five spirit roots.”

”So he wants everything?” Azure Frost shook her head lightly. ”Isn’t that a bit too greedy?”

”Greedy? No, Little Azure, you are underestimating Luo Chen,” Nether Spring cackled. ”Take a closer look at his physique.”

Azure Frost instinctively activated her divine consciousness, using a method that resembled drifting rain—gentle, yet capable of penetrating every gap. It seeped into every inch of Luo Chen’s body. And the more she observed, the more astonished she became. ”Strange. Why does his body feel so... demonic?”

This time, Nether Spring did not explain at all. Under their undisturbed observation, the changes within Luo Chen’s body continued to unfold slowly.

Time passed little by little. Luo Chen’s sea of qi was gradually transformed into a sea of fire, at the same time becoming more suitable for the storage and refinement of mana. In the end, the massive influx of five-element spirit energy from the outside not only failed to overwhelm the fire-element mana, but through the Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture, it was refined into surging streams of fire-element mana that rushed through that boundless fire domain. From this, it seemed that he was about to overcome the Sea of Qi Tribulation and Spirit Root Tribulation.

”Then the last should be the Golden Core Tribulation,” Azure Frost murmured, but then she shook her head. ”Ironically, that may end up being the easiest to overcome.”

When human cultivators advanced from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core, there was no overt heavenly tribulation. Even so, they still endured an internal trial of transformation. Changes to the Golden Core were something Luo Chen had already experienced once before, which made this step far more familiar to him.

As the final trace of wood-element mana was completely converted, he once again started using the Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture alone. Within his body, there was no longer the slightest hint of other elements. All that remained was incredibly pure fire-element mana.

Not only that; even the originally five-color core lost the other four colors as it continued to rotate, leaving only a single crimson core behind. Within the boundless sea of fire, it resembled a rising sun. It was brilliant and powerful.

”Three of the Nine Tribulations are complete, and nirvana is achieved. From this moment on, Luo Chen remains a five-spirit-root cultivator in essence, but he will be cultivating as fast as someone with a single spirit root,” Nether Spring said with unconcealed excitement.

Azure Frost revealed a trace of regret on her face. ”With a physique on par with an archaic demonic beast and five-element spirit roots in perfect balance, his future would have been boundless even without switching to the Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture. Now... the path he’s chosen feels a little too narrow.”

Nether Spring sneered. ”Little Azure, you’re overthinking it. Setting aside the fact that his five spirit roots bring us no benefit at all, the thin spirit energy in the Mountains and Seas Realm simply isn’t enough to support such cultivation all the way to the Divine Transformation Realm.”

Azure Frost was puzzled. ”Huh? The spirit energy here is incredibly rich. You call this thin?”

Nether Spring gave a very humanlike shrug. ”For cultivators with ordinary aptitude? Of course, it’s rich, and it would even count as top-tier. But for someone with five-element spirit roots... From what I’ve heard from the people I soul-searched, in the Eastern Wilderness, there’s a cultivator with the same aptitude who stalled at the seventh stage of the Nascent Soul Realm a long time ago and still has not broken through to this day.”

Azure Frost’s lips parted slightly. After a moment’s thought, she gave a calm nod, acknowledging Nether Spring’s reasoning. Looked at this way, Luo Chen’s decision to switch to fire cultivation was actually beneficial to him in the long run.

***

Whether it would be a good thing in the future, Luo Chen had no idea. He could not yet see that far. But at the present moment, it was unquestionably a tremendous blessing.

Inside the cave residence, Luo Chen sat with his eyes closed. He had long since stopped cultivating actively, yet spirit energy continued to gather toward him and pour into his body on its own.

The source of this phenomenon lay in the crimson core within his sea of qi. Even without deliberate activation, his core was still rotating on its own, continuously gathering energy. Under the refinement of the Withering-Flourishing True Fire within the sea of qi, that energy was purified again and again before finally transformed into strands of pure mana that flowed into the core.

”This really is worthy of being called the root of all fire arts. Now that I’ve learned it properly, I don’t even need to cultivate actively. As long as I’m in a suitable spirit land, my Golden Core will draw in spirit energy on its own. It’s almost on par with cultivating in a lesser third-tier cave residence, and that’s without me doing anything... So what if I do something?”

With a single thought, the spirit energy surged toward him like the waters of a great river reaching the sea. The sensation was utterly intoxicating.

If the entire world were likened to an ocean, then spirit energy would be the water within it. The spirit veins of various tiers and grades could be seen as rivers and streams that carried that water.

In the past, Luo Chen’s cultivation had been nothing more than the act of drawing bucket after bucket of water from a great river and pouring it into his pool to fill it up. This was the general meaning of drawing energy into oneself. But now, he was redirecting the river to flow straight into his pool. The difference between the two methods was vast beyond comparison.

And under the system’s quantitative measurement, Luo Chen perceived this contrast even more clearly. By his judgment, his active cultivation speed was more than fifteen times what it had been when he first entered the Golden Core Realm. If he also accounted for the mana absorbed and refined automatically through the Golden Core when he was not actively cultivating, that would fast-forward things even more. Overall, his speed truly rivaled that of a heavenly-spirit-root cultivator. Moreover, because his meridians and acupoints had been developed early on and were far tougher and more resilient than those of ordinary heavenly spirit root cultivators, he could push his cultivation at full without restraint.

Calculating it this way, reaching the third stage of the Golden Core was going to take no more than two or three years. And even crossing the entire Golden Core Realm to reach Perfected Mastery would take a hundred years at most!

The surge of excitement broke his focus, and his cultivation came to a stop.

And the surprises were far from over. Over the next few days, as Luo Chen explored further, he discovered many additional benefits. First was his control over the Withering-Flourishing Fire, which had become increasingly natural and effortless. From time to time, wondrous ideas surfaced in his mind and gave him the feeling that this primordial true fire could be applied in countless ways. Alchemy went without saying; artifact crafting, combat, spells, tempering the body, and many other applications all seemed much easier. With so many avenues opening at once, Luo Chen did not even know where to begin.