An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

On the blood-soaked deck, no one dared to breathe too loudly. Because of Luo Chen’s silence, the great ship fell into an oppressive stillness.

Upon hearing the words ”Sea of Demons,” Luo Chen immediately associated them with the Northern Sea, one of the Five Territories of the Mountains and Seas Realm. It was an easy conclusion—after all, the Northern Sea was also known as the Sea of Demons. This alternative name stemmed both from the multitude of demonic beasts around and the fact that the Holy Land controlling the Northern Sea was an out-and-out devil-path sect.

During his years at Tianlan Peak, Luo Chen had read many books. Most of them were technique manuals, which directly contributed to the growth of his strength. After that came biographies of figures from the Eastern Wilderness, since he was inevitably going to travel a lot. Once he reached the Golden Core Realm, it was naturally impossible to remain confined to a single region forever. If he went out and offended someone he should not have offended, he wouldn’t even know why calamity had struck. It was easy to ask around about the local powers while at lower levels, but at higher levels, such biographies were indispensable.

Beyond that, he had also read many travelogues and accounts of regional customs from across the world. In those texts that recorded cultures and practices, there were systematic overviews of the Mountains and Seas Realm. Although there were few records of remote, dangerous, or forbidden lands, there were plenty of accounts related to the Five Territories, and Luo Chen had paid particular attention to the hegemon of each territory: the Nether Origin Sect of the Eastern Wilderness; the Gate of Life and Death of the Southern Frontier; the Hanging Temple of the Western Desert; the Primordial Devil Sect of the Northern Sea; and the Heavenly Origin Dao Sect of the Central Continent.

The Central Continent was under the perfect and complete control of the Heavenly Origin Dao Sect. There were no natural disasters, man-made calamities, or demons there; it was a genuine Holy Land of human cultivation. It was said that throughout the three thousand years since ancient times in the Mountains and Seas Realm, all who ascended had come from the Central Continent. Precisely because of this, countless geniuses from the other four continents rushed toward the Central Continent in search of an opportunity for ascension.

As for the remaining four, they were not as monopolized. The Eastern Wilderness, for instance, faced the constant threat of the demons in the Great Million Mountains. Even after the ancient great war and three thousand years of subsequent development, humans had only managed to occupy thirty-six domains. No one knew how many treasures or supreme-grade spirit veins were still hidden in the unexplored regions.

For this very reason, the Nether Origin Sect was quite willing to support the large and small sects beneath its rule. Once a new upper sect emerged, they would also try their utmost to mediate conflicts between the newly risen sect and the established local powers. They would encourage them to cease internal strife and instead redirect their disputes outward, time and again launching campaigns to open up pathways into the Great Million Mountains. With that in mind, if one ignored the petty scheming and infighting among Eastern Wilderness cultivators and looked only from a macro perspective, relative to external threats, it could still be said that the human side of the territory was fairly united.

The Southern Frontier was far more mysterious. The Gate of Life and Death was proficient in all manner of Gu arts. The Dao of Gu pertained, naturally, to external things, and was therefore not particularly remarkable at its core. However, the Gate of Life and Death had combined Gu with cultivation methods, giving rise to an entire Gu-based cultivation system. The Gu raised this way were known as Spirit Gu.

Spirit Gu were extremely insidious. In battle, they were nearly impossible to guard against. Even with utmost vigilance, a cultivator could easily be struck if they were careless for even a moment. Because of this, even powerful figures with great interest were unwilling to travel there unless they were natives of the Southern Frontier. As a result, among the Five Territories of the Mountains and Seas Realm, information about the Southern Frontier was the scarcest. Over time, ordinary cultivators came to avoid speaking of it altogether, and it grew ever more shrouded in mystery. Outsiders found it hard to evaluate cultivators from the Southern Frontier and so the general advice was to have minimal contact.

By contrast, the Western Desert had much to be said about them. The Hanging Temple was essentially a Buddhist Holy Land, and most people within were monks. Yet unlike ordinary Buddhist forces, which were as large as any other forces, the temple was surprisingly small. It was said that it maintained only one hundred eight eminent monks year-round. Yet judging it solely by numbers was a grave miscalculation—they were few, but they were by no means weak. Moreover, the entire Western Desert was filled with Buddhist sects[1], and every one of them maintained deep and intricate ties with the Hanging Temple. It could even be said that most Buddhist forces across the Mountains and Seas Realm had some connection to that place.

Although Buddhism did not flourish in the Eastern Wilderness cultivation world, the Heavenly Apex Chan Sect was still fairly prominent. It was rumored that the late-stage Sage Monk Huiping had once been one of the one hundred eight monks of the Hanging Temple.

Finally, there was the Northern Sea. This sea was vast beyond measure, and its resources so abundant that they overshadowed all others in the Mountains and Seas Realm. Even the Great Million Mountains of the Eastern Wilderness, famed for their natural treasures, paled in comparison. The world had only ever heard of resources flowing from the Northern Sea to the other four regions, never of the Northern Sea seeking resources from elsewhere. In fact, when Luo Chen was young, one of the primary ingredients he frequently used to refine the Myriad Wonders Pill, Jade Conpoy, had originated from the Northern Sea.

Though they were separated by a fair distance, such materials were still transported to the Eastern Wilderness. This alone spoke volumes of the Northern Sea’s importance. Yet beneath that abundance lay innumerable risks and dangers.

Within the boundless seas lurked equally boundless demonic beasts and sea demons. The strongest among them could contend directly with Ascendants. Such a region was something no ordinary sect could hope to suppress. Fortunately, the force stationed in the Northern Sea was not a righteous sect bound by benevolent ideals, but the Primordial Devil Sect, hailed as the foremost devil sect under heaven!

Within it were countless devil’s arts and sinister techniques. Its disciples were all ruthless, brutal, and cold. Those at the top were even more overbearing. The entire sect believed in the law of the jungle and survival of the fittest. This was not only applied outwardly but also internally, where terrifying ”blood trials” were often held. Thus, anyone who could rise above the rest in the Primordial Devil Sect was, without exception, a devil lord. As a result, the Northern Sea was filled with countless great demons and rampant devilish beings. Over time, the Northern Sea was given a unique alias by the other four continents—the Sea of Demons.

How did an upright and decent person like me end up in such a wicked place? thought Luo Chen in dismay.

Even though he had already made ample mental preparations, he still felt a trace of disorientation. While he was lost in thought, the mood of the black man and the others continued to sink. It baffled them that merely hearing the names Flying Swallow Archipelago and Northern Sea could trigger such a reaction from an Adept.

When the Black man recalled how Luo Chen had displayed overwhelming might and annihilated tens of thousands of sea serpents earlier, a sudden thought took shape in his mind. Could it be that he is from the Primordial Devil Sect and he can no longer restrain himself?

”Adept, although our Flying Swallow Archipelago has fallen under the Blue Sea Alliance’s control, that has only been the case for the past thirty years. The people here are still loyal to the Primordial Devil Sect.”

The abrupt, contextless remark made Luo Chen frown. He pulled his thoughts back and looked at the man coldly. ”What is your name?”

Under that gaze, the black man trembled. Asking for my name...

”I... I...”

”Hm?” Luo Chen stared at him, a hint of danger seeping into his expression. ”I saved this ship, and you still won’t even tell me your name? Do you really think I’m that easy to deal with?”

Thump!

The Black man dropped to his knees at once and began kowtowing in terror. ”Please don’t be angry, senior. Please... My name is Cheng Haichang. It’s just a lowly name. I didn’t dare say it earlier for fear it might offend you.”

Luo Chen shook his head as a trace of absurdity rose in his heart. In his view, Cheng Haichang was at least at the third stage of Foundation Establishment. In a place like Dahe Market, such a person could be a local overlord, and even in Tianlan, he would qualify as the head of a minor force. When encountering an Adept, even if he could not remain proud or composed, there was no reason to be groveling like this. It had only been a simple question. Why behave so disgracefully?

Suddenly, Luo Chen vaguely realized something. Perhaps this was the atmosphere that had gradually formed over thousands of years under the rule of the devil sect in the Northern Sea cultivation world. Those cultivators of lower realms showed absolute obedience to those above. After all, devil path powerhouses truly had the temperament of drawing sabers at the slightest disagreement. If someone displeased them, the disparity in cultivation alone was enough to justify outright seizure and plunder. After all, the very term ”raiding cultivator” originated from the Northern Sea’s cultivation world.

Yet if obedience was truly absolute, why had Cheng Haichang not given his name from the start? Luo Chen did not pursue the matter. He only needed to gather sufficient information and make his own judgments. The deeper he probed, the more easily he would expose himself as an outsider, unless he chose to slaughter everyone on this ship afterward. But Luo Chen was not a devil. He could not bring himself to act with such inhuman cruelty.

1. Buddhism historically entered China from the west, so western regions are traditionally associated with Buddhism. ☜