An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

The cultivation chamber was wrapped in silence.

At long intervals, a deep and steady breath rose and fell, the only thing proving that a living being was present within.

When another strand of medicinal fiend qi was fully expelled, the redness on Luo Chen’s face slowly faded. Even after years of consuming True Flame Pills and expelling medicinal fiend qi, his face was still flushed red every time. If his build were a little more robust, the first step he took outside would likely earn him the nickname ”red-faced drunkard.”

Well, not that it really mattered. The path of cultivation branched into countless routes; each cultivator relied on their own methods to advance toward the ultimate Great Dao of Immortality. People practiced different and often peculiar techniques, the effects of which frequently surfaced upon the body. Red faces, purple complexions, or even sickly, wax-yellow skin were all common sights. Those who suffered mishaps during cultivation were even known to turn white-haired overnight, or exit seclusion looking like mummies fresh out of the grave.

Luo Chen did not care much about his facial complexion. Still, given the sheer toughness of his physique, the changes in his skin tone demonstrated just how domineering the medicinal potency of the supreme-grade True Flame Pill was.

”A single pill is enough to match ten low-grade ones!” Luo Chen muttered to himself as his eyes flashed with delight.

For most pills, differences in grade led to an exponential increase in medicinal potency. Mid-grade, top-grade, and supreme-grade pills had two, four, and eight times respectively the potency of a low-grade pill. This pattern was not necessarily common knowledge; Luo Chen had discerned through his own experimentation. As for other alchemists, very few were able to refine supreme-grade pills, leaving them no way to discern such a pattern. That was precisely why Luo Chen found the discovery so exhilarating.

The True Flame Pill proved to be a special case; it slightly broke this pattern. Its growth followed a sequence of one, two, five, and ten instead. In other words, once the True Flame Pill reached the top grade, a qualitative change occurred, and at the supreme grade, its potency was quite literally off the charts.

This change far surpassed anything he had experienced from the Starfield Pills he had consumed for years, and that was just the difference between supreme-grade and low-grade True Flame Pills. As far as the difference between different types went... A low-grade True Flame Pill surpassed a Starfield Pill by more than fifty percent! Of course, the subtle underlying distinctions were exceedingly complex, something only Luo Chen, as both the alchemist and the consumer, could fully grasp.

Sadly, after carefully weighing everything, his initial excitement gradually faded, leaving only faint traces of regret. ”The cost efficiency is actually quite high, but unless I drain the Flying Swallow Archipelago dry, they can’t keep up with my cultivation. I really can’t be that evil.”

In the most ideal scenario, with enough resources, he would cultivate by consuming supreme-grade True Flame Pills every single day, pushing his cultivation speed to its absolute limit. One supreme-grade pill equaled ten low-grade True Flame Pills or fifteen low-grade Starfield Pills. So long as his financial resources could keep pace, and provided no resistance developed, Luo Chen estimated that reaching Perfected Mastery would take less than two hundred years even on a low-grade third-tier spirit vein, maybe just a little over a century with a better spirit vein.

The real issue lay precisely in ”enough financial resources.” It was painfully clear that the archipelago could not support such daily consumption. Even under the initial conditions, the major families had already been driven to sigh endlessly and complain bitterly. If he were to cultivate daily with supreme-grade True Flame Pills, the entire archipelago would inevitably be drained dry in no time. By that point, rebellion would be unavoidable.

After careful consideration, Luo Chen had no choice but to restrict his daily pills to the top-grade ones. With ten batches of ingredients and a fifty percent success rate, he could refine five bottles of pills, fifty top-grade pills in total. This would be enough to sustain him for nearly two months. Compared to using the same ten batches to produce a single bottle of ten supreme-grade pills, this approach was considerably cheaper, and if the time was not taken into account, the amount of medicinal energy he could ultimately absorb would also be greater.

Both approaches came down to cost efficiency. One favored cultivation speed, the other conserved financial resources. After weighing all factors, Luo Chen chose the plan that best suited his circumstances.

As he felt the Golden Core within him slowly absorbing the lingering medicinal energy, he naturally recalled his conversation with Wu Qi. Blood Nightmare Devil’s Snare, the twelve lineage lords, and the Righteous Blue Sea Alliance...

In the end, he lingered on the ten-year mark Wu Qi had mentioned. Judging by his present pace, within ten years, he would be able to steadily step into the fourth stage of the Golden Core Realm. By then, his strength would undergo a qualitative leap. If he happened to face Wu Qi again, his chances of victory would rise significantly. Yet Wu Qi had not remotely shown his full power, and even if Luo Chen could defeat him, that still left... everybody else in his organization.

”The Northern Sea cultivation world is rife with demons, and the combat prowess of cultivators here surpasses that of cultivators in the Eastern Wilderness. Perhaps only those new regions bordering the Great Million Mountains can produce fighters at the level of those here.”

After facing the local cultivators twice, Luo Chen had already begun to grasp the formidable strength of the Sea of Demons cultivators. He accordingly adjusted his assessment of his own power. At the third stage of Golden Core, he could fight those at the middle stage. Against late-stage Adepts, he would certainly lose, but at least he could escape.

This barely met his standard of being able to protect himself, but only barely. To truly overcome such opponents, he would need to reach the middle stage or beyond. That realization left Luo Chen somewhat dissatisfied. He had devoted himself to practicing countless spells, refined his enchanted treasures day and night, and even used a core cultivation art acclaimed as the root of all fire arts. Yet in the end, this was the extent of what he could achieve. It was truly a blow to his confidence.

Of course, if others were to learn of these thoughts, they would surely curse at him. At the early and middle stages of the Golden Core Realm, he was contemplating battles against late-stage Adepts. What, then, did he think of the hundreds of years of bitter cultivation endured by others?

”Not enough! Far from enough! Who cares how old I can possibly get if I don’t actually live to hit that limit? If I can’t come out of battles alive and well, all the extra years of life are damn useless.”

Every time he thought about it, his resolve only grew. He had to get the power to protect his own life.

Luo Chen had assessed his situation more than once and believed that there was a high probability he would reach the peak of Golden Core within two hundred years. With that being the case, resources related to forming the Nascent Soul had to be planned early, so as to avoid panic and frantic running around later. He had no intention of repeating Fu Jiusheng’s mistake of only setting out to seek Core Formation resources after reaching Perfected Mastery of Foundation Establishment. Therefore, regardless of whether he joined Devil’s Snare or not, he would have to leave the Flying Swallow Archipelago in ten years and venture out to connect with more Adepts of the Northern Sea.

From them, he would trade for more resources related to forming the Nascent Soul, especially the three main ingredients of the Nascent Soul Pill: Divine Iris, Violet Monkey Flower, and Five Element Lotus Pod. Although expanding his connections carried risks, Han Zhan was perfectly right. The path of cultivation was full of thorns, and there was no way of avoiding risks forever.

”At this point, I’ve pretty much pushed my abilities and items as far as they can go, except for refining my life-bound treasure. If I want to get stronger, I’ll need to find something else.”

Luo Chen evaluated his current condition. In the end, his thoughts turned toward his physique cultivation. With supplementation from large amounts of high-quality bloodfood, he had progressed to forty percent. He now stood firmly at the middle stage of the third tier.

Over five years, he had gained ten points of progress, an amount that surpassed several decades of efforts in the Jade Cauldron Domain. Even so, Luo Chen felt it was too slow. After all, his physique cultivation had been far ahead of his qi cultivation, yet now it was on the verge of being overtaken.

The further his physique progressed, the more difficult each transformation became, and the pace was bound to slow down even further. For this reason, Luo Chen had long been searching for external auxiliary resources superior to bloodfood and spirit meals.

With Han Zhan’s awakening, this problem was finally resolved—Luo Chen acquired the Black Sovereign Paste. As for how to refine it, he had conducted extensive research and knew what he had to do. Unfortunately, the Flying Swallow Archipelago did not have what he needed, so he would have to travel out eventually.

”Still, before setting out, there are matters that must be prepared in advance. At the very least, I need to refine enough True Flame Pills for my own use.”

At the thought of True Flame Pills, a faint smile appeared on Luo Chen’s face. He had already reached Perfected Mastery. It was just in time to try that hundred-batch refinement!

***

After the battle between the Wu family’s Grand Elder and Luo Chen, the Flying Swallow Archipelago fell into an eerie silence. All the former complaints vanished completely. When Luo Chen slew Yan Nantian, he naturally demonstrated strength superior to Yan Nantian’s, yet this outcome still lay within the expectations of Cheng Dou and the others. After all, without actual ability, how would he dare take on such work? At the time, the strength Luo Chen displayed was not much different from that of an ordinary Adept of his level.

However, everything changed after he decisively struck and forced back the renowned Wu family’s Supreme Elder. He was no random cabbage; in fact, he was rather famous, and everybody knew that he was at the sixth stage of Golden Core. If a late-stage Adept did not intervene, such figures could roam freely around the Northern Sea. Yet even this man had to speak courteously with Luo Chen!

These Initiates merely had to offer up some ingredients, and they were even offered a tremendous reward at the end of the road. What justification did they have for harboring so many complaints?

Under this atmosphere, the major families tacitly increased their contributions to Luo Chen. They gathered as many ingredients for True Flame Pills as they could and delivered them into the hands of Moon-Inviting Fairy, Cheng Haixin.

Luo Chen was extremely satisfied with this. It was like receiving a pillow just as sleepiness set in. He was preparing to conduct several large-scale alchemy sessions, and the ingredients he had previously stored could only support three sessions at most. His original plan called for at least five sessions, preferably seven or eight. Only then could he accumulate enough True Flame Pills to last ten years. Now, with his underlings acting so diligently, all went according to plan and spared him extra effort.

Three months had gone by since that great battle. During these three months, the families had taken action and repaired the losses caused by that battle as much as possible. Even so, four islands had sunk permanently into the depths of the sea.

Those four islands had only low-grade first-tier spirit veins and were mostly inhabited by mortals. This was also why the major families did not wish to expend effort to dredge them up after the battle. As a result, the thirty-six islands became thirty-two. On the map, the four missing islands happened to occupy the wing positions of the ”flying swallow.” If viewed from high above, the swallow’s wings had become asymmetrical.

At present, however, no one cared about that. There was only one thing that occupied their thoughts: the Devil Lord’s alchemy session!

***

On this day, the white mist over the lake had completely dispersed. The blazing sun hung high above the nine heavens, radiating endless golden light that spilled across the lake’s surface. It looked as though waves of gold were rippling.

Along the shores surrounding the lake, tens of thousands of people had gathered at some unknown point in time. Most were Qi Refinement cultivators. They clustered around one Initiate or another, and their gazes fixed on the small island at the center of the lake as they whispered among themselves.

”Is the Devil Lord really going to refine pills in public?”

”Yes. I heard the spectacle’s going to be huge!”

”Eh, how big can it be? People always talk about the great alchemy sects doing spectacular ones, do you think he can do better than that?”

”Uhhh... no idea, honestly. But I can tell you that for the past few months, the Devil Lord has not refined any pills at all. It looks like he’s been conserving his strength and waiting for his subordinates to prepare all the raw materials.”

”What are you idiots chattering about? Watching a third-tier alchemist refine pills in person may be the only thing you’ll ever have worth boasting about in your life. Why aren’t you watching properly?”

”Apologies, senior. We were ignorant.”

”Exactly. If we’re lucky enough to pick up a trick or two and pass it down, it’ll count as a family craft.”

Amid this surge of whispers, figures emerged one after another on the small island that had stood in quiet stillness. Under the orderly arrangement of a tall female cultivator, each person took up a designated spot before reaching into their storage pouch to retrieve various medicinal ingredients. Upon closer inspection, it became obvious that they had all produced the exact same set of ingredients, without the slightest discrepancy.

There were eighteen people in total. Although they stood far apart from one another, it was clear that they were forming a vast circle. At its center, an open space had been deliberately left vacant. The onlookers exchanged glances among themselves—could that large empty space be where the alchemy would take place? But... there were no signs of any special preparation. There were no fire-resistant bricks typical of an alchemy chamber, no fire-enhancing formations, nor any auxiliary tools. How was Azure Yang going to refine pills?

Just as doubt spread through the crowd, a sudden uproar broke out. At some point, a man wearing a loose white Daoist robe had appeared at the center of the circular formation. He stood there quietly, not doing anything in particular, yet his tall and steady back resembled a towering mountain. All spectators could only draw in a deep breath and look on in awe.

Naturally, this man was none other than Luo Chen!

Suddenly, he swept his wide sleeve, and a small cauldron flew out spinning. The cauldron was gray in color; whatever it was made of did not seem to belong to any of the five elements. Yet the more they looked at it, the more it felt to them that it encompassed allthings between heaven and earth—yin and yang and the five elements alike.

The moment it left Luo Chen’s sleeve, it began to grow with the wind. Three cun, seven cun, one chi, one zhang, three zhang...

Some low-tier cultivators could not help but cry out, ”Whoa, is that really a cauldron?”

Beneath the stunned gazes of everyone present, it transformed into a colossal vessel nine zhang in height. As it stood upon the small islet, it gave off the majestic presence of a towering palace; yet, with its three legs and two handles, its perfectly round body, and—they could now sense that in the wind—the dense pill fragrance it gave off, it was unmistakably an alchemical cauldron.

Luo Chen watched this scene with satisfaction. Then, he let out a breath. A wisp of azure flame empowered by mana drifted out; it swelled up with the wind, and by the time it touched the cauldron, it had already become a raging fire that completely enveloped it.

Luo Chen then leapt upward and rose into the air, gazing down upon the cauldron from above. With his wide sleeves fluttering, the medicinal ingredients in front of the assistants nearby streamed like streaks of light, continuously falling into the Primordial Unity Cauldron.

One batch, two batches... thirty... ninety... Only when a full hundred batches of raw ingredients had gathered within the cauldron did Luo Chen finally halt his movements.

At this moment, his expression was truly solemn. The true test had arrived. If he succeeded, then from then on, he would be able to save an immense amount of time normally lost to alchemy. He could refine large quantities of pills in one go and devote that time to other pursuits.

Meanwhile, a black banner rested against the doorway of the Devil Lord’s palace. Upon its surface, a pair of eyes condensed from ghostly energy stared at the figure suspended above the giant cauldron.

”Such a grand spectacle appears only once in ten years in the Medicine King Sect. A great alchemy sect like Green Pill Valley would struggle to put on such a sight even once in a century. Such scale, such bearing, such presence... it doesn’t fall short in the slightest of those fourth-tier alchemists from upper sects. Luo Chen, hahahahaha... the cultivators of this land only know you as the Devil Lord. They have no idea about Dao title Dan Chenzi. What a pity...”