An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Cheng Haixin forced a bitter smile. ”Life and death are in the hands of fate. Maybe my brother just wasn’t meant to walk the Great Dao. No one else can be blamed for it.”

With death, the Dao vanished. No matter how great the ambition or how many schemes there were in place, when the person died, everything was gone. Luo Chen gave a faint sound of acknowledgment and casually asked who now presided over the Cheng family. The answer was Cheng Haixin herself. Of course, the actual affairs of the family were handled by Cheng Ji, and Cheng Haixin merely held the title of matriarch.

”With this, it’s also easier for me to serve you,” Cheng Haixin said with her head lowered in an obvious show of loyalty.

Luo Chen looked her over with a hint of amusement. The woman’s tall figure appeared somewhat pitiful. Had she only now realized how costly daily necessities were after becoming the head of the family? Was that why she spoke and acted with more respect than before? She even knew to deliberately flatter him and say things pleasing to the ear!

Luo Chen chuckled and waved his hand. ”You can go now. I just got back from a long trip. I need some rest.”

Cheng Haixin raised her head as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she lowered it again and quietly left the hall.

After she was gone, Han Zhan’s voice sounded in the hall. ”You’ve always been generous. She’s putting on such a pitiful act, and you’re not giving her anything?”

”Heh. Haven’t I already given plenty of benefits?”

”That’s true. She reached the fifth stage of Foundation Establishment in just over ten years, and you even gave her a water-element enchanted treasure suitable for her. Even direct disciples of major sects don’t get better treatment.”

”Exactly. I’ve already given her plenty. If I give her any more, she won’t be able to handle it. An innocent man can still suffer for carrying a treasure. Too many benefits would only bring her trouble.”

The hall fell quiet. After a while, a faint sigh echoed out. ”Besides, the resources in this region are too scarce, and sooner or later, I’ll have to leave.”

***

After returning to the archipelago, Luo Chen rested for a full half month before he fully returned to normal. During that time, he first slept for two days to restore his strength. Then, he began treating his injuries. The sudden battle with Golden Pincer had left only flesh wounds, but the long journey afterward had given him no time to deal with them properly; he had relied entirely on his powerful recovery ability to heal on its own. Now that he finally had the time, he used both medical techniques and spirit medicines together. In less than half a month, he was back to perfect health.

Such a rapid recovery left Han Zhan deeply astonished. But to Luo Chen, it made perfect sense. His physique was nowhere near as rigid as he used to be, due to refining so many demonic beasts with the Withering-Flourishing True Fire. Although he could not yet regenerate from a drop of blood or regrow severed limbs, he still far surpassed ordinary Physique Refinement cultivators. Even injuries inflicted by a top-tier Demon King were nothing impossible to deal with.

After recovering from his wounds, Luo Chen resumed his normal cultivation. It had been only about a year since reaching the fourth stage of Golden Core. However, he had not cultivated properly during that year because he had been gathering Crab Kings. The situation had been complicated at the time, and there had been no suitable third-tier spirit land. Now that matters had finally settled down, there was no reason to waste any more time.

Luo Chen wore a loose white Daoist robe and sat cross-legged in meditation. He formed hand seals and muttered incantations under his breath as wave after wave of spirit energy flowed into his body. Under the Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture, the spirit energy transformed into incomparably pure fire-element mana.

Within his sea of qi, the crimson core spun steadily. A small cauldron sat below it like an unmoving mountain. A pair of wings drifted freely through the sea of qi like a bird in flight. Luo Chen’s mana was powerful, and more than twenty years of refinement had removed every trace of impurity from the Moonbreak Wings. They had long since stabilized, and faint signs of advancement had even begun to appear.

If they truly reached the middle grade, it would be another piece of joy for him. That would mean his flying speed would increase greatly. Even before this, late-stage Demon Kings could not keep up with him at full speed, and if this trend continued, late-stage Demon Kings and Adepts specialized in speed would be left coughing in the dust.

”Huuuuuuu...”

A stream of white qi flowed out from Luo Chen’s mouth. He stopped forming hand seals and slowly opened his eyes. A trace of dissatisfaction appeared on his face.

For someone who had once enjoyed a supreme-grade third-tier spirit vein, the barely low-grade third-tier spirit vein on Moon-Inviting Island felt rather meager. What others considered an amazing density of spirit energy made him feel as though he could barely breathe.

Cultivators spoke of the four essentials of cultivation: wealth, companions, techniques, and land. Luo Chen already possessed a top-tier cultivation method, had Han Zhan as an excellent mentor, and he could refine large quantities of top-grade True Flame Pills himself. In many respects, his cultivation conditions were already close to ideal.

Yet ”close enough” is not the same as ”perfect.” The shortcoming lay in the final element—land. What exactly did cultivators cultivate toward? If the word for ”immortal” was broken apart, it represented one man upon a mountain[1]. The mountain was, of course, the spirit land, and among the four essentials, it was the one thing Luo Chen lacked. Without question, it was a pity.

”At this rate, it’ll take me at least twenty years to reach the fifth stage,” Luo Chen muttered.

Twenty years would once have been an unimaginably fast pace for Luo Chen when he had just formed his Golden Core. After all, he had spent ten full years merely stabilizing his cultivation. Yet now, he actually dared to feel dissatisfied. The Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture forced him to focus solely on the fire path and granted him a cultivation speed comparable to that of a heavenly spirit root cultivator.

Yet cultivators with heavenly spirit roots were said to reach Foundation Establishment in ten years, Golden Core in a hundred, and Nascent Soul in two hundred. If he required twenty years just to reach the fifth stage of Golden Core, how many years would he then take to reach the sixth? And then the seventh, eighth, ninth, and the peak?

Thirty? Forty? Fifty? A hundred? If every minor realm required such long periods of time, wouldn’t all his efforts be wasted? Even if he could reach Perfected Mastery before his lifespan ended, what about forming the Nascent Soul?

Luo Chen had always been the kind that planned far ahead. He considered matters well in advance before taking action. While still in the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, he had already begun preparing the resources needed for Core Formation. And now that he was a true blue Adept, he had absolutely no intention of waiting until Perfected Mastery to wander the world in a panicked search for Nascent Soul resources. Certain matters had to be handled in advance. And handling those matters meant that he would have to set aside time outside of cultivation.

”Looks like I really have to leave the Flying Swallow Archipelago. I need a better third-tier spirit land... and better pills. I’ve been able to refine supreme-grade True Flame Pills for a while now, but I’m still stuck with top-grade ones. This place is just too poor. The resources here are holding me back.”

The Flying Swallow Archipelago was a comfortable environment for cultivation, but it clearly did not meet Luo Chen’s needs. Even the spirit land he had personally seized in the Howling Moon Mountain Range back then had spirit energy close to the middle grade. By comparison, the Flying Swallow Archipelago fell far short.

Of course, he still needed to make certain preparations before leaving. For an alchemist, preparing for a long journey meant preparing pills. In particular, since he was bound to deal with people under the status of a grandmaster alchemist, he needed to prepare some pills in advance that could demonstrate his alchemy skill.

Thus, after Luo Chen emerged from seclusion, he once again became busy with alchemy work, and this time, he no longer stopped at True Flame Pills. He began refining Imperial Nectar, Jade Dew Pills, Spirit Passage Pills, Black Sovereign Paste, and even Starfield Pills!

Because of that, the once quiet Moon-Inviting Island buzzed with activity. Luo Chen intended to once more mobilize the full strength of the archipelago. He would refine large quantities of different pills and use them to firmly establish his reputation as a grandmaster!

1. As previously explained, the Chinese character for ”immortal” (仙) is composed of the elements 人 (person) and 山 (mountain). ☜