An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

But such restrictions meant little to Luo Chen. Even without flying and across mountains and valleys, the speed of his Carefree Wander alone was enough to rival most Initiates in flight and was not necessarily slower than some newly advanced Adepts either.

After reaching the first of the Seven Star Islands, Luo Chen activated his Spirit Eyes and carefully observed the grand formation born naturally from heaven and earth. Every formation master would be taught by their teachers or learn from scriptures that formations ultimately originated from the fundamental principles of nature itself. By studying the flow of mountains and rivers, the movement of wind and clouds, and the patterns of the stars, formation masters could deduce basic formations and replicate them artificially. And this was the first time Luo Chen had ever witnessed a true natural formation.

Is this maze formation caused by the seven islands being nearly identical? But a formation like this shouldn’t really be able to stop Adepts.

An Adept’s divine consciousness covered a wide range. By using it as a guide and locking onto a fixed reference point, there was no way of losing direction. Yet the deeper Luo Chen traveled, the more puzzled he became. Suddenly, he stopped in place and stood completely still. He closed his eyes, and only after a long while did he slowly reopen them. ”I’m moving? No... It’s the land beneath my feet that’s moving!”

After figuring it out, he spread his divine consciousness and enveloped the entire first island. Under his careful observation, the island truly was moving at a speed impossible to detect with the naked eye. Realizing this, he was slightly taken aback. If the islands themselves were constantly shifting, then any fixed reference point chosen by cultivators would naturally be moving as well. The islands drifted only slowly, and cultivators traveled quickly, but the distance was enough that, over time, even the slightest deviation would result in an enormous error. That was the true nature of the maze. Thus, the longer he remained within the formation, the farther he would drift from the intended destination. And if someone attempted to cross through the sky instead, the effect would actually become even worse.

Luo Chen lifted his head toward the sky. Even the clouds themselves were subtly shifting direction. Seeing this, he felt amazed. ”These Seven Star Islands don’t just move around like living creatures. Even the surrounding clouds, currents, and wind patterns shift along with them. Is this really the work of nature?”

Still marveling at the sight, he produced a sheet of white silk. As he moved through the island, he continuously drew strange lines across it with brush and ink. A naturally formed maze formation like this was truly wondrous. He intended to record it carefully and study it later during his spare time. Perhaps he might even create a similar formation of his own someday. If paired with suitable terrain or formation tools, recreating the power of the Seven Star Islands might not be impossible. And if he could further employ it around cave residences, portable palaces, or secluded cultivation lands, it would undoubtedly become an exceptional formation.

Although he had spent these past years focusing primarily on artifact creation, his attainments in formations had deepened as well. Now, seeing something so fascinating, he found himself inspired to imitate those ancient formation grandmasters and derive formations from the fundamental principles of heaven and earth. And at this very moment, he was already attempting to put that idea into practice.

Time slowly passed.

By the time night fell, Luo Chen had reached the second island. The white silk floating before him was now densely covered in interwoven lines. Although he still had yet to glimpse the full structure of the Seven Star Islands’ maze formation, he had already grasped a portion of its underlying principle. Yet the expression on Luo Chen’s face grew increasingly grave, and his movements with the brush gradually slowed.

”This isn’t right. From what I understand, the flow of earth energy and the shifting water veins should correspond to the Kun Hexagram[1]. The virtue of the earth is to nurture and carry all things forward in an endless cycle, so everything should flow smoothly. So... why does it suddenly break apart halfway through, as though something’s resisting the natural order?”

As doubts continued to build in his mind, Luo Chen abruptly came to a halt. He stood in the center of the forest clearing as he stared toward the pitch-black woods ahead, the darkness resembling the gaping maw of some giant demonic beast. He clenched the map tightly and muttered, ”This naturally formed grand formation... seems to have been altered by humans.”

The moment the words left his mouth, he retreated without the slightest hesitation. Wings burst from his back, and his figure shot away with the speed of lightning. At almost the same instant, the lush forest around him suddenly seemed to come alive. Towering trees shifted one after another, sealing off his retreat path, while from the empty darkness ahead came a faint murmur tinged with regret. ”A pity... You only made it to the second island.”

Luo Chen’s expression turned cold. Without any gesture, the wings behind him trembled slightly, sending flying blades of energy slicing through the air. It swept across the forest, and no matter how ancient and tall the trees were, they were instantly severed cleanly in half. In the next moment, moonlight poured down through the shattered canopy, and his surroundings abruptly opened into clarity.

On a distant mountain peak, a lone figure stood beneath the cold moonlight, watching him. ”Devil Lord Azure Yang... you’ve finally arrived!”

Whoosh!

With a beat of his wings, Luo Chen slowly rose into the sky until his gaze met that of the gaunt man atop the small mountain. Though they had only met once before, Luo Chen recognized him immediately. ”Mountain Lord!”

”I didn’t expect you’d still remember a loser like me.” Liang Baizao let out a bitter laugh.

”A loser, huh?”

Luo Chen’s lips twitched slightly. He had once blasted the man flying to the horizon with a single strike. But only he himself knew that after that attack, he had nearly exhausted all his strength. If Han Zhan and Heavenjade had not taken him away in time, he would have been captured on Coldlight Island long ago. Naturally, there was no way he would explain any of that at a moment like this and weaken his own momentum for nothing. He looked across the surroundings. After confirming that the man seemed to have come alone, he relaxed slightly. Yet at the same time, he recalled the very first words the man had spoken upon appearing.

”You leaked the information about the Purple Monkey Flower to me on purpose?”

Liang Baizao admitted it without hesitation. ”That’s correct.”

Luo Chen frowned. ”But I checked that rogue Initiate thoroughly. Nothing about him seemed fake.”

”He wasn’t fake. I simply handed him the opportunity.”

”That still doesn’t make sense. I inspected that book myself. The paper, the ink stains, even the handwriting all looked more than a hundred years old.”

”I know you’re a master artisan in the Society, but don’t get too far ahead of yourself. I think you agree that my own skills surpass yours. Making a fake antique like that is nothing difficult for me.”

Watching the man speak with such confidence, Luo Chen fell silent. Someone had managed to set a trap for him using the very craft in which he had just earlier taken considerable pride. All that earlier satisfaction now seemed almost laughable. Still...

”Why go this far?” Luo Chen looked at the increasingly powerful aura rising from the man. ”Yes, I killed two Adepts from your sect, but your people came after me first. There was never any personal grudge between us, so why spend all these years plotting revenge against me? Well... also, it’s been more than twenty years now, hasn’t it? Yet your cultivation hasn’t advanced in the slightest. If anything, it’s even regressed a little. At your age... what exactly are you still fighting for?”

”You think I wanted this?!” Liang Baizao let out a low roar, and his expression twisted with fury. ”If Blood Nightmare hadn’t personally ordered it, do you think I’d willingly waste twenty years of my life on this? My sect was destroyed; my cultivation was already hard enough to advance as it was, yet I still had to stay in the Myriad Immortal Society all these years just waiting for you! And you hid in the Hidden Dragon Mountains like some damn turtle, barely ever stepping outside. I couldn’t get to you no matter what I tried, so in the end, I could only use the Purple Monkey Flower to bait you out. A Sage’s command weighs heavier than a mountain. I had no choice!”

Luo Chen frowned slightly. So this was Blood Nightmare’s order? His thoughts immediately drifted back to the final battle on Coldlight Island. Back then, while Blood Nightmare was possessing He Yuan, he and Han Zhan joined forces to launch a direct attack against the man’s divine soul. He had never imagined that a dignified Sage would hold such a grudge against a junior like him.

The savagery on Liang Baizao’s face gradually faded. ”Fortunately, once tonight is over, these twenty years of drifting will finally come to an end. Devil Lord, I’ll give you two choices. First, let me place restraints on you and come back with me obediently to beg Blood Nightmare for forgiveness. Do that, and you might still keep your life. As for the second choice... you die here on the Seven Star Islands, and I bring your corpse back.”

Luo Chen stared at him as waves of mana spread outward from his body like rising tides. ”You really think you’ve got me cornered?”

”Looks like you’ve chosen the second option.” The man raised both hands, and streaks of treasure light burst into existence behind him. They were all flying swords!

Luo Chen’s expression sharpened, and he shot straight toward the sky. ”If I want to leave, no one can stop me!”

His speed was terrifying, like a bolt of thunder tearing through the sky. At such speed, crossing thousands of li in an instant seemed entirely possible. Yet Liang Baizao made no move to stop him. He merely toyed with the seven swords behind him as their sword lights drifted around him.

”After this battle... I wonder how many of these swords will remain intact...” he muttered before looking back toward the sky.

As he expected, Luo Chen’s speed was slowing more and more until he seemed to crawl like a tortoise. ”Stop wasting your energy. After what you showed at the Coldlight, did you really think I wouldn’t come prepared? You’re not getting away this time!”

High in the sky, Luo Chen’s face darkened. He stopped struggling uselessly and slowly descended. As he came down, the restraint weighing upon him gradually weakened. He raised his head and looked toward the distant horizon. Beneath the deep night sky, a towering mountain loomed faintly in the distance. Streams of light stretched from it like chains, connecting it to the seven islands below.

1. 坤卦 (kūn guà) is one of the Eight Trigrams and represents the earth element. ☜