An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Sensing the change in his attitude, the Angler hurried to press his advantage. ”You don’t have Penglai’s secret arts, and you don’t have a Sage’s techniques either. That pavilion is a True Artifact. Without the proper techniques, you won’t be able to use even half of its abilities. You can’t isolate it from the surrounding spirit energy, and you can’t freely alter its size. Carrying something that conspicuous around will only draw trouble. So why keep it?”

Luo Chen looked up. ”And you have a Sage’s techniques?”

”Yes!”

The answer came too quickly. The instant the words left his mouth, the Angler realized he had misspoken. He immediately tensed, expecting Luo Chen to strike, but no attack came. Luo Chen merely fell silent for a moment before waving a hand dismissively. ”Go. For the sake of our past acquaintance, I won’t pursue this matter any further.”

The Angler’s expression changed. ”But...”

”GEEET LOOOST!”

The furious shout rolled forth together with surging mana. The resulting gale slammed into the Angler and sent his gray-white hair whipping wildly behind him. His face turned pale, yet he still stubbornly raised a finger.

Smack!

”Purple Empress!”

Before he could say anything more, Purple Empress caught his arm and shook her head. ”Let’s go.”

After weighing the pros and cons, the Angler shot Luo Chen a resentful glance. In the end, he swallowed whatever harsh words he had intended to say and took the sky with Purple Empress at low altitude.

***

After the Angler and Purple Empress departed, two streams of light shot toward Luo Chen’s direction. Dust swirled across the ground as Devil’s Cloud landed beside Luo Chen and immediately looked toward the direction the pair had disappeared. ”If you were going to make a move, you should’ve killed them both. Fellow Daoist, since when did you become so soft-hearted?”

Luo Chen shot him a cold glance. ”How I choose to do things is none of your concern.”

Devil’s Cloud fell speechless.

Beside him, the Flesh Ganoderma shook its head with a faint smile. ”It’s not that he didn’t want to act. The Angler has protection from a Sage. If they really fought to the death, even if Azure Yang came out on top, he would’ve had to pay a price. Am I right, fellow Daoist?”

The corner of Luo Chen’s mouth twitched. He offered no reply, which was in and of itself an admission.

Earlier, when the Angler raised his finger, Luo Chen had immediately sensed a warning stir in his heart. Since Moon Hermit could grant him a defensive measure, she could naturally grant him some kind of killing technique as well. Certainly, Luo Chen believed he could withstand those things so long as Moon Hermit herself was not here, but he would certainly not come out unscathed. Once matters reached that point, the Eightspire Pavilion simply was not worth fighting over.

Luckily, the same was true for the Angler and Purple Empress. Even if they managed to seriously injure Luo Chen, it would not change the outcome. In a genuine fight to the death, cultivators who relied on external protections were at a clear disadvantage against someone whose strength was truly his own. The ones most likely to die would still be them. That was why Luo Chen had allowed them to leave, and that was why they had seized the opportunity without the slightest hesitation. All in all, neither side had wanted to push matters to that scale.

With the matter settled, Devil’s Cloud gradually shifted his attention to the pavilion. Luo Chen had set it down on the ground, where it had reverted to its normal size. The nine-zhang structure rose high above the surrounding terrain, its eight eaves spreading outward with imposing grandeur. A trace of desire immediately appeared in his eyes. This was a True Artifact, the kind of treasure every artisan dreamed of obtaining. Even if he could never truly refine or control it, merely studying its construction might allow him to grasp some of the principles behind it. More importantly, a treasure of this level almost certainly contained resources capable of supporting Nascent Soul formation.

”So how do you plan to deal with this?” The Flesh Ganoderma asked with a smile. ”Carrying something that conspicuous around is just asking for trouble.”

Unlike ordinary enchanted treasures, True Artifacts had already survived heavenly tribulation and undergone a fundamental transformation. They could draw upon the natural spirit energy, and in the hands of a Sage, they could even serve as a medium for directly commanding the spirit energy within a region. Although a Nascent Soul Domain could also seize control of the ambient spirit energy and use it to overtake opponents, compared to a True Artifact, that level of control was still crude.

Yet the same qualities that made True Artifacts powerful also made them troublesome. Adepts could activate them, but once they did that, they could not freely store them away again. Only Sages possessed the control necessary to wield such treasures with ease.

As these thoughts surfaced, an old suspicion once again rose in the Flesh Ganoderma’s mind. It remained convinced that another existence was hidden within Azure Yang. In its view, that mysterious figure was almost certainly a Sage. If that person chose to intervene now, the Flesh Ganoderma might finally catch a glimpse of the truth and be better prepared for future plans.

Its eyes were fixed on Luo Chen with unconcealed anticipation.

Yet under that burning gaze, Luo Chen suddenly chuckled. ”That’s easy.”

The Flesh Ganoderma blinked in surprise. Luo Chen then slapped the spirit beast pouches at his waist several times, and Black King and Heavenjade immediately appeared. ”Protect me.”

”Understood!”

”Understood!”

The two responses rang out in perfect unison. The pair returned to their true forms and took the Flesh Ganoderma and Devil’s Cloud farther away from the valley. The deliberate precautions made it clear that whatever Luo Chen intended to do next was no trivial matter.

The two exchanged a glance before looking back toward the lone figure below. Luo Chen opened his mouth and expelled a small gray cauldron. It spun through the air, swelling rapidly as it flew until it towered a hundred zhang high. Like a small mountain, it descended and completely covered the Penglai Eightspire Pavilion.

The Flesh Ganoderma’s eyes narrowed. His life-bound treasure? That doesn’t make sense. He’s a fire cultivator, so his life-bound treasure should be fire-attribute too. Even if it’s far more powerful than average, it shouldn’t be able to completely restrain the pavilion...

Before it could make sense of the situation, crimson light suddenly burst from the enormous cauldron, sealing off the space within and without. The Penglai Eightspire Pavilion resisted, radiating waves of dazzling multicolored light in an attempt to break free. Yet as the two forces collided, new lights began to emerge across the cauldron’s surface. Gold, green, blue, and yellow light appeared one after another, intertwining with the original crimson glow until the complete cycle of the five elements was formed.

Damn it! I forgot about that! The Flesh Ganoderma thought.

Meanwhile, Devil’s Cloud stared at the scene with unconcealed envy. Ahhh, I knew it contained the power of all five elements. But I never imagined he would use that against the Penglai Eightspire Pavilion. To think he came up with a solution so quickly...

As expected, the moment the Primordial Unity Cauldron’s five-colored radiance began to shoot out, the Penglai Eightspire Pavilion reacted. At first, they resisted one another, each trying to overwhelm the other, but as it continued, that resistance gradually weakened. The clash between them became less violent, and a faint resonance slowly emerged.

The Flesh Ganoderma watched for a while before a cold sneer spread across its face. Did you really think it would be that easy? The treasure isn’t just a five-element treasure. There are eight attributes within it!

Almost as soon as the thought surfaced, the pavilion’s aura surged. Three new colors erupted from within the existing five-colored radiance. White, cyan, and silver light burst forth simultaneously and shattered the restraints imposed by the cauldron.

Within the mountain valley, Luo Chen watched the scene unfold and felt his heart sink slightly. ”Senior, something’s wrong.”

Han Zhan’s voice sounded in his ear, carrying an easy laugh. ”No need to panic. Have you already forgotten what went into crafting the Primordial Unity Cauldron?”

Luo Chen froze briefly before understanding dawned on him, and a smile gradually spread across his face.

How could he have forgotten? This life-bound treasure had cost him practically everything he possessed. The Penglai Eightspire Pavilion might possess three additional attributes beyond the five elements, but that did not mean the Primordial Unity Cauldron lacked them. If anything, the two treasures stood on remarkably similar foundations. The difference was that the cauldron’s hidden qualities had remained dormant all this time.

In the past, Luo Chen might not have been capable of drawing them out. But after years of refinement and nourishment within the Dragon-Nurturing Basin, the impurities within the treasure had gradually been worn away. What had once remained hidden was now ready to reveal itself.

With that, Luo Chen poured mana into the cauldron. Silver arcs of lightning immediately flashed across its surface, revealing the power of the millennial Lightning Essence. At the same time, a frigid white radiance blossomed forth, carrying the power of Ice Fortress’s Cold Marrow Ice Essence. The energies shifted once more, and an eerie wind swept outward. It was the Azure Eerie Wind that Heaven Smelter had specially incorporated into the treasure during its crafting process.

By this point, all eight attributes stood evenly matched against one another.

The Penglai Eightspire Pavilion was a True Artifact, and its raw power remained greater. Yet no matter how extraordinary it was, it had no master present to sustain it. The Primordial Unity Cauldron, on the other hand, was being personally controlled by Luo Chen, whose mana flowed into it without interruption.

As long as the stalemate continued, the balance would inevitably shift. The cauldron would steadily grind away the pavilion’s protective aura, weakening its connection to ambient spirit energy with every passing moment. Once that connection was severed, the pavilion’s resistance would only continue to decline until it could no longer struggle at all. Before long, this True Artifact would inevitably fall into Luo Chen’s hands.

Outside the valley, the Flesh Ganoderma watched the situation reverse itself before its eyes. The sneer on its face slowly disappeared, replaced by an increasingly dark and unsightly expression.