An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

In the end, Yao Mingyue could not suppress the words in her heart. ”Master, I’m afraid Qu Lingjun has already forgotten...”

”Enough!” The red-robed woman’s expression turned stern. ”He’s your senior brother and the Supreme Elder’s disciple. How can you speak of him like that?”

Yao Mingyue lowered her head, but the resentment in her eyes did not fade.

Over the past twenty years, the Luo Tian Sect had survived one crisis after another. Everyone who remained had struggled together to keep the sect alive. As for the guest elders and rogue cultivators they had recruited along the way, no one had ever expected much loyalty from them—those without deep connections fled when disaster came, and that was only natural. But Qu Lingjun was different. To the disciples who knew nothing of the truth, his departure had been the greatest betrayal of all.

Yao Mingyue herself had long since set aside her cultivation and spent every moment managing the sect’s affairs, appeasing neighboring forces, and maintaining the Luo Tian Sect’s ties within the Five Elements Domain. Only through those efforts had the sect avoided complete isolation after relocating here. Who understood what she had sacrificed for that? And why should she continue respecting someone who had disappeared for twenty years without sending even a single message?

The red-robed woman sighed. ”Mingyue, you may leave for now. As for the battle at Three Crossings River, I’ll discuss it with the elders myself. When the time comes, I’ll still need you to oversee things at the side.”

Yao Mingyue nodded, but she did not leave immediately. After a moment of hesitation, she looked up at the red-robed woman, and a faint trace of hope entered her eyes. ”Master... when will you form your Golden Core?”

The red-robed woman smiled confidently. ”Within thirty years at most. Don’t worry. Our sect has five Adepts now. Your Martial Aunt Gu has reached Perfected Mastery in Foundation Establishment as well, and she’ll be forming her Golden Core soon. Once the two of us break through, the Luo Tian Sect will have seven Adepts. By then, we’ll finally have a firm foothold in the Eastern Wilderness.”

Those words eased much of the weight in Yao Mingyue’s heart. She bowed again, and when she finally turned to leave, even her steps seemed a little lighter than before.

What she did not see, however, was the smile on the red-robed woman’s face slowly fade after she disappeared from the cave residence. ”Golden Core...”

A faint sigh drifted through the cave residence. Before it had fully faded, a mocking voice rang out. ”Since when did you become so confident about forming your Golden Core, Sima Huiniang? You’re only at the ninth stage.”

A woman in a white palace gown strode in without the slightest regard for etiquette. The moment Sima Huiniang saw who it was, her expression darkened. ”Gu Caiyi, you’ve reached Perfected Mastery, so why aren’t you in seclusion preparing to form your Golden Core? Why are you running around? The sect went to great lengths to gather those resources for you. Don’t waste them.”

”Hmph!” Gu Caiyi snorted. ”If I hadn’t come out, would I only hear about it after all of you died at Three Crossings River?”

Sima Huiniang pressed her lips together and gently shook her head. ”Nothing’s been decided yet. We’ll have to wait and see what Wang Yuan and Chu Kui decide.”

The Luo Tian Sect’s military affairs had always been decided by those two. They were the battle experts, after all; one led the charge on the front lines, while the other directed the battle from the rear. As for the other three Adepts, they were guest elders recruited over the years, and no one could place the sect’s survival entirely in their hands. In truth, ever since the demonic beast uprising, the old Luo Tian Alliance had existed in name only.

Gu Caiyi lowered her voice. ”Wang Yuan was seriously injured during the battle at Ten Directions Immortal City three years ago. If he’s forced onto the battlefield again this time, I’m afraid...”

”What are you trying to say?” Sima Huiniang shot her a sharp look.

”I’m saying we can’t stay in the Five Elements Domain forever. The Five Elements Divine Sect has never truly accepted us, and I don’t think they ever intended to shelter us. Now they’re pushing us toward Three Crossings River. Since they want us to die, why should we keep waiting here?” Gu Caiyi paused for a bit and continued, ”So, have you thought about your younger brother’s proposal?”

Sima Huiniang’s face turned cold. ”You mean merging into Skyscraper Cliff?”

Before Gu Caiyi could continue, she shook her head. ”Never. The Luo Tian Sect is everything he built. Even if I die, I will never agree to merge the sect into another power.”

Gu Caiyi’s gaze sank slightly, but she was not surprised by the answer.

Skyscraper Cliff was also a renowned upper sect of the Eastern Wilderness. Like the Five Elements Divine Sect, it had once taken part in the campaign to open up the Howling Moon Mountain Range. However, unlike the sects that had been stationed on the front lines, Skyscraper Cliff had been positioned farther back, providing support rather than bearing the brunt of the fighting.

When the demonic beast uprising erupted, it was precisely the sects in the vanguard that suffered disaster one after another. The Falling Cloud Sect was destroyed, the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect was overrun by demonic beasts, and even the nearby Medicine King Sect was forced to abandon its homeland and relocate. Skysail City, another principal force in that campaign, still existed in name, but the authority had long since fallen into the hands of experts from the Nether Origin Sect. In the end, only distant upper sects such as the Five Elements Divine Sect, Windflower Palace, and Skyscraper Cliff had managed to preserve most of their strength.

And the upper sects were doing comparatively well. The ones truly crushed by that war were the major sects, like the Luo Tian Sect. Once-famous powers of the Jade Cauldron Domain, such as Green Pill Valley and the Ice Fortress, had already vanished. Most of their surviving cultivators had either become rogue cultivators or had been absorbed into the upper sects. Among all those displaced forces, very few had managed, like the Luo Tian Sect, to travel millions of li and still preserve their sect’s structure. It was precisely because the Luo Tian Sect still had some surviving strength that Skyscraper Cliff had repeatedly tried to recruit them, secretly sending people to persuade them to merge.

Seeing Sima Huiniang’s unwavering resolve, Gu Caiyi’s eyes reddened. ”Do you think I don’t care about everything he built? But if everyone dies, what good is the Luo Tian Sect’s name on its own? There’s still no word from Lingjun, and we still don’t know where the Five Elements Divine Sect truly stands. If this keeps up, battle after battle will wear us down. By the end of it all... how many people will the Luo Tian Sect have left?”

Her voice trembled as she finally asked the question that had weighed on her heart all this time. ”And most importantly... is he really still alive?”

Sima Huiniang suddenly stepped forward and fixed her with a determined gaze. ”He is.”

Gu Caiyi gritted her teeth. ”But every Adept who went to the Great Snow Mountains died, and every sect confirmed it afterward. How can you be so sure he’s still alive?”

Sima Huiniang pressed a finger to her chest. ”Because he really is!”

”Alive in your heart?” Gu Caiyi looked at her with pity. ”I want to believe that too. But it has been sixty years without a single word from him.”

Sima Huiniang shook her head, and when she spoke again, her voice had softened. ”I’ve told you before. At my Foundation Establishment Ceremony, Chu Kui gave us a pair of Spirit-Link Gu, one male and one female. We implanted them into our bodies and nourished them with our blood. Mine is still alive, which means his is still alive too. As long as his Spirit-Link Gu lives, then he must still be living somewhere.”

”Enough with those Spirit-Link Gu!”

To Sima Huiniang’s surprise, Gu Caiyi completely lost her composure at the mention of them. Her face flushed red, and her voice rose almost into a shout.

Sima Huiniang did not argue with her. She only shook her head because she understood exactly why Gu Caiyi had reacted so strongly.

All these years, Gu Caiyi had carried a knot in her heart. She envied the fact that Sima Huiniang had first gotten into a relationship with Luo Chen before she ever could. She envied Sima Huiniang’s certainty, the way she could still believe without wavering after sixty years of silence. Most of all, she envied the Spirit-Link Gu that bound Sima Huiniang to him, as if no amount of time and distance could not completely sever the connection between them.

Meanwhile, Gu Caiyi had nothing like that. After year upon year of waiting, even she had begun to doubt whether Luo Chen was truly still alive. Even the love she had once held so dearly had slowly faded with time. And whenever she realized that her feelings had wavered, guilt consumed her all over again. After all, love was often the thing least able to withstand the tests of time and distance.

”Enough. Go back into seclusion and form your Golden Core as soon as you can. The Luo Tian Sect is still too weak to survive what’s coming.” She paused, a trace of sorrow surfacing in her eyes. ”As for me...”

Although she had already entrusted the sect’s daily affairs to Yao Mingyue so she could devote herself entirely to cultivation, the limitations of her aptitude and the severe shortage of cultivation resources left her with less and less confidence in reaching the Golden Core Realm.

More importantly, time was no longer on her side. She had always been older than Luo Chen, Gu Caiyi, and the others and had barely managed to reach Foundation Establishment before turning sixty. Now, with only a few decades remaining before reaching the lifespan limit of an Initiate, there simply was not enough time for her to advance from the early stage of the ninth stage to Perfected Mastery, much less take the final step into the Golden Core Realm.

As for the thirty years she had promised Yao Mingyue...

Heh...

Sima Huiniang lowered her eyes and laughed bitterly at herself. Deep down, she had already begun to lose hope. Perhaps the coming battle at Three Crossings River would be the last thing she ever did for the Luo Tian Sect.

Seeing that there was nothing more to say, Gu Caiyi turned and walked toward the entrance of the cave residence. Yet before she could step outside, a horrifying aura suddenly erupted behind her.

Gu Caiyi’s expression changed dramatically, and she spun around at once. Before her eyes, Sima Huiniang’s robes had become disheveled, her neatly tied bun had come loose, and both hands were clutching tightly at her chest. Her face had gone deathly pale, while her eyes overflowed with disbelief, as though the sky itself had collapsed. Even when news came that the entire force who had entered the Great Snowy Mountains had died at the hands of that Demon Emperor, Sima Huiniang had never lost control like this.

A terrible thought flashed through Gu Caiyi’s mind, sending a chill through her entire body. Her voice came out hoarse as she asked, ”Huiniang... What happened to him?”