An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Chapter 1063: Can You Refine This For Me? The Monarch’s Blood (II)

In truth, anyone who managed to survive the Land of Fallen Devils and walk out alive had undoubtedly gained considerable rewards. Luo Chen had, Han Zhan had, and the others were naturally no exception. Yet that was precisely what left Luo Chen puzzled.

The devil sect had monopolized the Land of Fallen Devils for more than a thousand years, so it must have taken countless treasures from within. Even if its Ascendants did not dare enter personally for fear of dying inside, a Holy Land should still have had no shortage of outstanding juniors capable of reaping an enormous harvest. By right, after more than a thousand years, the devil sect should only have grown stronger. So how had it been destroyed in a single battle by the allied demon races of the Northern Sea?

Was it simply because Grand Elder Blood Sea had fallen in the Heaven of Bright Illumination? Or were the endless demon races of the Northern Sea actually led by an overwhelmingly powerful being, one that even the mighty figures of the devil sect could not contend with?

Hmm... No, that doesn’t quite make sense. If a being like that actually existed, how could the grand elder of the Soul Refinement Lineage seal it inside the Heaven of Northern Yama?

Luo Chen could not figure it out. After a moment, he shook his head and set the matter aside. Since he could not understand it, there was no point in dwelling on it for now. In any case, the matter had little to do with him. He withdrew his attention from Han Zhan and settled instead on the gray cauldron within his sea of qi.

At the sight of that motionless little cauldron, Luo Chen’s heart sank. Earlier, on the Sea of Clouds Plaza, Flying Cloud had taken advantage of his fleeting distraction and self-detonated the True Artifact golden bell, breaking free from the Primordial Unity Cauldron’s restraints. The power of a True Artifact’s self-destruction had also been utterly overwhelming. If not for the immense Flesh Ganoderma life force continuously repairing Luo Chen’s body, he likely would have suffered severe injuries on the spot.

Still, the Primordial Unity Cauldron had paid a heavy price. It had been severely damaged in the explosion, and because Luo Chen’s mind was connected to it, even his divine soul had been injured as a result.

Even after so many fights, it was the first time this outstanding treasure had suffered such damage. At the time, Luo Chen had even feared that it would fall apart completely. After all, the cauldron was infinitely close to a True Artifact, but ”infinitely close” ultimately still meant ”not there yet.” Between it and the golden bell, there remained an absolute difference in rank.

Yet now, the Primordial Unity Cauldron within Luo Chen’s sea of qi was completely intact. He could not find a single crack on its surface, nor could he sense any damage in its formations. The only difference was that it had shrunk by a noticeable margin compared to before, as though it had repaired itself by consuming part of its own body.

This was truly strange. Although both the Primordial Unity Cauldron and the Profound Dust Armor had the ability to repair themselves, that ability could not possibly be this potent. Based on his understanding of these items, Luo Chen would have needed to gather appropriate materials and temper them day and night with mana and true fire before they could fully recover. Otherwise, it should have taken the cauldron years to reach this state.

Therefore, for the cauldron to undergo such a drastic change in such a short time and on its own, there could only be one reason: the wisp of gray light!

When the teleportation from the Heaven of Bright Illumination had activated, the gray light had chased after Luo Chen on its own and taken the initiative to merge into his cauldron. At the time, Luo Chen had no chance to think it through and only instinctively recalled his cauldron. Yet several months had passed since then, and he still could not find the slightest trace of the gray light inside it. It was as though the gray light had completely fused with the cauldron, without causing even the slightest rejection.

No matter how Luo Chen thought about it, he could not understand why. Even now, after carefully inspecting it, he still found no answer.

Even Moon Hermit couldn’t subdue that gray light, so why would it come to me on its own? Don’t tell me heavenly treasures really choose their masters by fate. But why did it fuse so smoothly with the cauldron? Was it because it had been suppressed inside the Heaven Refiner Cauldron, and both of them are cauldron-type enchanted treasures?

After a moment, he shook his head. No, that doesn’t make sense. The Heaven Refiner Cauldron’s artifact spirit knew I was cultivating with Rosycloud’s technique. It would rather self-destruct than let me obtain the Heaven Refiner Cauldron or that gray light. If so, then what exactly is that gray light? If the Monarch left it behind, then why would it accept my cauldron?

Soon, he shook his head again. No, that’s impossible. My cauldron has nothing to do with the Monarch. There’s nothing in the blueprints or materials that is in any way related.

As Luo Chen recalled the process of refining his life-bound enchanted treasure, others memories from the past gradually surfaced in his mind. Then, all at once, a faint clue seemed to connect.

If the battle between Heaven Refiner and Rosycloud had truly happened, then the presence of Rosycloud’s Nirvana Sacred Fire inside the Heaven of Bright Illumination was not strange at all. Looked at from another angle, if Heaven Refiner had obtained something from Rosycloud, then Rosycloud might likewise have obtained something that belonged to Heaven Refiner. Maybe it was a damaged enchanted treasure or a severed limb or remains... or blood essence!

Back when Luo Chen refined the Primordial Unity Cauldron, an unexpected accident had occurred. That accident had resulted in the relentless consumption of all the materials he had prepared, and even Heaven Smelter had been forced to take out his treasured Azure Eerie Wind. Yet that accident had also resulted in the Primordial Unity Cauldron’s terrifying foundation. On the very day the cauldron was completed, it immediately became top-grade.

The source of that accident had been a supreme-grade Fire Spirit Diamond stained with some unknown being’s blood. At the time, Luo Chen had only felt that the aura of the blood was terrifying to an indescribable degree. Heaven Smelter, however, had sensed that it was exceptionally suited to artifact creation, so he had allowed it to remain instead of removing it.

Could that blood have belonged to the Monarch? If the gray light was also something they left behind, then maybe it sensed the blood’s aura after the Primordial Unity Cauldron was damaged. Is that why it came to the cauldron on its own? Thinking about it now, when I used the cauldron for alchemy and artifact creation, the results were always unusually good. I always thought it was because of the cauldron itself, but now it seems the real reason was that drop of blood. The Monarch’s attainments in alchemy and artifact creation skills are unrivaled throughout the Mountains and Seas Realm. If even a single drop of their blood has this kind of power, then...

Many people said Luo Chen had tremendous fortune, and he also joked about it himself. But a joke was only a joke. He had never believed he was some chosen child of heaven. Everything he possessed had come from his own effort, so he did not believe a heavenly treasure would take the initiative to seek him out guided by fate alone. If he had to find a reason for that final opportunity in the Heaven of Bright Illumination, this hypothesis was the only one he could accept.

In any case, whether his guess was right or wrong, the situation was not good for him right now. Because he could not control the Primordial Unity Cauldron!

The small cauldron had quietly rooted itself within his sea of qi, steadily devouring his already limited mana. This was his own life-bound enchanted treasure, yet he could not control it! What was the point of having it? More importantly, he still needed to refine the Nascent Soul Pill later on. If even the tool most suited for that task could not be used, then he would be in serious trouble.

After a long while, Luo Chen slowly withdrew his attention. Forget it. It’s already good enough that the cauldron has been fully restored. As long as nothing strange happens, there will be a way to solve this sooner or later. Right now, the most important thing is to recover my mana as quickly as possible and return to my peak.

Luo Chen took out a supreme-grade True Flame Pill, swallowed it, and began refining it slowly. Without a third-tier spirit vein, relying solely on pills to restore mana was painfully slow. Especially now that he had reached the eighth stage, the mana he required was more than twice what it had been before, and the True Flame Pills left in his storage ring were already running low.

As he cultivated, another question surfaced once again. Where exactly did all my mana go?

***

”Turn the ship around! Hurry!”

”They’re fighting again?”

”What? Wasn’t this route supposed to belong to Devil’s Snare?”

”Who the hell knows? The Blue Sea Alliance has been launching a large-scale counterattack against Devil’s Snare recently. And for some reason, Penglai has pulled back its forces, leaving Devil’s Snare to fight on its own. Stop asking and turn us around before we get dragged in too!”

The merchant ship belonging to a major family hastily changed course amid the raging waves. Its captain, Sui Jie, was an early-stage Adept, yet even his face had turned pale as he looked toward the distant sky. Enchanted treasures flashed and collided there, and the battle between countless experts churned the sea into towering waves. In a fight of this level, even a stray aftershock would be enough to spell disaster for them. No matter how badly it delayed their delivery, they had no choice but to avoid it.

Just then, from the corner of his eye, Sui Jie saw a black-robed man walk out of the guest cabin and make his way to the edge of the deck.

”Young friend Gu Chen, there’s fierce fighting up ahead. You should go inside and take shelter.”

The black-robed man glanced at him, then cupped his hands. ”Thank you for looking after me these past few days, Fellow Daoist Sui. I have urgent matters to attend to and I cannot delay any longer, so I will take my leave here.”

Sui Jie frowned. A mere Initiate actually dared address him as ”Fellow Daoist?” Was he not a little too ignorant of his own standing?

But in the next instant, his eyes widened. Powerful mana fluctuations suddenly erupted from the black-robed man named Gu Chen, not inferior to his own in the slightest.

No—as wave after wave of mana surged forth, that pure and domineering pressure forced Sui Jie to take a step back involuntarily. In that moment, he only realized that this person’s cultivation far surpassed his; it was so much higher he couldn’t even tell how much higher it was. The man’s mana felt titanic, boundless even; it was the kind of depth possessed only by those old monsters among Adepts who had spent four or five centuries polishing their cultivation.

His voice tightened. ”Sorry, I didn’t realize this earlier. Please forgive me, Fellow Daoist. I wish you a smooth journey.”

Luo Chen smiled and nodded, then leaped into the air. As he hovered above the ship, a wooden kite one and a half zhang long appeared beneath his feet. He formed a spirit seal, and the kite circled the merchant ship once before racing straight toward the center of the battlefield.

Sui Jie stared wide-eyed at the wooden kite carrying Gu Chen forward like a moth flying into flames, plunging into the stormy waves and the dazzling light that filled the sky.

What kind of urgent matter could make that man disregard his own life, refuse to take a detour, and force his way through a battlefield between the righteous and devilish forces?