An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Luo Chen listened intently and was unwilling to miss even the smallest detail. Whenever Han Zhan mentioned an important point, he would press on with questions until he fully understood. Technically, the key point was that once the Nascent Soul Pill began to take effect, its medicinal power absolutely could not be split. As it seeped into the Golden Core, one had to seize that moment to unify the Three Treasures of vital essence, qi, and spirit as one, resulting in the phenomenon known as Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown.

By the time Han Zhan finished explaining, his throat had gone dry. He took another sip of wine, set the cup down, and looked at Luo Chen seriously. ”In my opinion, your foundation might well be the strongest of all Adepts alive. Your physique, especially, is incredibly powerful but also stable. It’s almost as if you were born with that kind of strength. I don’t know what exactly happened to your body, but with a foundation like yours, even without a Nascent Soul Pill, you should still have a pretty good chance of success. So why rely on external aids?”

For Han Zhan to give such a high appraisal meant that Luo Chen’s chances were indeed astonishingly high. Very few Adepts possessed such a deep foundation, and even those born with heavenly spirit roots, who were said to face no bottlenecks below the Divine Transformation Realm, did not have much better odds than him.

Luo Chen understood his own condition better than anyone. Though he could not access the Five-Spirit Dao Body he had acquired after soaking in the Spirit-Shaping Sacred Spring, during his Nirvana of the Flesh, it had been reshaped into the Fire Spirit Body, another exceptionally rare constitution. Together with the foundation he had built over the years, it placed him far above ordinary Adepts. Even so, “far above ordinary” was still not the same as “absolute certainty.”

Luo Chen said calmly, ”However high the odds are, they could always be higher, so if I can prepare one more thing to assist me, why would I not? If I happen to fail because of that last bit of uncertainty, then how will I live with myself, especially after everything I’ve done to get here?”

Han Zhan nodded. What Luo Chen was saying made perfect sense.

When their discussion came to an end, the sun had long since set, and the moon hung high over the night sky. The rosy glow had faded from the clouds, leaving only the sea breeze and moonlight around them.

Han Zhan refilled Luo Chen’s cup, then raised his own with a trace of sentiment in his eyes. ”It’s been seventy years already, hasn’t it? Back then, you had just reached the Golden Core Realm, and I was nothing more than a lingering soul. But now, you’re about to form your Nascent Soul, and I’ve got a new body. Both of us finally have the chance to chase the Great Dao again. Thinking back on it, those years really did pass in a blur... Come! Cheers to these seventy years!”

Luo Chen raised his cup and clinked it against Han Zhan’s. He could not fully share that feeling of time slipping away. After all, he was not even 200 years old; by cultivator standards, he was still in the prime of his journey along the Great Dao, so there was little reason for him to dwell on the passing years. But at the same time, there was a silent yet heavy weight pressing upon his chest. Seventy years had passed, and he could not help wondering how his old friends and companions were coping without him.

Just then, the sound of crashing waves rolled in from the shore. Beneath the moonlight, a powerful figure burst from the sea, soared briefly into the air, and plunged back into the ocean.

Luo Chen’s gaze sharpened. It seemed that, after returning from the brink of death, Black King had undergone a true rebirth. His aura felt deeper and more imposing than before and already carried the presence of a great demon capable of standing against the sea itself.

Han Zhan chuckled beside him. ”Looks like you’ll have to work harder. At this rate, your little pet might reach the next realm before you.”

Luo Chen pressed his lips together and gave a slight nod.

***

Black King’s abrupt progress was somewhat unexpected, but not without reason. After years under Luo Chen’s care, his foundation had long surpassed that of ordinary demonic beasts. Before his brush with death, he had already soaked in the Spirit-Shaping Sacred Spring. Later, after falling unconscious during that ordeal, he was immersed in the Blood Pool and absorbed the blood of countless dragonworms. Most important of all, mixed within that blood was a precious drop of Luo Chen’s blood essence, which contained both the life force of the Flesh Ganoderma and Luo Chen’s own origin energy.

After devouring the lingering soul of the Stone Dragon, Black King had not only clawed his way back from death but had also filled in the last gap in his cultivation. And over the past year, he had remained hidden in the depths of the sea to undergo some kind of transformation.

Still, Luo Chen did not pay much attention to him for now, as he had more pressing matters to deal with. Each day, he refined his mana and cultivated steadily toward Perfected Mastery, while spending most of his remaining time on alchemy. His focus was not limited to the Nascent Soul Pill but also the Liquid Condensation Pill.

This pill came from the alchemical inheritance and was a formula meant to help Initiates advance to the Golden Core Realm. Its effects were not as potent as the Nether Origin Pill Luo Chen had once taken, but it was far gentler and more suitable for ordinary cultivators. From this alone, it was clear that the human, demon, and devil formulas left behind by the Monarch were not designed to chase the most extreme effects but to serve a broader range of users.

Luo Chen had not refined pills for several years. Although he had already processed the main ingredients for the Nascent Soul Pill, they still required a period of stabilization, so he did not rush into the refinement. Instead, he used this time to ease himself back into alchemy by refining Liquid Condensation Pills while also becoming familiar with the three new alchemy tools he had recently acquired. His old formulas could no longer bring him much improvement, so turning to the inheritance was the better choice.

Truth be told, the Liquid Condensation Pill was especially suitable for practice. The spirit plants he had asked Sang Jinghe to gather earlier were precisely its main materials, and Luo Chen already had some of the supplementary ingredients in his own reserves. Through repeated refinement, he gradually grew more comfortable with his new tools, and successful batches of Liquid Condensation Pills began to emerge one after another.

One day, deep within the abyss, Luo Chen stood outside the thatched hut and looked at the ten azure pills resting in his palm. After a moment, he gave a satisfied nod. This marked his third successful batch of Liquid Condensation Pills, bringing his total to thirty.

If these were put out into the cultivation world, they would allow thirty Initiates at Perfected Mastery to attempt Core Formation. More importantly, the Liquid Condensation Pill’s medicinal power was balanced and gentle enough to increase the chance of Core Formation by twenty to thirty percent. If paired with a decent Core Formation art, the overall chance of success could reach around fifty percent.

If Luo Chen had been in the Luo Tian Sect, these pills would have been incredibly useful. For now, though, there was no one here who could make use of them, so they could only be set aside. Of course, he planned to keep them until he returned to the Eastern Wilderness, so he proceeded to store them in a green gourd. Just these pills alone would be enough to revitalize an entire sect. This was the true advantage of having a skilled alchemist!

After thinking it over, Luo Chen took three pills back out and sealed them inside a jade bottle. Then he sent out a voice transmission.

Before long, Heavenjade entered the abyss, and he passed her the jade bottle. ”Give this to Sang Jinghe.”

Heavenjade was a little curious at first, but after Luo Chen gave her a few simple instructions, she understood the purpose of the pills.

Luo Chen added, ”Consider it a reward for all his hard work over the years.”

Heavenjade nodded. She was used to this by now. Those who served Luo Chen loyally had always been treated well, so there was nothing unusual about such a reward.

As for how Sang Jinghe would react after receiving the pills, Luo Chen did not spare much thought on it. Now that he had fully familiarized himself with his new alchemy tools and the ingredients had finally settled, it was finally time to refine the Nascent Soul Pill.

With that, he took out the gathered ingredients and gave each one its final processing. The Divine Iris had been dried to preserve its medicinal power, while the Purple Monkey Flower had been soaked in spirit solution to reduce its toxicity. With those handled, only the Five Elements Lotus remained.

Luo Chen did not take it out right away. He had set up a massive formation in the abyss, and it ran on top-grade spirit stones. It drew in ambient spirit energy, separating and refining it according to the attributes until the space shimmered with shifting five-colored light. Anyone familiar with formations, such as Min Longyu, would have recognized it as the Reverse Five Elements Spirit Formation. This specific formation borrowed the principles of the five elements, not to gather spirit energy but to strip it away. Anyone caught within it would feel the elemental energy in their body slowly drained, until even their internal balance began to falter.

Only after confirming that the formation was stable did Luo Chen carefully remove the Five Elements Lotus from the Penglai Eightspire Pavilion. The moment it appeared, the lotus reacted as if it had sensed danger and wanted to escape. At that, Luo Chen could not help but feel a trace of regret. If the Primordial Unity Cauldron were usable, its ability to restrain would have easily kept it in check. Unfortunately, it now lay dormant within his sea of qi and could not be activated at all.

Even so, Luo Chen had already prepared for this. The moment the lotus pod entered the formation, the ambient spirit light brightened, and the power of the Reverse Five Elements Spirit Formation closed in around it. Sensing its spirit energy being drawn away, the lotus immediately folded its petals tight, sealing away every trace of aura and no longer daring to move recklessly.

Luo Chen smiled faintly as he walked forward with a small knife made of Profound Link Celestial Crystal. ”That’s exactly what I wanted. Now you’ll stay nice and quiet.”

What he needed was the lotus pod. As for the five seeds, they could not be used in this refinement process. His knife parted the petals to reveal the jade-white lotus pod beneath.

Luo Chen’s smile deepened, and he moved faster and faster as he worked the knife in his hand. ”This lotus pod is far better than the one Green Pill Valley got back then. It should be enough for more than ten attempts.”

***

Luo Chen had spent many years preparing to refine the Nascent Soul Pill. From gathering the ingredients and studying the formula to improving his alchemy, every stage had not been easy. Yet when the time finally came to begin the refinement, the process was far calmer than he had expected.

He did not need to gather people and resources on the same scale as Green Pill Valley had in the past. The ingredients he had gathered were all of higher quality, and his alchemy skills had by now far surpassed Qing Danzi’s. Even the true fire in his control was stronger than the six mystical fires they had relied on. If there was anything he could truly point out as lacking, it was the absence of a suitable tool. The Primordial Unity Cauldron would have been ideal, but it could not be used.

Whenever Luo Chen thought about his unusable lifebound enchanted treasure, it left a faint sense of frustration he could not quite shake. Fortunately, he had never placed all his hopes on it. Over the years, he had put together a set of substitute tools, including a cauldron, a furnace, and a small kettle. Before beginning the refinement, he also spent 10 achievement points to forcibly raise his proficiency to the Beginner level, just to give himself an extra layer of assurance.

Once everything was ready, Luo Chen finally began the refinement.

Three months passed amid smoke, fire, and thick medicinal vapor. By the end, the cauldron and the small kettle had been destroyed, but from the remaining furnace, Luo Chen finally obtained the pills he had longed for across decades.

Ten Nascent Soul Pills lay within the furnace, their surfaces woven with five colors that made them look almost like sprinkles at first glance. Yet when they landed in his hand, they felt heavy enough to make him handle them with care. Luo Chen studied them one by one, judging their luster, scent, cloud patterns, and medicinal power before reaching his conclusion.

They had properly reached the low-grade fourth-tier standard. In fact, their medicinal power was so rich that it was only a step away from the middle grade. That they could reach such quality was largely thanks to the Five Elements Lotus Pod. Even so, a faint trace of regret surfaced beneath his satisfaction. If he had been able to use the Primordial Unity Cauldron and draw upon its ability to elevate the grade of completed pills, these pills might have crossed that final threshold, and maybe even more.

The thought lingered only briefly before he let it go. Though he was still surrounded by thick smoke and flames, he smiled and shook his head. ”I suppose I am being too greedy.”

For most cultivators, obtaining even a single Nascent Soul Pill would be a tremendous stroke of luck. Luo Chen, however, had refined ten, and each one was good quality. By any standard, this was already more than enough.

Yet as his smile remained, another thought gradually stirred in his mind. If the pills fell a little short, there were always ways to make up for it. He could pair them with other spirit medicines to strengthen their effects or attempt another refinement. In Luo Chen’s memory, however, there was another technique that could raise a pill’s quality even after it had already formed.

As that technique came to mind, Luo Chen felt a pull of temptation.