An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Within the abyss, the small gray cauldron hovered silently in the air as wisps of black lightning flickered across its surface. The ambient spirit energy surged toward it from everywhere, only to disappear the moment it drew near.

Without warning, a bolt of black lightning burst from the cauldron and blasted a deep hole through the earth vein. Luo Chen stared at the damage with surprise. As he had suspected, the Primordial Unity Cauldron had already advanced into a True Artifact. The many formations and restrictions within it had fused completely into its materials, allowing the cauldron to resonate with heaven and earth. As a result, it had grown noticeably stronger, to the point that even the Withering-Flourishing Fire Sprite kept its distance with fear. Presumably, it was wary of the cauldron’s unique ability to capture things.

What surprised him most, however, was the black lightning. Its properties were identical to those of the lightning beast from the final round of his tribulation. The bolt was naturally weaker than the lightning the beast had wielded, but its power ultimately depended on how much mana he supplied into the cauldron and how much spirit energy it could draw from the environment. If he activated it without holding anything back, the black lightning might become even more powerful than the original!

”Lightning power? What a strange transformation...”

Although he did not fully understand it, that did little to diminish his joy. He had always known the importance of the Primordial Unity Cauldron, but he had never truly appreciated it until he lost the ability to control it and found everything tremendously inconvenient. Now that it was back in his hands and had even undergone a transformation, there was no reason not to be pleased.

He recalled the Primordial Unity Cauldron and let it settle within his Purple Mansion to be nurtured. Only then did the strain of everything he had endured catch up with him. Luo Chen rubbed his brow and took a moment to steady himself before retrieving a storage pouch and a white belt embroidered with cloud patterns.

He studied the two storage treasures in silence. The pouch had belonged to Han Zhan, and it was sealed with restrictions that would take time to unravel. However, he was not particularly interested in its contents. After all, most of Han Zhan’s possessions had been taken by Azure Frost back at Green Parasol Mountain. This pouch was merely something Luo Chen had given him later, so it was unlikely to contain anything particularly valuable. The only items inside that truly mattered were the Seven Fiend Swords and the Myriad Soul Banner, both of which he had previously entrusted to Han Zhan.

The white belt, however, was a different matter. It had belonged to Flying Cloud! During the battle in the Heaven of Bright Illumination, Flying Cloud had abandoned his physical body and fled with his Nascent Soul. In his haste, he had only managed to take his sword orb and golden bell. Rather than hand it to Han Zhan to break the restrictions, Luo Chen kept it for himself and planned to open it once he formed his Nascent Soul. Given Flying Cloud’s status, the value of that belt was beyond question. As a veteran Sage and the leader of Flying Cloud Ravine, an upper sect, he could not possibly be a pauper.

Still, Luo Chen did not intend to rush the matter. For now, consolidating his cultivation remained his priority, and he could work on breaking the belt’s restrictions whenever he had time.

With everything else accounted for, he finally turned to the last and most serious consequence of his breakthrough. He closed his eyes and let his consciousness sink back into his sea of consciousness. There, his main divine soul drifted weakly above the golden ocean. Although it was far stronger than it had been in the Golden Core Realm, it was still far from the peak state it should have been in.

During the battle of divine souls, Luo Chen had relied on the Dragon-Slaying Art to erase Han Zhan, yet Han Zhan’s final counterattack had still inflicted grievous damage upon his divine soul. As a result, cracks could be seen spreading across the surface. Though they looked minor at a glance, each one extended deep within, and injuries of this severity would normally require at least a century to heal completely.

”Han Zhan...”

The name lingered quietly in his thoughts. For decades, he had addressed him as Senior Han. Only at the very end, when they turned against each other, did they finally speak as equals.

Luo Chen pushed the thought aside and calmed his mind before examining the fragments of Han Zhan’s soul that he had absorbed. With Han Zhan’s will gone, what remained was relatively pure soul energy. Thus, if he could absorb it, it might replenish his damaged divine soul. What interested Luo Chen even more, however, were the memories contained within those fragments... especially those concerning Soul Split!

The Falling Cloud Sect was built upon three arts and two techniques: Two Poles Crimson Cloud, the True Scripture of Puppetry, Soul Split, Beaded Curtain Lock, and the Nascent Core Art. Together, these five had allowed the sect to establish itself firmly in the Jade Cauldron Domain of the Eastern Wilderness. In time, they had even nurtured Han Zhan, a Sage powerful enough to reshape the balance of the entire region.

Of those five inheritances, Soul Split was by far the most mysterious and formidable, and it might even have been the core inheritance that supported the other four. Throughout the whole time, Han Zhan had not been stingy with his teachings; he had passed on the Nascent Core Art and even shared a few minor puppet refinement techniques with Luo Chen. Yet whenever the topic of Soul Split came up, he would steer the conversation away. In fact, he had once made it clear that Luo Chen would only have the slightest chance of learning it if he formally became a disciple of the Falling Cloud Sect.

Given that Soul Split could refine and strengthen the divine soul in such an extraordinary way, the caution was understandable. At his peak, Han Zhan had used this art to cultivate nine subsidiary souls, which Luo Chen had long coveted. Yet he had simply never imagined that he would come to possess it in such a way.

He carefully sifted through Han Zhan’s fragmented memories, setting aside the jumble of irrelevant pieces as he searched for anything related to the Soul Split. Only after a long while did he manage to piece together most of its contents.

Inside the cave residence, he transcribed what he had recovered onto bamboo scrolls and began studying them. As he sank through the contents, the confusion on his face gradually faded, and the principles behind the art became clear.

Soul Split could strengthen the divine soul, but that was only its main purpose, and the improvement itself was actually quite limited. The art could not fundamentally transform the divine soul, nor could it help a Sage complete the transition from a yin soul into a yang spirit. Its true purpose was to grant a cultivator multiple divine souls.

The art worked by first dividing the original divine soul, then strengthening each separated portion until it nearly matched the main soul in power. In this way, a cultivator could accumulate a divine soul foundation far beyond their peers, and exactly how much stronger they became depended on how many subsidiary souls they could condense.

Han Zhan had been a genius of the Falling Cloud Sect and was especially gifted in the Dao of Soul Refinement. That was why he had been able to practice Soul Split to minor mastery and thereby create nine subsidiary souls. In other words, his divine soul foundation had been nine times stronger than ordinary Sage!

Luo Chen murmured to himself, ”No wonder Han Zhan wasn’t afraid of Defiant Howl or the Seagon Matriarch, and he could restrain her like that. And even though he was only at the early stage, he was able to control that late-stage-Sage White Tiger puppet, even if only for a short time. With a foundation like that... he was definitely one of the strongest among early-stage Sages.”

However, a troubled look soon crossed his face as he reviewed the art. As expected, it was incomplete. It described only how to cultivate subsidiary souls and maintain their connection to the main soul, but it lacked the parts on how to split the main soul and how to speed up the growth of the subsidiary souls. The former was the starting point of the entire art, while the latter was what allowed a cultivator to recover from the weakness that followed the split in a reasonable timespan. Without either, the art could not truly be put into practice.

Even so, he had no intention of abandoning it. He had benefited too many times from having a strong divine soul to ignore its value. Whether he was cultivating, refining pills, creating artifacts, or controlling enchanted treasures, a greater divine soul strength always gave him a clear edge. In fact, back in the Land of Fallen Devils, he had also experienced firsthand the danger of lacking such strength when Liu Jun’s bewitching song caused him to lose himself.

While passing through the Hundred-Crow Ghost Forest that guarded the Wood Heaven Plains, Han Zhan had taught him a very practical soul art, the Open Thatch Art. The art was extremely difficult to practice on its own, but became much easier when used in conjunction with the Nascent Core Art and Beaded Curtain Lock. Luo Chen had been pressed for time back then and had used achievement points to force himself to Beginner proficiency rather than studying its principles in detail. Even so, he still knew every step required to use it.

He would first need to use the Beaded Curtain Lock to divide his divine consciousness and then cut away a portion and attach it to his Nascent Core. In doing so, he could preserve his primary divine soul while nurturing a small subsidiary soul inside the Nascent Core. Therefore, if the cultivator was ever caught in an illusion, the subsidiary soul could act through the Nascent Core to jolt the main soul awake and restore the cultivator’s awareness.

Truth be told, he had already seen how effective this art could be. When he ventured further into the Wood Heaven Plains, the Echoes of Demons and Devils beneath the Infernal Heartbound Tree had once drawn him into a daze. It was precisely Open Thatch Art that allowed him to shake off their influence and regain his senses on his own.

Thinking through it now, he could not help but feel that the combination of the Open Thatch Art and Beaded Curtain Lock formed a remarkably effective way to divide the divine soul. It was even possible that both of these had been derived from Soul Split itself. After considering the possibility for a moment, Luo Chen added these two techniques to his bamboo scroll. Once he finished, he called up the status panel.

Incomplete Cultivation Art Detected: Seventh-Tier Soul Split. Do You Want To Complete It?