An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

There was little point dwelling on the past, so he soon turned away and stepped onto the narrow path leading toward the island. Heavenjade and Sang Jinghe followed close behind, but halfway across, Luo Chen gave them some instructions, and the two immediately flew off in different directions to see to their respective tasks.

Luo Chen continued alone. After reaching the island, he hired a small boat to carry him toward the ruins of Jadecold City. The boatman was only a Qi Refinement cultivator, but he was eager to talk, and as he guided the boat through the water, he recounted how drastically the region had changed.

As it turned out... Coldlight Island no longer existed, at least not as a single landmass. The battle between Sages had shattered what was once the largest island in the southeast, breaking it into fragments and wrecking countless spirit veins in the process. The survivors there had spent decades trying to restore the region, but the damage was simply too significant. In the end, they gathered what remained of the scattered spirit veins and used formations to connect the fractured islands. Over time, the ruins were reorganized into thirteen islands of varying sizes, and Coldlight Island became known as the Coldlight Archipelago.

The boatman sighed. ”That battle ruined everything. Jadecold City used to be the pride of Coldlight Island. Everyone in the region knew its name. Then, almost overnight, it was reduced to ruins.”

Jadecold City was not the only casualty. The Tempered Edge Workshop had also been destroyed, along with the treasures stored in its vaults. Many of those items had been so rare that ordinary rogue cultivators could spend their entire lives without ever seeing one, yet when the battle swept through the island, everything vanished.

Hundred Craft Mountain had fared somewhat better, though only at first. The sect survived the initial devastation, but its master disappeared soon afterward and was not seen again. Without him to hold the sect together, disputes over leadership quickly escalated. What remained of the sect collapsed under its own weight, eventually dissolving into several smaller cultivation families that no longer bore the original name.

The Qian family, on the other hand, had not even been granted that slow decline. Their downfall came swiftly and decisively. Their family head had been killed by the famous Devil Lord Azure Yang, and before a successor could stabilize the situation, the war between Sages erupted and swept through everything. With no one left to protect them, their sect grounds were destroyed in the aftermath. When the chaos finally settled, cultivators from everywhere came picking through the ruins.

The boatman chuckled. ”They called themselves rogue cultivators, of course. But with so many powerful experts appearing at once, who can say where they really came from? Some of them may have been sent by other factions. Put on different robes, hide your identity, and suddenly no one knows where you’re from and who you serve.”

Of all the former powers on Coldlight Island, only the Wu family had managed to recover. They, too, had suffered terrible losses, with nearly all their Adepts either killed or gravely wounded. Yet they later brought Xiang Baiyang back from the place where he had been recuperating. With his return, the family finally had someone capable of taking command, and under his leadership, they had slowly rebuilt their strength.

”These days, the Wu family is probably the strongest power remaining in the Coldlight Archipelago.” The boatman looked toward the distant islands. ”Still, it’s hard not to feel sad for this place. The ports were crowded, the markets were full, and there was always something happening. Now look at it...”

Luo Chen listened with a faint smile as the boatman lamented the decline of Coldlight Island and occasionally offered a word of agreement. When the man finally fell silent, he glanced across the scattered islands and said, ”Perhaps its destruction was not entirely a bad thing.”

The boatman turned toward him in surprise.

”If Coldlight Island had retained its former wealth and power, every major power, righteous and devilish alike, would have fought to claim it. The entire region would have become another battlefield. One way or another... the destruction here was inevitable. Now that the island has lost most of its value, none of those greater powers consider it worth the effort. That may be the very reason people like you can still live and work here in peace.”

After staring at him for a moment, the boatman chuckled. ”I’ve never thought of it that way. Adept, you see things far more clearly than I do.”

Luo Chen, disguised as an Adept, smiled and released his divine consciousness. As the boat moved forward, he swept it across the surrounding islands. Before long, he sensed something familiar woven under the entire archipelago.

”A formation?” he murmured.

The boatman heard him. ”Oh, you noticed it? Coldlight Island’s spirit veins were badly damaged during the battle. For a long time, everyone thought they were beyond saving. Then someone obtained a formation from the Blue Sea Alliance. It allows several islands to be linked together, so their scattered spirit veins can support one another. That was how they managed to gather what little spirit energy remained.

”After that, the surviving forces built their own formations on top of the original one, and that’s also why the islands are arranged the way they are now. The local forces are very protective of their territory, and they don’t like outsiders flying in without permission, so most visitors hire a small boat instead. It takes longer, but it avoids unnecessary trouble.”

The Blue Sea Alliance’s island-linking formation?! Luo Chen’s eyes flared with spirit light as he looked across the area more closely. No wonder it felt familiar...

It operated on principles similar to the formation in the Flying Swallow Archipelago, though that formation lacked a primary formation disc and was therefore incomplete. The grand formation at Duskmist Court was far more sophisticated, but it, too, had been constructed by linking multiple islands into a single greater whole.

From this perspective, Luo Chen’s earlier deduction had been entirely correct. The Blue Sea Alliance’s formation had already spread throughout the Northern Sea and was no longer restricted to the alliance’s own factions.

Yet something about the formation still troubled him. By drawing the earth veins together, it should have gathered spirit energy throughout the archipelago, yet an unexplainable sense of oppression hung over the entire area.

Have I become more sensitive to formations since becoming a Sage? Perhaps I can now sense restrictions that I would not have noticed before....

With no clear answer, Luo Chen shook his head and chose not to investigate further. Now was not the time.

The small boat rocked gently as waves rippled across the sea. After continuing onward, it finally stopped before an enormous tree. Its canopy spread across the waters like a huge umbrella, while its trunk and lower branches remained completely under the water.

As they drew closer, the boatman slowed the boat and carefully guided it toward the tree. ”Adept, we’ve arrived. This is Jadecold City.”

Even though Fu Chaosheng had already told Luo Chen what had become of the city, seeing it for himself still left him shaken. Nothing remained of the majestic city that had once stood there. The sea had swallowed every trace of its ruins, and only a single tree rose stubbornly from the water.

Luo Chen stood silently at the bow and looked into the depths below. The battle between Blood Nightmare, Jadecold, and Silent Fate had reduced Coldlight Island to a desolate state. Countless mortals had undoubtedly perished that day, while the number of dead cultivators likely reached into the tens of thousands. No... even that estimation likely fell short of the truth.

While he was contemplating the devastation, a graceful figure flew toward the boat and landed beside him. ”Master, I looked into it. Xiang Baiyang really is the elder Xiang brother from the Tempered Edge Workshop.”

Her report brought the events of that year back to Luo Chen’s mind. Nearly everyone who had participated in the attempt to surround and kill him was already dead. Even the master of Hundred Craft Mountain, Liang Baizao, had later perished on Seven Stars Island. Only the Xiang Brothers had survived.

Together, the twins had been strong enough to contend with a late-stage Adept, yet even they had barely escaped. In the end, the elder brother had managed to break through the barrier Luo Chen had set up. Luo Chen had always known that he was a member of the Tempered Edge Workshop, but now, it seemed Xiang Baiyang was also connected to the Wu family.

”That works out nicely,” Luo Chen said. ”The Wu family had a hand in what happened back then. I may as well settle both scores at once.”

He casually tossed the boatman a middle-grade spirit stone, then stepped into the air and flew toward a medium-sized island not far from the ruins of Jadecold City.

The boatman watched them disappear into the distance, and realization gradually dawned on his face. Curiosity flickered in his eyes, along with the urge to follow and see what would happen. In the end, however, he gritted his teeth and quickly steered the boat away from the area.

***

White Sheep Island, the Wu family’s current home, took its name from their Supreme Elder, Xiang Baiyang[1]. However, the name was strange enough to raise a question: Why did the Supreme Elder of the Wu family bear the Xiang surname?

The history behind it was complicated, and Luo Chen would never have learned the truth if Fu Chaosheng had not happened to mention it and Heavenjade had not investigated further.

Xiang Baiyang actually had the Wu family’s bloodline from one side, but he and his younger brother had left the family while they were still young and joined the Tempered Edge Workshop. The workshop was later destroyed, and his brother perished with it. By then, the Wu family had also lost the figures capable of leading it, so they brought Xiang Baiyang back through a marriage alliance and placed their hopes in him.

Their decision had paid off. In the decades since his return, Xiang Baiyang had guided the Wu family through its recovery and raised it to become the foremost cultivation family in the Coldlight Archipelago. His own cultivation had advanced just as steadily, reaching the seventh stage of the Golden Core Realm.

A late-stage Adept?

Hovering above the island, Luo Chen looked down with a faint smile. White Sheep Island stretched for several hundred li, with thriving mortal settlements scattered across the land, and scores of cultivators streaking constantly through the air. After everything it had endured, it had clearly regained much of its former prosperity.

Within his perception, Xiang Baiyang’s aura shone like a star among fireflies. There were also four or five slightly dimmer lights, which most likely belonged to other Adepts in the clan.

Sang Jinghe asked curiously, ”Sage, what should we do next?”

Before Luo Chen could answer, Heavenjade’s expression hardened. The Wu family’s attempt on Luo Chen’s life years ago had nearly destroyed her future as well. She had suffered grievous injuries, and she would have died without Luo Chen’s efforts to save her. Her demonic beast nature had never been gentle, and taking human form had done little to temper its cruelty.

She said hatefully, ”Why not kill them all?”

Sang Jinghe felt his scalp prickle. The gentle and kind Heavenjade he saw every day had just proposed the massacre of the tens of thousands of people living below them.

Luo Chen dismissed the suggestion with a wave of his hand. ”There’s no need to go that far. The Wu family offended me, but the blame lies with those who made the decision. The ones in charge will be the ones to suffer the consequences.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he stopped concealing his aura. An overwhelming pressure enveloped the entirety of White Sheep Island and threw every cultivator below into alarm.

Seven streaks of light immediately shot into the sky to confront him. But before any of them could speak, Luo Chen flicked a finger, sending out a tiny spark drifting from its tip. In the blink of an eye, the spark swelled into a blazing sun, then split into seven fiery spheres that hurtled toward them.

”Senior, may we—”

The words dissolved into screams as the flames engulfed all seven. Trapped within Luo Chen’s Domain, they could neither resist nor escape. The difference between their realms was simply too great. Against a Sage, ordinary Adepts could be rendered helpless by the sheer pressure of his Domain alone, leaving them powerless even as death closed around them.

With the old grievance settled, Luo Chen felt no desire to linger. He ignored the tens of thousands of people below and turned to leave. Yet before he could take a single step, he stopped and looked at one of the fireballs. To his shock, one of the men was still alive! Crimson light wrapped around his body as he fought desperately against the flames. His screams continued without pause, but so did his resistance.

Luo Chen studied him with surprise. ”You’re quite tough, I see. In that case...”

Before he could finish, his expression changed sharply. ”NO!”

He thrust out his right hand and tried to seize the man from afar, but the fireball exploded before his grasp could close. A battered figure burst from the flames, the aura surging from his body tearing through the force of Luo Chen’s technique.

That crimson radiance and the vaguely familiar aura brought forth an unforgettable image from Luo Chen’s memories. At the sight of it, his expression darkened completely. ”A Blood God Clone!”

1. His given name, 白羊 (báiyáng), literally means ”white sheep.” ☜