An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

The surrounding chatter died away at once.

Ke Lianshan’s eyes flickered with interest. ”Black or white stone?”

”Black,” Gu Daoyin answered without hesitation.

”Sure.” Ke Lianshan smiled, then added, ”But first, let me see how much your Go has improved. If you disappoint me, the manual alone won’t be enough.”

Gu Daoyin visibly relaxed. He picked up a black stone and placed it on the board. ”Senior Brother, please!”

Their exchange sounded like a simple trade, yet it immediately caused a stir among the crowd. Even Shi Ju’s expression changed, and Luo Chen was also no exception. ”A Woodrot Go Stone?”

Fu Qinglan looked just as startled. ”It’s one of our sect’s core spirit treasures!”

That alone was enough to explain everyone’s reaction. Any spirit treasure would attract the attention of a Sage, but the Woodrot Go Stones were especially important to cultivators like Shi Ju and Fu Qinglan, who were preparing to enter the pocket world.

According to Fu Qinglan, the Woodrot Spirit Treasure was not a single artifact but an entire set consisting of a Go board, three hundred sixty-one stones, and a legendary unfinished game. Together, they formed one complete treasure, though each component possessed abilities of its own.

In the hands of an Ascendant, the Go board could suppress an entire continent and prevent its spirituality from leaking away. The one hundred eighty-one black stones protected the divine soul, while the one hundred eighty white stones were supreme offensive items. As for the unfinished game, it was even more wondrous. Anyone drawn into it, apart from the treasure’s master, would be trapped within and unable to escape for the rest of their life. In fact, to completely refine the treasure, one first had to solve the game.

For thousands of years, the treasure had remained masterless within the Dao Sect. No one had been able to gain the artifact spirit’s recognition and solve the game; as a result, they could at most borrow a fraction of the treasure’s power.

That changed 700 years ago. Ke Lianshan suddenly rose to prominence and demonstrated astonishing talent in the Dao of Go. After becoming a Sage, he managed to make one move to continue the unfinished game! That single move earned the artifact spirit’s recognition, and from then on, Ke Lianshan became the master of the Woodrot Spirit Treasure. The title of Go Saint followed soon after.

Yet Luo Chen was far more shaken by the treasure’s name than by its abilities.

Woodrot Go Stone... Could the black Woodrot Go Stone I obtained back then also be part of this spirit treasure?

In all fairness, the answer had to be “no.” Luo Chen’s stone had been a mere low-grade enchanted treasure, while this one was a genuine spirit treasure. The difference between the two was far too great to be the same thing. But in terms of effects and even the distinction between the black and the white stones, the similarities were uncanny.

There’s no way all of that is a coincidence. But if there really is a connection, then what relationship does the Valley of Ghosts and Divinities have with the Dao Sect?

For a time, Luo Chen’s thoughts churned wildly, and he had completely lost interest in the game unfolding before him.

***

By the time afternoon arrived, Luo Chen had lost any desire to stay.

Go held little appeal for him, and with his low-level skills, trying to follow the logic behind a match at this level was a tremendous waste of time. Besides, he had already achieved the purpose of this trip. Through Fu Qinglan’s introductions, he had seen several of the Dao Protectors chosen by the other participants and gained a rough understanding of the competition he would face. After repeatedly weighing their strength in his mind, he was fairly confident in himself. Since that was the case, there was no reason to remain any longer.

Seeing that Luo Chen was leaving, Fu Qinglan hesitated for a moment before following him. Luo Chen took a look at her but said nothing. He could tell clearly that her mind had not been on the match today either, and for someone who loved the game as much as she did, this spoke volumes about how heavily Shi Ju’s presence weighed on her.

They slowly made their way out of the Peach Garden. Most of the visitors were still gathered around the match, leaving the paths outside unusually empty. The silence seemed to make Fu Qinglan even more uncomfortable, and after walking for a while, she took the initiative to speak. ”The grand competition is tied to whether True Inheritors like us will have a chance to become Ascendant in the future. So our families are very careful about choosing Dao Protectors. Strength matters, of course, but so does trust. Ideally, the person should be completely loyal to the family. That’s why servants raised by the family from a young age are often the best choice. My friend Lin Bufan is one example.

”As for Senior Brother Liu Yuan, he doesn’t have that kind of family backing. But the master-disciple lineage agreed to help him. That lineage has been declining for years. These days, their Sages no longer even qualify to enter the pocket world. So this time, they’re using Senior Brother Liu as a way to send in their most talented disciple, Senior Sister Tea Mist. Everyone has been talking about it. When the time comes, it’s hard to say whether Senior Sister Tea Mist will be protecting Senior Brother Liu or whether he’ll end up protecting her instead...

”The treasure is very famous, but no one has ever managed to gain its recognition and refine it. Even so, people have studied it for generations, and quite a few imitations have been made. You seemed interested in it earlier, Senior Brother Luo. When we get back, I can give you a set of enchanted-artifact replicas.”

***

At a bend in the mountain path, with the Passing River surging far below, Luo Chen suddenly stopped.

Fu Qinglan looked at him in confusion, but he only regarded her calmly. ”Something has been bothering you all day. You might as well say it.”

Fu Qinglan hesitated, then sighed. ”Nothing gets past you, Brother Luo.”

Luo Chen gave her a faint look. ”Not even something involving Shi Ju?”

The casual remark struck a nerve. Fu Qinglan lowered her head as the wind stirred her hair. After a moment, she finally admitted, ”His intentions toward me aren’t good. He once asked me to marry into the Shi family as his concubine. He even offered to send one of his family’s servants into the pocket world as my Dao Protector. He said that once I joined him, he would help restore my family. He even claimed he could help us rise all the way to the level of a Great House.”

Luo Chen raised an eyebrow. ”That sounds generous enough. Why are you so certain he has bad intentions? As far as I know, marriages between your houses are quite common.”

”It’s not the same thing.” Fu Qinglan shook her head. ”A marriage alliance would make me his wife. He only wants me as a concubine. And the way he said it... It felt like he was toying with me.”

”Oh?”

”He’s done something similar before. When he was still an Initiate, he made the same kind of promises to a woman from another Noble House. She was an Adept at a very young age and she was considered one of the more outstanding disciples of her generation. People thought she had a real chance of reaching Nascent Soul. But after she entered the Shi family, her cultivation barely advanced, and not long afterward, her family was absorbed by the Shi family as well.”

”Really?”

”Absolutely!”

Luo Chen frowned. ”And no one in the Dao Sect objected?”

Fu Qinglan brushed a loose strand of hair away from her face. ”What was there to object to? Everything was done openly and according to the rules. Even her own family agreed to be absorbed. If everyone involved says it was voluntary, who can say otherwise?”

From the look of things, the man was truly a genius spoiled by both his sect and family! To Luo Chen, a promise was not something a cultivator should treat lightly. Even without a contract or oath binding them, words still carried weight!

Yet after hearing Fu Qinglan’s story, he doubted Shi Ju was following any thought-out scheme. Fu Qinglan’s description of him ”toying” with people was probably closer to the truth. The man did not necessarily covet those women for their beauty, and Luo Chen didn’t believe he approached them with the deliberate goal of taking over their families. More likely, he simply found the whole process entertaining. Born into overwhelming privilege and raised in a peaceful cultivation world where even serious conflicts remained constrained by the Dao Sect’s iron fist, he was probably so bored outside of cultivation that he sought amusement this way!

Fu Qinglan continued explaining, saying things such as how she was her family’s only hope and therefore could never marry far away into another clan, much less enter one as a concubine.

Luo Chen had already understood her stance, so his attention gradually drifted from arguments he had heard before. Instead, his expression gradually turned solemn. ”So that’s why someone has been waiting here for us.”

Fu Qinglan froze.

A moment later, an old-looking farmer emerged from around the bend with both hands tucked into his pockets. He wore plain hemp clothes and cloth shoes, with white wrappings around his shin and a strip of white cloth tied around his head like the sweat cloth commonly worn by spirit farmers. His back was hunched, and his expression looked weary and miserable.

Upon seeing him, Fu Qinglan blurted out, ”Elder Qi!”

The farmer chuckled. ”Miss Qinglan, you’re as polite as ever. Most people just call me Old Ghost Qi.”

His gaze shifted to Luo Chen. ”So you’re Miss Qinglan’s Dao Protector? Then let me see what you’re capable of. I want to know if you’re really strong enough to protect her.”

Before Luo Chen could answer, the man’s entire bearing changed. He slowly straightened his hunched back, and a fierce wind erupted around him. His seemingly frail frame swelled with power until the worn-out farmer from a moment ago exuded the presence of a mighty fortress. The next instant, he stepped forward and threw a punch.

Luo Chen’s eyes narrowed. A Sage? A high-tier physique cultivator? Both?!

If he was not mistaken, that fierce wind bore a strong resemblance to the fortified qi that only orthodox physique cultivators could cultivate. Had they met anywhere else, he would have been more than willing to fight such a powerful opponent to his content. He had long wondered how his archaic beast physique compared with the orthodox path of Physique Refinement.

Unfortunately, this was Woodrot Mountain, the heart of the Dao Sect. As an outlander, he could not casually make a move here. If he did, the Fu family might not be able to protect him, and Heaven-Earth Peak was unlikely to go all out for the sake of a mere guest elder. His opponent, on the other hand, clearly had no such concerns, or he would not have attacked without hesitation. That being the case, Luo Chen had no intention of meeting him head-on.

BOOOOOOMMMM!!

Old Ghost Qi’s fist came crashing down. But even though the white-robed figure before him seemed not to have moved, somehow, his punch struck nothing but the ground. A muffled impact sounded under his feet, and only a shallow depression appeared in the path. The limited damage revealed two things at once: his excellent control, and that he had never intended to use his full power.

Even so, Old Ghost Qi froze. I missed? How is that possible?

When he looked up, he found a white-robed Daoist standing calmly before him, surrounded by surging mana, with illusions flickering within it. At that moment, those gentle eyes became like an abyss, drawing him in before he could resist.

”Wait, what...”

Shock flashed across his face, but his will was strong enough to break through the illusion almost at once. By the time his vision cleared, however, the man before him had vanished. Only a fading phantom formed from residual mana remained in his place.

Then, he turned his head and saw Luo Chen already drifting away, with Fu Qinglan following closely behind, though she repeatedly glanced back at him.

He remained rooted where he stood, with his right hand still suspended in midair. ”An illusion spell... But when did I fall under it?”

His back remained straight, but the formidable presence from moments earlier had disappeared. Without it, he looked once more like that same old hunched farmer.