An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Fu Qinglan stared blankly at Luo Chen’s serious expression, still trying to process what had just happened. She had never seen this side of him before. Since arriving in the Central Continent, he had always been calm and restrained, so she had certainly never expected him to become so forceful the moment they entered the pocket world, much less over something involving one of her close friends.

To be honest, she was quite angry at first. He was supposed to be her Dao Protector, so how could he simply take charge as though the decision were his alone? Yet after that harsh lecture, her anger gradually gave way to doubt.

Is it right to back down?

Luo Chen knew nothing of the thoughts running through her head, nor did he think there was much to think over. He had accepted Fu Chaosheng’s request, and once he accepted a responsibility, he had to see it through faithfully.

Their original agreement had already benefited him greatly. Afterward, Fu Chaosheng had given him pills and the Withering Origin Fire Essence and then even tried to secure him a formal position as a Star Gate guest elder. Though that effort had ultimately failed, Luo Chen could hardly blame him for the result when he had clearly done everything within his power. Since Fu Chaosheng had treated him with such generosity, Luo Chen would naturally do everything he could to help Fu Qinglan in return.

The situation inside the pocket world only made that determination stronger. Fourth-tier illusory beasts appeared unpredictably and were extremely difficult to track down, so cores were hard to come by. More than that, he had no wish to stay here any longer than necessary. The sooner Fu Qinglan gathered enough cores to do whatever she had to do, the sooner they could leave. Now that one was already in his grasp, giving it away simply because Lin Bufan happened to be her friend was totally out of the question!

If Fu Qinglan disliked his ways of doing, then so be it. Luo Chen believed Fu Chaosheng would support his decision without hesitation. More importantly, he had already decided how he would conduct himself for the rest of their time here. Typically, he kept to himself and stayed out of any matters that did not concern him. Here, however, anything that affected Fu Qinglan’s cultivation was his concern. He would hunt every illusory beast he could find and compete for every core within reach, regardless of who stood in his way. And if Lin Jingtang was the first to learn that, then so be it!

Behind him, the crimson chain from the Primordial Unity Cauldron whipped back toward Luo Chen with the illusory core securely bound within it. All the while, he had kept his right hand locked in a seal while his left flowed through another sequence of hand seals, sending mana surging from his body.

Seeing his movements, and seeing that Fu Qinglan said nothing to mediate things, Lin Jingtang laughed in fury. ”Fine! Fine! Fine! If it’s a fight you want, then I’ll give you one!”

Before the last of his words even faded, Luo Chen crossed his hands and merged the two seals into one. He then pushed his right palm forward, sending an azure palm projection drifting toward Lin Jingtang. The movement looked almost leisurely, without the slightest hint of killing intent.

Lin Jingtang sneered. ”You think a little trick like that can stop me?”

He swept his sleeve and sent a burst of force crashing into the approaching palm, intending to scatter it before it reached him.

The attack struck cleanly, yet the azure palm projection did not disperse at all. Instead, it continued forward while swelling larger and larger.

Lin Jingtang’s expression tightened. Fine. I’ll block it first, then attack.

Without hesitation, he sent the golden bell into the air, and it dropped over him.

The next moment, the palm projection slammed onto it.

CLAAAANGG!!

A faint smile touched his lips. This bell was known as the Bell of Terror, for it inspired panic and dread. Its defense was indeed formidable, but that was not what made it truly dangerous. Whenever the bell was struck, its toll could invade an opponent’s mind before they even realized they were under attack. In fact, losing control of one’s thoughts was merely the mildest consequence. Against someone with a vulnerable divine soul, the sound could shake the divine soul to the point where it fell apart! It was precisely that ability that had earned Lin Jingtang considerable respect within the Dao Sect despite the fact that he was not one of its disciples.

The family head has treated me well. I can’t disappoint him. Wilderness Hermit is right about one thing: As long as I’m inside the pocket world, I can’t yield on anything concerning Bufan.

He reached back for the longsword strapped across his back, but...

Wait—Something’s wrong!

The enormous azure palm projection pressing against the Bell of Terror showed no sign of dissipating. Worse still, the force behind it continued to build up, growing heavier by the moment until Lin Jingtang could no longer hold his ground. The bell was driven backward with him inside it as the tremendous pressure forced him step by step across the ground.

Through the churning spirit energy, Lin Jingtang looked toward the man opposite him. Luo Chen had not moved from where he stood, and there was no trace of panic or confusion in his expression.

RUUUUUUMMMMBBBLLEEEE!!

The azure palm swept up the surrounding spirit energy as it advanced, its power rising at a terrifying rate. Trapped behind the protection of the golden bell, Lin Jingtang could do nothing but brace himself inside as the force drove him farther and farther back.

Ten zhang became a hundred, then a thousand, and before long, he had been hurled tens of li across the pocket world.

Even then, the palm showed no sign of weakening. Spirit energy continued pouring toward it from every direction until a storm formed around it. Wherever it passed, fierce winds ripped through the clouds, the earth trembled, and the landscape below was ripped apart in its wake. By the time Lin Jingtang regained his bearings, he had been driven hundreds of li away, and from Luo Chen’s perspective, he had become a tiny black dot almost invisible to the naked eye.

It hasn’t weakened at all, and it’s still getting stronger. How is that possible?!

Lin Jingtang’s eyes bulged with fury. There was no longer any room for him to hold back. He gritted his teeth and thrust out both palms, striking the inside of the golden bell.

One palm strike, two, three...

In the next instant, all of those overlapping strikes converged into a single explosive strike.

”BRRREEAAAAAKKK!”

The Bell of Terror shuddered violently.

CLAAAANGGG!

A dreadful toll erupted from the bell as waves of brilliant golden light burst from its surface. This time, the azure palm manifestation could not endure the collision, and it finally dispersed. At last, the raging storm lost its cohesion; winds died away and clouds settled, while the enormous quantity of spirit energy the palm had accumulated dispersed back across the land.

When the golden light faded, Lin Jingtang emerged with his hair disheveled and his face drained of color. The Bell of Terror had already shrunk back to its original size and now rested in his palm, but two distinct handprints had been left upon it. Luo Chen’s palm print was indented into the outer surface, while Lin Jingtang’s own strike had left another indent on the inner wall.

By now, Lin Jingtang had understood that as long as Luo Chen was alive, that palm would continuously feed on the ambient spirit energy around it, and that accumulation would not stop. If he just tried to endure the attack, he would only be giving it more time to grow stronger until it eventually overwhelmed him.

Therefore, his only option had been to mobilize all his mana and unleash his strongest strike, destroying it before its power could exceed his. There was a price to pay, of course; he had been inside the golden bell and suffered an enormous backlash from the impact of his own force. Had the golden bell not been his life-bound True Artifact, with the ability to automatically protect its master, the collision would have left both his body and his divine soul gravely injured.

Suddenly, he jerked his head up and shouted, ”Wilderness Hermit!!!”

His rage transformed into booming sound waves that surged back along the path he had come from. Before he could pursue Luo Chen, however, a figure moved into his way.

Lin Jingtang’s anger faltered. ”Bufan?”

Lin Bufan shook his head. ”We’ve only just entered the pocket world. There will be plenty more opportunities. There’s no need to let your anger get the better of you now.”

”But...”

”He’s stronger than you think,” Lin Bufan said. ”Yes, he struck first and he caught you off guard, but that’s not all there is to it. I still can’t tell how deep his strength goes, and I’m certain that palm strike wasn’t anywhere close to his full power. If you insist on fighting him to the death, you might win, but you’ll pay dearly for it. And if you’re badly injured this early, how are we supposed to compete for illusory cores later?”

Lin Bufan was choosing his words carefully, saying only enough to persuade Lin Jingtang without hurting his pride. In truth, what he had actually sensed while observing the clash was far more troubling. When Luo Chen unleashed that palm strike, another power had remained hidden within his body. If that energy was ever unsealed, Lin Jingtang would probably have no chance to resist it at all, and Lin Bufan could only hope the Bell of Terror was enough to save his life.

And that was assuming Luo Chen did not possess a True Artifact of his own. If he had one comparable to the Bell of Terror, then Lin Jingtang would probably be...

The fury on Lin Jingtang’s face slowly eased, though resentment still burned in his eyes. ”But we found that illusory beast first, and I went through all that trouble just to force it out....”

Lin Bufan shook his head. ”It’s only one illusory core. With my perception, finding another one won’t be hard. Now that we know what to expect, we’ll be ready next time and we’ll make sure no one can snatch the core from us. As for this one... consider it my last gift to Sister Qinglan.”

Last gift?

Lin Jingtang raised an eyebrow but did not ask what his younger brother meant. He finally turned to leave with Lin Bufan, though not before casting one last resentful glance in Luo Chen’s direction. Clearly, he had taken the humiliation of that palm strike to heart.

***

Whoosh...

A powerful gust swept past Luo Chen as he slowly lowered his right hand with a satisfied expression. This was the first time that he had unleashed the Azure Yang Great Handprint at full strength as a Sage, and its power had exceeded his expectations.

The spell had come a long way from the Great Handprint of Primordial Qi from which it originated. Back then, it had been little more than an ordinary third-tier spell with fairly ordinary offensive power. After Luo Chen pursued its limits and converted it to the fire attribute, however, its destructive power reached the very peak of the third tier. Then, after he practiced it to Perfected Mastery, its power even rivaled that of an ordinary fourth-tier spell.

Under normal circumstances, that should have been the end of its potential, and after Luo Chen became a Sage, a spell of that level would have offered him little assistance.

However, after gaining insight into the unique way Sages manipulated ambient spirit energy, he had found a way to transform it yet again. By incorporating Spirit Enslavement into the Azure Yang Great Handprint, he allowed the spell to continuously draw power from the ambient spirit energy after it was unleashed. Unless an opponent destroyed it quickly, every moment of delay only made it stronger until the accumulated force became overwhelming!

Luo Chen glanced in the direction Lin Jingtang had disappeared and felt a trace of regret. Too bad. If he’d stuck around a little longer, I could’ve tried out a few more techniques on him.

Had Fu Qinglan known what he was thinking, she probably would have been speechless. Lin Jingtang was a powerful Sage in his own right, yet Luo Chen had regarded their clash as an opportunity to test his techniques. Just how formidable did someone have to be to possess such unshakable confidence?

But Luo Chen truly did possess that kind of confidence. Most of his opponents thus far had boasted substantially higher cultivation, often surpassing him by an entire major realm or at least several minor stages. Meanwhile, this competition had plenty of dangerous people, but they did not concern him nearly as much. By the rules, they could not have advanced to the Nascent Soul Realm more than a hundred years ago. That meant nearly all of them were either at the first stage or the second, so there was little difference between them. And against someone of the same level, Luo Chen felt no fear.

If he had not taken Fu Qinglan’s feelings into consideration, he might well have pursued Lin Jingtang and continued the fight. He was very confident that he could have severely injured the man, and with the Primordial Unity Cauldron in his hands, even Lin Jingtang’s Nascent Soul would have had no chance of escaping.

At least you knew when to back off. Smart choice. Luo Chen gave a quiet snort, then turned to Fu Qinglan. ”Come on. We should go.”

Fu Qinglan was still staring at him in a daze and did not even register what he had said. It was only when she noticed his frown that she finally came back to herself. ”What?”

Luo Chen’s frown deepened. ”Let’s go. The fight caused too much commotion. It’ll draw other people here soon, so we shouldn’t stay.”

Fu Qinglan quickly nodded. ”Right.”

She hurried after him, but the shock of what she had just witnessed had yet to fade. Luo Chen had sent the renowned Lin Jingtang flying hundreds of li with a single move!

One goddamn strike!

Seeing that kind of overwhelming strength with her own eyes had shaken her far more deeply than his covert clash against Qi Xiongcheng. As she followed behind Luo Chen, the same thought kept returning to her. Will I ever be able to wield that kind of power myself?

Fu Qinglan tried to recall everything she knew about the Dao Sect’s early-stage Sages, but only a handful of senior brothers came to mind who might be able to match the overwhelming presence Luo Chen had displayed just now.

***

Mountains overlapped in the distance, while ancient trees towered into the sky. As sword light flashed across the rocky slope several times, a simple cave residence soon took shape. Luo Chen inspected his work and nodded in satisfaction. ”This should do. The pocket world doesn’t seem to have any particularly concentrated spirit veins, but at least the scenery isn’t bad.”

Fu Qinglan followed his gaze and thought that was something of an understatement. From the rocky ledge outside the cave, an expansive forest spread toward the horizon, broken here and there by strangely shaped mountains that thrust into the sky like enormous swords. Night had already fallen, and countless stars filled the sky, casting a dreamlike glow over the mountains and forest below.

However, when she turned back toward the cave, she noticed how little space Luo Chen had cleared inside. It was barely large enough for one person to cultivate.

Before she could ask, he explained, ”You can cultivate in there and refine the illusory cores. I’ll keep watch out here. For tonight, just focus on recovering. I want to take a look at that illusory core first, so I’ll give it to you tomorrow morning.”

”Mm. Then I’ll leave it to you, Brother Luo.”

After she entered the cave, Luo Chen settled down outside and took out the fourth-tier illusory core. Unlike the third-tier core, which had been shaped like a date pit and covered in rough patterns, this one was perfectly round and white. More striking still was the dense cloud energy clinging to it, so concentrated that there was no mistaking the extraordinary power contained within.

Luo Chen studied it closely. Is this the Mirage Dragon’s power?

He examined it from every angle, but the longer he looked, the more puzzled he became. The Dao Sect’s true inheritors possessed a secret art specifically designed to refine the power within these cores, but naturally, such an art would never be taught to Dao Protectors like him. Without knowing how that secret art worked, he could not figure out how the cloud energy within the core was supposed to help a cultivator comprehend the Power of Laws and find a path toward Divine Transformation.

Thus, he sent his divine consciousness into the core, only for the dense power of the Mirage Dragon surrounding it to block his senses almost immediately. After several unsuccessful attempts, Luo Chen withdrew his consciousness and frowned.

Then an idea occurred to him. He channeled origin energy into his eyes, staining his vision red once again. This time, rather than trying to force his way through the cloud energy, he took it slowly, going deeper just by a hair’s breadth every time. Finally, deep within the core, he finally caught a faint trace of something different, something carrying an unnatural vitality.

”Hm?”

He immediately took out another white pill. It was the Heaven Mystery Pill that the Saint Alchemist had given him before her ascension. The moment the pill appeared, the fourth-tier illusory core in his other hand suddenly grew restless, as though it wanted to hurl itself toward the pill.

Luo Chen’s eyes lit up. Just as I thought. There’s more than just the Mirage Dragon’s power inside. It contains a trace of spiritual vitality, and it comes from the same source as the spiritual vitality the Saint Alchemist used as the main ingredient for the Heaven Mystery Pill! Hmmm... could it be that the spiritual vitality intercepted by Mo Shouzhuo was placed inside the pocket world?

If that’s true, then Fu Qinglan and the other True Inheritors aren’t here to absorb the Mirage Dragon’s power at all. What they really want is the spiritual vitality hidden inside these illusory cores. They’re using it to comprehend the Power of Laws! Spiritual vitality... the world’s consciousness... the Power of Laws...

Luo Chen’s gaze moved between the illusory core and the Heaven Mystery Pill as the pieces gradually fell into place. By the time he looked down at the two white objects again, the confusion in his eyes was gone, and a plan was starting to take shape in his mind.