Immortality begins with Becoming an Alchemy Grandmaster

Crash!

The ink-colored ridge stood slanting like a blade across the earth, with no wind and no clouds, as the night loomed low.

Only the giant waves, like city walls, rolled in from afar, crashing against the cliff below with a deafening roar.

Time and again, the black cliff stood tall and unmoved.

The dim waves seemed to be at a loss, retreating gradually after countless fruitless assaults.

When the sounds of the tide weakened to the gasps of a trapped beast, the panorama at the base of the cliff began to reveal a corner.

Rounded stones, polished and jewel-like, lined the shore, and scattered bones of indiscernible Demon Beasts sprawled everywhere.

As the winds rose, a skull was gently pushed and rolled across the smooth strand, until it knocked against a charred corpse.

Bang!

The originally pitch-black corpse suddenly burst into a wisp of blue-white flame.

The skull, already veined with cracks, turned instantly into powder.

And the blue-white flame, as if spent, completely died away, disappearing within the corpse.

”Hmph...”

A muffled groan suddenly sounded as the corpse moved eerily!

Its wrist twisted, groping on the ground for a moment, then with difficulty and force, turned its body over.

Even this one movement seemed to consume all his strength.

Shush!

A pair of eyes suddenly opened, and what met them was nothing but pitch darkness, moonless and starless.

”Where am I?”

Luo Chen moved his lips with difficulty, yet couldn’t utter a sound, only muttering in his heart.

He attempted to extend his Divine Consciousness, but for some unknown reason, it was greatly suppressed, unable to explore beyond a hundred yards or so.

This oppressive force was even stronger than the time when the Yin Yang Residual Realm activated the Yellow Bee Array!

Failing to reach outward, Luo Chen could only turn his sight inward.

What he saw sank his heart.

Bad!

Terrible!

Even worse than when he left the South Border!

The Nascent Soul was utterly withered, its little figure couldn’t even open its eyes, as if any movement would disintegrate its form.

Throughout his body, not a trace of Qi Power could be found in either meridians or acupoints.

If that were all, it might be bearable, but even his prideful physical strength, now barely remaining.

Origin Force was exhausted, his meridians cracked extensively, and even his previously indomitable skeleton showed fissured lines. The Hundred Poison King Gu, hidden within his stomach, had fallen into slumber.

All of this was due to those turbid yellow waves!

Luo Chen began to recall the situation at the time.

After he threw the sluggish Black King away with effort, the waves came too swiftly, sweeping him up at once.

He thought he could unleash his full strength and break free directly.

Yet unexpectedly, under those turbid yellow waves, his Qi Power vanished inexplicably, as if absorbed by the seawater.

With no other choice, Luo Chen frequently resorted to other means.

The Nirvana Sacred Fire burned everything, but in the boundless turbid yellow waves, it was a drop in the bucket.

The Yuan Tu Sword desired to carve a bloody path, yet with one cut, it was like cutting through air.

Attempting to cross the Yellow Sea with physical strength alone, he was met with weightlessness and lost bearings.

Those turbid yellow waves seemed to dissolve everything, continuously eroding Luo Chen’s physical body.

In desperation, Luo Chen had to repeatedly stimulate his Origin Force to protect his physical form.

Even then, it was scarcely enough!

Luo Chen resorted to his trump card, the Withering and Flourishing Divine Fire!

Compared to the relatively weak and incompletely evolved Nirvana Sacred Fire, this Fifth-Order Divine Fire, which he had painstakingly cultivated for nearly three hundred years, lived up to his expectations.

By recklessly expending Qi Power to ignite the Withering and Flourishing Divine Fire, he stubbornly resisted the erosion of the turbid yellow waves time and again.

It allowed him to hold on until the end.

The price, however, was the exhaustion of his Qi Power.

His physical body, overly stimulated by the Withering and Flourishing Divine Fire, was seriously backfired.

Not just that...

Looking inward at his Purple Mansion, the once lush and vibrant Fire Tree now drooped there with no vitality.

Even connecting with the Fire Spirit elicited little response.

Luo Chen realized that ultimately, without the collapse of his Nascent Soul, his Qi Power was already insufficient to sustain the Withering and Flourishing Divine Fire; it was the Fire Spirit exhausting its foundations to preserve a flicker of life for him.

It was the Fire Spirit’s voluntary act of protection.

”To think that I, a distinguished member of the Alchemy Sect, could hold my own among peers, slaying countless strong foes; even Great Cultivators and the Great Demon Emperor couldn’t handle me, and a heavily injured Divine Transformation practitioner died by my sword. Yet, just a single wave almost pushed me to death’s brink.”

”Haha...”

A bitter laugh scratched from Luo Chen’s throat, coming out with difficulty, echoing like sandpaper rubbing across his throat. There, beneath the night curtain, it sobbed unendingly—this was good news, suggesting Luo Chen was regaining control of his body.

With danger temporarily averted, Luo Chen assessed his situation briefly, then pondered his current predicament.

”What exactly were those turbid yellow waves... they seem familiar?”

Clearing his mind, Luo Chen relentlessly searched through his convoluted memories, ignoring the intense headache determined to find the source of the familiar sensation.

No matter how he searched, nothing revealed itself.

In the end, Luo Chen had to give up.

”I don’t even know if Black King escaped, hopefully, he wasn’t swept in.”

Luo Chen sighed internally, ceasing futile exertions, and his heart calmed down as he began cautiously mobilizing the Qi Power of his Nascent Soul.

The current Nascent Soul was akin to a porcelain doll.

One misstep and it might shatter.

Then, the immense Qi Power forming the Nascent Soul would surge out, and his fragile body would likely be blown apart.