Immortality begins with Becoming an Alchemy Grandmaster

Chapter 920: Chapter 376: The Chase, the Counter-Chase; Who is the Prey, and Who the Hunter!

The Four Sects may or may not have lost their minds, Luo Chen didn’t know.

But Luo Chen knew that all the vassal forces under the command of the Four Sects, even the rogue Foundation Establishment Cultivators mingling in this place, had all gone mad.

Each of the Four Sects offered up one Core Formation Secret Technique—so grand and so generous.

For the countless Cultivators stuck in the Late Stage Foundation Establishment with no way to pursue Core Formation, it was as if a path to heaven had just opened up!

Even the Early Stage and Middle Stage Foundation Cultivators, who seemingly had no urgent need, who wouldn’t want to make early preparations?

Luo Chen looked at the four Core Formation Secret Techniques listed above, each with the corresponding number of Merit Points needed for exchange detailed beside them.

The highest among them was none other than the Great Technique of Pill Formation from Luo Yun Sect—”Bead Curtain Lock.”

To exchange for this technique, one would need a full ten thousand Merit Points!

The next in line were the Simple Techniques of Pill Formation from the three other sects, each requiring only two thousand Merit Points.

Among them was the Dragon Phoenix Tribulation from the Ice Castle.

Luo Chen himself possessed this technique, and even the two types of Third Order Pills required for it had long been prepared.

To be ranked alongside it, the other two would not be far off either in value.

Yet even so, for a Foundation Establishment Cultivator who is not a True Disciple of a Great Sect, even a Simple Technique of Pill Formation is quite precious.

Now, the Four Sects had flung open the doors of generosity.

They blatantly laid out the exchange channels right in front of them—who wouldn’t be tempted?

At the very least, Luo Chen, who already had one Secret Technique, was staring intently at “Bead Curtain Lock.”

“President, we should…” Luo Chen heard Duan Feng’s voice beside him.

Luo Chen snapped back to reality and looked at Duan Feng, whose eyes were filled with yearning.

He turned his head and noticed that Xu Huanzhen was even more breathlessly eager.

The higher the realm, the more desperate the thirst for Core Formation Secret Techniques!

It was not just them—among the thousand rogue Cultivators gathered around the huge stele, all of them were extremely agitated at this very moment.

Some people didn’t even want to rest but wanted to rush back to the battlefield of Accumulated Thunder Ninth Mountain.

“No wonder that when it was time for rotation, I felt the number of Cultivators increased by several percents from before.”

“It seems they also received the news and rushed enthusiastically to the battlefield as newcomers.”

As Luo Chen murmured, his gaze inadvertently caught sight of a few Ninth Level Foundation Establishment Cultivators conversing seriously before leaving.

He swallowed hard, forcing himself to stay calm.

The greater the benefit, the greater the risk!

With the four Core Formation Secret Techniques revealed, it would likely drive all the vassal forces and rogue Cultivators within the Four Sects Alliance to madness.

If they went mad here, then the Sword Sect wouldn’t remain motionless.

This meant that the intensity of the war was bound to escalate further.

Watching the two beside him who were excited beyond measure, Luo Chen calmly admonished, “First, we go back and rest!”

Xu Huanzhen and Duan Feng looked at each other but did not dare to contradict his words.

By the time they returned to their base.

The news had already spread, and even the Qi Refinement Stage Cultivators of Luo Tian Creed were discussing this matter enthusiastically.

Luo Chen calmly pulled Xu and Duan into a room.

“Don’t let the Core Formation Secret Techniques muddle your mind!”

Xu Huanzhen swallowed hard, “But among them, there is a Great Technique of Pill Formation, too!”

Luo Chen frowned, “Did you not see the corresponding Merit Points needed?”

At these words, Xu Huanzhen froze, and the fervor in his eyes gradually dissipated.

He opened his mouth as if to speak, but ultimately, he heaved a sigh in resignation.

Indeed! The required points were simply too many.

The rules for acquiring Merit Points set by the Four Sects Alliance were simple and brutal.

Ordinary defensive tasks provided very low Merit Points.

Patrolling, standing guard, scouting for information, and the like were a bit higher in rewards, but still scant.

There was only one way to earn a large number of Merit Points.

Killing the enemy!

Killing a Qi Refinement Stage enemy could get you ten Merit Points.

Killing an Early Stage Foundation Establishment enemy could get you a hundred Merit Points.

Killing a Middle Stage Foundation Establishment enemy could get you two hundred.

Only by killing a Late Stage Foundation Establishment enemy could you directly gain five hundred Merit Points!

In other words, to exchange for the Simple Techniques of Pill Formation from the three sects, one would need to kill at least two hundred Qi Refinement Stage enemies or twenty Early Stage Foundation Establishment, ten Middle Stage Foundation Establishment, or four Late Stage Foundation Establishment Great Cultivators!

This was just too difficult.

The Luo Tian Creed had been stationed for two years and had barely amassed seven hundred Merit Points.

The majority of which came from Min Longyu, who, with the help of an Array, fortuitously blasted five Early Stage Foundation Establishment Cultivators to death.

Now with those Merit Points having been spent on Foundation Establishment Pills, only a hundred remained.

This showed the difficulty of acquiring Merit Points.

And this was just for the Simple Technique of Pill Formation.

If one aspired to exchange for the “Bead Curtain Lock” offered by the Luo Yun Sect, the effort needed to multiply fivefold!

This was simply beyond the reach of a Foundation Establishment True Cultivator.

To massacre hundreds of Early Stage Foundation Establishment Cultivators or twenty Late Stage Foundation Establishment ones?

Anyone capable of such a feat would have to be at least a Golden Core Ascendant Master!

But here’s the catch.

If one were a Golden Core Ascendant Master already, who would care for these techniques of Core Formation?

Moreover, the rules of exchange clearly restricted that only those below Golden Core and outside the Four Sects Cultivators could participate in such exchanges of Merit Points.

This one rule blocked any Golden Core Ascendant Master from the first-tier forces from acquiring Core Formation techniques through the war.

Seeing the two despondent figures.

Luo Chen shook his head.

“I am tempted as well, but one must know oneself and know one’s limits.”

“Just now, you may not have noticed that even the Late Stage Foundation Establishment Great Cultivators—who need the Core Formation Secret Techniques the most—were all extremely serious.”

“You, in the Third Level Foundation Establishment, and the other in the Sixth Level Foundation Establishment, are centuries away from Core Formation. Why the rush?”

With these words of consolation.

Xu and Duan were able to come back to their senses.