An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

”Eighth stage of Qi-Refining!” Gao Tingyuan’s voice trembled with fury and disbelief as he stared daggers at Luo Chen, practically forcing the words through clenched teeth.

Across from him, Luo Chen lifted an eyebrow, calm as ever. It seemed the fluctuations of his spirit power had grown too intense to conceal. Even the Perfected Mastery of his Spirit Suppression could no longer mask his true cultivation realm.

He had been posing as a mere seventh-stage cultivator, hoping to mislead his opponents and strike from the shadows but Gao Tingyuan had seen through the illusion. The moment Luo Chen had made his move, the man had responded with ruthless precision, giving him no room to maneuver.

Gao Tingyuan scrutinized Luo Chen, his expression flickering with uncertainty. A top-grade offensive enchanted artifact. A top-grade defensive enchanted treasure. Even the Daoist robe he wore was top-grade. Just from his appearance alone, his wealth was enough to make ninety-nine percent of ninth stage Qi-Refining cultivators green with envy.

How long has Luo Chen even been cultivating?

No wonder Wang Haichao was determined to get his hands on him. To accumulate such wealth in such a short time, it must be due to his identity as an alchemist.

I mustn’t let him fall into Wang Haichao’s hands, or I’ll never get my revenge!

With that thought, the two short halberds in Gao Tingyuan’s hands began to glow with spirit light.

However, Luo Chen moved even faster than he expected. The spear’s tip flickered as a rain of fire filled the sky, blooming like a storm. Gao Tingyuan took a deep breath. A round pearl emerged from his chest, instantly forming a protective barrier around him.

The firestorm pelted the barrier, producing a hissing sound. The scorching steam spread out, clouding his vision.

“Something’s wrong...!”

Whoosh!

Gao Tingyuan’s ears twitched as he quickly sidestepped. With a sweeping motion, he scattered the rain droplets, pushing aside the fiery assault before him.

But when he focused his gaze, Luo Chen was nowhere to be seen.

“Such speed? Where did he go?!”

Suddenly, he turned his head. A figure, his expression wild with frenzy, was unleashing waves of black light, suppressing two eighth stage Qi-Refining cultivators.

”Shan Xiu, watch out!”

Shan Xiu flinched, instinctively trying to turn around. However, it was too late. A strange bell rang abruptly. The sound waves entered his ears, causing him to pause momentarily.

In a battle of life and death, even a split-second’s hesitation was enough to seal one’s fate.

”That’s Lu Huaiben’s little bell!”

Just as he regained his senses, his eyes caught sight of a streak of jet-black light, blending seamlessly into the night as it shot toward him. Shan Xiu barely managed to activate his defensive robes, but anything beyond that was already too late.

”This is...” He looked down at his chest. The place where his heart should have been was now impaled by a long iron nail.

Shan Xiu tried to force it out with his spirit power, but the moment he attempted to circulate his spirit energy, it immediately began to disintegrate.

Soul-Breaking Nail! Chaos Spirit Powder!

Luo Chen appeared behind him, smiling faintly. A jade blade sliced through the air in a graceful arc—and in the next heartbeat, Shan Xiu’s head rolled into his waiting hand.

”Go assist Hall Leader Murong. Kill the one in blue first.” Luo Chen gave this order to the pale-faced Zhou Yuanli and his companion before turning around, still holding the severed head.

”Second Brother Gao, when Shan Xiu led people to ambush me back then, I assume you had a hand in it as well?”

Staring at the lifeless head with its eyes still open, Gao Tingyuan felt a chill creeping up his spine.

Just as he was about to speak, his gaze suddenly fell on Shan Xiu’s corpse, lying on the ground. On his chest, the massive black nail stood out glaringly.

”Soul-Breaking Nail! Soul-Breaking Nail! His voice cracked. Rage and grief twisted his face.

”You were the one who killed my brother!”

Luo Chen blinked, caught slightly off-guard. With a flick of his finger, the black nail flew back into his hand, spinning with a sinister hum.

He had indeed used this top-grade enchanted artifact to pierce through Gao Ting’e’s defenses. But how did Gao Tingyuan determine that just from a single enchanted artifact?

Gao Tingyuan’s eyes blazed with fury as an uncontrollable rage erupted from within him.

”My brother carried an Earth Shield talisman. A regular top-grade enchanted artifact could never have killed him instantly. He would have lasted long enough to call for help.

”Only the Soul-Breaking Nail, personally refined by the Soul-Refining Hermit, could bypass elemental defenses and inflict fatal injuries.

”When Li Da and I led people to breach the Soul-Refining Hermit’s cave mansion, we took most of the treasures, but this Soul-Breaking Nail was nowhere to be found.

”Later, I discovered that Li Zixiong and Chen Xiao secretly took it. As far as I know, they all died at Wang Yuan’s hands!

”That’s it! That’s it!” The more Gao Tingyuan spoke, the more manic he became. All the doubts that had clouded his mind suddenly burst like a dam overwhelmed by a raging flood.

In an instant, everything became crystal clear.

”You and Wang Yuan were close. If it had been an ordinary top-grade enchanted artifact, with your cultivation back then, you wouldn’t have been able to use it.

”But the Soul-Breaking Nail requires no precise control, it strikes and never returns. If you had this treasure, then killing my brother would have been effortless.

”And your cultivation realm!”

Gao Tingyuan fixed his gaze on Luo Chen, his spirit power surging wildly. “You’ve been hiding your true cultivation realm. There’s no way someone could advance from the third to the eighth stage of Qi-Refining within a year.

”That means you’ve always had a way to conceal your cultivation. Back then, you must have concealed your realm and struck my brother by surprise.

”No wonder a rogue cultivator like you dared to live in such an isolated place. Truly, your skill gives you courage!”

Listening to all this, Luo Chen’s lips twitched.

The earlier deductions were still somewhat reasonable. Though not entirely accurate, they were at least eighty to ninety percent correct.

One of his two Soul-Breaking Nails had indeed come from Wang Yuan. Li Zixiong and Chen Xiao had indeed been part of the group that ambushed Wang Yuan.

But this accusation about hiding his cultivation was completely exaggerated. He had only been at the fourth stage of Qi-Refining back then, nothing as absurd as what Gao Tingyuan was claiming.

”Luo Chen, the evidence is undeniable! Will you confess or not?” Gao Tingyuan roared.

Luo Chen sighed helplessly. ”At this point, does it even matter? Besides...”

As he glanced around, he realized that, without noticing, seven late stage Qi-Refining cultivators had already surrounded him.

”Second Brother Gao, quite the strategy, luring me into a trap without me realizing it.”

Seeing the encirclement complete, Gao Tingyuan finally relaxed. Though still burning with fury, his mind remained utterly calm.

”After witnessing your speed earlier, I had no choice but to prepare for this! Today, I’ll send you to hell and avenge my brother!”

With a wave of his hand, the seven late stage Qi-Refining cultivators immediately controlled their enchanted artifacts and launched their attacks at Luo Chen.

The surging and chaotic spirit power illuminated the entire night sky.

Luo Chen exhaled a long breath of turbid air, grasped his Flame Spear, and shot into the sky like an arrow released from its bowstring.

Gao Tingyuan watched this scene and sneered. Fly? Let’s see how high you can go!

The wind howled as a white cloud suddenly materialized beneath Luo Chen, lifting him up.

Gao Tingyuan’s eyes widened. Cloud-riding? A Foundation Establishment technique?

In the next moment, he was struck with terror. The round pearl at his chest contracted violently, transforming into a tight defensive barrier around him.

”Retreat at once!”

However, it was already too late. Standing atop the white cloud, Luo Chen pressed his hands downward and uttered in a low voice, Detonate!

A seventh stage Qi-Refining cultivator, standing closest to Luo Chen, squinted at the tiny black speck before him.

A bead?

Its surface shimmered green, reminiscent of jade and glazed glass.

What is this?

The next moment, the bead in his pupils exploded.

The cultivator’s brow furrowed. Instinctively, he pushed out a wave of spirit power, brushing the blast aside.

Is that all?

But before the thought could settle, a tremendous shockwave surged in from every direction. The violent force of the explosion reduced his body to dust.

The jade essence waste beads were the byproducts of Luo Chen’s failed attempts at refining Jade Essence pills. With every failed batch of ingredients, twenty waste beads were produced.

So how many times has Luo Chen failed since he started refining Jade Essence pills? The exact number was impossible to count.

However, the failure rate in the early stages was extremely high. Even with Grandmaster level proficiency, the failure rate remained at fifty percent.

Over the past year, Luo Chen’s failed attempts had easily numbered in the thousands. This meant that he had accumulated tens of thousands of jade essence waste beads!

Even though he had consumed many while practicing the Heavenly Maiden Scatters Flowers technique, his stockpile had only continued to grow.

Earlier, Gao Tingyuan had used his words to shake Luo Chen’s mind, setting up an inescapable trap to cut off his retreat. But Luo Chen had countered with his own scheme in secret.

Without making a sound, he had used the Seven-Night Star hidden weapon technique from the Heavenly Maiden Scatters Flowers to discreetly scatter tens of thousands of tampered jade essence waste beads under the cover of night.

Now, the trap was set!

The final step was the simplest of all. He merely needed to use the Primordial Pearl to detonate them.

With Luo Chen’s shout of Detonate! Over ten thousand jade essence waste beads simultaneously exploded under the pull of his spirit power. Individually, each jade essence waste bead had unimpressive power of less than even a strike from a low-grade enchanted artifact.

But when tens of thousands exploded at once, the sheer quantity resulted in a qualitative change! Luo Chen was still blasted several li away by the immense shockwave, despite standing high above the clouds with great distance.

If not for the Four Symbols Cauldron shielding him, even Luo Chen, the very one who triggered the explosion would have endured severe backlash.

However, it was all worth it!

Turbulent waves of spirit energy surged in all directions. The dust filling the air ignited into blazing flames, illuminating the entire battlefield.

A massive crater, spanning several hundred meters, was left behind as a stark and glaring reminder of the destruction.

Every cultivator on the battlefield turned to stare in shock. They gazed in fear at the scene before them. Such a terrifying attack, who below the Foundation Establishment Realm could possibly withstand it?

Was this truly a technique that a Qi-Refining cultivator could use? The Hall Leader of the Alchemy Hall, Luo Chen, was actually this powerful!

Gulp!

What should have been a faint gulp echoed clearly in the silent night. Luo Chen’s face was slightly pale. The simultaneous detonation of so many jade essence waste beads had drained more of his spirit power than he had expected.

Of course, he wasn’t capable of controlling every single jade essence waste bead individually. The only reason he had managed this was due to a clever trick.

Within every hundred beads, he had left behind a wisp of spirit energy, using it as a fuse to trigger an explosion.

Once ignited, the rest of the tampered jade essence waste beads would explode in unison.

Originally, I prepared this as a means to escape Dahe Market and deal with demonic beasts. Who would have thought it would end up being used on these people instead?

Fortunately, its power did not disappoint me.

Luo Chen let out a sigh of relief. Under such an attack, not even the River Dragon, Gao Tingyuan, should have survived.

Suddenly, his brows twitched. ”Second Brother Gao, where do you think you’re going?”

Through the swirling dust, a blue spirit energy dragon wrapped around a short and stocky figure, stumbling as it fled into the distance.

Luo Chen dissipated the floating cloud and activated Carefree Wind-Control, diving from the sky like a great roc descending from the clouds.

The Flame Spear in his hands buzzed with intensity. It transformed into a flaming phoenix and streaked through the air!

Not only that, but two Soul-Breaking Nails flanked it, turning into streaks of black light that pierced through the clouds and moonlight.

The fiery phoenix struck first, causing the blue dragon to vanish instantly. A cracked round pearl shattered into dust.

The spear tip emerged, piercing through the top-grade Daoist robe and barely stopping at Gao Tingyuan’s back.

However, the two streaks of black light simultaneously pierced through Gao Tingyuan’s chest.

Pfft! Pfft!

Gao Tingyuan crashed to the ground, rolling uncontrollably like a gourd tumbling down a slope. He forced himself to his feet, spitting out a mouthful of blood, his panicked gaze fixed on Luo Chen.

”Luo Chen, must you really push me to my death?

”Yes!” Luo Chen gathered more spirit power, and the Flame Spear lying on the ground instantly shot toward Gao Tingyuan.

Unable to dodge, Gao Tingyuan was impaled on the spot. He stared in shock at the gaping hole in his chest before collapsing with a heavy thud.

Seeing this, the weight in Luo Chen’s heart finally lifted completely.

Shan Xiu was dead, and now Gao Tingyuan was dead as well. Even if he left Dahe Market now, there was nothing left to tie him down.

”However, Second Brother Gao, you still owe me five spirit stones. So, I’ll be taking your storage pouch as compensation.” He walked toward the dull gray storage pouch lying some distance away from Gao Tingyuan’s body.

Suddenly, his expression changed, and his entire body stiffened. The supposedly dead Gao Tingyuan suddenly sat up. His eerie, glowing green eyes locked onto Luo Chen.

Though there was a great distance between them, Luo Chen found himself completely unable to move under that eerie green gaze.

Damn it! What kind of dark sorcery is this?! Luo Chen screamed in his heart, realizing he had completely lost control over his body.

In his vision, Gao Tingyuan simply sat there, staring at him. The two were locked in a deadlock.

A spell targeting the divine soul?

Luo Chen quickly calmed himself. He didn’t feel anything particularly wrong. He simply couldn’t move. Moreover, he wasn’t the only one immobilized. Gao Tingyuan couldn’t move either.

Let’s see how long you can keep this up! Besides, I have ways to counter this!

Instinctively, he channeled the Divine Breaker of Malevolence, and a surge of powerful willpower erupted within him. This willpower was formidable, though not yet as vast as a divine soul’s, it was strong enough to mobilize the spirit energy hidden within his acupoints.

With a single activation, all thirty-six major acupoints in his body trembled violently. A surge of excruciating pain erupted from both his body and spirit soul in an instant.

Luo Chen let out a cry of agony, stumbling backward as his feet staggered on the ground.

Opposite him, Gao Tingyuan appeared to have suffered a severe backlash. His lips trembled as if he wanted to speak, but in the end, he collapsed powerlessly to the ground.

Luo Chen’s face was deathly pale. The agony of fully unleashing the Divine Breaker of Malevolence was not something an ordinary person could endure.

Since he had begun cultivating this technique, he had only successfully executed it a handful of times. He never expected that he would be forced to use it in the middle of a battle.

Looking around, he was shocked to realize something.

Even though it had felt like an eternity to him, in reality, only a brief moment had passed.

Gao Tingyuan had too many tricks. I still wasn’t careful enough. Luo Chen had thought he had been cautious enough.

Two Soul-Breaking Nails had pierced through Gao Tingyuan’s chest, and the Flame Spear had impaled him completely.

On top of that, the earlier explosion of tens of thousands of jade essence waste beads, such injuries would have been fatal to any Qi-Refining cultivator.

Yet, even after all that, Gao Tingyuan had managed to make one last move. It could only be said, he was indeed the formidable fighter who had taken down Xu Renke on the Debate Platform.

Even without a death-substituting puppet, he had still been so tenacious.

Luckily, Xu Renke had destroyed that thing. Otherwise, killing him today would have been even more troublesome.

Luo Chen reached out with his hand, and the Flame Spear hooked onto Gao Tingyuan’s storage pouch, sending it flying toward him. At the same time, the two Soul-Breaking Nails also shot back into his grasp.

Then, he cast a Fireball, sending it hurtling downward in a blazing arc.

”Second Brother!” A sharp and sorrowful cry rang out in the air.

Luo Chen was momentarily stunned. That blue-robed cultivator was still alive?

He looked up and saw that despite being surrounded and attacked by four experts, Murong Qinglian, Gu Caiyi, Zhou Yuanli, and Liu Qiang, and the blue-robed cultivator was still managing to hold his ground.

Are they too weak? Or is he just that strong? As Luo Chen pondered, a large azure battle flag slipped from his grasp.

A faint but deadly energy emanated from it, making the blue-robed cultivator’s pupils contract in alarm.

He shot Luo Chen a fierce glare before letting out a low roar.

He pulled out a talisman. Waves of force rippled outward in rings, forcibly pushing back the four who had been attacking him.

He retreated swiftly, yet his gaze remained locked onto Luo Chen.

”I, Lan Tianyun, will remember this grudge!” Leaving behind those harsh words, he quickened his pace and prepared to flee.

Yet in the very next moment, a sword tip emerged from the void. Faintly, the sound of crashing waves echoed.

Lan Tianyun clutched his throat in shock before toppling headfirst from the sky.

”Sorry, I arrived late.”

A tall, blade-like figure descended beside Luo Chen. With a flick of his wrist, a flying sword returned to his grip.

Luo Chen looked at Duan Feng and grinned. ”You’re not late. There are still plenty of prey left here.”