An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Across thousands of li, drifting clouds curled around the emerald peaks, and in the vast, clear sky, a solitary moon glided quietly overhead. Beneath the rolling clouds, three flying boats sped desperately across the endless stretch of green mountains, racing as if some unseen force were chasing them relentlessly from behind.

Inside a quiet chamber aboard the Skyhawk Flying Boat, Luo Chen stared at the pile of storage pouches before him, unable to resist shaking his head.

”What a pain in the ass!”

The storage pouches of Duan Qiankun, Wang Haichao, Tu Shan, and even Huo Hu were now in his possession. But to his dismay, ”in his possession” did not mean much.

The storage pouches of low-tier cultivators were no real problem. They only had weak spirit power imprints that could be easily broken. But those belonging to Foundation Establishment cultivators were another matter entirely. Most of them were sealed with spirit consciousness imprints by their owners; the more cautious ones, like Duan Qiankun, had even layered on complex restrictions.

To wear down these imprints was not something that could be achieved in a day or two. Only a Foundation Establishment cultivator with spirit consciousness could slowly grind them down.

Luo Chen couldn’t help but envy the profound inheritances of major sects. Back then, Miao Wen had easily unraveled the restriction on the jade box given by Mi Shuhua. If such techniques were applied to storage pouches, it wouldn’t even take half the time to open them.

”And yet here I am, having to brute force it.”

Pursing his lip in annoyance, Luo Chen put away the four pouches.

Wang Haichao’s and Tu Shan’s pouches, he planned to tackle slowly once things stabilized. The one from Duan Qiankun, which he had been grinding away at for a long time now, was already close to breaking and took top priority.

As for Huo Hu’s pouch, it had been given to him by Wang Yuan. There was no helping it; although it was technically Wang Yuan’s spoil of war, he had not yet reached Foundation Establishment and thus lacked the means to break the seal. Thus, it had been entrusted to Luo Chen to deal with whenever he had the time.

Even Huo Hu’s damn pouch has a restriction on it!

Then again, the Flame Alliance was a major artifact forging sect, highly skilled in formations and restrictions. Naturally, even their ordinary disciples knew a thing or two. This one would have to wait as well.

Thus, only a single dusty storage pouch remained on the table. It had been collected during the battlefield cleanup, a Qi-Refining cultivator had feigned death and even managed to slip past Luo Chen’s initial detection. Back then, Luo Chen had casually picked up the pouch without a second thought.

Opening this one would be easy. He thought and channeled a wisp of spirit power and simply shattered the remaining imprint inside. There was no need to pour it out; a sweep of his spirit sense revealed everything inside clearly.

A pile of low-tier materials and a few bottles of standard cultivation pills. There was even a Jade Essence pill, one Luo Chen recognized at a glance as his own handiwork. As for enchanted artifacts, there were none.

Typically, once a low-tier cultivator obtained a better weapon, they would sell off their old low-tier enchanted artifacts to exchange for other resources, perhaps keeping one or two pieces as spares. Luo Chen, for example, had gifted his unused Jade Blade to Qu Lingjun. The Flame Spear he once used regularly had been awarded to Su Xiaolin, who had served diligently within the Luo Tian Society. As for the puppets and supreme-grade artifacts, he distributed them among the society’s halls based on merit and necessity.

Luo Chen himself only kept what he truly needed. It was precisely because of such generosity that the Luo Tian Society, though only a few years old, had developed such strong cohesion.

Swish!

A palm-sized turtle shell dropped into his hand.

Luo Chen glanced at it and nodded slightly. ”Turtle Spirit Armor... Huh, that’s a rather interesting mystical technique. I’ll have to study it more later.”

Though he didn’t know the name of the cultivator who had feigned death, and neither did he care, it was clear that this very technique had allowed the man to escape Luo Chen’s detection. It was worth a bit of consideration.

He put away the shell. As for the rest rest of the items, they amounted to no more than a few hundred spirit stones. Such was the poverty of low-tier rogue cultivators. Their meager wealth couldn’t even compare to that of a random low-level member of the Luo Tian Society.

After dealing with the pouches, Luo Chen’s gaze shifted to the few treasures before him.

First was the Mystic Flame Sword!

It was an ordinary low-grade enchanted treasure, inscribed with five formation arrays, most related to fire. He wasn’t sure of its exact might, as he hadn’t tested it yet. But since it was fire-element, it suited Luo Chen perfectly. Although his primary cultivation was based on the Yimu Medicine King Codex, his best techniques were related to fire. Whether it was alchemy requiring alchemical flames, spells like Fireball, Solar Flare, or Landslide, or even his former weapon, the Flame Spear, fire was always central.

Even when reaching Foundation Establishment, the three portions of Imperial Nectar he consumed had been refined from the flesh, blood, and demon core of the Blazing Cloud Roc, a second-tier fire-element demonic beast.

This comes just at the right time!

After reaching Foundation Establishment, he had been planning to buy an enchanted treasure in Tianlan Immortal City. But now, with the Mystic Flame Sword, that would not be necessary.

It truly was like finding a pillow when feeling drowsy.

Luo Chen smiled as he placed the Mystic Flame Sword into his own storage pouch. This artifact was relatively high-grade and would require a long period of nurturing before he could wield it freely.

An excellent example of what not to do was Wang Haichao, who had tried to use his new treasure only days after acquiring it and ended up exhausted of spirit power and crippled in both arms. Facing Luo Chen’s final sword strike, he had no strength left to resist.

I must not treat it as a regular weapon, Luo Chen reminded himself sternly.

Next, he picked up a small seal. It was dark yellow in color and surprisingly heavy. Even with Luo Chen’s Perfected Mastery in the first stage of Physical-Refining, he still had to channel spirit power to properly lift it.

This was a supreme-grade enchanted artifact known as the Heavy Recast Seal.

Without even testing it, based on the feel in his hand and his memories from the battle, Luo Chen could already deduce its capabilities.

It strikes with the force of a thousand catties, and it’s meant to crush enemies under overwhelming weight! But what a pity that it’s a failure... If it had been successfully turned into an enchanted treasure, it might have possessed more diverse powers. The way it is now, there’s nothing good about it apart from its weight. Still, it’s worth adding to my arsenal.

Luo Chen had always been deliberate in building a balanced combat system.

For defense, he had the Forsaken Chess Piece, the Four Symbols Cauldron, and top-grade spirit clothes, forming a three layer defense. For offense, he relied on sword orbs and the Blue Musk Gathering Serpent Banner, supported by a variety of spells. For mobility, he had the Carefree Wind-Control and the top-grade Cloud-Stepping Boots.

While it seemed modest, in truth his versatility far exceeded that of most new Foundation Establishment cultivators. After all, when it came to enchanted artifacts and enchanted treasures, more did not always mean better.

A Foundation Establishment cultivator’s spirit power vastly exceeded that of Qi-Refining one, but it still had limits. Wielding artifacts also required spirit consciousness. An average Foundation Establishment Initiates lacked a strong divine soul foundation, making it difficult to extend their spiritual awareness too far. Luo Chen had learned a lot from the Foundation Establishment battles Luo Chen he had participated in.

Duan Qiankun primarily relied on the Heluo Sword, Rattle Drum, the Zeguo Gui Diagram, and a few techniques. Wang Haichao had used a supreme-grade flying sword and a supreme-grade enchanted artifact, and even in his final counterattack, all he had in addition was the Mystic Flame Sword. Tu Shan, a rogue Foundation cultivator, fared even worse. He attacked with the Heavy Recast Seal and defended with the top-grade Skyborne Iron Shield.

Even Li Yixian and Nangong Jin mainly relied on flying swords that required little spirit power to conserve their reserves.

By contrast, Luo Chen’s deep divine soul foundation and immense reserves of spirit power allowed him to rotate through multiple artifacts with ease, an uncommon feat.

Not to mention, he had the Soul-Refining Banner, which housed Little Black, as his trump card.

Once the Mystic Flame Sword is fully nurtured, it can be a hidden ace. And the Heavy Recast Seal is perfect as a decisive finishing strike in regular battle. It’s just unfortunate that Wang Haichao’s strange defensive enchanted artifact was destroyed in the fight.

After this round of inspection, Luo Chen kept only the items most suitable for himself. He would not hoard the broken Skyborne Iron Shield and Wang Haichao’s supreme-grade flying sword; they would be distributed later as rewards based on merit. They would serve to strengthen the cultivators of the Luo Tian Society!

These items could easily be worth tens of thousands in spirit stones, a staggering fortune by any ordinary standard. But to Luo Chen, a second-tier alchemist, it meant little.

Even without counting the spirit stones hidden in unopened storage pouches or the tens of thousands recorded in the Luo Tian Society’s account that he could draw upon at will, Luo Chen’s personal savings alone already exceeded fifty thousand spirit stones. On top of that, he still had a batch of high-grade Jade Essence pills tucked away in his storage pouch, worth another fifty thousand, just waiting to be sold.

”For now, I can safely say I’m not lacking money. What I truly lack is a place to cultivate in peace and time,” he muttered. Letting out a long breath, he packed everything away, then activated his spirit consciousness and sent out a voice transmission.