An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Chapter 601: The Falling Cloud Sect’s Flying Boat, Murong Qinglian’s Departure, Ten Adepts Scrutinize Luo Chen

Murong Qinglian’s departure carried immense significance for the Luo Tian Society. From the very beginning of its founding, she had always been present. At one time, she had managed finances, personnel, resources, and merit records on Luo Chen’s behalf.

Even after the society expanded, with more departments established and responsibilities divided, her role remained indispensable. The growing number of cultivators only made her presence all the more vital. A sudden resignation from her position as leader of the Merit Palace would have plunged the organization into chaos.

Yet if she left now, the impact would remain within control. In the years since Qin Liangchen’s death, she had often been consumed by grief. The society had granted her long periods of leave, during which her deputy, Sima Wenjie, temporarily took charge of the Merit Palace.

Over two years, Sima Wenjie had grown well-acquainted with most of its operations. For that reason, the society would still function smoothly even if she left, without falling into serious disorder. Of course, certain important matters would still require a period of transition and proper handover, but it was doable.

Murong Qinglian had always been a responsible woman. Before leaving Tianlan Immortal City for the Falling Cloud Sect, she resolved to gather her strength and personally guide Sima Wenjie. She refused to leave behind a mess for others to clean up.

Her son, Qin Yuanjiang, fully supported and approved of her decision. By coincidence, the disciples of the Falling Cloud Sect had also been dispatched on missions that would take time to complete. So they agreed on a date when Qin Yuanjiang would personally bring his mother back to the sect.

During this period, Luo Chen did nothing to stop her. On the contrary, he prepared a huge farewell gift. It included a set of brand-new supreme-grade robes, a water-element enchanted treasure suited to her, and enough top-grade Jade Dew Pills to last her a century.

The pills were especially valuable. At the typical rate of one pill every three to five days, enough pills to last a hundred years amounted to a staggering one million spirit stones! It was a fortune beyond measure. After all, many Foundation Establishment rogue cultivators could not earn even a few thousand spirit stones in an entire year. It was the most generous gift Luo Chen had ever made.

Everything was meant to thank Murong Qinglian for her years of care toward him and tireless contributions to the Luo Tian Society. Of course, it also lay a token of sentiment for his late Brother Qin.

***

Within his cave residence, Luo Chen set aside the opening of mystery boxes and the reading of texts. His days were now devoted to cultivation, practicing spells, and pill refinement. Beyond the Blood-Boosting Pill, Dustfall Pill, and Spirit Passage Pill required for his own use, he refined large quantities of Jade Dew Pills as well.

There was no helping it. The Ice Fortress’s allotment could never be short, and if he wished to gather a century’s supply for Murong Qinglian, he had to do it himself. Naturally, the effort consumed vast amounts of time. Yet there was also a blessing hidden within.

With repeated refinements, Luo Chen grew more proficient with his alchemical enchanted treasure, the Shangshu Cauldron. Despite its flaws, it was an extraordinary tool, able to expand or contract in size at will. Each refinement allowed it to hold more ingredients than before, and it even carried the remarkable effect of improving pill quality.

Combined with Luo Chen’s Perfected Mastery of Jade Dew Pills, his success rate had soared. On several occasions, he had even surpassed the long-acknowledged fifty-percent yield barrier.

Inside the alchemy room, Luo Chen gazed at the freshly produced pills, his expression thoughtful. The Jade Dew Pill was a second-tier pill and one of the most difficult to refine. From a single set of ingredients, the maximum yield was ten pills. At Grandmaster level proficiency, his success rate had stabilized at fifty percent, and the pills became top-grade. From there, progress was believed to stop. At most, once his refinement reached Perfected Mastery, he would be able to produce supreme-grade Jade Dew Pills... or so was the theory.

Luo Chen had assumed that to be the absolute limit. Until recently, when he realized that he could break through that ceiling. His success rate for top-grade Jade Dew Pills had already risen to sixty percent and showed signs of further improvement with continued refinement.

”Am I breaking the system’s limit, or my own?” he wondered. ”Why is this happening? Why did I never notice it before? Or could it be the Shangshu Cauldron’s doing?”

One question after another surfaced. Normally, he would not trouble himself over such matters, but because it involved the system, he had no choice but to seek an answer. Only by discovering a pattern could he apply it to refining other pills or even to his spells and cultivation techniques.

Of course, this was not a problem to be solved by idle thought. Luo Chen decided to conduct a control experiment. He drew another alchemy furnace from the Jilei Hoard Ring. Among the spoils he had collected were a top-grade furnace and two supreme ones. Yet the supreme-grade furnaces were cumbersome, requiring tedious steps to master. For the moment, the top-grade furnace suited his purposes perfectly.

He set the furnace in place, lit the fire, and carefully placed the ingredients inside. Five full sets were the limit for a top-grade furnace. With practiced ease, Luo Chen began once again to refine Jade Dew Pills.

After only two hours, a rich medicinal fragrance spread through the chamber. With a flick of his sleeve, Luo Chen lifted the newly refined pills onto a large jade tray before him. One, two, three... twenty-eight in total!

Seeing the result, Luo Chen’s heart stirred. Five sets of ingredients, ten pills per set—at a fifty percent yield, the result should have been twenty-five. By his recent stable rate of sixty percent, the count should have reached thirty pills. Yet the actual outcome stood at twenty-eight.

”A good furnace can certainly influence both yield and grade,” he mused. ”But those three additional pills came not from the furnace’s quality, but from my own mastery. This proves I truly can surpass the system’s limits! Then, where does this breakthrough come from?”

Luo Chen reflected and slowly pieced together a thought. The advancement had to be linked to his accumulated foundation in the Dao of Alchemy. It was not only the repetition of one pill that mattered, but also his broad practice of many other alchemical formulas. Through such accumulation, he had already reached the point where he could refine second-tier pills like the Rainbow Chrysanthemum Pill and Blood-Boosting Pill without spending a single system achievement point.

This was the pinnacle expression of an alchemist’s art. It was the ability to understand and refine any alchemical formula of the same tier with ease, to maintain a high success rate, and to secure superior results. At this stage, he could no longer be regarded as a mere master. He now possessed the stature of a grandmaster, not limited to one pill alone but across the entire second tier.

”Extensive study of texts, frequent practice, and steady accumulation have carried me to this grandmaster level,” Luo Chen mused. ”Given time, I might even complete or improve first- and second-tier formulas. And when I achieve that, I can truly be considered a grandmaster capable of founding a lineage in alchemy.”

With this conclusion, anticipation stirred in Luo Chen’s heart. If he concentrated all effort on refining a single pill, could he reach a flawless hundred percent success rate? Each attempt would bring results, without fear of failure or wasted ingredients.

What applied to alchemy could extend to all else. Spells, cultivation techniques, and even medicine followed the same principle. The system itself imposed no ceiling. The true limit lay only in himself. With sufficient accumulation, his path could grow stronger, broader, and closer to perfection.

At this, Luo Chen let out a long breath. His choice to devote time to broad study had indeed been the right one, and he knew he had to continue along that path. Even without becoming a universal grandmaster, his solid foundation let him draw on others’ strengths and advance further in his own path.

For the present, that goal remained out of reach. Luo Chen put away the top-grade furnace and turned back to the Shangshu Cauldron for his next refinement. A mere top-grade furnace could hold only five sets of ingredients, and even a supreme one could take no more than ten. By contrast, the enchanted treasure Shangshu Cauldron could accommodate twenty sets in a single batch, and its true limit had yet to be tested.

”First, I must refine the Jade Dew Pills I need,” he resolved.

***

Time moved forward at a steady pace, and three months passed in the blink of an eye. Luo Chen had not refined as many Jade Dew Pills as he had planned, yet he could no longer delay. If necessary, he would use part of the top-grade Jade Dew Pills that were meant for the Ice Fortress.

There was only one reason for his urgency. The appointed day had arrived, and Murong Qinglian was about to depart.

On Danxia Peak, Luo Chen stood with Sima Huiniang at the rear, watching as one cultivator after another stepped forward to bid Murong Qinglian farewell. Gu Caiyi, Feng Xia, Yuan Xiaoyue, and Sima Wenjie were all there, and even Bai Meiling revealed herself, making a special trip just to see Murong Qinglian off.

Some were elders who had walked beside her since the days of Dahe Market and shared a deep bond. Others were her subordinates from the Merit Palace or friends she had made within the Luo Tian Society. Among them were also those who had once lived as neighbors in the inner city siheyuan of Dahe Market. At such a moment of parting, their reluctance felt especially heavy. Even Duan Feng, usually a man of few words, came forward with a gift. He had once lived for a time in that siheyuan and Murong Qinglian had taken care of him.

At last, Luo Chen stepped forward.

”President...”

Luo Chen shook his head. ”At a time like this, I would much rather hear you call me Little Luo.”

Murong Qinglian froze. After so many years of addressing him differently, switching back to the old name felt strangely awkward.

”This is a small token of gratitude from me. Sister-in-law, you must take good care of yourself in the days ahead.” Luo Chen handed her a storage pouch.

While others had each given her a single gift, he alone presented her with an entire pouch. This stirred her curiosity, and the moment she used her spirit consciousness to peek inside, her expression changed dramatically.

”Little Luo, isn’t this far too valuable?”

Luo Chen smiled. ”Sister-in-law, just take it.”

Though Luo Chen’s tone carried warmth, his words left no room for refusal. Everything he gave her, she deserved. Whether it was the bowl of tiger bone soup that had helped him break through the fifth stage of Qi Refinement, or the battle at Crescent Moon Valley, where she intercepted a formidable enemy to give him a chance to escape. Luo Chen remembered everything she’d given him all too clearly.

All the more so, he remembered her tireless dedication and countless contributions to the Luo Tian Society through the years. He was not a man who forgot kindness. To outsiders, it might have seemed that helping her achieve Foundation Establishment was already repayment enough; yet in his heart, even the smallest kindness must be repaid in full measure. As long as it was within his means, this gift was hardly worth mentioning. His only regret was that his Big Brother Qin had not lived to reach Foundation Establishment, nor to see his son Qin Yuanjiang again.

Seeing the sincerity in his expression, Murong Qinglian’s features softened. She clutched the storage pouch in her hand and gave a small nod. ”Then I’ll take it. Thank you.”

Luo Chen answered with a quiet hum and sent a sound transmission, cautioning her not to reveal the Jade Dew Pills. Of course, Murong Qinglian understood the danger without being told. The concern was not that Luo Chen might be targeted. News that Dan Chenzi could refine Jade Dew Pills had already spread. After all, gossip traveled fast within Ice Fortress. The true risk lay in the value of the gift itself. If she brought such a trove back to the Falling Cloud Sect, it would inevitably draw greedy eyes and invite trouble.

Though Qin Yuanjiang now carried the title of True Inheritor, he remained only a newly advanced Initiate with shallow foundations. If real danger arose, he might not be able to protect his mother.

After exchanging farewells, Luo Chen stepped back into the crowd.

”Are you not going to say goodbye?” he asked.

”Through these years, I have spent the most time with her. In just these last few months, we have spoken no fewer than ten times. There is no need for one more,” Sima Huiniang replied with quiet detachment.

Yet despite her words, Luo Chen still saw a trace of reluctance and regret in her eyes. From this day on, the Luo Tian Society’s three famed beauties, Sima Huiniang, Murong Qinglian, and Gu Caiyi, would be left two. Worst still, the two on the sidelines were still like fire and water, natural enemies fated never to get along. Without Murong Qinglian there to mediate, no one could tell what conflicts might erupt in daily affairs.

As everyone waited, a colossal flying boat emerged beyond Danxia Peak, scattering clouds and mist as it sailed forward. The moment it appeared, cries of astonishment rippled through the ranks of the Luo Tian Society.

A flying boat of enchanted-treasure grade!

Within the crowd, Luo Chen’s expression shifted sharply. It was not the vessel’s vast size that shook him, but the sudden sweep of at least ten overwhelming strands of divine consciousness. Each passed over Danxia Peak and then converged upon him in the same instant. That made his heart tremble violently. Though the sweep passed quickly and the intent was well concealed, the combined pressure of those ten mighty consciousnesses forced him back several steps against his will.

”President, what’s wrong?”

Sima Huiniang, who stood closest to Luo Chen, turned toward him in confusion. She stole a glance, and that was enough to drain the color from her face. She saw large beads of cold sweat rolling down his cheeks, and the seven steps he had retreated left deep marks into the ground.

The landing platform had been built from the finest materials, strong enough to endure the weight of massive flying vessels. What had happened to make the President lose composure like this?

Luo Chen raised his head with effort and forced a smile. ”It’s nothing.”

He pushed himself to utter those words in a casual manner, yet they pressed upon the heart like a mountain. He exhaled a long breath and straightened his back.

Was it truly nothing? Sima Huiniang’s face remained clouded with doubt.

At that moment, a young man flew out from the massive vessel. ”Mother, Mother! I’m here!”

Qin Yuanjiang descended onto the landing platform, his face full of joy as he grasped his mother’s hand.

Murong Qinglian shook her head with a smile. ”Are you truly this happy?”

”How could I not be, knowing I can stay by your side from now on?” Qin Yuanjiang replied, revealing a rare childlike side. ”Mother, have you packed your things?”

”Yes, everything is more or less ready.”

”Then let’s go!”

Qin Yuanjiang tugged at Murong Qinglian’s hand, ready to leave, but just as he took his first step, he suddenly stopped. He released her hand, clasped his fists, and bowed deeply to the members of the Luo Tian Society.

”All these years, you have taken great care of my mother. Thank you, everyone.” He then turned to Luo Chen and said, ”Uncle Luo, thank you!”

Luo Chen managed a faint smile. ”Go, and may your journey be smooth.”

Qin Yuanjiang nodded repeatedly before eagerly leading Murong Qinglian toward the massive spirit boat. Along the way, Murong Qinglian turned back again and again. At last, with her eyes reddened, she called out loudly, ”Everyone, this is where I take my leave. I will not forget you, nor will I forget the Luo Tian Society.”

On Danxia Peak, countless cultivators raised their voices in reply.

”Palace Leader Murong, safe journey!”

”Take care!”

”One day, if fate allows, we will meet again!”