An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

In an instant, Luo Chen roared and unleashed the Sky Roc Transformation without hesitation.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The world was filled with sound as streaks of sword light howled across the sky. Metallic brilliance rained down in endless torrents, blade after blade tearing through the wind. The shrill shrieks of the swords echoed through the snowy peaks, chilling the heart and soul.

After unleashing three consecutive killing strikes, He Lianyun was utterly spent; his body was drained, his spirit power exhausted, his soul weary. Gasping for breath, he stood upon the ground, his weathered eyes locked tightly on the heart of the storm where countless sword energies were converging.

”Luo Chen... you forced me to this,” he muttered through clenched teeth. ”If you had simply surrendered the Nether Origin Pills, none of this would have been necessary.”

He reached out to recall the three nails. But as he prepared to recall the golden brick, unease twisted through his heart. ”Even Golden Core cultivators struggled to kill him... can a mere Jade Cauldron Sword Sect talisman really finish him off?”

Muttering under his breath, he sent the golden brick hurtling toward the spot in the sky where the blood mist was still dispersing. Yet in the next moment—

Boom!

A colossal claw slammed forward. With a single strike, the golden brick was smashed deep into the nearby mountain. The deafening impact seemed to awaken something hidden within the land. The heavens and earth rumbled in response; it sounded like thunder, yet also like the collapse of mountains.

Before He Lianyun could even discern the source of the sound, the sight before him made his heart tremble in terror.

Above the skies, the sword energy had dissipated, and the heavens cleared. Only a single colossal, blood-soaked figure filled his vision.

Luo Chen’s voice boomed like thunder from the heavens. ”Grand Elder Lianyun, I have already held you in high regard, yet it seems your foundation still exceeds my estimation. But everything ends here!”

In the next instant, a massive claw formed of condensed blood qi descended with overwhelming might. He Lianyun gritted his teeth and waved his hand, sending three streaks of black light shooting toward the enormous figure.

Armor-Piercing Nail, hit! Qi-Disrupting Nail, hit! Soul-Breaking Nail... missed!

The first two nails had struck true, and under normal circumstances, He Lianyun would have been in joy. Yet in front of that towering beast with a ten-zhang wingspan, the black nails appeared as insignificant as grains of sand. Even if a nail was sharp and tough enough to pierce a mountain, what damage could it do to the mountain?

As dread crept into He Lianyun’s heart, the giant claw reached down from the clouds and seized his body with irresistible force. The enchanted treasure Marsh Gui Diagram was still wrapped around him, preventing the claw from destroying his body, but that was the best it could do.

Whoooosh...

A fierce wind howled across the sky as the massive claw slowly withdrew, leaving the air trembling in its wake. A pair of eyes, each the size of a large lantern, fixed upon He Lianyun’s weathered face, meeting his eyes.

One gaze was cold and merciless; the other flickered with panic and despair.

”He Lianyun, you are the first Initiate to force me into revealing the true form of the Sky Roc. I hope you feel honored; not everyone is qualified to die beneath my Sky-Piercing Divine Claw.”

As he spoke, the giant claw began to tighten once more. An overwhelming pressure crushed down upon the Marsh Gui Diagram, the defensive treasure groaning beneath the weight. He Lianyun opened his mouth but could not utter a sound. He desperately channeled all the spirit power within him, struggling to sustain the treasure’s protection.

Pfft!

A rain of blood drifted through the air. Luo Chen caught the scroll between his fingers and unhesitatingly stowed it into his storage pouch, along with the three nails. There was no time for reflection. He turned and drew his gaze to the distance, where the towering snow peak behind him began to collapse with a thunderous roar.

It was not a landslide but an avalanche!

That was the source of the earlier rumble. The battle’s sheer intensity, the clash of power that had torn through heaven and earth, had awakened the wrath of nature itself, an avalanche. Now, the snow that had accumulated for countless years was crashing down in waves. Unimaginable masses of snow surged and wove through the air like massive snow dragons.

Like dragons? No... more like snakes!

What made Luo Chen’s expression turn grim was not the avalanche itself. What truly chilled his heart was the sight of countless black-ringed giant pythons roaring within the avalanche. The foremost among them stood out instantly even amid the raging white tide—it was several dozen zhang in length! Its vertical pupils burned with fury, and the oppressive might radiating from it made Luo Chen’s breath catch cold in his chest.

”I should have known! From the moment the battle began in that underground cavern, there was no way the Snow Pythons wouldn’t notice. And now, the damn Python King has awakened from hibernation! This is going to be troublesome!”

Luo Chen’s keen vision revealed every detail of what was going on before him. Upon the Seven-Ring Snow Python King’s massive body flickered a faint, emerging eighth ring. That was the sign of an impending breakthrough!

A faint, bitter smile curved across Luo Chen’s enormous face, though beneath that fleeting expression lay nothing but ruthless resolve. His massive wings flapped once, and he soared even higher into the air. His claws moved with startling agility as one incantation after another left his mouth.

This time, he did not rely on artifact control, but on the purest and most complete form of spellcasting. His crimson form blazed with light, and immense currents of spirit power poured forth from within. At the same time, tendrils of verdant green flame twined around his fingertips.

In the distance, the Seven-Ring Snow Python King seethed with fury. The Nine-Pattern Snakespit Fruit it had been carefully raising for years had been stolen! Not only that, but even the tree that bore it had been destroyed! That fruit had been its key to advancing to the eighth ring, perhaps even reaching the ninth and breaking the shackles of its bloodline!

The serpents cried, ”Humans! It’s a human! It looks like a Blazing Cloud Roc, but it’s a human!”

A faint and elusive aura pointed the way, revealing the true location of its enemy. In rage, the king released its overwhelming, majestic aura to the fullest, stirring its entire kin into action.

The Python King bellowed, ”Capture the human! I’ll make him beg for death!”

Suddenly, its vertical pupils dilated as an overwhelming sensation of danger crept into its mind. Its instincts told it that a great calamity was imminent. Without hesitation, it coiled itself into a tight ball, and from all directions, countless Snow Pythons swarmed in and wrapped around it. A colossal ”snowball” formed atop the mountain.

At that very moment, a cold voice echoed from the heavens.

”Landslide!”

Boom!

A deafening blast shook heaven and earth, and the momentum of the earlier avalanche turned into the power of a landslide. The ground convulsed, snow surged like waves, and the towering peak violently burst apart!

Within that chaos, streaks of verdant flame swept outward, sublimating snow into steam and melting stone into lava. Rivers of jade-green lava cascaded down the slopes, devouring everything in their path. Wherever it went, pythons wailed in pain.

The massive sphere of snow that shielded the Python King began to shrink rapidly, revealing the Seven-Ring Snow Python again. Across its snowy scales, seven black rings and a light gray one writhed. The final, half-formed eighth ring, still unstable, dissolved under the touch of the flame, and... once again, the Seven-Ring Snow Python was nothing but the same Seven-Ring Snow Python. It was alive, yes, but the price it had paid for it was unbearable.

”Human, I want you dead!” The Python King’s roar rolled through the mountains, half like a dragon’s bellow, half like a serpent’s hiss. Its massive body surged forward, sweeping up a thousand waves of snow, paying no heed to the cries of its dying kin as it chased relentlessly after the fleeing crimson figure.