An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

”This is... Myriad Path Convergence? Didn’t you already give me a copy of this before?” Wang Yuan asked in confusion.

Luo Chen smiled faintly and said, ”This one is different. It’s a new version I worked on during seclusion. The application of blood qi is still somewhat crude, but the external methods of physique tempering have been greatly refined. It may serve as a useful reference for you.”

Wang Yuan’s heart trembled. The earlier version had already been extraordinary, and now it had been improved further?

He sent his spirit consciousness into the jade slip, skimming its contents, and soon discovered the areas that had been improved. They were the chapters for Blood Replacement, Bone Tempering, and Armor Transformation. The chapters on Meridian Unblocking and Aperture Opening had also been expanded, with one or two new alternative approaches to Wang Yuan’s earlier theories.

As Wang Yuan browsed, Luo Chen explained calmly, ”My physique reached a form of the third tier long ago, but I could not advance further. You know the reason for that. Now that I have completed this technique, I finally have a framework to follow. If I can achieve major mastery in Blood Replacement, temper my bones to their limit, and manifest my life-bound scales, then my physique may advance to a level comparable to the fourth-tier archaic wild beasts.”

Wang Yuan listened silently. He did not refute it. Instead, he compared the contents within the jade slip with his own knowledge and nodded in genuine approval. Indeed, if one could complete nine cycles of Blood Replacement and temper every bone in the body, the body would return to its most primal form, stepping onto the cultivation path once trodden by the archaic wild beasts.

As for manifesting so-called life-bound scales, that was naturally not a standard human thing; the method drew inspiration from the life-bound true feathers of rocs and reverse scales of serpents, pythons, and flood dragons.

However, he shook his head and said, ”Tempering the physique might benefit from such insights, but I’m attempting to condense a core and cultivate true fortified qi. It has little use for me.”

After fully comprehending the transformations of blood qi, a Physique Refinement cultivator who stepped into the third realm had to embark upon the path of fortified qi. The power of this qi would rival the mana of an Adept, and it was also the reason Physique Refinement cultivators would gain a substantial increase in lifespan upon entering the third realm.

Wang Yuan had assumed Luo Chen did not understand these principles. He had not expected that Luo Chen had already prepared for this.

”This version of Myriad Path Convergence is for your reference. More importantly, I want you to refine and simplify it so that you can better instruct Zeng Yilong,” Luo Chen said evenly.

Wang Yuan was taken aback.

Luo Chen continued, ”In my view, the path of Core Condensation and generating fortified qi is not so different from a cultivator forming the Golden Core.”

On the physical path, Core Condensation required merging blood qi with one’s will to give rise to indestructible fortified qi. On the spirit path, Core Formation meant fusing spirit power with the divine soul to produce inexhaustible mana. The two differed in nature, yet resembled each other in form.

Therefore, another jade slip was placed into Wang Yuan’s hand.

”What is this?” he asked.

”This is my own creation. It is a Supreme Path Core Formation art I called the Fine Dust Primordial Art,” Luo Chen said calmly.

For a moment, the ever-composed Wang Yuan stood completely frozen. His eyes were wide open as he stared at the jade slip in his hands. He swallowed hard and disbelief filled his face. ”A Supreme Path art?”

In the cultivation world, even an ordinary Lower Path art would fetch an enormous price at auction. As for an Upper Path art, any and all rogue cultivators would risk their lives to fight and seize it. Yet Luo Chen had actually created a Supreme Path art of his own? If such news were ever to spread, it would shake the entire cultivation world!

”With my aptitude, the usual Core Formation arts could not bring me to a breakthrough. So I did the same thing I did when I created Myriad Path Convergence. I drew on other Core Formation arts and created my own. On that foundation, I succeeded in forming my core, and I am living proof of its effectiveness.”

Every single word of his emanated immense confidence. From Wang Yuan’s perspective, that confidence felt strangely familiar. It was the same kind of aura he himself had once carried and still carried even now!

Both jade slips in his hands contained techniques personally created by Luo Chen, while the shelves around them were lined with manuals of third-tier cultivation techniques. As he looked at them, Wang Yuan understood what that aura of confidence was. It was the bearing of a grandmaster! To gather all that one had learned, forge a method of one’s own, and establish a sect—that was what defined a grandmaster!

Before anybody knew it, the little rogue cultivator selling red pills[1] at a roadside stall had risen to the level of a grandmaster, even surpassing the elder brother who had once guided him.

The ways of the world are unpredictable, always catching people unprepared.

Still, Luo Chen had no intention of flaunting his success before a friend. He quickly added, ”This method was created specifically for me. Its requirements and restrictions are far too severe for anyone else to cultivate.”

Wang Yuan could not help nodding. Even at a glance, he could see how demanding the requirements were. Those without an Adept-level physique could not practice it. Those without an Adept-level divine soul could not practice it. Those without titanic spirit power reserves could not practice it. And those with an unstable foundation could not practice it either.

Such a list of requirements made it clear that this art was not even meant for Initiates at all; aside from Adepts, who could possibly meet all those conditions? Yet for Adepts who had already formed their core, what use would the art have? Thus, while the Fine Dust Primordial Art was indeed a Supreme Path to form a core, it was one few could truly make use of.

Of course, he had not yet examined it in detail; perhaps there were insights he could still draw from it.

In truth, that was exactly what Luo Chen intended. The Fine Dust Primordial Art had been created through the fusion of five arts. Among them were Transcending Cage and Primordial Convergence, which contained elements borrowed from the path of Physique Refinement. It also contained Stilling Wind and Waves, a secret art for tempering the will. If Wang Yuan could grasp the principle within, he would surely gain plenty. After Luo Chen explained his reasoning, Wang Yuan found himself increasingly expectant toward the art.

”Brother Wang, if you have time to work on it and reduce it to the level of an Upper Path or even Middle Path Core Formation art, it would be a great blessing for the Luo Tian Sect,” Luo Chen said.

Wang Yuan nodded. If it could be simplified, then it could be practiced by the sect’s Initiates. In that case, the Luo Tian Sect would possess a Core Formation art of its own, and perhaps, in a century or two, it would give rise to its own Adepts with no external help. They would cultivate using their own arts, and fight using their own arts!

For a long moment, they fell into a daze, seemingly sharing the same vision for the future. But suddenly, Wang Yuan shook his head as if he were trying to shake something off his mind. Under Luo Chen’s puzzled gaze, he asked soberly, ”Luo Chen... Have you strayed?”

Strayed? Luo Chen was taken aback. For a moment, he didn’t understand what Wang Yuan meant.Yet when he followed Wang Yuan’s intense gaze down from the fourth floor to the first, clarity came to him.

Had he strayed from the true path of cultivation? When he first left Dahe Market, Wang Yuan had warned him about exactly this. Building an organization was fine, gathering cultivation resources through it was natural, but one must not become obsessed.

”We cultivators pursue eternity. All else is illusion!”

Wang Yuan was not wrong, but... times had changed! Luo Chen gave a bitter smile. ”It isn’t that I’ve strayed, but that I’ve come to understand a different truth. These men and women have fought beside me, they’ve given me everything they had. How could I turn my back on them?”

Wang Yuan could understand, yet he could not entirely agree.

”Attachments, bonds, family, and friends... As long as it’s within my power, I’ll always do something for them and always leave something behind,” Luo Chen said softly.

Wang Yuan frowned. He disliked such thinking most of all. It was attachments like these that had once driven Luo Chen to storm Incense Burning Valley in vengeance. Without such burdens, even if the Flame Alliance had been ten times stronger, he could have withdrawn, cultivated in seclusion for centuries, and sought vengeance later, with no misgivings.

”You think I have changed, and that is not wrong, but it’s not only me who has changed. Everyone else has, too,” Luo Chen said quietly. He suddenly fixed his gaze on Wang Yuan. ”If I happen to be surrounded by enemies and about to die before your eyes, what will you do? If your disciple Zeng Yilong is trapped and helpless, will you stand aside and do nothing?”

Wang Yuan fell silent. After a pause, he replied hesitantly, ”If it is within my ability, I will act.”

Luo Chen smiled faintly and waved a hand. ”You thought about it and you hesitated. That means if it truly happened, your instinct would lead you to help. Brother Wang, I know you well enough, and I am sure you’d stand with us.”

The man across from him looked a little bewildered. Had he changed as well?

Luo Chen did not stop there. Perhaps after years of seclusion, the chest of long-buried words within him had finally been opened, and closing it just like that would not feel right.

”We chase eternity. We seek to become immortals. But what is an immortal? Nothing more than one person with a mountain to call their own.[2] Disciples of great sects have their spirit mountains and rivers to rely upon, but what of us rogue cultivators? In this brutal world, a lone rogue cultivator drifts like duckweed. We are like a bunch of ants at the mercy of a tumultuous river. To speak of spirit mountains is absurd; even a patch of ground to stand on is hard to claim. To gather together, to support and teach one another—that is the proper path forward. Of course, this may be only my view. I have poured much of myself into the Luo Tian Society, and I cannot simply abandon it now.”

Wang Yuan gave a soft hum and stopped pressing Luo Chen to change his mind. Everyone had their own pursuits; even those who sought the same goal of immortality might walk vastly different paths. Moreover, had he himself not benefited over the years from the resources the Luo Tian Society provided? To judge Luo Chen by the old ideals would be utter hypocrisy.

At that moment, Luo Chen shifted the conversation. ”Although these two manuals are just ordinary copies, they are extremely important. I have set divine consciousness seals upon them. In a moment, I will extract a sliver of spirit consciousness from you and from Huiniang. From then on, only the Succession Palace Leader and the Sect Leader will be able to open them. When a worthy disciple appears, if I am absent, you two will decide whether to allow them to learn these arts. If an outsider attempts to seize them, then destroy them.”

Wang Yuan gave a quiet grunt of assent and committed his words to memory. After all, this was his duty as the leader of the Succession Palace. As they concluded their discussion, hurried footsteps echoed from outside. Moments later, Min Longyu appeared before them.

”Forgive me, I’m a little late,” he said.

”It is fine,” Luo Chen said with a smile.

He patted Min Longyu’s shoulder. He was well aware that the man had been running himself ragged preparing for the Core Formation Ceremony three months away. Luo Chen gestured toward the shelves behind him. ”I’ll be troubling you with what comes next.”

Min Longyu’s eyes lit up, and he quickly said, ”No trouble at all, no trouble at all!”

As one of the Luo Tian Sect’s most vital grounds, the library could hardly be left without protection. At the very least, every good cultivation manual required its own defensive formation, lest it be touched by unworthy hands.

Luo Chen had brought forth an enormous collection this time, and Min Longyu would no doubt be busy for quite some time. As he left the two of them to discuss the formations, he turned and descended the stairs. From the fourth floor down to the first, his steps grew lighter and lighter.

Every manual on every shelf was either memorized in full or cultivated to major mastery. Now they rested high upon the shelves, no longer within reach. Yet it was not an act of abandonment; rather, it brought him a strange sense of calm and clarity.

”The higher you climb, the more you see of the road ahead, and there’s always a higher peak to reach!”

1. Remember that Myriad Wonder Pills are red. Luo Chen is not a red pill bro. ☜

2. A reminder that the character for ”immortal” 仙 consists of a human 人 next to a mountain 山. ☜