An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

That simple greeting carried endless bitterness. Luo Chen looked at the stunning young matron whose face was full of despair, and could not help but sigh to himself.

Back then, the cultivators from Dahe Market had fled to Taishan Market like refugees. They had been forced into bowing and scraping in front of the three local powers. But if it had been only that, he could have let it go. After all, people living under another’s roof had no choice but to lower their heads. However, when Luo Chen had led his people away from Taishan Market to seek another path, the Huo family had refused to let the matter drop. Their young master Huo Hu had contacted Wang Haichao, the rogue cultivator Tu Shan, the Bai family of Glowing Stream Market, as well as this very Yu Rou, to pursue them and kill them. That battle had been incomparably perilous. The Nangong family had been brought nearly to ruin, the Luo Tian Society had suffered grievous losses, and many people Luo Chen had known well had died in that very fight.

Among his enemies from back then, Wang Haichao and Tu Shan had died on the spot. The Huo family had later been annihilated by Luo Chen and Wang Yuan. The Bai family of Glowing Stream Market had also become nothing more than a smoke of the past. Now, only the head of the Yu family remained.

While Luo Chen pondered how he should deal with this woman, the people on the Yu family’s side felt just as restless and uneasy. They could all feel the spirit pressure Luo Chen had not bothered to conceal. Even a faint trace was enough to make them almost unable to breathe.

Yu Rou swept her gaze across the faces fixed on her and finally gritted her teeth as she said, ”Senior Dan Chenzi, have you set your sights on my Splendid Wing Mountain? If that is the case, I am willing to hand it over.”

Luo Chen smiled. So she wanted to goad him with words, to force him into giving people an excuse to accuse him of bullying the weak. In that case...

”Are you truly willing to hand it over?” he asked back with a soft laugh.

Yu Rou’s expression froze. This was not what she had imagined at all. Did they not say that Luo Chen was a magnanimous gentleman, the kind that repaid resentment with virtue and lifted past grudges high only to set them down gently?

Just as she found herself at a loss, Luo Chen suddenly curled his lips. ”Forget it. A trifling second-tier spirit vein is hardly worth my attention. I merely came today to watch the spectacle with some old friends. You may carry on.”

Once he said this, Yu Rou relaxed at once. There had been a few twists, but everything still fell within the bounds of what she could accept. This way, the enemy they had to face would still only be Kang Dongyue and his cronies. With their current strength, they indeed had some chance of fighting it out.

However, when she turned to seek support from her allies, she suddenly noticed that the two grand cultivators who had stood beside her earlier had quietly stepped several paces back.

Yu Rou snapped out of her shock and fully took in the scene. Her face twisted with both anger and disbelief, and she nearly shouted, ”You...”

The two grand cultivators only shook their heads at her, and one of them sent a voice transmission. ”Do not fall into Dan Chenzi’s trap. Did you not hear him call Kang Dongyue an old friend? If things truly come to a life and death struggle, you don’t actually think he would just sit and watch, do you?”

The other also spoke with concern, ”Those extra Initiates on the Kang family’s side are clearly the forces of another Adept. This battle will be anything but simple. It is obviously two Adepts using the Kang family as their proxy to deal with us.”

They exchanged a glance, then spoke in tacit agreement. ”It is only a single spirit land. Business can be done elsewhere. There is no reason to risk our lives here.”

With that, they did not linger for even a moment. They retreated into the crowd and called for their family’s cultivators to withdraw from Splendid Wing Mountain. Yu Rou stared blankly at this scene. I was prepared to fight to the death. So why did they surrender just like that?

After that exchange, only two Initiates remained on the Yu family’s side, along with two second-tier demonic beasts. With such a lineup, there was no way they could contend against Kang Dongyue.

The voice transmissions among the three had seemed secret to them, but in Luo Chen’s ears they might as well have been shouts. He watched the scene with a faint smile. The situation mirrored the Danxia defensive battle from years ago; the only real differences lay in the fact that he had outside reinforcements back then, and the Luo Tian Society had possessed the resolve to fight to the death. Without that resolve, defending one’s ancestral land was nothing but a joke.

Yu Rou soon realized she had become an object of ridicule. Her face shifted between pale and flushed, and she started to tremble. In the eyes of others, the sight could not help but stir a feeling of pity for a delicate beauty.

But Kang Dongyue remained utterly unmoved. He stepped forward, and the spirit power of a fifth-stage Initiate surged out in full force. ”Fellow Daoist Yu Rou, will you yield Splendid Wing Mountain or not?”

The force of the question shook Yu Rou’s mind, and she retreated three steps. In her confusion, she looked toward her family cultivators. In every pair of eyes, there was not a trace of fighting spirit. With that, she could only give a bitter smile. ”In that case, it will be yours.”

Kang Dongyue nodded. ”Very well. I will give you three days to withdraw from Splendid Wing Mountain, in honor of the two centuries our families have lived side by side.”

Yu Rou let out a strained smile, shook her head, and prepared to return to the mountain. The onlookers, seeing that no battle would break out after all, also prepared to disperse. Yet just as the scene seemed ready to end, that warm and gentle voice from earlier sounded again.

”This spectacle is over, but as for the matter between you and me, Yu Rou, I am afraid we still have a few things to discuss.”

Yu Rou’s expression changed dramatically, and she turned back. ”Senior Dan Chenzi, what do you intend to do?”

The smile on Luo Chen’s face faded. ”The battle on Gaoling Plains remains vivid in my memory. You have not forgotten it, have you?”

As he spoke, he reached out toward the empty air with one hand. A massive palm projection appeared out of nowhere and suddenly closed in on Yu Rou.

Its momentum was immense, as if intent on suppressing heaven and earth. However, it was not all that incredibly fast. In terror, Yu Rou hastily moved aside. She managed to evade it, but the spirit beast beneath her feet let out a wail and trembled violently as the palm closed around it.

Squeech...

Yu Rou’s face was filled with fear. In that instant just now, she had truly felt the terror of death. ”Senior, I can at least say that I did not personally strike at you back then. For you to treat me this way now, does it not diminish your prestige as an Adept?”

Luo Chen let out a cold laugh. ”You should be grateful you did not attack me back then. Otherwise, that palm just now would have taken your life. Your little pet will serve as compensation.”

Yu Rou opened her mouth, yet for a moment no words came. He clearly did not intend to kill her, but the severity of the warning was undeniable. Such was the way of the cultivation world. Even if those at high realms did not bully the weak openly, juniors were in no position to run wild and humiliate their seniors.

It was just that the Verdant-Feather Whitehawk had been her companion spirit beast since childhood. Over the years, while her own cultivation advanced slowly, she had poured her efforts into nurturing it and raising it to the late stage of the second tier, with strength comparable to a late-stage Initiate. Demonic beasts had long lifespans, and combat power like this was more than enough to become a guardian beast passed down through generations. To give it up like this...

In the end, the woman could only bow with a mouthful of bitterness. ”Thank you for sparing my life.”

With these words, she returned to Splendid Wing Mountain, but even though she lived, she looked as if her soul had left her body.

In Taishan Market, many cultivators stared in a daze at what had just happened. None of them had expected there to be grudges between the head of the Yu family and the illustrious Dan Chenzi. From the looks of it, it seemed this Senior Dan Chenzi had been magnanimous enough not to hold a petty person’s faults against her and had spared Yu Rou.

The onlookers’ hearts swelled with curiosity. They wished they could dig out every last detail of what had happened back then and savor it slowly, thoroughly, and cleanly.