An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Inside a secluded gorge, Ethereal Rivers stood with his hands behind his back. His masked face angled toward the unusual terrain. If a formation was set here and a battle fought with the land as an advantage, even an ordinary Adept would find escape nearly impossible. Suddenly, his eyes shifted.

A figure clawed his way up from underground and spat a mouthful of blood the moment he emerged. Ethereal Rivers’ brows drew together. ”What happened to you? Don’t tell me a little Initiate got you looking like this.”

The Daoist looked utterly wretched; his robe was scorched through. He wiped the blood from his lips and growled, ”Why don’t you try killing that little Initiate yourself?”

Ethereal Rivers studied him for a moment before asking, ”Was it Dan Chenzi?”

The Daoist shuddered at the memory. ”Yes. His mastery of fire arts lives up to the rumor. His cultivation isn’t all that high, yet a single spell nearly killed me.”

”Did he see your face?”

”No chance. We were far apart. My defensive enchanted treasure shattered and the pieces are still there, but that’s the only trace.”

There were practically innumerable enchanted artifacts and treasures around, and many of them shared the same design and maker. A shattered remnant alone would never reveal the identity of the owner.

Ethereal Rivers let out a quiet breath. ”Good. Wang Yuan ruined my pavilion’s reputation in Moonbreak. If he keeps strutting around, our business will suffer. So tell me, is he dead?”

The Daoist hesitated. Under Ethereal Rivers’ darkening stare, he quickly replied, ”He must be dead. Surely you trust the methods of the Hundred-Loss Daoist?”

Ethereal Rivers gave a soft grunt. Hundred-Loss did not excel in open combat, and his cultivation was nothing remarkable, yet his assassination skills ranked among the best. In Pearl-Returning Pavilion, he was one of five Gold-class assassins. To send him after Wang Yuan was already using a butcher’s knife to kill a chicken. If he failed, Ethereal Rivers truly would have to consider casting him out of the pavilion.

”That is enough. Go back and recover.”

Hundred-Loss hesitated. ”Dan Chenzi holds grudges. I harmed one of his men. I doubt he will let this go.”

”And what if he doesn’t let it go?” Ethereal Rivers scoffed. ”It’s fine. His mind is not on grudges right now. He will not come after us. Besides... when has Pearl-Returning Pavilion feared trouble?”

***

Inside a vast cavern saturated with spirit energy beneath Snow Wolf Plateau, Luo Chen shifted his hands through intricate seals and cast every medical spell he knew. At the end, he gritted his teeth and spent achievement points to learn a secret technique he had exchanged from Jin Buque of the Five Elements Divine Sect. It was one designed to purge foreign mana.

It was called the Dragon Slaying Art—the evil dragon to be slayed, of course, was a metaphor for the negative influences that plagued cultivators. It was a fourth-tier art, and Luo Chen had spent half a million to acquire it, but its effects were exceptional. Beyond purging foreign mana, once cultivated to major mastery, it could even cleanse ghostly yin qi and corrosive fiend qi.

Luo Chen kept one copy for himself and gave another to Chu Kui. He found its workings similar to Cleanse, which was rather fortunate. He had planned to learn it slowly in the normal way, but with Wang Yuan’s life hanging by a thread, he no longer had the luxury of time. But he had attained Perfected Mastery of Cleanse. That gave him a foundation, and reaching Beginner level had cost him only twenty achievement points. That was still within his limits.

Pure mana surged from his core, following a unique pattern as it cut apart the insidious mana hidden within Wang Yuan.

After several hours of this, a thin wisp of black qi finally rose upon Wang Yuan’s face; a moment later, he spat out a mouthful of pitch black blood. The instant it splattered onto the stone floor, the blood corroded the stone with a sharp hiss and bubbling pits. Seeing this, Luo Chen finally allowed himself a breath of relief.

”How do you feel?”

Wang Yuan opened his eyes weakly. A grin spread across his face, and he revealed stark white teeth. ”I feel... wonderful!”

”Huh?”

”I understand how to gather will and embrace the core now.”

”I... see?” Luo Chen found himself at a loss for words. Yet this was not the time to discuss breakthroughs. He spoke directly. ”There are many matters I still need to handle. You require rest, and I cannot keep expending mana on you.”

”I know.”

”As for that person...”

Wang Yuan pressed a fingertip to his chest. ”Let them be. Once I step into the Furnace Realm, I will handle the matter myself.”

”As long as you know your limits. If you need help, call me when the time comes,” said Luo Chen with a nod.

After leaving Wang Yuan some healing pills, he stepped out of the cavern. By the time he reached the battered expanse of Snow Wolf Plateau, a crowd was already moving toward him. Diwu Qi and the others closed in at once.

”How is Wang Yuan?”

”He is fine. His life is no longer in danger.”

Luo Chen did not mention that Wang Yuan had gained a breakthrough opportunity through misfortune. There was no need to. He simply explained that Wang Yuan would remain at Snow Wolf Plateau to recuperate, and no one objected. In this battle, Wang Yuan had taken on a third-tier demonic beast head-on and proved himself capable of Adept-level combat strength.

Fu Jiusheng felt a stab of guilt. He had been wholly focused on suppressing the wolf king and failed to guard against the ambush. A man who had just fought at his side had nearly lost his life because of that lapse, and the thought weighed heavily on him.

Diwu Qi was far less sentimental. He asked at once, ”What do we do next?”

The moon hung high, and blood mingled with snow. It gave off a sickening stench. At the foot of the mountain, streaks of light shuttled back and forth as cultivators cleared the battlefield. Whenever Luo Chen’s gaze met theirs, they paused and bowed respectfully. It was not only the Luo Tian Sect cultivators who acted this way; even those of the Cen family and Stormwind Manor did the same. At the start of the battle, Luo Chen had blocked the attacks of the three third-tier demonic wolves alone to protect the weaker cultivators. Everyone had seen it.

Luo Chen finally looked away from the battlefield and said, ”There is no time to waste. Snow Wolf Plateau is secured. Our next target is Dream Return Ridge.”

Their spirits lifted at once. They had already confirmed that Snow Wolf Plateau housed a small but supreme-grade third-tier spirit vein. It was enough to sustain three Adepts over the long term. If they also secured Dream Return Ridge and Azure Iron Mountain, their future cultivation would never again suffer from shortage of energy.

Luo Chen began issuing orders. Cen Qiusheng would stay here with the cultivators of the alliance to ensure Snow Wolf Plateau stayed in their hands. Fu Jiusheng would also remain behind to arrange formations and draw on the earth veins in preparation for shifting the mountain.

Diwu Qi and Jiang Yu would accompany Luo Chen aboard the Crimson Flame Dragon Boat toward Dream Return Ridge. He chose these two because the three of them had fought side by side recently and already developed some chemistry. With the alliance pact in place, there was no need to worry about treachery.

The three boarded the Crimson Flame Dragon Boat. Xu Haizhen did not hesitate and immediately directed the Luo Tian Sect cultivators to power up the massive vessel. Under the cover of night, the enormous flying boat turned and sped southward.

***

Within the quiet chamber, Luo Chen examined his own state. After the fierce battle and the healing session, he still had more than half of his mana reserve left. His enchanted treasures also remained mostly intact; the Mystic Flame Sword and the Three Piercing Nails were undamaged, and only the Heavenly Moon Purple Gold Wheel had suffered some harm while carving apart the Snow Wolf King. The filth clinging to it from Jiang Yu’s Rain Summoning Banner had also damaged its spirituality somewhat.

Fortunately, Jiang Yu had acted honorably and sent over the purging solution. Luo Chen now sprinkled the solution over the crescent wheel and observed its spirituality slowly start to stir. It would take it quite a while to return to its peak, but that was inevitable. Such set-type enchanted treasures held tremendous power, yet were difficult to control and easily damaged.

”I will have to request an artifact creator from Skysail City to repair it later...”

Luo Chen put the wheel away, and two top-grade spirit stones appeared in his hand. He used his core cultivation technique to draw in spirit energy, then began converting it into mana.

Time slipped by quietly...

At dawn, Diwu Qi’s voice came from outside. ”Fellow Daoist, we have reached Dream Return Ridge!”

Luo Chen opened his eyes. A sharp light flashed and vanished. His figure rose like a passing breeze as he drifted out of the chamber.