An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Withered Toon’s name came from the opportunity behind its rise.

Deep within the mountains, there was once an ancient toon tree[1] that had lived for ages untold. Over time, it became sentient, and then embarked on a path of absorbing the essence of the sun and moon—the way of plants cultivating into spirits of nature.

Many thousands of years passed, and this great toon tree finally reached the peak of the third great stage of cultivation. It was only one step away from fourth-tier transformation and breaking free of its earthly bounds. Naturally, when the time came to take that final step, the great toon tree did not hesitate.

Yet the lightning tribulation that had the power to transform also had the power to destroy, and the great toon tree succumbed to the latter. Its spirit intelligence was obliterated and its body was shattered, rendering it nothing more than a third-tier husk. It was barely clinging to life in the mountains when a little Grayleaf Wolf stumbled upon it.

The wolf was young and weak; its spirit intelligence was barely half-awakened, and it was still acting purely on instinct. By sheer chance, it discovered this great toon tree struggling to survive. The instincts of a demonic beast told it that this tree was special; though it was obviously dead, the husk gave off an aura that made the wolf feel something beneficial. Thus, it made the great toon tree its home and dwelled within a hollow inside it.

As it turned out, its instincts were correct. Over the course of centuries, the demonic wolf advanced from the first tier to the second tier. It even condensed a demon core, refined its demonic power, and finally advanced to become a third-tier Wolf King. In remembrance of the opportunity it had found for cultivation, it named itself Withered Toon.

It believed that from then on, with heaven and earth spread wide before it, it could roam proudly through mountains and rivers. How would it ever expect that some despicable beasts that called themselves ”humans” would invade its territory in large numbers? And then, the new Heavenly Wolf that called itself Wolf Emperor Defiant Howl summoned it and others of its kin to battle, and Withered Toon joined the fight to defend its home.

Unfortunately, having grown accustomed to quiet cultivation over the centuries and lacking combat experience, it was captured alive by human cultivators after only two battles. Worse still, the human cultivators did something to its body that left it unable to move, unable to live or die as it wished.

At that time, it could roughly foresee its fate. It had been told about the human customs; it would most likely be purchased by someone and bound through methods used to enslave demonic beasts, reduced to either a mount or the guardian of a place. As for being killed, skinned, and consumed? That thought never crossed its mind. After all, it was a third-tier Demon King, and human cultivators would not waste it so casually.

That was fine. At least it would not die for now. It was humiliating, but as long as it could live and cultivate to the transformation stage, there was still a chance to escape the enemy’s control.

But Withered Toon had never expected that the human cultivator who bought it, a man who looked every bit like an upright and dignified expert, would act with such utter cruelty. He actually used it as a tool to cultivate sinister techniques!

Day after day, it sank into illusions. And within these illusions, there were not only pleasures, but also the deepest fears of the heart. Withered Toon’s already weak mind was on the verge of collapse. Over the past years, every time it saw Luo Chen, its body trembled uncontrollably, to the point where it wished the man would simply put an end to its misery.

When will this ever end? thought Withered Toon.

All of a sudden, it snapped out of it. Huh? Why did it end so fast?

”AHHHHHH......”

A low and painful sound came from not far away. Withered Toon sluggishly raised its head and saw the man it feared above all else. He was clutching his head with both hands, half-kneeling on the ground, and his entire body was trembling uncontrollably.

Withered Toon’s thoughts moved slowly at this point. He was unable to understand what was happening. Yet its limited memories gave rise to a vague guess. Something... happened to him while he was practicing that technique?

The moment this thought surfaced, a trace of hope gradually appeared in Withered Toon’s despairing eyes. It had restrictions placed on it and could not use demonic power, yet the body of a demonic beast was still powerful, and the restrictions did not achieve much in that respect. And the distance.... All it had to do was take a few steps and bite down on that man’s neck.

Gulp.

A clear swallowing sound came from its throat. Withered Toon was driven by survival instinct and the hope of escape. It shrunk its body down and started to creep step by step toward that man.

Close! So close now! One bite—just one bite...

It slowly opened its mouth, and a foul, bloody stench came out. But at the instant it was about to strike with lightning speed and kill Luo Chen in a single bite, the half-kneeling man raised his head and looked at it coldly.

”Vile beast!”

Luo Chen was pale as paper; bloody tears dripped down his cheeks, and black lines coiled across his body.

But there was also a pair of eyes... eyes beyond all description. They were like a cold abyss, yet also like a sky full of stars. Within them, moons rose and set, flowers bloomed and withered, and rippling water carried endless flickers of light and shadow.

With just one glance, Withered Toon’s mind fell and sank into illusion once more. Luo Chen covered his forehead with one hand while the other clenched distantly. Green flames burst from his fingertips and encircled the demonic wolf.

”I cannot keep you,” Luo Chen muttered.

He had originally planned to make use of this demonic beast and then enslave it with the Myriad Beast Sutra to guard the sect’s new estate. Yet even after enduring such torment, the beast still harbored the intent to devour its master. While he was absent in the future, there was no telling when it might turn its fangs on the Luo Tian Sect.

And it was not even a matter of if, but when—something had happened to him and he would need to enter seclusion right now. He would have no time to keep suppressing the wolf. Under such circumstances, killing it outright was the solution.

Under the terrifying incineration of the Withering-Flourishing True Fire, Withered Toon’s body trembled violently and expanded uncontrollably. The immense pain woke it from the illusion. Yet the moment it regained clarity, Luo Chen’s gaze fell upon it, and its mind sank back in once more. The cycle repeated again and again.

Within the valley, the massive fireball gradually shrank. The process only stopped when Luo Chen suddenly covered his eyes and let out a muffled grunt.

”Return!”

With this command, the Withering-Flourishing True Fire flowed back to its source. In that instant, vast life force poured forth from the flickering flame within his sea of qi. Bathed in this nourishment, his core began to spin rapidly, as if brimming with excitement.

Luo Chen’s body responded even more directly. The searing pain in his eyes eased noticeably under the wash of this rich life force. But he lacked the leisure to assess how much his body benefited from devouring a third-tier demonic beast; he quickly cast Cleanse over the valley, then immediately returned to his cave residence.

The moment he was back, he impatiently took out a bronze mirror and examined his eyes. There was no obvious change. Aside from his eyes seeming slightly darker, everything appeared the same as before.

Yet Luo Chen knew that many things had, in fact, changed. He now knew that he had truly practiced Mirror Flower Water Moon to the extreme. And he knew that because... it had merged into his eyes.

Such a phenomenon would have seemed utterly unbelievable to anyone else, but Luo Chen was not panicked at all. That was because he had experienced something similar back in the Qi Refinement Realm. At that time, he had cultivated the first-tier Spirit Eyes to the extreme, and it had taken root in his eyes.

Luo Chen sat cross-legged on a cushion and quietly observed the changes within his body. After a long while, he came to understand the cause of these changes.

The Spirit Eyes were, of course, the foundation. Over the past century, he had repeatedly nourished his eyes with Lustrous Pearl Essence, and whenever he obtained Clarity Essence from the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect, he used it on his eyes without the slightest hesitation. Although there was no major effect in daily life, this nourishment slowly created a solid foundation.

His extraordinary perception was not just due to his powerful divine consciousness; the fact that he could see incredibly far was also due to the sharpness of his actual vision. Moreover, when he inscribed the Concealment Veil Formation onto his body, he had even gone as far as to carve patterns into his very eyelids! With all these factors combined, and Mirror Flower Water Moon reaching Perfected Mastery, this change had occurred. It was unexpected, but it made sense.

I wonder how well the spell works now...

The thought brought Luo Chen back to the earlier scene, when he had burned the Grayleaf Wolf King alive. Under his relentless reinforcement of the illusion, the creature had shown almost no ability to resist and had been slowly incinerated without even being able to scream. That was truly terrifying! After all, that had been a third-tier demonic beast, a Demon King comparable to a human Adept!

Of course, this was also related to the restrictions placed on the Grayleaf Wolf King and the fact that it had been tormented continuously for over two years. Even so, it was still horrifying.

”This is different from the Spirit Eyes, though....

Indeed, this time, the change involved something Luo Chen could use in direct combat. He had to study the phenomenon carefully and fully grasp what had happened. Also, when he used it earlier, his eyes kept aching. It was almost as if his divine soul was being tugged along. It was unsettling, and he had to find the reason for that as well.

While muttering to himself, he took out two voice transmission talismans from his storage ring and left messages for Yao Mingyue and Yuan Xiaoyue. Once that was done, he entered seclusion once more.

1. Nothing to do with cartoons or web toons. Here’s an image of what a Chinese toon tree looks like. ☜