An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Finally, Luo Chen’s life-bound treasure was complete. The weight settling within his sea of qi gave Luo Chen’s path of cultivation a newfound sense of solidity. This feeling was something the Mystic Flame Sword, the Moonbreak Wings, and similar treasures could not compare to. Even the Forsaken Chess Piece, which he had refined and nurtured for the longest time, did not come close to the Primordial Unity Cauldron.

Naturally, during the time that followed, Luo Chen devoted himself wholeheartedly to studying this life-bound treasure.

Just as Heaven Smelter had said, this Primordial Unity Cauldron was refined according to the Green Pill Valley’s blueprints. However, because too many raw materials had been added, its power diverged greatly from the original. The moment it took shape, it instantly became top grade. Even across Heaven Smelter’s entire artifact creation career, this counted as an absolute masterpiece.

More importantly, at the final stage, with the involvement of Han Zhan and Azure Frost, this treasure had gained some effects that were difficult to clearly define. Luo Chen was still exploring them bit by bit. And he was not the only one exploring them—Heaven Smelter was also researching the cauldron together with him.

***

”The basic functions are no problem at all. In fact, this cauldron isn’t just for refining pills. You can use it to refine artifacts, nurture Gu, or nourish spirits—it’ll handle all of that easily. As for combat, I think there’s a lot of untapped potential there. The combat techniques to wield cauldrons, furnaces, and tower-type enchanted treasures are more or less the same. The crudest way is simply to throw it and smash your opponent. A more refined approach is to nurture special substances inside, such as fiend qi, divine water, fortified wind, or raging flames. On their own, those things are hard for cultivators to control. But when you use a life-bound treasure as a medium, they can become extremely effective killing moves. You’ve probably seen it before. Remember Qin Tairan of the Flame Alliance? He nurtured a whole stock of high-quality Flame Yang True Fiend inside his Taiyang Furnace. You can learn a thing or two from that.”

Luo Chen committed these words to memory. He already knew some similar methods. The Blazing Fire Miasma, for instance, used fiend qi to attack. However, it inflicted excessive damage on the body, making it difficult for him to use it directly under normal circumstances. Usually, he could only employ it after transforming into the Sky Roc True Form. If he were to nurture the Blazing Fire Miasma within the Primordial Unity Cauldron in the future, he would be able to deploy it in battle at any time.

”The more advanced attacks are a bit more profound. They boil down to three things: suppression, imprisonment, and binding. The names say it all—press them down, lock them in, and hold them fast. The first two aren’t hard. Green Pill Valley has records on how they work. You can follow those as a reference and figure them out yourself. However, the binding effect is a bit different.

”That’s something I designed myself after studying the Demon-Locking Pagoda. With Han Zhan’s understanding of the divine soul and Azure Frost’s grasp of void laws, we managed to put it together, although it was in a rush. Because of that, your life-bound treasure can even seize a cultivator’s divine soul. Of course, this aspect still needs a lot of work on your end. Right now, it’s nowhere near the Demon-Locking Pagoda. But if you keep refining and nurturing it over time, I believe it has the potential to surpass that.”

Heaven Smelter explained these matters patiently and in detail. Luo Chen listened with great care, his heart filled with anticipation for the future of the Primordial Unity Cauldron.

After forming the core, a cultivator’s divine soul gained a proper anchor, something it could use to survive for a long time. When an Adept was defeated in battle and their physical body destroyed, they could pour the divine soul into the core and flee several li in an instant. However, Adepts were all extremely fast in the first place, which made it unrealistic to rely on the Golden Core alone to evade pursuit by enemies of the same tier. Luo Chen had seen this himself. This method only truly revealed its full power after one advanced to the Nascent Soul Realm.

Luo Chen had also witnessed this personally. When Wolf Emperor Defiant Howl’s Nascent Soul tried to flee, Han Zhan alone was powerless to stop it. Only by having five Sages striking together were they able to capture it, and even then, it only worked because the Demon-Locking Pagoda was there.

The Nascent Soul was the most fundamental mark of a Sage, and as long as it endured, a Sage was virtually unkillable—this was one meaning behind the term ”immortal cultivator.” And Luo Chen’s new treasure was capable of targeting cultivators’ Golden Cores and Nascent Souls directly!

”As for defense, there is not much to say. After all, this treasure was made for alchemy. Its combat functions are just some extra stuff. That said, don’t underestimate it. The materials used are extraordinarily solid. And honestly, I’ve never used this much material for a single item in my entire career. Even if you just hold it in front of you as a shield, it’s tough enough to take most direct attacks from Adepts. Of course, that’s assuming you can handle the backlash.”

Luo Chen nodded slightly. The materials used in this life-bound treasure indeed fringed on absurdity. He had gathered more than ten batches of each material; in fact, he even had twenty batches of some of them, yet there were very few leftovers. It was precisely because of this overwhelmingly solid foundation that the Primordial Unity Cauldron hit the top grade as soon as it was refined. It skipped over what would have normally required hundreds of years of painstaking nurturing.

Based on their joint exploration, the functions of the Primordial Unity Cauldron were ultimately categorized into five major aspects: suppress, confine, bind, nurture, and refine. Of course, refinement was its main function, and that would be the key focus of Luo Chen’s future use of it.

”It’s a blessing and a curse.” Heaven Smelter stroked his beard and said awkwardly, ”It’s a bit too solid for its own good. You’ve probably felt it already—it’s not easy for you to activate this thing right now, isn’t it?”

Luo Chen felt equally helpless. After the life-bound treasure was crafted, Nether Spring did not restrict his movements. Instead, she gave him great freedom, allowing ample space and time to explore the treasure. Yet when he sought out an open area in Green Parasol Mountain and attempted to activate the Primordial Unity Cauldron, every attempt felt like a struggle.

With his cultivation now nearing the third stage, his mana reserves were no weaker than those of an ordinary mid-stage Adept. Even so, every attempt to activate it consumed an enormous amount of mana. Worse still, it was slow.

Even when he exerted all his strength, the Primordial Unity Cauldron’s flying speed was painfully sluggish. At such a pace, attempting to trap an enemy was simply a joke. Thankfully, alchemy posed no issues, and in fact felt even more effortless than before. He could even secretly refine supreme-grade Imperial Nectar, pushing the success rate from the usual ten percent up to fifteen. Once he became more familiar with it, it would surely increase further.

”I ran the numbers back then. We ended up using thirteen full batches of materials. On top of that, we added extra Profound Link Celestial Crystal, Millennial Lightning Essences, and even a strand of Azure Eerie Wind from my own stash. With that much piled in, the weight was bound to go overboard. Worse still, more than ninety percent of it went in without processing. The impurities are unimaginable. Those impurities hinder the flow of your mana inside the Primordial Unity Cauldron. That’s why it feels so sluggish and why activating it takes so much effort.”

Heaven Smelter truly felt embarrassed. He had crafted a life-bound treasure that could not be wielded with ease by its very owner. For any artisan, this was a grave misstep, let alone a grandmaster like him. After all, an item was not better simply because its grade was higher. What truly mattered was suitability.

He had been too eager to refine a perfect piece. And with that strange drop of blood allowing the Primordial Unity Cauldron to take in far more raw material than usual, he couldn’t bring himself to hold back. That was how things had ended up in this awkward state.

”I’ve thought about this problem,” Heaven Smelter said. ”In the end, I figured out three ways to deal with it.”

”Three?” Luo Chen grew interested. ”Which one works best?”

Heaven Smelter shook his head. ”It’s not about which one is better. The best approach is to use all three together.”

”Okay, tell me about it,” Luo Chen said.

”It’s actually quite simple. Nurture it, refine it, use it. Use your mana to nurture it, use true fire to temper out the impurities, and keep putting it to work by refining pills. Do that long enough, and you’ll naturally grow more and more in tune with it.”

Luo Chen nodded. This approach matched his own way of thinking. In truth, these were simply the three standard methods. It was only because he possessed a primordial true fire himself, and because the Primordial Unity Cauldron was already being used daily during refinement, that Heaven Smelter felt the need to say it so clearly.

”Of course, if you want to forcefully activate it, there is a way,” Heaven Smelter said with a smile.

Under Luo Chen’s expectant gaze, he spread his hands. ”Wait until you reach late-stage Golden Core. Then you can brute-force it.”

Luo Chen froze for a moment, then revealed a helpless expression. So it really does come down to brute force... Wait, brute force?

Luo Chen asked tentatively, ”Senior, you mentioned before that the material quality of my Primordial Unity Cauldron is extremely good. That even without any defensive formations, it can take direct attacks from Adepts. Right?”

Heaven Smelter nodded. ”Yes. In my opinion, even an early-stage Sage might not be able to destroy it in a single blow.”

Luo Chen stuck out his tongue and licked his lips. ”So I was thinking... if I just rely on raw physical strength and swing this thing at my enemies, would that count as a valid way to wield it?”

Obviously, anything could be used to smash people, and indeed cauldron-type treasures were very much used as hammers and projectiles. However, that was always under the condition of being controlled by mana. Moving a cauldron in its full size by hand...

The moment Heaven Smelter imagined Luo Chen hefting that cauldron and chasing people down while swinging it down on them repeatedly, he was completely dumbfounded.