An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

The information within the jade scroll was straightforward. It detailed the background of Adept Nantian, who had seized control of the Flying Swallow Archipelago. His full name was Yan Nantian, and he was born into a cultivation family that had once resided on Labored Swallow Island, a large third-tier island somewhere in the Devil Domains.

That island suffered catastrophic destruction, and the Yan family was nearly wiped out, with only Yan Nantian’s direct lineage narrowly escaping. Even so, powerful enemies continued to pursue them. During the chase, the remaining family members were killed off one by one, until only Yan Nantian remained. Yet this man was either blessed by fortune or possessed an exceptionally ruthless temperament—both, maybe. Not only did he survive, but he also grew steadily stronger, fully mastering his own family’s techniques while simultaneously practicing Soul Refinement secret arts that had leaked out from the Primordial Devil Sect.

After killing several waves of pursuers, he managed to force his enemies to stop hounding him for a while. But by that point, he was gravely injured. To prevent his enemies from taking advantage of the situation, he surreptitiously left the bustling regions of the Devil Domains and fled to the remote Flying Swallow Archipelago, where he seized the best territory and declared himself the ruler.

His favorite weapons were a sword, a spike, and a soul banner. The sword was a life-bound enchanted treasure refined in his early years, a water-element flying sword. The spike was called the Water-Splitting Spike, a rare enchanted treasure that allowed the wielder to split water apart and manifest it into a dragon. As for the banner, it was the kind of Soul-Refining Banner commonly seen around these parts. However, unlike ordinary banners refined using large numbers of sea demon souls, his banner incorporated the souls of numerous cultivators.

The main soul residing within it was the soul of an Adept, and it had eight ”subordinates” that were all late-stage Initiates. It was precisely because of this that Yan Nantian’s strength only grew the more he fought, and his ferocity only intensified with every battle.

Finally, in terms of cultivation, he had reached the third stage of the Golden Core Realm, and he was only a single step away from the fourth.

After reading through the jade scroll, Luo Chen could not help but marvel inwardly. Clearly, Cheng Dou hadn’t plucked the information out of his rear. He had undoubtedly invested an enormous amount of time and effort to collect every bit of it. In other words, this information had not been prepared specifically for Luo Chen.

Even if I hadn’t come, he probably would have found another way to get rid of Yan Nantian. Maybe contacting some outsiders... Oh, right. He might have even looked for those who destroyed Labored Swallow Island back then!

Luo Chen’s eyes narrowed slightly. He more or less understood why Cheng Dou believed he had the strength to deal with Yan Nantian. He had called himself Azure Yang, he wielded what was suspected to be the Azure Yang Devil Flame, and he paid close attention to intelligence related to the Primordial Devil Sect. In other words, there was a high likelihood that he was a remnant cultivator of that sect. With the strength of a Holy Land cultivator, being able to eliminate some random man from a fallen family was all but assured.

Still, isn’t he afraid of misjudging? If I fail, won’t that bring disaster down on the Cheng family?

But just as the doubt arose in his mind, Luo Chen quickly resolved it himself: Cheng Dou had clearly been driven into a corner. He was stuck in cultivation and feared what might come; the persistent threat of Yan Nantian had driven him mad. For that reason, he would not hesitate to wager everything. From their very first meeting, he had even offered up his own younger sister to win Luo Chen over. Seen this way, he truly did possess the courage to stake everything on a desperate gamble.

Come to think of it, I wasn’t much better when I dealt with the Flame Alliance back in my Initiate days.

Luo Chen smiled faintly and put away the jade scroll. Seeing the smile on his face, Cheng Haixin, who had been quietly observing him the entire time, felt her spirits lifted. Is he confident?

The next moment, Luo Chen’s calm voice drifted into her ears. ”I understand the situation. Now I only have one question that I need you to answer.”

Cheng Haixin’s face brightened up. ”Please ask away, senior!”

”I can take action against Yan Nantian, but what are you offering as payment?”

Cheng Haixin answered instinctively. ”The Cheng family has some savings. We can afford to produce a few hundred thousand spirit stones.”

Luo Chen shook his head. At the height of his wealth in the past, he had been worth tens of millions. Even now, despite his recent problems, he did not lack such a paltry sum.

”Uhhh... we have enchanted treasures, cultivation resources, techniques...”

She proposed one condition after another, including everything that she considered valuable, yet each was met with another quiet shake of his head. By the end, a thin sheen of sweat broke out. ”I... I can add myself as the payment, if you want.”

Luo Chen looked at her with a faintly amused expression. ”From the first day we met, were you not already given to me?”

Cheng Haixin bit her lip, a sudden wave of helplessness surging through her heart.

”Enough,” Luo Chen said lightly. ”Go back and discuss this properly with your elder brother. Once you have thought it through, come back and give me your answer.”

He waved his hand, and a gentle current lifted her up and carried her out of the cave residence. The two stone doors slowly closed, leaving only the woman’s dazed expression behind.

***

On Black Swan Island, mortals came and went in great numbers, creating a lively scene. Because of the perils of the sea, the Cheng family’s demon-hunting ships had lost a large number of skilled mortals, and it was time for a new round of recruitment. Even though work at sea was extremely dangerous, the Cheng family’s generous treatment was hard to resist. As a result, this round of recruitment truly attracted many formidable mortals from other islands.

The recruitment site was set at the outer gate of the Small Mirror Lake manor. From far away, one could already see a long queue. Even just a casual look was enough to tell that every participant possessed powerful blood qi. If measured by the standards of the martial world, even the weakest among them was at least a second-rate martial artist, while the strongest were proper grandmasters.

Suddenly, a ripple of commotion arose from the rear of the crowd, prompting those at the front of the long line to turn and look back. A tall and beautiful woman was walking forward slowly. She seemed lost in thought and paid no attention to the gazes around her.

When her brows occasionally knit together, it lent her beauty an added trace of sorrow. Only after she vanished deep within the estate did murmurs finally spread through the waiting crowd.

”Hey, wasn’t that Fairy Haixin?”

”Yeah, that should be her. That kind of height and presence, and a face that makes you want to take another look... heh. You don’t see many like that across the thirty-six islands.”

”Come on, don’t you think you’re being kinda superficial? She hit Foundation Establishment at thirty-six. Forget about her looks, her talent is freakin scary.”

”Right. In the last hundred years or so, barely anyone managed to break through. There was that chaos after the big sect fell, and then that guy took over the archipelago... Well, anyway, being able to go against the tide and become the seventh Initiate of the family is really amazing.”

”Give her a few more years, and who knows, she might even reach Golden Core.”

”Guys, tone down. Talk all you want, but watch what you say.”

”Right, right... Let’s not get carried away by the immortals.”

The murmurs did not catch Cheng Haixin’s attention in the slightest, which only went to reinforce her reputation as a proud fairy in the eyes of others. But the real reason was that, right now, her mind was filled entirely with Azure Yang’s attitude earlier. He doesn’t want anything? No way. He’d be long gone otherwise. So what is it that he wants?

Before long, she arrived outside her elder brother’s room. As though sensing her presence, the door opened of its own accord. Cheng Dou looked at her from his seat and a trace of displeasure flickered across his face. Why did she come back again?

Cheng Haixin understood his thoughts, yet she said nothing at first and calmly recounted everything that had happened.

Cheng Dou was delighted that she’d managed to have a talk with Azure Yang, but it quickly gave way to deep contemplation. What does he want? No... What can we offer?

Thoughts spun endlessly through his mind. After a moment, he gave a bitter smile. ”We are merely a Foundation Establishment family. What could we possibly have that an Adept would value? Nothing at all!”

Cheng Haixin froze for a moment, then blurted out, ”Ah!”

Cheng Dou shook his head. ”On the surface, we say we’ve got nothing. But in reality? We have to give him everything. If we want Adept Azure Yang to act, the Cheng family has to submit completely without holding anything back. If he wants people, we give people. If he wants resources, we hand them over. That’s the price.”

Cheng Haixin’s expression changed abruptly. ”That’s no different from a devil’s behavior! I thought he wasn’t tempted by beauty and still had some principles. I even thought he upheld a gentlemanly conduct!”

Cheng Dou sighed. ”He is a cultivator of the devil path. Even if he is a lord at heart... at best, he’s a devil lord.”

Devil Lord Azure Yang...? thought Cheng Haixin. She said weakly, ”Then what do we do?”

”We’ll give him what he wants!” Cheng Dou said, as if he had long been prepared. He clenched his teeth and continued with resentment, ”Whatever he wants, he gets. Even if our family has to become someone else’s dog, the master will have to throw us a bone. With the way he does things, he should at least leave me room to push for the Golden Core Realm later.”

Cheng Haixin said worriedly, ”Big Brother, betting everything on a single person we barely know... isn’t that too risky?”

”I have no other choice!” Cheng Dou let out a long sigh. ”And besides, we’re already at the point where the bow is drawn. Whether we like it or not, the arrow’s going to fly.”

Whatever the wolf did, the tiger had already entered the house. So long as the owner of the house was weaker than either, he had no choice but to endure their presence.

By the shore of Small Mirror Lake, brother and sister stood facing each other in silence.

***

On Sea-Gazing Cliff, Luo Chen held a bamboo scroll in his hand and read it slowly. After reorganizing his new and old techniques, abilities, and items into a new coherent system, he felt no weaker than during the time he had first made his name known in the Frontier War. Moreover, his cultivation had advanced to the third stage, which meant that whatever he did now was bound to carry far more power.

With strength came confidence, and with confidence came the mental capacity to consider other matters. For instance, that the Starfield Pill was no longer enough to support his cultivation. One reason lay in its medicinal attributes being too well-balanced for his current cultivation art. Another was that its ingredients were excessively complex, and its refinement required overwhelming quantities. The Northern Sea was rich in resources, and with enough manpower, it truly was possible to gather everything he needed. However, processing them was far from easy.

Back in the Jade Cauldron Domain, his sect possessed a group of apothecaries and alchemy apprentices trained from a young age. From the moment they entered the sect, they handled various medicinal materials for him, sparing Luo Chen from countless tedious tasks. Now, that was no longer possible. Moreover, Luo Chen did not trust others. The pills he refined were meant for his own consumption. He could personally inspect whether the raw materials had issues, but if problems emerged after the materials were processed, the consequences would be far more troublesome.

For these reasons, the Starfield Pill no longer met his requirements. Fortunately, Luo Chen had already settled on another solution. He would switch to a different pill, one far more compatible with his attributes and requiring significantly fewer ingredients. The bamboo scroll in his hand was the formula for precisely one such pill: the True Flame Pill, a third-tier fire-element pill.

He had acquired this formula from the Flame Alliance, but he had not been too keen on refining it until recently. In fact, in the four centuries since the domain’s conquest, it had never truly gained recognition. Even within the Flame Alliance itself, though some were capable of refining it, very few were willing to consume it.

The reason lay in its domineering medicinal effects and the endless harmful aftereffects. After consuming the True Flame Pill, a strand of fire fiend qi would remain within the body. This fire fiend qi was formless and elusive, which made it difficult for mana to dissolve. With prolonged consumption, it would cause irreversible damage upon the sea of qi. Worse still, this fire fiend qi was not like ordinary pill toxins—waste products of the refinement process—but something generated naturally by the pill. As a result, ordinary detoxification methods were ineffective.

Due to this, the True Flame Pill rarely appeared on the market. However, through Luo Chen’s research, he had found ways to overcome all these drawbacks himself. For instance, the pill’s domineering nature mainly manifested as an impact on the physical body. With his archaic beast physique, he could simply tank it. As for the so-called fire fiend qi, he had two things that worked: the Fine Dust Primordial Art, which contained parts of the Clear Origin Mystical Pill Method, and the Dragon Slaying Art. With both measures applied together, he believed that he could resolve the residual qi of a mere third-tier pill.

Once he had settled on this course, what followed became straightforward. He would study the alchemical formula and master it as quickly as possible. At the same time, he would seek suitable manpower to gather the necessary materials, supplying him with what was needed to refine the True Flame Pill in large quantities.

The latter was also one of the reasons he remained in the Flying Swallow Archipelago instead of leaving. The region was remote, and there was only one Adept, making it an ideal place for him to cultivate and expand his own forces.

After studying the True Flame Pill formula once more, Luo Chen put away the bamboo scroll. He took out a handful of Spirit Feed Pellets from his storage ring and casually tossed them into the sea below the cliff. As he watched Blue-Ringed Great Fang Sea Serpents swim back from all directions, scrambling to devour the pellets, his thoughts turned to how the Cheng family would respond.

Indeed, it was not that he wanted nothing, but that he wanted everything. Someone as perceptive as Cheng Dou would certainly grasp this point. And since he had no other choice, he would certainly agree. Cultivation families like his were the easiest type of force to control and the fastest to take shape. The members were bound by blood ties and fixed territories. Unless the entire core of the family was destroyed, they would not scatter.

Moreover, Luo Chen shared no blood ties, no master-disciple bond, and no familial or personal ties with them. Their connection was shallow. If circumstances truly turned unfavorable, he could simply walk away. Such a force would not restrain him and was, in fact, the most ideal choice for the time being.

”They should give me an answer soon!”

Luo Chen smiled faintly, clapped his hands, and waved for the Blue-Ringed Great Fang Sea Serpents to disperse. They soon got back into formation, once again guarding Sea-Gazing Cliff. He let the sea wind strike his face, and his black hair fluttered freely in the wind.

”I should start thinking about how to deal with Yan Nantian.”

Luo Chen turned and gazed far toward the heart of the archipelago, thousands of li away. There lay Moon-Inviting Island, where swallows wheeled through the air and the lake below seemed to draw the moon down into its embrace. Black fog shrouded a ten-li radius, marking it as an absolutely forbidden land of the Flying Swallow Archipelago. Whether mortal or cultivator, none were permitted to set foot within.

With Luo Chen’s experience, he could tell at a glance that the vast fog was formed of dense ghostly energy. From time to time, low roars echoed, belonging to what could only be a Ghost King.

To reach Moon-Inviting Island, one would first have to break the ghost fog grand formation, which had been laid with a Soul-Refining Banner as its core. Luo Chen weighed his own options in silence, until his gaze eventually settled on a mass of viscous substance within the Primordial Unity Cauldron—something that resembled both blood and flame.

”Ever since I formed my core, I have cultivated the Blazing Fire Miasma using a massive amount of resources from the Luo Tian Sect and my own painstaking effort. It should finally be put to use.”