An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Above the ten-li lake, Luo Chen raised an eyebrow. The Mystic Flame Sword shifted into his left hand and his right hand shot out abruptly. Between his index and middle finger, outstretched like the tip of a sword, he caught the actual tip of a sword flying at him.

”Not a bad life-bound flying sword. A pity... It’s already spent.”

As he murmured to himself, the blue flying sword shattered inch by inch, turning into fragments that fell into the mud on the now-visible bottom of the lake. Meanwhile, Luo Chen’s gaze had already shifted elsewhere. Under the night sky, a long banner glowing with dim spirit light wrapped around a Golden Core and fled frantically.

Yan Nantian had absolutely no way to withstand the formidable force of the blast; in spite of his best efforts, his body was obliterated. The Myriad Soul Banner barely protected his Golden Core, which now barely clung to existence as it attempted to escape.

But even a single Golden Core could serve as the seed for a comeback, and by the ruthless standards of the Northern Sea cultivation world, letting it be was outright stupid. Luo Chen had no intention of releasing a tiger back into the wild.

A pair of wings suddenly emerged from his back. With a single flap, Luo Chen was already several li away, directly in front of the Soul-Refining Banner. He thrust out his hand. From within the banner, a Ghost King erupted with a furious roar, rushing forth to block his grasp.

Luo Chen ignored it entirely. His hand transformed into a claw—the Cloud-Seizing Divine Claw! Endless azure flames coiled around the massive claw as it tore straight through the Ghost King’s figure and seized the Golden Core within the banner.

”Fellow Daoist, spare me—”

Crack!

The blue core shattered into pieces, and dense mana erupted in all directions as fragments of the broken divine soul were absorbed into the Myriad Soul Banner.

Luo Chen arched a brow and seized the Myriad Soul Banner, sending his divine consciousness inside... only to find that the remaining resentful ghosts were devouring these soul fragments as if they’d finally gotten a chance for vengeance.

“Looks like karma does come back and bite you, doesn’t it...”

With this final eulogy for his peer, Luo Chen lightly flew back, holding the Myriad Soul Banner, toward where the tiny island had once been at the center of the ten-li lake. With a beckoning gesture, two streaks of light flew out from the water. Upon closer inspection, they were the Soul-Breaking Nail and Qi-Disrupting Nail, along with a Water-Splitting Spike... and another one. As it turned out, there were actually two of them, and they were being dragged along by the mana attached to the nails. After putting away the nails, Luo Chen grasped the pair of Water-Splitting Spikes, and with that, the great battle finally came to an end.

Less than the time it took to brew a cup of tea had passed since he started his assault.

Luo Chen floated quietly above the lake, as if waiting for something. Soon, powerful fluctuations of spirit power rose all around as figures descended one after another from all directions.

At the forefront was Cheng Dou. He first looked toward the lake. The central island was entirely obliterated, while the ten-li lake could hardly reflect the moon anymore, having been vaporized. It now revealed nothing but a pitted lakebed, strewn with the corpses of spirit fish and plants.

Rain fell steadily from the sky.

Looking at the devastation everywhere, Cheng Dou’s heart trembled. Battles between Adepts carried the might to churn seas, turn lakes into plains, and sever rivers. Thankfully, this entire battle had remained under Luo Chen’s control, and the battlefield had not expanded beyond reasonable limits. If they had truly fought without restraint, the thirty-six islands in the Flying Swallow Archipelago would never have endured it.

Cheng Dou had brought along the people from the thirty-six islands. He swallowed hard and bowed deeply. ”Greetings, Devil Lord Azure Yang.”

As he bowed, the remaining six Initiates of the Cheng family also bowed together. ”All hail the Devil Lord!”

Luo Chen’s expression remained unchanged; his calm gaze slowly swept over those present. By this point, all Initiates of the archipelago had already gathered one after another. And there were close to a hundred of them.

Under the sweep of his gaze, every person who met his eyes failed to withstand that pressure and instinctively lowered their heads. All of them had personally witnessed this battle through the Water Mirror. They had seen how Luo Chen suppressed Yan Nantian in an extremely short span of time, leaving the other party without even a wisp of lingering soul able to escape. Such ferocity was even greater than Yan Nantian’s in his prime!

No one knew who shouted first, but a chain reaction soon followed.

”All hail the Devil Lord!”

”All hail the Devil Lord!”

”All hail the Devil Lord!”

Their voices all merged into a roaring thunder, like the ring of a titanic bell echoing through the clouds.

The corners of Luo Chen’s mouth slowly lifted. ”We shall meet here again in one month. I hope none of you will be absent!”

His voice spread across the surroundings and echoed in everyone’s hearts. All who heard it felt a tremor ripple through their minds. When they raised their heads, Luo Chen was already gone from the night sky.

A jade scroll emitting a red glow was floating before Cheng Dou. He took a deep breath and reached out to grasp it, and streams of information flowed into him. It was a set of instructions—a formation for gathering spirit energy and stabilizing spirit veins! When he shifted his gaze to the ruined island, he immediately understood what he had to do.

”We have one month. Clean up the aftermath and start reconstructing the third-tier spirit vein here. Fellow Daoist Xu, Brother Wang, Elder Fu, I’ll have to trouble the three of you with this matter. As for everyone else, those with spirit stones should contribute spirit stones, and those with strength should contribute strength.”

Everyone looked at one another. After such a great battle, how could a third-tier spirit vein of mediocre quality withstand it? It had clearly been scattered. To reconstruct the energy channels and gather the spirit energy would undoubtedly require an enormous cost in manpower and money. Moreover, the time frame was incredibly tight. Naturally, no one was willing to take responsibility.

Yet when they thought of Devil Lord Azure Yang’s might, who dared to slack off? Especially after his final words before leaving—“We shall meet here again in one month. I hope none of you will be absent!”

Seeing no one speak, Cheng Dou stepped forward and shouted harshly, ”Do you dare defy the order?”

At that shout, it felt as though Devil Lord Azure Yang himself were present, and everyone shuddered together. Initiate Xu, who had spoken with Cheng Dou earlier, shook his head with a bitter smile. ”I naturally would not dare.”

After he spoke, the other two who had been named could only sigh and accept the task. The three of them were the best formation masters here in the archipelago. Even the island-linking formation passed down by the Blue Sea Alliance was mostly maintained by them.

Once these three submitted, the rest lost all thought of resistance and expressed their willingness to help. With that, the tension on Cheng Dou’s face finally eased. At last, he could no longer restrain himself and broke into an unrestrained smile.

He had won the gamble!

From this day forward, as long as Luo Chen remained in the Flying Swallow Archipelago, the Cheng family would be the foremost cultivation family of the islands. There was no better example of borrowing a tiger’s might than this. As long as he succeeded in forming his core, even after Azure Yang eventually left, the Cheng family would still prosper!

Sensing the lingering aura Yan Nantian had left behind in this place, Cheng Dou’s smile grew wider. A man of vast ambition could never be confined by small measures. Cheng Dou would never remain beneath another for his entire life. Yan Nantian could not suppress him, and Azure Yang was merely a stepping stone. One day, Cheng Dou would become the true ruler of the Flying Swallow Archipelago in name and in fact. That day would not be far!