An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Chapter 949: Heavenjade, Assist Me! (II)

During the days Luo Chen waited for Black King to return, he was far from idle. Previously, to stabilize the formations on the Profound Dust Armor, he had put aside his cultivation for a full year. Now that there were no other distractions, he threw himself back into cultivation with full focus. The Dao of Immortality required steady effort, and there was no rushing it. But when it came to Physique Refinement, he had his own way.

He had once again integrated something new into Myriad Path Convergence, this time drawing from the concepts of artifact creation and treating his body as an enchanted treasure. Previously, because of his focus on crafting Profound Dust Armor, he had mainly tried internal refinement. But in truth, Myriad Path Convergence also contained methods of external refinement.

On a small island sealed by formations, the sound of forging rang out continuously. A black hammer moved in constant motion around Luo Chen’s bare body, rising and falling as it struck him repeatedly. Each impact sent powerful vibrations through him, and from time to time, azure flames would burst from his skin. He used the Flowing Fire Hammer to execute techniques from the Hundred Forging Arts. He sought to temper his physique from head to toe, to the absolute limit; in every respect, he was the embodiment of the phrase ”forged in fire.”

An ordinary person would have long since suffered ruptured organs under such relentless blows. Yet Luo Chen gritted his teeth and endured it. Worse still, since he was the one controlling the Flowing Fire Hammer, he had to force down the instinctive urge to stop the blows. Fortunately, his will was firm, and the perspective of immediate and horrible pain did not shake him.

”Strengthen the blood qi, burn it with inner fire, and temper it with external force... Still not enough!”

After an hour of tempering, Heavenjade transformed to her true form and looked at Luo Chen with a hint of unease. ”Master... do we really have to do this?”

”If I tell you to do it, then do it. What’s there to hesitate about?”

Heavenjade hardened her gaze. With a flap of her wings, she unleashed the innate attack she had mastered long ago. A vortex filled with countless wind blades formed in an instant and slowly engulfed Luo Chen within. From inside came low, muffled growls.

Her expression was extremely tense. This was her most powerful demonic ability and she had mastered it to absolute perfection. Even a late-stage Adept would suffer severe injuries if caught unprepared. Yet her master chose to endure the slicing wind blades and the tearing forces of the vortex head-on! As long as he did not call for a stop, she did not dare to withdraw. It was clear just how terrifying his physique had become. It had long surpassed that of human cultivators. In her eyes, even Demon Kings famed for their physical strength could not compare. Perhaps only pureblooded Demon Kings from powerful Titan Beast lineages could match him.

The time it took for an incense stick to burn felt unusually long. Only when a weary ”Stop...” came from within the vortex did Heavenjade finally cease her attack, sighing in relief. At that moment, both of them were pale—one from enduring the blows, the other from the strain of expending a massive amount of mana. A jade bottle drifted over to Heavenjade. ”There are a hundred Starfield Pills inside. They can restore mana and aid your cultivation. Take them.”

Heavenjade accepted it with great joy. She understood well the value of pills. Cultivation with pills was an entirely different thing from cultivation without pills. These Starfield Pills had likely been refined by her master before leaving the Flying Swallow Archipelago. They had neither been used nor sold, and now they had fallen into her hands. But when she saw Luo Chen wounded and bloody, she couldn’t help but ask with concern, ”Master, are you alright?”

Luo Chen grinned painfully. ”Do I look alright to you?”

Heavenjade’s heart tightened. Did I push too hard?

”Well, don’t worry,” he added. ”This is where I wanted to get.”

After saying that, he took out a jar of fourth-tier Black Sovereign Paste from his storage ring and applied it evenly over his body. The pain that once tormented him had long since turned into a tingling sensation. As he felt the medicinal power seep into his body, he broke into an involuntary smile.

”Just as I thought—once I push myself to the limit, the paste gets absorbed even faster!”

The paste had originally been meant for puppets, but those lifeless bodies absorbed it far too slowly. Compared to Luo Chen’s own active refinement, the difference was obvious. He sensed the change and grew more confident in pushing his physique cultivation to the fourth tier.

Still, this kind of self-destructive forging isn’t something I can do too often. I’ll have to space it out.

He put on the Profound Dust Armor and started walking away. Without turning back, he said to Heavenjade, ”From now on, we will do this once every ten days. By the way, how are you doing with refining the Nine Winds Plantain Fan?”

Heavenjade was stunned. ”Isn’t my Wind Blade Vortex strong enough already?”

”For now, yes, but in the future, it might not be enough. If that time comes, I’ll need you to use the Nine Winds Plantain Fan.”

Heavenjade gulped hard, and the way she looked at Luo Chen grew even more reverent. Her most treasured ability was unable to injure him even if he let himself be hit? To the extent where she had to use a top-grade enchanted treasure? Even after nurturing the Nine Winds Plantain Fan for twenty years, she could only wield slightly more than half of its power. If she were to lose control and truly injure her master, what would she do? I need to spend more mana nurturing the fan and gain better control over it.

***

As Luo Chen continued to wait for Black King to return, his life became regular once again. He cultivated, tempered his physique, studied alchemy texts, and occasionally refined pills. As for the turmoil of the outside world, he ignored it entirely, living much like a carefree rogue cultivator. Sometimes he would visit Dragon Abyss City and stroll through the shops in search of treasures. Sometimes he’d go to the division’s palace, using his star rank privileges to gather intelligence on the current state of the Northern Sea cultivation world.

He did not limit himself to the Northern Sea either; he also actively inquired about the Eastern Wilderness. Little by little, he managed to put together a picture of what was going on there.

Any news that could spread from the Eastern Wilderness to the Northern Sea was certainly no trivial matter. It was bound to be a major event capable of shaking the entire cultivation world; after all, even such a momentous event as the fall of the Primordial Devil Sect was not well known in the east. What he learned was that after the failure of the Frontier War in the Howling Moon Mountains, the demonic beasts of the Great Million Mountains stirred up a beast tide and attacked the human lands of the Eastern Wilderness. This wave was exceptionally fierce; of the dozen or so domains bordering the Great Million Mountains, more than half fell. Only when the Nether Origin Sect stepped in and rallied cultivators from all thirty-six domains did they manage to drive the beast tide back.

And that was only the first wave.

Ten years ago, a second beast tide erupted! This time, the demonic beasts pouring out of the Great Million Mountains no longer launched widespread attacks. Instead, they fixed their sights on five domains and launched concentrated attacks. Even with the Nether Origin Sect organizing forces once more, they managed to repel only two of them. In the remaining three, the demonic beasts entrenched themselves and entered a prolonged stalemate with the humans.

That was all the information he could gather. As for which domains were involved and their exact names, he did not manage to find out. The places he most wanted to know about, the Howling Moon and the Jade Cauldron Domain, were insignificant on the greater scale of the Eastern Wilderness. Nobody was interested in them, so there was no incentive to gather information.

Whatever the case was, he was feeling an increasing sense of urgency. In the Northern Sea, he was doing fine, but he was nevertheless an outsider. The Eastern Wilderness was his true home. There, he had his Dao companions, his friends, his disciples, and subordinates. It was a bit of a paradox—the longer one lived, the more attachments one had, but the easier it became to cut them away. Luo Chen’s cultivation time was relatively short, which was both a blessing and a drawback. The blessing was that he had not grown weary of the world; the drawback was that he still felt these attachments strongly, and he did not wish to put them aside either.

With things this chaotic, no one in the Eastern Wilderness will care about what happened at Green Parasol Mountain anymore. If I head back, I should be safe.

Inside the Starry Palace, Luo Chen finished his meditation and, for a brief moment, entertained a hopeful thought. But it came as quickly as it went. It was not just about his stint at Green Parasol Mountain; more importantly, to truly secure a place for himself, he needed power. An Adept might dominate a smaller region, but if a Sage decided to start trouble, he could do nothing but watch. Only by advancing to the Nascent Soul Realm could he truly secure a place in this world.

As for those at the Divine Transformation Realm? He wasn’t worried about them in the slightest. He was well aware that Ascendants rarely acted in person. From what he knew, there had only been two instances of Ascendants fighting in the last century: when the Northern Sea demon races sieged the Primordial Devil Sect, and when a Nether Origin Sect expert attacked Green Parasol Mountain. Both had been conflicts between Holy Lands. A small force like the Luo Tian Sect was in no way qualified to attract their attention.

He rose and stepped out of the Starry Palace. Today, he needed to refine a batch of True Flame Pills, as his stock was running low. But just then, Heavenjade hurried in from outside. Seeing the urgency in her expression, he was a bit taken aback. ”Is it news from Black King?”

”No, but an Adept came all the way from Devil’s Cloud Mountain to see you. He says he’s an old friend.”

”An old friend? Devil’s Cloud Mountain... Hmm... It’s not Devil’s Cloud, you say?”

”No. He calls himself Ding Yi.”

Luo Chen’s brows arched. In his mind, the image of a pot-bellied man with oddly gaunt cheeks surfaced. He suddenly recalled what Devil’s Cloud had once told him. So it’s him?

”Let him in. I’d like to see why he’s here after so long.”