An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

A gentle breeze drifted through the forest as Luo Chen lightly tapped off the branches and came to a stop atop the canopy. The moment he saw Saberstorm retreating, he instinctively widened the distance between himself and the valley as well.

Up to this point, the battle had unfolded almost exactly as the Angler had described before their departure. In truth, it had not been particularly dangerous. In front of their strength, the countless Withered Blood Vines were shattered with ease. Even the seemingly troublesome fourth-tier vines did not pose any real threat to them. Of course, all of this rested upon the fact that every one of them was a late-stage Adept or had power on that level. Had the group consisted of ordinary early- or middle-stage Adepts instead, the situation would never have been handled so effortlessly. Sometimes, just a few minor stages of cultivation were enough to form an insurmountable gulf.

Now, even someone as powerful and domineering as Saberstorm had chosen to retreat. That alone showed just how terrifying the enemy they were about to face truly was. Luo Chen was no fool; the instant he sensed the change in the situation, he immediately pulled back as well. Standing on the treetops, he stared at the monstrous white vine, its enormous body spanning so far through the sky that its full length could not even be measured. He gulped hard. So this is a fifth-tier Withered Blood Vine?

Unlike humans and demonic beasts, who could naturally awaken spirit intelligence and step onto the path of cultivation, sprites born from plants and minerals faced unimaginable hardship in their cultivation. Not only were they restricted by the innate limitations of their physical forms, but the harshness of their environment made survival itself exceedingly difficult.

In all his years, Luo Chen had only encountered a single sprite of this kind: Hidden Dust Sand. And that one had only reached the peak of the third tier; it was easy to imagine just how terrifying a Withered Blood Vine had to be to go all the way to the fifth tier under such brutal conditions.[1] Even if it was not as strong as Ascendants, it was at the very least comparable to a powerful Sage. That was the conclusion he arrived at as he looked upon the monstrous white vine before him. And because of that, he found himself increasingly curious about the Angler’s ways of handling it.

In his vision, the Angler’s figure wavered like a candle flame in the wind. Yet despite that frail appearance, he did not retreat even half a step. Instead, his eyes shone with unrestrained ecstasy. ”It has really developed spirit intelligence! It’s no longer bound by its innate shackles!”

In the midst of his exhilaration, he suddenly dropped to one knee and shouted, ”Sage, please show yourself!”

The next moment, he shivered violently, and dense crimson light burst out from his entire body. High above, the white vine seemed to sense something and instantly lashed downward with a gigantic tendril like a colossal whip. Before the terrifying attack even fully descended, the sturdy valley below shattered into dust beneath the shockwaves.

How could an Adept possibly withstand such an attack head-on? He...

Just as Luo Chen’s heart tightened, a figure slowly emerged from the billowing smoke and dust below. The figure stood there with one hand raised, somehow holding the massive vine whip suspended in midair. He was a sinister-looking man with narrow eyes and sharp features, draped in crimson robes.

Recalling the Angler’s shout just moments earlier, Luo Chen blurted out, ”Blood Hermit?!”

”Not exactly.” Star Catcher’s voice suddenly sounded beside him. At some point, the man had moved over to a low peak a hundred zhang away from Luo Chen.

Under Luo Chen’s curious gaze, he explained softly, ”It is Blood Hermit, but not the real one. This is a Blood Sea avatar he refined. It’s a technique called Blood God Clone.”

Luo Chen was baffled. From what he could tell, the figure before them was unmistakably a genuine Sage. How could he merely be an avatar? Sensing his confusion, Star Catcher quickly offered an explanation. As a former disciple of the Heavenly Demon Star Sect, he possessed considerable knowledge regarding the Primordial Devil Sect.

”Blood Hermit is an incredible genius. Using Blood Sea techniques as his foundation, he practiced the Blood God Scripture to an astonishing level. In fact, he surpassed even the True Inheritors of that lineage. This avatar was once the devil sect expert who guarded Dragon Abyss City a hundred years ago. After killing him, Blood Hermit refined him into a Blood God Clone! Fellow Daoist, beings like this are vicious and bloodthirsty by nature. If they somehow escape their master’s control, they become extremely dangerous. We’d better stay as far as possible.”

At first, Luo Chen wondered why Star Catcher was explaining things to him in such detail. Surely it could not just be because he had praised him earlier. But once the last part was said, it made sense—the man was worried that the Blood God Clone might lose control and harm everyone nearby. However, Luo Chen was not as concerned. ”The avatar came here to capture the Vine King, and there’s nothing more important than that. I doubt it’d waste any attention on us.”

Star Catcher shook his head. ”The battles between Sages have an enormous reach. Once they start fighting, the destruction can spread for thousands of li. We still need to be careful.”

Luo Chen nodded and immediately retreated further alongside Star Catcher. In the distance, Saberstorm had already withdrawn even farther away.

After finding a relatively safe location, Luo Chen turned back to watch. The battle between the Blood God Clone and the Vine King atop Withered Wood Ridge had already reached a fever pitch. Waves of mana rolled endlessly through the mountains. As the avatar moved, ripples of crimson light swept across the battlefield. Whenever the white vine came into contact with that light, a foul stench spread through the air. Yet the Vine King was clearly no easy opponent either. It slammed down onto the ground repeatedly, shattering mountains and stirring violent winds. Under such overwhelming attacks, the Blood God Clone fought on, though its condition seemed to be turning worse by the second. Time and again, it was smashed down into the earth, only to rise once more and continue the battle. The crimson radiance surrounding it was steadily growing thinner with every exchange.

”Can it win?”

Luo Chen frowned deeply; something was wrong. After observing carefully, he finally pinpointed the source of that unease. Although the Blood God Clone certainly had the battle prowess of a Sage, it was not displaying a Nascent Soul Domain. Worse still, the longer the battle dragged on, the more noticeably its aura weakened. In contrast, the Vine King, which had initially seemed sluggish, only grew stronger as the fight continued. Its strength felt endless, and pure spirit energy poured from it in overwhelming waves, as though it would never run dry.

Star Catcher, who stood nearby, sighed softly. ”In the end, it’s still just an avatar refined from a dead man. It can’t grow any further and it can’t use the Nascent Soul Domain he had in life either.”

Luo Chen looked over curiously. A Nascent Soul Domain was, in essence, a resonance formed between a cultivator’s Nascent Soul and the world. Once the cultivator died, that connection would be severed, even if the Nascent Soul remained intact. Blood Hermit might have used secret arts to preserve this devil sect expert’s Nascent Soul and refine his body into a Blood God Clone, but even those arts could not defy the natural order and restore the Domain he possessed in life.

Luo Chen immediately understood. ”So the longer this drags on, the worse things’ll get for the Blood God Clone?”

”Yeah, probably,” Star Catcher gazed toward the battlefield hundreds of li away, where smoke and dust churned into the sky. ”Now it depends on whether Blood Hermit prepared any other contingency measures.”

Luo Chen calmed himself down. Spirit light burst from his eyes, and his gaze locked firmly onto the ever-shifting battlefield. The Blood God Clone continuously unleashed one spell after another. At times, it formed a sword gesture with its fingers, sending sword light crisscrossing through the air. At times, its struck with both palms, and bloody handprints slammed into the gigantic white vine. Occasionally, with a mere sweep of its sleeves, waves upon waves of crimson light spilled forth.

After watching for a while, Luo Chen suddenly realized that the crimson light was likely some kind of high-tier fiend qi with terrifying power. Every time it met the white vine, the vine’s aura weakened slightly. But just as clearly, that fiend qi was being consumed with every use. If the Blood God Clone intended to wear down the white vine through this fiend qi alone, who knew how much fiend qi he would need? Just as Star Catcher had said, if the Blood God Clone lacked any other trump cards, it was unlikely to win.

***

The battle within Withered Wood Ridge had raged on for a full hour and was no longer confined to the original valley. An avatar and a vine continuously shifted locations as they fought. Everywhere they passed was left in utter ruin. In some places, the mountain veins themselves had been shattered open, causing a blazing mountain fire to erupt from below.

Even though Luo Chen and the others were merely watching from afar, they were still forced to retreat ahead of the spreading destruction. If not for the fact that the mission had not yet been completed, they likely would have fled this living hell long ago. Even so, the increasingly oppressive atmosphere left none of them in the mood for conversation. Each focused entirely on guarding against the shockwaves that could sweep toward them at any moment.

BOOOMMMMM!

A deafening explosion rang out, and four figures scattered in retreat. Only after the smoke had gradually settled did they stop and exchange looks in silence. Eventually, they also looked toward the severed section of white vine lying motionless upon the ground. At the sight of it, cold sweat dripped down their backs.

”I underestimated that avatar. Even without a Nascent Soul Domain, its strength is still far beyond anything I imagined.” Star Catcher swallowed hard, lingering fear still visible in his eyes.

Even from a distance of a hundred li, the shockwave from that earlier clash had exceeded what any of them could withstand. Had the four of them not employed their own defensive techniques, someone among them would likely have suffered severe injuries from that single aftershock alone.

Saberstorm planted his massive broad saber against the ground, and after a brief silence, his gaze slowly shifted toward Luo Chen. ”That defensive treasure of yours is pretty impressive.”

Luo Chen forcefully stopped the ripples of the qi barrier surrounding his body and pressed his lips together. Under that earlier shockwave, he had first unleashed the Azure Yang Great Handprint, then immediately activated the qi barrier of the Profound Dust Armor. Only through the combined protection of both had he managed to withdraw unscathed. He had believed he concealed those actions well enough, yet Saberstorm had still noticed them.

Among the four of them, Huangfu Song appeared the calmest. Beneath the purple radiance cast by the great seal hovering above him, he remained completely unharmed. He smiled and said, ”Fellow Daoist Azure Yang is a renowned master artisan of our Society. Fellow Daoist Saberstorm, haven’t you always wanted a defensive enchanted treasure custom made for you? Why not ask Azure Yang?”

Saberstorm appeared actually tempted, and he silently turned to look at Luo Chen. Luo Chen let out a cold snort. ”No matter how good the treasures I made are, they probably still can’t compare to your seal.”

In an instant, the gazes of the other three all shifted toward the massive jade seal suspended above Huangfu Song’s head. As it was fully activated, the intricate carvings across its surface became perfectly clear. There were miniature depictions of flowers, birds, insects, fish, mountains, rivers, and seas; the dragon-head crest standing proudly atop it marked it clearly as an imperial jade seal.

Under the scrutiny of the others, Huangfu Song immediately began to feel somewhat uncomfortable. He wanted to put the jade seal away, yet the battle before them was far too dangerous. Judging from the intensity of the previous exchanges, he knew that without it, he could not survive here. He had originally intended to divert trouble toward Luo Chen by encouraging Saberstorm to seek him out for artifact creation, potentially delaying Luo Chen’s cultivation. He had not expected Luo Chen to turn the same tactic back on him and redirect Saberstorm’s interest toward his own treasure instead.

He coughed awkwardly and changed the subject. ”Where’s the Angler?”

The other three felt like chuckling at the obvious diversion tactic, but then, they were stumped. Indeed, where was the Angler? Ever since the Sage-level battle erupted, he had vanished entirely. Yet none of them considered the notion of him being dead after the aftershocks of the battle. Despite looking like a frail old man on his deathbed, the Angler’s combat power undoubtedly surpassed that of everyone present. After all, he hadn’t won the status of eight-star demon hunter in a raffle; the fact that he was one of only three such people was direct proof of his strength.

Luo Chen looked toward the battlefield and said, ”Looks like the battle is about to end.”

1. The power tiers are not exactly consistent in this case, and we’ve seen that Hidden Dust Sand is sentient at lower tiers than plants and minerals. A reasonable explanation could be that Hidden Dust Sand is a parasite and hence evolves faster. ☜