An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

After a long silence, Luo Chen finally asked the question both he and Devil’s Cloud were thinking. ”Did the attempt succeed?”

”I’m... not sure.” The Flesh Ganoderma’s tone carried a note of uncertainty. ”The thing is... I remember that about 1,500 years ago, I could feel a unique aura from the Quicksand Sea. I can’t exactly describe it, but it did make me extremely uncomfortable, as though the natural order itself had been reversed. I am wood-attribute and I naturally have an advantage over the earth element, so how could that be? Later, I asked one of the Monarch’s attendants about it, and he told me...”

”What did he say?”

Its expression turned thoughtful as old memories resurfaced. ”Well, he said that the Monarch was one final step away from creating it, yet the gap was still as vast as heaven and earth. Oh, he also told me that from that day forward, the Quicksand Sea had a master, and its name was Skyloam. They planned to gather even more materials for it and continue nurturing it. Unfortunately, the Monarch died not long afterward...”

Luo Chen and Devil’s Cloud exchanged glances as they repeated the name. ”Skyloam...”

At that very moment, somewhere in the Quicksand Sea, gentle winds swept across the area and set off countless grains of sand through the air. Yet beneath the seemingly barren dunes lay a completely different world. An immense network of rugged caverns branched out in every direction like the roots of a tree. Faint laughter and cheerful chatter drifted through the tunnels, giving the impression of a thriving settlement hidden far below the shifting sands. Yet anyone who looked closely would find no trace of human life. Instead, strange clay figures were scattered throughout—the only inhabitants of this subterranean world.

Suddenly, a palm-sized clay figure stood up. Its ears twitched as though it had heard something. ”Did someone just call my name?”

But when it listened again, there was nothing except the wind. The little clay figure wrinkled its nose and decided not to dwell on it. Then it puckered its lips and let out a whistle.

Wheeeeee...

The whistle echoed through more than a hundred nearby caves. Before long, countless more clay figures surged out. Unlike the small clay figure, however, these newcomers were incomplete. Some were missing limbs, while others had faces so blurred that their features were barely distinguishable. They looked as though they had been hastily molded by hand or perhaps had survived some devastating war.

Before long, they gathered before the small clay figure. Seen from a distance, the mass of clay figures resembled an army assembling for war. The little clay figure smiled, though the expression looked more sorrowful than joyful. ”Ever since that thing came here three hundred years ago, it hasn’t dared to leave. Not only that, it keeps creating stone monsters to hunt me down... But its luck has finally run out. My children, get ready! Help me capture it. Once I eat it, I’ll be able to take another step forward and lead all of you out of this place!”

Not a single voice answered. Yet the moment the order was given, those crippled clay figures began moving. Like a silent tide, they marched out of the underground world.

***

Hoooo...

A breeze swept through the sky as a streak of golden light circled leisurely overhead. On a closer look, the golden streak was actually a tiny bird. It showed no signs of rushing as it glided through the air with its head lowered, carefully observing the scene below. On the ground, a massive flood dragon had just crushed a stone monster to death. After tearing apart the shattered remains, it dug through the rubble and extracted a yellow crystal from within. The moment it looked up and shot the golden bird a cold glance. He roared, ”Get lost! One more look and I’ll swallow you whole!”

The golden bird shuddered and immediately retreated. It maintained a safe distance from Black King and continued watching from afar. Black King spat out a mouthful of sand and muttered irritably, ”Master really knows how to keep me busy. Sending me out to scout is fine, but now he’s making me hunt these stone monsters, too? They’re not even useful. What’s the point of killing them?”

Still grumbling, he swallowed the yellow spirit stone. In his eyes, the thing was just a spirit stone. No matter how much he thought about it, he could not understand why his Master seemed so interested in collecting them.

More than a hundred li behind him, Devil’s Cloud was having similar thoughts. Soft chirps came from the Lamenting Bird perched on his shoulder, and through the information relayed by her male counterpart, he learned that Black King had spent the entire day hunting stone monsters and gathering those strange yellow crystals. The discovery left him baffled. What exactly is he trying to accomplish?

Just as the question surfaced in his mind, he turned his head and found Luo Chen looking at him with a faint smile. ”Fellow Daoist, have your birds discovered anything interesting?”

Devil’s Cloud’s heart skipped a beat. For a moment, he even wondered whether Black King possessed some unknown technique capable of transmitting information across such a distance. After all, within the Heaven of the Five Elements, divine consciousness was heavily suppressed. Even cultivators like themselves could not easily communicate over long distances. If Black King truly had a way to relay information back to Luo Chen, that would be a terrifying ability in its own right.

Despite his suspicions, Devil’s Cloud’s expression remained unchanged. ”Nothing of note.”

”Oh...” Luo Chen pursed his lips, deliberately drawing out the word. ”Well, I’ve picked up something over there.”

Devil’s Cloud froze. Even the Flesh Ganoderma turned to look at Luo Chen. Without another word, Luo Chen raised a hand. Mana surged from his body as his fingers traced a circle through the air. Instantly, a shimmering Water Mirror condensed before them.

The display alone made Devil’s Cloud pause in surprise. The Quicksand Sea was a region where earth-element spirit energy gathered, and nearly all the ambient spirit energy was of the earth affinity, yet Luo Chen had effortlessly condensed a Water Mirror out of thin air. More importantly, he was known for his fire arts! The fact that he could casually condense a water spell in such a hostile environment spoke volumes about his mastery of spellcraft.

However, neither Devil’s Cloud nor the Flesh Ganoderma had the leisure to marvel at such details. They quickly focused their attention on the Water Mirror. As ripples spread across its surface, three figures came into view—three men at the late stages of Golden Core, each looking rather extraordinary. They were occupying a barren gravel plain, and for some reason, they were seated cross-legged in a triangular formation.

That was one of the rare places in the Quicksand Sea where the land remained firm and solid. The surrounding wasteland was littered with shattered stone monster corpses, while the scarred earth bore witness to an intense battle that had recently taken place. At the center of the triangular formation stood a massive white banner. The leading cultivator had his hair in a bun and was dressed in a brown Daoist robe. He shook a bronze bell in one hand while chanting under his breath.

The distance was too great and the image too blurry for them to make out the words. Even so, the effects were impossible to ignore. Winds and clouds gathered, the earth quaked, and ominous black clouds gathered overhead, filling the area with an increasingly oppressive atmosphere.

Devil’s Cloud asked curiously, ”What are they doing?”

Luo Chen’s expression grew serious. ”I don’t know. But it seems like we’ll find out soon enough.”

As he spoke, he tightened his grip on the yellow spirit stone he had obtained from Devil’s Cloud and felt the faint pulse from within it.

***

Across the gravel plain, violent winds howled beneath a sky covered with dark clouds. Hidden within the clouds, a blue bird drifted silently through the air and looked downward, transmitting everything she saw live to the Water Mirror. Below, the bell rang without pause. Each peal carried a strange power that caused even the bird’s divine soul to tremble faintly.

At the center of the ritual, the brown-robed Daoist continuously shook the bronze bell in his hand while chanting loudly.

”Giants a thousand blades tall seek only wandering souls.

Ten suns rise in turn to melt metal and scorch stone.

Those who dwell there are long accustomed to such things.

Yet any soul that goes there will surely perish.

Return! You cannot remain there.

O soul, return! Before you lie a thousand li of flowing sands!

O soul, return! Before you yawns a Thunder Abyss ten thousand zhang deep.

O soul, return! This realm is no place to stay!”[1]

As the ritual continued, the chant gradually faded into a single repeated refrain. ”O soul, return!”

With every call, the dark clouds overhead sank lower.

Finally, the churning cloud split apart, and an enormous dragon head slowly emerged from the darkness above.

1. This passage is a fragment from the poem ”Summons of the Soul” (招魂 | zhāo hún) in the ancient Chinese anthology Chu Ci (楚辞, Songs of Chu). In Chu tradition, this ritual poem is chanted to call back a wandering soul by describing the terrifying monsters and perilous places beyond the human world. ☜