An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

This time, it was as though even heaven had chosen to aid him.

The moment the pill embryo took shape, the pressure that had weighed on Luo Chen for so long finally eased. Even so, he did not allow himself to relax. Forming the pill was only the ninetieth step of a hundred. The final step remained, the part where he had to draw spirit energy into it, and this part was critical.

Luo Chen thus cast the Qi Control Art. At once, streams of spirit energy rushed toward the cauldron from everywhere. Guided by his shifting hand seals, they flowed downward and entered the cauldron one after another, and the Law Scrutiny Pill absorbed them in the prescribed sequence.

As he watched the process unfold, excitement rose within him. ”According to the formula, this final stage should take only three months. Once those three months are over, the pill will be complete.”

He steadied his breathing and drew deeply upon the mana within his body. The two cores revolved without pause, releasing mana to support the Qi Control Art and draw in ambient spirit energy.

As the process continued, however, Luo Chen gradually noticed something strange. The spirit energy within the Alchemy Realm flowed toward the cauldron like swallows returning to their nests. The earth itself released bursts of spirit energy, while the countless spirit veins beneath the exotic flowers and rare herbs planted throughout the realm trembled as they gave up their accumulated power.

It was as though the entire realm had sensed the birth of the Law Scrutiny Pill and was offering its strength to complete it. Yet before power on that scale, the mana of Luo Chen’s two cores felt insignificant. No matter how hard he strained, he was like a child trying to wield a hammer meant for giants. Still, he gritted his teeth and held on.

One day passed, then another. Days became weeks, then months.

When three months had passed, Luo Chen looked toward the cauldron with a pale face. The pill within was still turning slowly, shining as brilliantly as a star, and yet it radiated a hunger that still demanded more spirit energy.

”It’s still not enough?!”

Luo Chen let out a bitter laugh and stopped using the Qi Control Art. Instantly, the tide of spirit energy ceased completely, leaving the area around the cauldron empty and still. He stomped through the air and appeared a hundred zhang away, his eyes fixed nervously on the Primordial Unity Cauldron.

However, everything remained still, as dead and silent as his own heart. The cauldron did not explode, but neither was the pill complete.

With his mana nearly exhausted, he slowly returned to his cauldron and summoned the Law Scrutiny Pill into his hand. It was golden and radiant, flawless enough in appearance to resemble the legendary Nine Revolutions Golden Pills described in ancient tales. But Luo Chen knew that this was an incomplete pill—no, that was overestimating it. It was a waste pill, plain and simple. It had failed to absorb sufficient spirit energy and could never achieve the effect of allowing a Sage, much less an Ascendant, to merge their divine consciousness with heaven and earth.

After a long sigh, he carefully stored the waste pill away. Then he rested a hand against the cauldron and sat down atop the peak. Below him, the spirit energy weakened by the surrounding formations was slowly recovering. Luo Chen drew it into his body to restore his depleted mana, but even as he cultivated, his thoughts remained fixed on the failed refinement.

”Three months... I held on for the full three months. So why did it still fail?”

No matter how much he thought about it, he could not find the answer.

***

Only after his mana had fully recovered did Luo Chen finally understand where he had gone wrong.

”The formula says three months based on the premise that the alchemist is a Sage at the very least. There’s no way an Adept can do it in such a short time.”

Beneath the night sky, he sat gazing at the stars overhead as the answer gradually settled in his mind. The same spell could produce entirely different results depending on the cultivation of the person who launched it. Even the simplest first-tier Fireball was no exception. In the hands of an ordinary Qi Refinement cultivator, it was little more than shooting a fire arrow. If Luo Chen used the same spell, its power was enough to directly vaporize an Initiate.

By the same logic, the amount of spirit energy that could be manipulated with the Qi Control Art was also affected by the cultivator’s realm. Although Luo Chen had reached the Grandmaster level, he remained an Adept, and he simply could not wield it with the same force as a Sage.

The realization left him frustrated. He had finally found the reason for the failure, but knowing the reason did not bring him any closer to a solution.

”Am I really going to stop here?”

***

Over the following days, Luo Chen did not attempt another refinement. Until he found a way past the final step, he would only produce the same result. There was no point wasting more ingredients and effort on a failure he could already foresee.

Instead, he devoted himself to practicing the Qi Control Art. If he could raise it from Grandmaster level to Perfected Mastery, perhaps he would gain enough control over spirit energy to complete the Law Scrutiny Pill.

But his progress was painfully slow. Each increase in proficiency felt like trying to lift grains of sand with a needle. No matter how long he practiced, the change was almost imperceptible.

Luo Chen knew that this was the limitation of his realm. The Grandmaster level was already close to the limit of what he could do as he was now. His cultivation had become an obstacle, and unless he broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm, he was unlikely to advance any further.

”Could it be that even this path is blocked?”

When another day came to an end, Luo Chen lay on a stone and stared at the sky, frustration churning through his mind.

”But if the system let me reach Beginner mastery, then there must be a way for me to reach Perfected Mastery. What am I missing? The Qi Control Art... three months...”

As he pondered, he seemed to grasp something.

***

Luo Chen flew through the open sky, his hands moving through the familiar seals. Streams of spirit energy spiraled around him, gathering obediently beneath the pull of his mana.

Then he abruptly cut off the flow from his sea of qi. The spirit energy immediately lost its guidance and scattered in every direction like startled birds. But at that very moment, Luo Chen let out a low shout, and another force erupted from his body. It was a crimson energy—origin energy!

This was an energy that he had gained after his fourth-tier breakthrough in Physique Refinement. Since then, it had lain dormant within him. The only time he had actually employed it for some kind of special use was after his left hand had been severed, when he used it to reattach and repair the hand. Aside from that, he had only used it to empower his combat techniques while in the Sky Roc True Form. He had never considered this energy to be something that could be controlled like mana. Yet after searching fruitlessly for so long, something had clicked in his mind.

When Wang Yuan’s blood qi grew strong enough, it transformed into Pill Force, and I assume that he reached the third tier and produced fortified qi. They say that fortified qi is almost equivalent to mana, so by that logic, the origin energy should count as well. Its tier is even higher, so it should be comparable to a Sage’s mana. If I use it with the Qi Control Art, could I command the natural spirit energy the way a Sage does?

The thought had seemed almost absurd when it first appeared, but Luo Chen had spent the following month testing it again and again. At last, it seemed that he was getting the hang of it.

This time, he only used a thin strand of origin energy to power the Qi Control Art. Yet even so...

BOOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The spirit energy around him erupted into violent waves! Currents of spirit energy coiled around him, and pillars of light rose throughout the surrounding sky, all converging upon Luo Chen. The scale was orders of magnitude greater than anything he’d achieved before!

”So this is how it works....”

He released the hand seals and watched the spirit energy gradually settle. When the last streams of light faded, the light in his eyes remained, even brighter than before.

***

On the highest mountain, where fourth-tier spirit energy gathered in abundance, the familiar figure once again began the same refinement process. He set up the Primordial Unity Cauldron, kindled the fire, and fed the medicinal ingredients into it in a sequence. One alchemy art followed another as naturally as breathing. Mana flowed through the cauldron while water and fire worked in harmony, and every movement came from a process he had rehearsed countless times in his mind after eight failed attempts.

Those failures had left their marks on him. Each had shown him a different weakness, and each had brought him one step closer to understanding what the Law Scrutiny Pill required. This was his ninth attempt. Ideally, it would be his last.

Several months later, the pill embryo finally began to take shape. Luo Chen’s fingers moved delicately as he cast the Qi Control Art; soon, spirit energy began flowing toward the cauldron from every direction.

Three months later, just as he felt his mana beginning to run dry, Luo Chen suddenly changed his seals and released crimson origin energy from his body to sustain the Qi Control Art. Unlike the earlier experiments, he did not allow it to erupt without restraint. Instead, he kept its output close to the level his mana had maintained, drawing spirit energy into the cauldron at a measured pace. There were no pillars of light piercing the sky this time; only an unbroken current of spirit energy that continued to feed the pill.

Luo Chen watched the cauldron without even blinking, his eyes fixed on every change within it.

Time continued to flow. Three months became five; five months became a year.

Before he realized it, two and a half years had passed. By then, Luo Chen could no longer understand why the process had not ended. He had spent ten times the duration stated in the formula, yet the Law Scrutiny Pill continued to absorb spirit energy without showing any sign of being satisfied.

The mana in his sea of qi had long since been drained. Even his two cores looked shriveled, more like dry figs than like shiny pearls. The crimson origin energy that had once filled his body was nearly exhausted as well. His eyes had become so dry that thin traces of bloody tears seeped from their corners. His divine soul was also worn to the limit. He felt as though a single lapse in concentration would cause him to collapse entirely.

Still not enough?

He continued casting the hand seals with persistence, though his hands had also become as dry and brittle as wood. The blood qi within him had been consumed almost completely, and he could feel the vitality that had once filled his body like an endless sea dwindling into a narrow stream that was close to drying up. Origin energy came from the strength of his physical body; once that vitality was exhausted, there would be nothing left from which to draw it.

Yet Luo Chen refused to let go. ”I won’t accept this! I’ve never been this close to success. How can I fail now?!”

He grit his teeth as he reached into his storage ring and grabbed a handful of pills. Some restored mana, while others replenished the strength of his body. Even the Stonehide Pill, Lightningbone Pill, and Quicksilver Blood Pill he had refined in the Alchemy Realm were among them.

Relying on this batch of pills, Luo Chen endured for another two months. But once these two months had passed... the Law Scrutiny Pill was still absorbing spirit energy!

”No more pills... Fine, screw it!”

This time, he produced a massive white lump of flesh, plump and faintly translucent like a piece of jelly. It was none other than the Flesh Ganoderma!

He bent over it and tore off a piece with his teeth. Then he took another, and another, until he had bitten into it nine times. His teeth ground through flesh as hard as an enchanted treasure, flesh said to prolong one’s lifespan and delay the ravages of age. As he chewed and swallowed, he converted the Flesh Ganoderma into origin energy, and he kept casting the Qi Control Art.

This time, Luo Chen no longer held anything back. He poured every last trace of his power into the Qi Control Art, determined to stake all that remained on one final effort.

Suddenly, the entire Alchemy Realm quaked, and a familiar scene appeared once more. Wind and lightning swept across the sky as the earth shook beneath him. Spirit veins split apart, and spirit energy surged toward Luo Chen like endless rivers rushing to fill an empty seabed.

One day. Two days...

Another three months went by. At last, Luo Chen’s body stiffened, then collapsed. He had reached the limit of what he could endure, and then he had gone past it.

However, in the last moment before darkness claimed him, he saw a dazzling golden pill, faintly tinged with blood, rising slowly from the Primordial Unity Cauldron. At the same time, a weak voice echoed once more in his ears.

SPLASHHHHH!

Cold water crashed over him, as though he had fallen into a chilling spring.