An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Chapter 1062: Can You Refine This For Me? The Monarch’s Blood (I)

Hard to say? Do you mean you don’t know... or do you mean you know too much and you don’t want to spill it?

Han Zhan could not quite figure out what was going on with Luo Chen. From what he could see, Luo Chen’s aura had climbed from the sixth stage, where it had been when he first entered the Land of Fallen Devils, to the eighth. His physique had changed even more dramatically. He could now withstand attacks from True Artifacts, which meant his body had grown far stronger than it had been even after that breakthrough at Surging Lake.

Put together, these things made it pretty clear that after they had parted ways in the Heaven of Bright Illumination, Luo Chen must have run into some kind of incredible opportunity. And that was not even counting the inheritance he had obtained from the Alchemy Palace. No matter how Han Zhan looked at it, these were all good things.

Yet under his gaze, Luo Chen fell silent. It was not that he could not explain anything at all. Rather, once he began, too many things would have to be mentioned, and the most important of them involved his core cultivation technique, the Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture. Although Han Zhan naturally knew some things, Luo Chen very much wanted to keep this part to himself.

Unseen by anyone but him, two entries on his status panel shone clearly before him: Realm: Golden Core Eighth Stage (99/100); Archaic Beast Tier Four (35/100).

Those two simple entries contained far more than they appeared to. The sharp increase in his qi cultivation had undoubtedly come from that mysterious spring water. After soaking in it for a long while, his cultivation had silently risen until he was only a step away from the ninth stage. This alone saved him decades of cultivation.

For an ordinary cultivator, even this much counted as immense fortune. To Luo Chen, however, the change in his physique cultivation mattered even more. He had only just entered the fourth tier of the Archaic Beast Realm, yet he had somehow skipped who-knew-how-many years of gradual tempering and jumped straight from 1 to 35! What kind of concept was that? Put another way, it was almost the same as an early-stage Sage advancing from the first stage to the third in one leap.

Actually... no, perhaps even the fourth! Since the maximum value was 100, a progress of 35 crossed more than one-third of the entire tier. And this was the true reason Luo Chen had been able to seize an opening and kill Flying Cloud.

When he thought back on it, it became clear that this strange transformation had all stemmed from that Nirvana he had undergone. With that realization, Luo Chen could not help feeling that the old saying about blessings in disguise.

The struggle between the Ninefold Beaconfire and the Nirvana Sacred Fire had destroyed his Nascent Core, and the explosion unleashed had nearly dragged him to the brink of death. In that desperate moment, Luo Chen had seized the only chance left to him and used the Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture to forcibly initiate the Nirvana of the Flesh. With his Golden Core as the foundation, the terrifying life force of the Flesh Ganoderma’s main body as support, and that wisp of primordial Nirvana Sacred Fire as the catalyst, he had somehow managed to endure the Blood, Flesh, and Bone Tribulations and survive the Nirvana of the Flesh.

That process had not only allowed Luo Chen to live and reconstruct a complete body, but also pushed his physique cultivation from the early stage of the fourth tier straight into the middle stage. More than that, it had transformed his constitution into a Fire Spirit Body, making him far more suited to fire-attribute techniques.

Yet the blessings were not just disguised, but perhaps outweighed by their cost. Compared to what he had gained, what he had lost weighed on him even more heavily. His newly-acquired Five-Spirit Dao Body, which would have allowed him to practice multiple cultivation arts in harmony, was gone. His Nascent Core, the foundation that would have turned into a second Nascent Soul after he reached the Nascent Soul Realm, had been destroyed. Even the Flesh Ganoderma’s main body, a treasure brimming with boundless life force, had been consumed and refined in haste.

To Luo Chen, a fourth-tier alchemist, that alone was an immense loss! If he had used it properly, that main body could have been refined into countless divine pills. Even if he had just used it for physique cultivation, he could have processed it through alchemy and supplemented it with other auxiliary materials, multiplying its medicinal properties ten times, or maybe even a hundred times. It might have been enough to support his physique cultivation throughout the entire fourth tier! Eating it directly was nothing less than a reckless waste of a heavenly treasure.

In the end, Luo Chen could only summarize the changes in his body in one way: they were good for now, but bad for later.

Forget it. Now’s not the time to think about that.

Luo Chen shook his head firmly, as though casting away the countless thoughts crowding his mind. There were many things he needed to handle, but one matter had to come first. He summoned his mana at his fingertip, and a faint light emerged from his storage ring. ”Senior, can you help me with this?”

Han Zhan looked over and saw an object no larger than a few cun, small enough to rest in one palm. Its upturned eaves rose elegantly, its eight sides were exquisitely crafted, and even its windows and doors were vividly lifelike. At first glance, it looked like a miniature wooden tower, delicate and most appropriate for decorating a tea room. Yet it was none other than the Penglai Immortal Sect’s True Artifact, the Penglai Eightspire Pavilion!

Luo Chen had forcibly seized this precious treasure on the Wood Heaven Plains from the experts of the Society and Penglai. It could house spirit herbs and allow them to grow freely within itself, which was why people often called it a portable garden.

Han Zhan looked at Luo Chen in surprise. ”Are you really in such a hurry? This treasure contains all five elements, along with wind, lightning, and ice. Once you form your Nascent Soul, you can refine it yourself. Why do you need me to do it for you?”

Luo Chen shook his head. ”I can’t wait that long. I need to use it within a year. No, actually, I need it in half a year. The sooner, the better.”

Han Zhan did not understand at first, but seeing Luo Chen so anxious, he quickly guessed the reason. ”You’re worried about Moon Hermit?”

Luo Chen grunted softly, his face filled with solemnity. ”That woman wants control over everything, whether people or treasures. I don’t know what that gray light is, but she was willing to abandon Fairy Jadecold just to seize it. That tells me enough. In any case, she’ll never let me go. Once she returns to the Society, she’ll send people after me. If she starts digging into those close to me, she may find Purple Spirit Island.”

Once he got to this, voice sank slightly. ”The Purple Monkey Flowers Sang Jiugong raised for me are still there. They’re my chance of forming a Nascent Soul, so I can’t leave them behind. Before I go, I have to take them with me.”

Han Zhan frowned slightly, still not entirely convinced. ”If you want the Purple Monkey Flowers, then just take them. Do you really need to use the Penglai Eightspire Pavilion?”

Han Zhan had not personally taken part in the trip to the Purple Spirit Island. After Luo Chen returned, he did not say much about it either, only briefly mentioning that Liang Baizao had set up an ambush to kill him, so Han Zhan naturally had no idea what had happened there and what things looked like now.

Luo Chen explained patiently, ”According to Sang Jiugong’s estimation, most of the Purple Monkey Flowers on Purple Spirit Island wouldn’t have matured yet. They still don’t meet the basic standard for refining the Nascent Soul Pill. They probably need at least another ten or twenty years. If we harvest them now, all our efforts will be wasted.”

Han Zhan nodded in understanding. Luo Chen wanted to use the Penglai Eightspire Pavilion so he could transplant every Purple Monkey Flower, roots and soil included, before Moon Hermit could use them to track him down. After all, this portable garden was capable of housing all kinds of spirit plants without damaging their spirituality.

At the thought of the strength Moon Hermit had displayed in the Heaven of Bright Illumination, Han Zhan’s heart tightened. He had used the late-stage-Sage tiger puppet obtained from the Puppet Realm and launched an attack, yet even then, he had failed to injure her. That alone was enough to show how terrifying Moon Hermit was. By provoking such an enemy, Luo Chen had truly left himself with endless future trouble.

”Alright, sure.”

Han Zhan waved a hand, and the small pavilion fell into his grasp. He sent his divine consciousness inside, carefully inspected its interior, and began judging whether it could be refined.

The Penglai Eightspire Pavilion was an actual True Artifact, one capable of connecting with spirit energy. However, it had clearly gone masterless for centuries. Many divine consciousness restrictions remained inside it, and they did not belong to one person alone but to many different people.

Judging from what Devil’s Cloud had once said, the Penglai Immortal Sect must have assigned dedicated caretakers to manage the pavilion over the years, but the treasure itself had never truly acknowledged any one of them as its master. Since the sect had spent countless years wandering through the wilds of the Northern Sea, its disciples would take out the pavilion whenever they encountered naturally grown spirit herbs and transplant them inside. Because of that, the restrictions within the pavilion had never been made overly powerful. It had to remain convenient for different disciples to use.

The only troublesome part was the main formation. Several mana auras lingered around it, sealing the deepest restrictions inside. Even with Han Zhan’s powerful divine soul, taking control of that area would take several decades.

After a long while, Han Zhan withdrew his divine consciousness and looked at Luo Chen. ”I can’t deal with the main formation right now, but that doesn’t matter much for what you need. If you only want to use it the way those Penglai Adepts used it to collect the Divine Iris, then it won’t be difficult. I only need to take control of a few key parts. Leave it to me.”

With Han Zhan’s promise, Luo Chen finally let out a sigh of relief. The Purple Monkey Flowers had to be secured. Among the thirty-six alchemical formulas he had obtained from the Alchemy Palace, there was indeed one formula for Nascent Soul Pill, but it required far too many ingredients, and the main technique required for the pill was unlike anything he was used to. There was no way he could get the hang of it anytime soon.

By contrast, he had possessed the ancient Nascent Soul Pill formula from Green Pill Valley and Han Zhan for decades, and he already understood it well enough to begin at any time. More importantly, he had gathered almost everything the formula required. The Five Elements Lotus Pod was in his possession, and the Penglai Eightspire Pavilion held a large patch of high-quality Divine Irises that Yu Gao had transplanted from Wood Heaven Plains. As for the remaining supplementary materials, Luo Chen had been collecting and preparing them over the years. Once the Purple Monkey Flowers matured, he would truly be ready to refine the Nascent Soul Pill.

While Han Zhan focused on refining the Penglai Eightspire Pavilion, Luo Chen could not help glancing at his puppet body a few more times. Han Zhan’s gains from the Puppet Realm in the Heaven of Bright Illumination were certainly nothing to scoff at. Although he had failed to obtain the main inheritance, he had still brought back nine formidable puppets: seven peak Adept-level puppets, one Sage-level puppet, and a White Tiger puppet.

Among them, the Sage-level puppet suited Han Zhan especially well. It had been refined from spirit wood, so his mana could flow through it smoothly, and it could host his Nascent Soul with no problem. As for the White Tiger puppet, Luo Chen had only seen it for a brief moment, but he was sure his eyes had not deceived him—it was definitely comparable to a late-stage Sage.