An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Inside the thatched hut, several storage pouches floated quietly in the air. These were the spoils Luo Chen had collected, and unlike the True Artifacts and rare spirit plants, everything they contained undoubtedly suited his current cultivation. There was no need to trouble Han Zhan to remove their restrictions. As Luo Chen continued cultivating from the ninth stage toward Perfected Mastery, he would have plenty of time to gradually break those restrictions and sort through their contents. There might even be a few unexpected surprises waiting inside.

Besides, his true harvest was not limited to these. His body had been remade, the Withering-Flourishing True Fire had improved greatly, and his life-bound enchanted treasure, the Primordial Unity Cauldron, had swallowed that mysterious gray light.

When his thoughts turned to the cauldron, his earlier joy faded, and uncertainty crept into his expression. Even now, he still could not activate his own life-bound enchanted treasure. This issue had lingered for a long time, and no matter how much he tried to ignore it, it never truly left him at ease.

Almost unconsciously, Luo Chen lowered his hand and rested it against his stomach. Deep within his sea of qi, the small gray cauldron remained silent and unmoving.

***

In the days that followed, Luo Chen devoted himself to refining his mana and stabilizing his cultivation. Now that he had reached the ninth stage of the Golden Core Realm, cultivation was no longer a simple matter of accumulation. The final stage of any major realm always differed from the minor stages before it, because it was less about adding more power and more about preparing for the next fundamental transformation.

At the ninth stage of Qi Refinement, a cultivator had to purify spirit power so it could later liquefy upon becoming an Initiate. At the ninth stage of Foundation Establishment, the cultivator had to connect spirit power with divine consciousness, generate mana, and step into the Golden Core Realm. The Golden Core itself seemed solid, but in essence, it was formed from droplets of mana condensed and refined to the extreme. By the ninth stage of the Golden Core Realm, however, the transformation involved a process known as Unifying the Three Treasures—vital energy, qi, and spirit.

This so-called unification practically meant merging of blood essence, mana, and the divine soul while maintaining a precise balance between all three. The Golden Core remained the center of the process, but the Three Treasures had to reach harmony around it. After examining this carefully, Luo Chen understood that the process was, in a sense, a way to create a second home for the divine soul outside the sea of consciousness. After all, for cultivators, refining the spirit was the true priority.

It was said that once cultivators reached an unimaginably high realm, they could continue to exist even after their physical bodies were destroyed. At that level, they could cast off their human shells and roam freely through the universe. One might argue that Han Zhan was doing precisely that, but it was not remotely the same thing. Han Zhan was barely surviving as a Nascent Soul, and without an appropriate vessel, he would eventually perish. Meanwhile, cultivators of that level were no longer dependent on any vessel at all and could exert their full power as they wished.

Luo Chen allowed his thoughts to drift only briefly before bringing his focus back to the present.

He experimented with merging the Three Treasures, and the process was anything but smooth. The moment the balance collapsed, his entire being fell into chaos, and while he was unconscious, his body ran wild by itself and smashed right through a cliff face.

Only then did Luo Chen truly understand how difficult it was to keep the three in harmony.

No wonder the Angler was so desperate about physique cultivation back then...

None of the Three Treasures could be too weak, or that balance would collapse. In most cases, cultivators prioritized qi cultivation while neglecting their physique, resulting in abundant mana but insufficient blood essence. Under those conditions, any attempt to unify the Three Treasures would usually cause instability of mana. Han Zhan’s earlier warning about wasting blood essence had been based on this principle, since excessive depletion would directly affect this stage of cultivation. Later, when Han Zhan stopped pressing the matter, he had probably realized that Luo Chen knew best how powerful his own body was.

What Han Zhan had not considered, and even Luo Chen had overlooked for a while, was that this physical body was not merely strong—it was too strong. The mana instability common among late-stage Adepts was not a matter of concern; instead, his physical body overwhelmed the other two and acted entirely on instinct while he was unconscious.

After understanding the cause, Luo Chen felt his tension ease rather than deepen. His problem was not a lack of blood essence, but mana that lacked sufficient refinement. In that case, the solution was clear: He only needed to continue strengthening and refining his mana until it reached the absolute limit of what he could do. Once that happened, he could attempt the unification process again.

This realization matched the direction of his recent cultivation, so his days gradually settled into a steady rhythm. He meditated, refined qi, and occasionally used the Withering-Flourishing True Fire to temper his Golden Core. He also no longer needed to rely on pills, as his cultivation speed had already increased to more than three times what it had been before, so there was little need to force further progress with external aids. If anything, continuing to take them would only risk leaving behind unwanted pill toxins.

In his remaining time, Luo Chen turned his attention to absorbing the alchemy inheritance. To any alchemist, the seventy-two volumes of alchemical texts were already an enormous treasure trove, and the thirty-six formulas he had access to were no less precious. Even if he set aside the formulas meant for demons and devils, the human series alone was enough to guide cultivators toward higher realms.

Strictly speaking, this inheritance was one of his greatest gains from the pocket world. It was not merely a collection of random prescriptions put together, but a complete chain covering each stage of human cultivation. For the Qi Refinement Realm, there were formulas such as the Spirit Root Pill, the first-tier qi-nourishing pill, and the Body Purification Pill. For the Foundation Establishment Realm, there were the Foundation Establishment Pill, the Boundless Origin Pill, and the Meridian Expansion Pill. The Golden Core Realm was covered as well, with formulas such as the Liquid Condensation Pill. Even the Nascent Soul Realm had formulas for forming the Nascent Soul, increasing mana, and strengthening the divine soul.

After browsing through them, Luo Chen could not help feeling a surge of excitement. This collection encompassed almost the entire progression of the human cultivation system, extending from the earliest stages of qi cultivation all the way toward the higher realms. If he could master it completely, he would be able to nurture a large number of human experts. At the very least, the three breakthrough formulas he had once bitterly searched for were all recorded here in full. If the three sealed formulas were also included, then even the Void Refinement Realm had a corresponding inheritance. The only missing stage was probably the Divine Transformation Realm...

”No, that’s not right...”

Luo Chen remembered the final trial in the Alchemy Realm. The formula for the Law Scrutiny Pill was still clear in his mind, and he even possessed an actual pill he had refined himself. Unfortunately, that pill had been stored inside the internal space of the Primordial Unity Cauldron, and since he still could not use the cauldron, he had no way to retrieve it for the time being.

Even so, the more he studied the texts and formulas left behind in the Alchemy Palace, the more his admiration for the Monarch deepened. Although they had never met, Luo Chen could tell that they had truly stood at the very peak of alchemy. After all, this was someone who had mastered the paths of humans, demons, and devils alike, and left behind a complete alchemy system for each.

Although Luo Chen had been able to refine a Law Scrutiny Pill, the system still judged him to be only a fourth-tier alchemist. That was an extremely unusual situation, and it was probably related to the fact that he had consumed a full 100 achievement points during the refinement. Even so, he was confident that once he fully absorbed the knowledge in these texts, his foundation would become strong enough to push him as a fifth-tier alchemist.

No matter how he looked at it, the Monarch’s inheritance had brought him endless benefits.

***

Time passed in this fashion, and in the blink of an eye, seven years went by.

During those years, Luo Chen had opened each of the storage pouches he had acquired and obtained a considerable amount of resources. Excluding all other items, the top-grade spirit stones alone were no fewer than thirty thousand. It seemed a rather underwhelming number, but when converted into low-grade spirit stones, it meant a total of 300 million!

Three hundred million! It was the richest Luo Chen had ever been; let alone an Adept, even a fairly wealthy Sage might not have such funds readily available. Perhaps only those who ruled a region and established their own sects could compare.

Apart from sorting through those spoils, he also began preparing for the forthcoming refinement of the Nascent Soul Pill. The Purple Monkey Flowers were close to full maturity, his supply of Divine Irises were more than sufficient, and all the remaining supplementary ingredients had already been gathered. With the actual refinement only days away, he could no longer delay his final preparation.

Since his life-bound enchanted treasure was still unusable, he had no choice but to seek out suitable replacements in advance. To that end, he refined three enchanted treasure-grade alchemy tools: a cauldron, a furnace, and a small kettle. Some were from his own collection, while the rest were taken from those storage pouches. More than that, he had also long since memorized the Nascent Soul Pill formula, and he even learned a few additional techniques from the alchemical texts to ensure he had enough techniques to steady the process if anything went wrong.

With everything falling into place, the following years slipped by quietly, and nothing seemed out of order—not until Heavenjade entered the abyss.

She stood outside the thatched hut and bowed respectfully, though anxiety was clear in her voice. ”Master, something is happening in the Blood Pool!”

No response came from within. Though Heavenjade was anxious, all she could do was wait patiently. After a long while, the mana shrouding the thatched hut slowly receded.

At the same time, Luo Chen’s voice sounded from within. ”How’s Black King?”

Heavenjade let out a sigh of relief before replying in a strained voice, ”He’s waking up, but the aura of his divine soul is fading.”

Luo Chen opened his eyes from where he sat on the golden meditation cushion. The moment he had been waiting for had finally arrived. He had already done everything within his power. Now that Black King had awakened from hibernation, whether he survived would depend entirely on his own fate.

Whoosh...

A gentle breeze swept past. When Heavenjade looked up again, Luo Chen was already standing beside her, dressed in flowing white robes with long sleeves.

”Let’s go!”