An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Little Jade Mountain was one of Divine Origin City’s fourth-tier spirit mountains. Although the spirit vein underneath was relatively small, the Heaven Origin Trade Alliance’s people had made full use of it and carved out more than a hundred cave residences upon it. Compared with such planning, the Myriad Immortal Society’s development of the Hidden Dragon Mountain Range seemed crude and wasteful.

Inside one of those residences, Luo Chen emerged from the meditation chamber with a satisfied smile on his face. The spirit energy was dense enough to meet his cultivation needs perfectly. He had not bothered asking how much the residence cost. A place of this quality would naturally be expensive and might not even be rentable with spirit stones alone.

Access to such places depended more on connections than wealth. Luo Chen was allowed to use this place free of charge for a while because of his agreement with Fu Chaosheng, who had every reason to support his cultivation. After all, the stronger Luo Chen was, the more capable he would be of protecting his granddaughter when the time came.

Fu Hongzhang had been waiting in the living room. When he saw the satisfied look on Luo Chen’s face, he finally relaxed. ”Senior, is the residence to your liking?”

Luo Chen gave a faint smile and nodded. ”You’ve gone through a great deal of trouble for me. You’ve gathered the resources I needed, and now you’ve also arranged such a nice place for me to cultivate.”

Fu Hongzhang quickly waved his hands. ”It’s nothing. The family head gave his orders, so naturally, we did everything we could. If you need anything else, please don’t hesitate to ask. I’ll do everything within my power to arrange it. I may not be particularly capable in cultivation, but I’ve managed the trade alliance’s day-to-day affairs for many years. I’ve handled matters both large and small. My family head made it very clear that as long as your request can be fulfilled, I am to see it done.”

Luo Chen’s eyebrow arched. Fu Chaosheng had truly spared no expense. Not only had he ordered people to prepare a batch of resources Luo Chen needed well before his arrival, but he had even placed his family’s cultivators at Luo Chen’s disposal.

After a moment’s thought, he asked, ”Do you know anything about the Three Hermits of the Myriad Immortal Society?”

The question caught Fu Hongzhang off guard. He had expected Luo Chen to ask about the city’s high-tier cultivators or recent developments in the Central Continent, and he had prepared answers on both subjects. He had not anticipated that Luo Chen’s interest would be in the Three Hermits.

On second thought, however, the question was not entirely surprising. Luo Chen called himself Wilderness Hermit, so it was only natural that he would take an interest in the other three who carried the same title.

Fu Hongzhang gathered his thoughts before slowly recounting what he knew. ”Mad Hermit was once known as Fengling Jushi. He spent most of his life cultivating in seclusion at Wind Ridge Temple[1], but after the devil sect seized the temple, he was forced to become a rogue cultivator. Around that time, people began calling him Wind Hermit. Later, he traveled to the Sunken Sea, and when he returned, he had lost his mind. From then on, he became Mad Hermit. He’s spent the years since wandering across the Northern Sea. The intelligence we have on him is fragmented, but if you’d like to know more, I can have someone compile everything into a file and bring it to you.”

Luo Chen acknowledged the account with a noncommittal hum. He had heard of Mad Hermit before but had never met him, and Mad Hermit was not the reason he had asked about the Three Hermits. His true concern lay with the other two.

Fu Hongzhang paused before continuing. ”As for Moon Hermit...”

Luo Chen noticed at once. ”What happened to her? I heard the Society fell when the demon alliance attacked, so where is she now?”

Fu Hongzhang hesitated. ”Her situation is difficult to explain.”

”Oh? What do you mean?”

”Before the demon alliance attacked, she came to the city once and used one of the teleportation formations. Not long afterward, she hurried back and took command of the Society’s defense. According to our reports, she held back seven Demon Emperors and even brought out a painting-like treasure that nearly crushed the entire allied army. But at the critical moment, she suddenly withdrew. She abandoned the Society and fled alone, and no one has seen her since.”

Luo Chen listened carefully as he pieced the account together with what he knew. Moon Hermit had likely used the teleportation formation to pursue him, but after the Star-Chasing Devil Beast and his split soul puppet both perished at Soulbreaking Cliff, she lost every means of tracking him and had no choice but to return empty-handed.

Her performance in the Society’s final battle was not unexpected. Although she had once been considered the weakest of the Three Hermits, her cultivation had since risen to the same level as Mad Hermit’s. Unlike him, however, she was clear-minded and far more stable in strength. With her power and the full resources of the Society, they should have held out as long as no late-stage Demon Emperor joined the assault. According to Fu Hongzhang, she had come very close to turning the tide and saving the Society from collapse. And yet, she had still chosen to withdraw. Indeed, her sudden retreat was rather difficult to understand.

Luo Chen’s expression turned solemn. ”Why did she leave?”

Fu Hongzhang shook his head. ”No one knows. Some say a fifth-tier demon personally intervened. Others believe that painting, which may have been a spirit treasure, caused a backlash. The most believable theory is that the Ghost Immortal Tower appeared and scared her away. Whatever the truth, she has now vanished, and no one knows where she went.”

Luo Chen considered the three possibilities and immediately ruled out the first. It was common knowledge that the Demon Alliance had deployed only one Ancient Demon there, the Sea Emperor Whale. Yet the moment this demon emerged, Ascendant Li confronted it, and it could not possibly have spared the time to pursue a mere Sage.

That left the backlash from the treasure and the arrival of the Ghost Immortal Tower. Of the two, Luo Chen found the latter far more convincing. The Ghost Immortal Tower’s reputation had become so dreadful that almost no one in the Northern Sea dared stand against it. In fact, one of the main reasons the righteous and devilish factions had ended their war and joined forces was to free their late-stage Sages to deal with the beast.

Still, Moon Hermit’s disappearance was not necessarily a bad thing. At the very least, Luo Chen would not need to remain constantly on guard against her before leaving the Northern Sea.

He had only just begun to relax when Fu Hongzhang added thoughtfully, ”Now that I think about it, the Three Hermits of the Northern Sea all met strange ends. One disturbed, one disappeared, and one dead. All three of them had been to the Sunken Sea. I suppose they don’t call it the Ominous Sea for not—”

”One dead?!” Luo Chen blurted out in shock. He knew exactly who had gone mad and who had vanished. Then the one who had died could only be...

Fu Hongzhang spread his hands in a helpless shrug. ”We only received the news recently. His battle with Blood Nightmare turned the entire Coldlight Archipelago into a living hell. Every living being within ten thousand li was wiped out, and when the fighting ended, the sea of blood remained over the region. Strangely enough, people could occasionally hear roars from within, and the blood sea even began spreading beyond the archipelago. The disturbance eventually drew Ascendant Li to step in and personally contain it. By the time it was over, the Coldlight Archipelago’s fourth-tier spirit vein had been completely destroyed. The entire region is now a wasteland.”

Luo Chen struggled to take it all in. ”Even Sages shouldn’t be able to devastate an area ten thousand li across. How could their battle have caused something like that?”

Sages possessed terrifying power, but the widespread destruction they caused usually arose because their battles never remained in one place. As they struck at each other across a huge area, the sheer amount of shockwaves would gradually reshape the land and disturb the weather. Yet what happened at the Coldlight Archipelago was different. Even after the battle had ended, the sea of blood refused to disperse and instead continued to spread outward, as though it possessed a will of its own.

1. The original is 风陵观(fēnglíng guàn), the same Fengling as Mad Hermit’s name. ☜