An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Chapter 1126: Primordial Slaughter’s Might; The Transformation of the Withering-Flourishing True Fire; The Ice Pole Sect (I)

The ship was far more than just a vessel for transportation. It housed a proper city equipped with every convenience a cultivator might need during a long voyage. It reminded Luo Chen of the luxury cruise ships from before his transmigration. Most people had no idea how extravagant those cruises could be, with shopping streets, theaters, bouldering facilities, and even golf courses. Yet even the grandest of them all looked modest beside the ship under his feet.

The hull of the ship had been constructed from the three-hundred-zhang-long corpse of a Glaive Whale Emperor; this already colossal frame had been further expanded until the completed vessel stretched five hundred zhang from bow to stern. Pavilions, towers, gardens, and waterside terraces covered its decks, while palaces of differing heights rose in rows. Shops and leisure halls occupied entire stretches of the vessel, offering nearly every comfort and diversion a passenger could desire. With such grandeur, calling it an immortal city floating upon the sea was no exaggeration.

Even with several thousand people aboard, the ship felt remarkably spacious. In any case, its primary purpose was not transporting passengers but carrying Northern Sea resources that were unsuitable for storage treasures.

Inside the lavish palace at the center of the ship, Luo Chen withdrew his gaze and nodded. ”You’ve gone to a great deal of trouble for me, Elder Fu.”

Fu Chaosheng tucked his hands into his sleeves and smiled. ”About that... I won’t be an elder of the trade alliance for much longer. Might as well talk to each other as the peers we are.”

Luo Chen tilted his head and blinked in confusion.

”Trade alliance elders serve for two hundred years,” Fu Chaosheng explained. ”The position usually goes to older Sages who have little hope of Ascension. I don’t have many years left, so once my term ends, I plan to spend the rest of my life in peace and teach my descendants. I have no plans of taking another post.”

Luo Chen nodded in understanding. Fu Chaosheng had mentioned something similar before, though only in passing.

Fu Chaosheng looked around the complex known as Giant Dawn Palace, his expression filled with emotion. ”Anyway, as long as you’re satisfied with the arrangements, I can put my mind at ease. The journey isn’t all that long, but it’s not like we arrive tomorrow either, so make good use of the time. Every bit of strength you gain before our arrival will improve your chances inside the pocket world.”

While alive, the Glaive Whale had been known as Giant Dawn, and the finest palace aboard the ship, Giant Dawn Palace, was named in its honor. Its true luxury lay not in extravagant architecture or an army of servants, but in the concentration of spirit energy within its walls.

Though the gathered energy lacked the purity of a natural cave residence, it was still fourth tier and no weaker than Luo Chen’s former residence on Little Jade Mountain. According to Fu Chaosheng, there was a large spirit-gathering formation under the Giant Dawn Palace that continuously drew natural spirit energy into the palace. Not only that, he had also embedded five supreme-grade fire-attribute spirit stones into the formation so it would better suit Luo Chen’s cultivation.

With such an extensive arrangement prepared specifically for him, how could Luo Chen possibly not be satisfied?

Fu Chaosheng personally showed him through the palace as they went. Sometimes they spoke of the facilities, and sometimes of the little things that went on around them. ”I haven’t been very attentive lately. There are simply too many things to deal with in the Northern Sea. Although my term has ended, I could not abandon my duties without arranging a proper handover. If I left a mess behind, my successor might well hate me for it.”

He sighed. ”That is how things work in the Central Continent. The Dao Sect may stand above everyone else, but under it, countless families are constantly competing with one another. My family has been declining for years. I cannot afford to leave enemies behind wherever I go.

”Oh, speaking of that, Shen Wandou must have told you about the Star Gate. Then you should already know that the Twelve Great Houses control it together. Each of those families has produced an Ascendant in the past, and their influence reaches far beyond the Star Gate. And under them are the Thirty-Six Noble Houses, followed by countless Lesser Houses. The difference between a Noble House and a Lesser House is actually quite simple...”

”As for the Northern Sea, things have more or less settled into the state you know. Neither the righteous nor the devilish factions can be trusted, so getting them to cooperate at all was difficult enough. Our sect exerted some influence from behind the scenes, but much of it also depended on Ascendant Li. His intentions are difficult to read. He created the alliance and even gave them an island-protecting formation, yet he seems strangely indifferent to both the war between them and the invasion of the Demon Alliance...”

”We’ll travel to Sun-Moon Island first. Once we arrive, everyone will split into separate groups and take the teleportation formation directly to the Central Continent. That will save us several years of travel. There’s no need to worry about danger along the way. The Dao Sect’s banner is hanging from the ship. That alone should discourage anyone foolish enough to cause trouble.”

Here, Fu Chaosheng came to a stop. ”Let’s leave it here for today. I still have some matters to handle, and the others are probably tired of waiting for me.”

It was clear that Fu Chaosheng treated Luo Chen with unusual courtesy. Despite the many responsibilities awaiting him, he had still taken the time to show Luo Chen around. He even reassigned Fu Hongzhang to remain there and attend to anything Luo Chen might need.

Luo Chen also understood who Fu Chaosheng meant by ”the others.” Six other Northern Sea Sages had boarded the ship. Unlike Luo Chen, not all of them had secured passage through a personal relationship with him, but since they would be traveling together, Fu Chaosheng could hardly neglect them.

After seeing him off, Luo Chen climbed alone to the fifth floor of Giant Dawn Palace. This was the highest point aboard the ship and housed the palace’s cultivation chamber, where the gathered spirit energy was purer than anywhere else on the vessel. Rather than stepping in immediately, however, he stepped onto the corridor and surveyed the decks below with his hands clasped behind his back.

The cultivators who had only just boarded moved about like swarming ants. Under the guidance of the Dao Sect’s low-tier disciples, they dispersed among the cabins to settle into their assigned quarters. Most remained unaware of Luo Chen’s presence high above them, though two or three of the other Sages sensed his gaze and looked up.

Luo Chen acknowledged them with a calm nod before extending his divine consciousness across the surrounding sea. It spread a thousand li in every direction and revealed tens of thousands of demonic beasts trailing behind them.

As expected, they followed us.

The demons kept their distance and shadowed the ship without approaching, as though waiting to see what would happen. Luo Chen’s scrutiny soon alerted the strongest among them, and several powerful streams of divine consciousness surged toward him without restraint.

Why are they being so cautious? What are they afraid of?

With no immediate answer, Luo Chen withdrew his divine consciousness and entered the cultivation chamber. Fu Hongzhang would arrange accommodations for Heavenjade and the others, so there was no need for him to concern himself with such matters. At this moment, he only had one task at hand: refining the Primordial Slaughter Sword!

Even if he could not yet break through the third seal and gain complete control over it, he could still deepen their connection, familiarize himself with it, and draw out as much of its power as possible.

***

Several months slipped by after they left Divine Origin City. Despite its immense size, the ship was not slow at all. Yet even after traveling for so long, it still had not crossed beyond the Northern Sea, and that only made the region’s vastness more apparent.

Human settlements grew fewer along their route, while the ominous presence of demonic beasts hung heavily in the air. Clearly, the Northern Sea’s Demon Alliance had been devouring human territory little by little from the outer reaches. That was why the farther they traveled, the more desolate the surroundings became and the more rampant the demonic beasts grew.

Even so, not a single demonic beast dared approach the ship, much less attack it. The ship’s low-tier passengers were likely unaware of the reason, but the Sages understood. The horde that had followed them from Divine Origin City still shadowed the vessel from afar. Rather than hunting the ship, they seemed to be driving away any beast that wandered too close and escorting it out of the Northern Sea.

The sight weighed heavily on the Sages who had been born in the region. They could only watch as the homeland they had once dominated slipped further into the hands of the demonic beasts. But they knew all too well that, if they had possessed the strength to reverse the situation, they would never have abandoned it in the first place. With nothing left to be done, they turned away from the sea and kept their grief to themselves.

During the whole voyage, almost none chose to enter seclusion. The journey was not long enough for one, and not every palace aboard the ship possessed a fourth-tier cultivation chamber like Giant Dawn Palace. Thus, the Sages gathered in small groups every few days and held larger exchanges twice a month to discuss their respective insights and experiences.

Naturally, many of them wished to meet Luo Chen. Shen Wandou had once visited him in person, Fu Chaosheng treated him as an honored guest, and even Zhou Yunshen, a sixth-stage Sage, had given him unreserved praise.

Yet none of their invitations received an answer. As the weeks passed, people stopped paying attention to him. After all, Luo Chen was a rogue cultivator who had spent much of his life cultivating in isolation, so his reclusive temperament was hardly surprising. Even his title, Wilderness Hermit, told others what kind of man he was.

One day, fierce winds suddenly swept across the sky, and a bloody aura surged into the sky. A sword cry rang out as the natural spirit energy converged. All the cultivators raised their heads to look. Zhou Yunshen and the other Sages, who were in the middle of one of their gatherings, also came out from the palace and looked toward the source of the disturbance.

High above the vessel, crimson clouds gathered and spread across the sky before gradually brightening into a crimson glow like a sunset. Yet the entire phenomenon disappeared as quickly as it appeared, leaving only traces of chaotic spirit energy behind.