An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

HUUUUUUMMMMM...

A deep hum rolled through the ship as the spirit light surrounding its structure slowly faded. After half a year at sea, the vessel finally came to a stop at a harbor.

Under the guidance of the Heaven Origin Trade Alliance cultivators, the passengers disembarked in groups and made their way onto Sun-Moon Island. Although the island still lay within the Northern Sea, it was far removed from the heartland of the human cultivation world. The harbor bustled with activity as workers shouted to one another and unloaded crates and other materials toward warehouses prepared along the shore. Much of what the ship carried was either too large or otherwise unsuitable to be stored within storage pouches, which was why it had been transported across the sea in the first place.

The scale of the operation made Sun-Moon Island’s purpose clear. It served as the trade alliance’s main transit hub between the Northern Sea and the Central Continent. Its importance was also reflected in the people stationed there. Rather than an elder of the trade alliance, the island was guarded by the disciples of the Dao Sect. The two organizations might work closely together, but the distinction between them was clearly maintained.

At that moment, a rather young-looking Sage from the Dao Sect stood aboard the ship beside Fu Chaosheng and watched the crowds moving through the harbor below.

”Senior Brother Fu, bringing seven Sages into the Star Gate at once is quite an achievement.”

Fu Chaosheng smiled. ”You’re giving me too much credit. I only recommended two of them. The other five were brought in by other elders.”

”They still came through the Northern Sea branch. You don’t have to be so humble, Senior Brother.” The man smiled before his expression turned serious. ”But are you sure you want to use the teleportation formation here? Wouldn’t the one in Divine Origin City be better?”

Fu Chaosheng shook his head. ”The formation in the city can teleport people directly across continents, but it requires far too many spirit stones and takes a long time before it can be used again. Elder Shen activated it without telling me and already sent someone through.”

The man looked surprised. ”Who?!”

”Someone from the Liu family,” Fu Chaosheng replied casually.

The man immediately caught on. ”Junior Brother Liu Yuan, is it? I heard he left the Central Continent and traveled all the way to the Northern Sea just to temper himself. He even managed to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm. Hmm... Now that I think of it this way, he must have done something impressive after that for Senior Brother Shen to make an exception for him.”

As he spoke, he suddenly realized something. ”Wait—the Shen family doesn’t have anyone suitable for this coming grand competition. Has Senior Brother Shen set his sights on Junior Brother Liu Yuan instead?”

Fu Chaosheng forced a smile but said nothing more. Although both he and Shen Wandou had spent years stationed in the Northern Sea, their circumstances had been very different. He spent most of his time traveling through the southeastern regions and had little contact with Liu Yuan. Shen Wandou, meanwhile, had remained in Divine Origin City, close to the Society where Liu Yuan tempered himself. The two had therefore come into frequent contact.

By the time Fu Chaosheng noticed what was happening, Shen Wandou had already drawn the talented Liu Yuan to his side. Liu Yuan was from one of the Lesser Houses, but Shen Wandou spared no expense in building that relationship, always showering him with resources and opportunities whenever possible. Merely making an exception to activate the cross-continent teleportation formation was enough to earn deep gratitude.

Looking back, Shen Wandou’s visit to Luo Chen before Fu Chaosheng returned to the city was probably part of the same calculation. He had likely wanted to gauge the strength of another potential competitor on Liu Yuan’s behalf.

The “junior brother” only needed to take a glance at Fu Chaosheng’s expression to understand what troubled him. Fu Qinglan, the Fu family’s most promising descendant, had also registered for the coming grand competition in hopes of finding an opportunity within the Mirage Dragon Pocket World. That meant Liu Yuan would inevitably be one of her competitors. Compared with him, Fu Qinglan was at an obvious disadvantage; Liu Yuan had reached the Nascent Soul Realm much earlier and was already approaching the hundred-year eligibility limit, while Fu Qinglan had formed her Nascent Soul only a few years ago. And that gap in power and experience only became more pronounced in true life-and-death combat.

Understanding this, the man respectfully let the subject drop. He patted the railing and turned to the matter at hand. ”The teleportation formation on Sun-Moon Island was built mainly for transporting resources, not people. Anyone who uses it needs a high enough cultivation to withstand the pressure. I’m pretty sure you know that well, Senior Brother Fu.”

Fu Chaosheng grunted in acknowledgement and handed him a list.

The man accepted it and read through the names. There were only a little over a dozen, and most belonged to Adepts or Sages. When he reached the final few entries, however, his brow furrowed. ”Why are there two demonic beasts here? And this woman is just an Initiate; how is she supposed to survive the teleportation? Um? Huh, they all came with this Wilderness Hermit, Luo Chen? And who exactly is he?”

Fu Chaosheng remained completely calm despite the barrage of questions. ”Wilderness Hermit is a newly risen Sage from the Northern Sea. He may be a rogue cultivator, but in terms of strength, he’s not inferior to cultivators from the Holy Lands. The formation will take some time to prepare anyway. I might as well introduce the two of you.”

The man raised an eyebrow and carefully eyed Fu Chaosheng before ultimately agreeing. The two waited together at the bow, but as time passed and Luo Chen still did not appear, the silence between them eventually grew awkward.

Fu Chaosheng finally sent a voice transmission. ”Hongzhang, go see what’s keeping Wilderness Hermit.”

Fu Hongzhang, who had been standing by, immediately hurried toward Giant Dawn Palace. Before long, he returned in haste. ”Family Head, Sage Luo’s attendant says he’s at a critical point in studying a secret art. He’ll need a few more days before he can come out.”

Fu Chaosheng was surprised. More than a month had passed since he last saw Luo Chen at Azure Tide Palace, and apparently Luo Chen had spent nearly all that time in seclusion. What sort of secret art had kept him occupied for so long? A month was not much for a Sage, but Luo Chen knew they were nearing Sun-Moon Island. If he was still unwilling to interrupt his seclusion, then whatever he was working on was definitely critical.

Fu Chaosheng was very curious, but he had no intention of disturbing him. If Luo Chen emerged stronger because of this seclusion, all the better.

He turned to the man with an apologetic smile. ”Junior Brother Yu...”

The man waved it off. ”It’s fine. We can meet another time. But he’ll still need to explain this to me before we leave. If his maid can’t withstand the teleportation and something happens, don’t blame me.”

Fu Chaosheng readily agreed and saw him off. Only after the man left did a trace of regret appear on his face. He had hoped to use this opportunity to introduce Luo Chen to someone who could make his future in Star Gate smoother.

Unfortunately, by the time Luo Chen emerged from seclusion, the teleportation formation would likely be ready. There might no longer be enough time for the two of them to become properly acquainted before they left Sun-Moon Island.

***

When Luo Chen finally opened his eyes inside the secluded chamber on the fifth floor of Giant Dawn Palace, the uncertainty in his gaze had disappeared.

”So that is how it works....”

He had spent the past month trying to unravel the abilities the Ghost Immortal Tower displayed at the Ice Pole Sect, but its terrifying roar was not something he could imitate just by merely hearing it. That was an innate divine ability belonging to an archaic beast, something rooted in bloodline and constitution rather than something that could be reproduced simply by understanding how it worked.

The ghost phantoms surrounding its body were something else entirely. Luo Chen still remembered how the strike of the Ice Pole Sect’s Sage had missed despite clearly being aimed directly at the beast. The phantoms had interfered with his divine consciousness and distorted his perception so thoroughly that even a Sage could no longer judge his target accurately. It was an extraordinarily rare form of defensive soul art. Even Han Zhan had possessed nothing like that.

At first, Luo Chen had assumed such an ability was impossible for him to imitate. After all, the abilities of archaic beasts were fundamentally different from human cultivation, and many of their seemingly crude abilities only appeared that way because humans did not understand the bodies and bloodlines that made them possible.

But once Luo Chen accounted for those racial differences, the underlying principle was surprisingly straightforward. The Ghost Immortal Tower used its origin energy as a medium to draw fiend qi into its divine soul and project the resulting illusion around its body. The countless ghosts surrounding its body were simply the outward manifestation of those three forces working together.

And Luo Chen happened to possess all three. His divine soul was already exceptionally powerful, while years of slaughter and cultivation had left an enormous reservoir of fiend qi within him. Most importantly, after tempering his physique to the level of a fourth-tier archaic beast, he had developed the origin energy needed to bind the other two together. Even the illusion itself did not need to be created from nothing; he had achieved Perfected Mastery of Mirror Flower Water Moon decades before. Later, after obtaining a trace of the Ghost Immortal Tower’s fiend qi from the Soul-Nurturing Wood, Luo Chen used it to create the spell’s second illusion offshoot, also named Ghost Immortal Tower. The spell had once allowed him, as a middle-stage Adept, to force back a late-stage one.

Now that he was a Sage, the difference in divine soul quality had become too great for the old spell to remain useful against opponents of his own level. He had therefore left it untouched for years. But now, that forgotten spell had given him exactly the foundation he needed.