An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Fu Chaosheng soon confirmed Luo Chen’s conclusion. ”There are countless cultivation families in the Central Continent, but only one true sect. Every family here ultimately answers to it. And its influence doesn’t stop at the Central Continent. It is the strongest power in the entire Mountains and Seas Realm. If you’re accepted into the Star Gate, you’ll be joining it. Opportunities like that don’t come easily.”

For the first time, Luo Chen saw a side of Fu Chaosheng that his years as a merchant had usually kept hidden. Outside the Central Continent, he had dealt with others patiently because business demanded harmony and compromise. Here, he was no longer speaking as an elder of the Heaven Origin Trade Alliance but as a disciple returning to the greatest Holy Land under heaven, and the pride he took in that status was impossible to miss.

To be fair, it was also that very pride that gave him the confidence to remain composed whether facing the righteous and devilish factions of the Northern Sea, the late-stage Chanting Monk, or Luo Chen and the other two before him.

Then, Fu Chaosheng turned to their arrangements. ”The Star Gate is located on Heaven-Earth Peak at the center of the continent. Wintermount, you have Elder Shen’s recommendation token. Fellow Daoist Lu, you have mine. Take your clansmen and disciples there directly. No one will obstruct you, and once you arrive, the Star Gate elders will arrange your assessments.”

He then looked at Luo Chen. ”Fellow Daoist Luo, you will come with me to my family’s base first. I’ll make the rest of the arrangements from there.”

Luo Chen naturally had no objection. Wintermount and Lu Qiuzhen exchanged a glance, then thanked Fu Chaosheng for his assistance throughout the journey before preparing to part ways.

Once the two were gone, the pride in Fu Chaosheng’s manner immediately faded, and his usual easygoing demeanor returned. ”My apologies. I may have gotten a little carried away just now.”

Luo Chen shook his head. ”It’s nothing. They aren’t on the same path as us anyway.”

And they truly were not. Those two were already quite advanced in age and did not meet the requirements to enter the Mirage Dragon Pocket World at all. Even if they successfully joined the Star Gate after reaching Heaven-Earth Peak, there would be limits to how far they could rise within it. Luo Chen, however, was young enough to serve as a Dao Protector for the Dao Sect disciple and enter the pocket world himself. According to Fu Chaosheng, that alone gave him a much better chance of becoming a retainer or even a full-fledged elder of Heaven-Earth Peak afterward.

With the others gone, Luo Chen finally asked about the things that had puzzled him since entering the Central Continent. Fu Chaosheng answered without holding back, and as Luo Chen listened, the abundance of spirit energy around them gradually began to make sense.

A cultivator spent a lifetime drawing spirit energy from the world and refining it into mana, but that power did not simply disappear when the cultivator died. Unless some unusual circumstance prevented it, the energy accumulated over centuries would eventually return to the world.

For thousands of years, the Central Continent had been gathering powerful cultivators from every corner of the Mountains and Seas Realm. Fu Chaosheng had spent only 200 years stationed in the Northern Sea, yet on this journey alone, seven Sages were returning with him. That was an unusually large number, of course, but even during an ordinary elder’s term, two or three Sages might leave the Northern Sea and enter the Dao Sect.

All the more so, the trade alliance had been doing this for three thousand years. Put it that way, just how many Sages had been drawn in from the Northern Sea over that span? And the Northern Sea was only one of four great territories. How many more had come from the Eastern Wilderness, Southern Frontier, and Western Deserts? Add to them the generations of Sages raised by the Dao Sect itself, and the number became impossible to imagine.

He had heard stories since his Qi Refinement days of powerful cultivators leaving their homelands for the Central Continent. The Saint Alchemist of the Eastern Wilderness was one such figure, and there were others from the Southern Frontier who had joined the Dao Sect, became Ascendants, and even ascended to the upper realm. All of this showed that the Dao Sect had been carrying out its plan to absorb talent from the other continents for many centuries.

Yet among so many people, those who ascended were ultimately few. Most Sages eventually exhausted their lifespans and died here. When they did, the cultivation they had accumulated over centuries returned to heaven and earth, enriching the very land that had drawn them in. Generation after generation, that cycle had helped turn the Central Continent into what it was today. In that sense, Luo Chen was merely one more cultivator following a path that countless others had walked before him.

Not that I plan to stay here for long, anyway. Joining the Dao Sect is only a means to be a Star Gate guest elder, so I can use the Central Continent as a way back home.

The thought amused him. Once he fulfilled his promise here, Fu Chaosheng would help him find a way home. Until then, Luo Chen wanted to learn as much as he could about the Central Continent, so he turned to another question that had puzzled him since their arrival.

”Why does everyone here seem to get along so well, even though they’re from different families?”

”Because they all answer to the sect in the end,” Fu Chaosheng said. ”No matter how much they dislike each other, they can’t just start killing one another. Of course, that doesn’t mean they actually get along. The families compete over everything behind the scenes. You know how the families here are ranked, don’t you?”

”A little,” Luo Chen replied. ”I know how they are ranked by strength.”

”That’s the basic idea, but there’s more to it.” Fu Chaosheng smiled. ”At the top are the Twelve Great Houses, followed by the Thirty-Six Noble Houses. Under them are more Lesser Houses than anyone could easily count. Together, these cultivation families form the foundation of the Dao Sect...”

As Fu Chaosheng continued explaining, Luo Chen gradually gained a clearer picture of how the Holy Land functioned. Unlike traditional sects, where master-disciple lineages formed the core of the inheritance, the Dao Sect was built primarily upon the cultivation families spread across the Central Continent. Master-disciple relationships certainly existed, but family lineages formed the true backbone of the sect.

The Twelve Great Houses occupied the highest level because each had produced an Ascendant at some point in its history. Underneath stood the Thirty-Six Noble Houses, families that had produced at least one Sage and had often prospered for thousands of years. The countless Lesser Houses came next, with their standing determined largely by the number of Adepts they possessed.

Families that failed to reach even that threshold were too insignificant to be formally ranked by the Dao Sect, though they could hardly be considered rogues. Most survived by attaching themselves to one of the greater houses as vassals. If someone from such a family eventually reached a sufficiently high realm, they could then consider breaking away and establishing a lineage of their own.

The magnitude of the hierarchy left Luo Chen somewhat stunned.

”The Twelve Great Houses...” He could not help blurting out, ”Does that mean there are twelve Ascendants in the Central Continent right now?!”

Fu Chaosheng looked at him for a moment and reminded him, ”Each of them has produced an Ascendant before. That doesn’t mean all twelve Ascendants are still alive.”

Luo Chen smiled awkwardly. It was rare for him to lose his composure like this. Still, the idea of twelve Ascendants existing at the same time was simply too terrifying. The devil sect had only ever had three. If Great Saint Northern Departure and the Sea Emperor Whale were counted as well, that made only five for the Northern Sea.

In the Eastern Wilderness, Luo Chen had also heard of three Ascendants belonging to the Nether Origin Sect. Sky Monarch was the only demon of that level he knew of, and even if Sovereign Lord Rosycloud was still there somewhere, that still amounted to only five. There might be others hidden away in both regions, but how many could they be? One? Two? But if the Central Continent truly had twelve...

Fu Chaosheng suddenly lowered his voice. ”If the sect truly wanted it, maintaining ten Ascendants at the same time would not be impossible. In fact, there could be even more.”

Luo Chen’s eyes widened again.

This time, however, Fu Chaosheng did not elaborate further. He simply changed the subject, as though what he had just revealed were nothing remarkable.

”Nothing lasts forever, not even a Great House with ten thousand years of history. Noble Houses can decline just as easily. That’s why the sect reevaluates the major families from time to time. Leaving the Great Houses aside for now, Noble Houses are assessed once every 500 years, while Lesser Houses are assessed once every 300 years. If a Noble House’s Sage dies and no one else reaches the Nascent Soul Realm within 500 years, that family loses its status and falls back to being a Lesser House.

”The same principle applies to the evaluation of Lesser Houses. If a family wants its position to last from one generation to the next, it has no choice but to fight for resources. And that competition doesn’t stop at their own territories. It follows their clansmen into the Dao Sect as well.

”The sect holds a major competition every hundred years, and no one holds back there. But the competition inside the pocket world, held once every 500 years, is far more important. My family has been fortunate. Just as I began to grow old, Qinglan rose to take my place. But what happens after her? Will someone else advance when the family needs them? I don’t know, and I can’t afford to leave it to chance. That’s why I need to use this opportunity to help Qinglan secure more resources and a better position within the Dao Sect.”

He looked directly at Luo Chen. ”So when the time comes, Fellow Daoist, I’m asking you to do everything you can to help her.”

By the end, even Fu Chaosheng’s naturally vibrant complexion could no longer hide the age in his face. He raised a hand, and with a flash of spirit light, four jade bottles appeared before Luo Chen.