An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

With a rush of air, Luo Chen descended through the drifting clouds and landed on the plaza of Heaven-Earth Peak. A Dao Sect disciple immediately stepped forward to receive him, but before the man could speak, Luo Chen produced a jade identity token. Spirit light flowed across its surface, and his status was revealed at once.

The Adept’s expression brightened. ”Ah, so you’re a guest elder of the Star Gate. Right this way.”

Luo Chen nodded and followed him into the mist. The moment he stepped onto the plaza, however, he felt as though he had passed through an invisible barrier. A faint pressure settled over his entire body, subtle enough to escape the notice of ordinary people but strong enough that even his formidable physique felt slightly constrained.

”Is there a defensive formation active here?” he asked.

The disciple glanced back in surprise. ”Senior, you noticed? There is a defensive formation around Heaven-Earth Peak. I heard it’s never been used, and it’s usually inactive, but today is Ascension Day. We do not expect anything to happen, of course, but with so many people gathered here, it’s better to be careful.”

Luo Chen glanced back at the boundary he had just crossed. There was nothing visible to see or tangible to touch, yet he could clearly sense the power hidden all around them.

Heaven-Earth Peak possessed a fifth-tier spirit vein, and a defensive formation rooted in such a mountain could hardly be ordinary. Even with only a fraction of its power revealed, and even with Luo Chen’s fourth-tier physique, he couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable. If the formation was fully activated, he doubted that even his strongest technique would be enough to force his way through. As for the fact that he had noticed it so quickly, that was because the overall improvement in physique had also come with substantially heightened senses. Some of the other people here probably did not even realize that such a formation existed at all.

”What’s the formation called?” Luo Chen asked.

The Adept froze for a moment. A Star Gate guest elder who did not even know the name of Heaven-Earth Peak’s formation? However, he quickly recalled the words ”External Affairs” inscribed on Luo Chen’s identity token. Presumably, his authority was limited, so there were many things he had no access to.

After a moment, the Adept answered, ”The Heaven-Earth Severance Formation.”

For a moment, Luo Chen was taken aback. Heaven-Earth Peak towered so high that its summit disappeared beyond sight. Even the Cloud Sea Plaza beneath his feet appeared, from below, to lie only partway up the mountain. The mountain truly seemed to bridge heaven and earth. Yet the formation defending it was called Heaven-Earth Severance?

He would have liked to ask more, but the disciple showed no intention of elaborating. To be fair, it was likely that the man simply knew nothing beyond the formation’s name. After all, the Dao Sect first explored the Central Continent more than ten thousand years ago and firmly established its rule over the continent three thousand years ago. Throughout all that time, the great formation protecting Heaven-Earth Peak had never once been fully activated. How could the world possibly know the wonders of it?

Luo Chen set the matter aside and continued toward the southern edge of Cloud Sea Plaza. Before he even reached his destination, a lively murmur was already drifting through the mist.

”Senior Luo, we’ve arrived. This area has been set aside for the Star Gate cultivators to observe the ceremony. If you need anything, please talk to one of the Dao Sect disciples nearby.”

Luo Chen nodded. ”Alright. You can go.”

He dismissed the disciple with a wave and entered the gathering area. Almost immediately, countless gazes turned toward him. His expression remained unchanged, but his nerves tightened.

Among the thousands of people looking his way, nearly a hundred were Sages! More troubling still, every one of those Sages seemed to possess a higher level of cultivation than he did! Even the weaker among them had reached the third stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, while the stronger were already at the sixth or seventh. And those were merely the ones who made no effort to hide their cultivation; most had completely restrained their auras. Unless Luo Chen deliberately probed them with his divine consciousness, he had no way to find out their exact level.

Luo Chen swallowed hard. Is this the true power of the Star Gate?

He had always known the Star Gate was powerful. More than once, he had tried to estimate how many Sages it might possess, even accounting for the inevitable deaths that came with the passing of generations. Yet no matter how generously he calculated, he had never imagined that nearly a hundred Sages could be gathered in one place.

Anywhere else, a force of this scale would be enough to dominate an entire territory. To make matters worse, this was merely what the Star Gate had accumulated over less than a thousand years. Who knew how many Sages they’d attracted in over three millennia of existence? And these people... were only one part of the Dao Sect’s foundation!

Just as Luo Chen was reeling from the shock, a familiar voice pulled him from his thoughts. ”Fellow Daoist Luo, over here!”

It was Seven Lamps, waving him over from a distance. Luo Chen immediately headed in his direction. Along the way, he exchanged brief nods with Wintermount and Lu Qiuzhen, both of whom had clearly arrived before he did. Unlike Luo Chen, they were proper guest elders of the Star Gate, so they had naturally received advance notice of an occasion as important as the Ascension Ceremony and made their preparations well beforehand.

Before long, Luo Chen turned his attention back to Seven Lamps. Three old-looking men stood beside him, and not a trace of their cultivation could be seen. Each of them carried a calm, unfathomable presence that pressed against his senses like a towering mountain or a boundless sea.

Are these among Heaven-Earth Peak’s five outlander elders?

He was not entirely sure. After all, when the seven elders had reviewed his admission to the Star Gate, all of their faces had been blurred. The only one who had left a distinct impression was Saint Alchemist Chu Yan, and even in her case, he knew little beyond her slender figure.

By the time Luo Chen reached the group, two of the three elders had departed, leaving Seven Lamps beside a man dressed in gray.

Seven Lamps smiled and gestured toward Luo Chen. ”Let me introduce you. This is Wilderness Hermit Luo Chen. He joined the Star Gate not long ago.”

Luo Chen cupped his hands toward the gray-robed elder. Seven Lamps then turned and gestured toward his companion. ”And this is Retainer Hui Yuanhong...”

A retainer? That’s not what I expected.

Before Luo Chen could think much of it, Seven Lamps continued, ”Once the Saint Alchemist ascends, one of the Star Gate elder positions will be left open. Retainer Hui will be taking her place.”

That immediately cleared up Luo Chen’s confusion.

Hui Yuanhong, meanwhile, looked him over with interest. ”So you’re Luo Chen? The first External Affairs Guest Elder? I hear the Saint Alchemist personally made an exception for you!”

Before Luo Chen could answer, Seven Lamps gave him a helpless look. ”Why are you pretending you don’t know who he is? I’ve already told you about him.”

Hui Yuanhong burst out laughing. ”Fellow Daoist Luo, don’t mind me. I just wanted to greet you properly. We’ll all be cultivating together on Heaven-Earth Peak from now on, so I hope we can look out for each other.”

Luo Chen smiled. ”You’re too kind, Elder Hui. I’m only a provisional guest elder. With your cultivation, I’m far more likely to be the one asking you for help.”

The title immediately put Hui Yuanhong in an even better mood. He had not yet formally assumed his seat among Heaven-Earth Peak’s nineteen elders, yet Luo Chen was addressing him as though the matter were already settled.

Seven Lamps glanced at Luo Chen with mild surprise. He certainly knows how to deal with people.

Hui Yuanhong smiled broadly. ”External affairs or not, you’re still a guest elder of the Star Gate. Do a few things for the Dao Sect, accumulate enough merit, and there won’t be any problem having your status raised and becoming a formal guest elder.”

Luo Chen raised an eyebrow. ”Do a few things? For a Holy Land that controls an entire continent? What could it possibly need me for?”

”You’ll find out soon enough.” Hui Yuanhong grinned and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder. ”You happened to join at exactly the right time.”

He offered no further explanation before excusing himself and disappearing into the crowd. With an elder seat soon to be his, Hui Yuanhong was clearly eager to build connections, and Luo Chen was merely one of many people he intended to win over. As the newest outlander to join Heaven-Earth Peak, he was naturally among the easiest to approach.

Once Hui Yuanhong was gone, Luo Chen awkwardly rolled the shoulder the man had patted. It had been many years since anyone had treated him with such friendliness.

Seven Lamps noticed his reaction. ”Don’t mind him. He has been in a very good mood lately, so he gets a little carried away.”

Luo Chen gave a muted acknowledgment. He truly did not care about the pat, but Hui Yuanhong seemed to be getting ahead of himself in more ways than one. He had not even formally taken his seat among the nineteen elders, yet he was already speaking as though he had the authority to promise Luo Chen an easy promotion to formal guest elder.

Putting the matter aside, Luo Chen swept his gaze across the cultivators filling the area. ”There really are a lot of people here.”

”A lot?” Seven Lamps stroked his long beard. ”Not really. What you’re seeing is only about half.”

Luo Chen’s eyes widened. ”Half?”

More Sages were still arriving, and their number had already passed a hundred. If that was merely half of the Star Gate’s strength, did that mean Heaven-Earth Peak had over two hundred Sages? That was not just plenty; it was outright absurd!

Seeing his expression, Seven Lamps immediately realized what he was thinking. ”You misunderstand. The Star Gate isn’t made up entirely of cultivators from the other territories. Just look at the nineteen elders of Heaven-Earth Peak.”

Luo Chen immediately caught his meaning. Of those nineteen elders, twelve came from the Great Houses, two from the Noble Houses, and only five were outlanders. If this pattern repeated at the lower levels, it meant the Central Continent’s powerful families also held a significant share of the Star Gate’s positions.

Sure enough, Seven Lamps clarified, ”Some Sages from the major families join the Star Gate when they get older. Most of them don’t actually stay on Heaven-Earth Peak, though. They only come here when they don’t have much time left, choose a cave residence, and spend their final years in seclusion. You don’t see them here today because their families came for the ceremony too. They’ve all gone to sit with their own families.”

That finally cleared up Luo Chen’s confusion.

As they continued talking, Seven Lamps also explained what became of the families brought to the Central Continent by cultivators from the outer territories. As it turned out, many guest elders and retainers had not come here alone but had brought their descendants and companions with them. Those people were not allowed to settle on Heaven-Earth Peak, so the Dao Sect arranged places for them elsewhere in the Central Continent. Those that had originally followed a family lineage were allowed to remain together and continue as a single cultivation family. If they had come from a sect, however, they would be broken up and separated, and each branch would establish a small cultivation family of its own. Alternatively, they could marry into local families.

From this perspective, it was very difficult for the descendants brought over by outlander Sages to truly integrate into the Central Continent. The Dao Sect had nevertheless left them a path forward. Once the lineage had been here for 500 years, their young generation would become eligible for entering the Dao Sect as formal disciples. That also explained why more than a thousand people had gathered in the Star Gate’s viewing area today. Many were descendants of its guest elders and retainers who had taken advantage of the ceremony to reunite with the elders of their families.