An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Luo Chen brought Fu Qinglan to a broad plain enclosed by three mountains, about eighty li from her cave residence. The open ground stretched roughly ten li in either direction, but the surrounding peaks bordered it so tightly that there was only one easy way in or out.

Fu Qinglan surveyed the area in confusion. ”Is there a fourth-tier illusory beast here? We’re already this close, but I can’t sense anything.”

”Not yet.” Luo Chen crouched and pressed one hand against the grass under him. ”But there will be soon.”

Before she could ask what he meant, he took out a jade box lined with soft silk and set it on the ground. When he opened it, Fu Qinglan saw a dazzling white pill resting inside. She immediately recognized it—this was one of the five precious pills personally refined by the Saint Alchemist before her Ascension! Something so valuable should have been carefully stored away, yet Luo Chen had simply left it exposed in the middle of an empty plain!

Still trying to understand what he was doing, Fu Qinglan looked up and found him watching her with an unreadable expression. She mistook that look and quickly shook her head. ”Brother Luo, don’t worry. It’s yours. I wouldn’t dream of taking it from you.”

The corner of Luo Chen’s mouth twitched. He did not bother correcting her and simply rose into the air to continue his preparations. His fingers moved rapidly through a series of seals and sent several restrictions into the three mountains surrounding the plain. Not only that, but he also buried several small triangular flags at specific points across the terrain.

Fu Qinglan blinked in surprise. He’s proficient in formations too?

Judging from how casually and confidently he worked, it was clear that he had already mapped out the mountains, waterways, and earth veins long before bringing her here. Even so, she could not help wondering whether a formation pieced together from mana restrictions and formation flags would really be enough to stop a fourth-tier illusory beast from escaping.

The next moment, a small gray cauldron flew from his hand and spun high above the plain. Its mouth turned downward, covering the enclosed terrain below, while Luo Chen raised a finger and pointed toward it. The cauldron vanished without a trace, erasing its presence so completely that even Fu Qinglan could not sense it at all.

With these preparations done, Luo Chen looked down at the plain below and showed a satisfied smile. ”Alright, we’re done. Now we just wait.”

Fu Qinglan’s gaze flicked back and forth between Luo Chen and the glowing pill resting openly in the jade box on the ground, with doubt written all over her face.

***

A day passed, then another, with no sign of the fourth-tier illusory beast Luo Chen had promised would come.

As the wait dragged on, Fu Qinglan’s doubts became harder to hide. Eventually, she flew up to the mountaintop where Luo Chen was cultivating and asked, ”Brother Luo, are you sure this is going to work?”

Luo Chen opened his eyes and regarded her calmly. Instead of answering, he simply looked at her until she felt uncomfortable under his gaze.

At last, Luo Chen sighed. ”We’re going to be waiting either way. Why don’t you tell me what it was like growing up in the Dao Sect? I’ve cultivated on my own since I was young and I’ve never belonged to a sect, so I’ve always been curious about what that life is like.”

With a wave of his hand, he brought out a table and another meditation cushion, then set down a jar of wine, some jerky, and a plate of what looked like hazelnuts.

Fu Qinglan hesitated for a moment before taking a seat across from him.

Luo Chen filled her cup, and she began telling stories about cultivating within the sect. Part of it was to satisfy his curiosity, and another part was for her to pass the time.

”When I was twelve, they tested me and found dual water and wood spirit roots. I passed the Dao Sect’s entrance test and went to the Woodrot Mountains to cultivate. It’s been more than 200 years since then... Uh, well, actually, almost 300 years, now that I think about it. Life in the sect is actually pretty dull. Most days are the same. Morning lessons, evening lessons, memorizing the classics, opening our meridians, guiding qi...

”There are seventy-two famous peaks in the Woodrot Mountains, and almost every one of them has a Sage cultivating there. Most of those Sages come from prominent families, too. Our sect doesn’t really follow the usual master-disciple system, so apart from attending lectures given by the elders, we mostly cultivate on our own. If I had to name anything interesting, it would probably be the small competitions held every ten years or the sect-wide competition that happens once every hundred years. That’s when the best juniors from all the major families gather and compete with people of the same tier. Hehe, we always treat it like a huge event, but to you, Senior Brother, it probably looks like a bunch of children playing around.

”Eh? These are really good... Are they wild hazelnuts? Whoever prepared them did a wonderful job. They’re every bit as good as some of the food back in the sect.

”Anyway, not everything is a hundred percent peaceful. The sect gives us missions from time to time. There aren’t any demonic beasts left in the Central Continent itself, but some regions near it are still occupied by them, so we’re sometimes sent out to deal with those. There are plenty of other missions too, big and small. For some, we even have to travel to another territory...

”Since the Dao Sect is mostly made up of cultivation families, there isn’t much open fighting inside the sect itself, but the families are always competing with one another. That’s actually why my grandfather went to the Northern Sea and became an elder of the trade alliance. He wanted to stay out of those rivalries and give me enough time to reach the Nascent Soul Realm without getting caught up in them. I suppose he has always protected me a little too well. So if I act immature sometimes, Senior Brother... I hope you understand.

***

Luo Chen sipped on his wine as he listened to Fu Qinglan talk about her life in the Dao Sect. At first, he found the stories interesting, but halfway through, he began to understand why she had eventually turned to Go to relieve the monotonous lifestyle. The sect had enjoyed peace for so long that little ever disturbed the rhythm of daily cultivation. Even the rivalries between families were largely kept within rules, and few disputes ever escalated into genuine life-and-death conflict.

But as she continued, he wondered more and more just how many cultivators the Dao Sect had accumulated over thousands of years of peaceful development without any large-scale battles. And from there, another thought struck him: Although the Central Continent was large, could it truly sustain so many cultivators indefinitely?

Luo Chen’s thoughts turned to the Penglai Immortal Sect in the Northern Sea and the Valley of Ghosts and Divinities in the Eastern Wilderness. Perhaps he was assuming the worst, but he could not dismiss the possibility that the Dao Sect was starting to strain against its own limits. If its own lands could no longer satisfy its needs, then sooner or later, its attention would turn toward the rest of the Mountains and Seas Realm.

Before he could follow the thought any further, his expression shifted. He swept his sleeve across the table, instantly putting away the wine and food, then rose to his feet as the surrounding spirit energy began gathering around him. ”It’s here!”

Fu Qinglan immediately followed his line of sight toward the distant mountains, where a streak of white light was racing between the peaks. It showed no hesitation as it approached, heading straight for the enclosed plain where Luo Chen had left the Heaven Mystery Pill.

Only then did she finally understand what he had done. The formation surrounding the plain was not merely a trap. It had also been amplifying the pill’s medicinal energy and spreading it across a thousand-li radius while keeping the energy fluctuations subtle enough that only high-tier illusory beasts would detect it. And from the looks of things, his plan had succeeded!

Luo Chen watched the approaching streak for a moment before chuckling. ”It’s a rabbit.”

The illusory beast was moving in enormous bounds that covered several li with each leap. As the cloud energy gathered and dispersed, a pair of pointed ears and lively features made it look no different from a rabbit. It jumped right in-between the three mountains and rushed straight onto the plain, with its attention fixed entirely on the jade box lying in the grass.

Just as it reached the box, however, it abruptly vanished.

The rabbit stopped short and looked up.

High above, a colossal fire phoenix had already spread its wings. With a piercing cry, it plunged toward the plain.

The rabbit panicked as it drew in the surrounding cloud energy and began expanding. Five zhang became ten, then fifty, until its body towered more than a hundred zhang tall. It reared up and hurled itself at the descending fire phoenix with all the strength of its enormous new form.

By then, however, Fu Qinglan had already seen enough to know how this would end. She shook her head. ”It’s just rushing to its death.”

BBBBOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!

Their collision sent a violent surge of spirit energy rolling across the plain, shaking the surrounding mountains as flames and cloud energy exploded outward. The fire phoenix gradually burned itself away in the impact, but the rabbit was blasted apart into clouds and mist that filled the sky. The only thing that remained intact within the churning clouds was a concentrated streak of white light.

Watching from high above, Luo Chen nodded to himself. The result was exactly as he had expected. In terms of raw strength, a fourth-tier illusory beast was only comparable to an ordinary early-stage Sage without any particularly formidable abilities. Its real advantage lay in its lack of a fixed body, which allowed it to disperse and reform. Fire Phoenix’s Prairie Blaze, meanwhile, was the full-power strike of an early-stage Sage, so destroying the beast’s physical form was not terribly difficult. The real challenge was what came next.

Fu Qinglan quickly spotted the white light weaving through the mist. ”It’s trying to escape!”

Luo Chen remained perfectly calm. ”It won’t.”

He reached toward the void and closed his hand. The next moment, a gigantic cauldron came crashing down from above, while lights erupted from the three surrounding mountains and joined together around the ten-li plain.

Inside, the streak of white light darted wildly in every direction as the clouds and mist dispersed and reformed again and again. The struggle lasted for the time it took an incense stick to burn before the beast finally exhausted itself.

Only then did Luo Chen raise a hand toward the cauldron. ”Retrieve!”

The cauldron’s mouth opened, releasing an irresistible suction that swept through the remaining mist. The exhausted illusory core was dragged inside, after which the cauldron rapidly shrank and returned to Luo Chen’s palm.

Watching this, Fu Qinglan could not help but marvel. ”Brother Luo, that enchanted treasure of yours is amazing at restraining and sealing things. Even among True Artifacts, it has to be one of the better ones, right?”

Luo Chen smiled. ”You’re giving it too much credit. Compared to your sect’s Woodrot Spirit Treasure, it’s nothing.”

As he spoke, he closed his hand around the rabbit’s illusory core. If Lin Jingtang had been here to see how easily Luo Chen dealt with a fourth-tier illusory beast, his jaw would probably have dropped to the ground. He had gone through so much effort just to defeat the withered-tree illusory beast, only to let its core escape in the end. Luo Chen, on the other hand, had barely broken a sweat.

”Here.” Luo Chen tossed the illusory core to Fu Qinglan. ”This should give you a better chance at comprehending the Laws.”

Fu Qinglan caught it and held it tightly in both hands. ”I won’t let you down, Brother Luo.”

With the hunt completed, the two returned to the cave residence and resumed their cultivation as before.

Half a year later, Fu Qinglan finally emerged from the cave residence, but the dejected look on her face told Luo Chen everything he needed to know. His brows drew together in a deep frown. ”It’s still not enough?”