An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Fu Qinglan knew better than anyone what the sudden appearance of these two Dao Protectors meant. Her divine consciousness scanned the surroundings and, as expected, quickly spotted two more figures.

”Sure enough, they’re here....”

The air was filled with the sound of raging wind as those two figures flew over. Before they had even arrived, a syrupy female voice echoed. ”Heavengazer, where are those two illusory beasts~?”

The black-robed cultivator, whose divine consciousness had been locked onto Luo Chen, answered in a hoarse voice, ”This man killed them and took the cores.”

The woman was so startled that her voice crackled. ”He what now?! How?! Those were both fourth-tier!”

Before the black-robed cultivator could give a reply, Fu Qinglan exclaimed, ”Little Xu!”

Yu Xu still had an astonished look in her eyes, but she nodded in response. She had actually recognized Fu Qinglan earlier, when the latter sent out her divine consciousness.

She then returned to the matter at hand. ”Seriously, how is it possible? You’re telling me he took down two fourth-tier illusory beasts all by himself before we could catch up?”

Her group had discovered the two illusory beasts not long ago, and they had chased them all the way here. They had only lost sight of the beasts for a few moments, yet there was already no trace left!

Heavengazer explained, ”It’s nothing surprising. He took advantage of this unique terrain to set up a formation targeting illusory beasts. Once a beast walks into his trap, he can take it down in an instant.”

Although their tone was bland, there was no attempt to conceal the apprehension in their words.

Yu Xu furrowed her brow and looked around. Indeed, now that she looked carefully, she could tell that there were signs of a large-scale formation. However, the focal point remained Fu Qinglan’s Dao Protector—Wilderness Hermit.

Meanwhile, Fu Qinglan greeted the other contestant with an anxious look on her face. ”Junior Brother Xiang Qi...”

It was a noble-looking man dressed in elegant white attire decorated with golden cloud patterns. His face was as handsome as jade, and he looked like the arrogant and overbearing kind. He was none other than the prodigy of the Xiang family, the strongest among the Thirty-Six Noble Houses of the Central Continent.

Xiang Qi cast Fu Qinglan a glance and nodded, then turned toward the monk and asked, ”What are your odds against this man in combat?”

”Amitabha!” the Wrathful Vajra chanted in his loud, rough voice. ”I believe I can defeat him, but if you mean capturing or killing him, I’m afraid that is beyond my abilities.”

Xiang Qi raised a brow. His eyes kept sweeping the gray-haired, middle-aged man standing on the plain, whose very being radiated the aura of someone who had seen everything life had to offer.

This so-called Wilderness Hermit of the Northern Sea was the most enigmatic of the thirteen Dao Protectors. The veil of mystery around him was thicker than that of Heavengazer. At least Heavengazer’s background could be traced, whereas this man’s rise had been so abrupt that there was no way to gather intelligence on him. The fact that even the powerful Wrathful Vajra had no confidence in detaining him spoke volumes about the danger he posed.

Unfortunately, even if they could defeat him, that was utterly pointless if he could just flee. What Xiang Qi wanted was to capture him alive, so he proposed something else. ”Yu Xu, how about we team up to capture Wilderness Hermit?” ”

Yu Xu seemed to have anticipated this. She glanced briefly at Fu Qinglan and chuckled. ”We’ll split the two illusory cores equally?”

”No.” Xiang Qi’s lips curled up slightly. ”You can have both.”

Yu Xu was stunned, but Xiang Qi immediately clarified what he was thinking. ”But the Heaven Mystery Pill goes to me!”

I see!

Yu Xu understood that Xiang Qi had his sights set on the Heaven Mystery Pill from the get-go. Most cultivators knew next to nothing about it, but the Yu family happened to have a longstanding lineage of alchemists, and as the top scion of this family, she was naturally well-informed. The Heaven Mystery Pill was a fourth-tier pill that had offered a marvelous benefit to Sages. Rumor had it that those of exceptional talent had a one-in-ten chance of comprehending Laws by consuming it. Even some Ascendants yearned hopelessly for just a single pill!

The Saint Alchemist had created the Heaven Mystery Pill after studying a priceless fragmented recipe in the Heaven Origin Dao Sect’s repository. She had then perfected the formula over many years, but had only refined the pill a pitiful number of times. The reason was that she lacked a key ingredient. Few knew what it was, but when the Saint Alchemist ascended, the Yu family finally found out the answer—spiritual vitality!

Even the hypothesis that such an insubstantial thing could be used in alchemy was a tremendous leap from the traditional thought patterns. As for actually achieving it in practice, that was absolutely ridiculous.

Spiritual vitality was omnipresent between heaven and earth, but grasping it required one to jump through thousands of hoops, and even then, no result was actually guaranteed. It really only gathered in significant quantities when a cultivator encountered sudden enlightenment or when they underwent Ascension.

Even in the Mirage Dragon Pocket World, spiritual vitality was extremely scarce, but its denizens—the illusory beasts—were special creatures that could absorb it. Taking advantage of this, the master of the Heaven Origin Dao Sect took advantage of the Saint Alchemist’s Ascension to draw in large amounts of spiritual vitality from the outside world, which was then absorbed and solidified inside the beasts’ illusory cores for the disciples to harvest.

This was the only way the sect’s True Inheritors could have a way to harvest even the tiniest slivers of spiritual vitality, so exploiting its full potential was out of the question. As for incorporating it into pills, that was even less of a possibility; apart from the Saint Alchemist, no one was even close to being able to do so.

From what Xiang Qi had said, it was clear that he intended to use the Heaven Mystery Pill as a substitute for illusory cores.

It was refined by the Saint Alchemist herself, so it probably has a few times... no, maybe even a few dozen times more spiritual vitality than a fourth-tier illusory core. I’m a True Inheritor of the Dao Sect. As long as I can use the pill to cultivate, I’ll have a huge chance to...

Excited by this thought, he urged his companion. ”Yu Xu? What do you think?”

Yu Xu hesitated.

Fu Qinglan had been watching with burning anxiety inside, but when she saw Yu Xu’s reaction, she heaved a sigh of relief. ”I knew you wouldn’t turn against me, Little Xu. We really are good sisters!”

But to her shock, Yu Xu firmly shook her head. ”Before you said that, you should have thought about your relationship with Little Lin. Is he any less your brother than I am your sister?”

Fu Qinglan was at a loss for words. She knows we robbed Lin Bufan?

Yu Xu paid Fu Qinglan no more heed. The so-called sisterly bond could not shake her when it came to the competition on the Great Dao. What she actually hesitated about was whether she should give up on something as precious as the Heaven Mystery Pill.

She couldn’t help but look at the black-robed cultivator. ”Heavengazer, what do you think we should do?”

Her Dao Protector replied measuredly, ”The decision is entirely yours, Fellow Daoist.”

Hearing this, Yu Xu hesitated no longer. Under Xiang Qi’s hopeful gaze, she slowly nodded. ”Then let’s work together!”

No sooner had the words left her mouth than a scream rang across the plain, ”Luo Chen, let’s run!”

Hearing Fu Qinglan’s words, Luo Chen grinned. He had been calmly watching the opposing party echo one another without saying anything or even moving a finger.

What clever little heads they have, coming after my Heaven Mystery Pill instead of the illusory cores! Well, fair enough. Let’s see how well that works for you!

”There’s no need to run. I want to see what a great monk from the Western Deserts and a Gu cultivator from the Southern Frontier are capable of.”

Before the echoes of this bold statement could vanish, he took a step forward and stomped his foot onto the ground. Instantly, beams of light erupted from the three mountains around. He intended to use the grand formation to battle them!

Things could not possibly go so smoothly, however. The moment his opponents had decided to join hands, they immediately coordinated on the tactics as well.

”I’ll go first!” rumbled a rough voice. Terrifying sound waves akin to the roar of a lion swept toward Luo Chen. With the enclosure of the three mountains bouncing them around, the sonic attack grew into a veritable storm; rather than the roar of a single lion, they sounded more like a whole pride.

A soundwave spell?

Luo Chen frowned. He temporarily cut off his connection to the grand formation and took a deep breath. His stomach swelled like a ball.

”RAAAAUUUUGHHHHH!”

A strange sound that was neither the roar of a beast nor the shout of a human erupted from his mouth and clashed with the rolling sound waves.

Luo Chen had seen, or rather heard, many sound-type spells before. They were commonly cast using instruments like the zither, flute, and drum. In fact, he had once acquired one such technique, called Immortal Ballad River, from Hermit Xiao, back when he was still an Initiate. He had set aside some time to study the manual, but since he was not proficient with musical instruments, he hadn’t been able to get very far.

Still, the ordeal had taught him a few good tricks about sound waves. Thus, relying on his Titan Beast physique and robust mana, he now used his voice instead of a musical instrument to produce the unique rhythmic pattern of Immortal Ballad River.

Across the plain, lion roars thundered, and human howls surged like tidal waves. Their successive collisions resulted in a series of space-shattering sounds.

Just then, Luo Chen raised his brow. Through his divine consciousness, he saw the Wrathful Vajra moving. The monk’s entire body radiated a crimson-gold glow as he charged toward the nearest mountain like a beam of light. With unwavering determination and astonishing speed, he plunged straight into the sheer cliff wall. In the blink of an eye, he pierced a hole through the mountain and emerged from the other side. Without stopping, he shot toward the next mountain at the same breakneck speed.

The second, and then the third mountain suffered the same fate, but all three still stood tall when the Wrathful Vajra screeched to a halt at his starting point. He pressed his palms together with a loud clap, and at the same time, he shouted, ”BREAK!”

The next instant, before everyone’s shocked eyes, the three mountains that had stood in the Mirage Dragon Pocket World for thousands of years crumbled down.

Along with the sudden collapse of the terrain structure, the grand formation Luo Chen had set up lost its foundation. A small cauldron spun down as it fell from the sky. He caught it with one hand while waving his sleeve with the other to repel the residual soundwaves.

”First, you seized the initiative with the Lion’s Roar, then you destroyed the mountains with a physical combat art. You executed it so fluidly that my geographical advantage was gone in the blink of an eye. That was brilliant!”

Luo Chen marveled out loud as he strode out from the thick cloud of dust. Not a single speck clung to his pristine robe, his ash-gray hair, or his calm and profound eyes. He carried himself with the bearing of a grandmaster, a titan as ancient and steady as a mountain.