An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

With everything prepared, he began refining the materials. Mana flowed from his fingertips and wrapped around the items before him. Under the rising heat, they softened and melted before slowly fusing together. He added each new material at precisely the right moment, and all of his attention was soon absorbed in the work.

Fu Qinglan remained beside him without making a sound. At first, she merely watched out of curiosity, but the longer Luo Chen worked, the more difficult it became to hide her astonishment. He moved smoothly from one artifact creation technique to the next, adjusting the heat and mana as he continued the work.

Her grandfather had once told her that Luo Chen was an accomplished alchemist. Later, when the Saint Alchemist underwent Ascension and gave Luo Chen one of the five Heaven Mystery Pills, she thought it was because the Saint Alchemist recognized him as a fellow practitioner of the Alchemy Dao and thoughtfully left him that gift. Then, after entering the pocket world with him, she discovered that his attainments in formations were also remarkably deep. And now he was displaying considerable skill in artifact creation as well!

Fu Qinglan looked at the man in front of her and found herself wondering once again just how much she actually knew about him. Is he really only a little over 200 years old? He’s already this strong, yet somehow he’s had the time to learn so many different things. Or... have I only seen a fraction of what he can actually do?

The more time she spent with Luo Chen, the less she felt she understood him. He was like a mystery hidden behind layers of mist, and every time she thought she had finally seen through one of them, something entirely unexpected appeared beneath it.

***

Several days later, Luo Chen finally stopped what he was doing. The exhaustion of the past few days was plain on his face, but under it was an unmistakable satisfaction that Fu Qinglan rarely saw from him. Luo Chen had always kept tight control of his emotions, and the only time she could remember him truly losing his composure was when he first discovered how differently time flowed inside the pocket world. Otherwise, no matter what happened, he was always remarkably calm.

Yet as he looked down at the two formation discs in his hands, there was genuine pride in his expression, and it was not hard to understand why. Making a formation disc independently already demanded considerable mastery of both formations and artifact creation, while anything related to teleportation was more difficult still. If he was capable of creating something like this, then he had to be a fourth-tier master! It was no wonder Luo Chen looked so pleased; he had every reason to be!

”Did it work?”

”Of course.”

”Does the formation have a name?”

”It’s only a small translocation formation with a range of a thousand li. Why would it need a name?” Luo Chen paused, then added with complete seriousness, ”Fine. Let’s call it Nine Heavens-Ten Earths.”

Fu Qinglan smiled and nodded along as though there were nothing strange about such a grandiose name.

Luo Chen handed her one of the discs. It was already embedded with thirty-six top-grade spirit stones and a single supreme-grade spirit stone, and it was ready to activate the moment it was set in place.

”After I leave, place this formation disc somewhere inside the mountain. As for exactly where...”

He raised a finger, and a sword ray shot into the ground. It pierced deep into the mountain before stopping at a particular spot within.

So this is what he wanted me to guard. She held the disc carefully and asked, ”Aren’t you going to rest first?”

Luo Chen brushed some nonexistent dust from his clothes, straightened his robes, and walked toward the edge of the cliff. ”No. I’ve rested more than enough in this world!”

Before his last word had fully faded, he launched himself from the cliff and plunged toward the forest below like an arrow released from a bow.

Fu Qinglan hurried to the edge and looked down after him. Luo Chen vanished into the dense canopy almost at once, and with him went every trace of his presence. Even when she swept the forest with her divine consciousness, she could not detect so much as a hint of his aura.

Only then did she draw back from the cliff. For him to be this careful and even leave behind the transloca—Nine Heavens-Ten Earths Formation as a route to fallback; whatever he’s planning must be extremely dangerous. I may not be able to help him much, but at the very least, I have to make sure his way back is safe!

With that thought, she released her mana and quietly sank into the rocky ground.

***

This should be far enough. Hmmm... yeah! I’m close enough to connect with the spiritual vitality around Gu Daosu, and his protector shouldn’t discover me. Perfect!

With a waterfall pouring down from the heavens, the surrounding mountains and valleys were naturally threaded with rivers and dotted with lakes. Luo Chen chose one of the larger lakes less than a hundred li from the waterfall. After looking toward Three-Rainbow Falls and confirming the distance, he concealed his aura and quietly sank into the water.

Once he reached the lakebed, he brought out the Primordial Unity Cauldron along with an even larger assortment of formation materials. Without wasting any time, he began driving them one after another into the lakebed.

If a prodigy like Gu Daosu had chosen this land for cultivation, the environment had to be exceptional. And indeed, even a hundred li away, the spirit energy within the lake was more than enough to support Luo Chen’s plan.

As he worked, formation patterns gradually spread across the lakebed. Had Fu Qinglan been there, she would have recognized them as the same ones they had once set up on the ten-li plain enclosed by three mountains. That formation had used medicinal energy to lure illusory beasts toward them. This time, however, he had instead stripped away everything related to trapping the beasts and devoted the entire formation to spreading and amplifying the medicinal energy instead.

Such a modification would have been beyond him in the past. After his attainments in formations genuinely reached the fourth tier, however, he finally had the knowledge and skills to rebuild the formation. More importantly, he had the Primordial Unity Cauldron to serve as its core. With a True Artifact continuously drawing in ambient spirit energy to sustain the formation, its effect could be amplified even a hundred times!

As he thought this, a smile crossed his face. The plan itself was simple: He would use the formation to spread the Heaven Mystery Pill’s medicinal energy across the surrounding region and draw in powerful illusory beasts from tens of thousands of li away. With Gu Daosu nearby in a state of enlightenment, constantly pulling in spiritual vitality, that attraction would only grow stronger. And with both forces working together, it was inevitable that high-tier illusory beasts would charge into this area. Then, as long as Luo Chen chose the right moment to act, he could harvest a large batch of illusory cores!

If she had enough cores, Fu Qinglan would be able to cultivate continuously until she finally found her root power. The sooner she succeeded, the sooner he could leave the pocket world. Every additional year he spent inside meant more of his lifespan being wasted. Compared with that, treasures such as the Void Prism Crystal and supreme-grade spirit stones were a mere material price, one he was more than willing to pay.

Still, the plan’s simplicity was also its greatest danger. Once large numbers of high-tier illusory beasts began converging on the same place, there would be very little room to adjust if anything went wrong. If too many appeared at once, the entire situation could easily spiral beyond his control.

The Nine Heavens-Ten Earths Formation was there just in case, but it was ultimately only a precaution. In truth, what gave him the guts to proceed with such a dangerous plan was not the formation at all, but his own strength and confidence in it!

With that, Luo Chen brought out the Heaven Mystery Pill and held it in his hand. He slowly positioned it above the Primordial Unity Cauldron, and the formation surrounding him immediately came to life.

As the pill began spinning in midair, another thought suddenly crossed his mind. Would the fifth-tier Law Scrutiny Pill I refined in the Alchemy Realm work even better as bait?

The thought had barely occurred to him before he caught himself.

What am I thinking? Even I wouldn’t dare take it out like that right now. How could I possibly waste it as bait?

His expression immediately grew serious. Whenever exhaustion began to wear on him, the presence of three souls within him made it easier for stray thoughts to arise and pull his mind in different directions.

Steady... Calm down, Luo Chen. Calm...

He drew a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes. As he used the Fine Dust Primordial Art and settled into cultivation, his breathing gradually became slow and even. The clear lake water around him seemed to move in the rhythm of his breathing, sending ripples spreading across the surface above. Slowly, those ripples weakened, until the lake turned still once more.