An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

After a moment, she gritted her teeth and said, ”Fine. I’ll push the formation to its limit and kill every illusory beast here, and I won’t take a single core. You can split them all among yourselves. Not only that, I have seven more illusory cores with me. Help me get through this, and they’re yours too.”

Her expression turned solemn. ”Anyone who lends a hand today will also earn the friendship of the Gu family.”

Having offered everything she was willing to give, she wasted no more effort trying to persuade them and turned her full attention to the formation. Golden light surged outward from Three-Rainbow Falls in rings. Those illusory beasts within fifty li felt an invisible weight pressing upon them like a mountain that slowed their movements severalfold. Not only that, stone spikes condensed in the air and rained down upon the advancing beasts as violent quakes rolled through the earth.

She was using the formation by herself to attack every illusory beast in the area. No one watching believed she could sustain such an enormous expenditure for long. Sure enough, her complexion grew even paler, and even her middle-stage aura began to weaken under the strain.

The older of the two cultivators hidden in the forest watched Lady Xu struggle with the formation for a moment before shaking his head. ”She’s not a formation grandmaster. Trying to hold a formation this large together alone is too much for her.”

The younger man beside him watched a little longer before saying, ”Elder, let’s help her.”

The elder glanced at him. ”Why?”

The young man smiled faintly. ”We get the illusory cores and we earn the Gu family’s friendship. Senior Brother Gu and I have always gotten along well enough. There’s no reason not to help.”

The elder gave a small nod. ”Alright, sure. We’ll do it your way.”

He stepped out of the forest and sent a green bamboo staff hurtling toward one of the illusory beasts. His sudden intervention broke the tense stalemate that had held until now, and the other cultivators soon began joining the fight as well. With the grand formation assisting them, these Sages moved within it like fish in water and killed the fourth-tier illusory beasts far more easily than they normally could.

Even Shi Ju and Qi Xiongcheng flew down from the clouds to join the fray. However, unlike the others, Shi Ju was the one fighting while Qi Xiongcheng assisted from the side. Shi Ju’s performance was no worse than that of the protectors invited by other families, and in some respects, he was even stronger.

As he folded his fan, torrents of flame swept across the battlefield. Within moments, large numbers of illusory beasts burst apart into clouds of white mist that dispersed through the air. As the white mist dispersed, illusory cores appeared while the surrounding clouds and mists continued to stream toward the cores. Qi Xiongcheng, following Shi Ju’s earlier instructions, activated the Purple Yang Gourd and drew in as much of the mist as he could, trying to capture the newly formed cores.

As for dividing the spoils evenly, Shi Ju had never intended to do anything of the sort. Since he had entered the battle himself, why would he share the gains equally with everyone else? From his perspective, the other cultivators were simply helping him hunt. Opportunities to slaughter so many fourth-tier illusory beasts while a powerful Dao Sect’s foundational formation kept them suppressed were hard to come by.

As Shi Ju swept another wave of flame toward the beasts, he called out, ”Old Ghost, how many illusory cores have you collected?”

”One so far.”

Shi Ju frowned. ”One? At least five illusory beasts have died already. How have you only managed to collect a single core?”

Qi Xiongcheng could only swallow the harsh comment. For reasons he could not understand, something else seemed to be competing with the Purple Yang Gourd for the clouds and mist, making the illusory cores far harder to seize than they should have been. Unable to identify the true cause, he could only assume that the beasts were too powerful or that he had not refined the Purple Yang Gourd thoroughly enough to unleash its full strength.

Shi Ju suppressed his irritation. ”Just keep collecting them. Let me know when you have five.”

Five illusory cores would already make the trip worthwhile. Yet Qi Xiongcheng found that strange. Would five really be enough for him?

Puzzled as he was, he did not slow down. Truth be told, he was no longer the only one who had noticed something strange. More and more cultivators realized that whenever an illusory beast died, the scattered mist would sometimes vanish before they could seize the core forming within it. Once or twice might have been dismissed as bad luck, but several beasts had now disappeared without reforming or leaving behind a single illusory core.

Before long, suspicious eyes turned toward Qi Xiongcheng. Unlike everyone else, he had barely taken part in the fighting and had spent the entire time wielding the Purple Yang Gourd.

Gu Chen turned toward him. ”What are you doing?”

Qi Xiongcheng said nothing.

Not long after, Shi Ju pulled back from the fight and looked his way. Qi Xiongcheng answered with a slight nod, signaling that they had already secured at least five illusory cores. That was enough for them. They had no reason to keep risking their lives for someone else.

Shi Ju turned to Gu Chen with a look of utter hatred. ”Since when do we need to explain ourselves to you?”

Ignoring Gu Chen’s furious expression, he raised his folding fan and swung it toward Three-Rainbow Falls. ”Gu Daosu! Why don’t you come out and enjoy the scenery with the rest of us?”

Shi Ju laughed wildly as a gale erupted from his fan, carrying towering waves of flame straight toward the mountain. Wherever the flames passed, the golden formation light disintegrated little by little.

A formation of this caliber was extraordinarily difficult to breach from the outside. From within, however, it was another matter entirely.

Lady Xu, who was pouring in all her strength to fight the white eagle, saw this and nearly went mad. ”NOOOOOOOOO!”

Gu Yuan, who was watching from a distance, made no move to stop him. In fact, he even gave a faint nod. Oh well, what can I say. Just as I thought, Shi Ju was never the type to play by the rules. There was no way he’d help Gu Daosu. This couldn’t have worked out better. I get the illusory cores, Gu Daosu gets dragged out of his enlightenment, and I don’t have to take the blame for any of it.

Ruuuummmmmmmbleeee...

A deafening crash rolled across the battlefield. The once breathtaking Three-Rainbow Falls was cut off as chunks of rock thundered down the mountainside, and the entire peak began to crumble.

With the formation breaking, Lady Xu lost the support that had allowed her to contend with the white eagle. Her cultivation had already fallen from the level she had forced it to with the forbidden art, leaving her unable to hold the beast back any longer. The white eagle immediately seized the opening and transformed into a streak of light that shot straight toward Three-Rainbow Falls.

Despair flashed through Lady Xu’s eyes, yet she resolutely threw herself directly in the white eagle’s path. The two collided head-on and crashed into the mountain together.

Dust churned from the impact as tremors rippled through the surrounding land. The other cultivators immediately pulled away from the collapsing battlefield and soared into the air to watch.

”Do you think Lady Xu can survive that?”

”Probably not. She already forced her cultivation higher with a forbidden art, and then Shi Ju shattered the grand formation and triggered the backlash. After taking a direct hit from that white eagle too, I don’t see how she could still be alive.”

”And Gu Daosu?”

”With all this going on? There’s no way he could still be in enlightenment.”

As the cultivators discussed what had happened, a pillar of light suddenly erupted from the ruins and shot into the sky.

Whoosh!

The white eagle was blasted backward and flipped several times through the air before finally steadying itself and glaring furiously toward the ruins of Three-Rainbow Falls.

At the moss-covered entrance of a cave within the shattered waterfall, a handsome man stood with a bronze mirror in his hand. Behind him, Lady Xu had collapsed to the ground. Her aura was weak, but she was still alive.

Everyone was shocked by the sight. Gu Daosu had awakened, and even more astonishingly, he had driven back the white eagle himself! Had he succeeded in comprehending a root power?

Shi Ju’s triumphant laughter immediately shattered that possibility. ”Hahahahaha! So he failed after all. He didn’t drive that eagle back with his own strength. He used the Gu family’s Unfailing Mirror!”

Everyone turned to the bronze mirror in Gu Daosu’s hand, and understanding quickly dawned. The Unfailing Mirror was a famous artifact that was capable of storing a cultivator’s full-powered attack for later use and even holding several such attacks at once. The blow that had sent the white eagle flying had clearly come from the mirror, not Gu Daosu himself.

Amid the ruins, Lady Xu struggled to raise her head. ”Did you fail?”

Gu Daosu let out a quiet sigh. ”I was close. Very close.”

Very close? Regret gripped Lady Xu’s heart, but it was quickly swallowed by anger. ”It’s all Shi Ju’s fault!”

If Shi Ju had not turned on them and shattered the Mountain-Balancing Formation, she could have continued buying time for Gu Daosu, even if doing so cost her life. Once they left this pocket world, the Gu family would surely hold the Shi family accountable. However...

”It wasn’t his fault.”

Lady Xu looked at him in surprise.

Gu Daosu raised the bronze mirror toward the sky and slowly moved it across the surrounding landscape. ”While I was in enlightenment, I could feel something was wrong. Someone was using a formation to disturb the spiritual vitality around me. That’s who was behind all this. Shi Ju and the others were just being used.”

He narrowed his eyes, squinting at the sky. ”Found you!”

Suddenly, the clouds parted as ripples spread across the sky. The Unfailing Mirror released an azure light that came to rest upon a distant great lake. Gu Daosu stared in that direction and called out, ”You’ve been watching long enough, haven’t you? Why don’t you come out?”

Everyone followed his gaze and looked over. The lake lay perfectly still under a thick veil of drifting clouds and mist, giving the entire area the dreamlike appearance of a hidden marsh. Had the Unfailing Mirror not shone upon it, no one would have noticed anything unusual about the lake’s glassy surface.

Then they saw the wisps of cloud and mist continuously flowing into the water. They were precisely the scattered remains of the illusory beasts they had lost earlier. As everyone observed, they happened to see an illusory core surreptitiously sink into the lake and disappear.

No further explanation was needed. They immediately understood where the missing illusory cores had gone, but before anyone could react, a soft chuckle drifted across the silent battlefield.

The next instant, blood-red light flooded their vision as a brilliant light erupted from the mist-shrouded lake and tore into the sky.