An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Tea Mist seemed to sense the intensity of his gaze, but she gave no reaction and remained perfectly still.

Shi Ju, on the other hand, was far more restless. He kept scanning through the representatives of the major families and the Dao Protectors who had accompanied the True Inheritors into the pocket world. Nearly everyone who should have been there was present, yet Luo Chen was nowhere to be found.

So you really did hide. Fine. Hide while you can. You won’t stay hidden forever. You wounded my lightning avatar and cost me my chance to cultivate lightning and fire together. Sooner or later, I’ll make you pay for that.

As he thought to himself, his search finally ended when his eyes settled on the graceful figure standing ahead of him.

”Bitch.”

This time, he spat the word in a low voice.

Fu Qinglan clearly heard him, but she did not bother turning around. She merely straightened slightly and continued facing forward. Once, that kind of open hostility from Shi Ju might have made her uneasy. Now, after facing him herself inside the pocket world and witnessing how thoroughly Luo Chen had humiliated him, whatever fear she once harbored toward him had long since disappeared. Besides, she was no longer the woman she had been before entering the competition. She had taken first place, grasped her own root power, and become the first of her generation to join Seated Oblivion Peak! Whatever Shi Ju thought of her now, she had no reason to shrink back from him.

Before long, the attendant’s voice rang clearly across Auspicious Cloud Plaza. ”Shi Ju, for grasping root power, you will receive the Flamecloud True Robe and one Great Harmony Pill. You are also granted entry to Seated Oblivion Peak, where you may study the Supreme Profound Illumination Blaze Scripture, as well as the right to enter the Scripture Pavilion and learn the divine technique Radiant Crimson Firmament Annihilation.”

Most of those rewards had already been expected, but hearing them formally announced still stirred a fresh wave of envy through the crowd. A true robe, a Great Harmony Pill, permission to join Seated Oblivion Peak, guidance in a supreme cultivation scripture, and a divine technique were treasures and opportunities that countless cultivators could spend their entire lives pursuing without ever obtaining.

Yet Shi Ju looked anything but pleased. This isn’t how it was supposed to be!

The path prepared for him had never been limited to fire. If he had successfully grasped the Roots of Lightning and Fire, he would have been allowed to choose a divine technique from each path and cultivate them side by side. Even within the Dao Sect, such treatment would have been almost unheard of. He had spent years preparing for that future, yet one man had ruined everything!

High above the plaza, Mo Shouzhuo caught the resentment Shi Ju was struggling to suppress and let out a quiet sigh. ”Lightning and fire together, all for a chance at comprehending a Supreme Law... He had been preparing for this since young, and even that wasn’t enough. With that temperament of his...”

He was not speaking to himself but conversing with others.

After a brief pause, one of them replied, ”We did cover him too much when he was younger. But if we’re talking about why he failed this time, Fu Qinglan’s Dao Protector played no small part in it.”

Another voice joined in. ”Luo Chen? That kid isn’t bad at all. Chu Yan thought highly of him, and now he’s even grasped a Law himself. Give him enough time, and he might become one of Heaven-Earth Peak’s leading figures.”

Mo Shouzhuo shook his head. ”Luo Chen has already gone down the wrong path.”

The wrong path?

The remark left the others silent. None of them challenged it because they had all seen the problem for themselves. Whatever Law Luo Chen had comprehended did not truly align with his Dao. At the very least, he was still unable to resonate with primal qi.

After a moment, Mo Shouzhuo spoke again. ”Enough about Shi Ju. Unless he can comprehend the Root of Lightning on his own, there’s no reason to keep nurturing him the way we have.”

With that, he withdrew from the conversation.

Beside him, the attendant had already begun announcing the rewards for Fu Qinglan. ”Fu Qinglan, first place in the grand competition. For grasping root power, you will receive the Whirling Silk True Robe and one Great Harmony Pill. You are granted entry to Seated Oblivion Peak, where you may study the Azure Wood Supreme Spirit Transformation Scripture, as well as the right to enter the Scripture Pavilion and learn the divine technique Great Heaven Creation Seal. In addition, Grand Elder Heaventree Root will take you under his tutelage and personally guide your cultivation for the next hundred years!”

The moment the final reward was announced, the entire plaza fell silent. By now, everyone had already seen how generous the sect was toward those who had successfully comprehended root power. After hearing the rewards granted to the three before Fu Qinglan, most of the crowd had even begun to grow numb to the generosity. However, personal guidance from an Ascendant was something else entirely.

Unlike the Holy Lands of the other four territories, the Dao Sect was not built around a traditional master-disciple system. Its foundations rested largely on powerful family lineages, and even after joining the sect, cultivators were expected to rely on themselves for most of their cultivation. Senior experts occasionally gave lectures, but those teachings were open to everyone and rarely tailored to any particular person. Fu Qinglan, however, had only just become a Sage, and she was already being granted a full century of personal instruction from an Ascendant. With an opportunity like that, her future was all but assured.

For a time, everyone stared at Fu Qinglan’s back with undisguised envy, and more than a few people would have gladly traded places with her.

Under the eyes of the entire crowd, Fu Qinglan bowed slightly and said, ”Thank you, Sect Master. Thank you, everyone.”

Yet as she spoke, the image of a white-robed figure surfaced in her mind. The person I should really be thanking is him.

With Fu Qinglan’s rewards announced, the grand competition had finally come to an end. Mo Shouzhuo raised a hand, and the attendant closed the scroll before quietly stepping back. For a moment, he simply looked down at the densely packed cultivators below with a calm expression. But when he spoke again, his words sent a stir through the entire gathering.

”Our sect has stood on this land for ten millennia. Our elders fought through countless hardships, opened up new lands, and drove back the archaic beasts and demonic beasts that once ruled this continent. Everything we have today, this place where we live, cultivate, and prosper, was won by their hands. For the past 3000 years, the riches of the Central Continent have allowed us to stand at the very peak of the Mountains and Seas Realm.

”But even a land as huge as this has its limits, and it can no longer carry everyone who comes after us. Now, with the Northern Sea thrown into chaos by the demonic beasts, no one has stepped forward to bring them to heel. So now, we will do what others have not. Our elders carved out a future for us, and now, it is our turn to do the same for those who come after.”

Mo Shouzhuo raised his voice. ”Thus, we shall march to the Northern Sea!”

The campaign had already been discussed among the major families of the Central Continent before the grand competition began. Now that the sect master had declared it himself, the matter was officially settled. The instant his words fell, a booming roar erupted from the foot of the mountain.

”March to the Northern Sea!”

”March to the Northern Sea!”

”March to the Northern Sea!”

***

Compared to the constant activity of the Woodrot Mountains, Kinghouse Mountain was oddly peaceful. Inside the hall, the only sound was the steady clanking of an abacus.

Luo Chen watched in silence as Heavenjade and the Fu family cultivators finished handing over more than a dozen storage pouches packed with cultivation resources. The cost of these materials was somewhere in the hundreds of millions of spirit stones.

The purchase had nearly emptied his savings, but he felt no regret. He had stocked up precisely so that once he left the Central Continent, he could devote himself to cultivation without worrying about resources for a long, long time.

Just then, the quiet was suddenly broken by hurried footsteps outside. Sang Jinghe rushed into the hall, and the exhaustion on his face vanished the moment he spotted Luo Chen.

”Senior, I figured it out! I found a way to grow the Infernal Heartbound Tree!”