An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Chapter 1202: I’ll Take Care Of It! (I)

By the time the first light of dawn spread across Skypiercing Pass, cultivators were already pouring out from every corner of the city and making their way toward the arena.

Skypiercing Pass City had been jointly established by twenty-one sects under the leadership of the Nether Origin Sect. The city itself took its name from Ye Lingtian[1], the Nether Origin Sect Sage entrusted with guarding the mountain pass. Early that morning, this very city lord received a visit from Gu Caiyi and Sima Wenjie, who had come to his residence to submit the rosters for the day’s battles.

Ye Lingtian took Gu Caiyi’s list first, and a smile appeared when he spotted a familiar name. ”Wang Yuan’s fighting this early? I’ve got nothing else planned today. I might as well go watch.”

Gu Caiyi was caught off guard, but her surprise quickly turned to delight. Ye Lingtian was the very Sage who had once set aside his lofty status to befriend Wang Yuan and invite him for a drink, so his interest in Wang Yuan was obvious. If the city lord attended the battle in person, it would be a considerable boost to the Luo Tian Sect’s morale.

Sima Wenjie was far less pleased. He handed over his own roster with a visible trace of unease on his face, and Ye Lingtian’s smile deepened as soon as he read the first name. ”Yin Sixiang? Well, well, well. Now this will be worth watching!”

At the mention of the name, Gu Caiyi’s expression shifted, and she turned sharply to Sima Wenjie. ”You’re really going all out, aren’t you?”

Sima Wenjie said nothing. As soon as they left the city lord’s residence, he hurried away to warn Skyscraper and Divine Fire that the city lord would be watching the battle.

***

Once Ye Lingtian posted the day’s roster outside the arena, the atmosphere that had been gathering around the Ten Decisive Duels finally reached a fever pitch. Battle Devil Wang Yuan himself would be taking the field, and Prime Scholar’s side had chosen a renowned late-stage Adept from the Five Elements Divine Sect named Yin Sixiang to face him.

That man was not just any Adept. He had reached Perfected Mastery and was rumored to stand only a single step away from the Nascent Soul Realm. Before the Five Elements Divine Sect’s stronghold was destroyed, many had regarded him as one of the sect’s future pillars and believed it was only a matter of time before he joined the ranks of its elders. Of course, now that the sect’s peaks had crumbled, there was little point in speaking of such a future now.

Apart from the two, another figure on the roster also drew considerable interest: Meng Qin’er of Windflower Palace. Blessed with stunning beauty and outstanding aptitude, she had once left many people utterly confused when Windflower Palace arranged for her to marry Qu Lingjun, an otherwise unremarkable Initiate. More surprising still, she was married to him as his second wife!

At the time, almost no one understood why Windflower Palace would give such an outstanding disciple to a man who seemed so average. Only later, as Qu Lingjun progressively demonstrated his talent in alchemy, did the decision begin to make sense.

In less than a century, Meng Qin’er had advanced from the ninth stage of Foundation Establishment to become a middle-stage Adept, and she now stood shoulder to shoulder with many of Windflower Palace’s senior cultivators. Now that even someone of her standing had been sent into the Ten Decisive Duels, people naturally began to wonder whether Windflower Palace had finally decided to place its full support behind the Luo Tian Sect.

Still, for all the speculation surrounding Meng Qin’er, the match everyone truly wanted to see was still the one between Wang Yuan and Yin Sixiang. One was a formidable physique cultivator who had once fought a Demon Emperor head-on, while the other was an Adept at Perfected Mastery with a genuine chance of advancing to the Nascent Soul Realm. A clash between cultivators of their caliber was bound to be among the finest battles possible below the Nascent Soul Realm.

Naturally, it did not take long for people to turn that excitement into profit. Soon, there were betting booths all around the platform that offered various types of wagers on the result.

Meanwhile, as news of the matchup continued spreading through the city, several influential figures made their way toward the platform to watch the battle for themselves.

***

As sunlight spread across the land, Wang Yuan walked up to the platform step by step under the watch of countless spectators. With every step, the blood qi surging from his body grew denser and more oppressive until it gathered above his head like smoke. Even from the stands, many cultivators felt a little uneasy. Wang Yuan, however, paid no attention to the crowd. From beginning to end, his eyes remained fixed on the man waiting across from him.

The man wore plain robes and had such an average look that nothing about his appearance stood out. Yet despite the pressure rolling off Wang Yuan, he stood calmly in the wind without showing the slightest trace of fear.

Wang Yuan studied him for a moment before speaking. ”Four spirit roots, and you still managed to cultivate all the way to Perfected Mastery. Tsk, you remind me of an old friend.”

With that, he drew a deep breath and said nothing more.

The moment the referee signaled the start of the battle, Wang Yuan took a single step forward and crossed a hundred zhang. Before most of the crowd could react, he was already in front of Yin Sixiang with a fist driving straight toward him.

Yin Sixiang, however, remained completely unaffected. He simply flicked his hand; an earthen-yellow light surged up between them and solidified into a massive barrier just as Wang Yuan’s fist crashed into it. It was Boundless Mighty Fortress, a third-tier earth-element defensive spell.

When the first blow failed to break through, Wang Yuan immediately shifted his footing and attacked from another angle. He circled Yin Sixiang and smashed the barrier in search of a weak point.

BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM!

Yet Boundless Mighty Fortress was true to its name. Wherever Wang Yuan struck, another section of the earthen-yellow barrier rose to meet him, making it seem as though Yin Sixiang stood within a fortress whose walls could never be breached.

Realizing that scattering his attacks would get him nowhere, Wang Yuan changed tactics. He channeled more fortified qi into his fists, and instead of striking from different directions, he focused every punch on the exact same point.

Even then, Yin Sixiang showed no sign of concern. With Boundless Mighty Fortress holding Wang Yuan at bay, he calmly drew out a talisman with one hand while the other raced through a series of seals. The moment the spell was complete, he pressed his palm toward the ground.

”Descend!”

Dark spots spread under his feet and raced across the platform. Within a single breath, the ground for a hundred zhang around Yin Sixiang had dissolved into a churning swamp; the thick mire clung to Wang Yuan and slowed down his movements.

Rather than allow the swamp to trap him in place, he broke off his assault and retreated beyond the spell’s range. Yin Sixiang, however, gave him no chance to recover. The moment Wang Yuan pulled back, he changed his hand seals again, and streaks of golden light flared into existence behind him, each radiating an intense metal-element aura. In moments, countless miniature swords condensed from mana and gathered into a dense golden torrent.

”Go!”

At his command, the countless golden swords surged forward and filled the air, their sharp edges flashing as they swept relentlessly toward Wang Yuan.

In only a few breaths, Yin Sixiang had turned defense into terrain control and to counterattack. The transition was so smooth that most of the audience barely managed to follow what had happened before Wang Yuan was already being driven back under the storm of sword light.

Only then did the crowd start talking all at once.

”I seriously thought he’d lost his mind. Against a physique cultivator that strong, he actually stood his ground and fought head-on instead of backing off. I was sure he was going to get crushed. Looks like I underestimated him.”

”Yeah, but look at how he handled it. He used Boundless Mighty Fortress to take the first hit, then threw down Azure Gloom Black Swamp to slow Battle Devil down. Once he had the terrain working for him, the whole fight changed. And the second Battle Devil got pushed back, he didn’t give him a chance to recover. He just kept hitting him from a distance with metal-element spells.”

”Tsk, that was clean. He really knows how to fight.”

Wang Yuan, however, saw something else entirely. The speed of this man’s spellcasting, the way one spell flowed seamlessly into the next, and even the seemingly inexhaustible reserve of mana supporting them all... All these things reminded him far too much of someone he knew. An old and true friend, a brother in all but blood, who had so often sought him out for sparring!

A grin slowly spread across his face. ”Now this is more like it!”

Instead of continuing to fight on terrain Yin Sixiang controlled, Wang Yuan sprang into the air and left the swamp. The golden swords raced after him at once, but Wang Yuan merely smirked as he channeled fortified qi into his arm and condensed it into Pure Yang Unified Qi.

Then, as the sword storm closed in, he thrust his palm forward.

BBBBOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

The palm force slammed into the pursuing swords and blasted a path straight through them. Before the scattered sword light could regroup, he flicked his fingers forward rapidly and sent a barrage of blood-red spikes streaking toward Yin Sixiang.

Siu! Siu! Siu!

However, the moment those spikes reached a one-zhang radius around Yin Sixiang, the familiar earthen-yellow radiance appeared once more and stopped them cold. Clearly, Yin Sixiang’s proficiency in Boundless Mighty Fortress had reached an exceptional level. Confident in its protection, he did not spare the spikes another glance and straightaway began forming a new set of seals.

But Wang Yuan had never expected the Divine Blood Tribulation Finger to break through his defenses. ”Thanks for the opening, fellow Daoist!”

With a low shout, he shot forward like an arrow. Fortified qi surged throughout his body before converging into his right palm. In the next instant, he came crashing down toward Yin Sixiang like a falling meteor.

Yin Sixiang’s composure finally faltered. He immediately abandoned the spell he had been preparing and switched to another set of seals.

”Rise!”

Rumble! Rumble!

Thick vines shot forth from the Azure Gloom Black Swamp like huge pythons writhing through the air toward Wang Yuan. In moments, it was as though an entire forest had risen from the swamp itself.

Wang Yuan did not so much as flinch. Such a sudden change in tactics might have caught anyone else off guard, but he had grown used to this style of fighting more than a century ago. As he continued charging forward, the fortified qi around his right hand immediately changed shape and extended into an enormous crimson saber.

Crack! Crack!

The thick vines were snapped apart one after another. The severed lengths had barely fallen into the swamp before they regenerated and twisted upward in pursuit once more; unfortunately, however, they were far too slow to keep up with him. Ignoring the vines closing in behind him, Wang Yuan drove straight toward Yin Sixiang. The moment he came close to the earthen-yellow barrier, he brought the crimson saber down with all his strength.

BBBOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!

The entire defense shuddered under the impact, and before Yin Sixiang could recover, Wang Yuan pressed the advantage. The crimson saber dissolved in his hand, its power flowing straight into his fingertip as he drove a Divine Blood Tribulation Finger toward the same point.

Through the fading earthen-yellow light, Yin Sixiang merely gave a cold snort and flicked one finger. At once, countless needles finer than hair shot toward Wang Yuan, each gleaming with an ominous black light.

Wang Yuan frowned. A poison-type enchanted treasure?

1. The city’s name is a translation of Ye Lingtian’s given name. ☜