An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Contrary to what others assumed, Luo Chen had little need to keep pushing his cultivation forward for the time being. During his stint in the Central Continent, his cultivation had advanced more than enough. He had risen directly from the first stage to the third and now stood only a single step away from the fourth.

His foundation at the second stage had still been relatively solid, largely because he had spent decades tempering his cultivation inside the Mirage Dragon Pocket World. Yet the third stage had come far too quickly. As a result, when outsiders saw Luo Chen’s imposing presence and the overwhelming aura surrounding him, that was not entirely an intentional act. Part of it came from the fact that he had yet to bring his mana fully under control.

For that reason, Luo Chen had no plans to force another breakthrough anytime soon. Instead, he planned to strengthen himself in other ways while consolidating his cultivation.

One priority was continuing to nourish his divine soul with pills. The second subsidiary soul he had split off had been nurtured for many years and was approaching the Sage level. At the same time, he had also been devoting considerable effort to the Myriad Transformations of the Firmament. If he could achieve minor mastery, it would not only add another powerful technique to his arsenal but also allow him to wield Primordial Slaughter far more easily. That was also why he had spent most of his time during the journey back studying the sword scripture.

His progress with firmament energy, however, was somewhat more complicated. Of the seven wisps in his possession, he had refined two so far, which was still decent progress. The problem was that no matter how powerful firmament energy might be, his supply was limited. Sooner or later, he would exhaust what remained, and once that happened, there would be no way to maintain his current pace of cultivation. He could ascend into the Azure Darkness and gather more himself, but doing so would consume far too much time. Eventually, he would have to think of a more efficient way to replenish his supply.

Now that he was back at the Luo Tian Sect, however, he had another matter to deal with.

On the small stone terrace outside Sima Huiniang’s cave residence, Luo Chen sat upright before a stone table. He used an enchanted artifact, the Golden Lion Brush, to carefully draw lines across a sheet of specially made white paper. He was so absorbed in his work that he did not even notice Yao Mingyue helping the just-awakened Sima Huiniang out of the cave.

Nearly half an incense stick later, he finally completed the last stroke. He slowly let out a long breath, set the brush aside, and carefully lifted the paper while the ink was still drying. It was filled with complicated lines crisscrossing with strange characters, and a faint flow of mana occasionally flickered through them.

Sima Huiniang studied it curiously. ”Dear, are you drawing a talisman?”

Luo Chen turned around when he heard her voice. The moment he saw her awake and standing beside Yao Mingyue, he immediately put the paper down. ”Huiniang, how are you feeling?”

Sima Huiniang smiled. ”I feel fine. It’s just... my cultivation seems to have dropped a little.”

That was only to be expected. Luo Chen had drawn away much of her mana and sealed part of her Golden Core, leaving her with roughly the strength of a middle-stage Adept. The restriction was necessary to keep her from drawing too heavily on her mana and provoking the Spirit-Link Gu into attacking her heart and divine soul again.

He reached out, took Sima Huiniang from Yao Mingyue’s support, and settled her comfortably on his lap. ”With me here, does it really matter whether your cultivation is a little higher or lower?”

”Mm.”

Sima Huiniang clearly had little interest in dwelling on the issue. Instead, she looked curiously at the paper on the table. ”What kind of talisman is this?”

Luo Chen smiled faintly. ”A Sunburst Talisman.”

With that, he casually activated it. The talisman rose from the table and ignited on its own.

BOOOM!

The burning talisman transformed into a blazing sun and released a violent burst of explosive power. Yet Luo Chen kept all of it firmly contained, preventing the force from spreading anywhere else. From farther away, the spectacle would have looked like nothing more than a firework lighting up in the sky.

Sima Huiniang’s eyes widened. ”A second-tier Sunburst Talisman!”

”How would you rate its power?” Luo Chen asked casually.

She considered it for a moment. ”About as strong as a full-power attack from a late-stage Initiate. It even feels a little like when you used Solar Flare yourself back then.”

Then she looked at him curiously. ”But something like this isn’t much use to you anymore, is it?”

”Not to me, no.” Luo Chen chuckled. ”But it’ll be very useful for the disciples.”

Sima Huiniang immediately understood his intention. ”So you’re planning to make a bunch of them and hand them out?”

”That’s part of it.” Luo Chen nodded. ”I also want to make some third-tier and fourth-tier ones.”

Sima Huiniang blinked. ”You can make high-tier talismans?”

”It shouldn’t be too hard. Give me the right materials and a little time, and I should be able to manage it, yeah.”

As he spoke, he gestured toward the materials left on the table. With only first-tier cinnabar, second-tier talisman parchment, and an enchanted-artifact brush, the best he could produce for now was a top-grade second-tier talisman.

Sima Huiniang understood his intention and looked toward Yao Mingyue. ”Mingyue, do we have anything better in storage?”

Although Yao Mingyue had recently stepped down from her sect leader position, the sect’s inventory was still fresh in her mind. ”We do have a third-tier talisman brush. It’s made from the soft fur around the neck of a Green Mane Lion, and the quality is quite good. As for talisman ink and cinnabar, we don’t have anything suitable right now, but those shouldn’t be hard to buy. Parchment, on the other hand, is going to be a problem. It’s been in high demand these past few years, so we don’t have much left, and what we do have isn’t very good. Still, more and more people have started making talisman parchment from beast hides. We could try the Divine Talisman Sect. They should have some beast-hide parchment for sale.”

Once she finished, Yao Mingyue looked at Luo Chen with undisguised curiosity. Is he actually skilled in talisman crafting too?

Luo Chen noticed her amazement but merely smiled. Skilled in talisman crafting? He was not, at least not yet! But if he wanted to become good at it, it would not take him very long.

Although he had never seriously practiced talisman crafting himself, he had accumulated a considerable amount of knowledge about the craft over the years. Old Man Chen, whom he had befriended back when he was still running a street stall, had been a talisman maker. Later, Luo Chen personally destroyed a clan that specialized in talisman crafting and obtained a large collection of introductory texts from them. Then, during his century of wandering through the Northern Sea, he had even become acquainted with a renowned talisman master like Sovereign Thatched Mountain, who had gifted him a copy of Records of Thatched Mountain Talismans.

So while Luo Chen lacked practical experience, he was already well versed in the fundamental principles and essential techniques of talisman crafting.

The only reason he had never practiced the craft himself was that, in the past, he had considered it a waste of both mana and time. Compared with alchemy, the returns were simply too low to justify the effort.

Now, however, things were different.

With Luo Chen’s wealth, he could easily give every disciple of the sect several enchanted artifacts or even enchanted treasures. But that did not necessarily mean they could make proper use of them. Such treasures often required considerable time to refine, and every cultivator had different limits. Not everyone had the mana or divine consciousness to control several treasures at once. In some cases, giving someone too many would accomplish little beyond burdening them. ℯ𝓵.

Talismans, by comparison, were far more practical. If Luo Chen inscribed one of his powerful spells into a talisman, his people could unleash that power without first spending years refining a treasure or mastering the spell themselves. For low-level disciples, talismans were therefore one of the fastest and most practical ways to increase their combat strength.

Even so, strengthening the sect was only part of Luo Chen’s reason for taking up talisman crafting. His real purpose was to use the process to temper his own mana and speed up the stabilization of his cultivation!

There was hardly any craft that demanded finer control over mana output than talisman crafting. Every stroke required precise adjustments to the flow of mana, and even the slightest excess or deficiency could ruin the entire talisman. In other words, once Luo Chen could control every strand of his mana with perfect accuracy, the turbulent power within his body would have settled as well. At that point, his third-stage cultivation could be considered truly stable, allowing him to use his abilities freely without worrying about backlash.

As for whether he could actually become proficient in talisman crafting, he had never been particularly concerned. The craft itself was not hard for someone like him. He already possessed a solid theoretical understanding of the Dao of Talismans and had mastered numerous spells to an exceptionally high degree. Through studying formations, he had also developed excellent calligraphy and painting skills, while his abundant mana and powerful divine soul gave him more than enough strength to support the process. Thus, nearly every requirement was already within his grasp.

The only uncertainty was the so-called ”talent” that people often spoke of. But that happened to be the one thing Luo Chen had the least reason to worry about—because he had the status panel! As long as he could cross the initial threshold and turn talisman crafting into a recognized skill, everything afterward became much simpler. From there, all he needed to do was practice again and again, accumulate proficiency, and steadily raise his skill to higher levels.

And he was not wrong. Barely half a month had passed since his return to the sect, yet he already stood as a second-tier talisman maker. And if not for the limitations of the materials he had available, even the third tier might not have been beyond him. With better materials, he could already attempt all kinds of higher-tier talismans.

In fact, he had an even better idea. Fourth-tier spells are such a pain to improve. Every time I use one, I have to go all out, and they’re so powerful that I can barely find anywhere safe enough to practice. But if I can put a complete fourth-tier spell into a talisman... wouldn’t every successful talisman count as casting the spell at full power once?

The more Luo Chen thought about it, the more excited he became. If I can pull that off a few hundred times, I’ll end up with a whole stack of powerful talismans and push one of my spells all the way to its limit at the same time.

Even with his composure, the prospect was enough to stir genuine excitement in him.

Sima Huiniang seemed to sense the change in his mood. Still resting in his arms, she reached up and gently massaged his temples. ”Talisman crafting may be useful, but it’s hard on the mind and soul. Dear, don’t push yourself too far.”

”Mm.”

Luo Chen nodded. For low-tier cultivators, mana was usually the biggest problem when drawing talismans. At his level, however, the strain on the divine soul was just as much. If he got carried away making too many simply because they were useful and valuable, it could easily start interfering with his own cultivation. Naturally, he knew better than to let a secondary pursuit get in the way of the foundation of his Dao.

A moment later, he suddenly scooped Sima Huiniang up in his arms.

She blinked. ”Deary?” ⅇℓ.

”It’s time for you to take the Hundred-Head Asparagus Root.” Luo Chen smiled. ”Once the ceremony starts, you and Caiyi will both be standing beside me.”

Sima Huiniang froze for a moment before breaking into a radiant smile. She was looking forward to that day as well. And for cultivators like them, who could spend years in seclusion without noticing the passing of time, the wait would amount to little more than the blink of an eye.

***

In the year 3611 of the Mountains and Seas Realm Calendar, on the third day of the ninth month, white dew gathered under the night sky as the autumn wind blew bitterly cold.

At Hundred-Li Green River, the gates of a new upper sect stood wide open. From every direction, streaks of light converged upon the sect, streaming one after another toward Great Green Mountain.