Chapter 1035: Spirit Root Pill; Ulterior Motives (I)
Chapter 1035: Spirit Root Pill; Ulterior Motives (I)
Was this the trial for the Monarch's inheritance?
After reading the final question recorded in the jade scroll, or rather, the hypothesis left behind by Heaven Refiner, Luo Chen found it difficult to remain calm. For immortal cultivators, the requirement of spirit roots was as fundamental and unquestionable as the existence of heaven and earth themselves. No matter how poor one's aptitude might be, they could still embark upon the Great Dao—even a cultivator burdened with the worst five-spirit-root constitution. Luo Chen himself was a prime example. Without spirit roots, however, cultivation was simply impossible. That was a truth accepted by everyone without question.
Yet now, someone was challenging that truth at its very foundation. If their theory was correct, then the power of alchemy could bridge the gap between cultivators and mortals, allowing those born without spirit roots to absorb the spirit energy of heaven and earth and step onto the path of cultivation. Such an idea overturned one of the most basic principles of cultivation. How could Luo Chen not be shocked?
"This is truly too unbelievable..."
He shook his head, intending to set the matter aside for the moment. Before he could do so, however, a sudden realization surfaced in his mind. "Wait... Am I supposed to refine this pill? Is this the first trial?"
The jade scroll had never stated such a thing explicitly, yet the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that this was exactly what Heaven Refiner intended. For a moment, he stood frozen. If his guess was correct, then he would have to complete this task and refine the corresponding pill to pass the trial. The monumental difficulty of such a task was enough to make his scalp tingle.
His gaze slowly swept across the study. The bookshelves were packed with scrolls recording spirit herbs and alchemical knowledge in detail. The medicine room contained every tool needed to process ingredients, while the alchemy room provided a place to refine pills. Together, the three rooms formed a complete environment for research and experimentation. The preparations could not have been more thorough. Clearly, Heaven Refiner had intended for any potential inheritor to complete this task. But could such a pill truly be refined?
With no answer coming to mind, Luo Chen left the study and stepped outside the stone house. Green mountains and clear waters stretched endlessly before him, serene and unchanged from before. He stood quietly for a moment, then closed his eyes. In the next instant, he sent his divine consciousness outward. Rather than spreading in a circular radius centered on him, it condensed into a single narrow beam. By sacrificing breadth for focus, he pushed its range to the greatest extent possible. He was at the sixth stage; his divine soul foundation was exceptionally powerful, rivaling any eighth-stage Adept's, and was only a step away from reaching the ninth stage. With such a foundation, the reach of his divine consciousness far exceeded that of ordinary Adepts.
Now, concentrated into a single line, it stretched to its absolute limit of 900 li. It swept around mountains, crossed great lakes, and extended north until it reached its farthest point. There, an invisible barrier blocked it from extending any farther, and he immediately shifted direction and continued his search.
***
After a long while, Luo Chen slowly opened his eyes. A complicated look lingered in them, and his jade-pale face had become unusually grim. He had not reached the edge of this world during his walk earlier, and he had naturally assumed it stretched on without end. Only now, after receiving the jade scroll's prompt and personally verifying it with his divine consciousness, did he realize that this realm was not a boundless paradise at all. It was a cage—a large cage, but a cage nonetheless, and it had quietly confined him from the very beginning.
"Do I really have to do this... Ughhh. Whatever. Since I'm here anyway, I might as well give it a try."
The hesitation vanished almost as soon as it appeared. In truth, after reading the contents of the jade scroll, Luo Chen had already prepared himself for this possibility. Now that he had confirmed there was no easy way out, there was little point in dwelling on it.
Accepting the situation, however, did not solve the problem before him. Where was the formula?
The jade scroll had provided only a hypothesis and nothing more. There was no formula, no prescription, and no guidance on how such a pill might be refined. Although Luo Chen's attainments in alchemy had long reached an extraordinary level, most of his achievements had been built upon existing foundations. Throughout his cultivation journey, he had followed established formulas and refined pills according to the knowledge left behind by others. Even the few formulas he had developed himself were merely reconstructions of incomplete formulas or improvements upon existing ones. Without a formula to begin with, he could not even rely on the system to force his way into the field and gain a basic understanding.
For a moment, he fell into confusion. Luo Chen began pacing slowly through the courtyard. After a long silence, he suddenly laughed. "Fair enough. I've always called myself an alchemy grandmaster, but if all I can do is build upon the work of others, what kind of grandmaster does that make me?"
A true grandmaster had to be widely adaptable and deeply knowledgeable, capable of drawing upon the strengths of countless schools of thought while creating something entirely their own. They most certainly inherited the wisdom of their predecessors, but they also had to discard what was outdated, create new theories from nothing, and leave behind knowledge stamped with their own understanding. Only such a person could found their own school of thought and earn the title of grandmaster.
When Luo Chen measured himself against that standard, he found that he could barely satisfy the requirements. His knowledge of alchemy was indeed broad enough, and his practical attainments were beyond question. Yet when it came to creating original theories or developing alchemical formulas from scratch, his accomplishments were virtually nonexistent. Forget high-tier formulas; he had never even created a unique first-tier or second-tier formula of his own.
If that was the case, then despite being a fourth-tier alchemist, he could only be considered a master at most. He was still far from becoming an actual grandmaster. Clearly, this first trial was not a mere test of the potential heir's knowledge. Creating an alchemical formula from nothing was an entirely different level.
"I wonder if I can pull this through...." Luo Chen chuckled at himself, but there was no longer any confusion in his eyes. With a relaxed expression, he turned and strode back toward the study.
If Heaven Refiner had created such a trial, then there had to be some clues as to how the trial was to be completed. After all, if this was something just anyone could do, it would have been done already. These clues, whatever they were, had to be hidden within those countless scrolls.
Luo Chen stopped before the first bookshelf and reached for the third scroll on the first shelf.
Withered Creeping Smartweed, also known as Yellow Fleeceflower Root...
With the bamboo scroll in hand, Luo Chen cast aside all other thoughts and immersed himself fully in its contents.
Time passed unnoticed. The sun gradually drifted across the sky, yet Luo Chen remained standing before the bookshelves, turning one bamboo scroll after another. By the time night fell, pale moonlight streamed through the window and illuminated the silent figure before the shelves. In the quiet study, only the rustling of bamboo scrolls being turned could be heard.
***
Luo Chen immersed himself completely in medicinal knowledge.
He had always loved reading. This habit had not begun after his transmigration, nor had it been developed during his early years of cultivation. Even in his previous life, he had been an avid reader.
As a child, he enjoyed all kinds of extracurricular reading. As he grew older, his interests expanded to famous literary works and classical texts. Later, when he entered the workforce and became just another exhausted office worker struggling through a mind-numbingly boring daily life, he still never abandoned the habit. Novels of every genre accompanied him through those years, and the simple pleasures found in web novels often became a refuge from the frustrations of reality.
After transmigrating, that habit remained unchanged. No matter how busy cultivation became, he always found time to read countless accounts of the cultivation world. As his cultivation advanced, especially after becoming an Initiate, this habit was only amplified by the transformation of his body and the strengthening of his divine soul. He had nearly reached the point of photographic memory, where he could read ten lines at a glance and never forget what he saw, while his increasingly powerful divine consciousness further improved his ability to retain information. Most books only needed to be read once or twice before their contents became firmly imprinted in his mind, ready to be recalled whenever necessary.
Over the years, this habit had benefited him immensely. Whether in cultivation, daily life, or dangerous journeys abroad, the knowledge he had accumulated often became an invisible source of strength. During his exploration of the Land of Fallen Devils, for example, the breadth of his knowledge had surpassed even that of the much older Devil's Cloud. Had the Flesh Ganoderma not been native to this place, it might not have known any more than he did.
Now, surrounded by tens of thousands of scrolls, Luo Chen once again lost himself in the joy of learning. As countless records of medicinal ingredients flowed into his mind, he felt no fatigue whatsoever. Instead, the process became increasingly enjoyable. Some scrolls fascinated him so much that he reread them several times after reaching the end. At times, he could be seen marveling at some unfamiliar medicinal ingredient's extraordinary properties. At other times, he admired the ingenious techniques for cultivating and transplanting a certain spirit herb. Occasionally, he would be struck by sudden inspiration from a seemingly insignificant passage, making him wonder whether substituting certain ingredients into familiar alchemical formulas might produce even better results.
Time flowed onward. The sun rose and set, the moon waxed and waned, and the changing of the seasons passed unnoticed.
One bookshelf after another was emptied. Tens of thousands of bamboo scrolls passed through his hands, recording hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of medicinal herbs and related knowledge.
More than half a year passed before Luo Chen finally finished reading the last scroll. Even then, he felt reluctant to stop. Fortunately, he still remembered why he had come here. During these six months of study, the immense accumulation of knowledge had sparked more than one moment of inspiration. Ideas that had once seemed impossible were slowly beginning to take shape.
"This one... and this one... that one too. All of these should work."
Moving between the bookshelves, Luo Chen selected seven scrolls with familiarity, as though retrieving things from his own personal bookshelf. He carried them back to the desk and began studying them once more.
Oddly enough, after another day of comparison and deliberation, he quietly returned four of them to their original places. To an outsider, the process would have certainly appeared strange. But Luo Chen knew exactly what he was doing. Every alchemical formula began with a purpose.
First, he had to determine what the pill was for. That was the fundamental problem, but the question had already been answered by Heaven Refiner: to bridge the gap between cultivators and mortals. Next came the question of what ingredients should be used to refine such a pill. In the creation of any alchemical formula, the primary ingredient was always the most important component. It determined the fundamental direction of the medicinal effects and could not be chosen carelessly. Only after identifying the primary ingredient could one begin selecting auxiliary ingredients and refining the formula itself.
As for the countless improvements and variations that would eventually emerge, those were matters for future generations. A truly successful formula was rarely perfected by its original creator alone. The passage of time, changing environments, and the needs of later cultivators would naturally lead to endless revisions and refinements.
At this moment, however, Luo Chen had not yet reached that stage. Truth be told, he was currently stuck at the second step: choosing the primary ingredient.