An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Chapter 1068: Dragon Abyss's Cultivation Ground; The Place Of My Breakthrough (I)

As night fell, moonlight spread across the sea and shimmered through the rippling surface before fading into the depths. Seen from below, the sight was breathtaking, but Luo Chen only looked at it for a moment before lowering his gaze. A flicker of unease crossed his pale face. He had never expected that the place he had chosen to draw disaster into would turn out to be Soulbreaking Cliff, a forbidden land long feared throughout the Northern Sea cultivation world.

To escape pursuit earlier, he had paid the price of a drop of heart blood to awaken the puppet. Then, under Han Zhan's guidance, he used the principles of the Beaded Curtain Lock and Open Thatch Art to carefully sever a wisp of his divine soul from his sea of consciousness and merge it into the puppet. Once that was done, the puppet's aura had become virtually indistinguishable from his own. After that, he released the puppet while he hid deep beneath the sea. To make the deception more convincing, he had even sacrificed the wooden kite, and only then had he managed to fool the strange moth.

Now, merely thinking back on it sent waves of pain trembling through his mind. He could not tell whether the pain came from the piece of divine soul he had severed or from the lingering fear brought on by Soulbreaking Cliff.

The Flesh Ganoderma had once claimed that the Sunken Sea was even more dangerous than Soulbreaking Cliff, but Luo Chen found that hard to believe. To him, the Sunken Sea still felt like a place where, with enough preparation, it was at least possible to survive. In contrast, Soulbreaking Cliff was something else entirely. It seemed capable of swallowing the soul of any living being that entered it, making them sink into confusion and muddleheadedness until they died without ever understanding why.

What kind of natural force could have created such a forbidden land?

While being chased earlier, he had flown at full speed away from the borders of the Demon Sea. Before he realized it, he had already passed far beyond his knowledge of the Demon Sea's geography, and for a time, he could not even determine his exact location.

Given everything that had just happened, turning back was no longer an option. When the puppet was attacked by the moth-like beast, it picked up Moon Hermit's aura, which meant she was actually still pursuing him. Now that he had lost the wooden kite, with his mana yet to recover and his divine soul still unsettled, facing Moon Hermit would be no different from courting death.

I can only keep going.

Once that decision settled in his mind, Luo Chen no longer hesitated. He moved forward, gently enveloping Sang Jinghe in his mana barrier as they continued along the seabed.

Whenever they encountered demonic beasts roaming the sea, even weaker ones, he bypassed them and avoided every unnecessary confrontation. The more he tried to steer clear of new battles, the more he wished Black King had been here. If Black King were awake, having him carry them through the deep sea would have saved no end of trouble. Unfortunately, he still lay unconscious inside the spirit beast pouch. Luo Chen had already fed him several pills and had even squeezed out a few drops of blood essence containing the Flesh Ganoderma's life force to preserve his life. But while Black King remained sealed inside the pouch, there was no way to wake him up.

I need to find a safe place as soon as possible. I still have to cultivate, and Black King... I need to do my best to save him.

***

Time passed quietly as they moved through the sea. It was only half a year later that they finally saw land once more.

Ahead of him stood a massive island, no smaller than Coldlight Island, which he had once visited. Unlike Coldlight Island, however, this island was dotted with low peaks and winding ridges that gave it an ancient air. None of the peaks were especially tall, and from afar, the ridges resembled uneven mounds of earth, as though a large mole had pushed them up from below while digging its tunnels.

Even so, the mountains were lush with dense forests and greenery, with lakes scattered throughout them like ornaments. Together with the faint natural spirit energy, the place actually gave off the feeling of a secluded paradise.

Luo Chen studied it for a while and asked, "Senior, is this really a fourth-tier spirit vein?"

"It should be," Han Zhan replied. "There's a strong energy moving through the earth veins, much like what I used to form my Nascent Soul in Skysail City."

Luo Chen frowned slightly as he tried to make sense of it. He activated his Spirit Eyes and carefully examined the giant island. With his enhanced eyesight, he could perceive both life and death energies, and he was particularly sensitive to the flow of spirit energy in earth veins. In his early years, it was precisely this ability that had allowed him to discover a first-tier spirit vein cave beneath Crescent Moon Valley. Yet now, after a thorough inspection, he found nothing out of the ordinary. The spirit energy at the island's center only reached the level of a third-tier spirit vein at best.

"If this really is a fourth-tier spirit vein, something powerful should have claimed it long ago," Luo Chen said. "But I don't see any Demon Emperors here. I don't even see a stronger Demon King. Senior, are you sure about this?"

Han Zhan hesitated for a moment but soon said firmly, "I should be! At least, my senses are telling me so. Besides, with how big this island is, its earth veins' foundation can't be too weak. As for why the spirit energy is hidden, you'll have to figure that out yourself."

Luo Chen thought it over and slowly nodded. Over the past half year, he had traveled ever farther toward the core of the Demon Sea, and everything he had encountered only reinforced the rumors surrounding this place. Powerful terrestrial demons and sea demons were everywhere, and every decent spirit land was occupied by formidable ones. And this was despite the fact that many top-tier demons had been sealed within the Heaven of Northern Yama! In his current state, Luo Chen could not afford to provoke another powerful enemy; now that he had finally found an island with no obvious owner, he could not simply turn away, even if something about it felt wrong.

"Okay, let's take a look."

Having made his decision, Luo Chen rose fully from the sea and brought Sang Jinghe with him. Before stepping onto the island, he glanced at the man beside him. "Are you okay?"

Sang Jinghe nodded. "I'm fine, Senior."

Luo Chen sighed. "You've spent the past half year running and hiding with me. It must have been hard on you."

Sang Jinghe answered with an earnest expression, "Since I've decided to follow you, a little hardship is nothing. Besides, I was the one who held you back."

Luo Chen gave a faint smile and let the matter drop. He led Sang Jinghe onto the island, but as soon as his foot touched the ground, the soil beneath him shifted and sank slightly. Glancing down, he realized that what had looked like solid earth from afar was actually loose and soft, barely able to support his weight before giving way.

Sang Jinghe noticed it as well and crouched down. To his surprise, when he grabbed a handful of soil, faint spirit energy drifted up between his fingers. "First-tier spirit soil?"

Luo Chen was somewhat surprised as well, but he did not think too much of it. After all, this was an uninhabited island in the Demon Sea, and without anyone here to cultivate or exhaust it, it was not strange for the soil to accumulate some spirit energy over time. However, as he continued forward with Sang Jinghe close behind him, that initial calm gradually faded. The farther they walked, the stranger the island seemed. The spirit soil was not limited to a single patch or a small region. It spread everywhere beneath their feet, and its quality far exceeded Luo Chen's first estimate.

Green Sack Soil, which Luo Chen had once seen in the Wood Heaven Plains within the Heaven of the Five Elements, could be found almost everywhere here. More than that, mixed through it from place to place were also rarer varieties such as Transformative Soil and Five-Colored Soil. With so many types gathered together, the land's foundation was astonishingly rich. In fact, the best soil had already reached the third tier, and more importantly, Luo Chen could faintly sense that there might even be fourth-tier spirit soil near the island's center.

Luo Chen fell into thought. No wonder the spirit energy here feels so thin. Most of it has seeped into the spirit soil and stayed there, so almost none of it rises into the air.

Sang Jinghe's face, meanwhile, was flushed with excitement. "This place is simply a Holy Land every spirit botanist dreams of!"