An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Chapter 1192: Archaic Beast's Blood; Gather Spirit Essences From The Nine Firmaments (I)

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

Luo Chen stared at him for a moment. "What did you just say?"

"The Infernal..."

"Wait—"

Luo Chen cut him off and glanced toward Fu Hongzhang, who was still sorting through the resources with Heavenjade. The man clearly had no idea what they were talking about, but the moment he noticed Luo Chen looking his way, he quickly lowered his gaze.

Luo Chen rose. "Come outside."

Only after they had moved away from the others did he cast Sound Isolation around them. By then, Sang Jinghe had realized how carelessly he had spoken. "Sorry. I wasn't thinking..."

"It's fine."

Luo Chen waved away the apology. Sang Jinghe had spent years studying the Infernal Heartbound Tree, so it was hardly surprising that he had lost his composure after finally making such a discovery. Besides, the name itself meant nothing to an outsider. The tree was a newly created hybrid that had never appeared anywhere in the recorded history of the Mountains and Seas Realm. Even if someone overheard them, they would have no idea what it was. It was just that secrets were best kept entirely secret.

What truly caught Luo Chen's attention was Sang Jinghe's claim that he had found a way to grow it. The Infernal Heartbound Tree was unlike any typical spirit plant. Heaven Refiner had created it from a True Scale Tree by fusing it with the hearts of a fifth-tier ancient demon and a fifth-tier ancient devil. The resulting existence was neither truly a spirit tree nor something that could be classified as a demon or devil, and from the moment the hybridization succeeded, it had already reached the fifth tier.

Yet because its very existence defied the harmony of heaven, awakening spirit intelligence within it was especially difficult. The Flesh Ganoderma had once speculated that the tree would have to endure a lightning tribulation and survive the wrath of heaven and earth before it could truly awaken and bear fruit. If it ever reached that stage, those fruits might offer tremendous benefits to the physique.

That possibility was precisely why Luo Chen valued the tree so highly. Yet after all these years, he had not even found a reliable way to continue nurturing it, much less bring it to maturity. And now Sang Jinghe, an Adept, was telling him he had found a solution.

Luo Chen's expression grew serious. "Tell me everything."

Sang Jinghe immediately brightened. "From what you told me before, the tree was created from the hearts of both a demon and a devil. So if we want to nurture it properly, it should logically need both demonic energy and devil energy. Demonic energy isn't the problem. As long as we have a high-tier demon continuously channeling its mana around the tree, we can provide as much as it needs. Devil energy is the real problem. It's extremely rare in the Mountains and Seas Realm, and from what I've heard, only the True Inheritors of the devil sect can cultivate it. So the orthodox way of nurturing the tree is out. I tried several traditional farming techniques, but the results..."

From there, Sang Jinghe launched into a detailed account of everything he had tried over the years, with his earliest experiments and working through each failure, along with the new ideas those failures had inspired. By the time he finished laying out the entire process, he had practically condensed several decades of research into a few minutes.

Luo Chen did not rush him and listened patiently. He indeed had some knowledge of nurturing spirit plants, but he was nowhere near as knowledgeable as Sang Jinghe, who had devoted himself to the field. More importantly, the Infernal Heartbound Tree might hold the key to overcoming the bottleneck that had stalled Luo Chen's physique cultivation for years, so he was willing to hear every detail.

Ever since reaching the middle stage of the fourth tier in physique cultivation, he had barely advanced. Neither Myriad Path Convergence nor tempering his body with true fire had produced any meaningful improvement anymore. As for resorting to external resources, he did possess several alchemical formulas that could possibly help, including some left behind by Heaven Refiner, but those formulas had been created for the devil race and were ultimately not suitable for him.

After forming his Nascent Soul, Luo Chen had also shifted most of his time and energy toward qi cultivation. As a result, the physique that had become one of his greatest advantages had once more fallen behind. Well, sure, he had certainly learned to use his physical strength more efficiently, but that only allowed him to draw out more of what he already possessed. It did nothing to raise his physique to a higher level. If Sang Jinghe could truly nurture the Infernal Heartbound Tree until it bore fruit, he might finally have a way forward.

"Back on Dragon Abyss Island, I saw how you used a blood pool to rebuild Black King's body. That gave me an idea, so I tried something similar. But it didn't work the way I hoped. The tree wouldn't absorb the blood of those weaker demonic beasts at all. So I tried looking at it another way. The tree may contain the hearts of an ancient demon and an ancient devil, but it was still a True Scale Tree to begin with. According to the old records, True Scale Trees grow by absorbing large quantities of powdered fish and dragon scales. I thought maybe I could use that technique instead. But in the end, that failed as well. Then, after we came to the Central Continent, I helped some of the Fu family cultivators solve a few problems with their spirit plants. In return, they let me look through some of their records, and that's where I found a great deal of information on archaic beasts."

At the mention of this, Sang Jinghe's eyes lit up. "The cultivators here know more about archaic beasts than anyone else in the Mountains and Seas Realm. Some of their records even describe using archaic beast parts to cultivate spirit plants, and that gave me an idea. Since archaic beasts can grow to such high levels without transforming or cultivating in the usual way, perhaps their blood contains something that could replace both demonic energy and devil energy. If we use it as the main ingredient, combined with the blood pool and enough powdered fish and dragon scales, we might be able to force the Infernal Heartbound Tree to start growing."

After pouring out the entire hypothesis in almost a single breath, Sang Jinghe finally fell silent.

Luo Chen studied him for a moment. "So that's the method?"

Sang Jinghe stiffened, and under Luo Chen's steady gaze, a flush crept across his face. "Well... It's still only a possibility. But out of everything I've tried, I think this has the best chance of working."

Luo Chen considered it for a moment before nodding. "Mm. You've put a lot of effort into this. It does sound possible. I'll test it when I have the chance."

He gave Sang Jinghe an approving pat on the shoulder, then handed him a few bottles of pills he had refined in his spare time. "Take these and go pack your things. We'll be leaving soon."

Sang Jinghe accepted the pills with high spirits. "Yes, Senior!"

After he left, Luo Chen shook his head. The idea was plausible, but actually putting it into practice would be another matter entirely. Before he could test whether archaic beast blood could nourish the Infernal Heartbound Tree, he first had to obtain some, and that alone was a big problem. Just where was he supposed to find archaic beast blood?

The Mountains and Seas Realm might be huge, but archaic beasts had all but disappeared after the ancient war. Some, like the Mirage Dragon, had been slain, while others had hidden themselves in the wilderness. The few that still appeared from time to time were low-tier ones. Even the Sea-Devouring Golden Toad Luo Chen had encountered in the Northern Sea had only reached the third tier. With the Infernal Heartbound Tree itself already at the fifth tier, blood from an archaic beast that weak would most likely be useless.

Rustle... rustle...

As he pondered, a rustling sound reached his ears. Whatever was approaching made no effort to hide itself. Luo Chen lowered his gaze and found a small black flood dragon crawling toward him. With a curl of his finger, he beckoned it over, and Black King immediately scrambled up his robes before curling himself comfortably around Luo Chen's right arm.

"Master, you're back!"

Luo Chen said nothing. He simply looked down at Black King with a thoughtful expression.

The little flood dragon stiffened under that gaze. "Master, why are you staring at me like that? I haven't done anything wrong this year!"

Luo Chen grunted noncommittally, but his mind had already gone back to Sang Jinghe's suggestion. What truly set archaic beasts apart was their origin energy, and as their cultivation advanced, even their blood essence gradually transformed into origin blood. Once an archaic beast reached the fifth tier, it would naturally comprehend the corresponding root power without needing inheritance, instruction, or enlightenment in the same way human cultivators did. That natural affinity with the world was precisely why archaic beasts were regarded as the favored children of heaven and earth.

Black King had already switched to the path of archaic beast cultivation and reached the fourth tier. If Sang Jinghe's theory were correct, perhaps his blood could nourish the Infernal Heartbound Tree. The thought naturally made Luo Chen consider his own blood as well. He cultivated both qi and physique, and after years of refining his body, his physique had long since developed many qualities similar to those of an archaic beast. Perhaps there was a chance that his own blood essence might work just as well.

Yet as soon as the thought rose, he dismissed it completely. The Infernal Heartbound Tree was fifth tier, and sustaining its growth would undoubtedly require an enormous amount of nourishment. Whether the blood came from him or Black King, it would inevitably weaken them. With them needing to leave soon, sacrificing their strength to test an unproven theory made little sense. Hence, there was no hurry for now. If he ever had the chance to settle down somewhere peacefully in the future, he could revisit the idea then.

With Black King still curled comfortably under his sleeve, Luo Chen returned to the residence. The lengthy handover was almost finished by then, and before long, Heavenjade came over with a final sum. Luo Chen's eyelid twitched when he heard the number. Still, after buying so many cultivation resources, all he could do was grit his teeth and pay.

Once everything was settled, the fortune he had accumulated over the years had fallen to barely thirty million spirit stones. For an ordinary Sage, that was still an astonishing amount of wealth. But Luo Chen had once possessed a fortune in the hundreds of millions, so looking at what remained left him with a feeling he hadn't experienced in a while—the feeling that he had somehow become poor overnight.

With the transaction complete, he was ready to leave Kinghouse Mountain, but Fu Hongzhang stopped him before he could depart and handed him a beast-hide booklet.

"What's this?" Luo Chen accepted it and glanced at the title on the cover: Profound Reach Compendium.

"The young mistress is sending you this," Fu Hongzhang explained. "It's a Go manual containing quite a few unusual game records and endgame problems. She said that if you study it properly, your Go skills should improve considerably."

"I see." Luo Chen slipped the book into his storage ring. "Please thank Qinglan on my behalf. If we meet again someday, I'll be sure to play a proper game with her."

With nothing else keeping him, he gathered the others and boarded the carriage. Soon afterward, it rose into the sky and carried them away from the mountain.

Unlike the bustle that had accompanied their arrival, their departure was quiet, almost lonely by comparison. Yet as Luo Chen watched the mountains gradually recede behind him, he felt no sadness at all. Under his apparent calmness, an anticipation he had not felt in many years was steadily growing stronger.

I'm finally going back home.