An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Chapter 1193: Archaic Beast's Blood; Gather Spirit Essences From The Nine Firmaments (II)

Before he could head home, however, Luo Chen had to first visit the Starport. As the largest coastal port on the eastern side of the Central Continent, it was the main departure point for travelers bound for the Eastern Wilderness.

This time, he had no intention of using a teleportation formation. After the enormous sum he had just spent on cultivation resources, even his considerable wealth could no longer support that kind of extravagance. Besides, Black King still had plenty of dragonworms. Luo Chen thus needed to obtain the proper travel permit at Starport, and then he could pilot a flying boat on his own.

The route to the Eastern Wilderness was also considerably safer than the journey to the Northern Sea. Although a few natural hazards lay along the way, powerful demonic beasts were rare. The only real obstacle was the stretch of Netherwater separating the two regions, and with a travel permit jointly recognized by the Central Continent and the Eastern Wilderness, getting through the checkpoint should not be difficult.

However, he had not traveled far from Kinghouse Mountain when the carriage suddenly slowed to a stop. Standing directly in their path was someone he had not seen in years: Zhou Yunshen, the former grand elder of the Zhou family from the Coral Sea.

Luo Chen stepped out to greet him. "Greetings, Fellow Daoist! I thought you still had another four or five years before you'd reach the Central Continent."

Zhou Yunshen cupped his hand and smiled. "Yeah, we got lucky along the way and ran into a group of Dao Sect experts clearing the natural hazard checkpoints. They were heading back to the Central Continent afterward, so they brought us along."

"Ah, no wonder!"

Before leaving Heaven-Earth Peak, Seven Lamps had already told him quite a bit about the situation beyond the Central Continent, including one particularly important development: The route to the Northern Sea had finally been opened. The Dao Sect's elites would soon travel there directly through teleportation formations, while the main army would cross the sea in batches. Once those forces gathered in the Northern Sea, the war would truly begin.

In that sense, Luo Chen's decision to return to the Eastern Wilderness first did put him at something of a disadvantage. If he joined the Dao Sect's forces now, he could seize the initiative and begin contributing even before the war fully unfolded.

Even so, he had never seriously considered changing his plans. Conquering an entire continent would hardly be a straightforward task, especially since they would be up against the united demon clans and powerful demons that had once sieged and demolished the stronghold of a Holy Land. The coming war could easily drag on for a very long time, which meant he would have no shortage of opportunities to take part later. For now, he simply wanted to go home.

Zhou Yunshen was rather curious. "Are you heading to Heaven-Earth Peak as well?"

Luo Chen shook his head. "I just came from there. I'm heading to the Eastern Wilderness."

Zhou Yunshen was dumbfounded. "The what?"

Luo Chen only smiled. "The road is long, and who knows when we'll see each other again. Fellow Daoist Zhou, til next time."

He did not linger. After exchanging farewells, Luo Chen returned to the Six Restriction Cloud Carriage, which soon swept past Zhou Yunshen's flying boat and continued east.

Even after returning to the boat, Zhou Yunshen could not shake his confusion. By his reckoning, Luo Chen had only been in the Central Continent for two or three years. He had not expected him to leave again so soon.

One of the Sages traveling with him noticed his expression and asked what had happened. After hearing the story, the man laughed casually. "Maybe he simply couldn't find a place for himself in the Central Continent."

Zhou Yunshen rejected the idea. "How could that be? He is young, talented, and already accomplished. Someone like him... surely there'd be a place for him somewhere."

"Not necessarily." The other Sage shook his head. "Things work differently here. The great families control most of the Central Continent, and outsiders have never had an easy time finding their footing. Even the Star Gate on Heaven-Earth Peak has extremely strict age requirements for guest retainers. No matter how capable he is, he still might not have been able to stay."

That gave Zhou Yunshen pause. He still found it difficult to believe, but he had only recently arrived in the Central Continent himself, and the man's words did seem somewhat reasonable.

However, not long afterward, when they took a major city's teleportation formation to Heaven-Earth Peak and heard about Luo Chen's deeds during the pocket world grand competition, they could not help exchanging awkward looks. A man valued by the elders of the Star Gate and actively courted by several major families hardly sounded like someone who had failed to establish himself in the Central Continent.

Yet they had little time to dwell on Luo Chen because a more pressing matter soon demanded their attention.

"Go back to the Northern Sea?"

"Correct. Our forces have already set out, and since all of you came from the Northern Sea, you know the situation there better than most." The Dao Sect expert gave them a measured look. "Of course, I'm not forcing you. We have people from the Penglai Immortal Sect guiding us, so it's not as though we can't manage without you. But if you want your juniors to have an easier time settling down in the Central Continent, it wouldn't hurt to do something for the Dao Sect while you have the chance. Just think about it."

Zhou Yunshen and the others exchanged uneasy looks. The man had phrased everything politely enough, but the unspoken implications could hardly be clearer. For a time, none of them knew what to say.

***

The Starport bustled below as a cloud carriage slowly rose into the air. After circling once, it turned east and quickly disappeared into the distance.

Aboard, Luo Chen held a jade scroll and studied it with interest. It was the travel permit he had received after presenting his Star Gate guest retainer token. According to what he had been told, the stretch of Netherwater off the coast of the Eastern Wilderness was a natural barrier that kept the demonic beasts of the sea at bay, and experts from the Nether Origin Sect guarded it year-round. Without a permit recognized by both sides, outsiders were simply not allowed through.

Luo Chen turned the jade scroll over in his hand. That's quite a trouble just to enter one. Are they trying to keep outsiders from getting in... or their own people from getting out?

The thought reminded him of Saint Alchemist Chu Yan, who had once belonged to the Nether Origin Sect before eventually joining the Dao Sect. He considered the connection for a moment, then lost interest and put the permit away.

After all, he had more useful ways to occupy his time. Even with Heavenjade and Sang Jinghe alternating at the helm day and night, the journey would still take more than a year, and he naturally could not afford to waste all that time. Before his departure, Fu Chaosheng had given him both a formation treatise and a sword scripture. Formations required too much accumulated knowledge to study properly, and Luo Chen had little desire to bury himself in that for the entire journey. The sword scripture, however, was different.

Primordial Slaughter was unquestionably powerful, but he had never truly learned how to wield it properly. Under his control, its speed was nothing remarkable, every activation consumed a tremendous amount of mana, and merely using it placed a heavy burden on him. All in all, the problem did not lie with the sword itself but with him who simply lacked a proper foundation in swordsmanship.

Even Blood Nightmare, its previous owner, had never been able to unleash its full potential. Luo Chen had used it only twice, and both occasions depended on circumstances that favored him: once after extensive preparation and once through a successful surprise attack. The results had demonstrated the sword's terrifying destructive power, but neither could be called a perfect utilization. If he could make up for this weakness, perhaps he could unleash the sword's might to the fullest.

With that in mind, he sent his divine consciousness into the jade scroll. The instant he touched the scripture within, a powerful sword will surged straight into his soul, and countless wondrous scenes unfolded in his mind.

As those scenes gradually faded, the structure of the art became clear. The Myriad Transformations of the Firmament did not favor sword orbs over flying swords. Instead, it contained separate cultivation paths for both traditions, and more importantly, the inheritance extended all the way to the fifth tier.

With that realization, he immediately focused his attention and began reading from the beginning.

Those who walk the path of sword orbs must temper the sword heart, achieve sword will, and advance step by step toward the supreme Sword Dao...

Those who wield flying swords must ascend to the Nine Firmaments, gather spirit essence, nurture boundless sword energy, and bring forth the myriad phenomena of the thousand skies...

Before long, Luo Chen was completely absorbed.

Quite some time passed before he finally lowered the jade scroll. Of everything he had read, one requirement of the flying-sword path lingered most strongly in his mind. He lifted his gaze toward the heavens, as though trying to see beyond the clouds themselves. "So before I can cultivate sword energy, I first have to ascend to the Nine Firmaments and gather spirit essence?"

The term itself sounded unfamiliar, but the idea behind it was not. An essence was simply the purest, most concentrated form of something, much like a flower represented the finest expression of a flourishing plant. Spirit essences followed the same principle. They were born when a particular form of spirit substance became concentrated to an extraordinary degree.

For example, the Lightning Essence Luo Chen had obtained before was one of those that were formed from highly concentrated lightning. Azure Eerie Wind could likewise be regarded as a Wind Essence, while Profound Primal Heavy Water, Ren Water, Primordial Heaven True Water, and similar treasures all belonged among the Water Essences. Such things were naturally rare, and cultivators often went to great lengths to find high-tier spirit essences when refining powerful enchanted treasures or cultivating certain secret arts.

Luo Chen murmured to himself, "This is not exactly easy to master!"

Yet the difficulty did nothing to discourage him. If anything, it only sharpened his interest. He already possessed an extraordinary sword, so how could he be satisfied with continuing to wield it in such a crude fashion? Now that a proper sword inheritance had finally fallen into his hands, he had even less reason to neglect it.

More importantly, this path was far more tangible than the Great Five Elements Sword Formation. He still had no clear way to complete that formation, whereas the Primordial Slaughter Sword was already in his grasp. If he could master the techniques recorded in the scripture and truly draw out the sword's power, it would give him a far more immediate and reliable path forward.