The north wind howled, and ice and snow lay thick and white all around.
A lone figure stood at the edge of a blood lake, thick and viscous as a mire, silently watching the enormous blood cocoon at its center.
The Three Great Loose Cultivators had once been the foremost among the loose cultivators of the Northern Sea, standing head and shoulders above their peers.
But with the Blood Hermit vanished without a trace and the Moon Hermit enslaved, the glory of the Three Great Loose Cultivators had long since faded to nothing.
As the 'Desolate Hermit,' who had once ranked alongside them, Luo Chen had never expected to meet the Mad Hermit—the last of them—under such circumstances.
Yet the two of them had never exchanged even the most basic words; there had been only one simple meeting of the eyes, and everything had passed in silence.
Looking at that thick blood cocoon now, Luo Chen knew the Mad Hermit had reached the most critical juncture. If he could pass this trial, then new opportunities would surely await him. But if he failed, only one end awaited the Mad Hermit—death.
'May you have good fortune, fellow Daoist.'
After gazing for a long while, Luo Chen uttered these words, then turned and left.
After he departed, an unusual restlessness stirred within the blood lake.
Vast gouts of bloody water and black qi surged ceaselessly toward the blood cocoon, and the vigorous pounding of a heartbeat drummed out—dong, dong, dong—as if heralding the birth of a new life.
...
Within Taohai City, in the Buddhist hall.
Kongchan sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, chanting the scriptures of the Buddha. The atmosphere around him was serene and tranquil, without the slightest trace of a foul, fishy demonic stench.
Suddenly!
The prayer beads in Kongchan's hand came to an abrupt halt. He opened his eyes instinctively and saw a black-robed figure standing quietly before the statue of the Wisdom King.
For some reason, Kongchan felt that the black-robed Daoist before him at this moment bore a certain resemblance to the Wisdom King's statue—even though the man was clearly no follower of the Buddhist faith.
'Master, you've come out of seclusion?'
Kongchan wanted to rise, but the man waved a hand, signaling him to stay as he was.
Then he heard the man's leisurely voice.
'I am about to leave. Will you come with me, or stay in the Northern Sea?'
Leave?
Kongchan's heart stirred, and he immediately understood that by 'leave,' the man did not mean merely leaving the Arctic Yama Heavens, but leaving the Northern Sea itself.
He hesitated at once.
Luo Chen did not let him ponder for long, and laid out a condition.
'In truth, where you are does not matter. What matters is that before long, you must act once on my behalf. Just once—succeed, and I will lift the soul restriction from you. From then on you will be free, and no one in the outside world will know that you once submitted to a human cultivator.'
Kongchan's eyes lit up at once, and he asked directly, 'May I ask whom the Master intends to deal with?'
'The Tianyuan Dao Sect!'
Those four lightly spoken words now pressed down upon Kongchan's heart like a great mountain, nearly choking him so that he could not speak.
'This...'
'Think it over carefully. I hope to see your figure on the battlefield when the time comes.'
Luo Chen gave a soft laugh, then turned and walked out.
He did not force the other man.
Unlike Black King and Xiao Bai, the demon monk Kongchan did not share a deep 'master-servant' bond with him. Even if he forcibly ordered the man to act, there was a great chance he would go through the motions without giving his full effort.
But if the man acted of his own accord, he would surely give everything he had!
He believed Kongchan would make the right choice. After all, if he himself were to fail, then the soul backlash Kongchan suffered would be nothing pleasant either.
From behind came a conflicted, questioning voice.
'When? Where?'
'Ten years from now, at the ancestral seat of the Tianyuan Dao Sect on the Dongyuan Continent!'
Once the words faded, Luo Chen's figure was already gone from the Buddhist hall. Kongchan sat on his meditation cushion, his expression shifting uncertainly between light and shadow.
Only after a long while did the sound of chanting scriptures and praising the Buddha rise once more within the hall.
Only, compared to before, this chanting was rather heavy and grim.
...
'Master, how do we go back? Are we returning by the original route?'
After leaving Taohai Ruined City, Xiao Bai asked this question with concern.
Black King also popped out and said bluntly, 'That's far too slow, and we'd have to avoid the eyes and ears of the Tianyuan Dao Sect besides.'
Xiao Bai snorted. 'Do you have a better idea, then?'
Black King was left momentarily speechless.
Unexpectedly, Luo Chen said, 'There is indeed a faster way back.'
With that, Luo Chen released the Frost Eagle Shuttle and stepped onto it in a single stride.
The shuttle turned and headed east.
This looked like he meant to cut straight across the Northern Sea!
That route was no faster than returning by the original path—after all, the Arctic Yama Heavens lay at the very northern edge of the Northern Sea.
Seeing this, Black King seemed to think of something.
'Master, surely you don't mean to...'
'Mm.'
Luo Chen nodded slightly, confirming the other's guess.
If they followed that route, they could save at least half the time.
Only Xiao Bai remained in the dark.
Black King gave a sly chuckle and, without explaining to her, burrowed out instead and said to Luo Chen, 'Master, while you were in seclusion, we scoured the ruins of the Yuan Demon Sect and found quite a few good things!'
As he spoke, he proudly spat out a pile of odds and ends from his mouth.
Luo Chen was not particularly moved. With his current strength and cultivation, ordinary treasures simply did not catch his eye at all.
Moreover, when the demon clan had been trapped in the Yama Heavens for two hundred years, even if the Yuan Demon Sect had left behind any rare treasures, they had most likely long since been stripped away by the demon clan's powerhouses.
So the 'good things' Black King spoke of were bound to be nothing more than common goods.
Yet after Luo Chen's gaze swept over that pile of odds and ends, his eyes suddenly flickered, and he reached out to summon a statue.
'Huh!'
Black King said smugly, 'Those demon clan juniors did search very thoroughly, but there's always some place they miss. This statue, I dug up from deep underground. Xiao Bai and I studied it—there might be a body refinement technique recorded on it. I know you most enjoy collecting all sorts of body refinement techniques, Master, so I set it aside specially.'
'You did well.'
Luo Chen gave a sound of assent and carefully stroked the statue in his hand.
The thing carved was rather uncanny—clearly a human, yet with two horns atop its head. And across its pitch-black body, every single vein stood out starkly, overlaid with a layer of blood-colored halo.
It matched none of the demon realm races recorded in the Heaven Refining Demon Lord's texts, yet it was certainly no human or demon clan either.
'Just what is this thing carved to be?'
With a single glance, the statue gave one the sense of boundless, inexhaustible blood and qi and an immensely powerful body!
There was a reason Black King said a body refinement technique was recorded on it.
But this body refinement technique had not truly revealed itself; it seemed to require some kind of knack.
Luo Chen settled his mind and began to study it carefully.
...
Half a year later.
Aboard the Frost Eagle Shuttle, Luo Chen held the 'Demon Statue' in his hands, his gaze focused.
He channeled magic power into it, but the statue did not stir in the least.
Luo Chen applied source power, and the blood-colored halo suddenly began to flow, coursing along those veins.
But when it reached a critical node, the blood-colored halo abruptly stalled.
Clearly, magic power could not activate this statue; even source power, condensed from blood and qi, could only stir it slightly and could not manifest the true technique.
Luo Chen had roughly guessed what was needed to activate this thing.
It required pure demonic qi to rouse the Demon Statue and manifest the complete technique. Otherwise, even desolate beast source power could barely push through a small portion of the technique's pathways.
But in this present age, who possessed such pure demonic qi?
For a moment, two figures surfaced in Luo Chen's mind.
One was the Mad Hermit, who had lain in the Yama Heavens' blood lake not long ago. If he had succeeded in transforming his constitution into that of the demon race, then producing demonic qi would be only natural.
The other was Ning Yuzhuo, whom he had met in the Southern Border back in those years. That fellow was most likely a true disciple of the Yuan Demon Lineage.
Someday, when he had the chance, he would go looking for the two of them.
Luo Chen put away the demon statue, and then Black King's voice came from outside.
'Master, we've reached the Flying Swallow Archipelago.'
Luo Chen slowly emerged and stood upon the shuttle suspended high in the nine heavens, gazing far off at the land below.
Within the range of his divine sense, a woman in a blue skirt was quietly and serenely tending the medicinal herbs in a herb garden, while in the small lake beside her a great many spirit fish swam to and fro, utterly at ease.
'Mid Golden Core stage—over these hundred years, Haixin has not slacked off in her cultivation!'
Black King ventured, 'Master, do you wish to go and see your lady?'
Luo Chen pondered for a moment, then shook his head.
'Never mind.'
'My own future is still uncertain—why drag her into it as well? Besides, with Haixin's current strength, she would be of no help to me.'
'Let her live here in peace.'
With that, Luo Chen turned the shuttle around and headed east.
At last Xiao Bai realized something. She looked toward that archipelago, shaped like a swallow spreading its wings, and through her divine sense faintly perceived the figure of a woman—beautiful in face and shapely in figure.
That must be the Dao companion her master had in the Northern Sea, the one Black King had spoken of before.
Was she called Cheng Haixin?
While Xiao Bai was speculating in her heart, the Frost Eagle Shuttle moved at great speed. It had already left the Flying Swallow Archipelago, and a short while later descended upon a nameless little island where seabirds wheeled and moisture hung thick in the air.
Xiao Bai did not understand. What were they stopping here for?
'Master, weren't we going back to the Eastern Desolation?'
Luo Chen put away the Frost Eagle Shuttle, smiled faintly, and walked into the small hill at the center of the island.
'The road home lies within.'
Parting the vines and entering the cave, he found an ancient yet ornate teleportation array resting quietly there.
Luo Chen bent down and examined it closely, then rose with satisfaction.
'Just as I expected—when Monarch Qixia returned from the Northern Sea to the Eastern Desolation back then, she had already repaired this teleportation array.'
Luo Chen turned and looked at the two of them, one a man and one a ghost.
This kind of cross-continent, ultra-long-distance teleportation array was convenient indeed, but its demands on the 'passengers' were also very high.
Back then, he and Han Zhan had relied on the Azure Luan Feather to barely succeed in teleporting over.
Now that he had to bring the two of them with him, without the aid of the Azure Luan Feather, he could only rely on his own strength.
Facing Luo Chen's thoughtful gaze, Black King reacted at once, coiling around Luo Chen's arm and lifting his head.
'Master, you needn't worry. I won't let that disaster from the teleportation to the Central Plains happen again.'
Luo Chen was rendered speechless.
Such a teleportation accident had indeed happened once.
That time, without informing Fu Chaosheng and the others, he had quietly brought Black King along as they teleported from the Northern Sea to the Central Plains, and it had brewed into a terrible incident.
The many dragon earthworms Black King carried on his body burst apart alive under the pressure of the teleportation array. When they arrived, the vast amount of dragon earthworm blood directly contaminated one of the teleportation arrays in the Central Plains.
For this, the Fu family had even paid a considerable price as compensation.
That incident of blood staining the Central Plains was, in the eyes of some, quite inauspicious—like a calamity of bloodshed.
Looking at it now, that incident had in fact foreshadowed the future in some unseen way. Was he not returning this time to move against the Central Plains and bring a storm of blood and slaughter upon the Tianyuan Dao Sect?
Luo Chen let out a breath and beckoned to Xiao Bai.
'Let's go!'
His whole body shuddered, and vast magic power surged out, wrapping Xiao Bai completely, while a thread of magic power also attached itself to Black King.
He casually tossed out several top-grade spirit stones, striking them into the grooves of the array.
With a thought, the array rumbled to life.
Boom!
A vast pillar of light shot up into the sky, tearing through the void, and then vanished in an instant.
On Yaoyue Island in the ten-li tranquil lake within the Flying Swallow Archipelago—several hundred li from that nameless wild island—a woman in blue robes was attentively cultivating the medicinal herbs in her garden.
She was not skilled at alchemy; growing these medicinal herbs was merely a way to pass her idle time.
If the chance arose, when she saw Luo Chen again, she could give him a little surprise—after all, he was an alchemist.
Several of the medicinal herbs in this courtyard had even been lost to cultivation, and she had cultivated them with great effort.
But when they might meet again was not something Cheng Haixin could know.
Suddenly!
She instinctively raised her head and gazed into the far distance.
A pillar of light shot up into the sky, tearing through the void and heading east. Though it vanished in an instant, she still caught sight of its trace.
For some reason, the moment she saw that pillar of light, the woman's heart clenched for an instant.
'Strange.'
Cheng Haixin murmured this to herself, stopped what she was doing, and rode a streak of light toward the place where the pillar had appeared.
Before long, she descended upon the nameless wild island and, with a flutter of unease, walked into that cave.
A familiar aura assailed her.
The woman's lips pressed tightly together in an instant.
...
A teleportation array could be regarded as an upgraded form of a great translocation array.
It did not simply and inexplicably drop a person from one end directly to the other; rather, it transmitted them through the void.
But because of the immense spatial pressure, many people could not remain conscious during the process, which was why they had that illusion of teleporting in an instant.
Luo Chen had grown used to that sensation, assuming only that when he came to his senses, he would have arrived at Mount Cangwu.
But this time was exceptionally different.
He remained conscious!
He clearly saw how he was traversing the void, one spatial node after another surfacing before his eyes, and layer upon layer of spatial fluctuations spreading out like ripples.
This wondrous experience was not only because he had condensed his primordial spirit before the teleportation, granting him keen perception, but even more because of a unique innate talent.
'Is it the spatial talent I obtained from Qingshuang?'
'But it was never this obvious before!'
His thoughts turned, and Luo Chen's gaze turned deep and profound, as if he could pierce through the void itself.
Xiao Bai beside him had already fainted; Black King was slightly better off, but his body had begun to tremble, so Luo Chen deliberately replenished a portion of magic power for him.
And within his sleeve, the Soul Refining Banner gave off a faint cracking sound, but it vanished in an instant.
With the power of a fifth-tier Kui-Ox Ghost Deity, it was enough to withstand this kind of ultra-long-distance teleportation.
'It went fairly smoothly!'
Amid the upheaval of heaven and earth, Luo Chen—gripping Xiao Bai and Black King with both hands—appeared upon the underground teleportation array platform.
Luo Chen surveyed his surroundings and let out a slight breath of relief.
He had reached Mount Cangwu!
Clear footsteps sounded, and with a sweep of his spiritual sense, Luo Chen already knew who had come.
Deputy Hall Master Youquan of the Duzhen Hall.
At this point, Luo Chen ought to have withdrawn his spiritual sense.
But for some reason he paused, and instinctively raised his head to look upward.
A cold, familiar spiritual sense met his squarely.
Luo Chen's lips parted slightly, and he said in surprise, 'You've reached Deity Transformation?'
Chapter 1059