Ancient lore told that this world was named the Mountain and Sea.
Endless mountains stretched on without end, rivers and seas knew no bounds, and within them thrived countless demon beasts and spirits.
The mighty soared through the heavens and tunneled through the earth, shifting mountains and overturning seas.
The weak frolicked amidst mountains and forests, thoroughly carefree.
Though cultivators of the human race existed, they were few and far between, barely eking out a survival.
However, ever since ancient times, the human race had risen in great splendor. Golden Core and Nascent Soul figures emerged one after another, and there were even Soul Formation cultivators who crossed their tribulations and ascended.
Under this unstoppable tide, human territory expanded continuously.
Over thousands of years, humanity finally established its supremacy in the Central Plains of the Mountain and Sea Realm, laying the foundation of their grand civilization!
With the Central Plains at the center, the world was divided into four great domains: the Eastern Desolation, the Southern Border, the Western Desert, and the Northern Sea.
Once the five domains were initially settled, the mighty human cultivators of the Mountain and Sea Realm instituted a new era, naming it Mountain and Sea and designating its inaugural year.
From that first year onward, time flowed like water and the seasons flew like a shuttle.
Three thousand years flashed by in the blink of an eye.
Throughout these three millennia, human cultivators of the Mountain and Sea Realm, upholding the ideals of those ancient powerhouses, continuously launched wars of pioneer conquest to expand humanity's domain.
Thus came into being the thirty-five domains across the Eastern Desolation, the one hundred and eighty-seven ridges of the Southern Border, and the boundless Northern Sea reaching all the way to the Yama Heavens of the northern extreme.
Four hundred years ago.
Within the Hehuan Domain of the Eastern Desolation, a great Golden Core sect gave birth to a Nascent Soul True Person. Realizing that the sect could no longer expand within the Hehuan Domain, it applied to launch a pioneer war.
This sect was called the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect.
Presided over by the sacred land of the Eastern Desolation and supported by the Hehuan Sect, the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect soon gained the joint backing of great Nascent Soul sects including the Medicine King Sect, the Divine Talisman Sect, the Five Elements Divine Sect, and Tianfan City.
In this way, there were the six great Nascent Soul sects.
Not only that, but within the domains of each superior sect, various Golden Core sects sought room for their own development and stepped forward one after another to join the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect's pioneer war.
The Luoyun Sect, the Haoran Sect, the Minghuang Sword Sect, the Ice Fort, the Azure Pill Valley... a total of ten Golden Core sects.
Together with the six great superior sects, a magnificent pioneer war commenced four hundred years ago.
Their objective: the Lianxia Mountain Range!
This conflict was also known as the Crusade of the Sixteen Sects against Lianxia.
The eventual outcome was, naturally, a success.
Humanity's expanse expanded from thirty-five domains in the Eastern Desolation to thirty-six.
The Jade Cauldron Domain, along with the other five domains, came to be known as the Six Far East Domains.
Yet success carried its price.
Of the ten Golden Core sects that set out from various great domains, a full four were nearly annihilated.
Ghost Spirit Valley was one of them.
In truth, Ghost Spirit Valley had ranked among the very top of the ten Golden Core sects in strength.
Its Supreme Elder had been an extraordinary powerhouse at the ninth layer of Golden Core, merely a step away from forming a Nascent Soul.
The entire Ghost Spirit Valley was renowned across the world for its formations and possessed several illustrious sect-guarding magic treasures: the Demon-Locking Pagoda, Lanke Chess, the Peerless Sword...
Among these treasures was also one that was not widely famous, yet intensely envied by various Golden Core sects: the Ghost Spirit Heart-Inquiring Mirror.
Its grade was not high, merely low-grade.
It had no defensive capacity and possessed no offensive power; it did not even provide the slightest enhancement to formation arts, which Ghost Spirit Valley excelled in most.
Yet, mysteriously, it had an extraordinary, wondrous effect on a cultivator's attempt to form a Golden Core.
As for where this effect came from, outsiders had no idea.
Following the fall of Ghost Spirit Valley and the surviving remnants transforming into cultivation clans subservient to the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect, this treasure had seemingly vanished without a trace.
The verse—"All yearn for the radiant Golden Core, inquiring not of common folk but of ghosts and spirits"—became a lament of the past.
Yet today...
Someone hoping to pick up a bargain, guided by an uncanny stroke of providence, stepped into the Ghost Spirit Heart-Inquiring Mirror.
***
Opening his eyes, Luo Chen set down the bronze mirror in his hand with disappointment.
"A loss. This time, I took a massive loss!"
After experimenting with it, he found that aside from a faint hallucinatory function, this damaged bronze mirror treasure had no other use.
Moreover, its hallucinatory power could now only affect low-level Qi Refinement cultivators.
Thirty thousand stones!
Just gone down the drain like that.
Aching with regret, Luo Chen resolved never to go bargain-hunting again.
"While I have some time, I might as well brew a few more cauldrons of pills and earn some more spirit stones!"
Although brewing pills for half a year was usually enough for the Luotian Association to sell for an entire year and brought in plenty of spirit stones, who would ever complain about having too many?
Luo Chen immediately threw himself into the grand enterprise of alchemy.
Six days later, stepping away from his hectic alchemy schedule, Luo Chen attended the grand auction held in Tianlan Immortal City.
This auction was truly extraordinary!
Jointly hosted by the Azure Pill Valley and the Ice Fort, the auctioneer was none other than an Ice Fort Golden Core Master!
Luo Chen made an impressive showing!
He snapped up a Foundation Establishment Pill, a Middle-grade Qi Harmonizing Pill, and a Spirit Purifying Pill in succession.
Furthermore, he helped Kang Xianqiong win the Tier 3 healing medicine she needed, thereby securing the agency deal between the Kang family and the Luotian Association for Golden Quality Jade Liquid.
After the auction concluded, Luo Chen personally oversaw Min Longyu's Foundation Establishment!
Outside the immortal's cave, Luo Chen waited with high hopes.
*If Min Longyu succeeds, the Luotian Association will have another Foundation Establishment True Cultivator—and one versed in formation arts at that!*
Yet the outcome left him profoundly disappointed.
Min Longyu actually failed, slumping inside the immortal's cave with severe injuries.
When asked the reason, Min Longyu wore a bitter expression. "I hesitated."
Luo Chen parted his lips, but could only let out a dejected sigh.
Foundation Establishment was never a certainty to begin with.
Fu Xiuxiu had failed; Duan Rui had failed twice in succession after consuming Foundation Establishment Pills; even someone as formidable as Wang Yuan had only succeeded on his second attempt.
Even he himself had barely managed after multiple failures.
Min Longyu had simply dragged it out for too long.
After sighing, he did not dwell in gloom.
Nonsense—it wasn't as though he had failed, and his relationship with Min Longyu wasn't particularly intimate. Why would he sink into despair?
Instead, having another Foundation Establishment Pill from Wang Haichao in hand, he bestowed it two years later upon Sima Huiniang.
She succeeded in a single attempt!
From then on, the Luotian Association had a Foundation Establishment director-general!
Under Sima Huiniang's vigorous leadership, the Luotian Association flourished more and more each day.
The pills Luo Chen refined day and night were sold far and wide across Tianlan Immortal City and beyond.
Jade Marrow Pills, Jade Dew Pills, and even Nether-Passage Pills were put on the market.
Through the profits of these pills, the wealth of spirit stones he amassed reached unimaginable sums.
He was not a stingy man.
Beyond using immense wealth to advance his own cultivation, he offered generous support to his old friends.
Gu Caiyi and Murong Qinglian both achieved Foundation Establishment by good fortune.
Even for Zhou Yuanli, whose aptitude was rather modest, Luo Chen—mindful of how loyally he had served him over the years—successively purchased three Foundation Establishment Pills for him, allowing him to establish his foundation through sheer persistence and extend his lifespan.
Qin Liangchen, on the other hand, voluntarily gave up after two failed attempts left his vitality severely depleted.
Attempting it again might not result in success, but it would certainly cost him his life.
The political landscape of the Jade Cauldron Domain was unpredictable and treacherous, shifting day by day.
The war between the two Nascent Soul superior sects finally erupted in full force.
Even though the Luotian Association had accumulated over ten Foundation Establishment True Cultivators in the open and in secret over decades of growth, in the face of such overwhelming historical currents, they were powerless to dictate their own fate and were ultimately swept into the maelstrom.
What followed was decades of continuous warfare.
Throughout this ordeal, the Luotian Association lost countless cultivators.
Even Wang Yuan, Luo Chen's closest friend, was relentlessly pursued and slain over a thousand li after offending a Golden Core Master due to his ruthless nature.
Let alone the others.
Luo Chen was cautious by nature and sharp-witted.
Though he lingered on the brink of death many times, he ultimately survived.
When the war concluded, it was marked by the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect's Nascent Soul True Person fiercely storming the mountain gate of the Luoyun Sect and perishing together with their Nascent Soul cultivator.
The war was over.
The surviving remnants of the Luotian Association returned to Tianlan Immortal City.
A prolonged period of recuperation began once again.
Luo Chen's cultivation also finally stepped into the eighth layer of Foundation Establishment when he reached the age of one hundred and seventy.
By this time, he was considered a prominent figure within Tianlan Immortal City.
Even though the governing sect rotated to the Yan Alliance, which had close ties to the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect, he forged a vassal relationship with them through the pill trade.
Yet cultivation at the eighth layer of Foundation Establishment filled Luo Chen with despair.
Despite having accumulated over a century of wealth and being able to acquire boundless resources, the limitations of his aptitude meant that having resources alone could not accelerate his cultivation.
And this was merely the eighth layer of Foundation Establishment!
Ahead lay the even more grueling ninth layer, followed by the most perilous hurdle of all: Core Formation.
It could be said that his hopes for the Great Dao were virtually nil.
Luo Chen refused to accept this!
He frequently attended auctions, traveled to other immortal cities within the Jade Cauldron Domain, and even joined a great Golden Core sect as an external consecrated elder to secure higher-tier and more potent cultivation resources.
Yet his cultivation still progressed at a crawl.
At the age of two hundred, he sat alone atop Danxia Peak, gazing at the magnificent sea of clouds, his heart adrift in confusion.
Behind him, slow footsteps approached.
It was Gu Caiyi.
Having fortunately achieved Foundation Establishment and survived the war between the superior sects, two hundred years had done little to diminish her beauty.
If anything, the passage of time had added a richer, more voluptuous grace to her bearing.
"Luo Chen, do you want to rest?"
"With the Great Dao before me, how could I rest?" Luo Chen replied without turning his head, his voice resolute.
Yet beneath that resolve lay a thread of despair.
Gu Caiyi walked to his side, looking at him with tender pity.
"I've known you since you were at the fourth layer of Qi Refinement.
"For nearly two hundred years, if you weren't brewing pills, you were cultivating.
"And when you weren't cultivating, you were maneuvering among major factions, carving out room for the Luotian Association to survive.
"For two hundred years, you've never stopped.
"Aren't you tired?"
As that question—*Aren't you tired?*—hung in the air, Luo Chen, seated on the mountain summit, felt a sudden wave of dizziness wash over his mind.
An overwhelming fatigue surged from the deepest recesses of his soul.
At first, it was like water bubbling from a spring, then babbling into a brook, until finally it roared like a mighty river, crashing through him in torrential waves.
He truly was tired.
Two centuries of time. He had shunned romance, eschewed the lust for power, and never paused his cultivation!
There had never been anyone in the world who worked as hard as he did.
Relying on his grandmaster-level alchemy skills, he amassed wealth at a speed far outstripping his peers.
Even Golden Core cultivators were not half as rich as he was.
Yet even so, the Golden Core realm remained impossibly out of reach.
Beneath his stubborn resolve, boundless despair spread like wildfire...
A gentle mountain breeze drifted by, yet his body swayed on the verge of collapse.
Drawing near, she gently cradled his graying face against her side.
Gu Caiyi stroked his frosted hair with tender pity, whispering, "Let's stop striving, all right?"
*Stop striving?*
Three days later, a grand wedding took place on Danxia Peak!
Luo Chen, a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator and Tier 2 alchemy master, took Gu Caiyi, an elder of the Luotian Association, as his Dao companion.
Many came to offer congratulations.
None who attended were Qi Refinement; all who shared laughter were Foundation Establishment.
Even three Golden Core cultivators appeared in person to celebrate for Luo Chen.
The wedding had been arranged in haste, yet its influence rippled far and wide.
Even twenty years later, it remained widely spoken of throughout the Jade Cauldron Domain.
It was said that on that day, even the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect had dispatched someone to present a congratulatory gift.
Even from the Divine Talisman Sect tens of millions of li away, Foundation Establishment disciples had been sent to offer congratulations; the messengers were said to be named Fu Xiuxiu and Chen Shuyi.
Twenty years later, still atop Danxia Peak, Luo Chen watched the pale, dim sunset slowly sink beneath the boundless sea of clouds. In his arms lay Gu Caiyi, silent and devoid of breath.
Her lifespan had run dry.
The beauty had passed away like wilting fragrance.
Luo Chen sat motionless for a very long time.
Not until ten days later, when purple qi heralded the dawn and a blazing sun leapt over the sea of clouds, did the aging Luo Chen's dormant heart begin to beat once more under the morning light.
"I've rested enough."
Burying Gu Caiyi, Luo Chen embarked once again on the path of cultivation.
This time, he no longer sought safety. Instead, he became more fanatical than ever before.
With his cultivation progressing so slowly, he hungered for more potent cultivation resources.
Yet the great sects would not grant them to him.
Even though he was a consecrated elder in name within their sect, they still refused.
"If you won't give them to me, I'll take them myself!"
Luo Chen began madly brewing his trump card, the Emperor's Flowing Syrup, stopping at nothing to elevate the Luotian Association's strength.
The number of Foundation Establishment True Cultivators grew far beyond ten.
Later, rogue cultivators with no hope of Foundation Establishment joined one after another upon hearing the news.
Ten, twenty, thirty, fifty...
Throughout this process, he squandered vast fortunes of resources to recruit several Golden Core cultivators!
These Golden Core cultivators were by no means nameless nobodies.
Most were formidable figures whose sects had been obliterated during the Nascent Soul war.
With their sects destroyed, even if they had luckily survived, they were merely eking out a solitary, precarious existence.
"Join the Luotian Sect!
"Invade the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect—the opportunity to form a Nascent Soul is surely within!
"Do not fear the foundation of the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect; their losses in the great war a century ago were not small in the least!
"I have planned this campaign for a long time. Aside from the Luotian Sect, the Yan Alliance, the Azure Pill Valley, and the Hundred Blossoms Palace will take action together!"
None knew just how much thought Luo Chen had poured into weaving alliances to form an army of four sects.
He fought to form a core!
Others fought for vengeance!
The Golden Core cultivators fought to form their Nascent Souls!
After a century of leaderless recuperation in the Jade Cauldron Domain, a massive war erupted with a deafening roar!
The war arrived with ferocious fury.
Yet it concluded just as abruptly.
Because a Nascent Soul True Cultivator from beyond the domain intervened.
In another great domain, a great Golden Core sect had produced a Nascent Soul True Person who ventured into the Jade Cauldron Domain in search of expansion.
The petty war among five Golden Core sects was utterly laughable before a Nascent Soul True Person.
With a mere flick of a hand, he suppressed them effortlessly.
After the war ended, its reverberations continued to ripple.
As the mastermind behind the conflict, Luo Chen was placed on the execution list.
The Luotian Sect, newly established in place of the association, suffered a devastating blow almost immediately.
The friends close to Luo Chen, his disciples, his descendants, and the descendants of his friends—none escaped. All were wiped out!
Only Luo Chen survived.
Like a stray dog, he fled through the cultivation world.
By now, he was already an old man.
His age had surpassed the limits of Foundation Establishment, reaching two hundred and eighty years.
It was Wang Yuan's legacy that sustained him.
During the war between the Sword Sect and the Luoyun Sect, Wang Yuan had perfected a cultivation technique linking the second realm of body refinement to the third.
It harmonized the immortal dao and the strength dao, with the blood dao as its core.
Drawing on his innate talent and comprehension, Luo Chen incorporated the soul dao into this foundation.
Thereafter, he prolonged his life by devouring the essence blood and divine souls of cultivators.
Whenever the elders of cultivators he had slain intervened, he defeated them with ruthless might.
Even Golden Core Masters usually returned empty-handed.
The name of the "Blood Demon" gradually spread across the Six Far East Domains.
At the age of three hundred and thirty, Luo Chen returned to Tianlan Immortal City.
Relying on his perfected and modified Breath Concealment Spiritual Art, along with a massive sum of resources, he temporarily traded for a Tier 3 low-grade immortal's cave on Tianlan Peak.
By now, he had reached Foundation Establishment Great Perfection!
Not only that, he possessed several secret arts for Core Formation.
His charge toward the Golden Core realm was today!
A massive vortex spun frantically within his qi sea.
Tremendous amounts of world spiritual energy surged toward him like rolling waves.
His snow-white hair whipped behind him without any wind.
Beneath his weathered eyes lay an indomitable resolve.
"Hardship, grief, and heavily frosted temples; unyielding ambition to form the Golden Core.
"How could my life end here!"
*Boom!*
Chapter 255