"I apologize for failing to protect that auxiliary magic treasure cauldron."
"There is no need to blame yourself. Under those circumstances, and given that you are not a disciple of our Azure Pill Sect, looking out for your own survival was only natural. Besides, as long as the mother cauldron remains intact, nurturing another child cauldron is merely a matter of time."
"The mother cauldron... May I ask how your sect's Supreme Elder is faring?"
Attempting to refine a Tier 4 pill beyond his realm—especially a Realm-Breaking Pill, whose medicinal power was the most violent among pills of its rank—and refining seven portions simultaneously to boot, had made for a cauldron explosion that no ordinary Golden Core cultivator could possibly withstand.
Even with the Grand Azure Pill Formation channeling and dispersing the force of the blast across thirty-six people and thirty-six cauldrons, the injuries Qingdanzi had suffered from forcibly preserving the mother cauldron were bound to be unimaginable.
He was exceptionally aged, having long surpassed his natural lifespan and clinging to life solely through lifespan-extending pills.
After such an ordeal, Qingdanzi likely did not have much time left to live.
That was why Luo Chen had asked.
Walking beside him, Tao Wan brushed back a stray lock of hair that had fallen across her cheek. Her expression was desolate, and she merely shook her head without saying a word.
Seeing this, Luo Chen refrained from pressing further.
Looking back at the scenery behind them, he saw that they had already traveled far from Azure Pill Valley.
He clasped his hands in salute. "This will do. Let us part here!"
Tao Wan murmured a soft agreement.
Though one might escort a friend a thousand li, parting must eventually come.
With so many matters demanding attention in Azure Pill Valley, she could not possibly see Luo Chen all the way back to Tianlan Immortal City.
Looking at Luo Chen's calm, untroubled face, she hesitated before asking, "I heard you plan to participate in the opening war?"
"Yes, I have already dispatched people to the front lines."
"Having suffered this disaster, our Azure Pill Valley's strength has been severely depleted. I fear we will be powerless to take part in this war... Please, take care of yourself!"
With a flick of his sleeve, a flying boat materialized beneath Luo Chen's feet. Stepping onto it, he turned back and gave a slight nod.
"Take care!"
Tao Wan forced a faint smile. "Take care!"
His spiritual power surged, and the flying boat slowly rose into the air. After circling once in the sky, it sped off toward Tianlan, shrinking in moments until it was nothing more than a black speck in the distance.
Gazing at that speck, Tao Wan let out a helpless sigh.
Dejectedly, she walked back toward Azure Pill Valley. Before she had even entered the valley gates, waves of mournful weeping reached her ears.
"Supreme Elder, in the end... you lost this gamble after all!"
***
Aboard the flying boat.
Luo Chen, now clad in a crimson cloud robe with gold trim, sat lost in contemplation.
He was reflecting on what had transpired.
Not reviewing his own actions, but analyzing Qingdanzi's failure.
The man had staked the fortune of Azure Pill Valley, attempting to rely on the entire foundation of a sect to forcibly concoct a Nascent Soul Formation Pill.
Yet he had failed.
The reason was quite simple: in the end, his alchemy skill had fallen just short!
Across a full twenty sets of materials, he had not managed to produce even a single semi-finished pill.
*Would it have gone any better if I were the one refining it?*
Luo Chen possessed his system; as long as he reached the entry level for a pill formula, he was guaranteed at least a ten percent base success rate.
He wondered whether, if he had been the one concocting the Nascent Soul Formation Pill, he could have succeeded with twenty sets of materials.
After thorough consideration, he arrived at an answer.
No!
*Refining a Tier 4 pill involves far too many factors. It isn't just about one's personal alchemy skill, but also demands immense spiritual power, divine sense, and even the highest-grade refining vessels.*
Qingdanzi's personal ability was beyond question.
Having inherited the Daoist title of Azure Pill Valley's founding ancestor, he could refine the vast majority of Tier 3 pills with ease. One could even say his alchemy skill was sufficient to craft some of the simpler Tier 4 pills.
Furthermore, his cultivation was near the Great Perfection of the Golden Core realm, leaving little room for criticism regarding his spiritual power or divine sense.
He had also possessed the top-grade magic treasure Azure Sky Glazed Cauldron, supported by five Tier 3 alchemists, thirty experienced Tier 2 alchemists, and even an alchemical grand formation.
Even under such conditions, he had still failed.
From this, one could see just how difficult refining a Nascent Soul Formation Pill truly was!
With Luo Chen's current alchemy skills, he could not compare to Qingdanzi in the slightest.
Even if the system allowed him to enter the formula, so what?
Given his meager foundation, mastering the formula for the Nascent Soul Formation Pill would require an astronomical number of achievement points.
The sixty-six points he had painstakingly saved up would almost certainly be nowhere near enough.
Another reason for Qingdanzi's failure was a lack of time.
He had dragged it out too long!
So long that the outside world had reacted, prompting the arrival of three Nascent Soul True Persons.
When Qingdanzi failed, the immense pressure and the disruption of his mental state had undoubtedly played a role.
*Besides, even if he had successfully refined the pill, what then?*
*Before Tianyezi and Perfected Yunhe, could he have actually kept it?*
*Heh...*
Luo Chen chuckled softly, unsure whether he was laughing at Qingdanzi or mocking himself.
In that situation, one was merely meat on another's chopping block!
Setting aside Qingdanzi, had Luo Chen been in his shoes, he most likely would have done no better.
*After this disaster, Azure Pill Valley's strength has been severely crippled, virtually forcing them out of the opening war.*
*Wait! No!*
*Thinking about it carefully, could this actually be a good thing for Azure Pill Valley?*
Luo Chen's thoughts shifted.
Setting aside Qingdanzi as an individual and looking solely at Azure Pill Valley as a sect, while this prominent alchemy sect appeared to have suffered a devastating blow, the damage was largely confined to their alchemists.
The sect's actual combat strength had not declined by much!
Previously, the party most hostile toward Qingdanzi had been the Medicine King Sect, which was likewise renowned for alchemy.
Now that Azure Pill Valley's alchemists had been decimated and their pill trade was bound to decline, the Medicine King Sect would no longer view them with such enmity, let alone go out of their way to target them.
The Medicine King Sect's primary focus would surely be placed on the opening war.
Thus, taking everything into account:
Azure Pill Valley no longer possessed the Five Peaks Enclosing the Valley layout, and its Supreme Elder, Qingdanzi, had lost his chance to advance to the Nascent Soul realm, meaning they were no longer a threat to the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect of their own domain.
The Grand Alchemy Court had lost over half its alchemists and its pill trade was waning, meaning they were no longer a threat to the external Medicine King Sect.
At the same time, their remaining martial strength was still more than enough to deter petty opportunists.
Looking at it this way, hadn't they managed to extricate themselves entirely from the vortex of conflict?
*Hiss!*
Realizing this, Luo Chen could not help but draw a sharp breath.
He did not know whether Qingdanzi had orchestrated this outcome deliberately.
Yet without question, for a sect that had reached its zenith but could advance no further, this was the best possible result.
By comparison, the Yan Alliance, which had once rivaled Azure Pill Valley in prestige, had met a far more tragic end.
Its sect destroyed, its members dead, and its heritage severed!
*If I look at it from this perspective, Qingdanzi's primary goal in pushing for the refinement of the Nascent Soul Formation Pill was to break the deadlock all along.*
*If he succeeded, he would break through to the Nascent Soul realm, using his personal cultivation and power to shatter both his lifespan limit and the sect's crisis.*
*If he failed, he would equally dissolve the dilemma of Azure Pill Valley being caught between tigers within and wolves without.*
*What an ingenious calculation!*
Luo Chen pursed his dry lips and wiped the smile from his face.
Caught up in the events as they happened, his perspective earlier had been far too narrow.
He was in no position to laugh at that old man who looked like a youth.
The other man had seen much further, perhaps even drawing lessons from the precedent of the Yan Alliance to arrive at this decision.
This move was far more comprehensive than the strategy Luo Chen had once offered Azure Pill Valley when proposing to attack the Yan Alliance.
If their positions were reversed...
*Heh, my Luotian Sect is nowhere near Azure Pill Valley's level yet. Why waste time worrying about such things?*
Luo Chen curled his lips into a wry smile and spurred the flying boat beneath him, his urge to return home growing stronger.
***
He had left with an easy mind, and he returned full of ambition.
Although the journey to Azure Pill Valley had not yielded a Nascent Soul Formation Pill in the end, both he and Azure Pill Valley had achieved a win-win outcome.
Azure Pill Valley had broken free from internal and external troubles amid the gathering storm.
As for Luo Chen himself, he had secured a bounty of benefits.
A steady supply of Tier 2 superior-grade Soaring Dragon Pills would allow the Luotian Sect to foster more formidable Foundation Establishment experts.
He had obtained the crafting diagrams for his destined magic treasure, along with several forging minerals such as Gengjin, Black Sinker Wood, and Origin-Tracing Clay.
In addition, he had acquired a subtle technique to accelerate the attunement of magic treasures using his Destined True Fire.
And finally!
By observing the process, Luo Chen had memorized every single medicinal ingredient required for the Nascent Soul Formation Pill.
In time, when he reached Qingdanzi's level of cultivation, he might be able to attempt refining the pill himself.
All in all, it had been an immensely fruitful journey!
Upon his return to the Luotian Sect, Sima Huiniang, accompanied by Gu Caiyi and Xing Zonghan, came to see him immediately.
Inside the main hall.
Luo Chen asked casually, "How fares the war on the front line?"
"Not well. It's just minor skirmishes," Huiniang replied.
Luo Chen froze.
That answer caught him completely off guard.
Counting carefully, the campaign to open the Moon Howling Mountain Range had been underway for more than half a year.
How could it still be at the stage of minor skirmishes?
One had to realize that for this war, setting aside other factions, even a minor sect like the Luotian Sect had dispatched a massive contingent.
Led by Guest Elder Fu Jiusheng,
supported by Hall Master Wang Yuan of the Hall of Passing Techniques and Hall Master Chu Kui of the Battle Hall,
and backed by Sima Wenjie of the Merit Hall and Lou Ying of the Outer Sect leading a host of low-tier cultivators for logistical support.
Among them were as many as ten Foundation Establishment True Cultivators and over five hundred Qi Refinement cultivators, all of whom were at the late Qi Refinement stage.
Sending so many people had already strained the Luotian Sect's resources to the bone.
And now they were telling him it was just minor skirmishes?
Had he missed some crucial news during his months in Azure Pill Valley?
Seeing his confusion, Huiniang gestured with her hand.
Xing Zonghan immediately spoke up. "According to the intelligence gathered by the Luo Net, the situation on the battlefield is as follows..."
Listening to his explanation, Luo Chen finally understood why the opening war, fifty years in the making, was progressing so slowly.
An immortal city!
It was that simple.
As the leading superior sect initiating the war, the Falling Cloud Sect had proposed a strategy of first securing a firm foothold before advancing step by step.
Their first step had been to construct an immortal city upon a Tier 3 spiritual land conquered on the periphery.
Using this city as a human base camp, they would expand in all directions and ultimately swallow the Moon Howling Mountain Range whole.
At present,
the theme on the front line was not conquering territory or slaying beasts to seize land.
It was infrastructure construction!
Under the leadership of the Falling Cloud Sect, countless cultivators were vigorously building a mega-city on a scale far surpassing any immortal city in the Jade Cauldron Domain!
"In truth, there was opposition when this plan was first proposed."
"Back then, a Nascent Soul superior sect from an external domain suggested taking advantage of our overwhelming numbers to sweep through the Moon Howling Mountain Range with thunderous force."
Luo Chen nodded.
That was the trajectory of the war he had originally envisioned.
Fifty years of planning, twenty-seven participating sects, and hundreds of thousands of ambitious, capable cultivators.
Such a force was more than enough to steamroll the Moon Howling Mountain Range.
Xing Zonghan continued, "However, early in the war, things went awry. We discovered that the Moon Howling Mountain Range was not a disorganized rabble. The demon factions within had been unified under a single banner."
"Oh?" Luo Chen raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"It's the wolf clans!" Xing Zonghan said, his tone still tinged with disbelief. "No one expected a Demon Wolf Emperor to appear in the Moon Howling Mountain Range. Not only has it successfully undergone transformation, but it has also unified seventeen wolf clans, large and small. Under this Wolf Emperor's leadership, the wolf clans of the mountain range have unleashed unimaginable strength. In the opening phase, the allied forces had advanced only eight thousand li before being forced to halt."
Luo Chen's eyes flashed.
A Wolf Emperor?
Unifying all the wolf clans of the Moon Howling Mountain Range?
For some reason, he recalled what he had witnessed in his youth at Mount Changyin.
That was roughly eighty years ago, wasn't it?
Back then, the grey leaf wolves and frost wolves occupying Mount Changyin had mysteriously vanished for a period.
Could that be related to this?
If so, didn't that mean this Wolf Emperor had begun laying plans for this long, long ago?
Xing Zonghan continued delivering the intelligence report.
"With the allied advance halted, although they could have pushed forward, casualties had already begun to mount."
"Thus, Perfected Han Zhan of the Falling Cloud Sect seized the moment to propose securing one corner before aiming for the whole board."
"At the time, he was the only Nascent Soul True Person among the allied forces, as well as the commander-in-chief. Since his reasoning was sound, naturally no one opposed him. That is how the massive construction of this super immortal city came about."
Luo Chen came to a sudden realization. So that was how things had unfolded!
It was only natural that no one dared cross him.
Typically, an opening war was led by its initiator.
Other superior sects might assist, but only by dispatching a handful of Golden Core and Foundation Establishment cultivators; Nascent Soul True Persons rarely intervened in person.
This was also a way to establish the new sect's authority within the newly opened domain.
As far as he knew, among the eight assisting superior sects, the Divine Talisman Sect had only sent a single Golden Core elder named Ye Xiang along with several dozen Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Tianfan City and the Medicine King Sect had contributed the most personnel.
The nine-tiered Wind-Thunder Abbey he had seen back at Azure Pill Valley held three Golden Core masters, including the renowned Huyan Zhuo.
Distantly located Nascent Soul superior sects like Fenghua Palace and Motian Cliff had mostly sent cultivators for tempering, hoping to replicate the example of Perfected Yunhe of the Hehuan Sect, who had leveraged war to advance to a higher realm.
The main force of the campaign actually consisted of large Golden Core sects.
They were either unable to survive in their original territories, had hit a bottleneck and required superior spiritual veins, or had been forced into exile by the superior sects of their home domains.
To secure a new domain for survival, these Golden Core sects would inevitably spare no effort.
The Luotian Alliance, led by Luo Chen, would be one of them.
Conveniently, now that Azure Pill Valley had no desire to take part in the war, the Luotian Alliance had filled the vacant twenty-seventh spot.
"How is the construction of the immortal city progressing?" Luo Chen asked.
Without hesitation, Xing Zonghan replied, "It is more than halfway complete. The most critical step next is channeling the earth veins to converge spiritual veins."
Luo Chen frowned in confusion. "I thought the site was already a natural Tier 3 spiritual land? Why do they need to gather spiritual veins?"
"It is said that the Falling Cloud Sect's True Person considered that too many Golden Core cultivators would be participating, leaving them short on Tier 3 spiritual grounds during downtime. Thus, he wishes to elevate the base camp's spiritual land slightly. To that end, he even invited Senior Tianyezi, one of Tianfan City's three great True Persons, to assist."
Luo Chen let out an "oh" of understanding.
In that case, the grand arrival of that True Person he had witnessed at Azure Pill Valley made sense.
After all, under normal circumstances, assisting superior sects would not deploy Nascent Soul True Persons.
Still, how was one to explain the appearance of Perfected Yunhe and his Daoist partner?
Unable to find an answer, Luo Chen did not bother dwelling on it.
Since the campaign to open the Moon Howling Mountain Range had stalled, there was no need for him to rush to the front.
Without active fighting, casualties would naturally remain low.
The Luotian Alliance would not suffer significant losses for the time being.
In this way, he could make good use of the time before the city's completion to round out his current repertoire.
Having acquired a new method for attuning magic treasures, he could thoroughly attune the Tianyue Purple-Gold Wheel.
At the same time, he could grind several low-tier spells to the Great Perfection.
Now that he had reached the Golden Core realm, his spiritual power was vast and his divine sense far sharper; grinding low-tier spells would be effortless.
Afterward, Luo Chen chatted with Gu Caiyi about the Luotian Sect's business ventures on the front lines, then announced his intention to enter seclusion.
It would be a brief seclusion; they were free to disturb him if anything urgent arose.
If the immortal city was completed, they were to notify him at once.
The others naturally raised no objections. Chopping wood required a sharp axe; the more prepared Luo Chen was, the safer he would be on the battlefield.
Chapter 470