His expedition into the Land of the Fallen Demon had yielded Luo Chen an immense harvest!
Any single item he brought out would trigger frantic bidding wars and bloody scrambles across the cultivation world.
Take the piece of Nine Yang Gengmetal currently resting in his hand: its quality was so exceptional it could be called the finest of the finest. If used as the primary material to forge a flying sword or divine blade, or added to a magic treasure, its destructive power would easily double!
It was especially compatible with gold- and fire-attribute magic treasures.
And this was merely the most prominent mineral among his spoils; within Thousand-Ren Mountain, Luo Chen had gathered numerous other mid- and high-grade ores.
*All along, though I've had plenty of magic treasures, I have always been lacking when it comes to purely offensive ones.*
*With such a wealth of materials on hand, once I form my Nascent Soul, perhaps I can follow the forging blueprints in my collection and personally craft a handy weapon...*
Gazing at the spread of materials, Luo Chen quietly calculated in his mind.
Yet as his thoughts drifted, another notion took hold.
Good offensive magic treasures were rare, but so long as one searched diligently, this vast cultivation world would always provide them.
However, another of his distinct advantages had remained suppressed, unable to fully blossom.
Namely, origin power!
Ever since his physical body had achieved the fourth rank of the Ancient Desolation, a peculiar force had manifested on top of his boundless, monstrous strength. Luo Chen had dubbed it origin power.
This force possessed an unusual nature and was difficult to channel through magic treasures tailored specifically for magic power.
Consequently, when Luo Chen drew upon origin power in battle, he often had to rely entirely on his bare flesh. To that end, he had even drawn upon hundreds of martial traditions to synthesize and create the physical technique known as the Demonic Lord Seven Scattered Hands.
Could he, then, forge a weapon specifically meant to channel or even amplify the might of origin power?
Luo Chen pondered the idea for a moment before shaking his head.
His theoretical foundation in that field was still far too lacking. He needed to accumulate more knowledge first, lest he squander such magnificent materials in vain.
With a wave of his sleeve, two streaks of spiritual light flew before him.
A white banner and an octagonal pavilion.
Even sealed, the spiritual luminescence held within both treasures remained breathtaking.
They were none other than the Soul Beckoning Banner taken from Wu Qi's group of the Moluo Stream, and the Penglai Octagonal Pavilion seized from the disciples of the Penglai Immortal Sect.
Both were True Artifacts!
The latter, in particular, was renowned as a portable spiritual herb garden!
After Han Zhan had aided him in refining it to secure partial authority over its formations, Luo Chen was barely able to activate the Penglai Octagonal Pavilion, through which he had obtained some of the treasured herbs stored inside.
Back in the Mutian Plains, the traces of Dragon Saliva Grass he had spotted were left behind by this very pavilion.
Dragon Saliva Grass was remarkable stuff, working wonders for accelerating the growth of serpentine spirit beasts.
Aside from that, many other precious herbs—such as the Divine Iris, Iron Calamus, and Turtle Spirit Flower—were collected within.
Regrettably, none of the Penglai Immortal Sect's core spiritual herbs remained inside, diminishing Luo Chen's overall haul somewhat.
"Still, having the octagonal pavilion itself—a genuine True Artifact—means I've already made an enormous profit!"
With a thought, two hazy phantoms flickered upon the octagonal pavilion, looking incomparably alluring.
They were the Five Elements Lotus Platform, which had fallen just short of reaching the fifth rank, and the Demon-Monster Concentric Tree of unknown efficacy!
The former was an indispensable component for Luo Chen's eventual Nascent Soul breakthrough, needing no further explanation.
As for the latter, according to Taisui, the Heaven Refining Demon Lord had personally cultivated the hybrid by taking the hearts of both a rank-five ancient demon and a rank-five ancient monster, burying them together in the same soil, and grafting them onto a True Scale Tree!
The day it survived the grafting, it was already at the fourth rank.
Once it reached maturity, it was destined to attain the fifth rank.
Even the Demon Lord himself could not foresee its upper limit.
According to Taisui, whatever fruit it eventually bore stood a tremendous chance of possessing miraculous benefits for body refinement.
"My path of body refinement has reached a bottleneck, and the road ahead remains murky. If this tree can truly bear celestial fruit, it might allow me to carve out a new path altogether."
Murmuring softly under his breath, Luo Chen carefully stowed both precious spirit herbs away.
The Demon-Monster Concentric Tree was temporarily unusable.
Forget about bearing fruit; he did not even have the slightest clue how to continue nurturing it.
Though he had asked Sang Jinghe to study it for a time, the man's skills fell far short of Sang Jiugong's.
This spiritual tree would simply have to await its opportune moment.
For an alchemist like Luo Chen, a True Artifact like the Penglai Octagonal Pavilion was undoubtedly of immense utility.
Normally, it could be carried on his person. Once he settled down somewhere, he could plant it directly atop a grotto-heaven's spirit vein to absorb the world's spiritual energy, allowing the herbs within to grow normally.
Aside from alchemy implements, this was likely the sort of treasure any alchemist dreamed of most!
Yet the other True Artifact Luo Chen had obtained was by no means inferior!
The Soul Beckoning Banner!
Obtained from Wu Qi and the others, it had presumably been bestowed by Blood Nightmare Moluo specifically to capture that mindless dragon soul.
Keeping his thoughts sharp and clear, Luo Chen gingerly extended his divine sense into the soul banner.
Unlike soul nurturing banners that focused on nurturing souls, or soul refining banners that prioritized refining them, the renown of the Soul Beckoning Banner in the Yuan Demon Sect's soul refining lineage lay in beckoning.
Even if a being had perished countless years ago, leaving behind only damaged fragments of a soul, so long as a proper tethering medium was present, it could call those remnants back from between heaven and earth.
At this moment, under Luo Chen's probing, an enormous earthen-yellow dragon soul was wandering aimlessly inside the banner.
Its form appeared ancient and rugged; what looked like scales were actually striated layers of earth.
Crucial sections were severed and fractured throughout.
Evidently, the soul was far from complete, and it had even lost any semblance of consciousness.
According to the deductions made at the time, this earthen-yellow dragon soul was exceedingly likely to be the remnant soul of the Stone Dragon, a legendary desolate beast from ancient times.
It had originally been subdued by a founding ancestor of the Yuan Demon Sect to serve as part of the heritage of their Soul Formation sacred grounds.
Yet Ancestor Blood Sea had brought it into the Land of the Fallen Demon.
In the end, Ancestor Blood Sea perished, and the Stone Dragon's remnant soul transformed into a desolate gravel plain, taking root within the Quicksand Sea of the Five Elements Realm.
*Back then, I took enormous risks to seize this remnant soul from the grasp of Tianrang, the ruler of the Quicksand Sea. Although my initial motive was simply to ruin Blood Nightmare Moluo's scheme, what practical use does this soul actually have?*
Luo Chen was intensely curious.
Pinching a hand seal for the Soul Capture Art, he painstakingly drew forth a wisp of the Stone Dragon's remnant soul.
Only a single wisp!
He dared not extract any more, even if the remnant soul lacked consciousness.
The instant this pure strand of soul appeared, before Luo Chen could even examine it closely, he felt an immediate disturbance in his surroundings.
The spiritual energy within the subterranean abyss was extraordinarily abundant.
At that very moment, a massive tide of spiritual energy swept uncontrollably toward Luo Chen.
His expression shifted slightly, and he swiftly pulled the wisp of the Stone Dragon's soul back into the Soul Beckoning Banner.
Only then did the violent spiritual energy seem to lose its target, receding in confusion.
Witnessing this, an expression of shock spread across Luo Chen's face.
"It automatically pulls spiritual energy toward itself!"
"Could it be..."
"Rumor has it that the innate consciousness of the desolate beast Stone Dragon was born from a rank-five spirit vein gaining sentience, which then occupied the dead physical shell of an earth dragon that had died of old age within the vein. That was how the so-called desolate beast Stone Dragon came to be."
"In other words, the essence of this remnant soul is the consciousness of an ancient rank-five spirit vein!"
"That explains what just happened—why even a single wisp of its remnant soul automatically triggers a phenomenon that draws in spiritual energy!"
This sight immediately caused Luo Chen to recall the bizarre conditions within the Quicksand Sea.
It explained why Tianrang had harbored such deep resentment toward the Stone Dragon's remnant soul while relentlessly pursuing it.
The Stone Dragon's remnant soul had settled within the Quicksand Sea and stolen the spiritual energy of an entire realm, severely impeding Tianrang's cultivation.
Yet if Tianrang were to devour the soul, did that mean it could acquire a similar miraculous talent?
*If I use a specialized formation to imprison this soul within a rank-three—no, a rank-four spirit vein—could I rely on its innate divine ability to draw in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth over time, gradually upgrading that spirit vein to the fifth rank?*
Luo Chen's breathing grew ragged.
It was as though he could already envision a future where he would never again need to rush about looking for a spirit vein or grotto-heaven.
This wild thought was by no means baseless.
What had just transpired was more than enough proof!
Moreover, why would Blood Nightmare Moluo go to such great lengths to dispatch subordinates to capture the Stone Dragon's remnant soul? As a revered Nascent Soul True Cultivator and the titular master of the Moluo Stream, he was certainly not lacking in rank-four spirit veins.
Which meant it was highly probable Blood Nightmare Moluo was pursuing this exact calculation.
Given that the Stone Dragon's remnant soul had once been controlled by the Yuan Demon Sect, Blood Nightmare Moluo had almost certainly mastered the methods to utilize it.
"In the end, it all fell into my lap!"
Luo Chen laughed aloud.
He carefully stowed the Soul Beckoning Banner away.
The time was not yet ripe.
With his current realm and knowledge, he was not yet capable of utilizing the Stone Dragon's remnant soul.
He would save it for the future!
Another person might feel frustrated—this True Artifact could not be used yet, that herb required years of patience, and just when a treasure's utility was discovered, cultivation realm constraints stood in the way.
Yet Luo Chen felt none of that resentment.
He knew full well that an ordinary Golden Core cultivator could never have reaped so many benefits from the Land of the Fallen Demon.
He had relied on his rank-four desolate beast physique, combined with Han Zhan's protection, the guidance of a local guide like Taisui, and a bit of his own wit and diligence to secure these rewards.
At their core, none of these spoils were meant for someone of the Golden Core realm.
It was only natural that he could look but not partake for the time being.
In fact, not all of his gains had to be shelved.
For instance, the Golden Core cultivators he had slain—Master Red Corpse's cohort, the Golden Core cultivator who had stumbled into his path in the Blazing Purgatory, and Ghost Spirit Child—had all left behind substantial legacies.
The storage bags suspended in midair inside the thatched cottage were the spoils Luo Chen had casually collected.
These were the gains appropriate for his current cultivation!
There was no need to trouble Han Zhan to unravel the seals for him. Over the course of cultivating from the ninth layer to peak perfection of the Golden Core realm, he would have plenty of time.
When the time came, he could unravel the seals bit by bit and take stock of the spoils; he might even find a few pleasant surprises.
Besides!
Were his true gains limited to just these?
His newly remolded Fire Spirit Body!
The Wither-Bloom Fire that had birthed a true spirit and achieved tangible form!
And his lifebound magic treasure, the Hunyuan Cauldron, which had swallowed that nameless gray light...
Thinking of the Hunyuan Cauldron, Luo Chen's buoyant mood gradually cooled, his expression turning overcast.
Even now, he remained unable to activate his lifebound magic treasure!
Truth be told, this was a thorn that had remained lodged in his throat, impossible to swallow or spit out.
Subconsciously pressing his right hand against his abdomen, he sensed that within his profound sea of qi, the small gray cauldron lay utterly silent and unresponsive.
***
In the days that followed, Luo Chen continued to focus on refining his magic power and solidifying his realm.
However, now that his cultivation had reached the ninth layer of Golden Core, the essential principles of this stage could not be overlooked.
The final layer of every major realm differed drastically from the minor stages preceding it.
During the Qi Refinement stage, the ninth layer centered on purifying spiritual power so that it could liquefy into magic power upon Foundation Establishment.
During the Foundation Establishment stage, the ninth layer was about attempting to intertwine spiritual power and divine sense, thereby generating the true magic power needed to advance to the Golden Core realm. The solid golden core of today was, in essence, an accumulation of densely packed, liquefied drops of pure magic power.
Upon reaching the ninth layer of Golden Core, yet another transformation emerged.
Namely, the so-called "unification of the three treasures: essence, qi, and spirit"!
It meant allowing blood essence, magic power, and divine soul to seamlessly blend together.
At this stage, the golden core remained the core anchor. The fusion of the three elements had to remain measured and balanced, yet perfectly harmonized.
If one were to examine it closely, Luo Chen's sensation was that he was essentially seeking a second dwelling place for his divine soul apart from the sea of consciousness.
For a cultivator, cultivating the spirit was the utmost priority!
Legend had it that once a cultivator reached an extraordinarily lofty realm, even if their physical body was obliterated, they could still endure across heaven and earth, shedding their mortal shell to roam the boundless cosmos.
Such an existence was far beyond Han Zhan's state of merely scraping by in the world by clinging to a nascent soul.
It was a far more profound plane, one entirely independent of any mortal casing.
After indulging in brief reverie, Luo Chen dismissed those distant thoughts and anchored his focus to the present.
He attempted a unification of the three treasures.
The experience was far from pleasant.
In that single instant, his entire being sank into pure chaos.
His physical body, in particular, subconsciously ran wild in the subterranean abyss, punching straight through a massive section of the cliffside.
Only then did Luo Chen realize how difficult it was to pursue harmony during the unification of the three treasures.
*No wonder the Old Angler struggled so bitterly to seek out body-refining methods in his earlier years.*
Essence, qi, and spirit—the three had to be kept in measured balance, and none of the three treasures could be allowed to fall too weak, lest the harmony collapse.
Cultivators excelled in qi refinement but lagged in body refinement; thus, their magic power was vast while their blood essence was frail and scarce in quantity.
The moment they attempted the unification of the three treasures, signs of unstable magic power would inevitably appear.
Han Zhan had previously cautioned Luo Chen against squandering his blood essence precisely with this taboo in mind, fearing that Luo Chen would deplete too much of it.
Han Zhan had ceased mentioning it later, likely realizing that Luo Chen's physical constitution was mighty and his blood essence abundant.
Yet Han Zhan had forgotten—or perhaps Luo Chen himself had overlooked—that his physical constitution was far too overwhelming!
Instead of the unstable magic power typical of an ordinary late Golden Core cultivator, his physical body had seized dominance, descending into an instinctive, unconscious rampage.
Once he grasped this principle, Luo Chen actually relaxed.
If his magic power was insufficient, he simply needed to reinforce it!
He would purify its quality until it reached the absolute limit.
When that time came, he could attempt the unification of the three treasures once more.
This aligned seamlessly with his current focus on polishing his magic power.
Consequently, Luo Chen's cultivation became far smoother than anticipated.
Each day, he needed only to sit in meditation to refine his qi, occasionally channeling the Wither-Bloom Fire to temper his golden core.
He even abandoned the use of medicinal pills entirely.
With a cultivation speed more than three times faster than before, he no longer required pills to accelerate his cultivation at the Golden Core realm; relying on them would only risk leaving behind pill toxins.
As for the spare time he gained, Luo Chen dedicated it to digesting the Heaven Refining Demon Lord's alchemy inheritance.
Those seventy-two volumes of alchemy scriptures were undoubtedly an immense treasure trove for any alchemist.
And among the thirty-six pill formulas, leaving aside those for monsters and demons, the human lineage alone was enough to serve as a key for cultivators unlocking higher cultivation realms.
Strictly speaking, this complete inheritance was one of Luo Chen's greatest immediate gains.
The Spirit Root Pill formula was categorized as one of the three formulas for the Qi Refinement realm, alongside the rank-one Qi Nurturing Pill and the Body Cleansing Pill.
For the Foundation Establishment realm, there were the Foundation Establishment Pill, the Vast Origin Pill, and the Meridian Widening Pill.
For the Golden Core realm, there was the Liquid Condensing Pill...
Even for the Nascent Soul realm, there were three corresponding formulas, covering breakthrough and nascent soul formation, increasing magic power, and strengthening the foundation of the divine soul!
As Luo Chen skimmed through the collection, his heart surged with excitement.
This complete suite of formulas spanning Qi Refinement all the way to Nascent Soul practically encompassed the entire human cultivation system, leaving nothing out!
If he could master them entirely, he could undoubtedly cultivate countless powerful figures among the human race.
At the very least, the three breakthrough pill formulas he had fruitlessly searched for in the past were all recorded in full detail.
If one factored in the sealed formulas for Spirit Calming, Void Perception, and Dao Harmonization, it meant that even pills for the Void Refinement stage were not lacking.
The only apparent void was the Soul Formation stage...
*No, the Soul Formation stage isn't missing either!*
Luo Chen recalled the final test of the Alchemy Realm. He still remembered the formula for the Law Deduction Pill with crystal clarity.
In fact, he even possessed a complete, ready-made Law Deduction Pill!
It was just that after he successfully concocted the pill and lost consciousness, it had been drawn into the inner space of the Hunyuan Cauldron. Since he could not currently utilize the cauldron, the pill could not be retrieved.
The deeper he delved into the scriptures and formulas obtained from the Alchemy Hall, the more profound his admiration grew for the Heaven Refining Demon Lord, a figure he had never even met.
That man had truly reached the pinnacle of the alchemical path!
He had mastered the alchemy of humans, monsters, and demons alike, leaving behind a complete pill-refining system for each.
Although Luo Chen had previously crafted the rank-five Law Deduction Pill, his system panel still evaluated him as a rank-four alchemist.
This was an exceedingly rare circumstance.
It was likely tied to the fact that he had consumed a full one hundred achievement points when concocting that pill.
Nevertheless, Luo Chen was confident that so long as he thoroughly digested those seventy-two volumes of alchemy scriptures, relying on his own theoretical knowledge and solid foundation, he would inevitably ascend to the level of a rank-five alchemist.
The Demon Lord's inheritance had benefited him boundlessly!
***
Time flowed by quietly.
In the blink of an eye, seven years slipped past.
Over these seven years, Luo Chen opened the storage treasures he had acquired one after another, reaping a massive haul of resources.
Setting aside other riches, in terms of spirit stones alone, he had amassed no fewer than thirty thousand top-grade spirit stones!
Thirty thousand might not sound like an astronomical figure.
Yet converted to low-grade spirit stones, that was three hundred million!
Three hundred million spirit stones!
This was a colossal fortune Luo Chen had never possessed before!
Even rogue Nascent Soul cultivators might not possess such liquid savings; only those who dominated an entire region and founded a grand sect could perhaps rival this sum.
Beyond that, Luo Chen took time to refine three separate magic treasure-grade alchemy vessels.
A cauldron, a furnace, and a small pot.
These were prepared for his upcoming concoction of the Nascent Soul Formation Pill.
The Purple Monkey Flowers were on the verge of maturity, the supply of Divine Iris was plentiful, and the remaining supplementary materials had long been gathered.
The day he would open the furnace and begin concocting the pill was rapidly approaching.
Since his lifebound magic treasure could not be deployed, Luo Chen naturally needed to secure substitute vessels in advance.
Luo Chen knew that ancient formula for the Nascent Soul Formation Pill like the back of his hand, and he had even learned several new alchemical techniques from the Demon Lord's scriptures just to be entirely safe.
Under this quiet, methodical preparation, time drifted peacefully, and everything seemed to be progressing toward an auspicious outcome.
Until Tianxuan stepped into the abyss.
Bowing outside the thatched cottage, she spoke with visible anxiety:
"Master, there is an anomaly in the blood pool!"
No answer came, and though Tianxuan was anxious, she could only wait patiently.
After a long silence!
The magic power enveloping the interior and exterior of the thatched cottage slowly receded.
Accompanying it came Luo Chen's voice.
"How is Black King?"
Tianxuan breathed a sigh of relief, though her voice remained strained as she replied, "He is awakening. But at the same time, the aura of his divine soul is fading away."
Inside the thatched cottage, Luo Chen, seated upon a golden prayer mat, slowly opened his eyes.
*Has this day finally arrived?*
He had done everything he possibly could. Having concluded the Cliff Snake Dormancy Art, whether Black King could pull through now depended entirely on his own destiny.
*Whoosh...*
A gentle breeze swept past. When Tianxuan looked up, Luo Chen was already standing beside her, clad in billowing white robes with broad sleeves draping to his waist.
"Let's go!"
Chapter 708