Amid gentle breezes and white clouds, two figures drifted past.
From Fu Qinglan's explanations, Luo Chen gained an increasingly clear understanding of Heaven and Earth Peak's populace.
As a blessed land endowed with a Tier 5 spiritual vein, Heaven and Earth Peak possessed exceptionally abundant spiritual energy.
However, to prevent needless waste, cave abodes on the mountain were established only for Nascent Soul True Persons and Soul Formation grand cultivators. Even when Golden Core cultivators appeared from time to time, they served merely as attendants.
As for the outer-province cultivators who had brought their families and retinues to join the Star Gate, their disciples and followers were housed elsewhere.
It was fair to say that so long as one cultivated on Heaven and Earth Peak for the long term, practically no Foundation Establishment cultivators were to be found, and all with whom one exchanged banter were True Persons!
The composition of True Persons on the mountain was also rather intricate. While outer-province cultivators formed the majority, older-generation True Persons from certain prominent clans would also depart from their families once advanced in years to dedicate themselves to Heaven and Earth Peak.
The foremost representatives among them were the fourteen Heaven and Earth Peak elders dispatched by the Twelve Great Houses and the Thirty-Six Clans.
Having finished explaining these matters, Fu Qinglan could not help but sigh with emotion. "This single mountain encompasses nearly half the finest talent in the Central Plains!"
Luo Chen did not dispute her words. To an outsider, the mountain might appear steeped in twilight decline, but the people upon it were indeed figures of immense ability.
If one pondered carefully in light of what Fu Chaosheng had once told him, the reality was all the more chilling.
Was this spiritual mountain sustaining those aged Nascent Soul True Persons, or were those True Persons feeding back into the mountain as they reached the end of their years?
He had no desire to dwell on it further and halted before Cave Jia-78.
Taking out the guest elder jade plaque bestowed by the Star Gate elder, he activated it with his magic power.
In an instant, the white clouds parted, and from the depths of the mist emerged the craggy outline of a wondrous peak.
"Quite a serene and secluded place," Luo Chen chuckled softly.
Fu Qinglan, however, furrowed her brows slightly. "The concentration of spiritual energy here seems a bit low, doesn't it?"
Luo Chen smiled and strode inside, seemingly well pleased.
He knew she might assume he was inexperienced and easily satisfied with an ordinary Tier 4 spiritual vein.
Yet he understood all the better that he was merely a transient traveler in the Central Plains. Even the status of Star Gate guest elder served only to gild his reputation.
Since it did not alter his true foundation, what difference did it make whether this gilded veneer came from an official guest elder or a provisional one?
As for the concentration of spiritual energy?
Over just a year or two, it would hardly make any difference.
***
Cave Jia-78 had stood unoccupied for many years, but that did not mean it was thick with dust and tangled in spiderwebs.
Maintained by formations running year-round, it remained clean and fresh.
Luo Chen walked a circuit around the abode, thoroughly satisfied.
The only slight drawback was that Tianxuan, Sang Jinghe, and the others had been left behind in the Fu clan's ancestral territory. Without any hands to assist him, he would likely have to attend to many matters personally.
Seeing that Luo Chen found no fault with the quarters, Fu Qinglan could hardly say much more. Once he came to a stop, she retrieved several jade slips from her storage pouch.
"What are these?"
Luo Chen took the jade slips, inquiring casually as he skimmed through them.
"It wasn't easy for my grandfather to visit Mount Lanke, so he needed to call upon his old fellow disciples. He said these were items you required, so he entrusted me to bring them along the way."
They were indeed things Luo Chen needed.
Five fire-attribute cultivation methods—two at Tier 4 and three at Tier 3.
The other jade slip contained the intelligence regarding the Eastern Desolation that Luo Chen had specifically requested in private.
Finally, Fu Qinglan hesitated briefly before pulling a small booklet from her robes.
"This is the information gathered so far regarding the newly ascended Nascent Soul cultivators and their respective Dao protectors for the grand competition in the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven. Though not yet complete, it should prove quite helpful to us."
Luo Chen glanced at it and casually tucked it into his storage pouch.
Watching this, Fu Qinglan pursed her rosy lips.
So dismissive?
Did he possess enough confidence to disregard those opponents, or did he simply not take the matter to heart at all?
She had originally intended to have an earnest discussion, but as the words reached her lips, she instead blurted out instinctively, "I have heard that you reached the Nascent Soul realm not long ago, Brother Luo, yet your magic power is incomparably vigorous. I wonder if I might witness it firsthand?"
Luo Chen looked up at her in surprise.
"Didn't they say none of you are permitted to engage in conflict before entering the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven?"
Fu Qinglan insisted, "A simple exchange of insights won't cause any harm."
Luo Chen gave a faint smile. "In that case, I see no harm in it either."
No sooner had the words fallen than the wind and clouds trembled.
A domineering, peerless surge of magic power radiated outward with him at the center, linking with the free-flowing spiritual energy of heaven and earth. In an instant, his Nascent Soul domain snapped into existence.
At that moment, it felt as though a volcano had erupted!
Fu Qinglan's face turned stark white.
She attempted to release her own Nascent Soul domain, yet beneath his overwhelming suppression, even the initial step of linking with the ambient spiritual energy proved arduous.
*The disparity is actually this immense?*
Deep down, the young woman was filled with disbelief.
***
[In the 3505th year of the Mountain Sea Calendar, a beast tide surged forth from the Million Mountains, assaulting the thirty-six human territories of the Eastern Desolation...]
[In the 3531st year of the Mountain Sea Calendar, the Eastern Desolation sacred ground, the Mingyuan Sect, rallied the powerhouses of various major sects to mount a counteroffensive against the demon race, reclaiming vast swathes of lost territory.]
[The ancient demon Di Tian appeared frequently. Though he did not intervene personally, he exerted tremendous pressure upon the Nascent Soul True Persons, causing frontline positions to fall repeatedly.]
[The seesaw conflict raged uninterrupted for a century, reducing forty percent of the Eastern Desolation's cultivation territories to scorched earth.]
[In the 3566th year of the Mountain Sea Calendar, the long-vanished Three Palaces of the feather race's sacred ground, Mount Cangwu, reemerged into the mortal realm. Demon Emperor Qingshuang charged alone into the human heartland to exact vengeance for the past, annihilating the Tianji Chan Sect and destroying the mountain gate of the Hehuan Sect. With the Supreme Elders of both sects having perished in the Million Mountains decades prior, none could stay Demon Emperor Qingshuang's hand; the two great Nascent Soul high sects fell in mere moments.]
[The Eastern Desolation sacred ground, the Mingyuan Sect, was furious. Intervening directly, they dispatched a multitude of disciples to slaughter demons, slay beasts, and strike back into the Million Mountains of the Eastern Desolation! Led by the Dao Child of Thunder, Zhang Che, who displayed consummate mastery over thunder arts and allegedly inherited the Dao lineage of the grand cultivator Bai Ye, he stood poised with high hopes of attaining Soul Formation...]
Inside the cave abode, Luo Chen slowly withdrew his divine sense from the jade slip, his expression complex.
In just a hundred years, the Eastern Desolation had been reduced to a scorched wasteland.
Even though he had mentally prepared himself, beholding the definitive intelligence still shook his spirit.
Under such circumstances, could a minor sect like the Luotian Sect truly have survived?
He did not know, yet an overwhelming urgency to return to his homeland surged in his heart.
Drawing a deep breath, he circulated the Micromote Origin Art within his body, calming his turbulent emotions considerably.
Reflecting carefully upon the contents of the intelligence now, he noticed a peculiar detail.
The return of the feather race's sacred ground, Mount Cangwu, had occurred roughly forty years ago.
At that time, he had just arrived at Longyuan Island in the Demon Sea to step into the ninth layer of Golden Core, while in the outside world, the seal on the Arctic Yama Heavens had shattered, allowing vast numbers of demons to break free.
These events appeared completely unrelated, yet when cross-referenced with the restoration timeline of the teleportation array connecting the Eastern Desolation and the Northern Sea in the Xintian Sea Region, the timing was far too coincidental.
For the sacred ground of Mount Cangwu to dare reemerge before the world, they had to possess a formidable backing!
For Demon Emperor Qingshuang to dare strike deep into the human heartland, she naturally had reliance of her own.
And that greatest backing could only be a fellow Soul Formation grand cultivator—Monarch Qixia!
*If Monarch Qixia returned around that time, where had she been before then?*
*Could she have been inside the Arctic Yama Heavens at the Yuan Demon Sect's mountain gate?*
Luo Chen swallowed hard, struck by this sudden, wild thought.
*Forget it. Such matters are far too distant from me after all. I should handle the immediate affairs before me first!*
Luo Chen shook his head, unwilling and unable to dwell on those colossal figures standing at the pinnacle of this realm.
Instead, he turned his focus to matters regarding his own cultivation.
He firmly believed that so long as he became strong enough, many seemingly troublesome dilemmas would resolve themselves with ease.
The spiritual energy concentration of Cave Jia-78 was fairly mediocre, falling far short of the Fu clan's Mount Wangwu or the underground chasm of Longyuan Island, rivaling only Mount Xiaoqiong in Shenyuan City.
Since that was the case, there was no need to rush into arduous secluded cultivation.
Now that Fu Qinglan had brought him five fire-attribute cultivation methods, his collection had suddenly become abundant.
This was an ideal opportunity to study these techniques and create a Nascent Soul cultivation method tailored specifically to himself!
Without further hesitation, Luo Chen produced the first transcribed jade slip.
*East Jia Departing Fire Scripture*.
***
The path of cultivation was nothing more than refining qi and breathing.
Owing to the human body's constitution and natural transformations, it was subdivided into yin and yang, the five elements, the twelve heavenly stems, the four phenomena, the eight trigrams, and so forth.
Most cultivators failed to grasp the underlying principles of these intricacies, but for Luo Chen, who also practiced formation arts, comprehending them was hardly difficult.
In his assessment, this *East Jia Departing Fire Scripture* was evidently an ingenious Tier 4 technique.
The spiritual energy it absorbed was not as comprehensive as ordinary fire-attribute methods; instead, it traded breadth for focus, concentrating on absorbing only the most essential portions of ambient fire-attribute spiritual energy.
To Luo Chen, this was somewhat superfluous.
As the progenitor of fire methods, the *Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture* walked a path of grand majesty and overbearing authority that commanded all fires under heaven, having no need to sacrifice breadth for focus.
Nonetheless, certain subtle adjustments to the meridians described within the technique were well worth adopting.
After acquiring his Fire Spirit Physique, Luo Chen had not extensively developed its potential.
Drawing upon the *East Jia Departing Fire Scripture* now, he gained a few novel insights.
Subsequently, Luo Chen set about comprehending another Tier 4 fire-attribute method, the *Purple Sun Divine Art*.
This technique imposed rigorous conditions on the timing and location of practice.
Unlike Luo Chen's habit of cultivating deep into the night, the *Purple Sun Divine Art* was best practiced at the break of dawn, when the morning glow first shone, drawing in the first wisp of True Sun Fire from between heaven and earth.
At that moment, the aura of True Sun Fire was at its purest yet also at its weakest, making it ideal for a Nascent Soul True Person to refine.
If this art reached great accomplishment, it could substantially bolster the might of one's Nascent Soul True Fire, possessing a natural restraining effect against defiled, foul abominations.
One day.
Luo Chen sat cross-legged atop an ancient wutong tree. Beneath him lay a pitch-black abyss, stirred by eerie winds.
His eyes shone brilliantly as he gazed steadily into the dark night.
As the night gave way to dawn and the edge of the sky revealed a streak of fish-belly white, the magic power within him began to circulate naturally.
With every breath, his rhythm rose and fell, as though in resonance with heaven and earth.
Suddenly.
*Whoosh!*
A golden sphere resembling an egg yolk surfaced within his vision.
On the horizon, the morning sun rose anew.
In that very moment, Luo Chen's breathing fell into complete harmony with it.
As the morning sun climbed steadily higher, a vast quantity of faint yet exquisitely pure fire-attribute spiritual energy began converging toward him.
"So that's how it is..."
When Luo Chen concluded his practice of the *Purple Sun Divine Art*, a newfound realization took root in his mind.
If the *Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture* emphasized increasing the quantity of magic power, then the *East Jia Departing Fire Scripture* leaned toward internal bodily realignment to ensure smoother circulation, while this *Purple Sun Divine Art* prioritized the quality of magic power.
Cultivated over the long term, one's magic power would become incomparably pure, and one's Nascent Soul True Fire would even take on subtle characteristics of True Sun Fire.
As for the *Blazing Sovereign True Scripture* he had studied previously, it held unique ingenuity in the cultivation of apertures and the purple palace.
*If I take the Heavenly Phoenix as my foundation and assimilate the merits of these three techniques, can I pursue an all-encompassing path of fire methods?*
Light glinted in Luo Chen's eyes, his heart burning with ambitious desire.
He possessed the confidence to do so.
The Fire Spirit Physique gave him the bedrock to cultivate diverse fire-attribute methods simultaneously.
The proficiency panel allowed him to research, fuse, and even create techniques, raising his upper limits.
So long as he maintained the proper balance...
Just then, Luo Chen's heart gave a sudden jolt.
Turning his divine sense inward, he looked into his purple palace. The slowly withering Wither-Bloom True Fire seemed to be withering at an accelerating rate following his consecutive days of cultivation.
After absorbing that Wither-Origin Fire Marrow, the Wither-Bloom True Fire had nearly died out. That was no alarmist exaggeration Luo Chen had fed to Fu Chaosheng, but the absolute truth.
By all rights, such a thing should not have occurred.
Yet Luo Chen had deduced the reason behind this phenomenon.
The Wither-Bloom True Fire was never meant to embody only thriving vitality; it also possessed the opposite aspect of lifeless withering!
For many years, stimulated by Luo Chen, it had steadily advanced, continuously growing and flourishing.
Such expansion actually had a ceiling.
Even after fusing a wisp of the Nirvana Holy Fire's origin, that fundamental limit remained.
Yet atop the Morlan Court, upon absorbing the seemingly unremarkable Tier 4 Nether Fire, the Wither-Bloom True Fire had found its true direction.
Guided further by the Wither-Origin Fire Marrow, its faint sentience had made up its mind to tread that singular path.
That was: "at the peak of prosperity, decline begins; wither and bloom cycle perpetually"!
Without a doubt, this was the true essence of the Wither-Bloom True Fire.
By Luo Chen's estimation, so long as it underwent one complete cycle of flourishing to decline and perpetual alternation between withering and blooming, the Wither-Bloom True Fire might undergo a thorough transformation.
From nonexistence to emergence, advancing all the way to Tier 4, then withering into lifeless silence to return to nothingness.
When it rekindled once more...
*Only, this timeline is far, far faster than I anticipated. How could this be?*
Luo Chen felt a trace of bewilderment.
He had expected this process to take at least several years, perhaps even over a decade.
Yet barely a year had passed now, hadn't it?
*Could it be a result of my practicing other fire-attribute methods?*
Luo Chen had always prided himself on his broad knowledge, yet at this juncture he was utterly uncertain.
Nonetheless, from the accelerating withering of the Wither-Bloom True Fire, he vaguely gleaned a spark of inspiration.
*The cycle of wither and bloom inherently carries the meaning of nirvana. If I integrate this transformation into my cultivation method as well, wouldn't that align seamlessly with the philosophy of the Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture?*
The moment the thought crossed his mind, Luo Chen felt an eager restlessness stir within him.
He had once used fire to temper his body.
Now, utilizing fire to temper his qi seemed entirely feasible as well, did it not?
For a time, Luo Chen sank into deep, prolonged contemplation. The magic power across his body began circulating of its own accord, while the external spiritual energy surged ceaselessly toward him, only to be steadily exhaled.
Surrounded by gentle breezes and white clouds, amidst interwoven wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, he seemed entirely oblivious even when the Fu clan's grandfather and granddaughter came to visit.
If one were to explain such a state in cultivation terms, it was encapsulated by two words: an epiphany!
Within a tranquil cave abode on Heaven and Earth Peak.
A delicate, slender woman opened her eyes in puzzlement.
With a shift of her mind, she instantly pinpointed the origin of the disturbance.
Beholding the young man seated cross-legged at the treetop, whose aura was undergoing continuous transformations, a look of astonishment surfaced in her eyes.
Only after scrutinizing him carefully for a long while did she recover her senses.
"Dongfang Bai's concerns were not entirely groundless."
"For a talent of such heaven-sent genius to enter the Star Gate would inevitably infringe upon the interests of the Central Plains' prodigies. And now, it is already coming to pass."
"My origin soul communes with heaven and earth, drawing down immense spiritual opportunities. A portion aids my ascension, while another portion is absorbed by the land of the Central Plains. This was originally something the Tianyuan Dao Sect was delighted to see. Who would have thought that an outsider would now siphon away a share of it?"
"Since that is so, let me lend you a helping hand!"
Murmuring softly to herself, she released her origin soul, taking control of the spiritual opportunities that were meant to merge into the soil of the Central Plains. Siphoning off a portion, she directed it toward the young man.
Not only that, but wisps of faint magic power sparked from her fingertips and drifted in that direction, shrouding the surrounding area from all sides.
Across the vast expanse of Heaven and Earth Peak, not a single other cultivator native to the mountain noticed the anomaly surrounding the young man, save for her.
Having done all this, a complex expression appeared on the woman's face.
"As fellow alchemists, I hope you remain unburdened by shackles, free upon the immortal path."
All of this unfolded in secret. None knew, none perceived, and even Luo Chen, the recipient himself, remained completely unaware.
Chapter 743