As dawn was about to break, Luo Chen put away a freshly finished cauldron of pills with satisfaction.
At his current cultivation realm, even though his Wither-Bloom True Fire was in the middle of a metamorphosis and inconvenient to use, he could readily summon his Nascent Soul True Fire to refine pills and forge artifacts.
In truth, refining with one's own True Fire was the norm for the vast majority of alchemists.
After all, not every alchemist could smoothly tame a suitable sourceless fire at a lower cultivation realm. Once their realm grew higher, those slightly inferior sourceless fires were far less stable and reliable than their own Nascent Soul True Fire.
Luo Chen examined the Great Soul Pill in his hand. It was pitch-black, with faint golden light shimmering beneath its surface.
"Poised yet unreleased, its medicinal potency tightly reined in; seemingly unremarkable on the outside, yet imbued with profound wonder within."
"Undoubtedly high-grade!"
Luo Chen casually glanced at his attribute panel. Sure enough, his proficiency in the Great Soul Pill had quietly advanced to the high-grade tier.
With this, he would have even greater assurance when he took Great Soul Pills to temper his soul in the days ahead.
Speaking of soul tempering, a strange look flickered across Luo Chen's eyes.
He had not noticed it before, but over recent days while cultivating the Soul Splitting Art, he had gradually detected a change in his divine soul.
It was not his split soul!
Thanks to receiving a mid-grade Great Soul Pill every month, his split soul had long since recovered to the early Nascent Soul realm. That went without saying.
The crux of the transformation lay in his primary soul!
Without him even realizing when it had happened, Luo Chen's primary soul had grown substantially, exuding a subtle sense of rounded fullness.
"Did that half-year epiphany bring about this elevation?"
Luo Chen attributed the cause to that six-month epiphany. Without that explanation, he could find no suitable answer.
After all, the Soul Splitting Art operated by cleaving the primary soul. When one's soul could advance no further, repeatedly splitting the primary soul and strengthening the split souls served to indirectly bolster the soul's overall foundation. It offered little direct benefit to cultivating the primary soul itself, at most making it somewhat tougher and more resilient.
"Barring a breakthrough in cultivation realm, my primary soul has reached a bottleneck where it can advance no further."
"In the past, I could only cultivate slowly and bide my time until the breakthrough. Now, with the Soul Splitting Art, I can continue elevating my soul foundation."
Luo Chen knew very well that reaching the limit of the primary soul was the signal that another split soul could be cleaved.
Although his second split soul was still far from rivaling his primary soul, he did not mind creating a third.
When the time came, making progress on all fronts, growing and advancing together—would that not be splendid?
Still, that was only for the future. With the grand competition of the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven right around the corner, this was hardly the optimal moment to cleave his primary soul and plunge into a weakened state. He would have to wait until this affair concluded before revisiting the matter.
Luo Chen stored away the Great Soul Pill, cleaned the Hunyuan Cauldron, and prepared to head out.
While cleaning the cauldron, a thought suddenly crossed his mind.
"Back then, just how did Alchemy Saint Chu Yan discern that I was an alchemist—and even one who might have refined a Tier 5 pill?"
Knowing he might be an alchemist was relatively easy to explain.
After all, Fu Chaosheng had certainly provided the Star Gate with the relevant intelligence. Having gathered so many herbs without ever asking anyone else to concoct pills on his behalf, it could only be deduced that he had processed them himself.
Yet jumping to the baseless assumption that he had refined a Tier 5 pill seemed sensational in the extreme.
"They might know I went to the Sunken Sea, but there is no way they know I obtained the alchemy legacy of the Demonic Lord Liantian within the Land of the Fallen Demon."
"Among the survivors of Mingzhaotian back then, there were very few. Han Zhan, Blood Hermit, and Blood Nightmare Moluo are dead; Moon Hermit has vanished; Haijiao Tianmu is of the demon race; and the Gu siblings hide their heads and skulk about, never daring to show themselves openly."
"The only ones who truly knew I emerged from the Alchemy Hall were Daoist Jiyuan of the Penglai Immortal Sect and Moon Hermit's younger sister, Fairy Feileng. The former has already fallen. As for the latter..."
Luo Chen mapped out a trail of clues in his mind.
Both Fairy Feileng and Moon Hermit were suspected of hailing from the Penglai Immortal Sect. And the Penglai Immortal Sect had profound ties with the Tianyuan Dao Sect of the Central Plains. If Fairy Feileng had sought refuge with the Tianyuan Dao Sect to evade her elder sister's pursuit, and happened to leak intelligence on Luo Chen along the way...
"No, that's not right!"
Before long, Luo Chen dismantled his own deduction.
The reason was simple: if that were truly the case, the Star Gate could never have fobbed him off with a mere external guest elder title.
Someone capable of refining Tier 5 pills in the early Nascent Soul realm was virtually guaranteed to become the next Alchemy Saint.
Therefore, the Star Gate had no inkling of that intelligence at all.
Hence, Alchemy Saint Chu Yan's deduction regarding him stemmed purely from some personal intuition of her own.
"Could it be a natural resonance of mutual attraction between alchemists?"
"Or is it the marvelous subtlety of the Alchemy Dao law she cultivated to attain the Soul Formation realm?"
After forming his Nascent Soul, Luo Chen had voraciously read through numerous ancient records regarding higher cultivation realms.
Though most were vague and imprecise, quite a few practitioners had still recorded observations about the path lying farther ahead.
Three thousand Great Daos, countless laws.
The Dao was elusive and immeasurable, which was why weaker cultivators could only begin by comprehending laws step by step, gradually drawing closer to the true Great Dao.
Among the countless laws, none were inherently superior or inferior, but they were divided into Orthodox Laws and Auxiliary Laws.
There was no need to elaborate on the Orthodox Laws: Yin-Yang, the Five Elements, Wind, Lightning, Space, and the like, which constructed the entire world.
Such laws were the most complex and intricate; beneath a single law, myriad conceptual true intents were often divided. Yet once cultivated to great completion, they were also closest to the source of the Great Dao.
Auxiliary Laws, on the other hand, frequently originated from the hundred arts of cultivation.
Such as the zither, weiqi, calligraphy, and painting; or alchemy, formations, artifact crafting, and talismans. There were even those on unorthodox paths who comprehended extreme laws from boundless slaughter.
If Alchemy Saint Chu Yan truly attained the Soul Formation realm through the Auxiliary Law of the Alchemy Dao, it would be understandable if she had sensed that he had once refined a Tier 5 pill.
Yet if that were so, how much credence could she have given his outright denial back then?
For a moment, Luo Chen felt a flicker of unease.
***
Inside the cave abode, it was as warm as spring, but outside, the cold was bone-chilling.
By all rights, high-tier spiritual lands possessed the power to temper their local weather and climate, governing the soil and waters of an entire region.
Yet whether it was Mount Cangwu, where Luo Chen had once stayed, or Heaven and Earth Peak, where he currently resided, the changes of the four seasons proceeded in accordance with natural patterns.
Heaven and Earth Peak, in particular, displayed this natural rhythm even more purely.
When Luo Chen stepped out of his cave abode, he gazed at the snowflakes drifting down from the sky. He did not deploy his magic power to shield himself, allowing them to fall freely upon his crown and shoulders.
Due to the Wither-Bloom Divine Restriction, his hair was streaked with gray and his face was marked with wrinkles, stripping away his youthful appearance and giving him the look of a middle-aged man.
With white snow resting on his gray hair, his demeanor seemed all the more weathered by time.
For Luo Chen, reversing this condition was actually quite simple.
He could either waste a wisp of magic power or channel his Source Power to instantly restore his normal youthful visage.
Yet he had no desire to do so.
Even in the cultivation world, where one could not judge a person's realm by appearance alone, an excessively youthful face often invited unwarranted scrutiny.
Especially since Luo Chen was genuinely not that old, yet his realm was already so high!
While the astonishment of onlookers could stroke one's pride, it just as often brought unnecessary trouble.
Looking like this was perfectly fine.
With a faint smile, Luo Chen looked toward the figure approaching through the wind and snow.
Clad in a sky-blue gown, Fu Qinglan wore an inviting, charming smile as she extended her greeting.
"Brother Luo, shall we depart?"
***
Standing beside a babbling brook, Luo Chen watched as Fu Qinglan presented an invitation to a Golden Core cultivator.
His gaze drifted to survey their surroundings.
The brook gurgled along without haste. Ahead, all was tranquil and hushed, but behind them, spiritual energy surged in turbulent waves, indicating that many people were hurrying in this direction.
The match between Chess Saint Ke Lianshan and Mingren Dao Yin had drawn an immense number of eyes.
It could well be considered the foremost grand event preceding the Alchemy Saint's ascension and the five-hundred-year competition, far eclipsing the minor skirmishes of recent days.
"To think that someone once as humble as I can now take a seat among them... it truly evokes a sigh of reflection!"
Luo Chen mused inwardly with emotion.
"Brother Luo, we may enter now."
"Right."
This was the first time Luo Chen had, in the truest sense, stepped through the mountain gates of the Tianyuan Dao Sect.
The Peach Garden was the cultivation ground of Chess Saint Ke Lianshan.
Within it lay a Tier 4 high-grade spiritual vein.
Once Luo Chen passed through the formation at the end of the brook, the magnificent scenery of the Peach Garden burst into view.
Contrary to the imagined sight of peach blossoms blanketing the hills in crimson, what met his eyes was merely crisscrossing paths framing fields of spiritual crops.
The sight left Luo Chen somewhat taken aback.
Perhaps noticing his perplexity, Fu Qinglan reminded him from the side, "Brother Luo, why not spread your divine sense and survey the surrounding thousands of li?"
Luo Chen hesitated. "Would that not be somewhat impolite?"
"Just avoid scanning other people. Observe only the terrain."
Understanding her meaning, Luo Chen released his divine sense.
In an instant, the general topography of the Peach Garden registered in his mind.
Taking it in, Luo Chen immediately felt a surge of wonder.
Those crisscrossing field paths, which appeared to be mere plots of fertile farmland, formed neat, square grids when viewed from above.
At every intersection of those lines, a spiritual spring eye had been arranged.
And within the spiritual fields, the vast arrays of flora planted there were like weiqi stones locked in contest.
There were sword orchids with leaves sharp as blades, peerlessly keen, and ghost arborvitae whose canopies cast heavy shade to ward off foreign foes...
For a moment, the seemingly peaceful and serene Peach Garden gave off the fierce, resplendent atmosphere of clashing iron steeds and glittering spears.
Luo Chen drew back his divine sense and could not help taking a deep breath.
"The Chess Saint has used the Peach Garden as a board, the pathways as grid lines, and the spiritual plants as stones, constructing a magnificent game of chess!"
Fu Qinglan smiled faintly. "Brother Luo has sharp eyes. I didn't notice it at first either; it was only after an elder in the sect pointed it out that I learned of Senior Brother Ke's exquisite craft. Senior Brother Ke is not only a supreme master of the Dao of Chess, but he also possesses exceptional skill in spiritual plant husbandry. Blending the two, he laid down this natural chess game. By relying on the competition among flora, the game evolves of its own accord... It is said that when the match reaches its conclusion, Senior Brother Ke will have a tremendous chance of comprehending laws and ascending to the Soul Formation realm!"
Luo Chen blinked, half-believing and half-doubting.
He admitted the arrangement was peerlessly subtle, but could a man-made creation truly be called "natural"?
Luo Chen did not know, nor did he intend to ponder it deeply. He walked alongside Fu Qinglan toward the depths of the Peach Garden.
As they advanced, the silhouettes of cultivators grew increasingly frequent.
Seizing the opportunity, Fu Qinglan began introducing various figures to him.
"That person is Xiang Qi, the most outstanding genius of the Xiang family's current generation, and one of the most dazzling prodigies of our era. He committed himself to the Dao at twelve, began Qi Refining at sixteen, and achieved Foundation Establishment at twenty-six. At the century mark, he formed his Core. Ten years ago, he advanced to the Nascent Soul realm, at which point he was not even two hundred and fifty years old. His aptitude surpasses even mine."
"And the Xiang family itself stands at the very head of the Thirty-Six Aristocratic Clans!"
"He will also be entering the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven this time. His Dao Protector is said to be a newly advanced Buddhist Nascent Soul powerhouse invited by the family from the Western Desert, known as the Wrathful Vajra. Today, however, that Wrathful Vajra is nowhere to be seen—likely because he holds little interest in affairs of the chess world."
Luo Chen watched from afar as a young man flew across the sky, surrounded by numerous attendants like stars orbiting the moon.
The Xiang family?
He had heard of this clan before, and had even interacted with the Myriad Manifestations Tower under their banner.
They indeed displayed the grandeur befitting the head of the Thirty-Six Aristocratic Clans, able to set up their own banner alongside the Tianyuan Commerce Alliance and conduct trade across the Northern Sea.
Although he could not probe the young man with his divine sense, judging from the subtle resonance between his magic power fluctuations and heaven and earth, he was indeed at the level of a newly advanced Nascent Soul.
Roughly on par with Fu Qinglan.
"The one over there is Liu—"
"Perfected Longyuan!" Luo Chen's gaze narrowed as he spoke.
Fu Qinglan looked slightly surprised, but understanding dawned an instant later.
"Senior Brother Liu Yuan did indeed use Longyuan as his Dao title while traveling the Northern Sea. Brother Luo, did you cross paths with him back in the Northern Sea?"
Luo Chen twitched the corner of his lips, neither confirming nor denying.
Perfected Longyuan, once one of the Seven True Persons of the Myriad Immortals Association, was also the sole rogue cultivator to attain Nascent Soul through the resources tilted toward him as a Nine-Star Demon Hunter.
Looking at him now, he was no rogue cultivator at all, but rather a disciple of the Dao Sect who had entered the mortal world for experiential tempering.
Fu Qinglan sent a voice transmission through her divine sense, her tone tinged with solemnity. "Among the thirteen Dao Sect Nascent Souls entering the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven this time, Senior Brother Liu is the only one from humble roots who does not belong to the Great Houses or Aristocratic Clans."
"He could long since have led the Liu family into the ranks of the Aristocratic Clans, but he has continually delayed it. He surely intends to make significant gains in the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven to secure even more resources for his family's subsequent elevation."
"Normally, when someone of humble roots participates in the grand competition, none of us pay it any mind."
"Yet Senior Brother Liu is different. He has held the Nascent Soul realm the longest, nearly a full century. Since forming his soul, he has never engaged in battle, relying on secret arts to suppress his cultivation realm, barely meeting the qualifications to enter the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven. Rumor has it that Senior Brother Liu braved life and death in the Northern Sea, giving him immense combat experience. When the time comes, not only will his Dao Protector pose a major threat, but he himself must also be treated as immediate combat strength!"
Luo Chen nodded gravely.
He had heard the name of Perfected Longyuan countless times.
To have earned the status of a Nine-Star Demon Hunter as a rogue cultivator was proof of his past battle record.
Back in the Myriad Immortals Association, not a single one of those high-star Demon Hunters was someone to be trifled with.
In battles of equal realm, figures like the Angler and Empress Zi were in no way inferior to disciples of the supreme sects—and they were merely Eight-Star Demon Hunters.
Perfected Longyuan's hunter rating stood one tier above theirs, which demonstrated that his capabilities surpassed them even further.
Speaking of which, comparing Fu Qinglan's introductions with his prior intelligence, Luo Chen had already grasped the general landscape of this grand competition.
The contests at lower realms needed no elaboration.
At the Nascent Soul realm, there were thirteen contenders in total.
By background: three from the Great Houses, nine from the Aristocratic Clans, and one from humble roots.
Perfected Longyuan was precisely that solitary standout from humble beginnings!
"I wonder who his Dao Protector might be? Could it be that frail-looking woman beside him?"
After mentally calculating his odds of victory if he were to clash with Perfected Longyuan, Luo Chen asked offhandedly.
Just as Fu Qinglan was about to answer, hearty laughter rang out from behind them.
"If it isn't the Desolate Hermit! Long time no see!"
"Fellow Daoist Luo!"
Luo Chen turned his head. Sure enough, the familiar faces of Hermit Lindong and Lu Qiuzhen met his eyes.
"So it is you two fellow Daoists. It has been quite a while; how have you been keeping?"
He returned the greeting with a smile.
Though their friendship was not deep, on the surface at least, they all hailed from the Northern Sea cultivation world.
Now that they had all joined the Star Gate on Heaven and Earth Peak, exchanging pleasantries on occasion was only natural.
Fu Qinglan offered a cool greeting, nowhere near as approachable as she was with Luo Chen.
She was, after all, a disciple of a sacred ground, possessing an innate pride.
Under normal circumstances, aside from matters concerning weiqi, she consistently maintained an aloof and proud demeanor. Luo Chen was an exception: as her Dao Protector for an affair of paramount importance, establishing good rapport was vital, so she had proactively lowered her stance to draw closer to him.
The two did not mind her cool attitude in the least, smiling as they chatted with Luo Chen about past events in the Northern Sea and the latest bits of intelligence.
As formal guest elders of the Star Gate, they had the authority to review fresh reports, unlike Luo Chen, who had to rely on the Fu family's connections.
From Lu Qiuzhen, Luo Chen learned that the war in the Northern Sea was growing increasingly fierce. Guixianlou had become ever more rampant, to the point where even when two late Nascent Soul cultivators of the Canghai Righteous Path Alliance intervened personally, they could not halt Guixianlou head-on.
Meanwhile, the Soul Formation grand cultivator Li Canghai, who was usually seen only in fleeting glimpses, had begun appearing frequently across the Northern Sea cultivation world over the past two years.
The strange part was that his appearances were not meant to reinforce the front lines, but rather to seize spiritual mountains and oceanic realms.
This behavior undoubtedly confirmed Luo Chen's conjecture from years ago.
The grand cultivator Li Canghai was truly using the spiritual lands of the Northern Sea to refine a treasure!
One wondered whether the Tianyuan Dao Sect had noticed any clues regarding this development.
Interrupted by the pair, the conversation between Luo Chen and Fu Qinglan came to a temporary halt. Before they realized it, they had arrived at the venue of the match.
It was located within a grove of peach blossoms.
Amid the swirling shower of fallen petals, an elder and a youth sat facing one another.
All around them, silhouettes clustered densely. The atmosphere was fervent, yet hushed and heavy with tension as everyone held their tongues.
Before Luo Chen could focus his attention on the two players, his heart gave a jolt. He sensed a gaze landing upon him... and upon Fu Qinglan beside him.
At that moment, Luo Chen clearly felt the woman next to him tremble slightly.
Luo Chen looked over openly. In the area of the peach grove most suited for viewing the match, an elegantly dressed man of distinguished bearing stood holding a white folding fan, watching them with keen interest.
Meeting Luo Chen's gaze, the young man curled his lips into a faint smile.
"Who is that?"
Fu Qinglan kept her head lowered, black strands of hair veiling her eyes, her fingers tangling together unconsciously.
"From the Shi clan... Shi Ju!"
Chapter 745