The so-called Liangyi, or Dual Polarities, was the foundation of the Great Dao, representing yin and yang.
Legend held that when heaven and earth first parted, all was primordial chaos, known as Wuji—the Limitless. Wuji gave birth to Taiji, Taiji gave rise to Liangyi, and from Liangyi stemmed the Four Emblems and the Eight Trigrams, culminating in all the myriad things of creation.
Such principles were known even to young novices just embarking upon the path of Qi Refinement, and Luo Chen naturally understood them well.
Yet in the affairs of the world, knowing was always easier than doing—and often, even "knowing" was far from simple.
Luo Chen's true comprehension of the concept of Liangyi yin and yang had come gradually from geomancy during his extensive study and deployment of formations.
Drawing analogies from formations, he saw that the opposition of yin and yang naturally governed other matters as well.
And in refining this Liangyi Pill, that concept was pushed to the absolute extreme of anything he had encountered thus far!
Every ingredient had to match water against fire, maintain an identical tier, and preserve a meticulous balance.
Moreover, unlike conventional pill refinement, where supplementary ingredients were prepared in advance, refining the Liangyi Pill began straightaway with processing the two core ingredients.
The difficulty involved was easily imagined.
After all, in most undertakings, progressing step by step—from small to large, from simple to difficult—made success far more attainable.
Who would ramp the difficulty straight to its absolute peak right at the outset?
Yet Luo Chen had no choice. Only by fusing the two primary water and fire ingredients into a state of Liangyi equilibrium could they become receptive enough to contain all things.
To that end, Luo Chen summoned every ounce of focus, daring not allow a sliver of slack.
He began by warming the cauldron with earth fire to conserve his magic power—a process that lasted a full three days.
Under his meticulous control, the cauldron's temperature steadily reached the ideal state.
With a flick of his finger, the Withered Source Fire Marrow and Nether Cold Spring flew simultaneously into the Hunyuan Cauldron.
The moment the two materials of polar opposite attributes entered, a violent, extreme clash erupted.
"All things carry yin and embrace yang, harmonizing through the blending of vital breath!"
*If I want them to coexist in harmony and reach a balanced, unified state, I must suppress them with a far greater power!*
Thoughts flickered through Luo Chen's mind, and he opened his mouth to exhale.
A plume of dual-colored, cyan-and-white flame drifted out, enveloping the Hunyuan Cauldron entirely.
It was none other than the Wither-Bloom Divine Fire!
The instant this flame appeared, the entire Earth Fire Grand Hall shuddered for a moment.
Chen Mozi, who was in the middle of simmering supplementary materials, looked up at Luo Chen in sheer shock.
*What manner of source true fire is he using, to possess the might to make ten thousand flames tremble?*
Fortunately, Chen Mozi was not at a critical juncture in his pill refinement; otherwise, this single distraction might have ruined all his prior efforts.
Luo Chen had no attention to spare for anyone else. Once unleashed, the Wither-Bloom Divine Fire consumed an immeasurable amount of magic power.
Normally, he only dared draw upon a wisp or a strand while concocting pills, whereas now he had released a whole plume!
Yet the results were astonishingly effective.
Once the Wither-Bloom Divine Fire enveloped the Hunyuan Cauldron, the violently clashing water and fire materials within immediately quieted down.
Under the alchemy techniques Luo Chen deployed, the two began to merge bit by bit.
The process was agonizingly slow, but as long as it went smoothly, all would be well!
Luo Chen was willing to wait.
One day, two days... Without him noticing, three full months slipped by.
*Bang!*
A soft muffled pop suddenly rang out in the Earth Fire Grand Hall.
Amidst a plume of soot, Chen Mozi staggered backward, his face streaked with grime.
His expression was dim and bleak, but in the end, he could only offer a bitter smile.
He had failed after all!
He had anticipated this outcome; after all, he had hastily devised the pill recipe from existing materials on the spot, without the slightest familiarity.
Yet accepting this defeat proved far more painful than he had imagined.
It was not merely the failure of the refinement, nor just that the Alchemy Saint's legacy was now forever out of his reach. More than that, the bold step he had just gathered the courage to take had suffered a definitive blow.
"Mister Xuan Yan advised me not to cling stubbornly to old conventions, to dare to innovate and seek change when driven to extremes. Yet all things in this world operate according to established laws—how could breaking convention ever be so simple?"
The creation of any pill recipe demanded countless repeated trials to arrive at the optimal proportions.
To succeed on a single try was unimaginably difficult.
With a sigh, he waved his hand to sweep away the dregs in the bronze cauldron, preparing to depart dejectedly.
Yet before walking away, he inadvertently glanced across the hall.
The cyan-and-white flame was still burning steadily!
Within that illusory space, the engrossed Luo Chen seemed impervious to any external disturbance.
Yet his face was paler even than Chen Mozi's own in the wake of defeat.
*Just what kind of pill is he trying to refine?*
*Just the first step has taken a full three months!*
*It is hard to imagine how much longer the rest will take.*
Chen Mozi shook his head. Refraining from disturbing Luo Chen, he quietly left the Earth Fire Grand Hall.
The Alchemy Saint's legacy was no longer for him; why play the petty villain?
Luo Chen's first step was already proving so arduous; he would likely struggle to complete the pill refinement in the stages to come, and probably wouldn't lay eyes on the legacy either.
To Luo Chen at this moment, any thought of the Alchemy Saint's legacy had long been cast to the back of his mind.
All his thoughts and sight were locked entirely onto the viscous liquid forming from the gradual merging of red and blue inside the cauldron.
His entire mind was stretched taut to the limit!
*Why won't they fully merge into one?*
*The Wither-Bloom Divine Fire is enough to suppress everything, yet beneath the surface harmony lies an extreme internal clash. In this conflict, the medicinal power is constantly dissipating.*
*Just where has it gone wrong?*
Luo Chen questioned furiously in his heart.
The fusion of the two primary materials had gone rather smoothly at first.
Perhaps because the Wither-Bloom Divine Fire also contained the principles of Liangyi yin and yang, what Luo Chen had anticipated to be the hardest step had actually progressed quite smoothly initially.
Yet at the very final juncture, it obstinately refused to complete.
Because of this, he was stuck, forced to watch the two core ingredients continually collide and repel one another, needlessly squandering power.
Suddenly, an intent was conveyed to him. Though crude and faint, its meaning was crystal clear:
"Switch fire!"
It was the Wither-Bloom fire spirit.
Ever since gaining sentience, though the Wither-Bloom fire spirit had never spoken, it had possessed its own consciousness, mostly deferring to Luo Chen's lead.
This was the first time it had ever taken the initiative to advise him.
Luo Chen froze. *Switch fire? Switch to what fire?*
Yet instinctively, his reflexes had already acted.
The cyan-and-white flame abruptly receded, and the viscous liquid in the cauldron boiled violently.
Before the boiling reached its peak, a golden flame descended to envelop this miniature world within the cauldron!
It was the nascent Nirvana Holy Fire!
This flame possessed a far higher standing, but it was still too weak. Even Luo Chen had never dared channel too much magic power to forcefully ignite it, fearing he might scatter it in one blow.
Yet the moment the Nirvana Holy Fire emerged, the boiling liquid inside the cauldron instantly subdued.
Luo Chen stared at this in astonishment, dawning realization striking him in a daze.
The so-called wither and bloom fundamentally retained their shared roots; they were not mutually exclusive absolutes, but merely a temporary dormancy and resurgence.
It was, more than anything, an endless vitality cycling between decline and flourish.
Using it to correspond to the Liangyi of yin and yang yielded similarity in form, but not in spirit.
But the Nirvana Holy Fire was different!
It was the ultimate transformation between life and death!
Only through nirvana—rising to life through death—could one reach the pinnacle!
At that instant, Luo Chen entered a state of epiphany. On his attribute panel, the law entry for [Wither-Bloom True Intent] surged in progress at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Yet he had no time to pay attention to that. He only knew that in that heightened state, relying purely on the instincts of an alchemy grandmaster, he guided the two core ingredients into rapid fusion.
The fusion that had been deadlocked for three whole months now came together naturally in just three days.
Luo Chen snapped awake, silently praising his incredible luck.
Had his divided soul not held steady over the refinement, and had his instincts not been so potent, that abrupt epiphany alone might have caused everything to fall apart at the final hurdle.
Now that he had crossed this hurdle, what followed would be simple.
He merely needed to add the remaining supplementary ingredients step by step, and the moment of success was already in sight.
Of course, "simple" was only relative to that initial step.
Luo Chen continued to deposit the precious ingredients with utmost care, regulating the formation of the pill.
Gradually, the red and blue inside transformed, coalescing into an entity enveloped in swirling black-and-white qi.
Several days later!
A shout rang out: "Collect!"
In the grand hall, Luo Chen—weary in countenance yet with eyes shining like stars—waved his wide sleeve. A bicolored black-and-white pill flew straight toward him.
As the pill settled in his hand, before Luo Chen even had time to examine it closely, the golden bird formed by the Nirvana Holy Fire and the small tree of the Wither-Bloom fire spirit stirred in unison within his purple palace.
Luo Chen chuckled softly.
Such a reaction made any declaration of success or failure superfluous.
The behavior of the two powerful flames said everything!
It was just that now was not the time to nurture them.
Storing away the Hunyuan Cauldron, Luo Chen held up the Liangyi Pill to the empty Earth Fire Grand Hall.
*Buzz!*
The humming of an activating formation reached Luo Chen's sharp ears, followed by a cloud of mist sweeping in to envelop him.
Luo Chen offered no resistance, allowing the formation to operate and carry him toward the next trial.
In a blur of floating motion, when he reopened his eyes, a whole new world lay before him.
...
"Where is this?"
Luo Chen stepped out of the teleportation array in surprise, taking in the picturesque mountains, clear waters, singing birds, and fragrant blossoms of this realm.
A thought surfaced in his mind:
*A Grotto-Heaven?*
No!
An instant later, Luo Chen dismissed that notion, arriving at another conclusion.
*A Blessed Land!*
People often conflated grotto-heavens and blessed lands as if they were one and the same.
Yet the two were fundamentally distinct.
A grotto-heaven was usually a self-contained dimension, existing independently beyond the outside world.
Like the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven, or that shattered pocket realm the Medicine King Sect used specifically to cultivate Void-Accumulating Flowers, it was either an internal world within a living creature or a slice of space forcefully carved out by a mighty cultivator.
A blessed land, on the other hand, was intimately tied to the mortal plane—seemingly independent, yet truly inseparable from it.
Neither was inherently superior to the other. A formidable grotto-heaven like the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven, formed from a supreme primeval beast, had birthed law true intents inside and far outstripped ordinary blessed lands. Yet a frail one like the Medicine King Sect's pocket dimension could be shattered merely by a clash between a few Nascent Soul experts, completely incomparable to the stable realm before him.
What surprised Luo Chen was that Alchemy Saint Chu Yan actually possessed such a blessed land.
*No, this blessed land must belong to the Mingyuan Sect!*
*That is why she left, yet the blessed land remained behind.*
*No wonder the three Mingyuan Sect Patriarchs never worried about the Alchemy Saint's legacy over all these years, nor took it by force, yet repeatedly permitted people to undertake the trials.*
*They don't care that much about the Alchemy Saint's legacy—what they care about is reclaiming this blessed land!*
*And the Alchemy Saint's trials are the key to unlocking this blessed land.*
*Phew...*
Exhaling a long breath, Luo Chen stopped dwelling on such speculative matters. Nor did he rush to search for the fourth trial.
Instead, he sat cross-legged immediately, adjusted his posture, and began circulating his cultivation method.
Refining the Liangyi Pill earlier and vigorously driving both the Wither-Bloom Divine Fire and the Nirvana Holy Fire had taken a massive toll on his magic power.
Regardless of what the fourth trial entailed, restoring his magic power was the foremost priority.
As he breathed and respired, dense torrents of pure spiritual energy surged toward him.
Moreover, because of his deeper comprehension of the Wither-Bloom true intent, the lingering effects of the epiphany persisted even after the state itself had dissipated.
Intangible, indescribable insights were flocking into him.
...
Beside a murmuring stream, the white-robed Daoist sat cross-legged.
His divine sense fluttered, and his magic power coursed smoothly.
Strands of worldly spiritual energy were drawn into his body, refined through circulation across his meridians and acupoints, tempered by the Wither-Bloom Divine Fire, and finally merged into his plump, fair Nascent Soul, turning into the purest magic power.
Luo Chen immersed himself in the process, savoring a sensation that was truly "wondrous beyond words."
Cultivation was austere and arduous; how could it ever be described as wondrous beyond words?
Yet that was precisely how he felt, for compared to his past self, his current efficiency in converting and restoring magic power was astronomically higher.
It was nearly double or triple what it used to be!
This rate had not appeared out of nowhere; it was a figure Luo Chen had calculated precisely after mastering the Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture on Mount Cangwu.
He knew with certainty that his cultivation had entered onto the truest, most correct path. Cultivation and recovery speeds alone had both doubled or tripled.
In the past, advancing from the fourth level to the fifth level of the Nascent Soul realm would have taken at least forty to fifty years. Even with the aid of that superlative fourth-tier immortal abode on Mount Cangwu, the timeframe had only been modestly reduced.
Yet calculated at his present pace, he could break through in twenty to thirty years at most.
And as things stood, Luo Chen estimated that at this cultivation speed, reaching the sixth level of the Nascent Soul realm would likely take merely around fifty years.
And that was excluding external aids like the Mount Cangwu immortal abode, the blessings of the Alchemy Saint's blessed land, or various pills and formations!
That assumed cultivation in an ordinary fourth-tier spirit land alone!
If those were factored in, Luo Chen was confident he could shave that duration down to an absolute minimum.
*The late Nascent Soul stage is beckoning to me.*
*And the threshold of Soul Formation will be well within reach in the future.*
*The future is truly radiant!*
As his magic power steadily returned to its zenith, Luo Chen's mood grew brighter and brighter.
Suddenly!
He snapped his eyes open and looked across the stream.
On the opposite bank, an old man with graying hair, a face full of wrinkles, and an aura of decay permeating his frame was watching him with a gentle smile.
Luo Chen rose to his feet in surprise. "Mister Xuan Yan? What happened to you...?"
He remembered clearly that when Mister Xuan Yan had appeared earlier, despite his advanced years, his aura had been imposing and vigorous, his face ruddy and radiant—nothing like this appearance of someone with one foot in the grave.
Mister Xuan Yan seemed not to care about his transformation at all. He replied offhandedly, "I long ago exhausted the ordinary millennium lifespan limit of a Nascent Soul cultivator. That I have eked out another hundred-odd years is merely thanks to the resources of the Mingyuan Sect and life-prolonging arts. My earlier state was nothing more than a terminal surge of vitality."
Luo Chen understood. He had felt earlier that Mister Xuan Yan's appearance clashed starkly with rumors.
So it was merely a dying flare of vigor.
Yet why had he suddenly decayed so rapidly now, his entire presence waning to such faintness?
Amidst his confusion, Mister Xuan Yan slowly raised his right hand, revealing a white token before Luo Chen's eyes.
"This is...?" Luo Chen asked, a faint guess already forming in his heart.
Mister Xuan Yan did not beat around the bush, stating candidly, "This is none other than the trial of the fourth stage, as well as the object Chu Yan left behind. Only by unraveling it can one truly obtain the alchemy legacy in its entirety."
Luo Chen stared intently at the token, but soon shook his head.
"I know not what lies within it, but the first three stages have already benefited me immensely."
"Since this legacy is already in Senior's hands, Luo Chen offers his congratulations!"
Mister Xuan Yan raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised by Luo Chen's reaction.
After all, this was an Alchemy Saint's legacy!
Yet for Luo Chen, his gains from the first three stages had indeed been colossal.
The first stage had consolidated his alchemical foundation.
The second stage had led him to create the Dust Return Technique for reverse-refining pills, awakening him to the very essence of medicinal herbs.
And the third stage had produced a high-tier pill of immense utility like the Liangyi Pill; succeeding on his first attempt had boosted his confidence so tremendously that he no longer felt trepidation toward any unfamiliar pill.
Only at this moment did Luo Chen truly possess the bearing of a grandmaster, inside and out!
Even standing face-to-face with the illustrious Mister Xuan Yan, he was brimming with confidence. He might be lacking in years of experience, but when it came to the craft of alchemy, he considered himself second to none!
It was merely a legacy; since it had already fallen into someone else's hands, why force the issue?
Mister Xuan Yan looked at Luo Chen in surprise, his hand lingering somewhat awkwardly in midair.
"I never imagined you would be even more outstanding than I thought!"
"No wonder Chu Yan thought highly of you, and no wonder those three from the Mingyuan Sect opened the Alchemy Saint Hall ahead of schedule for your sake."
"This item—take it, it's yours!"
*Whoosh!*
While Luo Chen was still stunned, the white token was tossed casually over, as though it were not a legacy left by a Soul Formation Alchemy Saint, but merely a worthless Qi-Nourishing Pill.
"Do you know why I came specifically looking for you?"
"I do not know, Senior."
"Because only you have the chance to unlock this token. In the end, this old man fell just a step short!"
Mister Xuan Yan spoke slowly, his tone tinged with desolation, his expression weary and forlorn.
Luo Chen did not understand why he would say this, but as his gaze fell upon the warm white jade token resting in his palm, all questions dissolved in an instant.
Chapter 903