An Alchemist's Path to Eternity-Chapter 658: Core Formation! (II)

Two years later, those blooming hopes were met with a blizzard.

Luo Chen's eyes remained shut as his entire body trembled. Waves of spirit power surged endlessly across him. His ink-bamboo white robe fluttered without wind, and the sound of fabric snapping echoed in the room.

Chu Kui was right! Thirty-six is the limit!

Within his sea of qi, thirty-six spirit beads spun swiftly in place. A powerful aura spread outward, resembling the spirit pressure unique to Golden Core cultivators, pressing all the spirit liquid in the sea of qi down to its limits. Each bead whirled violently, trying to devour more spirit power to grow stronger. However, the consequence of any single bead doing so was that the balance would be broken.

"How could this be?" Luo Chen's expression tightened. "According to the records, minor mastery means thirty-six beads, intermediate mastery one hundred eighty, and major mastery three hundred sixty-five. All of these stages have been achieved before. So why is it that Chu Kui and I can't do it? No... This won't do. Either I disperse the spirit beads myself before they lose balance, or I start the process of Core Formation. But dispersing them would waste all my effort, and forming a core now is far from the ideal timing." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

One question after another rose to the surface of his mind. The turmoil left Luo Chen feeling irritable. But at that moment, the Forsaken Black Chess Piece released faint ripples of light that calmed him. It was the result of refining the chess piece with Stilling Wind and Waves for five years and reaching Grandmaster level in the technique. There was no need to activate the item deliberately; it would act on its own whenever his mind grew chaotic.

The storm within slowly subsided. Though stray thoughts remained, Luo Chen was much calmer than before. And in that state, he immediately formed a hypothesis.

"The Falling Cloud Sect really did withhold something from us."

This speculation did not come from nowhere. The cultivation notes he had acquired through a trade with Tian Xingzi were authored by Linghu Jie, and they briefly mentioned the origin of Beaded Curtain Lock.

Beaded Curtain Lock was obtained by our sect's forebear from a secret realm, accompanied by three other arts and two auxiliary techniques. With these, the ancestor established the foundation of the Falling Cloud Sect. The cultivation of this art is painful and difficult beyond measure. When practiced alongside another divine soul cultivation art of our sect, the effect reaches its peak...

That was it. There were three other arts and two techniques! Although he had no way of knowing the exact details, it was clear that Beaded Curtain Lock was meant to be practiced together with a divine soul cultivation art.

"If that is the case, then minor mastery must be the limit for those who practice it without the matching art."

Luo Chen opened his eyes and gave a wry smile. This also explained why the Falling Cloud Sect had been so generous as to exchange an Upper Path Core Formation art with rogue cultivators on the battlefield. Without the matching soul cultivation art, Beaded Curtain Lock at minor mastery was at best equivalent to a Middle Path Core Formation art. At least, that was how it felt to him now. If he used these thirty-six beads to form a core, the result would be no better than the spirit vortex created through the Clear Origin Mystical Pill at major mastery.

"The hell it will. No way I'm accepting that," he muttered.

Luo Chen's expression darkened as he searched for a remedy. Attempting Core Formation now was out of the question. Perhaps he could disperse one spirit bead to maintain a set of thirty-five, then cultivate until he reached Perfected Mastery of Foundation Establishment. After that, he could restore the full thirty-six, complete the Lesser Heavenly Cycle and make his attempt at the Golden Core Realm. That was one possibility.

But there was also another option. He could disperse all thirty-six spirit beads, then continue cutting the primary divine soul each day until he had three hundred and sixty-five threads. Then, at Perfected Mastery of Foundation Establishment, he would condense three hundred and sixty-five spirit beads in one go to attempt the Core Formation.

The plan actually did have a chance of success, tiny though it was. However, the risks were far too great. No, it was outright reckless to the extreme. Even during Core Formation, gathering the full number of spirit beads in a single attempt would be almost impossible.

Luo Chen shook his head and forced that dangerous thought aside. Were there any other ways? He racked his brains to draw on years of wide readings and think of a solution.

"But perhaps I should still disperse the thirty-six beads. If I continue to condense and thread them daily to grind proficiency, then once I've gotten Beaded Curtain Lock to Perfected Mastery, the system might derive a complete cultivation method."

That would be an attempt to exploit a loophole in the system. After some thought, Luo Chen realized this approach did have a degree of feasibility. The only problem was that the secret art itself was already complete. It was not an incomplete art; it simply lacked a matching divine soul art. The system would most likely not generate the missing portion.

Once again, silence fell. If things turned out that way, then even after perfecting the art, what awaited him would probably be nothing more than empty satisfaction. It would even delay his time to form the core.

In the long silence, Luo Chen turned his senses inward to his sea of qi. The thirty-six spirit beads were refined to the extreme and almost solidified. They continued to spin without pause. The devouring force they exerted on one another churned the sea of qi, causing countless streams of spirit liquid to surge toward each bead.

The balance had already reached its limit. If Luo Chen were to absorb any more spirit liquid, the balance would inevitably collapse. The thirty-six spirit beads might even collide with one another, inflicting unimaginable harm upon him. As he watched, a sudden thought came to him.

"They absorb energy from the sea of qi and that allows them to maintain balance and form the Lesser Heavenly Cycle. But the exact same hunger for spirit power also leads to imbalance. Hmm... What if I divide and isolate these beads? If I do that, they can still exist without influencing each other. With my primary divine soul as strong as it is, I can easily suppress them. Once I reach major mastery in the future, I can merge them back together."

This sudden thought was not mere fantasy, as Luo Chen truly possessed the means to isolate the beads. Other cultivators might be unable to do so, but he could! And it was because he had fully opened his apertures!

The meridians in the human body had 720 apertures, both large and small, forming the Double Heavenly Cycle.[1] When Luo Chen reached the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, he also reached major mastery for Meridian Unblocking and began to open his apertures through Physique Refinement methods. He first used spirit energy for that purpose, then fiend qi, and finally, within the Divine Transformation pocket world, he harnessed the power of lightning to pierce open every one of them throughout his body.

These apertures were not useless. Under normal circumstances, they could store large amounts of spirit energy, and a complete set could even be regarded as a second sea of qi. Without them, his spirit power would never have surpassed his peers so greatly.

Hmm... My apertures have been refined with spirit energy, fiend qi, and even lightning. They might be able to contain the energy of a single spirit bead, right? If I move each bead into an aperture for storage, keeping them separate from one another, wouldn't that prevent imbalance from occurring?"

Once the idea took shape, Luo Chen could no longer restrain himself. After repeated calculations and experiments, he confirmed that the method was indeed feasible. Without a moment's hesitation, he began attempting the real thing that very same day.

When he moved a fully formed spirit bead into one of his largest apertures and sealed it securely with spirit power, Luo Chen could not contain his joy.

It worked. His idea was correct. He had no idea how the Falling Cloud Sect's arts handled this problem, but that was not relevant at this point; what mattered was that his own method worked.

So long as there's no mishap, I can just keep refining spirit beads and storing them in my apertures. There will be no imbalance, and I'll be able to create 365 beads and achieve major mastery in Beaded Curtain Lock! Let's go!

***

Time flowed steadily, and the end of the fifty-year preparation period for the Frontier War was drawing near. As the frontline of this war, the Jade Cauldron Domain grew increasingly lively. Each day brought countless tales and events. In small regions, new cultivators broke through to Foundation Establishment, while in the great immortal cities, Initiates made their names on the Debate Platforms.

Several years earlier, the Jade Emperor Sword Debate had concluded. Although the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect had seemed to decline after decades of internal conflict with the Falling Cloud Sect, it revealed astonishing strength during that debate. The sword cultivators of the Sword Sect reigned supreme in battle.

Many who earned a name through the ten great immortal cities' Debate Platforms met unexpected ends in the contest. In the final rankings, only seven cultivators from other sects achieved commendable results, and among them, five were True Inheritors of Nascent Soul sects. As a result, cultivators from beyond the domain began to take the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect seriously as the local overlord. The reckless provocations that had once been common became far more restrained.

In contrast, the Ice Fortress, which had once risen to fame because of Luo Chen, now faded quietly into obscurity amid the fervent preparations for war. It was known only that among the five female cultivators who had entered life-or-death seclusion to attempt Core Formation, only one had succeeded. Of the remaining four, one had died, two were grievously injured, and one's foundation was ruined beyond recovery.

While the outside world surged like a storm, tranquility endured within Cave Residence Jia Three of Tianlan Peak. Ten years went by in what felt like the blink of an eye. For the first time in a decade, Luo Chen stepped out of his cultivation chamber and entered the living room.

There was only one reason this could possibly happen: He had reached Perfected Mastery of the Foundation Establishment Realm! It had taken twice as long as his original estimate, largely because so much of his focus had gone into cultivating Beaded Curtain Lock. Yet the result was worth every effort.

Ten years to condense 365 spirit beads!

As Luo Chen stepped forward, a heavy pressure seemed to weigh upon his entire being. Even his ridiculously powerful physique struggled to bear it.

"The number of spirit beads matches the cycle of heaven, and their weight also feels like the weight of heaven itself," he murmured, a quiet sigh escaping his lips.

From the doorway, his gaze passed through the drifting clouds and mist, overlooking the vast immortal city below. The cultivators moving along its streets appeared no larger than ants beneath his eyes. He stood there with a heart as calm as still water and opened his status panel for the first time in many years. A translucent screen spread open before him, shining like the cascading light of the waterfall at Tianlan Peak.

[Status Panel]

Name: Luo Chen

Lifespan: 90/200

Spirit Roots: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth

Realm: Foundation Establishment Perfected Mastery; Archaic Tier Three (10/100)

Achievement Points: 52

[Techniques]

Eternal Youth Evergreen Sutra: Perfected Mastery

Myriad Path Convergence: Perfection (301/500)

Myriad Beast Sutra: Beginner (15/100)

[Spells]

Third-Tier

Second-Tier

First-Tier

Perfected Mastery Spells (click to view details)

[Alchemy]

Scaled Shift: Perfection (400/500)

Star Plucking: Perfected Mastery

Perfected Mastery Alchemy Techniques (click to view details)

[Martial Arts]

Cloud-Seizing Divine Claw: Grandmaster (590/1000)

Blazing Fire Miasma: Grandmaster (521/1000)

Heavenly Maiden Scatters Flowers: Perfected Mastery

Mountain-Cleaving Monument-Breaking Palm: Perfected Mastery

[Skills]

Third-Tier Alchemist, Second-Tier Healer

Third-Tier Pills

Second-Tier Pills

Perfected Mastery Pills (click to view details)

"This panel... it feels like I haven't fully opened it in ages," Luo Chen murmured under his breath.

As his cultivation grew higher, he realized that the number of times he checked the panel had dwindled. In the past, every breakthrough was followed by a careful review to summarize the past, assess the present, and plan for the future. Yet the last time he had opened it was back at the eighth stage of Foundation Establishment. Now, he had reached Perfected Mastery, and he wasn't even sure how he had gotten to the ripe old age of ninety. In his previous life, this would have placed him solidly in the "better write your testament" category.

1. As said before, the Lesser Heavenly Cycle (小周天之数) refers to the flow of qi through the Ren and Du meridians, forming a closed internal loop that unites yin and yang within the body. The Greater Heavenly Cycle (大周天之数) is the full circulation of qi through all meridians and linking one's energy with that of heaven and earth. The Double Heavenly Cycle means, of course, uninterrupted qi circulation both inside the body and between the body and nature. ☜

2. For some reason, the author uses the same term as for cultivation arts, but puts it under the spell section. We are not sure why. ☜