An Alchemist's Path to Eternity-Chapter 659: Core Formation! (III)

"Getting old, huh..." Luo Chen said as he laughed at himself softly.

If anyone else had heard that, they would've probably stabbed him on the spot. To reach Perfected Mastery of Foundation Establishment at ninety years of age was simply insane. Perhaps only those so-called prodigies with a heavenly spirit root, the ones who established their foundation in ten years and formed their core in a century, could compare. And as that thought crossed his mind, a sense of pride rose in Luo Chen's chest. He knew all too well the price he had paid to attain such progress.

He then glanced toward the line marking his lifespan. He now had a full 200! It was somewhat unexpected. Back at the eighth stage, it had been around 170, and thinking logically, advancing two stages should have added no more than two decades.

"Perhaps it has something to do with the life force I absorbed from those low-tier demonic beasts while healing?"

Luo Chen made a reasonable guess but didn't dwell on it. As long as it stayed far from the danger threshold, lifespan was no longer something he paid much attention to. At least to his knowledge, even a Divine Transformation Ascendant could not achieve true immortality. In other words, people only kept living so long as they kept evolving in cultivation.

His gaze drifted downward and paused upon two entries: his Physique Refinement cultivation and Myriad Path Convergence. Since returning from the Thundernet Nine Mountains, these two had seen almost no progress at all.

The reason was simple: He lacked the external force necessary for tempering the body. Lightning energy was hard to find, and the occasional heavenly lightning never lasted long. That was why he found himself in such an awkward state. Yet Luo Chen had already devised a solution long ago—he would temper his body with primordial true fire!

When Myriad Path Convergence was first created, Luo Chen used lightning as a means to temper the body, even though the cultivation art was rooted in a fire-element bloodline. Now that lightning was scarce, he could return to the root of that principle by cultivating the true form of the Fire Roc and temper his body through fire instead. Moreover, the Withering-Flourishing Fire contained its own profound mysteries; it could burn away and devour the life force of living beings, and so there were undoubtedly more advantages to be had by using it.

Of course, there was no need to rush. The pressing matter now was Core Formation. Physique Refinement could wait until success or failure of Core Formation was confirmed. Yet he had spent countless achievement points to deduce Myriad Path Convergence from his accumulated insights. There was no way he would allow such a technique to be wasted. In fact, he already had several ideas on how to refine the detailed steps of the technique. Its previous results had been good but still somewhat rough.

And thinking of Core Formation inevitably brought to mind the two secret arts he had devoted himself to for the past ten years! He had practiced both Beaded Curtain Lock and Stilling Wind and Waves to the Grandmaster level and was just a single step away from Perfected Mastery. Yet that one step proved impossible to cross.

Beaded Curtain Lock had remained stuck at 999/1000 for quite some time. In fact, he had once even dispersed all his spirit beads and then started the process again, yet the progress numbers refused to budge! For this reason, he suspected the bottleneck had to do with Core Formation itself. Only by merging all 365 spirit beads into a single Golden Core could the art be considered complete.

After all, this technique was divided into three stages, and he had merely pushed the first two to their limits. The third step was fusion. It was a step he had not yet attempted, nor dared to attempt lightly. Crossing that line would not only mark the completion of the secret art but also crossing the final threshold of the Foundation Establishment Realm itself.

After reviewing this much, there was little else that needed attention. Everything else was simply the natural result of decades of steady cultivation. His spell proficiencies had improved, his alchemy had improved, and he had even learned a new third-tier spell.

Oh, wait. Alchemy?

He hadn't even noticed this, but it made perfect sense—since he had successfully refined the third-tier Nether Origin Pill, he was now officially a third-tier alchemist! Even though this was to be expected, it still brought him joy.

Lastly came the matter of achievement points. Luo Chen had spent forty achievement points in one go just to enter the initial threshold of Nether Origin Pill refinement. Yet after years of accumulation, his total had recovered to a secure fifty-two points. With that many achievement points stored, a quiet confidence settled in his heart. After finishing his review of the panel, he gained a clear grasp of his current state.

"Whether it's physique, divine soul, or spirit power reserves, I've already surpassed all ordinary Initiate; in fact, apart from mana, I am hardly different from an Adept. I am done practicing the Core Formation secret art to the absolute limit. All preparations are complete, and what comes next..."

Luo Chen took in a deep breath that filled his lungs with the crisp air outside the cave. Then, without a trace of hesitation, he turned back in and shut the door of his cave residence behind him.

***

"Failed again! How could this happen? I clearly did everything perfectly! Even the Dao Scions of Nascent Soul sects couldn't have prepared better than I did, so why would it still fail?"

Inside the cultivation chamber, Luo Chen's face was as dark as ink and his expression heavy as mercury. He held a cracked bronze mirror in his hand, and he was filled with disbelief.

He had failed to form his core, twice!

Of course, it was not an actual failure. Both attempts had been within a simulation using the Divine Ghost Heartmirror. The mirror's primary purpose was to allow Perfected Mastery Foundation Establishment cultivators to simulate the process of forming a core. And now, after all these years of possessing the mirror, Luo Chen was finally able to use it "properly."

Naturally, he would be stupid not to make use of such a fine treasure. Thus, before he went into seclusion to attempt Core Formation, he first used the mirror to simulate the attempt. With the protection of the Forsaken Black Chess Piece and years of cultivating Mirror Flower Water Moon, he already possessed considerable resistance to illusions. Hence, even without an elder's guidance, he dared to face this and simulate the trial alone.

Yet both attempts had ended in disappointment. The first time, he used the major mastery Beaded Curtain Lock to form his core and failed. The exact reason remained unknown. All he remembered was that at the final step, when the three hundred sixty-five spirit beads fused, an explosion erupted. After that thunderous blast, he awoke in a daze.

A month later, after resting and restoring his strength, Luo Chen once again activated the Divine Ghost Heartmirror. The second attempt relied on the Nether Origin Pill, yet it too ended in failure. The cause this time was even harder to discern. After swallowing the pill, a tremendous swelling rose within his body, and then... nothing. It was as though a gust of wind had passed and left no trace behind. He simply awoke again, and he didn't feel strained in his divine soul or even fatigued. With a dark expression, Luo Chen forced himself to calm down and analyze the causes as best as he could.

"In essence, when a cultivator forms a core, it is an organic transformation. Even without secret arts or pills, they still have a small chance to succeed. But that chance is far too slim. This is why people developed methods like secret arts, pills, and rare treasures of heaven and earth, to increase the success rate. But Beaded Curtain Lock is an Upper Path Core Formation art, and since I have mastered it, it should have raised my success rate by thirty percent above my original odds. The Nether Origin Pill adds another twenty percent. Even if the simulations were separate, there is no reason both should have failed. Why? Is my natural chance to form a core actually zero?"

The question echoed in his mind as he searched for an answer. Only after a long while did he arrive at a vague conclusion. It still came down to that old and familiar problem: aptitude! His five-element spirit root was holding him back. In other words, his natural chance of forming a core really was close to zero. However, this time, he approached the problem from a different perspective. He recalled what Ice Torrent had once told him about his spirit root.

Yes, it's poor aptitude and that much cannot be denied. But it's still a spirit root; it allows me to cultivate, and that's more than what most people have! And even though it's poor, it allowed me to get to this point! Not only that, but I have a wider sea of qi, several times more spirit power than others, and strength in battle way beyond peers. In comparison, the terrible cultivation speed is just a little flaw that can be remedied with sufficient resources. So maybe, in a sense, I actually am a cultivation genius. And it's precisely because of this excellence that I need even greater assistance for each breakthrough.

If cultivation were likened to building a house, aptitude would be the foundation. The fewer the spirit roots, the smaller the foundation. Such people could build their houses quickly and beautifully. A little assistance was enough for them to construct something fine.

For those with more spirit roots, the foundation was much larger. The more extensive the base, the more materials were needed to complete it. When the time came to build the mansion of Core Formation, the assistance required naturally grew heavier.

"So the Upper Path art alone isn't enough! The Nether Origin Pill isn't enough either! I still have the reversed spirit vortex of the Clear Origin Mystical Pill! No—next time, I'll combine them all and see what happens."

Since every method could only raise the chance of Core Formation by a small margin, a question naturally arose in Luo Chen's mind—What will happen if they are all used together? 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Before he knew it, a daring idea had taken root. The thought was reckless, yet not without reason. Because in Luo Chen's hands, there was something that could be used to test it.

After several days of rest, Luo Chen sat down and looked at the cracked surface of the Divine Ghost Heartmirror. Without hesitation, he released his divine soul into it.

Within the yellow-hazed mirror, a Daoist sat cross-legged.

***

The third failure arrived as expected, and along with it came the complete ruin of the Heartmirror. This was also nothing unexpected. The mirror had been quite damaged to begin with, and over the years, he had used it repeatedly to reflect upon his own heart. It was not only for himself but also for Gu Caiyi and the Initiates of the Luo Tian Society. With such frequent activation and no way to maintain or repair it, its condition naturally worsened.

Back in Magnetic Essence Valley, when he used the mirror to help Miao Wen reclaim his true self, the treasure had already shown signs of imminent failure. Now, after supporting just three simulations for Luo Chen, it had reached the absolute limit of its endurance.

Luo Chen gazed at the bronze shards in his hand with a tinge of regret. It had been a rare enchanted treasure, one meant to be used with the divine soul. Yet the moment of regret quickly faded, replaced by a flicker of excitement, and even a faint smile. Why could he still smile when misfortunes piled up? The reason was simple—though he failed in the final simulation, he had come infinitely close to success!

"This is the way," he murmured. "This is definitely the right way. They are different Core Formation paths, and each holds its own mystery, but if I solve the conflicts and just extract the fundamental principle of each, I can make it work. But even these three are not enough!"

A faint azure light flickered across his hand and three jade slips appeared in his palm. They were none other than the three Lower Path Core Formation arts he had acquired: Dragon-Phoenix Tribulation, Transcending Cage, and Primordial Convergence.

"If I fuse these three with Beaded Curtain Lock, could I forge a Core Formation method tailored to myself?"

Luo Chen had the confidence to try. He had possessed them for years and studied them in detail. He was confident that mastering them and creating his own method would not be beyond the realm of possibility. After all, he had already met some degree of the prerequisites for each art. For Dragon-Phoenix Tribulation, he already had both Ascending Dragon Pills and Ice Phoenix Pellets. Transcending Cage required a powerful physique and a potent third-tier breakthrough pil—in his case, the Nether Origin Pill. Primordial Convergence was simpler still; his Clear Origin Mystical Pill shared the same origin and even surpassed it in grade.

If the arts could be merged into one, the chance of forming a core would be raised to the absolute limit. Even if the effect failed to equal the sum of its parts, it would suffice so long as it exceeded any single art.

He had many secret arts, three kinds of breakthrough pills, and a solid triad of vital essence, qi, and spirit. If even that failed to break into the Golden Core Realm, Luo Chen would question whether five spirit roots cultivators were truly abandoned by heaven, and even whether the Five Elements Divine Sect's doctrine made sense.

As for whether the method he created would be actually feasible, it would have been great to have the Divine Ghost Heartmirror, yet its loss did not leave him helpless. He still had the system and he could spend achievement points to achieve instant basic mastery. And with that thought, resolve settled.

There was no way back.