Chapter 535: President Luo, Interested in Doing Something Big?

Somewhere among the boundless sands, a massive floating island loomed. It was entirely separate from the ground below, yet it was as if it were rooted deep within the earth. No matter how the desert winds howled or the dunes shifted, it remained unmoved.

On this particular day, a streak of light shot across the horizon. Several cultivators from the Four-Sect Alliance were patrolling nearby. Upon seeing the approaching figure, one of them stepped forward and called out, "Who goes there? Do you have a token?"

"I do," came the raspy reply.

A dark wooden token flickered briefly in the air. The guards focused their gazes on the black-robed figure whose face was concealed by a large hood, and their expressions immediately turned respectful.

"Please, enter!"

The man gave a slight nod and continued forward, stepping calmly onto the Golden Sand Floating Island. Behind him, one of the patrol cultivators whispered, "Captain, why didn't we verify his identity? What if he's a spy?"

The captain shot him a glare. "You blind fool. Didn't you recognize that token? Only Golden Core Adepts carry it. That man is a Golden Core elder from one of the Four Sects!"

The cultivator froze. "But... he didn't have the aura of a Golden Core cultivator..."

"If someone of that level lets you feel their cultivation, are they even worthy of the title Adept?" the captain snapped. "Idiot. Go patrol somewhere else!"

The rebuke echoed faintly in the distance. The black-robed cultivator heard every word, but he didn't react in the slightest.

The token Fairy Ruthless gave me is more useful than I imagined.

So far, I've barely been questioned.

He had returned alone. Wang Yuan was no longer by his side. Truth be told, Wang Yuan had wanted to come along. But Luo Chen had talked him out of it, urging him to return directly to Tianlan Immortal City. The reason was simple: Rumors were swirling that linked Wang Yuan to the Blood Devil. And while the real culprit was someone else, the rumors alone were enough to attract the scrutiny of the Four Sects' Golden Core elders. If Wang Yuan had shown up, those Adepts would've interrogated him. Without solid proof of his innocence... it was better to avoid unnecessary trouble.

Once the war ends,

I can suppress these baseless rumors through the Ice Fortress, and Wang Yuan can always claim he was being hunted all this time, and with no chance to do anything suspicious.

Thus, Wang Yuan would go back to Tianlan Immortal City first, and a few months later, Luo Chen would return with the rest of the Luo Tian Society. From that point on, the war would have little to do with them.

Upon setting foot on the island, Luo Chen immediately suppressed his energy flow. Cloaked in black, with his hood pulled low, he blended effortlessly into the crowd. A few cultivators gave him curious glances, but no one paid him much attention.

This piqued his curiosity.

What’s with the indifference? Why isn't anyone surprised by how I look?

Soon enough, he found the answer. The streets of Golden Sand Floating Island were far more crowded than he'd imagined! Many wore outfits similar to his—some were masked, some wore wide bamboo hats, and some others hid their identity by other means.

Are the cultivators here for rotation? Or are they reinforcements from the sixth mountain?

The sheer number stunned Luo Chen; it was nearly double what it had been before! As his keen spirit consciousness swept the crowd, it revealed that most of them weren't Four-Sect cultivators at all.

They are rogue cultivators. Nearly all of them! Hardly any young ones, most middle-aged or elderly. Are they here to join the war and trade merit points for Core Formation arts?

As these thoughts swirled, Luo Chen slipped into a narrow alleyway. Moments later, he emerged wearing a crimson Daoist robe and a three-leaf Daoist crown. Unlike the simple headpieces worn for binding one's hair, this crown was higher, and its base was low enough to cover his forehead. Gone was his former air of carefree recklessness; he now seemed more composed and mature.

Adjusting his crown, Luo Chen stepped into the Ice Fortress encampment. He frowned the moment he crossed the boundary.

There are more people outside, yet fewer sect cultivators inside?

Still puzzled, he quickly returned to where the Luo Tian Society members resided.

"President, you’re back!" Xu Haizhen was the first to greet him.

Luo Chen nodded and entered the stone hut with Xu Haizhen following close behind. "Tell me what's happened on the island these past few days."

Xu Haizhen didn't waste a breath. He recounted everything in full detail. Luo Chen quickly grasped the major developments that had occurred while he was away.

In short, the Four-Sect Alliance had stopped defending and started launching counterattacks! They were no longer clinging to the fifth and sixth mountains. Instead, they had now rallied their forces to retake the lost seventh mountain.

Rumors had been spread everywhere—the Four Sects had put up Core Formation arts as rewards, including one of the Upper Path. The news had triggered a flood of Foundation Establishment cultivators from across the Jade Cauldron Domain. Many who had previously avoided involvement were now rushing in.

In just half a month, four to five hundred Initiates had arrived on the floating island. Some came from cultivation families, others were rogue cultivators, and some were elders from first-rate or second-rate forces. With the Great Dao of Golden Core laid out before them, how could anyone not be tempted? And it didn't stop there; the numbers kept growing.

Finally, Xu Haizhen added, "Soon, the Falling Cloud Sect's lightning-resistant puppets will also be deployed to the Jilei Nine Mountains battlefield, escorted by the elders. President, the horn of counterattack has been sounded!"

After hearing it all, Luo Chen fell silent in thought. He had assumed the civil war between the Jade Cauldron Domain's two Nascent Soul sects would drag on for much longer. Yet now it seemed the Falling Cloud Sect was pressing forward with surprising urgency.

Or maybe they want to regain the upper hand quickly, then resume a slow tug-of-war afterward?

Due to his cultivation and limited network of connections, Luo Chen found himself unable to grasp the deeper intricacies behind the war's shifting momentum. In the end, he let out a quiet sigh and waved his hand. "You may leave. For the next few days, I don't want anyone disturbing me."

Xu Haizhen paused, casting a curious glance at the tall, three-leaf Daoist crown resting atop Luo Chen's head. But he said nothing, simply bowed, and respectfully exited the stone hut.

Once he was gone, Luo Chen exhaled deeply and removed the crown. At the center of his forehead, a sigil shaped like a flame blazed faintly, vivid and lifelike. It was almost as if it were truly burning. He touched it with his fingers, calm and composed, showing no visible concern. Then, suddenly, he pressed his fingers together into a sword gesture. A strand of crimson blood qi rose slowly from his fingertips and was carefully guided onto the flame-shaped mark.

Chhhhh...

The stench of burning flesh spread through the room in an instant. Luo Chen clenched his jaw, ignoring the searing pain he felt deep within his divine soul, and continued regardless.

After a long while, he finally stopped, letting his hand drop limply toward the ground. A droplet of bright red blood slipped from his fingertip and landed softly on the floor. At the sight of it, Luo Chen exhaled deeply in relief.

Brother Wang didn't exaggerate. This Blood Devil Transformation Finger of his really can be used even without mastery of Bright Force or Dark Force; it works off blood qi alone.

On their journey back, Wang Yuan and Luo Chen had studied the strange sigil left on his forehead by Yan Leizi. After careful examination, Wang Yuan had concluded it was akin to the bloodline techniques used by Withered Toad Huo Quan, deep-rooted arts passed down only among True Inheritors of the Flame Alliance. It was just that what Yan Leizi had used was a more advanced variant.

Over the past few months, Wang Yuan had studied this sort of technique quite in-depth. At first, he'd simply meant to stay behind and buy time for the Luo Tian Society to escape. With his cultivation and his mastery of Spirit Suppression, he thought circling the battlefield would be enough to lose his pursuers. But after several narrow escapes from encirclement, he'd realized something was wrong. Each time he clashed head-on with Withered Toad, the deep, instinctive resonance within his blood only confirmed that suspicion.

Given his personality, there was no way he'd allow such a cursed remnant to linger on his body. So, while fleeing, he began refining a new method by capitalizing on his understanding of Bright Force and Dark Force through blood qi to purge the lingering bloodline traces tied to the Withered Toad.

Through this cycle of pursuit and resistance, Wang Yuan kept pushing forward until he finally grasped the threshold of Transforming Force. That was when he finally understood who Withered Toad really was and how he had been tracking him so precisely.

Obviously, Wang Yuan wasn't the kind to sit down and wait for death. While fleeing, he continuously refined the Blood Devil Transformation Finger, using it to purge the Huo family's lingering bloodline traces. As he did, he constantly changed locations, never staying in one place for long. And eventually, the roles reversed completely—the hunter became the hunted!

Withered Toad, once leading the charge to kill him, found himself the target of ambush after ambush. Sometimes Wang Yuan struck and vanished. Sometimes he picked them off one by one. With relentless precision, he dismantled the encirclement entirely. If Withered Toad hadn't secretly brought in two more allies, Wang Yuan might've finished him off by himself a long time before!

In fact, even without Luo Chen's assistance, Wang Yuan had judged he had a fair chance of dragging Withered Toad, Yang Wei, and Yan Leizi down with him in a final, fatal stand. Well, thankfully, that had turned out to be unnecessary.

Now, Luo Chen turned his focus to the mark blazing on his forehead.

"Blood essence as the trigger, divine soul as the link, and pure spirit power to fuel it, only then can it activate properly," he murmured, reciting the principles.

He stared at the blood droplet on the ground, still giving off a putrid stench. He incinerated it with a casual Fireball.

The Blood Devil Transformation Finger can dispel this mark... but not quickly. I’m not remotely as proficient as Wang Yuan. I need some time...

He repeated the word under his breath, a faint shadow flickering across his otherwise calm face. Yan Leizi's final words had left no ambiguity. He'd declared his status in full before death—he was the son of Di Wanyun, a Flame Alliance elder. Everyone knew what that meant: Kill the progeny, and the parent will come to avenge them. Even among mortals, a bullied child would have their parents come knocking. In the cultivation world, such retaliations were often far more lethal.

Not long ago, when the Luo Tian Society had suffered heavy losses, Luo Chen himself had stepped forward to strike back. Now, with Wang Yuan at his side, he'd slain Withered Toad, Yan Leizi, and others, avenging Li Yingzhang and many others. So it was only natural that Di Wanyun would seek vengeance; nobody would think it improper.

Naturally, Luo Chen had no intention of letting what happened with Withered Toad and Wang Yuan repeat with Di Wanyun and himself. Yet as of now, he lacked the strength to eliminate the threat completely. Which meant his top priority was removing the flame-shaped sigil before Di Wanyun or any other Flame Alliance cultivator could track it down. With his current abilities, all he could do was suppress the blood essence trigger; refining and eliminating the root problem would have to be done slowly.

But I got another trick!

After drawing a deep breath, he steadied his stance and formed a sequence of precise, flowing hand seals. For the first time since reaching Foundation Establishment, he began to cast Cleanse not casually, as he always did, but through the proper incantation and with full focus on channeling his spirit power.

Cleanse was a first-tier spell, widely spread and commonly known; practically every cultivator could use it to some degree. The only real difference was in how deeply one mastered it. But Luo Chen? His mastery in Cleanse had long since reached a level unprecedented and perhaps irreplicable, surpassing predecessors and peers alike. Once the spell was cast, it didn't just eliminate dirt and grime. The spell was so refined, it could even erase foreign energies!

Back when he was still in the Qi Refinement Realm, he had used this very spell to dispel the lingering spirit imprint left by the Foundation Establishment cultivator Mi Shuhua. He had also effortlessly scattered ghostly energy, disrupted lingering spell energy residues, and purged traces of yin qi. Even after advancing to Foundation Establishment, Luo Chen never put the spell aside. He still used it from time to time, sometimes for a purpose, sometimes out of reflex.

Others merely assumed he had an obsession with cleanliness. But Luo Chen believed that even though he had technically mastered the technique to absolute perfection, the technique itself still held room for growth. Fireball was a prime example of this—even after he had achieved Perfected Mastery, he didn’t stop focusing on it. He kept refining, adapting, and layering improvements until he eventually developed Solar Flare. It was slower to charge than the official version, but in terms of potential, its ceiling was far higher. It could accumulate power near-infinitely.

Thus, he harbored the same hope for Cleanse. After a long time of constant practice, especially when he helped Li Yingzhang purge the fiend qi from his body, Luo Chen had begun to glimpse something more, something deeper behind the spell's simple surface.

“Cleanse removes what is foreign to the body: dirt, spirit residue, fiend qi... So then, why not divine soul imprints as well?”

As he muttered softly, Luo Chen's thoughts drifted back to the incident at Dahe Market.

Mi Shuhua... that old fox.

Back then, Mi Shuhua had not only left behind a trace of spirit energy on Luo Chen but also planted an imprint of his own spirit consciousness. Back then, it had taken Pang Renxiong's help to forcibly remove it.

Could I do it myself?

he wondered.

Luo Chen believed he could, because he had the foundation. Over the years, he had unraveled the protections of countless storage pouches, many of which were sealed with soul restrictions. And when he thought about it, weren't spirit consciousness imprints just another variant of those divine soul restrictions?

He steadied his breathing. His fingers moved slightly as he gathered spirit power. Cleanse surged from his fingers and struck the flame sigil at his brow. In that instant, Luo Chen's body jolted violently!

Waves of golden light rippled outward in his sea of consciousness, cascading across the spiritual landscape within him. In the haze, his vision blurred, but then clarity returned in full force the next moment. It felt as if a heavy shackle had loosened, as if... something buried deep inside had suddenly come closer to the surface.

He summoned Water Mirror and examined his forehead. The vivid flame sigil, already dimmed somewhat by the Blood Devil Transformation Finger, had now faded further. Seeing this, Luo Chen's lips curled upward. "It works, just as I thought! Cleanse still holds great potential!"

Now that both Blood Devil Transformation Finger and Cleanse had proven effective against the sigil, Luo Chen finally felt fully at ease. By his estimation, it would take only a few more days of concentrated effort to erase the mark completely. After all, the one who had cast it was merely a sixth-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, and the imprint itself wasn't anything particularly profound or refined. Wang Yuan had used sheer strength and bloodline arts to purge his mark, while Luo Chen had his methods.

"Now, all that's left is to wait for the six-month term to end," he murmured to himself. "Then I can lead the team away from this battlefield for good."

***

The Luo Tian Society guard on duty raised a hand as the figure approached their encampment. "Stop right there!"

"May I ask if President Luo Chen is here?" the figure asked.

The guard narrowed his eyes. "And who might you be?"

"I am Tian Kuizi, Chu Kui. I seek an audience. Please inform Fellow Daoist Luo Chen."

The guard froze for a beat, staring up at the imposing figure before him.

Chu Kui...?

Isn't he the most famous and formidable rogue cultivator in Tianlan Immortal City?

He didn't dare show the slightest delay and immediately turned to report the matter.

Inside the stone hut, Luo Chen was in the middle of his spellwork. He frowned when he heard Chu Kui had come.

Chu Kui? What's he doing here?

He was familiar that Chu Kui had long held a place on the Four-Sect Alliance's Battlefield Merit Rankings. He'd joined the alliance as a rogue cultivator, and he was racking up merit points on the battlefield. But since his cultivation was high, the alliance had imposed restrictions on where and when he could act. That was why Luo Chen hadn't crossed paths with him even once during these past few months at Golden Sand Floating Island.

The Four Sects recently announced they're offering Core Formation secret arts... No doubt Chu Kui's interested. But instead of scrambling for merit points like the others, he comes knocking at my door? Interesting. Let’s see what game he's playing.

With a faint smile, Luo Chen gestured at his men to invite him in.

Moments later, a tall, broad-shouldered man with a wide conical hat shielding his face stepped into the hut. He took the hat off as he entered, revealing a chiseled jaw and eyes full of determination.

Before Luo Chen could even greet him, the man got straight to the point. "President Luo, are you interested in doing something big?"