Chapter 617: Primordial True Fire

Hiss...

A wisp of azure flame flickered to life.

Luo Chen stared blankly at the azure flame dancing atop his fingertip. After three long years, aided by the Ice Prison's extreme cold, he had finally refined the Withering-Flourishing Fire he had once recklessly absorbed into his body. From that moment on, like Dan Yangzi, he was one of the rare few to command a primordial true fire while still in Foundation Establishment.

Yet the price he paid was far heavier than anyone could imagine.

As the azure flame dispersed, Luo Chen's hand brushed over his hair that hung loose down his back. The strands felt dry beneath his fingers, and their color had turned ashen gray. Were it not for the smooth, healthy glow of his skin, one might have mistaken him for an old man on the verge of death.

Such a condition was exceedingly rare among Initiates. It usually appeared only in those whose lifespan was nearly exhausted, when their blood essence waned so much that even their spirit power slipped beyond control.

And yet Luo Chen possessed a third-tier Archaic physique. Though he was still far from the level where he could regenerate his body from a single drop of blood, his skin was as smooth as an infant's, and his hair should have been as black as silk. Yet the strands that now hung behind him had turned a lifeless shade of gray, and the reason behind it all was...

"It was my own doing after all," he murmured in a hoarse voice. "Sometimes, advancing too quickly in cultivation brings its own curse."

He thought back carefully to when he had truly begun cultivating in earnest.

When he first transmigrated, he was twenty-six. He spent a full year mastering fasting concoctions. By twenty-seven, he had begun studying the Myriad Wonders Pill. The immense profits that came from refining this pill and other such brought him countless spirit stones, and with the help of those resources, his cultivation advanced at astonishing speed. In the thirty years that followed, by the age of fifty-seven, he had already reached the seventh stage of Foundation Establishment and was only a step away from the eighth.

Such progress would have been considered remarkable even within Nascent Soul sects. Those born with heavenly spirit roots were said to take ten years to establish their foundation and a hundred to form their core. Compared to them, Luo Chen's cultivation speed was alarmingly fast.

The path had not been free of hardships, of course. His inferior five-element spirit roots, the growing tolerance to pills, and the lingering toxins left behind after each breakthrough had all stood in his way. Yet he had overcome them one by one.

By all reasoning, nothing should have gone wrong. Even though he relied on pills to hasten his cultivation, his five-element spirit roots, seemingly weak yet profoundly resilient, kept everything under control. He had also compensated for the shortcomings of both his physique and his divine soul. With all three aspects working together, his body should have easily borne the strain of rapid advancement. Yet despite such remarkable progress, Luo Chen's greed had still driven him toward another shortcut.

"The lesser third-tier spirit land," he muttered. "Now I finally understand why major sects, despite being capable of constructing such lands for their disciples, keep them reserved only for their Dao Scions. The so-called limitations of the physique and meridians aren't the real issue. The true problem lies in the fact that these lands surpass the proper realm boundaries! They can be used by Initiates for short-term breakthroughs, but not for long-term accumulation."

Only cultivators who had reached the ninth stage of Foundation Establishment were truly suited to cultivate in such places. For them, it was the ideal ground not only to push toward Perfected Mastery of Foundation Establishment but also to adapt early to the environment required for the Golden Core Realm.

However, Luo Chen had made the reckless choice to cultivate in the weakened third-tier spiritual land twice, once at the fifth stage and again at the seventh. Without the slow refinement that came from years of steady cultivation, even a body capable of enduring torrents of spirit energy and a soul normally untroubled by fatigue could not remain unaffected. Advancement that came too swiftly inevitably stirred restlessness within the heart.

Temperament had little to do with the depth of the divine soul or the strength of will. It revealed itself instead through one's outlook on the world. Luo Chen's time spent cultivating had simply been too short. Though he believed his path had been filled with hardships, in truth, his journey had been remarkably smooth.

And too much success breeds arrogance.

Many formidable enemies had faced him, yet all had fallen beneath his sword. Every trial that had come his way had been conquered through sheer perseverance. His cultivation continued to soar as one enemy after another perished. Even Di Wanyun had met his end at Luo Chen's hands, and Qin Tairan had proven powerless against him outside Danxia Peak. With each triumph, his confidence swelled, and without realizing it, his heart began to drift.

Thus, when the Flame Alliance was massacred and thrown into chaos, he saw before him an opportunity that would never come again. In his impatience, he hurled himself toward it without hesitation.

Even when others tried to dissuade him, even when obstacles loomed ahead, he refused to listen. Under the blessing of Hao Ranzi's weakened third-tier cave residence on Tianlan Peak, his cultivation soared higher with each passing day. With that rising power came growing confidence, and he paid no heed to warnings or restraint.

He believed he could succeed. He truly believed it. And in the end, he had indeed succeeded.

Yet looking back on everything that had happened, a cold sweat crept down his back.

Fighting alone across realms and daring to stir the attention of major sects had been nothing short of madness. Marching into the Flame Alliance's immortal city with cultivation at the Foundation Establishment was the same as walking willingly into a tiger's den. During the battle at Incense Burning Valley, he had even crossed a tremendous gap in cultivation to challenge Qin Tairan head-on. It was not just reckless, but bordering on suicide.

Every single deed had been like the actions of a child wielding a giant saber. One full-power swing could certainly kill an adult, yet one careless swing could just as well cut off his own foot. Such a style of action still bore traces of his usual decisiveness, yet it was far beyond anything he had ever done before.

Luo Chen had always acted with boldness tempered by caution, steadiness balanced with resolve. Never before had that balance vanished so completely, leaving only reckless daring and rash impulse. In those moments, he had charged forward without a shred of hesitation.

Everything seemed fine so long as success followed. If failure came instead, he would simply shrug it off with a casual thought:

At worst, I'll just walk away from it.

Yet the reality was never that forgiving. No one would let him walk away so easily. The more he reflected on his past actions, the drier his mouth became, and unease crept into his chest. A faint realization dawned upon him.

"It was a Heart Devil."

Among the countless trials on the path of cultivation, there existed a type of tribulation known as the Heart Devil. It had no form and no substance, yet for countless generations, innumerable cultivators had fallen victim to its invisible grasp.

No one truly understood what the Heart Devil was, but over time, its patterns had been observed. Obsession, delusion, confusion, chaos, despair.... When such negative emotions lingered within the Dao Heart, they would breed a Heart Devil before the cultivator even realized it.

Luo Chen had fallen into precisely such a state. His cultivation had advanced too quickly, his path had been too smooth, and the humiliation caused by Qin Tairan casually strolling in through his door had left a deep resentment festering within. Without realizing it, he had stepped straight into the trap of a Heart Devil.

During the second time he cultivated within the lesser third-tier spirit land, the desire for vengeance had grown stronger with every surge in power. Each rise in cultivation only deepened that burning obsession, until it finally pushed Luo Chen to take that fatal step forward.

Fortunately, he had succeeded, and nothing had gone wrong midway. Had a single thing gone wrong, then forget about nine lives; not even ten thousand would have been enough to save him from perishing in Incense Burning Valley.

Qin Tairan had never been someone to provoke lightly. At that time, he had fought two peers at once without losing the upper hand. In his determination to kill Luo Chen, he had taken two direct blows from cultivators of equal level, leaving himself gravely wounded. He had then endured a strike from the Lightning Immortal Pearl that nearly cost him his life. And even so, Luo Chen had almost failed to finish him off!

Now, recalling all that danger made his heart pound all over again.

"And my gamble this time went far beyond just that," he murmured.

He brushed through his gray hair as a bitter smile tugged at his lips. Tian Xingzi had provided him with an overwhelming amount of intelligence. It was more than he could have gathered in years on his own. The reports covered everything, from the number of cultivators in the Flame Alliance to the details of their formations and the structure of their spirit veins. It was because of that information that he had dared to storm the Flame Alliance's mountain gate so boldly.

Among those reports, however, one stood out above the rest. It had come from none other than Han Zhan, the Supreme Elder of the Falling Cloud Sect.

The man apparently firmly believed that Luo Chen was the one who had saved his grandson, Han Zheng. Thus, that particular piece of information had not been an exchange for the hundred-year Lightning Essence, but rather a gift of gratitude for saving Han Zheng's life.

The intelligence had been directly connected to the Flame Alliance's Withering-Flourishing Fire, a strange fire that had been cultivated and nurtured for three centuries.

According to Han Zhan, the Withering-Flourishing Fire had become a third-tier spirit fire after three hundred years of refinement. Only a cultivator with a physique of equal rank could attempt to absorb it by force.

Luo Chen happened to meet that requirement perfectly, and as an alchemist, he had long desired a primordial true fire of his own. It had to be said that Han Zhan's gift had struck precisely at Luo Chen's deepest desire. From that moment, he began making preparations to claim the fire for himself.

Min Longyu, who had not originally been assigned to the operation against the Flame Alliance, was personally reassigned by Luo Chen for that very purpose. It was not to help crack the defensive formation, but so that he could slip into Incense Burning Valley amidst the chaos and locate the Withering-Flourishing Fire using his mastery of formations.

Thanks to that piece of intelligence, Min Longyu had succeeded and even set up the necessary formations ahead of time. It was because of this that Luo Chen had been able to take advantage of the battle's momentum to descend into the underground cavern.

For Luo Chen, absorbing the fire into his body was not a difficult task. Years earlier, his studies in alchemy had led him to explore secret methods related to the control and refinement of fire. The process was divided into four stages: control, fusion, absorption, and transformation.

He had already perfected Flame Manipulation and achieved mastery in the control stage. Then, the Duan family's Fire Fusion and a unique method known as One-Breath Flowing Flame further enabled him to reach the fusion stage, which he refined through years of practical experience in alchemy.

He had also delved deeply into the art of Fire Absorption. Whether it was the Flame Yang True Scripture found within Huo Hu's legacy, or the second-tier Azure Yang Seal that he had acquired, both had methods for drawing a Sourceless Flame into one's body and transforming it into a primordial true fire.

However, while Sourceless Flames were not particularly rare, they were by no means something ordinary Initiates could handle. Even among the disciples of the Flame Alliance, most would only take a small portion of the Withering-Flourishing Fire into their bodies, nurturing it separately with their own spirit power. And only a few dared to attempt even this much. After all, such a method would slow down their cultivation progress.

As for the Adepts of the Flame Alliance, the combat power gained from absorbing the Withering-Flourishing Fire could never compare to the immense wealth and resources earned from creating enchanted artifacts with it. The Sourceless Flame belonged to the alliance, not to any individual, and because of that, it had been carefully preserved for generations. In the end, Luo Chen was the lucky fisherman who reaped the benefit.

"But was it really luck, though? Not really..."

He let out a long sigh. He had never expected that once absorbed into his body, the flame would not be third-tier as the intelligence described, but actually well on the threshold of the fourth tier. It was clearly in that unstable state that marked a step into the fourth tier, where spirit intelligence was about to form but it was not quite there. It was truly a strange and volatile stage.

Thinking back on it now, he finally understood why Fei Ming had been able to break the Blazing Fire Grand Formation with such ease. It must have been connected to the transformation of the inherited mystical fire at that time. Someone had likely used the formation as a medium to push the Withering-Flourishing Fire toward its next evolution. It was just as Min Longyu had once employed the Ninefold Flame Dragon Formation to help Luo Chen refine the Mystic Flame Sword.

Although the Withering-Flourishing Fire had yet to develop spirit intelligence, the fact that it had touched upon the fourth tier meant that its conditions for acknowledging a master were harsher than he had expected. The first condition was exactly as Han Zhan had described—a body strong enough to endure it. Only one with a sufficiently powerful physique could contain the Sourceless Flame and refine it into a primordial true fire.

The second lay in the fire's own dual nature: withering and flourishing. To harness its flourishing aspect, one needed to provide it with vitality in equal measure. Those whose life force was drawn away would, in turn, fall into the withering aspect. Of course, that was on the premise that the fire had stabilized after advancing. If it was unstable, controlling it was impossible, and it would consume all life force without restraint.

Over three years of refining it, Luo Chen had come to understand its nature more deeply, and finally realized why none of the Adepts from the Flame Alliance had ever attempted to absorb it and why no one beyond the alliance had ever desired it.

To refine it was to be devoured by it, to have one's life force drained and lifespan shortened. At the same time, leaving it unrefined allowed it to serve another purpose. Through the use of the Incense Burning Spirit-Seizing Grand Formation, one could siphon the life force of living beings into the fire. The absorbed life force not only strengthened and purified the fire but also generated a portion of transformed vitality that could be transferred to aging Golden Core cultivators, granting them a temporary extension of life. That was precisely why the Flame Alliance had managed to produce over a dozen Adepts seemingly overnight—they were not new Adepts, but old ones who still lingered beyond their natural lifespan.

This method, of course, came with grave side effects. Those who relied on the Withering-Flourishing Fire to extend their lives could not wander freely. Once they died, every last drop of their vital essence would be drawn back into the fire.

Now, by relying on his formidable physique and the extreme environment of the Ice Prison, Luo Chen had forcibly refined the Withering-Flourishing Fire over the course of three years. Through it, he had gained a primordial true fire that belonged solely to him. However, the price he had paid was devastating.

Half of his remaining life force had been consumed!

On his system panel, the lifespan indicator that had once read (57/260) now displayed (57/160). In other words, of the two hundred years that he had left, one hundred had been mercilessly taken away!

"I still can't tell whether Han Zhan gave me a cup of wine or a cup of poison," he murmured. He should have known better. But back then, trapped in the Heart Devil, he had believed everything was within his grasp, and he had drunk that cup without even tasting it.

A complex expression crossed Luo Chen's face—something between laughter and sorrow, bitterness and relief, gratitude and melancholy. Even the greatest actors in his previous life could hardly have portrayed such emotion.

After years of arduous cultivation, all that hard-earned lifespan had been halved in one shot. Who wouldn't feel the sting of that loss? If anything, an ordinary cultivator would have seen their Dao heart crumble under such a loss, unable to accept the cruel reality before them. However, Luo Chen was different. His will remained unshaken, and having just broken free from a Heart Devil, his heart was calm and his mind clear, untouched by despair.

He had already calculated his situation carefully. At his current rate of progress, even without the aid of a third-tier spirit land, achieving Perfected Mastery of Foundation Establishment within a hundred years remained well within reach. And once he formed his core, his cultivation would advance, and his lifespan would surge once more.

More importantly, he was not like other cultivators. His lifespan had not been set into stone once he'd stepped into Foundation Establishment; instead, it grew slightly with each minor breakthrough. Although it seemed he had only a hundred years left, the eighth and ninth stages ahead could still extend his lifespan by another twenty years.

If nothing unexpected happens, there should still be enough time,

he thought.

After that quiet reflection, he rose to his feet, washed himself clean, and changed into a fresh robe. Then, gathering his long gray hair, he tied it neatly behind his head and fixed it with a Daoist hairpin.

After tidying himself up, the refined and graceful Luo Chen of old had returned once more. Beneath that poised bearing, there was now a steadiness and maturity that had not existed before. His gray hair lent a trace of weariness to his youthful face, and with those dark and calm eyes, he carried an air of quiet strength that few could overlook.

This grooming was not for the sake of his vanity. Now that he had fully woken up, he knew that an important guest would soon be arriving, and appearing presentable was simply a gesture of respect.

When he had finished tidying himself, an object appeared in his hand. It was a jade thumb ring. At first glance, it seemed to be nothing more than an ornament, yet in truth, it was a storage ring. Alongside the Withering-Flourishing Fire, it was one of only two things he had gained from the fall of the Flame Alliance.

The ring had once belonged to Qin Tairan.