Chapter 650: Consolidating the Foundation, Reaching the Ninth Stage; The Ice Fortress's Casualties; Chu Kui Visiting (II)

The years are hard to hold, and time slips away far too easily. Those who cultivate in seclusion often lose all sense of time. Before Luo Chen realized it, ten years had passed since his return from the Great Snowy Mountains.

On a certain day, within Cave Residence Bing Seventeen on Tianlan Peak, a long and resonant shout suddenly echoed. The sound reached Bai Meiling, who had long awakened from the Soul-Nurturing Banner, and she immediately hurried back to the cave.

"Master, did you finally advance?" she asked.

Luo Chen had just finished washing up. He put on a loose robe and came to the living room; his expression was calm, and his spirit seemed refreshed. He nodded. A look of delight lit Bai Meiling's face. "Congratulations, Master! The Golden Core Realm is just around the corner!"

Luo Chen accepted the praise with a smile. The Golden Core Realm was indeed within reach. The journey from the eighth to the ninth stage of Foundation Establishment had taken longer than any other such—in total, more than twenty years. Yet it was precisely these long years that had yielded the results he most desperately needed.

His once-unstable foundation had become solid and complete. The triad of vital essence, qi, and spirit had reached the absolute peak of what could be done at this level. His third-tier Archaic physique was better than ever, and his spirit power far surpassed that of any other Initiate he knew. As for his divine soul, after two battles against Heart Devils, one test of heart piercing, one trial of heart questioning, numerous minor breakthroughs, and the long-term use of Spirit Passage Pills, its depth had reached a level beyond imagination. In fact, he now had to stop measuring himself against Initiates in this respect and start aiming for an Adept-level divine soul.

After all, he was only at the ninth stage. Once he reached Perfected Mastery, there would likely be another breakthrough.

Indeed, this is what I needed. How could I ever face Core Formation otherwise?

The feeling stirred in his chest, bringing both anticipation and hesitation. He'd been having this feeling for a while—that with his current accumulation, by reversing the spirit vortex created by the Clear Origin Mystical Pill Method within his sea of qi, he might already have a chance of forming his core without even needing to reach Perfected Mastery of Foundation Establishment.

Obviously, that was far too risky. After all the preparations he had made for Core Formation, how could he act in haste? Haste would only lead to failure; patience was the safer route. Luo Chen glanced at Bai Meiling, his keen eyes seeming to see through her. After observing her in silence for a while, he gave a small nod.

"I see you're doing quite fine yourself," he said.

Bai Meiling smiled. "I have fully absorbed that strand of the Ghost King's primal yin. With the Soul-Nurturing Banner helping me, practicing the Divine Ghost Secret Record has been twice the results for half the effort. If nothing unexpected happens, then in a hundred years, I might advance to the Ghost King Realm."

Luo Chen raised his brows and asked, "You are that certain?"

Bai Meiling scratched her head. "It's hard to say, but I truly have that feeling. That Ghost King's primal yin contained fragments of will. After absorbing them, I gained some insights from the memories hidden inside."

Luo Chen nodded thoughtfully. Indeed, the long experience of a Ghost King held some value. This was no wild guess; after Pang Renxiong's fall, his lingering soul had needed only a few years to reach the Ghost King Realm. If nothing else, this certainly revealed a pattern.

The man had relied not only on the divine soul foundation of an Adept, nor merely on the so-called clarity of the sword heart. More importantly, his lingering soul had absorbed the remnant yin qi of the three Ghost Kings in Dahe Market. It was by that stroke of fate that he regained third-tier strength so quickly.

More importantly, the way Luo Chen saw things, if Pang Renxiong had managed to fully refine that ghostly city, and if the Sword Sect disciples had continued feeding him the living souls of demonic beasts, then not only could he regain his former peak strength, he might even have surpassed it by now. The battle at Dahe Market had been a calamity for Pang Renxiong, yet at the same time, perhaps it was also a fated opportunity.

"What's the situation lately? Tell me everything," Luo Chen said calmly.

Bai Meiling nodded and began recounting in detail the intelligence reports sent by the Luo Tian Society over the past years.

First came the news Luo Chen cared most about: the matters concerning the Ice Fortress. Four Adepts had died under mysterious circumstances! To mourn them, the Ice Fortress had held a funeral, yet oddly, not a single outsider had been invited. Even the Luo Tian Society, one of their closest vassals, had not received an invitation.

Luo Chen frowned as he thought,

Four Adepts are dead? Could they have fallen in battle with the demonic beasts during the tribulation on the Great Snowy Mountains?

He remembered clearly that when Ice Torrent faced her tribulation, Han Zhan had not been the only one assisting her. The Ice Fortress had mobilized nearly all of its strongest cultivators. Aside from Ice Torrent, who faced the tribulation, and Fairy Icesoul, the new sect leader who had remained behind to guard the fortress, the other eight Adepts had risked everything.

Within the Moon Radiance Ice Fortress, each had been stationed on a separate floor. With the aid of top-grade enchanted treasures and the power of a fourth-tier spirit land, they had fought a titanic battle against the endless wave of demonic beasts summoned by the Whitebone Dark Serpent from the Great Snowy Mountains. The number of third-tier beasts alone had been unimaginable. According to the reports there had been over a hundred. Under such circumstances, the death of several Adepts was only to be expected. However...

"Is there no news of Adept Ice Torrent's successful advancement to Nascent Soul?" Luo Chen asked.

Bai Meiling shook her head. "I went through every piece of intelligence we received. There's no sign of her success. It seems likely that she failed her tribulation...."

"She... failed?" Luo Chen murmured, and a faint sorrow shaded his face.

He had truly hoped Ice Torrent would succeed. After all, he had once called her Senior Sister, and for no superficial reason. Then, the sadness in his heart gave way to unease. If Ice Torrent had indeed failed to reach the Nascent Soul Realm, and the Ice Fortress had simultaneously lost four Adepts, then serious upheaval was bound to follow!

Those changes would not be limited to the internal power struggles within the Ice Fortress, but would extend to the greater political landscape, and even to the Frontier War that loomed only a few years away. Whether a severely weakened Ice Fortress could still take part in that war was anybody's guess. In any case, whatever the consequences, the Luo Tian Society was the Ice Fortress's vassal, and was therefore bound to be involved in said consequences.

When the topic of the Frontier War arose, Bai Meiling promptly shifted to that section of her report. From her description, the Jade Cauldron Domain had really become like a massive cauldron on the verge of boiling over. Countless cultivators from outer domains were flocking toward it, eager and restless for the war set to begin in thirty years, and those were merely the rogue cultivators. In time, the major sects listed as official participants would begin arriving one after another.

"The Glowing Stream Market is ours now!" she announced with a bright smile.

It was one of the few pieces of truly positive news among the flood of grim intelligence.

"Brother Duan led our cultivators and joined forces with the Kang family of Taishan Market and the Luo family of Luosha Market to strike against the Bai family. There were some setbacks in the battle, but no major casualties. Only Sister Feng Xia sustained serious injuries during the struggle over a third-tier cypress; she got injured while protecting the spirit plant. Thanks to the full efforts of our healers, she's already recovered and resumed cultivation."

Feng Xia had reached Foundation Establishment many years ago and had succeeded Bian Zhen as the head of the Medicine Palace. A thriving third-tier cypress was an invaluable treasure, and as the palace leader, she had naturally risked everything to preserve it.

Luo Chen took the scroll and read through the account of the battle carefully. Beyond the records of casualties and gains, it also mentioned the rise of several younger members of the society.

Zeng Yilong has achieved mastery in Physique Refinement; Bai Lian, a rising artisan from the Artifact Palace, and Qu Lingjun have reached Foundation Establishment...

"Wait—Lingjun? What was he doing on the battlefield?" Luo Chen frowned in surprise.

Qu Lingjun's success in forming his foundation was well within his expectations. After all, over the years, he had enjoyed special privileges when it came to spirit medicines and resources far more than Luo Chen ever had during his Qi Refinement stage. In terms of techniques and daily cultivation, he was not lacking either; the Initiates from the Luo Tian Society had been personally guiding him. He even possessed a secret art crafted specifically for him by Li Yingzhang, Three Origin Convergence. Thus, even though he had been already sixty-two at the time, he succeeded in establishing his foundation after taking two Foundation Establishment Pills in succession.

With that said, within the Luo Tian Society, there had never been a precedent for sending an alchemist onto the battlefield. Unless Danxia Peak or Luo Chen himself were in dire straits, there was no reason for an auxiliary specialist, even an Initiate, to join combat.

Bai Meiling shrugged. "Apparently, he volunteered. He said his cultivation journey had always gone smoothly and that he'd rarely fought anyone for real. So he requested to join this battle to temper himself. He's the leader of the Alchemy Palace and your disciple, so the others found it difficult to refuse him. After careful consideration, Director Sima approved his participation."

Even after hearing the arguments, Luo Chen still felt a touch of dissatisfaction. Only when he learned that the decision had come from Sima Huiniang did he suppress his displeasure.

"Perhaps I've been too protective, raising him like a flower in a greenhouse. An alchemist who commands immense wealth should possess strength to match it. That is the way."

Luo Chen found a reason to ease his mind. But even though it was more self-consolation than anything else, it was still based on factual truth. When it came to alchemists' combat abilities, the contrast had always been stark. There were the unparalleled ones like Luo Chen and Dan Yangzi of Green Pill Valley. There were also the pitifully weak ones, like Dan Yuanzi, who had perished in the Battle of Qinhua River. Despite having reached the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, he had been one-shotted by Li Jinhuang's remnant soul, which didn't even have three quarters of the man's original cultivation. That alone showed how lackluster Dan Yuanzi's combat power had been.

Luo Chen realized his teaching of Qu Lingjun had been too gentle, and he'd almost driven his disciple down the same path. Allowing him to take part in battle and temper himself was the right decision after all. Sima Huiniang's reasoning must have been similar. The battle for Glowing Stream Market had been long planned by the Luo Tian Society, and with the Kang and Luo families as allies, victory had been nearly certain. Under such conditions, allowing the younger generation to take the field for experience certainly made sense.

"It seems I still don't know how to raise a disciple properly..." Luo Chen shook his head with a wry smile and asked about other matters.

Bai Meiling's memory was extraordinary. She had not only read through all the intelligence from recent years but also organized it carefully and committed everything to memory. As she patiently recounted each detail, Luo Chen finally gained a clear understanding of the current world after years of seclusion.

Finally, Bai Meiling ended the report with one last notification. "Palace Leader Chu has been requesting to see you since last month."

Luo Chen froze for a moment, then a look of delight flashed across his face. "Wait here for me. I'll visit his place right away."

He didn't even take into account that it was late at night. A gust of wind swept through the hall as he bolted out of the cave residence.