Chapter 727: Cultivation Advances by Leaps and Bounds; The Physique Brings Success and Failure Alike

In the past, within the Luo Tian Society, Wang Yuan had been the pillar with the greatest battle prowess, while Luo Chen had been the emblem. Under normal circumstances, when they went out, others would look more favorably upon the Luo Tian Society cultivators because of Luo Chen being an alchemist. People often granted them a measure of preferential treatment. However, when it came to matters of battle, the primary fighting force had always been Wang Yuan.

Yet as Luo Chen grew stronger and the enemies faced by the Luo Tian Society also became stronger, this balance gradually shifted. By the time Luo Chen reached the late stage of Foundation Establishment, he had become the sole iconic figure of the Luo Tian Society.

This became especially pronounced after he successfully formed his core. With the title of Adept and alchemist master, the rise and fall of the newly established Luo Tian Sect were essentially tied entirely to him.

Luo Chen himself did not feel much about it. However, from the perspective of sect development, it was a major drawback. If anything were to happen to him, the Luo Tian Sect would lose both its pillar and its emblem at once. The consequences would mirror what had happened with the Lianyun Trade Alliance. They had endured multiple great battles and suffered repeated losses, yet they had managed to cling to survival solely because their grand elder was still alive. Once that grand elder fell, the alliance immediately teetered on the brink of collapse. Its affiliated industries were stripped bare and divided up by the surrounding powers of Tianlan.

The Luo Tian Sect was, of course, one of the beneficiaries of that outcome. It was because Luo Chen had seized the initiative that he had obtained the most lucrative shop as well as several well-established trade routes. If the Luo Tian Sect did not wish to end up like the Lianyun Trade Alliance in the future, then plans for nurturing the next generation had to be laid well in advance.

Among the older generation, Wang Yuan, Chu Kui, or figures such as Sima Huiniang and Gu Caiyi, were all capable of standing on their own. However, the younger generation was a different matter. Aside from Qu Lingjun, who had gained a measure of recognition, the rest had lived far too comfortably under the protection of Luo Chen and the others. That was precisely why Luo Chen wanted to push someone forward, and that someone happened to be the son of a close friend. Then, even if the generation of Luo Chen, Wang Yuan, and Chu Kui were to somehow pass away, Zeng Yilong would be able to hold his ground and protect the sect.

Moreover, Zeng Yilong possessed the necessary potential. His aptitude was excellent, and the resources and cultivation methods he was given had a solid foundation to build on. All that remained was to make up for his shortcomings through real combat experience. His father, Zeng Wen, had possessed outstanding combat talent, and his mentor Wang Yuan had personally guided him for many years. If theory and innate talent could be fully converted into personal ability, then the picture would be complete.

Without even realizing it, Luo Chen's mindset had moved away from that of a rogue cultivator who thought that "after me, the flood" was an acceptable attitude. It had gradually transformed into the mindset of a major sect founder who planned for future generations.

Perhaps this was what true legacy really meant. Not something bound by forms and conventions, but something rooted in spirit and will.

***

After Jiang Yu departed with the ten Initiates, the Luo Tian Alliance carried on as though nothing had happened, living much as it had before. But this was only "as if." In reality, some changes had already begun to take shape.

The remaining disciples of the Myriad Phenomena Sect grew increasingly exclusionary. This time, their senior brother and two fairly strong Initiates had been sent out. Who knew which ones of them would be chosen next? When living under another's roof, they had no choice but to bow their heads. Yet if they bowed for too long, the Myriad Phenomena Sect would sooner or later be carved up completely by the three major powers within the alliance.

Over at Stormwind Manor, Diwu Qi kept a low profile. With access to a natural third-tier spirit vein that greatly benefited cultivation, he seemed intent on using this opportunity to push toward the middle stage of Golden Core.

In contrast, Cen Qiusheng took a completely different approach. He paid a large sum of money to Fu Jiusheng and Min Longyu to rebuild the third-tier low-grade cave residence on Dream Return Ridge into two lesser third-tier cave residences, and he himself did not move into either. Instead, he arranged for two family members at the ninth stage of Foundation Establishment to cultivate there: Cen Guangyi and Cen Guanghui. In other words, he had already given up on his own cultivation and placed all his hopes on the younger generation of his family.

On the surface, nothing seemed amiss about these matters. Yet Luo Chen had not gotten to this point by assuming everything was fine while the house was burning around him. Thanks to the information provided by his subordinates and his own observations, he immediately noticed the signs.

This is fine. Though everyone works hard on their own schemes, at least the alliance's overall strength is growing. As long as I remain here, they cannot truly stir up any waves.

That was what Luo Chen thought, but of course, it was not as though he was sitting down and doing nothing. After all, once Diwu Qi reached the fourth stage, the alliance's balance of power would very likely change. For that reason, Luo Chen did not slack off in his own cultivation in the slightest. In fact, he worked even harder than before. In the past, he had lacked the conditions; for a while after forming his core, his cultivation had remained stuck at the first stage. Now that he had a spirit land and pills, there was no reason to remain idle.

As a result, aside from setting up formations and practicing various techniques, he devoted nearly all his energy to cultivation. His cultivation thus began to advance by leaps and bounds, reaching higher with each passing day.

***

Two years later, within his cave residence, Luo Chen gazed at the seemingly empty void before him and fell into deep contemplation.

[Status Panel]

Name: Luo Chen

Lifespan: 115/402

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

Realm: Golden Core Stage One (58/100); Archaic Tier Three (25/100)

Achievement Points: 75

[Techniques]

Wood Ignition: Perfection (395/500)

Myriad Path Convergence: Grandmaster (517/1000)

Myriad Beast Sutra: Beginner (15/100)

[Spells]

Fourth-Tier

Third-Tier

Second-Tier

First-Tier

Perfected Mastery Spells (click to view details)

[Alchemy]

Scaled Shift: Perfection (417/500)

Perfected Mastery Alchemy (click to view details)

[Martial Arts]

[Skills]

Third-Tier Alchemist, Second-Tier Healer, First-Tier Formation Master

[Pills]

Third-Tier Pills

Second-Tier Pills

𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Perfected Mastery Pills (click to view details)

[Formations]

Third-Tier Formations

First-Tier Formations

After a cultivator reached the Golden Core realm, the transformation of the divine soul resulted in a proportional sharpening of the senses. Hence, Adepts had keen hearing and vision, along with an almost photographic memory. Whether intelligence itself truly increased was hard to say, but at the very least, the ability to process complicated and fragmented information became far more efficient.

Luo Chen had taken ten years to get from Core Formation to a stable foundation in the first stage of the Golden Core Realm. The two years that followed had seen almost no progress at all. But after settling down in the Howling Moon Mountain Range and ensuring that he had every condition needed in terms of external support, his cultivation speed erupted like a volcano.

Three years! In just three years, he had pushed his cultivation halfway through the first stage of the Golden Core Realm. He had also practiced Wood Ignition to the Perfection level and was not far from the Grandmaster level. At this pace, another three years would give him a very strong chance of breaking through to the second stage.

"I wonder how Diwu Qi's cultivation is progressing. His aptitude is definitely good, but he only has a low-grade cave residence and the low-grade Starfield Pills I give him, which are far inferior to my supreme grade ones. Even if his aptitude is better than mine, there's no possible way he's cultivating faster than me at this point."

Of course, such ridiculous cultivation speed came at a correspondingly ridiculous cost. In just two years, his expenditure on pills alone had reached a million and a half! Practically all the spirit stones earned as profit by the Luo Tian Sect were poured into Luo Chen's cultivation, and even that was not enough! To make up the difference, Luo Chen was even forced to dip into his own savings and even ask for advance payments from the Adepts signing contracts for a supply of pills.

It could be said that, even among Adepts whose wealth was measured in millions of spirit stones, Luo Chen was undoubtedly one of the most extravagant in terms of cultivation resource investment. His rapid progress relied very little on his aptitude and almost entirely on stacking resources.

At the same time, cultivation was the only thing Luo Chen really cared about at this point. As for the other things on the system panel, he paid them little attention. Those first-tier and second-tier spells that had reached Perfected Mastery were to be expected. With his abundant mana and no concern for environmental restrictions, such low-tier spells could be practiced with ease. Third-tier spells were more difficult, of course, especially Mirror Flower Water Moon. Even with focused practice, the progress was slow, but he was at least advancing step by step and not just stuck in place.

As for alchemy, he had not acquired any new formulas or techniques for quite some time. Even with pills, the one he refined most recently was still the third-tier Starfield Pill. The only thing barely worth mentioning was the second-tier Foundation Establishment formula for Imperial Nectar.

During the Frontier War, demonic beast flesh was in no short supply. When intact demonic beast corpses appeared, he would take them and personally refine Imperial Nectar. At his level, it was normal for a sect to have one or two breakthrough methods or pills for internal use. As long as such pills were not sold externally, major alchemy sects like the Medicine King Sect would not interfere.

Luo Chen had refined dozens of batches of Imperial Nectar with the sect in mind. Now that spirit land had been secured, and the sect had gained an opportunity to rise, its core strength at the Foundation Establishment Realm felt insufficient.

If Luo Chen truly wished for the Luo Tian Sect to advance into a major sect in the future, then aside from the rigid requirement of three Adepts, it would also need at least a hundred Initiates. Otherwise, its business operations and various undertakings simply could not be expanded.

At present, with only a little over twenty Initiates, even supporting Luo Chen alone was already somewhat different. If three Adepts truly coexisted in the future, the sect would be dragged down outright.

After reviewing all of this, Luo Chen's gaze fell upon the newly unlocked section on the panel—specifically, the "first-tier formation master" part. What was most surprising about this part of the panel was the conspicuous entry displayed at the top of the Formations section: Concealment Veil Formation: Perfected Mastery.

Luo Chen smiled faintly. In a sense, this was his most ridiculous achievement of the past years—being able to set up a third-tier formation even though he was barely a first-tier formation novice, not even a proper first-tier master like the panel called him. As for why that was the case, he actually had a very good idea.

"Nothing but a tower built on sand. Oh well, it is what it is."

Among first-tier formations, he had only learned the most basic spirit-gathering formation, along with five formations with a different elemental attribute each, which he studied for the purpose of refining a life-bound enchanted treasure in the future. But even those were only at the Beginner level, and he severely lacked practice. Even though the Concealment Veil Formation was at Perfected Mastery, that did not make him a master in any way, shape, or form.

"Well, not that it matters. For now, I only need this one formation, and since I got to Perfected Mastery, I should be able to inscribe it pretty smoothly."

After glancing at the reserve of 75 achievement points, Luo Chen casually closed the status panel. He then took out a large batch of materials from his storage ring and nodded in a rather pleased manner. All of these materials had been prepared in advance for him by Min Longyu over the years. They were, of course, the specific materials meant for inscribing formations on his own body. There were a few batches of them, so he had no fear of running short mid-setup.

"Setting up a formation on the body..." Luo Chen murmured. The loose Daoist robe on his body fell onto the table, revealing a perfectly trained physique. His body was unlike Wang Yuan's, whose blood qi surged like a massive boiling furnace and made him seem larger than life even in his normal form. Nor was it like Zeng Yilong's—the young man had a rather refined appearance, but that was only while he was dressed. Beneath his neat robes lay massive, knotted muscles; once he took his clothes off, the sight was terrifying. Some would even call him "grotesquely overdeveloped."

By contrast, Luo Chen's physique sported exceptionally smooth lines. The impression he gave was akin to a majestic eagle spreading its wings and soaring through the heavens, grand and heroic rather than fierce and intimidating.

As his tendons and bones stretched, a series of sounds rang out—less like the sound of joints cracking and more like the ringing of metal clashing with metal. Once there was not a thread left covering his body, Luo Chen extended his hands, and a batch of minerals fell into the Shangshu Cauldron. Under his primordial true fire, they gradually turned into multicolored liquid. When the final black fourth-tier stone fused in, the multicolored liquid suddenly transformed into a mass as black as ink.

Ink? Well, I suppose that's par for the course.

Luo Chen stared at the inky fluid and took a deep breath. He took mental control of a top-grade enchanted artifact, a golden bamboo brush, and dipped it into the thick ink. After coating it sufficiently, he began guiding the brush to draw formation patterns across his body. From his chest to his back, and from his limbs to his facial features—even the soles of his feet and the crown of his head were scarcely spared.

Yes, the crown of his head. For this special occasion, Luo Chen had even shaved off his glossy, long, black hair.

The Concealment Veil Formation was of the third-tier and composed of a large number of Darkness restrictions. Especially after Luo Chen continuously copied and practiced it to Perfected Mastery, it had almost no flaws and was almost comparable to a fourth-tier formation.

Luo Chen had set the formation once before and had received Min Longyu's praises. His temporary teacher stated outright that a Concealment Veil Formation of this level might even deceive a Sage. But if the formation was to unleash its full effect, then during the engraving process, not a single corner could be left unattended. Even if it did not coat every single cun of the body, the interwoven formation patterns still had to cover all body parts, whether it was the chest or the little toe of his left foot.

Very quickly, Luo Chen finished tracing the Concealment Veil Formation across his entire body.

"Next, I just need to wait for my body to absorb these formation patterns."

A smile appeared on Luo Chen's face as he floated naked in midair, opening the pores of his skin to absorb the dense ink.

However, as time slowly passed, the expression on his face gradually darkened. He lowered his head to look at his palm. The thick ink still clung to it, showing not the slightest sign of being absorbed into his skin.

"Huh, it's not working? What's going on?"

With uncertainty flickering across his expression, Luo Chen began searching for the cause. First, he had absolutely mastered the formation. Second, the materials were correct, and the proportions had been prepared in advance and double-confirmed by Min Longyu. In other words...

"The problem can only be with my third-tier Archaic physique!"

Luo Chen grit his teeth. It seemed unlikely, but this had to be it. He had not expected that the demon-king-level physique he had relied on as a trump card during Foundation Establishment would become a major obstacle on his path to becoming stronger.

Especially after forming his core and further refining Myriad Path Convergence, he had frequently tempered his body with his primordial true fire, which caused it to grow ever stronger and brought him substantial advantages. Yet what was usually a good thing had now turned into a bad one. Truly, it was his physique that brought him success, and also his physique that brought him failure.

Even so, Luo Chen was merely accustomed to failure. He had never resigned himself to it.

"If an enchanted artifact will not work, then what about an enchanted treasure?"

A sharp glint flashed across Luo Chen's face as the Mystic Flame Sword appeared before him. But for the first time since he'd acquired it, the tip of the sword did not point at an enemy, but at its very owner. An instant later, when it carved a bloody gash across Luo Chen's chest, he could not help but let out a muffled groan. Being cut by someone else and cutting himself were two entirely different matters. Even with his strong mental cultivation and even though he was prepared to endure pain, Luo Chen still found it hard to bear.

The blood seeping out will interfere with the ink. I have to burn it off!

With a single thought, primordial true fire coiled around Luo Chen. The freshly spilled blood completely dried out. When the dense black ink seeped into his flesh and bones, a piercing pain suddenly spread throughout his entire body.

"Damn it! Slowly absorbing it and forcing it in really are different things! Why is this so painful?!"

Luo Chen let out a low grunt after another, yet the movements of his hands did not slow in the slightest. The Mystic Flame Sword in his hand trembled as dense ink continuously poured in. He even had to split his focus, repeatedly forming seals to create Darkness restrictions out of mana.

Beneath the wounds, black lines started crawling over Luo Chen's entire body like earthworms. The sight was utterly terrifying.