Chapter 1117: Some Dead, Some Mad, Some Missing; The Ominous Sea (III)

He therefore spent most of his days processing medicinal ingredients and familiarizing himself with the necessary refinement techniques. Whenever he had time to spare, he also guided Sang Jinghe's cultivation. The man had only recently formed his Golden Core, but he had accompanied Luo Chen throughout his travels and handled countless affairs on his behalf. After benefiting from the man's service, Luo Chen naturally would not neglect him. Heavenjade, on the other hand, required far less personal guidance, as her cultivation had long since settled onto the proper path. He instead tasked her with coordinating with Fu Hongzhang and acquiring the other resources he needed, such as cultivation manuals and texts related to puppet arts.

Puppetry was certainly not one of the mainstream paths. Compared with enslaving demonic beasts, recruiting allies, or simply hiring others to fight, puppets were often costly and inconvenient. As a result, puppetry manuals were very expensive, and higher-tier ones were no easier to obtain than fourth-tier cultivation techniques.

With those matters entrusted to Heavenjade and Fu Hongzhang, Luo Chen remained inside his cave residence on Little Jade Mountain and cultivated in peace. He rarely stepped outside, and Divine Origin City was so big that the arrival of one more Sage appeared to have gone unnoticed.

At least, that was how it seemed.

Fu Hongzhang's frequent activity within the trade alliance had already attracted the attention of several observant individuals.

Inside one of the city's white towers, Shen Wandou, a grand elder of the trade alliance, listened to a subordinate's report.

At the end, the cultivator concluded his report with a guess. "Elder Fu's term is probably almost over. He may be having his family gather large amounts of Northern Sea resources so he can take them back to the Central Continent."

Shen Wandou shook his head. "The Fu family may have a long history, but it has never had many members. Most of the members work as stewards of the sect and spend their time handling ordinary affairs. They have little to do with alchemy. Those materials are far too diverse to have been gathered for the family."

The subordinate hesitated. "I heard Elder Fu's granddaughter, Fu Qinglan, formed her Nascent Soul at only 300 years old. She's considered one of the greatest talents of the younger generation. Could the resources have been prepared for her?"

Shen Wandou scoffed. "The geniuses of our sect rarely rely on pills unless they are trying to break through a realm. Fu Chaosheng would never sacrifice his granddaughter's future just to make her cultivate faster for a few years."

"Uuuuhh..." The subordinate looked confused.

Shen Wandou put away his mocking expression and began thinking carefully. It was possible that Fu Chaosheng intended to take advantage of the price difference between the Northern Sea and the Central Continent to sell after his retirement. However, the resources he had gathered covered an extremely wide variety, and most were neither rare nor especially valuable. Aside from a handful of items, there was little profit to be made from transporting them across such a distance. Clearly, those resources were not intended for the Fu family's own use. And they were being transported to Little Jade Mountain, to one specific cave residence...

"Look into everyone who's come and gone from Little Jade Mountain recently. Find out whether any strangers have shown up, especially near that fourth-tier cave residence."

***

Inside the alchemy room, Luo Chen turned a pitch-black pill between his fingers while wonder shone in his eyes. Deep within his divine soul, something stirred—an instinctive craving so intense that it felt almost like real hunger.

"So this is the Great Soul Pill."

After two months of work, he had finally succeeded in refining a fourth-tier pill from the Monarch's alchemical inheritance, one potent enough to benefit a Sage. When it formed, it even triggered a strange phenomenon: Ghostly wails, wolfish howls, and cries of resentment filled the alchemy room, as though countless wronged souls were struggling to escape the furnace.

The soul essence used as the pill's main ingredient had to be the source of the phenomenon. Yet according to the soul essence refinement technique passed down by the devil sect, all traces of the dead should have been completely stripped away during processing so that only pure soul energy remained.

The soul essence he had extracted from Duan Li years ago had been almost completely pure. Although it contained a faint remnant of another will, that was understandable, since someone else had once taken possession of it. The soul essence he was using now had never been occupied by anyone else, so by all rights, it should have been perfectly pure. Instead, it had released enough resentment to fill the entire alchemy room with wails of grief.

From the looks of things, it now seemed that the devil sect had truly withheld part of the technique, leaving its subordinate forces unable to purify soul essence completely. In that case, it was no wonder that Netherfire had suffered a backlash after feeding this sort of soul essence to his true fire and nurturing it until it developed sentience.

That said, the Great Soul Pill formula required those traces within the soul essence to be removed completely. Fortunately for him, he eventually found an art among the seventy-two volumes of alchemical texts that was capable of purging these impurities. Only after fully mastering it did he manage to produce a Great Soul Pill that was truly free of hidden dangers.

"Soul Extraction... Can something this profound truly be called an alchemical art?"

Murmuring in amazement, Luo Chen instinctively licked his dry lips. No longer willing to wait, he left the alchemy room, cleaned himself thoroughly, and carried the Great Soul Pill into the cultivation chamber.

Not long afterward, Shen Wandou arrived alone at Little Jade Mountain. He studied the cloud-shrouded mountain for a moment as he considered what might be hidden within.

Fu Qinglan only recently formed her Nascent Soul, so logically, she would have no reason to take part in the five-hundred-year grand competition. But the Fu family has been declining for years, and its status as a great family was barely holding on. Fu Chaosheng might be desperate enough to risk it. If he found a powerful outsider to protect her inside the Mirage Dragon Pocket World, she might actually stand a chance.

Truth be told, Shen Wandou himself had made preparations of his own. No one in the Shen family's younger generation was suitable for the Mirage Dragon Pocket World, so he had chosen to support Liu Yuan instead. The man's aptitude was unremarkable, but he possessed a rare tenacity that he valued highly. Given enough support, Liu Yuan might be able to raise the Liu family into the ranks of the great families. If he succeeded, he would owe Shen Wandou a favor, and that alone would be enough to keep the Shen family's position within the Dao Sect stable for the next thousand years.

Before investing any further in that plan, however, Shen Wandou needed to determine whether this newcomer would become an obstacle and, more importantly, how formidable he truly was.

With his purpose settled, he continued his way up the mountain. The cultivators he passed all bowed respectfully, but he barely spared them a glance. Only when he reached the fourth-tier cave residence did his expression soften into a smile. There, he released a restrained trace of his aura, enough to announce his arrival without seeming openly hostile.

Heavenjade soon emerged from the residence. The pressure immediately put her on guard, and she bowed with a tense expression. "Greetings, senior! My name is Heavenjade."

Shen Wandou studied her briefly. Something about her aura felt unusual, but he did not give it much thought and offered a courteous smile. "I am Shen Wandou, grand elder of the Heaven Origin Trade Alliance's Northern Sea branch. I came specifically to visit Wilderness Hermit."

Heavenjade hesitated. "My master is cultivating at the moment. I'm afraid it may not be convenient for him to receive guests."

Shen Wandou frowned. "Is that so? I heard he has been searching for puppet arts. As it happens, I have a text on the subject and hoped to discuss it with him. But since that is the case, forget it."

He turned as though to leave, but before he could take more than a step, an invisible force spread from the cave residence in gentle waves. "Since you're already here, fellow Daoist, why not join me for a chat?"

Surprise appeared on Shen Wandou's face. What powerful divine consciousness!

After drawing a slow breath, he strode into the cave residence.

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