As they walked down the mountain path, Luo Chen suddenly spoke up. "Senior Pure Crane!"
"What is it?"
Luo Chen asked as naturally as he could, "Senior Nether Spring is the deputy palace leader of the Transcendence Palace. Then who is the palace leader?"
Pure Crane replied casually, "There is no palace leader. From the very beginning, the Transcendence Palace has never had one. Lady Nether Spring[1] was only promoted to deputy palace leader five hundred years ago. Before that, there wasn't even a deputy palace leader."
Luo Chen froze. A grand palace like this with several Nascent Soul demon cultivators... and it's never had a palace leader? Also, is that crow female? The more you know...
He reflexively asked, "Then what are the other two palaces she mentioned?"
As he spoke, his gaze drifted toward the massive palace opposite the Transcendence Palace. He then looked higher, toward the towering structure on the highest peak, rising like a celestial abode amid the clouds. It was obvious that the two palaces, impressive as they were, were merely standing guard beneath it. Pure Crane halted in her steps and looked toward those two directions with an expression that betrayed both reverence and fear.
"Opposite the Transcendence Palace is the Daylight Palace. At the mountain summit is the Profound Comprehension Palace."
Daylight Palace and Profound Comprehension Palace? Luo Chen rolled the two names around in his mind and followed up, "Do these two palaces have leaders?"
All of a sudden, a terrifying pressure surged out. A fraction of a second later, the pressure vanished, but the force unleashed by a mid-stage Sage was enough to make Luo Chen turn pale.
Pure Crane looked at him with an unfriendly expression. "Why are you asking this?"
Luo Chen's face was pale as he replied cautiously, "I just want to make matters clear, so I don't stumble into trouble by accident. A careless word or move... and I might offend one of the palace leaders. I've always been cautious, and now I am under someone else's roof, so I have to be even more careful. I hope you'll understand, Senior."
"Hmph!" Pure Crane snorted coldly.
After pondering for a moment, she responded in a low voice, "The leader of the Daylight Palace is Sister... Lady Azure Frost. She has awakened the Azure Luan[2] bloodline, and her strength is exceedingly terrifying. As long as you don't offend her, she won't trouble us. She's cold by nature, so don't go out of your way to provoke her."
Luo Chen nodded repeatedly. As expected, the demoness in green robes who had appeared earlier at the Whitebone Dao Palace and scared off five Sages was no minor character.
The Azure Luan bloodline. Hmm... A divine auspicious bird said to rival the phoenix in legends! Even among the ancient wild beasts of the Mountains and Seas Realm, it stood at the very peak. No wonder she's so terrifying. Five Sages bolted away the moment she appeared, and one of them at least didn't even manage to escape....
"Then what about the Profound Comprehension Palace?" Luo Chen asked smoothly. "Could the palace leader be a phoenix?"
It was just a casual guess. Yet in the very next moment, he clearly saw the fear that flashed through Pure Crane's eyes.
"Shut up! How can you speak so casually of the Primal Sovereign!?"
Luo Chen was stunned. So it really is a phoenix? What the hell...
Pure Crane took a deep breath and warned in a low voice, "The leader of the Profound Comprehension Palace is Primal Sovereign Rosycloud. You'd best show her genuine respect, without the slightest trace of irreverence. If you anger her, then no matter how vast the Mountains and Seas Realm is, there won't be a single place you can run, and there won't be anyone to save you."
According to Pure Crane, Primal Sovereign Rosycloud had risen within the past thousand years, and her strength was beyond imagination. Otherwise, she could not have seized Green Parasol Mountain, one of the top spirit lands in the Mountains and Seas Realm, by her own power. Once she had this spirit vein, she then thought of creating her own forces. Those she chose to welcome here were mostly avian creatures, specifically those with relatively pure bloodlines among birds. Some demonic beasts in the wild mountains were fortunate enough to break through to the fourth tier, but if their bloodlines were impure, Rosycloud would still not accept them.
In addition, Pure Crane specifically added, "The Primal Sovereign's temperament is unpredictable. Never look directly at her at any time, or you may invite catastrophic disaster."
That single sentence was enough. Luo Chen naturally did not wish to provoke such a figure, and he felt no desire whatsoever to see her either directly or indirectly.
Soon, they arrived at the cave residence Pure Crane had arranged for him. She left behind a sound-transmission jade token, then drifted away.
Luo Chen's emotions gradually settled.
His character carried many flaws, flaws that had more than once pushed him into danger. Yet the fact that he had risen to this level spoke to his strengths as well. Perseverance, optimism, flexibility, and an exceptional capacity to adapt had all carried him this far.
Not long ago, he had been the Supreme Elder of a well-known sect. Then he became a prisoner behind bars. Now, he was little more than a tool. His status kept changing, and his circumstances underwent earth-shaking transformations in the blink of an eye. An ordinary person would have been unable to keep up with these changes, yet after taking a few moments to get himself together, he was already thinking of how to make the best out of this terrible scenario.
The affairs of the world are unpredictable and often utterly unreasonable. Rather than complain, it's better to improve, adapt, overcome.
"Hehe... At least I'm useful, right?"
With a self-mocking chuckle, Luo Chen pushed open the door to the cave residence. In that instant, an extremely dense surge of spirit energy burst forth. Luo Chen's eyes widened as he revealed an expression of wild joy.
"What the hell, it's supreme-grade!"
Luo Chen had never imagined that the cave residence Nether Spring had ordered Pure Crane to arrange for him would be of such astonishing quality. It was actually a supreme-grade third-tier cave, not a low-grade or even high-grade one but supreme! Its spirit energy density was nine times that of a low-grade spirit vein, and it wasn't far from a fourth-tier one. In fact, many newly advanced Sages who failed to secure a suitable fourth-tier spirit vein could only settle for a top-grade third-tier one. A supreme-grade third-tier spirit vein like this was enough to make even them burn with envy.
As far as Luo Chen knew, supreme-grade third-tier spirit veins were extremely rare. In recent years, there had been only one such vein discovered—at Supreme Emperor Mountain, beside the Defiant Howl Wolf Court. Yet now, Nether Spring had arranged such a cave residence for him. This meant his cultivation speed...
Luo Chen swallowed unconsciously and glanced toward the Transcendence Palace, as if his gaze could pass through the thick cliff. He shook his head and forced himself to calm down from the wild joy. Don't overreact. Green Parasol Mountain has a fifth-tier spirit vein, so of course there would be many other spirit veins of all grades. To them, a supreme-grade third-tier spirit vein is nothing worth mentioning. Nether Spring likely wants me to give my all, which is why she arranged the most suitable cultivation environment for me.
After figuring this out, Luo Chen pressed his lips together. Many years ago, he had already discovered that Imperial Nectar was actually more suitable for demonic beasts than it was for humans. When humans used Imperial Nectar for a breakthrough, it only increased the success rate by twenty percent, much less than the thirty percent they'd get if they were to use Foundation Establishment Pills. But this was not because Imperial Nectar was lacking. It was purely an issue of compatibility.
Naturally, it was more compatible with demonic beasts. If given to them, the chances of breaking through would naturally be much higher—especially considering Luo Chen was able to refine top-tier elixir.
Nether Spring had searched the souls of many people.Had it been just one individual, none of them might have revealed much about Luo Chen's skills. Yet once a comprehensive picture was drawn from many different angles, it was easy to conclude that he possessed the ability to refine top-grade cultivation pills. There was no need to look further than the Jade Dew Pill—he had already publicly demonstrated that he could offer large amounts of top-grade products.
Imperial Nectar and Jade Dew Pills were both second-tier. Imperial Nectar was easier to refine than Jade Dew Pills, but it was also more appropriate for demonic beasts, which was why Nether Spring had ordered him to make plenty of it. This was also why she had not searched his soul. Even when handled with the utmost care, soul-searching techniques always carried a risk of mishap. If Luo Chen's soul took damage, this would impact his skills and comprehension of alchemy, and he could very well lose the ability to refine pills altogether. The general knowledge of a mere rogue cultivator would hardly be worth the risk.
"As long as there's enough material, I could technically keep the furnace running day and night without pause. I could refine nearly 200 bottles of Imperial Nectar in a single day. That makes 6000 in a month, maybe 70,000 in a year, and in ten years... damn, wouldn't second-tier bird demons be everywhere?"
Obviously, Luo Chen would not actually do that. He had no desire to die in the immediate future. Producing two hundred bottles a day was just impossible! At most, he could run the furnace twice a day and refine ten batches of raw materials each time. With that, the amount of Imperial Nectar he obtained could be stably controlled at six bottles per day.
This number had been carefully calculated by Luo Chen. It was neither too much nor too little. It was enough to satisfy his new "boss" while also buying time by extending his own value. Perhaps he could even delay things until human experts came to rescue him!
He waved his wide sleeves repeatedly, dispersing the residual beastly aura within the cave residence. Then he chose a spot to serve as his cultivation area. He took out the meditation cushion and incense needed for cultivation from his storage ring and sat down cross-legged.
"Let's see just how powerful this supreme-grade spirit vein is!"
***
"Fellow Daoist Luo is probably not coming back."
"Yes. It has been so long without any sign of him... He most likely met the same fate as Jin Buque and Light Frost, soul-searched to death."
"What a pity, though... He was a true master alchemist. I heard he was already capable of refining mid-grade Starfield Pills. Give him another hundred years—no, maybe even just ten years or so, and he would likely be able to refine top-grade third-tier pills. With such alchemy skills, he would have been considered exceptional even on the scale of the entire Eastern Wilderness."
"It can only be said that Dan Chenzi was fated to suffer this calamity."
Within the dim dungeon, scattered murmurs rose from Adepts of various sects. Between their words, it was clear that they no longer held any hope for Luo Chen. As for speculation that he might have escaped, such a thought never even crossed their minds. On Green Parasol Mountain, there were three Sages they knew of, not to mention those who were likely in seclusion. Above all stood that demoness in green robes.... Her strength was so unfathomable that even multiple Sages would have no advantage against her.