Rise of the Alchemy God

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In an area deep within the Forest of Spirits.

Powerful waves of spiritual energy, generated by the clash between two high-level beings, were rippling through every direction of the forest, sending all beasts within at least a few miles into a state of alert.

In a dark, deep cave near the battleground, a creature that had been sleeping was suddenly awakened.

Clearly irritated by the disturbance, the creature let out a loud roar, followed by two glowing eyes emerging from the depths of the cave.

The brightness of its eyes intensified as the creature began moving toward the cave's exit.

The more it advanced, the clearer its features became.

Within seconds, it reached the cave's entrance, and now, struck by the sunlight outside, the details of its face were visible enough to make out.

It had a face that was slightly elongated, entirely covered in small, overlapping scales that blended harmoniously, giving the creature a more uniform appearance.

Its two yellow eyes, with pupils as thin as needles, scanned the area, searching for the source of the disturbance.

Then, as if it had finally locked onto the cause of the commotion, they stopped and focused on a spot high up in the sky.

Seeing this, the creature let out a loud hiss and quickly slithered out of its den.

Right after its head came into view, an elongated, limbless body slid out.

The size of the creature almost rivaled the height of the trees in the forest.

With a body nearly 100 meters long, the creature slithered out slowly, coiling itself around the nearest tree and lifting its gaze upwards toward the two figures fighting in the sky.

It waited patiently for a few seconds, then, narrowing its pupils even further, it launched itself at them with terrifying speed.

The massive figure of the creature appeared in less than a second behind one of them, its enormous mouth wide open, ready to swallow its prey whole.

A little further down its back, just behind its head, a pair of long bat-like wings had appeared.

The two figures battling in the air seemed unaware of the creature's presence, even as it closed in on them.

With its mouth wide open, revealing two long sets of sharp fangs, the creature tried to swallow its prey just as they clashed.

But right as its mouth was about to reach them, another wave of powerful spiritual energy erupted from the impact of their clash, and this time, the creature, being so close to the source, took the full brunt of it.

Moments later, the creature's massive body exploded in a mist of blood, leaving behind nothing but shattered bones scattered throughout the forest.

The two figures that had caused the creature's demise didn't even glance at it and continued their battle.

Both emitted powerful auras that would make any cultivator below the third stage tremble.

One of them appeared to be an elderly man, full of vigor, surrounded by a thin purple aura crackling with small electric currents.

The purple aura seemed to twist constantly, and an illusory figure resembling the face of a long-beaked creature appeared above the man.

The other figure, on the other hand, was that of a middle-aged man with a stern expression and eyes filled with an unmistakable malicious intent.

He wore a short-sleeved black robe that left his muscular arms, covered in black veins, exposed.

What drew the most attention, though, wasn't the slightly gray tone of his skin but the threatening aura that enveloped his entire being.

The battle between the two continued for a while until, at one point, the old man cloaked in the purple aura managed to land a lethal strike, severing his opponent's arm clean off.

The middle-aged man grunted in pain, retreating a safe distance from his opponent.

Both paused mid-air, staring at each other.

A creepy smile spread across the middle-aged man's face.

He didn't seem to care about his severed arm and looked at his opponent with an intense gleam in his eyes.

Then, letting out a loud laugh, he said:

"Just as expected from an elder of the Phoenix Sect.

You are very strong."

He spoke without receiving a response from the other side.

Seeing the other man remain silent, he continued.

"You know, it's been a while since I've taken a hit like that," he said, lightly tapping an object tied to his waist with his remaining arm.

Immediately after, the object glowed and spat out something.

It was a pill.

The Elder Léi felt an aura similar to that surrounding the cultivator before him emanating from it.

The middle-aged man, taking the pill and swallowing it in one go, said:

"I intended to just keep you busy until my subordinates finished their work, but I've changed my mind."

He spoke as his voice grew deeper and his expression more twisted.

The flesh near where his arm had been began to writhe.

"I think I'll take your head as a prize before I leave."

In an instant, the writhing flesh burst, and a brand-new arm appeared in its place.

Seeing this, Elder Léi's expression hardened even more.

'Who is this man?' he thought.

About an hour ago, he had rushed at full speed toward the place where he had sensed increasing fluctuations of spiritual energy.

With his powerful spiritual sense, he could detect several figures, and he was sure some of them were disciples of his sect.

One in particular he recognized immediately—it was his disciple.

Upon confirming this, he accelerated even further, closing the great distance in less than a second.

Just as he was about to arrive at the scene, he was met by a sudden, unexpected attack from nowhere.

If it had been a regular attack, he would have simply brushed it off with his aura, but this one felt dangerous, forcing him to abruptly halt his advance and narrowly avoid it.

The missed attack continued its trajectory, eventually striking a small hill in the distance.

The force of the attack was so immense that half of the hill was obliterated in an instant.

That alone was enough to demonstrate the lethality of that strike.

"I was sure I'd hit you with that one," said a voice.

And right after, a figure materialized out of nowhere, a few dozen meters in front of Elder Léi.

'This man is dangerous,' Elder Léi realized almost instantly, recognizing the threat posed by the figure before him.

With the appearance of the figure, several questions started popping into Elder Léi's mind, such as:

If a figure like this was with the group that attacked the convoy, how is it possible that the sect's disciples are still alive, and even managed to escape safely from them?

The only answer he could come up with was that this man hadn't participated in the attack and had been watching from the sidelines the entire time.

But even that didn't seem entirely right.

He had a feeling that if he wasted more time here, something very bad would happen.

***

Witnessing this display of power were two figures, hidden a few hundred meters away.

The two were none other than Ethan and Da Shu.

The closer they got to the battlefield, the more they could feel the spiritual pressure radiating from the fight between the two beings.

At a certain point, both managed to spot the two figures fighting, and upon seeing them, they were both astonished but also terrified.

They both witnessed the sect elder severing his opponent's arm and, for a moment, thought the battle was almost over.

But when they saw what happened next, a shiver ran down both their spines.

Just like the sect elder, they too were caught off guard by the sight of the regrowing arm.

It was known that pills existed powerful enough to regrow someone's limbs, but they were extremely rare and very difficult to create, requiring a grandmaster alchemist to pour all his effort into refining it.

So, seeing one appear out of nowhere, eaten as casually as candy, shocked all three of them.

Even more so, Ethan, being an alchemist, could tell that the pill wasn't ordinary.

Not to mention the person who ate it.

Ethan could sense that something about his aura was off.

Even Bai Yu, who was observing everything from within Ethan's spiritual sea, felt that something was wrong with that man's aura.

The aura emanating from the man gave her a sense of repulsion and caution.

It wasn't the man himself causing this feeling, but the energy he was using.

She had never felt an aura like this before, but as she examined it, a thought crossed her mind.

'Wait, could this be...

Demonic Qi?'

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FRANK_LEE_JUNIOR:

Here's today's chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.

As usual, if you have any comments, suggestions, or errors to report, don't hesitate to do so below.

I'll upload the next chapter in 4 hours.

I can't right now, gotta run to work. (ಥ﹏ಥ).