Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

"Just a few drops of blood, huh?" Bai Jingshen nearly laughed out loud. "I wonder if you would say the same if you knew the significance of those few drops of blood."

"Significance?" Alex got curious. "It's just White Tiger's blood anyway. If I ever want it again, I'm sure I can get it some other way."

"Can you?" Bai Jingshen smiled at Alex mysteriously.

"What do you mean? Why can't I?" he asked. "Is it White Tiger's blood? I know it's rare here, but if I ascend, I should have many ways to get it, right? Whether it be by using money, or maybe even other nefarious means if need be."

"I'm afraid if you lose this blood now, you will never get a White Tiger's blood essence this good," Bai Jingshen said and then he spoke directly into Alex's mind. "After all, these few drops of Blood Essence are comparable to the Blood Essence of the progenitor of the White Tiger, the very one that was blessed by the gods."

"What?" Alex shouted out loud in disbelief.

"Tell, do you still wish to depart from it?" Bai Jingshen asked.

"How can th—"

"Yes or no," Bai Jingshen asked.

"Yes, absolutely," Alex said. "I was just curious how his mother got it."

"How indeed." He gave a mysterious smile. "Correct answer, by the way. Had you refused, I would have forcefully taken it away from you."

Alex shuddered a bit. He knew this beast would absolutely do that. He had seen what he was capable of even against people he wasn't supposed to kill.

"But, are you sure, senior Bai?" Alex asked. "That it is that good."

"What happened the first time Pearl devoured the blood essence?" Bai Jingshen asked.

"He puked it out," Alex said.

"Do you know why?" Bai Jingshen asked. "It was because his body wasn't capable of handling such a powerful blood essence just then. Even just look at yourself, you took the Blood Essence once and suddenly you gained a Supreme Metal root. Do you know how incredibly difficult it is to gain such a root?"

"Do you think some random blood Essence can do that? No, it did because of how special it was," Bai Jingshen explained.

Alex remained stunned for a few moments. All these years he had looked forward to taking in the Blood Essence of the other beasts, would that have not helped him?

'How did a White Cat give me blood essence belonging to the White Tiger's progenitor? That doesn't make any sense at all,' he thought.

"Xiao'er, can you take Pearl and have him thoroughly checked to see what problems he has? Have the others meet him as well," Bai Jingshen said. "I must remain here and answer someone's questions or she might burn down this whole palace."

He turned to look at Scarlet who seemed to be controlling her fury to the best of her ability and failing at it.

"As your say, my lord," Ren Xiao said and took Pearl with her.

Now, only Alex, Scarlet, and Bai Jingshen remained in the room.

Bai Jingshen turned around to Scarlet and smiled. "Last time I went to check on you, you were nothing but an egg. When were you born?" he asked.

"Over 2 decades ago," Scarlet answered. "Last I heard you were supposed to be dead. How are you still alive?"

"Who told you I was dead?" Bai Jingshen asked while moving back toward his throne.

"Everyone did," Scarlet said. "They said you were supposed to have died. Even senior Luhei was surprised that you were alive."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. If you want to learn about me, you should ask the question directly to me. How can you go and ask the others about me?" Bai Jingshen shook his head in disappointment.

"BAI JINGSHEN!" Scarlet shouted furiously.

"Sorry, sorry, I was just joking," the man chuckled a bit and sat down on his throne. "Well, even if I'm not joking, I don't know what to tell you. I never died. You all just assumed I was dead."

Both Alex and Scarlet frowned when they heard that. What was going on?

"Well, everyone just assumed I died, and my first wife took advantage of that to make it look like I had died," he said. "She was supposed to rule in my absence, but she took advantage of the situation to make it look like I was dead so she could have another ruler come in my place."

"She truly understands just how much I hate responsibilities," he smiled to himself.

"You're not making any sense," Scarlet said. "Everything coming out of your mouth sounds like gibberish to me. Tell me clearly, if you weren't dead then what were you doing all this time?"

"I was having the best two days of my life," Bai Jingshen said. "In a place called Earth, the planet his ancestors came from."

"What?"

"WHAT?"

Both Scarlet and Alex blurted out the same word, but one spoke it in confusion while the other in astonishment.

Scarlet didn't understand what he meant, while Alex couldn't believe what he said.

"You've been to Earth?" he couldn't help but ask.

Bai Jingshen nodded. "For all of 2 and a half days, which was 5 thousand years in this universe," he said.

"What's Earth? What are you guys talking about?" Scarlet asked.

"My ancestors come from a world that is not our own apparently," Alex explained. "Senior Yang said it was a different world where the realms are spherical and people called it a planet or something."

"Oh, he told you, did he?" Bai Jingshen asked. "Then yeah, I was on Earth this whole time."

Alex was slightly confused about it too. "How did you go to Earth? Did you take the same pathway the monster took to go there?" he asked.

He remembered that the monster had wanted to go back to Earth and had even opened a pathway to it.

"Monster?" Bai Jingshen gave a confused look.

"The one you fought," Alex said. "You don't remember it? The one that appeared in the Central Contiennt and caused the Qi barrier."

"HEY!" Bai Jingshen shouted. "You can't just go calling someone's master a monster."

Alex blinked for a few seconds. "Sorry… master?"

Bai Jingshen nodded. "That was my master," he said.

Scarlet was puzzled as well. "What do you mean, master?" she asked. "Since when did you have a master?"

"Since I was a cub," Bai Jingshen said. "Are you jealous that you don't have a master as good as mine?"

"You bastard! That damn master of yours nearly killed us. No, he did kill us," Scarlet shouted at him.

"No, you killed yourself," Bai Jingshen said. "You guys attacked him without even asking what he was doing there, and he didn't even fight back. How can you say he killed you?"

"We fought to help you," Scarlet shouted back. "You were already fighting with him, so why would we sit back and ask questions."

"I… I wasn't fighting him," Bai Jingshen looked away for a bit. "It was just a spar. You misunderstood the situation."

"What bullshit is this?" Scarlet couldn't control her anger. "You were sparring? We nearly killed ourselves because you were sparring?"

"Sorry?" Bai Jingshen said.

Scarlet seethed in anger. "Explain in all to me from the beginning," she said.

"Well, okay," Bai Jingshen said. "I remember sensing some disturbance all of a sudden and went to go check the Central Continent which already had a barrier around it."

"I entered and found my master there with someone else. My master said that he was leaving this world and that this would be the last time I saw him. Since I always admired my master, I wanted to spar with him before he left."

"Suffice it to say, I easily lost against my master. Just then, you all came at the time and saw the beaten-up me and thought my master was attacking me."

"I tried to stop you guys, but you wouldn't listen. In the end, you ended up hurting and left," he finished.

"And then?" Scarlet asked.

"Then what? Then my master opened a pathway to Earth and I went along with him," Bai Jingshen said. "I never knew what happened to you guys."

"How did you come back?" she asked.

"Oh, well… I wasn't supposed to be back yet. I was supposed to stay there for 3 more days, but someone wanted to go back home and ended up dragging a majority of the humans from Earth into this world"

"My master sent me back to make sure everyone was okay here, but centuries had passed already by the time I returned, so I had nothing to do. Everyone was already settled," he said.

"Your master," Alex asked. "What… was he? Was he a human or not?"

"Hmm, he has a human body, but he won't classify as one," Bai Jingshen said. "He's like a spirit controlling a human body, but not really. That's the best way I can explain it to you."

Alex was still confused by the explanation. "Senior Yang was scared to tell me who he was," he asked. "Can you not tell me either?"

"About my master? I can," Bai Jingshen said. "The humans just don't dare talk about him because the last time they offended him, my master ended up killing 7 different gods in the God Summit. That only too because the remaining ran away in fear."

Alex took a deep breath in fear when he heard that.

Scarlet's eyes widened as she realized who he was talking about.

"Are you saying the man we fought was…"

"Yes," Bai Jingshen nodded. "My master's name is Ning Ruogong, the Sage of Ten Thousand treasures, or more infamously known as the Godkiller."