Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex stayed in the alchemy room sometime after finishing the product. Being in a big city, the demand for better pills was everywhere, so Alex was forced to create pills that were in the 35% or higher harmony consistently.

That wasn't hard for him, but that did mean he couldn't cheat his way with the twin pills which could get him to 25% consistently.

After finishing one of the pills, he decided to rest for a bit.

'How long has it been since I've rested?' he thought to himself.

From the 11 days in the demon realm to the 5 days it took him to go to the capital and get to Dawnspring city had wrung him dry.

He wanted to let his body stay still for a moment and finally now was the time.

He did nothing but let his mind wander as he took a deep breath.

His mind wandered from having nothing to do and soon he found himself thinking about his mother and father again.

He couldn't wait to meet her since it had been nearly 3 years for him since he had met her.

When he thought about that, he realized that she hadn't seen him in 6 years. She must've been more desperate to see him.

Alex was just happy that she didn't fall victim to the mental problems some of the players developed after their soul was suppressed.

'I hope they are starting to get back their memories of the time when they were suppressed,' he thought.

Alex fiddled with the ring on his index finger as he remembered that he still had to open it up more.

After reaching about 20 or so cubic meters in volume, the ring was getting harder to open. The Qi he put into the ring would simply disappear with no hints as to why.

So, Alex was forced to stop for now and try once his Qi was stronger. Still, 20 cubic meters was a lot of space for someone who only hoarded ingredients for pills.

He kept most in the storage bags anyway out of fear of people noticing him using the ring too much.

As he thought that, Alex brought out a jar from his storage bag. It was the big jar of spicy medicinal paste that was supposed to do… something he believed.

He wanted to test it on his body but was a little afraid about it. It would be fine if it were poison, but what if it wasn't considered something bad by the body and it still destroyed his body?

Alex kept that particular jar away as he brought out the other small vials of medicinal pastes. He had recipes for the pastes, so if he wanted to, he could make the pastes and simply compare them with the medical pastes in the vial to learn which was which.

Alex spent a few more minutes just absentmindedly going through the items in his ring when he found the talisman with the map again.

Alex looked at the map and showed a confused look. "If the demon realm opens every 10 years, the other one has to do so as well right?" he thought.

If there was another realm that opened up, he would have a way to find it. However, the demons were in hiding at the time, so he wasn't sure if they would leave the door to the demon realm in an open area.

'Wait, did they create the demon realm? Probably not. It must've been a secret realm that they refined,' he thought.

Alex put away the map for now and pulled out the thin sword from his ring. He poured in his Qi, but nothing entered the sword at all.

It wasn't like when he tried to pour Qi into the ring, or the Ebony sword where he felt something else push from the other side.

This one just felt like he was splashing water into a metal wall, and hoping it would cave in. There just didn't seem to be a chance for that to happen.

"How is a sword without a spirit keeping me from putting my Qi into it?" Alex thought to himself. "I wonder if it knows."

Alex immediately went into his mental space and saw the mess that was there. Having not come here in a week or so had caused the silver threads to fly all over the place

Alex flew up to the side of the mountain and grabbed the crystal ball as he moved around the place gathering the threads.

Alex wanted to ask the spirit first, but the spirit spoke up before him. "I sensed your spirit grow a little weaker a few days earlier, what happened?" it asked.

"Weaker?" Alex was surprised. 'Has my spirit grown weaker?'

"Were you attacked? Did you create a puppet? Did you get a beast? What did you d—"

"Ah yes, I bonded with a new beast," Alex said.

"I see. Well, it wasn't bad damage to your spirit. Also, the change wasn't very much so you should be fine," the spirit said.

"You care about my spirit?" Alex asked.

"I care about mine," the spirit said. "Whether I like it or not, I can't seem to leave this place. Since you aren't so easily tempted either, I can't do anything but remain here for eternity."

"The only escape I can find from here is death, and I don't want that. So, until I want that, you will have to remain alive," it said.

"If I die, you die?" Alex asked.

"Yes," the spirit said.

Alex looked at the spirit for a few seconds with narrowed eyes as he got curious.

"The beast I bonded a few days ago, it has a bloodline of someone," Alex asked.

"Why are you telling me this?" the spirit asked with clear confusion in its voice.

"The bloodline belongs to someone called the Undying god," Alex said.

Suddenly, the spirit seemed to change as the black goo around it jumped to life.

"God? Did you say GOD? Where is it? Let me kill it! Let me kill it right now!" it shouted.

Alex watched the spirit go berserk with absolute amazement in his eyes. "I lied," he told the spirit to calm it down.

"You did? Tsk, why would you do that?" it said.

"You sound so earnest and… normal when you are talking about normal things. Now that your arrogance and haughtiness are gone, you feel like a common spirit," Alex said. "However, the moment I bring up a God, your attitude changes entirely. Why is that?"

"It's clear isn't it?" Godslayer said. "I hate gods."

"Can you think of a reason as to why you hate gods beyond the simple 'because they are gods'?" Alex asked.

"That's… do I need another reason?" the spirit asked.

Alex couldn't think of anything to say. it seemed the hate for gods was ingrained into the spirit.

"Right, I almost forgot why I was here," Alex said as he remembered about the sword.

"That thin sword you were trapped in. Does it still hold another spirit? No right?" Alex asked.

"That sword? No," Godslayer said.

"Then can you tell me why I can't use my Qi with it? I can't seem to pour any," Alex said.

"HAHAHAHA!" the spirit suddenly laughed as if it had heard the biggest joke of all time. "You expect to be able to use that sword? Keep dreaming. No one in this world can use that sword aside from its owner."

"Although, I can make it possible, you know. All you have to do it put me back into the sword, and you will be able to pour Qi into it. I can work as a conduit to connect you to the sword," the spirit said.

"Absolutely not. I'm not letting you get out of here. I don't know what atrocities you would do if you got out," Alex said.

"Well, then good luck," the spirit said and flew out of Alex's hands as it went drifting around the mountain.

"Tsk, it didn't tell me anything in the end," Alex thought. However, he still learned that it was simply impossible to use that sword.

He wouldn't stop trying outright just because the spirit told him so, but he would find less inclination to try to do so now that he had learned what he did.

Once he finished collecting the silver threads, he looked back at the mountain with a curious look on his face.

"Is this getting small at all?" he asked himself. It looked like a few of the imperfections here and there were getting smoothed out. Other than that, there was virtually no difference.

Alex sighed and got back out of his spiritual sea. He then looked at the sword in his arm, knowing full well that he would likely never be able to use it to its fullest extent.

He sighed once more and put it back into his ring before walking out of the room. Once he delivered the pills he had created, he walked out of the alchemy guild again and quickly made his way out of the city.

Since it was late in the afternoon, people who visited the Flowing Brush sect would start to leave now.

So, it was a better time for him to go and quickly get to meet the guards. Alex wasn't sure how long they could keep the excuse of his mother breaking through, but it surely couldn't be wrong.

Sooner or later, they would have to be fed up with him and either attack him, which would cause a big enough commotion to get everyone's attention, or the better result, just send his mother a message.