Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

'Are they staring at me?' Alex thought with a surprised look on his face. That was when he saw a talisman floating in front of the man and woman, blinking with a soft light as it slowly flew towards him.

Alex thought of moving back, but there was no threat from the talisman at all. He caught the talisman before it could touch him, and when he did, it turned bright and burst into a million lights, all of which started coating him.

The girl canceled the talisman's locater since they had already found the person they wanted to find.

"Fellow Daoist, would you mind coming with us?" the girl asked.

Alex looked at them with a weird look on his face. "May I ask why I am being called?" he asked.

"It is regarding a certain bandit group that you have been in contact with recently," the girl said.

"Why are we wasting our time talking, sister? Let's just grab him and leave," the man next to her said.

The girl shook her head and gestured to Alex as she said, "the situation is a little more complex than you think."

The man turned towards Alex to see what she meant by complicated when he noticed something peeking out of his chest.

'Was that… an Alchemist badge?' he thought. If it really was an alchemist badge then they couldn't be hasty with doing anything.

Offending an Alchemist was the same as offending the guild. The consequences would be too extreme. Not to mention, the kid in front of him was a True Earth alchemist.

"Brother, we can talk in the alchemist's guild if that is where you wish to converse with us," the man said, now understanding the situation.

The girl was a little surprised that her partner even had a brain that could think anything other than fighting and resting.

"Very well," Alex said and left with the two. The two of them moved to either side of Alex as he walked back toward the Alchemist guild.

The three thugs nearly pissed their pants that they had nearly gone ahead with their plan of looting someone that was about to be escorted by the Lightsworns.

Had they arrived at the wrong moment, they would've become mincemeat at the hands of the Lightsworns. They quickly thanked lady luck and made their way back to their homes.

After a few minutes, Alex arrived at the Alchemist's guild and walked towards the corner away from the customers.

The customers and receptionists looked with surprised expressions when they saw Lightsworns enter the guild.

When they saw an Alchemist with them, they were even more surprised.

One of the receptionists immediately stood up and walked toward them. When she reached the Lightsworns, she bowed towards them in greeting but ignored them afterward.

"Sir Alchemist, do you require any assistance?" she asked.

"There's no need," Alex said. "If there is, I will let you know."

The receptionist nodded and went back to the reception.

Alex was surprised that she came to help him so fast. Likely all the receptionists were trained in such a way to help the alchemists in whatever problem they encountered.

'She was likely going to find me a lawyer equivalent, wasn't she?' he thought. He was liking the guild more and more now.

"Can we ask you some questions now?" the girl asked.

"Yes, go ahead," Alex said. There was nothing he could really do now aside from answering their question.

"What's your name?" the girl asked.

"Yu Ming," Alex said.

"Where are you from, brother Ming?"

"Riverweed city," Alex said.

The girl quickly took out a map to see where the city lied and when they realized that it was on the same path as the bandit's location, she put it back in.

"What is your affiliation with the bandits?" the girl asked.

"Affiliations? I don't have any affiliations," Alex said.

"That's a damn lie," the man said from the side. "The talisman that tracked you down had the bandit's aura in it. It was an Aura tracking talisman, and it led us right to you."

"Oh," Alex said. "That's because I killed them partially."

The two Lightsworns immediately frowned. "You killed them?" they asked. The man and woman instantly judged Alex's cultivation base again, only to find out it was still in True Disciple 3rd realm.

That couldn't have killed anyone at all.

The girl suddenly moved her hand, and Alex thought she was about to attack him. However, she was just reaching her storage bag.

The girl then brought out a talisman and suddenly placed it on Alex's forehead before he could say anything.

Alex felt a rush of non-harming energy pass through his body and a moment later, the talisman fell.

-True Disciple 3rd realm-

That was written on the talisman. "Why did you do that?" Alex frowned.

"Sorry, we needed to find out if you were perhaps lying," the girl said as she picked up the talisman. "However, it doesn't look like you are."

"Of course, I'm not," Alex said.

"Then why were you lying?" the girl asked.

Alex was confused. "What? When did I lie?" he asked.

"You said you killed them. With your cultivation base, that's not possible at all. Also, to gain this much aura, you couldn't have killed them using any other method than direct fighting," the girl said.

Alex took a deep breath and reigned in his anger. "Partially. I said I killed them partially. I only killed the ones I could. I can't kill them all obviously," Alex said.

"Huh? Oh," the girl only then understood. "Who else was with you?"

"Uh, it was one man called Shen Jing, that's all," Alex said.

"Where is this man now?" the girl demanded.

"Behind you." A voice floated from behind the girl and boy, scaring them. They immediately took out their swords and pointed their swords at him, fully scared of him.

'What the hell? How did I not sense him approaching?' the girl wondered. 'He's hiding his cultivation base as well.'

"Are you… Shen Jing?" the girl asked, looking at the newly arrived Shen Jing up and down.

"Yes, I am," he said. "Who might you be?"

"We are the Lightsworns, sent to investigate the case of a bandit group terrorizing local merchants and caravans," she said.

"Oh, those bandits are dead now," Shen Jing said.

"And you killed them?" the girl asked.

"Haha, partially," he said, repeating Alex's words.

'How long has he been here?' Alex wondered. It wouldn't surprise him if Shen Jing had been here the entire time waiting for the perfect time to enter.

The girl frowned. She took out another talisman and watched it move. Once again, it drifted towards Alex and turned into a bust of light.

"You have no aura of the bandits on you," the girl said with a cold look in her eyes as if she had found someone in the midst of lying.

"Why would I have their aura?" Shen Jing asked as if ignorant.

"If you killed them, then their aura would be on you," she said as if that were obvious.

Shen Jing simply shook his head. "They were too weak to place their aura on me," he said.

"No matter how weak, their death should have placed an aura on you," the girl said with an annoyed look. She really didn't like how Shen Jing spoke.

"Girl, does your cloth drench in blood when you kill a mosquito?" Shen Jing asked.

The girl's eyes narrowed with more annoyance in her eyes. "Are you comparing late True Lord realms as akin to mosquitoes?" she asked.

Shen Jing gave a foolish look. "Haha, I suppose it's a little inaccurate. But I don't know any bugs that are weaker than mosquitoes, but just as annoying," he said.

"HAH! Weaker than mosquitoes. That's quite arrogant of you. You think we will believe whatever your mouth shits ou—"

Suddenly, the floor below the girl cracked as she fell to her knees. Her entire body tried to crumble in on itself as sounds of cracking bones were heard from all over her body.

Shen Jing's entire demeanor suddenly changed. "Mind your attitude girl. Just because I like talking to you as equal doesn't mean you get to disrespect me," he said.

Blood veins popped up all over her body, threatening to burst at any moment. Her organs felt like they would burst out of her stomach, which her heart tried to give in at every other moment.

Her brain tried to shut down to protect her, but for some reason, she could clearly use all of her senses.

And that only made the situation worse for her.

Her face soon became blue from the pressure as blood started trickling down her nose. Then her mouth. Then her ears. Finally her eyes.

The man behind her wanted to help, but he wasn't in the condition to help either. While the pressure he felt wasn't hurting him, it was stopping him from doing anything else.

Only Alex there felt no pressure, as that was how Shen Jing intended it to be.

The girl's robes had already lost their color and were instead mostly black from the blood pouring out of the random tears in her skin from the pressure.

"Brother Jing, you should stop. If she dies, we will be in trouble," Alex said.

Shen Jing was about to say something but shook his head instead of as he kept the information to himself.

Finally, he released the pressure. The girl fell to the ground, taking deep breaths and then coughing out blood.

Shen Jing got on one knee and looked at her. "Do you believe me now, mosquito?" he asked.

The girl couldn't answer from the pain and fear she was feeling.

A smile crept back on Shen Jing's face. "Well, don't worry about your injuries. As luck would have it, you are in the one place where you can trust you will get healed."