Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

　　Alex turned around to see Shurin standing behind him. “Shurin? What are you doing here?” he asked.

　　”I’ve been searching for you since the day before yesterday. Where have you been?” she asked.

　　”I’ve… been in the guild, holed up, practicing,” Alex said.

　　”Whatever, you need to come with me now. The princess wants to see you,” Shurin said.

　　”I’ll be back in a bit, mother,” Alex said and left with Shurin. She took her around the stage until he reached a secluded area in a high tower.

　　The princess was inside, watching the competition in the comfort by herself.

　　”You’re here,” the princess turned around. “Finally. I hope I wasn’t late in finding you.”

　　”What’s going on?” Alex asked,

　　”I saw your performance the day before, and I must say it was less than great,” the princess said.

　　”Sigh, yeah, I feel less than great right now,” Alex said.

　　”Does it have anything to do with you finding Yin treasures?” she asked.

　　”Kind of. I have a problem with me currently, the solution to which I haven’t found yet. So, I use Yin treasures as a temporary cure,” Alex said.

　　”Good thing I thought so then,” the princess said and brought out a box from her storage bag. The moment the box came out, Alex thought the room’s temperature dropped by nearly 5 degrees and that was before the box was even opened.

　　”What’s that?” he asked.

　　”It’s a royal treasure I took out from the treasury,” the princess said. “Well, we call it a treasure, but really it’s just a drop of water that our ancestor found that is full of Yin Qi.”

　　”We don’t know what to do with this, so it had been sitting around in the treasury for a few hundred years now,” the princess said.

　　”And you’re giving this to me?” Alex asked. “Why?”

　　”Because we appreciate all you’ve done,” the princess said. “Also, you must show the world what is possible with Alchemy. Show how great one can get will pills.”

　　”I want people to have a high bar they can work up to, and I want you to be the one that sets the bar,” the princess said.

　　”Thank you,” Alex said.

　　”How long do you need to… cure your problem?” she asked.

　　”A whole day maybe, I don’t know,” Alex said. “Oh no, we don’t have much time.”

　　”Alright go, we will talk later,” the princess said.

　　”Thank you, princess Xumei,” Alex said, bowed, and left. He directly ran to his mother and told her what he was going to do.

　　”Where are you going? The hotel?” she asked.

　　”No, the guild is closer,” Alex said. “How’s the first round going?”

　　”They are halfway through making the pills,” Helen said. “You should hurry.”

　　”I’ll see you later,” Alex said and ran off. He blitzed through the street and arrived at the guild.

　　Some of the staff that recognized him were surprised to see him there, but he didn’t stick around to talk with any of them.

　　He entered one of the rooms and immediately started cultivating with the Winter Moon cultivation technique. Once he was in the zone, he brought out the box and felt the air chill again.

　　Then, he opened the box and the air became even colder. ‘What do I do now?’ he wondered as he looked at the small drop of water.

　　There was one thing he could do that would be the best way to work, but he wasn’t sure if it was safe or not as this was a highly Yin-ish treasure.

　　”Oh, what the hell,” Alex thought and drank the drop of crystal clear Yin water.

　　Immediately, a chilling cold entered his body, freezing the pathway to his stomach. Alex felt his organs start to freeze and slow down.

　　At that moment, without even thinking, he released all the Yang he had been holding back currently.

　　The Yin and the Yang started mixing with each other and started circulating his meridians while he cultivated.

　　Alex closed his eyes and left the two to do what they did best. 

　　At first, the Yin and Yang became violent, seeking to destroy each other. However, soon they found harmony in each other and the violence ended.

　　Alex continued cultivating for who knew how long. Even the urgency he had felt was gone as the two found equilibrium and maintained each other.

　　After what felt like an entire day, Alex opened his eyes and stopped cultivating. 

　　The moment he did, the equilibrium vanished. After stopping the Winter Moon cultivation technique, Alex found that his Yang was starting to overtake him again.

　　However, this time around, it was so little that it wouldn’t even be noticeable for the most part, let alone be an inconvenience.

　　”The competition!” Alex finally remembered and ran out of the guild. When he arrived outside, he saw that the sun was to the west and it was way past the afternoon.

　　”Oh no, how long did I stay in there?” he thought and ran back to the competition grounds.

　　He quickly ran to the audience stands and found his mother.

　　”Mother! What’s going on? Am I late?” he asked hurriedly.

　　”Oh god, you’re finally here,” Helen felt relieved finally.

　　”What’s going on? What round is this?” Alex asked.

　　”It’s the 9th round. Your turn is next. Quickly go,” Helen said.

　　Alex nodded and gave her everything but a single storage bag and ran towards the waiting area.

　　Even as he was going, he could hear the results for the 9th group being announced.

　　65%. 67%. 63%.

　　Everyone was using his pill and scoring really high points. In fact, one of them even managed to get a 72%.

　　Alex rushed through the waiting room and arrived at the back of the room where they were being scanned before being ready to get sent to the stage.

　　The other 19 participants looked at him with surprise.

　　”You’re finally here,” Zhanrou shouted with relief.

　　The others most made a grunting noise while Zhou Ren gave a mocking smile.

　　”I had thought you would have given up by now. It seems you got a little kick in you just yet,” Zhou Ren said.

　　Alex smiled back at him. “Just keep watching, you will get a little kick in you later too,” he said.

　　He ignored his agitated face and went to get his storage bag scanned.

　　”Hmm?” the saint realm expert made a frowning face. “What is this? This is not allowed.”

　　”It’s a weight measurement formation,” Alex said. “I need it for the ingredients.”

　　The Saint thought for a moment and asked, “Do you really need this?” 

　　”Yes,” Alex said.

　　The Saint turned around to converse with his colleagues and turned around after a few seconds.

　　”Okay, what exactly do you plan to use it for?” he asked.

　　”Just checking the ingredient’s weight,” Alex said.

　　”Anything else?” he asked.

　　Alex shook his head. 

　　”Okay, someone will sit by you while you use it and take it away after you’re done. Understood?” he asked.

　　”Absolutely,” Alex said.

　　Once everything was set, everyone was let onto the stage and introduced one by one. As they came out, everyone was once again asked the same question as to what they were going to do.

　　Out of all 20 of them, everyone that went ahead of Alex said the same pill’s name.

　　Disciple Ascendancy pill.

　　”What pill are you making, Contestant Yu?” the host asked.

　　”A Body Rebinding pill,” Alex said.

　　The crowd murmured a bit when they heard that and even the host showed a surprised expression.

　　”I hear you were the one that perfected the recipe for the Disciple Ascendancy pill. Mind telling us why you’re not making that pill like everyone else?” the host asked.

　　”It’s simple,” Alex said. “Everyone else doesn’t have choices with the recipes as I do.”

　　”Oh, are you saying that this pill you are going to make… do you…” the host didn’t have to fully answer the question for everyone else to understand what he was implying.

　　Alex smiled at the host and walked to his position.

　　”It seems we are going to get an amazing round folks. It’s the time you’ve been waiting for all day long. For the top 20 of the competition so far to compete together for the first time and once and for all let us know who the best alchemist of the younger generation is,” the host said.

　　Then he turned to the contestants. “Get in position,” he said and waited.

　　Once everyone was in place, a slew of staff members came up front and handed them their ingredients.

　　”You have one hour to make the best pill you can ever make. Begin!” 

　　Alex heard rustling from all around him as people started preparing their cauldron.

　　However, Alex didn’t bring out the cauldron. Instead, he brought out the formation plate.

　　A staff member sat by him and watched him do what he did.

　　Alex took the ingredients out one by one and started weighing them against the formation.

　　The staff was truly surprised to see him measuring. After all, they had expected some sort of shenanigan from him to win at this competition after yesterday’s unworthy showing.

　　Alex checked through the ingredients. 20 grams. 52 grams. 33 grams.

　　He used his fake arm to break away some of the ingredients as they were too heavy.

　　Alex then checked a tree bark that needed to be 45 grams. However, when he measured it, it was only 43 grams.

　　It was missing 2 grams. 

　　2 grams didn’t look like much, but that was 2 grams missing which the other ingredients would latch onto when forming the pill, thus creating a massive problem that would lower the percentage by a lot.

　　”Sir,” he said to the staff member. “I cannot use this bark. I will require another ingredient.”