Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

The realization struck Alex like a hammer on an anvil. The clear understanding that he wasn’t just missing 4 ingredients, but rather all ingredients meant that he needed to gather the rest.

They weren’t going to hand over said ingredients, so he would have to get it himself.

Could he ask his master for them… or was that going to be out of the question soon enough as well?

“You seem worried, brother,” Aethersage said. “Don’t be. They truly cannot check what is inside our Soul Space. I’ve checked it properly. It’s just a formation plate and there are no Qi lines here.”

Alex shook his head. “That is not what I’m worried about,” he said and quickly explained his understanding of the situation.

Aethersage heard that and his eyes round as saucers. “What do you mean we can’t use our own ingredients? Where else are we supposed to find the ingredients in this secret realm?” “I don’t know,” Alex said. “But I fear the competition might go much further than just this realm.”

He was almost certain about it at this point. They still needed to learn more of the rules to see what was and wasn’t allowed, so they had to wait for everyone to get their medallions.

After a long time, once everyone was fitted with a medallion and were now heavily disinclined to use their soul space, the Alchemy God began explaining the rules of the Competition.

“As I said before, the competition is to make the pill as written in the recipe you received. As long as you make a pill with greater than 90% Harmony, you will pass. There are, however, rules that you will need to follow during the competition.”

“Rule number 1. You are not allowed to use any ingredients you get for free or with a discount. Anything you must use, you must either find it yourself or purchase it for full price from somewhere.”

“Rule number 2. You are not allowed to work in any pre-existing organizations be it courts, guilds, sects, or families of any sort.”

“Rule number 3. You are not allowed to sell, rent, or trade the items recorded in your talisman in any way. If they are destroyed by some chance, you must bring back remnants of it.”

“Rule number 4. You shall not accept any help from anyone, aside from the participants of the competition.”

“Rule number 5. You are not allowed to interact with anyone who belongs to your sect, court, guild, and-or family.”

“Rule number 6. You will not reveal the recipe to anyone else, whether it is yours or someone else’s.”

“Rule number 7. You will forever wear the medallion until the day you make the pill.”

“Rule number 8. You must return to this city every decade for your next competition. You are not allowed to miss a single one.”

“If you break any of these rules, on top of the rules that were set for the tournament as a whole, you will be directly disqualified. The committee holds the right to make any further rules or changes to existing rules as may seem necessary.”

The entire 90 thousand participants remained in a state of stunned silence after hearing all the rules. They finally understood the ‘twist’ that the competition held.

It was a simple competition in the end. They just had to make a pill. Only, finding the ingredients for the pill was going to be a lot more difficult than they had previously expected.

‘I can’t use my ingredients, can’t ask master or someone else for it. I must buy everything at full price or find it somewhere else. And I don’t have any money to get started either.’

This was going to be a troublesome way to start the competition.

Alex rubbed his forehead trying to think of ways around the rules, but he couldn’t think of any. He needed to go through it all by himself.

‘Well, not like I haven’t done something similar previously,’ he thought. He had started from the bottom many times and made his way up to the top. There were a few more problems this time around, but he could surely find his way around it.

He wasn’t the only person to think of it this way. There were others who began motivating themselves in the face of trouble. They didn’t lose their heart just yet. They couldn’t give up when they hadn’t even tried.

“Before we move on to the next competition, let me give you a final piece of information about this competition,” the Alchemy God said, a ridiculous smile forming on his face.

“You will be awarded points based on your ranking. The lower your rank the better it will be for you. These points will matter in the overall tournament to decide who becomes the victor.”

It appeared they could not waste their time either. This was going to be a crazy competition after all.

“Now, let us move on to the next competition that is to start today,” the Alchemy God said and waved his hands. Everyone watched far away to see what was happening. Alex saw fluctuations in space from where he was, but without using his Spiritual sense, he couldn’t tell what the fluctuation happening was. It was only a while later did sounds of confusion and curiosity crossed through everyone.

What had been brought into the secret realm was in fact a massive number of young mortals, numbering in the thousands.

There were more mortals here than there were participants. Everyone looked toward the Alchemy God for answers.

The Alchemy God waited in the sky, looking at the young mortals that made their way into the secret realm. He waited until everyone was inside before turning around to explain the next competition.

“As you can see, we have 100 thousand mortals here, and there are over 92 thousand of you present.”

The number caused a bit of noise among the participants, but not much. They silenced themselves to hear what was going on.

“When you received the talisman with the recipe, there was a number written on top of it. That number is associated with one of these young mortals,” the Alchemy God explained. “Very soon, the corresponding mortals will be united with you, and starting then, you will be their new Alchemy teacher.”

“Huh?”

“Teacher?”

A round of questions flew through the crowd.

“Teacher?” Aethersage asked. “I’m supposed to be a teacher?”

“To a mortal no less,” Alex said with great surprise in his mind. The Alchemy God continued. “Being a good Alchemist alone is not enough if you do not know how to impart that knowledge to others. For the next 50 years, these disciples will stay with you and before the final contest, they will have a small competition of their own to decide who among you has managed to raise the best Alchemist.”

The understanding of what the contest was going to be finally set into everyone who was in the secret realm.

“Yes, the next competition is going to be to see how good of a teacher you are. Similar to the first competition, you will be given points based on how high your new disciple ranks,” the Alchemy God said.

“Raise the greatest Alchemy disciple you can. Should you succeed, you will be rewarded with more than just the points.”