Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Before returning to his place where Pearl and Momo would be, Alex went by one of the places where one could watch the tournament being shown. He simply wanted to check if someone had broken his record or had come close to doing so.

The place he went to was a well-known restaurant in the Rosefall city and it showed an uninterrupted stream of what went on in the other continent. The most surprising part here for Alex was the fact that there was absolutely no delay at all.

Despite being continents away, they could watch everything in real-time. One of the batches of competitors had just gotten done making pills when Alex reached the restaurant. He saw that no one had even come close to reaching Killersky in terms of points in the few days it had been. He waited until the score was tallied and left once he realized the score wasn’t that good. It seemed he would have to wait longer for his score to be beaten.

Alex returned back to where he was staying and was surprised to see that Aethersage was back from the garden.

“Brother Aethersage, did you get the lotus?” Alex asked him.

“Yes!” Aethersage said with a wide smile. “It was right there, so easy to get. Did you find out about the snake?”

“Better,” Alex said, bringing out the cauldron full of blood. “I got you the blood itself.”

Aethersage’s eyes widened for a moment as he looked at the blood. Then he frowned slightly. “This isn’t a Five-tailed Sword Snake’s blood. It’s Six-Tailed.”

“Oh yeah, I only met the Six-tailed Sword Snake,” Alex said. He explained what needed to be done, and how the blood had to be allowed to break down so that the Divine grade ingredient became an Immortal grade ingredient.

“And I can do that?” Aethersage asked.

“I’m sure you can,” Alex said. “It’s not that hard. You just have to use Intent.”

“I see,” Aethersage said. “If you say so. What do you want in return?”

“In return?” Alex shook his head. “I don’t want anything in return.”

Aethersage paused for a moment, looking at Alex with a confused look. “How am I supposed to take this then? I need to give something in return.”

Alex paused right along with the man, only now realizing that he hadn’t given anything in return for this. “Hmm? I had to pay nothing for this though. I just requested for some and…”

He wondered if because the blood hadn’t been for himself, he had received it without having to give anything back. Because his oath didn’t act up, it had to be true. “Wow, you got lucky,” Aethersage said. “I can’t accept this, because I must pay something of equal value.”

“What thing of equal value can you give me?” Alex asked.

Aethersage looked at the blood with a frown. “There is nothing on me that I can do,” he said. “Maybe I can pay in some other way. Is there anything else you might be concerned about that you can get help for? I will see if I can help you with anything at all.”

Alex slowly shook his head. “I can’t think of anything right now,” he said. What was it that he needed from Aethersage that he couldn’t get himself? Surely nothing about alchemy. Maybe about formations? He was good at that. But he could learn about formations himself. All he needed was time anyway. As for other things, what could Aethersage give him? Would he feel right asking for something back when he got so much from the blood already? Was there anything he could possibly want from Aethersage so desperately that he would make him pay it in return for providing him with this blood?

“Actually,” Alex said as he realized something. “There is something you can give me for this blood.”

“What is it?” Aethersage asked.

“Information,” Alex said.

“Information?”

Alex nodded. “Precisely speaking, information about the Godkiller’s tomb.”

Aethersage gave a weird look upon hearing that. “I… was going to tell you that anyway,” he said.

“Doesn’t matter. It is a transaction now,” Alex said. “Your information shall be the payment. Hold nothing back and that shall be of great value to me.”

Aethersage thought for a moment and shrugged. “Very well, I suppose that information is of value. That shall be our transaction.”

Alex smiled and handed over the cauldron full of blood for Aethersage to place somewhere. He brought out a cauldron to take the blood.

“You’ll have to keep this blood in the cauldron for months probably. Don’t bring out your main cauldron,” Alex told him.

“Oh, don’t worry. This isn’t my main cauldron,” Aethersage said. “I haven’t made that one yet.”

Alex was taken aback. “You don’t have a main cauldron with you yet?” he asked.

“No,” Aethersage shook his head. “It hasn’t been long since I began my alchemy journey. Barely over a century, so I haven’t had the time to get a proper cauldron for myself as most alchemists do. I just make use of whatever cauldron I can get.”

“Oh…” Alex said, very much surprised. “Only a century, huh?”

“Yes,” Aethersage said, rubbing his head full of red hair. “I did formations first and got quite good at it. So I began getting bored and started Alchemy. Once I learn all I need to about Alchemy, I will probably move on to something else too.”

“Like Artifacts?” Alex asked.

“Maybe,” Aethersage shrugged. “Maybe talisman. I hear demons have Scripts that I can learn. There’s also music and puppets and even cooking. So many avenues to go. I can learn whatever I want.”

Alex slowly nodded and stood up. “Take your time with getting used to trying to break down this blood. I will go take care of my disciple and return tomorrow morning for your end of the transaction.”

“Got it!”

Alex left the room, in wonderment regarding Aethersage’s plans. He wondered, had he not had the Alchemy God’s Knowledge, and only had the talent he had now, would he also want to try everything like Aethersage did?