Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Using the two techniques on their own was easy. Using them together? Impossible.

The two techniques shared nearly 60% of the pathway from the Dantian to his Mind, where the Spiritual Sea lay. Only in some places did they go their separate ways, and that was just not enough for Alex to use them together.

Even if they were mostly different, as long as they ended at the same meridians—which these two techniques did—Alex couldn’t use two separate Intents for the same flow of Qi to use them at the same time.

So, if he wanted to use them together, he needed to combine the two Intents and use them on Qi that flowed through the right pathway. Since 60% of it was the same, Alex could be certain he could use those pathways. It was only the other 40% he would have to figure out.

‘It would be something in between,’ he thought. ‘Shouldn’t take me too long. Just a couple of years.’

The main issue there would be finding the right Intent. What did he want the two techniques to do when mixed together? That would need some thinking.

Maybe a year would be enough to come to a decent conclusion?

How long did he have before the tournament?

‘It will all have to wait for afterward,’ he thought. ‘For now, I should focus on creating my Blood Origin. The quicker I get access to my Blood Creation, the better.’

Alex left the room. He had cultivated for too many years and wanted to go check on things. Silvermist was there already, apparently having sensed his breakthrough.

“Congratulations, my disciple,” Silvermist said, slapping him on his shoulders like a proud father. “With this, you shall grow stronger.”

“Thank you, Master,” Alex said, feeling a hint of glee at the praise. “There is something that happened, Master. I was wondering if you could help me.”

After a brief explanation, Silvermist was made to ponder Alex’s situation. “Surely you are mistaken. You must’ve not noticed it when you met your Inner Demon. They are tricky things. Most Immortals don’t have much experience with it as they only first learn about it right before reaching the Immortal realms.”

Alex shook his head.

“I learned my first Dao when I was only a True Realm cultivator, Master. All throughout the True Realms and the Saint Realm, I have faced my Inner Demon, even failed a few times,” he said. “I know what it feels like to come out of a conflict with the Inner Demon, and there was nothing close to it there. And I hadn’t missed any time either. I had simply skipped the demon, Master.”

Silvermist’s eyes narrowed, confused, for if all of what his disciple had said was true, then something had happened to him. Was it a good thing? Or bad?

“Maybe Brother Grim knows something,” Silvermist said and called for him. A few minutes later, Grimsight was in the mansion, sitting before Alex.

The man looked at Alex for a second, his single eye narrowing a little. “Why is there so much Blood Aura around you?” he asked. “More than normal for you, which was already more than normal.”

“Something small. Nothing of significance,” Alex quickly said. “There is another matter entirely that we called you here for, Senior.”

Grimsight listened to their words for a bit, his eyes narrowing at each bit of information. He seemed lost at the end, thinking.

“I…” he slowly began speaking. “I have seen it happen before. It is not something so strange.”

“You have?” Alex asked, curiosity bubbling inside of him. “Do you know why?”

“No, I do not know why,” the man said. “I had a friend, long ago. Before I became Grimsight; when I was Heavenspear.”

“During the war?” Silvermist asked.

Grimsight nodded. “We were in a legion back then, back when my fame hadn’t reached the level where Gods would talk to me. I was but a number in the war back then.”

“Our legion was a group closer than family, and everyone was my friend. The one I talk about now, a man lost to time, a man stronger than me at the time, had been able to break through without going through Inner Demons.”

“Everyone in our legion knew this about him, but we never really managed to figure out why that was. It was clear though that the lack of Inner Demons had not come with any drawback. It simply… was no more for him.”

Silvermist scratched his black-and-white beard. “Could he have somehow let go of all mortal worries? Let go of all materialistic and familial needs, allowing him to have nothing for the Inner Demon to target?” he asked.

“Impossible,” Grimsight said. “He worried. For himself, for us. I told you, we were family. All of us in that legion. If he did not care for others, would he go on a suicide charge to rescue his friends?”

Grimsight felt his emotions riling up and stopped. Remembering the war was always terrible, but this moment in particular had been the worst for him. He had been a mere shell of himself for many years after that. It was what had led him to search for ways to become powerful.

There had been many instances afterward that reinforced those feelings, but this had been the seed of what had eventually led him to the tomb in the Celestial’s Cradle.

Grimsight calmed down. “He was a man with many fears. That was not the reason for the disappearance of his Inner Demon,” he said.

Alex was stunned. “This man, what happened to him?” he asked.

“He died,” Grimsight answered. “It was suicide, and he knew it.”

“Did he manage to rescue those people at least?” Alex asked.

“Sadly,” Grimsight continued. “He failed in that. Most of my legion died during that battle outside of Bloodhaven. It was one of the worst battles I had ever been in.”

Alex fell silent.

Grimsight looked up suddenly, a thought coming to him at that point. “We don’t know much about anything,” he said. “But maybe your friend has more information than us.”

Alex’s eyes widened slightly. “Right! Rosemist might know.”