Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

“How did it go, any problems?” Silvermist asked Alex after he walked out of the mountain.

Alex shook his head. “It went exactly as it needed to, master,” he said. “My Wood root is much better now. So much better than before.” He looked down to where his spirit root would be, still feeling the massive change that surprised him.

“That is good to hear. You have no idea how difficult it was to find all of those treasures in such a short period of time,” Silvermist said with a thick grin. “I would’ve likely gone on a ranting spree had it not worked.”

Alex gave a small smile after hearing this and chose to keep his thoughts about improving his Water and Earth roots to himself for now. There was no point in asking so much from his master at once. After the tournament was done, depending on whether he won the whole thing or not, he would feel less guilty about asking for such a thing.

“Let us return then,” Silvermist said, and they left the sect.

Flying back, Silvermist himself said that he wanted to help improve Alex’s other spirit roots as well. Alex accepted the offer but did not give any hints to urge Silvermist to work harder for it.

“Master, I thought of something when I was in the mountain,” Alex spoke up. “I came up with an idea, but I do not know if it is a good idea or not, so I wanted to run it by you before I went ahead with it.”

Silvermist kept some of his attention on the ship he flew through the skies of the Trueflame Continent and sent some of his attention back to his disciple.

“What sort of idea?” he asked.

“About the Dao of Alchemy,” Alex said. “You know how we can’t really sense it because we never really bothered learning about it ourselves and instead used others’ knowledge to learn everything, right?”

“Right,” Silvermist said, nodding as he wondered where his disciple was going with this topic.

“Well, I thought of something interesting. I kept wondering how I could learn more about Alchemy when I’ve learned everything I could, and that was when it hit me,” Alex said. “I have yet to learn about Pill Souls. So, if I were to somehow learn what Pill Souls do before anyone else teaches me about it, that should help me attune to the Dao just enough for me to recognize it, right?”

Silvermist thought for a moment, not immediately disregarding his disciple’s possibility. After a while, he said, “Theoretically, what you say is sound. Learning something on your own is certainly the most reasonable way to learn a Dao, but… have you considered the fact that it is going to take you a long time before you learn anything about Pill Souls? It could be millennia before you learn anything.”

Alex was fully aware of this. In fact, that had been the first question he had thought of as soon as the idea had formed in his mind. Was he willing to give up time for this?

That was when he realized the answer.

“Yes, I’m willing,” Alex said. “It just makes sense that I should be willing. First of all, the Dao of Alchemy is far superior in terms of importance to just the knowledge about Pill Souls, so it makes perfect sense to go for it.”

“And secondly, I have plenty of time, master. I still have three entire major realms to go before I become a Divine Realm cultivator, and any knowledge of Pill Souls before that wouldn’t really help me at all.”

Silvermist pondered on that topic. It was true, he realized, that Alex had plenty of time before he reached the realm where knowledge of Pill Souls would matter in the slightest. Before that, there would be no reason. After that, if he really wanted to, he could just come back to him and learn about Pill Souls.

“Alright,” Silvermist said. “That does sound like an idea that might work. It’s hard to say if it would because I don’t see how you could learn about Pill Souls on your own, but if you do, that will be a very big help to learning the Dao of Alchemy.”

Alex was happy to see his master was okay with the idea.

“Still,” Silvermist continued. “I did promise you that I will tell you about Pill Souls once all of this is over, so before you leave, I will give you the answer. You can simply choose not to learn it.”

Alex thought for a moment and nodded. “That might be for the best,” he said. “I might come upon a situation where I must make a pill with Pill Souls.” Trouble certainly seemed to follow him, so it would make sense to be ready for anything.

Still, how long would it take before he reached the Divine Realm? He certainly had a lot of time.

They finally arrived back at the court, and Alex alone went back to the mansion. On the way, as he passed by the disciples’ mountain, a voice called out to him.

“Alchemist Dawnblade!” the voice shouted at the top of its lungs.

Alex was puzzled as he had never been spoken to in this place. Most simply bowed in greeting and walked off, or stopped to make some conversation. This was a first.

He turned around to look at who it was and saw a young man in the distance, a wide smile on his face.

It took Alex but a moment to remember who this young man was, and a smile broke out on his face too.

“Junior Scarwolf,” he said. “I see you made it into the court.”

Scarwolf, the young man he had taught for a few days back in the Beast Cloud Sect, seemed to have made his way into the Silvermist Alchemy Court, just as he had always wanted.

“Alchemist Dawnblade,” he said as he reached Alex and bowed suddenly. “Thank you for your referral. Thanks to you, my lifelong dream of seriously learning Alchemy has finally come true.”