Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Windborn was called forward by the Alchemy God to receive his Immunity Pin. As the winner of the last round, he had earned one of the highly sought-after pins, which he accepted with a smiling face.

The old man thanked the Alchemy God and made his way back to where Alex and the others sat.

“Now then, you should all be curious about what the next competition is going to be, so I won’t keep the secrets veiled any further,” the Alchemy God announced. “The next competition is going to be an Ingredient Replacement test. We shall provide you with a recipe, and you must replace the ingredients used within it.”

“Everyone will receive the same recipe for fairness, which will have 12 ingredients. You must replace at least six ingredients to pass the competition, but you may continue to replace the remaining six if you choose to.”

“The one who replaces the six ingredients the fastest will be considered the winner.”

There was a long moment where people in the hall sat in silence. The quiet didn’t linger too long, as reactions quickly rippled through the crowd.

‘Ingredient replacement?’ Alex thought. He had been doing it for so long that he didn’t consider it much of a challenge. He wondered how it was going to be tested, though. How would one get ingredients? Could they use their own?

He waited for the questions to be answered, which the Alchemy God addressed not long after.

“Each of you will have an assistant whose sole job will be to get the ingredients you request. For the sake of not letting you wasting ingredients for the sake of testing it, you can only ask for five ingredients every hour.”

“While we did mention before that there would be no disqualification, that is not entirely the truth. Failure to complete the competition, which requires replacing at least six ingredients, will result in disqualification. I do not believe that to be unfair. If you do, you may tell me why now.”

He stopped and glanced around the room, searching for anyone who would dare challenge his words.

No one argued. Some refrained out of fear, but most out of understanding. It made no sense for an Alchemist to continue if they couldn’t accomplish such a basic task.

One man raised his hand toward the back of the gathered candidates.

“Do you have an opposing view on this matter, young Fourgale?” the Alchemy God asked.

The young man shook his head. “I only wish to ask how you will determine failure,” he said. “Is there a time limit?”

“There is,” the Alchemy God replied, addressing everyone this time. “Exactly one month.”

“The competition will last for one month exactly, during which you must replace the six ingredients. If you pass, you may choose to stop or continue replacing the remaining ingredients within the time left. As you might have guessed, each replaced ingredient will earn you a certain number of points for the final competition.”

The Alchemy God stepped back. “That’s all I can tell you for now. There is still more to come tomorrow, so I shall go prepare for it. Additional rules will be relayed on the stage itself, so wait for that.”

“I wish you all the best of luck in tomorrow’s competition.”

And then the Alchemy God left.

The Alchemy God’s departure finally allowed the quiet murmurs to erupt into lively chatter. Everyone began discussing the test and how well they expected to perform in it. Not everyone seemed calm about the test though. Quite a few, in fact, seemed worried.

“Well, that’s a simple test,” Aethersage said. “They should’ve put it at the start instead of that speed test. That was way more difficult than this one.”

“I would agree with you if it was only 500 people taking that speed test. Since it was not, they would’ve had to provide five ingredients every hour for nearly 90,000 people,” Alex said from the side. “I believe they deliberately set up tests to use as few resources as possible.”

After thinking for a bit, Aethersage nodded.

“There’s still more, though,” Jai Heiyun said from the side. She had been sitting quietly for a while and now found a reason to speak. “There are more rules we don’t know.”

“What more rules could there be?” Aethersage asked.

Everyone began speculating about the remaining rules, wondering why part of the instructions was being withheld. What more could there be to know?

They could only wait, sadly.

Alex began chatting with Windborn, trying to learn more about him.

Windborn came from the Formation Monarch’s realm and was one of the most talented alchemists of the younger generation in that group. He had won a tournament in his realm a few dozen millennia ago and had now come here hoping to win this one too.

However, he had realized that he had overestimated his capabilities. There were others here far better than him.

“How’s your disciple doing, senior?” Alex asked. “Are they ready for their competition too?”

“My disciple? He’s been doing pretty well,” Windborn said. “He should do well in his—”

Windborn suddenly grimaced, clutching his head with both hands. He trembled, a look of extreme pain flashing across his face.

“Senior?” Alex asked, concerned. He was about to reach out to help, but before he could, a Divinity approached Windborn and quickly examined him.

Windborn still held his head, but the pained expression faded. He looked up, his eyes dazed. It took him a moment to register what had happened.

“Oh… my apologies, senior,” Windborn told the Divinity. “I am F—AAAAH!!!” He grabbed his head again, this time screaming along. It sounded as though

Windborn was taken from the hall immediately for a private examination, leaving the rest of the crowd in shock.

Everyone failed to understand what had just happened.

“What was that? A psychotic breakdown?” Aethersage asked.

Alex could only shake his head. Never in his life had he seen anything like it. It was all too sudden and far too unsettling.