Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Grimsight followed Killshot into the room, and soon no one could hear anything outside of it.

Killshot walked for a bit longer, moving up to the other side of the room while Grimsight stopped right by the door. Killshot only stopped after a while and turned to look at Grimsight.

“What happened to you?” she asked. “How did you get so old?”

“I am a mortal now,” Grimsight said. “I age, just as a mortal does.”

Killshot raised an eyebrow. “You get wounded too then? Is that how you lost your eye?”

Grimsight involuntarily reached for the scar on the right side of his face where his eye was no more. “I can’t heal anymore, so I could not regrow it.”

“Still, who is able to wound you to such a degree?” Killshot asked. “I don’t think there are many that can do that.”

Grimsight didn’t say anything for a while. After the silence lingered for longer than he wanted, he asked, “This isn’t the talk you wanted, is it? Can you get to it?”

Killshot smiled a little, seemingly melancholic. “I haven’t seen you since long before the war ended, and you won’t even indulge me in a bit of small talk? Is that how little our friendship mattered to you?”

Grimsight lowered his gaze. “We are worlds apart now. You deal with gods, while I am nobody.”

“You don’t have to be,” Killshot said.

“But I am,” Grimsight insisted. “I have been a nobody ever since I decided to become one a long time ago.”

Killshot shook her head. “A nobody wouldn’t be able to kill the Poison God in his courtyard like you were going to,” she said.

“Kill? No. I have changed. I do not kill unless necessary,” Grimsight said. “What we had was a mere misunderstanding. I would’ve explained it to him and we would’ve settled our differences.”

“And if that didn’t work?” Killshot asked. “Dustvenom isn’t the type to simply let you go after you disrespected him. Not unless he knew who he was up against.”

“I would’ve found a way. If I couldn’t do it, I would’ve sought help. But I wouldn’t kill him. I do not kill unless necessary, and his death would’ve been anything but,” the old man said.

Killshot seemed surprised by his answer. Her gaze failed to find the person she once knew. “You really did change; into a pacifist, no less.”

Grimsight didn’t say anything.

“Do you know why I am here?” Killshot asked.

“Here… in this house?” Grimsight asked.

“No, here in the Medicine World,” Killshot said.

Grimsight shook his head. “Is it perhaps not for the tournament?”

Killshot chuckled a little. “Did you ever know me to care for alchemists or any other people? What tournament do you remember me going to that wasn’t regarding battle?”

Grimsight thought for a moment and answered, “None.”

“So, are you curious why I am here then?” she asked.

Grimsight nodded. “Now I am curious.”

“I came to see you.”

Grimsight showed surprise on his wrinkled face. He hadn’t expected that.

Killshot enjoyed the look on his face. “I heard from Orangeruby that you were here, so I came to see you.”

Grimsight slowly nodded as he took in that information. “So, the Puppet God is here too,” he said. “I should’ve known after all of those puppet shows in between the competitions.”

“She is here. She knows enough about your history, and she knows about our relationship, so she let me know. She wants me to be the one to recruit you.”

Grimsight narrowed his eye at that moment and stared at Killshot. He did not like where this was going at all. “Recruit me?” he asked. “What do you mean you want to recruit me?”

Killshot began walking at that moment, pacing around the room. Grimsight looked at her, waiting for an answer. Only after a while did Killshot speak again.

“Do you know what the situation is out there among the gods?” she asked.

“How would I know?” Grimsight asked. “And that doesn’t answer my question.”

“It is bad,” Killshot said, continuing to answer her own question and ignoring Grimsight. “It’s been a long time since the war ended, and the gods have been desperate. All of the ones in the Divine Realm are beginning to figure out that their chances of entering the Celestial Realm are almost non-existent.”

Grimsight frowned but continued to listen.

“Celestial Qi is difficult to obtain now. There are only so many Celestial veins for them to use. And the tribulations aren’t helping much either because of the lack of overall Qi.”

“These gods think they deserve this Qi, so…”

Grimsight frowned when he heard that. “So they want to start the war again?” he asked.

Killshot paused and nodded. “The gods can foresee the coming war, so they are preparing for it. They don’t have a reason to start just yet, but in the coming years, they will. And when they do, we will be at war again.”

Grimsight did not like what he was told. “And you wish to recruit me for this war?” he asked, his voice growing louder as anger flashed through his calm eye.

War was what had made him who he was today. It was what had torn his heart to tatters, made him regret every spear stab he had ever made. War was what made him think everything red was blood drawn from his kills.

The cries of those innocent voices still haunted him. The death of all those who didn’t have to die. All just so they could protect that one thing that meant so much to them.

War was what had pushed him to become that extreme back then. And it was what had changed him in the end.

He did not want war. He hated war. And his expression said that more than his words could.

“You hate war,” Killshot said.

“I absolutely abhor it,” Grimsight said. “I am not angered easily these days, but words of war will do it.”

Killshot looked at Grimsight for a long time, trying to understand his expression and his emotion. His hatred for war couldn’t have been clearer. She was amazed to think that someone who was once called the strongest human soldier during the war had turned into someone like this.

She couldn’t help but smile.

Grimsight felt his anger spike even further upon seeing the smile. To him, that smile was mocking everything he stood for. She was mocking his experience and his pain.

“Why are you smiling?” he asked.

Killshot’s smile froze suddenly. In the lack of the man’s aura, she could clearly feel his killing intent. And it was no doubt one of the strongest she had ever sensed. Far stronger than even the Sword God, and that one knew nothing but to kill.

It took a moment for Killshot’s smile to return to her face. When it did, she answered him.

“I’m smiling because I think you are just the one I need to recruit,” Killshot said.

Grimsight shook his head. “I won’t join your little group of murderers. I won’t fight in your war.”

Killshot nodded. “Great! Because I’m not trying to recruit you to fight in the war,” she said. “I’m trying to recruit you so we can stop it.”