Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

The audience applauded the end of the war, giving voice to their feelings. The cheers grew loud, louder than at any other time. These people had been in dire need of entertainment, and finally, they received it.

The War God waved in every direction, his smile wide for all to see.

Alex simply sat there, stunned by the end of the war. He still couldn’t make sense of the ending.

The War God finally took his attention away from the crowd when the cheering began to die down and looked toward Alex. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Are you sad that you lost?”

Alex glanced toward the War God and shook his head. “Not sad, as much as confused. I can’t tell why I lost.”

“That’s simple. You lost because your opponent was me. You didn’t think that you could win against me, did you? I would have to give you my title otherwise,” the War God joked.

Alex remained silent for a bit, his thoughts still going back to the same thing. “May I ask, how did I lose? As far as I could tell, I was winning, and then… your men were strong all of a sudden.”

“Well, yes,” the War God said. “I had them form an array at the end.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “Were you not already using an array?” he asked.

“A different array. One I can only use as a last-ditch effort.” The War God chuckled a bit. “The only reason I even used it now was because I knew these men weren’t real. It would be much harder to use it in a real war.”

“A forbidden array?” That was the only explanation that made sense to Alex at the moment. If that was the case, then he could understand how he had lost.

“Still, you came very close to winning the overall thing,” the War God continued. “I didn’t give it my all from the start, and that nearly did me in. You did good. You have great talent in becoming a Battle Master. You only need a proper master.”

Alex smiled slightly. “Thank you for the praise, War God.”

“It’s not praise. It’s the truth,” the War God insisted. “I wouldn’t be as good as I am had my master not taught me what he knew. Speaking of which, I do have something to ask you. You were using an array, weren’t you?”

Alex nodded. “Since you said it was allowed, I decided to use it.”

The War God grinned. “And do you happen to know what that array is called?”

Alex frowned internally, seeing the War God’s expression. He almost looked fanatic for a moment when he first grinned. He thought for a moment but saw no reason to lie.

“I do. It’s called Hell Emperor’s Divine Battle Array,” Alex answered.

The War God’s grin widened. “I knew it!” he nearly shouted. His expression made him look way too excited for Alex to feel comfortable at the moment.

Alex wondered what the War God meant. How could he have known? But then, when he thought about it further, he realized that, similar to his men, the War God’s men were also all plenty powerful. Alex had believed that might be from a different array, but now that he really thought about it, the truth seemed almost obvious.

“Were you using the same array during the game, War God?” Alex asked slowly.

The War God nodded. “Of course. Do you know who my master is?”

Alex shook his head.

“The Hell Emperor.”

Shock filled Alex at that moment. “The Hell Emperor?” he asked. “He’s… real?”

The War God roared with laughter upon hearing the question. “Real? Young man, my master was the War God before me. He was the one that led us through most of the Eternal War.”

Alex remained stunned for a while. He could not believe that the array he had been using all this time belonged to a War God of the past. He couldn’t help but be more curious.

“Do tell me, who taught you the array?”

Alex stared at the War God, worried about the implications of the question. Was the question mere curiosity, or was he trying to fish for something? Maybe people to punish.

‘Was this technique supposed to be secret?’ he wondered. Had he put himself in some sort of unnecessary danger by learning it somehow?

The War God stared at Alex and chuckled. “Relax. I’m not going to do anything to anyone. I’m merely curious because, as far as I am aware, there are only two people alive at the moment who aren’t under oath who know that technique, and you are neither of them. Which is why I’m curious how you even came to learn it.”

Alex didn’t know if he could trust the War God’s words, but the outcome didn’t matter regardless.

“No one taught me this array,” Alex answered.

The War God raised an eyebrow. “Are you saying you learned it all by yourself? You should know better than to lie this simply.”

“I wasn’t lying,” Alex quickly said. “No one taught me. I learned it from a book.”

“A book?” The War God’s face was one of pure confusion at the moment. “What do you mean, a book? Do you have the book on you?”

Alex thought for the briefest moment and nodded. “I do,” he said, pulling out the array book.

The War God suddenly stood up from his seat and floated directly toward Alex. As he got closer, Alex could see the glinting on his incredible bronze physique.

He flew right up next to Alex and took the book from his hand. He glanced at it and frowned. He opened the inside pages, looked through them, and then closed it to peek at the back. His face fell at that moment.

“Bastards!” he whispered low enough that no one but Alex could have heard him at that moment.

Something happened at that very moment that only Alex could see. The world around him seemed to come alive with a bright red color as it coalesced around the book.

The War God used no technique at that moment, nor did he use any Dao. And yet, the surroundings obeyed his command, and fire Qi gathered around his hand as the entire book burst ablaze in a ball of flames.

The book turned to ashes, and the ashes flew away. The War God dusted his hands and looked toward Alex, who could only watch the entire thing with a slack jaw.

Alex hadn’t even noticed that the Alchemy God had arrived at the stage at some point and had been standing behind him for a short while now.

“Do not worry,” the War God said. “I will not harm you.”

Alex slowly nodded. “Thank you, War God.”

“Don’t thank me,” the War God said. “I destroyed your book. I should have let you know.”

“No, I understand. It was your master’s book,” Alex quickly said.

The War God nodded. “It’s just that everyone who knows that technique is supposed to be under oath to never reveal it to anyone else,” he said. “So, the existence of that book proves that someone out there broke their oath—an oath to my master, the previous War God.”