Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

The day of the last competition finally arrived.

Alex couldn’t help but feel somewhat nervous, as this day would have a large impact on his future.

He had arrived at the stadium early on and was sitting in the hall alongside his friends, who were also quite nervous. All 100 of them were present there, not a single one missing.

No one would want to miss it for the world.

Alex looked around at everyone who was silently waiting. Not a single person bothered with small talk at this point. Each person around them was their greatest opponent, after all.

Leafheart sat in a corner close to him, her eyes completely shut as she cultivated, preparing for the start in a few hours.

Dusklily sat not far away, looking through some sort of talisman constantly, seemingly trying to learn something at the last moment.

Aethersage was like him, looking around the hall at the other people, trying to push his own thoughts away as they distracted him.

Everyone did something to pass their time—all except talking with someone. There were a few who even made pills to pass their time. Many of the staff members who were waiting around the hall simply watched as well.

Then, after what felt like a long time, the Alchemy God arrived.

His arrival caused a stir in the room as everyone stopped what they were doing to look at him. The ones with closed eyes opened them. The ones cultivating stopped. And the ones who were making pills even destroyed the pill within their cauldron so they could focus on the Alchemy God.

The white-haired, green-robed man stood before them all, watching them with a gentle smile on his face.

“Welcome to the final competition of this Alchemy Convergence. This will be the competition that will change all of your lives.”

The words came as a gong to everyone hearing them, pounding loudly on them alongside their own heartbeat. The day had come.

“However you may have performed in the past has little to no bearing on where you end up today. So, no matter how your performance was in the past, good or bad, do not let it affect your performance today. All that matters for this competition is this competition only.”

“Do your absolute best today and show the world what sort of alchemist you really are.”

The words filled all 100 alchemists in the hall with a sense of motivation that they themselves could not have mustered. Alex felt his chest swell with determination as all nervousness vanished, right alongside any doubts he may have had about the competition today.

He was here, and he was going to do his absolute best.

The Alchemy God took a moment to let the people gather their thoughts and spoke up. “Before I continue with anything else, I have something else to do.”

The man turned around and looked toward the door of the hall. Everyone followed his gaze to look at the door as well.

A moment later, two figures walked in, both of whom most of them easily recognized.

One was a young man with dull brown hair and a fair face. The other was a beautiful woman with a seemingly cold look to her.

These were Faithseeker and Palesilver, the best Immortal Alchemists of the Medicine World.

“Please welcome Faithseeker and Palesilver to your ranks today. As you may remember, during your sixth competition, the Ingredient Replacement test, I mentioned that there was a chance that some of your outside competitors could join the final competition should their points account for it in the end.”

“And I am happy to say that both alchemists, Faithseeker and Palesilver, have managed to do just that. Were they actual competitors, Faithseeker would have ranked 92 from his one competition alone, and Palesilver would have ranked 99.”

“Since they are not, they will be added to your group of 100, making the final number of participants a total of 102.”

Most of the people in the hall were surprised by the sight of the two alchemists, including Alex. He had nearly forgotten that these two had a chance of joining the competition as well.

He had considered them when the final roster was released, but after not seeing their names, he had simply assumed that they hadn’t made the cut. But as it turned out, their points were never released instead.

‘Just a single competition and they managed to rank in the top 100. That’s not bad,’ Alex thought. It was especially surprising considering not even Windborn had managed to do that, and she had taken first place in one competition and third in another.

The Replacement test truly had counted for way more points, as Silvermist had hypothesized. Had Windborn not fought back against his captor, Dumei wouldn’t have been dead right now.

Faithseeker and Palesilver walked over and sat down close by, allowing the Alchemy God to continue his words.

“Now then, you must be very curious about it, so let me explain what today’s competition is. It is called the Recipe Creation test. As the name suggests, today you will be making recipes.”

A wave of confused murmurs passed through the crowd as they were surprised by the premise of today’s competition.

‘Recipe Creation?’ Alex thought in surprise. He had always believed that there would be no test where they would check the quality of one’s pill, as in most circumstances, that was based on luck and the availability of good ingredients.

Because of that, he had thought of many possible tests, including one where he had to make new pill recipes. However, he had always tossed away the idea in the end, as it was far too simple for a competition.

He had taken this exact test when he became a Supreme Alchemist, after all. It made no sense for something so simple to be the premise of the final competition.

And the tournament committee had to know that too. So, Alex waited for further information. He had a feeling this was not the last of it.

The Alchemy God waited for the people to speak their thoughts out and become silent again. He simply smiled, waiting for them to do so. When they were finally silent, he continued.

“This is truly a test where you will be creating recipes for pills. However, we would, of course, not make the test so simple. So, we have added a few things to the overall test to make it more interesting.”

The Alchemy God moved aside as a glowing panel appeared with a set of blurred sentences that no one could read. He pointed at the first one, and it became clear.

“Every one of you will be working with the same set of ingredients in making the pill,” the Alchemy God read from the panel. “We believe this will make for good competition. Especially since you have chosen the competition to be one-on-one, it will make for not only good competition but also a fair one.”

The Alchemy God pointed to the next sentence in line, and it became clear.

“You must improve each recipe as best as you can,” the Alchemy God said. “And to prove that you have improved it the best, you will need to make a pill with it.”

“The one whose pill comes out better will be considered the victor.”