Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex waited for his opponent’s number to appear on the large display. His opponent, if he remembered the name Greenbow correctly, was a woman with quite an incredible alchemy ability.

She was no doubt a great alchemist whose name was meant to be known by everyone in the world she stayed in. And yet, here at the stage of her life where the greatest alchemists of the younger generation came head to head against each other, she was just another name on the list to be disqualified.

She managed to make an incredible 98% pill, and even that was just not enough. She lost to Alex’s 100%.

Alex wondered how the woman felt. He wondered if she blamed herself for not trying harder. Such thoughts couldn’t help him now.

He looked at the brackets and sought out the other names. He was interested to know who was knocked out and who had stayed behind.

“OH!” He was surprised to see that both Palesilver and Leafheart had managed to make a 100% pill this time around. That was in addition to Aethersage and Faithseeker, both of whom had also done it.

There were two other names that had done it, one of which was Eightsnow and the other one was Treegold. Both of them had ranked above Alex in the first phase of the competition.

‘Interesting,’ he thought.

Eightsnow was his next opponent in the bracket.

‘This might be fun,’ Alex thought.

He had the recipe for the Sound Pill ready to be made, so Alex was certain he wouldn’t lose. Still, things might get a little more serious this time around.

For now, it was time to continue with his task of finding the next recipe.

Alex had cultivated for some time, but even when he did so, he still ended up thinking only about the next recipe. While his body was well-rested thanks to that, his mind still hadn’t been rested enough.

He had made decent progress by now, so he needed to continue along that path.

The next pill Alex wanted to make was perhaps one of the best ones he had made throughout the competition. It might even be one of the best ones anyone had made in the entire competition yet.

Although, that would remain to be seen afterward.

The idea behind Alex’s pill was a follow-up to an earlier idea he had. He had gone through every major ingredient combination that empowered each other, and when he had gone through everything, he looked to do more with it. Instead of empowering each other, however, he found ingredients that were against each other.

He found ingredient combinations that directly opposed each other, like Fire and Metal, Metal and Wood, or Earth and Water, etc. He searched for which ingredients would work in this case and realized that the best ingredients to use here were Eight Twilight Silk Seeds and a Carnelian Assault Boar’s tusk.

Water and Fire.

He was immediately aware that the ingredients on their own wouldn’t work together. These ingredients were in discord. If Fire was stronger, it would ruin Water. And if Water was stronger, it would heavily control Fire.

Alex needed an equilibrium here. A way to find a method to get the two energies that were always in discord to remain in harmony.

Alex had been ready to give up on this just shortly after coming up with this idea, not because he thought it wasn’t possible, but because he thought it would take too much time.

He thought it would take him too long to find a way to make that happen. However, just as he was about to give up, he realized he didn’t need to find a way.

The way was already there.

The way was Frostfire Sap, one of the minor ingredients that had been given to him for the purpose of this competition.

Alex studied this ingredient and came to understand how it balanced having both Fire and Water energy within it, and it turned out that it was a simple state of give and take.

The Fire took from the Water, and the Water took from the Fire. They both drew each other in, and yet never lost themselves to it.

It was balance through motion.

And since the balance was already there, so long as Alex simply added to it without causing an imbalance, the balance would stay.

‘But to maintain the balance, I will have to add opposing energies at the same time,’ he thought.

It was as though he was looking at a scale that was the energy within Frostfire Sap. The moment he added something on one side, he would have to add something on the other side as well to maintain the balance.

He would have to continue adding on either side right until the pill did something.

‘Alright, let’s see if I can do this well,’ he thought. The most important thing here to remember was that whatever he added to this whole thing, he would have to add one of the major ingredients anyhow.

And if he was going to add one, he would have to balance it with another.

Given the Fire and Water combination of the pill he was going to be making, it was obvious which ingredients he was going to use.

After all of this, all Alex needed to do was close his eyes and figure out which ingredients would make this method of recipe work.

He added ingredients on both sides. If he added Sunblossom Pollen for the Fire side, he would add Winter Heart Bamboo Water for the Water side. If he added Coalfire Leaves for the Fire side, he would add Frostbloom Petal for the Water side.

The energies didn’t have to match just yet; they simply had to balance each other out. Alex could later use his Dao of Seven Elemental Interactions to make the rest work.

The rest of the work was mostly tedious, which Alex did as he tried to find out the recipe that could work. As each hour passed, he got closer and closer to finding the best combination of all, and yet still, he was still quite far away.

It was difficult to find the right way to get the entire energy to balance each other, as without balance, it would destroy the whole thing.

‘I could just turn this into an exploding pill if I wanted to,’ Alex thought, but he did not want to do that.

As an alchemist, he didn’t feel it right to make a pill that was not meant to be consumed by a living being. So, he continued on his task to complete this recipe.

But as hours passed and time moved on, Alex couldn’t find what he was looking for before the round ended. There were only six more hours left for this round, so it was time to make the pill for this round, lest he get disqualified while he wasn’t paying attention.

So, Alex prepared Memory once again and brought out all the ingredients for the Sound Pill. He went through the recipe one more time, familiarizing himself with the ingredients, and then began making the pill.

And as was expected of Alex by this point, the sky above him rumbled as clouds gathered to judge him for his perfect pill.