Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

The man’s words caught Alex off-guard.

Alex stared at the man for a good few seconds before asking, “Why do you say that?”

“Just a hunch,” the man said. “People outside of our sect do not know what pills are. Neither do they have a cultivation base as strong as yours.”

“There could be plenty of places outside of this inner region that you can’t know about. There are bound to be places where others have found a way to cultivate as well,” Alex said.

The man smiled. “The difficulty in forming Immortal Qi is not one that just anyone can overcome. Our own sect couldn’t have done it without various coincidences along the way that helped us. The mere fact that you suggest this possibility makes me further believe in my hunch.”

Alex frowned. “Yes, I come from outside of Hell,” he said. If this got him to the Endless Night sect faster, then so be it. “Why do you call it Hell?”

“What other name is there?” the man asked.

“Does everyone here call this place Hell?” Alex asked with a frown. “I’ve not heard of anyone else referring to this place as anything at all.”

“Outside of the inner desert, perhaps not. But in the inner desert, we call it Hell since that was the name popularized by our monarch when he tried to bring all of this world under his fist.”

“Your monarch?” Alex asked. “There are rulers in Hell? I thought it was just chiefs.”

“Not anymore, no. But there was one long ago,” the man said. “The Hell Emperor.”

Alex raised his eyebrows. “Wait, the Hell Emperor was an actual Emperor?”

The man looked surprised. “You know of him? Did he succeed?”

“Succeed?” Alex asked.

“In leaving. Ever since the Hell Emperor came to this world, he had always attempted to leave this place. It is known that he attempted to leave, but not if he succeeded or not.”

“He succeeded,” Alex answered. “Although, it was so long before my time that I do not know much about him except for his name.”

The man smiled. “He must have made a big name for himself then,” he said.

“Bigger than you can imagine,” Alex said.

“Is he still alive?” the man asked.

Alex shook his head. “I don’t believe so. The outside world was in a state of endless war when he left, and I believe he died a long time afterward.”

“I see. At least he lived a long time,” the man said.

“So, does me being from outside of Hell help my cause? Can I meet with the elders of the Endless Night sect? Because I too need to leave this world just like the Hell Emperor did.”

The man thought for a moment and nodded. “I shall deliver the message to my superior. He should then deliver your message to the sect within the next month. It will take about the same time for the message to come back, maybe longer because of the current entrance tests. You will have to wait for a while, senior.”

“I’m fine with that,” Alex said. “I’ll find a place to stay.”

“No, you can stay here for now. We have spare rooms, and I wish to ask you some questions about the outside world, if you do not mind,” the man said.

Alex shrugged. “That’s alright with me,” he said and walked along with the man.

“If I may ask, how old are you?” the man asked as they made their way down the hallway.

“A little over 3 thousand years,” Alex answered. It was a long enough time that no one would be suspicious of his talents and treasures, and still short enough that they knew he wasn’t a waste.

“Only 3 thousand years?” the man asked. “You are so much stronger than me and yet so much younger.”

Alex frowned. Three thousand years was very young?

“How old are you?”

“A little over 40 thousand years old,” the man said.

Alex froze for a moment, the number taking a moment to register in his mind. “Wait, 40 thousand years old?” he asked. “And you’re only in the Immortal Ascendant 2nd realm?”

The man gave an awkward smile. “The amount of Qi our sect can produce is not enough that we can cultivate forever. We have to take turns, so we have to stop even if we’re close to a breakthrough.”

“Not to mention, whoever among us has more contributions to the sect gains more time, so factoring all of that in, you get to cultivate with Immortal Qi maybe 4 times every century.”

Alex raised his eyebrows in concern. “That’s… so slow.”

“It is. That’s why I have such a low cultivation base despite being 40 thousand years old,” the man said.

Alex nodded. “May I ask how old you were when you became an Immortal?”

The man thought for a bit. “I joined the sect in my late 80s, and then became a Saint around 2 centuries after that. Then a bit more than a millennia after that, I became an Immortal.”

Alex nodded. That was still in the man’s early years. If he had been in any place but Hell, he would have died twice over by now.

‘This man would have to go through Immortal Tribulations meant for people with Immortal Ascendant 4th realm. He could not have survived that,’ he thought.

The man questioned Alex too, mostly about where he came from and how he got in Hell.

All Alex could do was lie. He told the man that he had been searching through an old tomb when he came across a teleportation talisman. Upon activating it, he was thrown into this place.

It was a simple lie, but one he hoped the man wouldn’t dig further into to try and find the falsity in them.

“This will be your room, senior. I will have some people come serve you in a few minutes,” the man said. “For now, I will prepare the message that is to be sent to the sect.”

Alex nodded. “Oh right, in your message, make sure to let them know that I am very good at alchemy.”