Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Godslayer was quite surprised at what Alex had gone through.

Despite the fact that Alex had been sent to Hell for the past 70 or so years, it hadn’t hindered his cultivation all that much. He was still steadily progressing through his realms, and would now do so even faster since he would have access to his own pills.

“The Hell Emperor escaped before I became a god. My time as a God was quite short in the days of war; Gods frequently died back then, after all. So I don’t exactly know how it was that he escaped. What I do know is that the Hell Emperor hid the reason behind his escape so that he alone would hold knowledge of Hell.”

“It is unclear if he ever passed down that knowledge to his two disciples or not,” Godslayer said.

Alex was a little disappointed to hear that. He had hoped that having a god in his mind would help him gain some answers, but it appeared he had been too hopeful.

“So you have no idea how I can leave,” Alex asked.

“I’m afraid not,” Godslayer said. “I’m sure you will find a way. Just find a way past those spatial anomalies in the sky and you’re done. Well, at least until you have to suffer the full force of the sun, but I’m sure you’ll have prepared something for that by then.”

Alex sighed.

“It’s not just a matter of going out into the sun. I need to know how I can get back to the Immortal realms. To begin with, I don’t even know if I’m in the same world as the one where the realms are. I haven’t the faintest clue how I could return in that case.”

Godslayer paused for a long moment, making Alex think he was giving thoughtful consideration to the dilemma.

However, he only replied with a single sentence.

“You’re joking, aren’t you?”

Alex cocked his head to the side.

“Joking? About what?”

“About where Hell is,” Godslayer said.

“Why would I joke?” Alex asked. “Right, you must know the answer. Where is Hell?”

Godslayer was surprised at Alex’s question. “I had assumed you knew it already. You’ve been here for 70 years. Do the people of this world not call it by its original name anymore?”

Alex frowned. “Most people don’t know they live in one of many worlds. Those that do call it Hell ever since the Hell Emperor’s rule. Why? What is its original name?”

Godslayer sighed. “You know it already; I’m sure you do. You’ve heard of the 33 Immortal realms, have you not?”

“I have,” Alex said, his eyes narrowing. “Is Hell one of the Immortal realms?”

“Yes!” Godslayer said. “It’s always been one of the Immortal realms.”

Alex couldn’t believe it. Hell was one of the Immortal realms?

“Which one?” he asked, quickly going through the names in his head. “It’s not the Human realms, is it?”

“No,” Godslayer said. “Neither is it the Beast realms, or the Demon realms.”

“Huh? Then what—” he stopped himself before finishing his sentence. He remembered just then that there were other realms that did not belong to humans, beasts, or demons since no one would ever want to lay claim to that land.

Alex had been to one of those realms, or at least gotten as close to it as he could.

The Ever-Dark realm.

It was one of the three realms that did not belong to anyone, and yet was called an Immortal realm.

“It’s not the Ever-Dark realm,” Alex said slowly. “Is it the one called the Realm-within-Realms? Or is it…”

Before Alex even spoke the name of the third and last realm, just the memory of the words emerging in his mind had been enough to tell him that this was the one. The name worked so well that he was genuinely confused why he hadn’t thought of it already.

“The Immortal Prison realm,” Alex said slowly. “That’s where I am, aren’t I?”

“You are,” Godslayer said. “That is the other name for Hell, perhaps the true name even.”

Numerous emotions went through Alex in that moment. “No one ever told me those were the same realm,” he said. “Am I really just in another realm, and not in another spatial pocket or something?”

“The Immortal Prison realm is something everyone knows about. Maybe in the many years since I’ve died, the name the Hell Emperor brought back has been implemented for the upper echelon, but I’m sure most of the world still calls this place the Immortal Prison realm.”

“They do,” Alex said. “That’s the name I was given.”

Somehow, learning that he was in one of the many realms made Alex feel a sense of relief that he hadn’t expected to feel out of this conversation. If he was in the same world, then he could simply leave and go to the closest one.

He might not have done it before, but he knew that all he needed to do was to fly in a certain direction and have enough spirit stones to last the journey through unhindered sunlight.

Alex could make it work somehow.

The main issue that remained was the spatial anomaly. The thing called the Prison Wall.

It made sense now why it was called that; why this world was the Immortal Prison realm.

“Wait, this world holds no Immortal Qi at all. Why is it called an Immortal realm?” Alex asked.

“A world doesn’t need to hold Immortal Qi to be called an Immortal realm. It just needs to have an aura comparable to Immortal Qi or even the higher ones. The Ever-Dark realm has no Immortal Qi either, but it has a very strong Yin aura, which makes it one of the Immortal realms.”

“Similarly, Hell has the capacity to capture Immortals and Divinites and keep them imprisoned. That alone gives it the right to be called an Immortal realm.”

Alex considered those words for a while.

“I see. That is incredibly helpful to know. Thank you.”