Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex was flying through the skies of Hell, under the midday sun, along with the old man when he thought of a question.

“Do people of Hell not know about artifacts, or do they just find it useless?” he asked. “The most artifacts I’ve seen be used in Hell are storage bags. That’s it.”

“Artifacts… are quite useless,” the old man answered. “Most people are already so strong that regular artifacts end up becoming useless. Most people also can’t use anything beyond a small area around them, so the artifact ends up doing nothing at all. Storage bags and talismans are the only things that can work.”

Alex nodded for a second. “But formations work too, don’t they?” he asked. “Why is that? It seems that they aren’t restricted to a small area.”

“No, the formations are restricted,” the old man said. “However, you can fight against that restriction. There are a fair amount of formations that are suppressed to a small area, but with a correct combination of runes, you can form a formation that pushes back against that suppression.”

“I’m not sure if you’ve realized it yet or not, but all of the formations that are created to be used on a wide scale are Spiritual in nature. Those are the only things that seem to be unable to be suppressed as well by the Intent of Hell.”

Alex thought for a bit upon hearing that. He remembered back to Palm Haven where he was confined for half a century and nodded as he remembered that it was a Spiritual formation being used there. That was what had trapped him.

The formation that was just placed in the Bluesalt tribe a few days ago was also a formation that was meant to affect the beasts mentally into not avoiding that area. There was no physical barrier to stop them should they wish to go.

Similarly, most of the formations in every settlement were also spiritual formations that hid the cities from the natural senses of Sun Wraiths and other beasts.

Alex found himself quite stunned.

“Wait, are you saying you can fight against this Intent?” he asked. “I’ve tried, and it has never worked.”

“I am aware. I have attempted that many times too, and it doesn’t work. The Intent outside is far too strong. However, the formations are capable of doing that. It did take me thousands of years to test and figure that out.”

Alex was certainly fascinated. “I can’t wait to begin learning,” he said. “Can we start it soon?”

The old man narrowed his eyes. “Shouldn’t we focus on finding Death first?”

“We’re doing the best we can already, and we need to rest sometimes too,” Alex said. “You can teach runes and formations during the slow hours, and I can teach you Alchemy.”

The old man shrugged. “Alright. That sounds good to me.”

They began teaching each other after that.

Alex prepared a talisman full of various common Saint realm ingredients for the old man to learn about. The information included everything one would want to know about the Saint ingredients, including where they grew. Although, the last part wouldn’t be of much use to the old man in Hell.

He wanted the old man to start slowly. The old man had some knowledge of Alchemy, but Alex still wanted to start teaching him from the basics so that there would be no gaps in his knowledge.

The old man had the same idea. He gave Alex the most basic runes to draw, which Alex had been drawing for a long time. But, he didn’t complain and did as he was told.

He didn’t want any gaps in his understanding either.

Once the old man knew of Alex’s understanding of runes, he began giving him more complex runes to learn. Only then did Alex begin coming across runes he had never seen before.

Most of these runes were either hybrid runes that did the task of two or more runes at once, or basic runes that he only knew in their hybrid form. He trained with them on rocks and ground since they didn’t want to waste any metal.

Whisker would always be by Alex’s side, learning all the same.

Five more days passed, in which they had gone through half the villages they were planning to. They had finally arrived at their first city on the route.

The old man had no intention of helping the city like he did the villages. The cities had great sects and Endless Night sect branches, which were more than enough for them.

The old man only helped the needy.

They both entered the city still, with different intentions.

Alex tried to search for a way to sell a jar of Elixir in order to gather the Decaying Sunhearts he would need to go to the bottom of Hell.

At the same time, the old man visited the Endless Night sect’s branch to see what information he could gather regarding Death. Since the sect was so intent on finding Death, they would have more or less gathered some information at this point.

Alex tried to sell the Elixir normally at first, but he quickly realized that no shop would accept his Elixir without asking too many questions. The shops also likely wouldn’t have so many Sunhearts with them.

After thinking as much, Alex went to the nearest sect there was in the city, his blood armor forming around him in secret as he approached the sect.

By the time he arrived at the sect’s door, he was no longer Alex, but rather the Red Death.

Alex had never visited this sect before, and yet his reputation preceded him. The guards immediately called for all the major individuals of the sect, who arrived and lined up before Alex.

They had their weapons in hand, as if ready to fight.

Alex could see the rumors hadn’t been as good for him.

“It appears you all wish to fight me,” he said. “But I must disappoint you, since I am not here for that.”

He brought out the jar of Elixir from his storage bag. “Do any of you wish to buy this? I am willing to sell it for just 1,000 Decaying Sunhearts.”