Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex was stunned to see a river flowing directly through the center of the sect, dividing the sect into two halves.

“This is a branch of the Northsword. There are a few branches that go through the core region of Hell, some of which disappear into that inner realm we went to,” the old man said.

Alex looked at the sky that had gotten quite bright now that it was morning. In these cavernous canyons, the only time sunlight ever reached them was when it was high in the sky.

“This is a very weird location for a sect,” Bladedance said. “Most would want something wider, bigger even. But this is the exact opposite. A small conflict and the whole canyon could come tumbling down.”

“We try our best not to have conflicts,” the old man said. “If there is one, we solve it through words. We try to do the best.”

“Still, wouldn’t it be better to find some other place for the sect? There are hundreds of regions out there.”

“Well… there was a reason I chose this place,” the old man said. “There were mainly two criteria I had when searching for this location. It had to be a location that humans would not voluntarily visit. And it also had to be a place that a beast wouldn’t voluntarily visit.”

“I searched for places that overlapped those two requirements and this was the place I landed on.”

Alex looked around. “I can understand finding a place where beasts can’t find you, but why humans? If you’re starting a sect, shouldn’t you want some humans to find you?”

He remembered something about how difficult it was for people outside of the Endless Night sect to get into the sect. They had to go through difficult trials throughout the many branches that lay in the inner region of Hell, and only when they passed those trials would they finally be brought here to join the sect.

“As I said, there’s a reason I had it be this way,” the old man said. “And the reason has nothing to do with the sect at all. In fact, the sect wasn’t the priority at all when I was searching for this place. I hadn’t even thought of the sect at that moment, actually.”

The old man continued walking, taking them through winding canyon walls that had been carved out through generations to be a suitable path for the sect members to walk through.

“When she destroyed our sect, I gave up on it,” the old man said. “I had lost everything, so I ran away, leaving the sect behind at the hands of a mere disciple to take care of everything.”

“Langwan is a great sect master, but taking care of a sect that had just lost all of its upper echelon was not something he was ever prepared to do,” the old man said. “Had he not saved me from her back then, I wouldn’t even have placed that burden on him. But I did, and then I ran away.”

“I returned to my nomadic lifestyle from ages ago. I roamed the land, helping people where I could, never staying in one place. I would come back to check on the sect from time to time, but mostly I left it as it was.”

“By that time, the sect, the Empire I had built with Hell Emperor, was a shadow of its former self. A shadow that had all but faded away.”

“I cared not if it faded actually. I was done with it. I went around Hell, trying to help her, and also make sure no one was hurt by her. I spread the news of Death and how one should run away when they saw a figure of pale skin. I reached the sea in the east to the grasslands in the west. I went everywhere.”

“And during my journey, I came across something. I think it was left behind by someone, likely forgotten, but it didn’t look like something that should be made in Hell. The craftsmanship was a… little too intricate for someone from Hell to have made that. The metal used was not one I had seen before either.”

“But, I had heard something about the content inside, so I attempted to test out if it was true or not. I established a formation to check and after many failed attempts, I finally succeeded. It was what I thought it was.”

They arrived at the end of the canyon path, leading to an open space that was the center of the sect.

There, a few individuals were gathered around a metal formation. Alex and Bladedance appeared in the open and looked at them, curious what was happening.

Alex could barely see something beyond the group of people obscuring his vision. Then, the group of people suddenly disappeared.

Alex was taken aback by their sudden disappearance. And in their absence, he could see what he couldn’t before.

On top of a large bronze metal formation, there was an object floating with a lack of gravity. The object was a cylinder with either side capped in metal, the center formed with glass.

The design was intricate, industrial, something Alex could only imagine seeing back home — not in the lesser world, but rather his home, the central continent. Perhaps, this was too advanced for even them.

He got closer, looking at the design of what he could only call a metal and glass capsule. It had around half a handspan in width, and over a handspan in length.

And on its inside, he could see half a dozen white pebbles floating around.

At first, Alex didn’t know what they were. But when he came up with a guess, he remembered what the Guardian Tiger had told him when it had gone into his Soul Space, after hearing how Alex had expanded his Soul Space.

Alex gasped in surprise as he realized what they were. Bladedance saw them and she knew immediately without having to guess at all.

“Space Stones!”