Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Bai Jingshen appeared to be angry about something that Pearl didn’t understand fully yet. He could tell that something that could put him in harm’s way had potentially happened just now, but beyond that he had no clue as to what the two older tigers were talking about at all.

“What do you mean, patriarch? You know it is dangerous,” Bai Jingshen said. “I cannot be there to protect him all the time. Not even you can be there.”

“We are the White Tigers,” the patriarch said. “No child of ours will be a coward, and they must all go through their trials.”

Bai Jingshen’s eyes widened.

“You promised me, patriarch. You said you wouldn’t do this. This is exactly the thing you promised you wouldn’t force him to do,” Bai Jingshen said.

“No,” the patriarch said. “I promised you he wouldn’t have to go through the trials so long as you brought him back. My intention was to keep him hidden, to quickly make him an Immortal and send him down to one of the spirit realms to look after it for the next 15 thousand years. But you didn’t bring him back.”

Bai Jingshen breathed roughly as though in anger, but took a moment to go back through his memory to remember what the patriarch had truly promised him.

’Shit!’ he thought as he realized that the patriarch had in fact said this exactly.

“So you were relying on him to have to go through the same thing I did so that he may remain hidden in a lower world,” Bai Jingshen said.

“That was my plan, but he didn’t come with you, and the rulers of those worlds left half a millennia ago. So, just like every other White Tiger, he must go through the same trials as everyone else. He cannot get an exemption just because he has a good bloodline. In fact, that should be more so the reason for him to take the trial.”

Bai Jingshen frowned. He absolutely didn’t like it. But at the same time, he couldn’t see how he could get Pearl to get out of this.

“I understand your concern, Jingshen. I am concerned as well. But every White Tiger goes through one trial or the other. You were lucky and got picked to go to the lower realm, but he isn’t so lucky. He has to prove himself just the same as everyone,” the patriarch said. “What I can do, perhaps, is reduce the duration a bit. Maybe instead of a hundred years, he will just need to do it for 10 years.”

Bai Jingshen was still annoyed, but he couldn’t argue that the patriarch wasn’t trying. Things would be worse if Pearl were to go through no trial at all, only to have someone come and claim that the patriarch was favoring one White Tiger more than the other.

The issue then would have nothing to do with Bai Jingshen or Pearl, but instead the patriarch himself. One of the White Tigers currently in closed cultivation from the same generation as the patriarch —perhaps one of his siblings— could come out and use his bias to usurp him as the next patriarch.

At that point, all the goodwill Bai Jingshen had created with the patriarch would end up going to waste.

“10 years… that may be acceptable,” Bai Jingshen said.

“Grandfather,” Pearl spoke up. “I do not understand what is being discussed. Since it is about me, please explain it all.”

Bai Jingshen turned to Pearl, his face emotionless in quiet mulling before he began to speak.

“All White Tigers that are capable of lighting up the bloodline purity slab have to go through a trial to prove themselves,” Bai Jingshen said. “If you do not think you are strong enough or talented enough, you will get sent as the Heavenly Beast representative to the lower realm. But since that time has passed, you now only have a single choice of trial remaining.”

“And the trial is simple. You will go to the lawless land that is the Fighting Island, and survive there for a century. Or in your case, only ten years.”

Bai Jingshen still didn’t seem happy. “I would’ve rather not put you through this, but the trials are traditions passed down through generations to only have the best of the best White Tigers that know how to fight and can protect themselves. As such… you will have to take part in this too.”

Pearl stared at his grandfather for a bit too long while thinking through what he had heard.

He had to go around fighting for a whole decade?

He wasn’t averse to the idea of taking part in the trial itself, but there was danger hidden within it that he could not foresee—that which his grandfather was worried about. His bloodline was clearly the best among all White Tigers, so others could try and steal it from him.

He didn’t want that. This was his bloodline, his blood essence he received from his mother. He didn’t want to give it away so easily.

He had already had one of his bloodlines taken away from him. He didn’t want the same thing to happen again.

“Grandfather, what if I chose not to go through this trial?” Pearl asked. “What would happen to me?”

Before Bai Jingshen could answer, the patriarch spoke up.

“Any White Tiger who refuses to go through the trial is immediately exiled from the palace, and their blood essence stripped away from them. You can delay it, but you can never refuse it. For refusing this trial means that you do not deem yourself worthy to be a White Tiger.”

His voice carried the prideful feelings of the White Tiger.

Pearl tensed up. The patriarch’s words struck him deep to his soul. He was prideful too, and thus he did not want to give up on this trial, let alone have the other things happen to him.

But the danger still worried him.

“Then, if I were to take the trial, would I have to do it alone?” Pearl asked. “Or can I have some outside help?”