Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex hit his target. The feedback coming from it was enough to tell him that his target had been material. However, it wasn’t the type of feedback he wanted.

What he expected to feel was his sword going through flesh, carving the hand in two.

What he felt was metal meeting an iron wall. No, it was stronger than an iron wall. His bones shook from the rebound, even the pitch-black sword groaning in his hands from the impact.

All the force he placed into his attack fell on the woman and had nowhere to go except rebound right back into him. Like getting hit by a catapulted boulder, Alex was flung away from the woman, slamming back onto the ground.

Even as he stood up, he couldn’t understand what had happened. His hands trembled from the pain, a numbness spreading through him.

What the fuck had just happened?

The woman slowly raised her palm down, a concerned look visible on her face. She stepped forward and appeared next to him.

It wasn’t teleportation. It wasn’t any spatial manipulation. She had simply dashed the distance at a speed Alex could not follow.

Alex stared at the woman and got to see her concerned look at a closer distance. She was worried.

She leaned down slightly, her eyes rapidly moving through his body, only to show a hint of surprise.

“Incredible,” she said softly. “Your physical body is unharmed. It’s… it’s astounding. How did you get this strong?”

Alex stared at her, confusion a long-gone thought. He was now filled with nothing but curiosity.

“Who… who are you?” he asked.

The woman stood back up, her smile returning. “Show me what I want to see, and I’ll tell you,” she said.

“Show you what?”

The woman shrugged. “Everything, if you have to,” she said. “Don’t worry, while I may not be your friend just yet, I am definitely not your enemy. I’ll see you again soon, young human. Goodbye.”

The woman’s figure froze where she stood for a second, slowly

turning into an afterimage that faded away.

Alex stared at her in awe. He hadn’t even noticed her move once again. How fast was she?

‘Human…’ he thought. ‘She knows who I am?’

He quickly got back up in worry, but she had said she was not his enemy. Should he trust her?

‘With her strength and speed, she could’ve killed me, so I should be able to trust her,’ he thought. ‘What else can I really do?”

He stood back up, his thoughts racing a mile a minute as he considered various possibilities. Formations, artifacts, some rare bloodline or physique. It could be numerous things the woman was using to give her the strength she possessed.

‘No Divinity is supposed to be able to enter this place, he thought. ‘So is she really not in the Divine realm? There is an Immortal realm cultivator out there that can surpass me by such a degree?”

It was true that he was only in the Immortal Transcendent realm and still had seventeen more realms to break through before even reaching the peak of the Immortal realm, but with all of his other strength, he was pretty much a Divinity.

And yet, he had been able to do absolutely nothing to the woman at all.

‘What if she’s at the peak as well?’ Alex thought. ‘If her Battle Power is anywhere over three, then she would be stronger than me!

At that point, the woman would surely be allowed in this region while still having the strength to beat quite a few Divinities.

‘But that speed…

Something about her speed made him question reality. What had he missed? How had she so overwhelmingly gained the upper hand? ‘Damn it. I need to improve my Demon Eyes more. I can’t get caught off guard like this.

The event remained in Alex’s mind for some time. It wouldn’t leave him even if he wanted it to. The woman had shocked him just that

much.

Still, since she was gone now, he needed to return to the task he had been pulled out of. He went back up the hill, took one look at where Pearl was, and then brought out Memory to continue learning about the Azure Dragon bloodline.

It took a while for him to return to the same state of focus he had been in previously, but slowly he got there again.

*****

Pearl breathed a sigh of relief after beating his second opponent that day. The giant orange-furred deer lay bleeding on the ground before

him, its eyes seeking mercy.

Pearl had no intention of killing a beast when it begged for mercy, especially one that was just there to fight him. This beast didn’t have the killing intent like the other ones did.

He waved his hand, letting the deer run away.

Once alone, he looked down at his palm, a sigh leaving his lips.

‘I keep having to use my bloodline abilities,’ he thought. He used White Tiger’s Roar from time to time when needed, but today he had

been forced to use the White Tiger’s Dominating Body technique-a technique that allowed him to enforce his body with metal Qi, bringing superior defense.

It had been a while since he had to use that technique.

‘Could I have gotten by with just my regular body?’ he wondered to

himself. Despite the artifact suppressing his physical strength, his body was still quite strong.

However, an attack from the deer would’ve surely left him down and

in pain, possibly leading to him losing, had he not used his technique

when he did.

“The more I use it, the harder it’s going to be to remain incognito,’ Pearl thought. ‘Sooner or later, the purists will find me. Hopefully, brother really is nearby and keeping an eye out for me!

Pearl couldn’t be sure if Alex was around or not. He had thought he saw him a couple of days ago, but that could have been anyone else.

He sighed and tossed his concerns out of his mind, switching his attention to the monolith that stood in the distance.

He had arrived at the second artifact.