Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Qing Fuojia looked uncomfortable as she lay on the grassland, allowing Alex’s senses to enter her body. She had made an oath, so she couldn’t stop him from doing it, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t show how much she disliked it.

Alex cared not for her expression or feelings, however, as he was solely focused on learning more about her bloodline and her soul.

There was so little anyone knew about souls that Alex didn’t even have materials to start learning from. The Book of Boundless Healing only went into detail about healing souls, so it wasn’t as useful as he had hoped.

He scanned through the dragon’s body, learning as much as he could from her. He already had her blood drawn out previously, so he could reference it without hurting her again.

Comparing the two sets of dragon blood, Alex became a little better at understanding aspects of the bloodline that made an Azure Dragon.

As Alex continued, he kept thinking of ways that could help him with altering Pearl’s soul.

To begin with, how many instances of altering souls had he seen in his life?

As he considered that question, a variety of answers surprisingly surfaced within him. Anything that fundamentally changed or added something to a person was, in fact, altering the soul.

A soul was the reflection of the body, and the body was the reflection of the soul. Change the body, and the soul changed. Change the soul, and the body changed as well.

‘Any physical changes that weren’t already there count, Alex thought. ‘So my Demon Eyes count. My Undying Physique counts. All the spirit root improvements I’ve made throughout the years count. Even my body constitution evolving counts.

‘All of those are methods of soul change. How do they happen? Was it the soul that was affected, or the body? No, it was the body. Even just looking at people on whom I’ve grafted new spirit roots, it’s clear that the physical change was what reflected on the soul.

‘Am I going about this the wrong way, then? Is changing the soul perhaps not the right thing?” Alex considered. “That can’t be true. There are injuries to souls and healing that can only be done to souls, so souls can be affected, and they will result in a change in the physical body!

Alex narrowed his eyes. ‘When I got the White Tiger’s bloodline, my Metal Spirit Root reached the Supreme grade, but when I gave it up, it didn’t degrade. It remained as it was. I had stuck around with the bloodline long enough that it was a part of my soul that couldn’t be taken away!

Whether Alex was thinking correctly or not, he felt as if his understanding of the soul was growing more and more.

‘I still remember the headache I got when I first received the bloodline, Alex thought. ‘If my soul was weaker back then, and the bloodline was not compatible, would I have died?’

The chances were likely.

‘So any changes that need to be made must first be compatible,’ he thought. ‘Would the Azure Dragon’s bloodline be compatible with Pearl?’

Alex certainly had no idea. His understanding was still so veiled that he could hardly grasp anything at all. Even what he thought he understood were just bits and pieces that he likely would have learned had he tried to study earlier.

‘An evolution is also a direct change to the soul, right?’ Alex thought. ‘When a bloodline reaches a critical level, it undergoes a change. And its change triggers a change in the soul as well!

Alex frowned as he thought about that. ‘If the body is a reflection of

the soul, then why is there a likelihood of death during evolution? Especially for the Heavenly Beasts?”

He considered the matter for some time and came to a conclusion that satisfied him.

“The change is too much,’ he thought. The body changes far too quickly for the soul to keep up. It’s like developing immunity to a poison. Take in a tiny amount at a time and slowly you build up resistance. But take a lot right away and you die!

‘Except, evolution isn’t something where you can take tiny steps. You either start at a point where the changes will be small enough for the soul to keep up, or you die!

That didn’t bode well for Pearl now that he thought about it. Pearl would be starting so far beneath that the chances of him dying were

rather high.

Even when Pearl had evolved to become a White Tiger, he had nearly died, and that was only after recently losing the bloodline too. Given how long it had been since Pearl had lost the Azure Dragon’s bloodline, the chances of any evolution being fatal were rather high.

‘In Pearl’s case, I’m technically trying to do the opposite,’ Alex thought. I’m going to attempt to evolve his soul so that his body follows. But the result will be the same. If the change is too fast, the discrepancy will make the soul reject the body, and he will die!

Could he make tiny steps in this regard? Make tiny soul changes that wouldn’t immediately kill him?

‘Tiny soul changes for a Heavenly Beast bloodline should be impossible. I can only take a giant, dangerous step, Alex thought with

a sigh.

His thoughts came to a halt when he considered what he had just thought.

‘A giant step… No, not a giant step, but two giant steps, he thought. ‘I’m already considering helping Pearl’s evolution the other way

around, by changing just his soul. What if I used the normal way too? Two steps where both body and soul leap forward at the same time, neither remaining behind. No discrepancy!

“That… could work, right?” he spoke out loud as the thought reached what could almost be called an epiphany.

It was still just theoretical at the moment, but he was beginning to come up with various ideas.