Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex stored away the disfigured corpse of Bai Yanbei and turned toward Pearl.

“Have you managed to quell your rage now?”

Pearl breathed heavily, his two paws bloody with bits of bones sticking out from them. He nodded slowly and calmed himself.

“You heard what he called my mother,” he said.

“I did. I was going to come down and kill him myself,” Alex said. “Your mother is my mother too.”

Pearl gave a small smile, but it failed to reach his ears.

“So,” Alex said. “29 White Tigers, huh? I must say, I’m surprised you managed to defeat them all. I was sure you would have escaped.” “They blocked teleportation with a formation,” Pearl said. “I could’ve found a way, but before I could make any plans, he said what he shouldn’t have. After that, the chances of me escaping dropped to zero. The only way I was leaving was once everyone was dead.” Alex nodded.

Pearl turned toward him. “When did you return?”

“About 5 hours before I sensed you,” Alex said. “I teleported back to the same place I was before, and the dragons were waiting for me. They begged me to make more of their pills, so I had to spend some time there making pills for them.”

Pearl laughed a little. “I can’t believe you were busy making pills and missed the one reason you were here for.”

Alex wanted to explain himself, but seeing Pearl’s mood shift, he laughed along as well. “Yeah, those damn dragons really stuck to me like ants on sugar.”

“Hard to argue they’re not making the most of their time though,”

Pearl said. “They won’t follow us anymore though, right?”

“No,” Alex said. “I told them I’m all done.”

“Great. And the thing you went to the Black Tortoise palace for?”

“That’s done as well,” Alex said. “Actually, regarding that, I need to talk to you about something important. You’ll soon have to make a difficult decision.”

Pearl sighed. “Later,” he said. “Once we leave this place, we can make as many tough decisions as we have to.”

Alex nodded. “Yeah. Since you failed, let’s get out of this place.”

“Before that, let’s go grab the other corpses. Who knows what they have with them.”

Alex was more than happy. He got on his Divine ship and traveled to the north at a more leisurely speed. The world was no longer a blur for Pearl this time, his eyes no longer fixed on one target.

He looked down, watching tall artifacts in the distance that passed by before another one came in his vision not even a few minutes later. What took him months to travel on foot was taking no more than 10 minutes on the Divine ship. A part of him felt quite angry about that. “So, what’s the punishment for failing the trial?” Alex asked. “Do you know?”

“I think you get booted out of the main palace and live your life as a second-grade White Tiger. Meaning you can’t make use of the White Tigers’ resources, nor can you gather any contribution points,” Pearl said.

“So… basically, nothing will change?” Alex asked.

Pearl chuckled. “Yeah, nothing will change. I never had the plan to stay here permanently, and this is just a way to say goodbye faster. Once we return from the Sun’s Talon realm, we can leave for the Human realm sooner.”

Alex looked at Pearl for a moment, seeing the hints of sadness hidden behind the tiger’s eyes. He petted him softly, his hands moving through his fluffy white fur on the back that hadn’t been filled with blood.

“Let’s stop by a river on the way back. You can clean yourself.”

About 3 hours later, Alex and Pearl arrived at the location of the massacre. White Tiger bodies were spread all throughout the place. They both slowly came down to the base of the mountain and looked around.

Many of the corpses were already gathered by the non-White Tigers that were there. Pearl had thought he had knocked them all out, but he must’ve been mistaken.

“So,” Alex said as he walked down, Pearl moving behind him. “How’s

life, folks?”

Pearl’s appearance threw the beasts into a state of panic, each one rushing to escape from the area.

Alex didn’t stop most of them, but he did teleport next to a young wildcat and grabbed him before he could leave. “Would you mind staying behind?”

Alex pressured the beast with just his cultivation base, and it still cowered before him. He looked back at the gathered corpses. “All of

them there?” he asked.

Pearl counted. “Four missing.”

“Do you know where the other four are?”

The young wildcat furiously shook his head. “I-I-I—”

“Don’t panic. We’re not going to kill you. We’re not even going to hurt

you,” Alex said. “It’s just a question.”

“I don’t know,” the wildcat answered. “Maybe they are out there. We haven’t searched all the area yet.”

“Oh right,” Pearl remembered. “I did kill two of them after they

escaped the barrier. Let me go search for them.”

Pearl left the area, leaving Alex behind. “So, how much do you know about what the White Tigers were trying to do here?” he asked.

The wildcat panicked for a moment, stuttering once again. Alex raised his fist, stopping the beast. “Before you think of lying, I want you to know something. Whatever you will say, I will try and

verify it afterward.”

He raised a single finger. “I can make you speak an oath.”

He raised another finger. “I can feed you a pill that will only make you

speak the truth.”

He raised a final third finger. “Or I can go into that mind of yours and uncover the secret all by myself.”

By the third sentence, the wildcat had gone completely white in the face, gulping as if death had come for him.

“So,” Alex said. “Considering everything I just told you, I want you to answer me once again. What were 29 different White Tigers doing in

this place?”