Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex spoke to the two through his bonds.

“The poison plants from here to the center are all Immortal rank. Shrink space and get on the platform now,” he commanded Pearl and

Scarlet.

“Us?” Scarlet asked in surprise.

“But only two can-“

“Just do it. NOW!”

Space shrunk around Pearl in an instant, compressing a path through the forest. The moment Pearl acted, Wu Tanglan noticed it and acted as well.

And so did Alex.

He turned, the Dao of Spatial Distortion already active as he twisted reality around himself. At the same time, he moved away from Pearl, intercepting Wu Tanglan.

Wu Tanglan had just begun to move when Alex arrived before him. He did not stop, instead pushing past Alex to head toward the center. With his speed, he would be faster than the other two beasts easily.

Or so he thought. Instead, the world around him began to shift like layers of fabric twisting upon itself. In places, it stretched; in places, it shrunk. The distance between him and the platform became much greater and more convulated than it should have.

“Get out of my way!” Wu Tanglan shouted and moved, blasting past Alex.

A row of truly terrifying poison plants lay before him, which forced him to take the long way through the exact path that Pearl and Scarlet had taken, as that would be the path with the weakest poison. If those two weaker beasts could handle it, so could he. So, he took

the same path and went straight to the clearing on the other side.

He arrived next to the platform, but it was too late.

Pearl and Scarlet were standing on it.

“Get off it!” he shouted, rushing into them. Pearl and Scarlet managed to protect themselves just in time while they were blasted away by the force of the Divine realm monkey’s aura.

They landed a distance away, watching back at the monkey, whose visage was truly terrifying. Since both Pearl and Scarlet had reached the center before him, he could not continue.

He had failed.

“I will kill you!” the monkey shouted, stepping down from the platform in anger, only for his leg to buckle under his own weight as his body flopped onto the ground.

He blinked, failing to comprehend what had just happened. Was he poisoned?

He tried to pull out a pill to get rid of his poison, but he found himself unable to do even that. His entire body had gone lethargic, making it difficult to use anything.

Alex emerged from the forest, walking up to them. “Well, that sucks,” he said. “I was hoping it would affect you sooner, but you must’ve held your breath completely until the very end. At least, you will be harmless now.”

“What… what did you do?” the monkey asked, his breathing growing ragged.

“I poisoned you, of course,” Alex said. “Don’t worry, it won’t kill you. I can’t be sure that killing you would disqualify me, even if I used the poison in the forest, so I made sure only to use a poison that would neutralize you.”

The monkey couldn’t move any of his limbs at all. Every organ in his

body had stopped responding to his commands. Soon, his mind would go the same way.

“When… did you… poison me?” he asked.

“I’ve been trying for the past hour, leaving behind some plants that, when interacting together, poison you through the odor they create. Had you breathed it in, you would’ve been neutralized many minutes ago. Alas, you didn’t breathe right until I forced you to speak, did you? I’m just happy it turned out well.”

“You, basthad. Ith yu thi-” the monkey’s words slurred as he found it difficult to keep talking. Slowly, he lost consciousness.

Pearl and Scarlet stared at the beast with wide eyes. “Is he really only unconscious?” Pearl asked.

Alex nodded. “Can’t risk killing him.”

“What if we tossed him into the remaining poison plants?” Scarlet

asked.

“There’s no need,” Alex said with a light chuckle. “By the time he wakes up, we’ll already be at the next trial.”

Pearl tilted his head. “We?”

“The two of us already registered,” Scarlet said. “You said you had a theory, right? What is it?”

“Well, since the platform is already used up, I was-“

Alex paused, looking down at the platform. His mind emptied of any thoughts he had the moment he saw the platform, more specifically, the images drawn upon it.

“Oh! It’s changed,” he said. It was no longer the Dragon Father and

Phoenix Mother. Instead, it was the image of a man painted in gold on the white side with a bright halo behind his head. And on the black side, it was the image of a woman with white hair, with a white halo behind her head as well.

“The Sun God and the Moon Goddess,” he said, looking down at the two images. “It must be them.”

He looked at the corner of his vision where the Sun God remained still, pointing in a certain direction. The images weren’t the same, but that was never the point. It was what they represented. And this image of the Sun God was closer to what the mural back in the White Tiger’s palace was as well.

The God with a halo of Sun behind his head.

“Brother?” Pearl called when he saw him get distracted. He looked

down at the platform as well, only then noticing the changes. Unlike Alex, however, he failed to see what it could possibly mean, except that they were maybe getting closer to whatever it was they were

getting to.

Only, Alex wasn’t going to go there since he had failed.

“Alex? You were going to do something, right? You should do it while

we still have the time.”

“Hmm? Oh, right. We have 12 more minutes remaining,” Alex said,

looking around. “Why don’t we get out of here first? The forest isn’t

going to go away just because you passed the test.”

With a nod, the three walked away from the center platform, heading back toward the edge of the island.