Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Whisker held a despondent look as he walked out of the ground and

slid into Shumi’s Yin Veil, hiding from the senses of the birds up above. As soon as he went in, the senses he felt through his whiskers were completely gone, pulling him back into a world of sensory deprivation.

He looked toward Alex without much change in expression as his body sagged. “I really thought I could help, brother,” he said. “But I let you down.”

“You didn’t let us down,” Shumi quickly said. “You did the best you could.”

“Not really,” Whisker said. “I might have done better if I didn’t have to rush through my search. I fear I might’ve missed something because I had to hurry up and finish the search before there were too many birds for you all to handle.”

“Don’t worry, you haven’t disappointed us,” Alex said. “I never imagined there would be something down there to begin with. Thanks to you, now I know for sure there is nothing down there.”

Whisker couldn’t help but smile a little at that. “But really, how is one supposed to get in if there is not a single way in above or below? I didn’t even find a hint of a crevice anywhere.”

“Maybe teleportation would work, if we could teleport,” Alex said. “But that is precisely the thing that is suppressed here.”

“And the rock is also ridiculously strong,” Shumi said. “We can’t break through at all.”

“It’s not a normal rock,” Whisker added.

“Not normal? What do you mean?” Alex asked.

“Since I can move through rocks, I tried to go through the mountain at the very start,” Whisker said. “But there was a barrier or something

that blocked me from entering.”

“A barrier, huh?” Alex thought, looking toward the mountain. “I guess that makes sense. It was hard to believe that these regular rocks were able to defend from an attack that could kill an Immortal.”

Alex felt the rock once again, testing its strength. It truly was a strong rock wall even when it shouldn’t have been. There were usually two explanations in such instances.

First was that the mountain was filled with Qi and that had somehow seeped into these rocks and made them tough to break. That usually changed the characteristics of the rock itself, though, so that wasn’t possible.

In that case, it could have only been the second option, which was that there was some sort of barrier formation or script that was keeping the rock wall strong.

“Yeah, there is a barrier here,” Alex said. “Has to be.”

Shumi nodded, accepting his answer quickly. “What do we do then? Find locations where the runes are drawn and erase them?” she asked. “I haven’t seen any such place anywhere.”

Alex was about to ask if she had seen formation rods instead, but she would’ve told him if she had. She only talked about runes because it was what her mind went to in the first place, since that was all that the demons mostly used.

“You haven’t seen any of those crystal monoliths either, right?” Alex asked, scanning the island while he waited for her to speak.

Shumi noticed that and spread her own spiritual sense to search all around, but there was nothing.

“I haven’t seen one of those since back in… Trial 8, was it?” she asked.

Alex nodded. “I was hoping one of those would be here too, but it seems we’re all on our own. In which case… I believe we have two options here.”

Shumi raised an eyebrow. “Do we have options? Why aren’t we getting to it already then?”

Alex chuckled. “I just thought of the options.” He pointed to the mountain and gave the explanation. “Since there is a barrier inside that wall there, we need to open a hole through it or find a way to shut it down.”

Shumi narrowed her eyes. “A way to shut it down,” she said with a profound look on her face. “I might be able to do that.”

Alex was taken aback. “What are you going to do?” he asked, growing quite curious.

“Use my All-Ending Yin Qi,” Shumi said.

“All-what?”

“My All-Ending Yin Qi,” she repeated. “When I use my pure Yin Qi, it has the property of deactivating all sorts of formations and arrays. I will try and use that on the mountain. It should hopefully work.” “Oh!” Alex only then realized what the Moon Goddess was able to do. He should have known she had something like that, considering he had noticed something similar happening long before. Just the presence of the White Spire back in the 8th Trial should’ve been a sign that she could do that as well.

There had been a reason why both the Black Spire and the White Spire were present back then. One was to be used by him, and the

other by her.

“I see,” Alex said in the end. “Mine is the exact opposite from you. I can activate things using my Qi. Our powers are so different and yet

so similar too.”

Shumi nodded. “I’ll go shut down the barrier then.”

Alex nodded, letting her go with Whisker still on her shoulders. There

was no need for him to get off.

Shumi walked over to the rock face and took a deep breath. She

placed her two palms on the rock and began pouring her Qi into it.

Alex watched with his Demon Eyes active, staring at the pure black Qi that escaped from her body and flowed into the rock face. Suddenly, something about the rock wall shifted in a way Alex hadn’t been expecting at all. Like a ripple in a stationary pond distorting the image of its reflection, the shapes of the rocks themselves wobbled a little, even flickering in and out as Alex watched in shock.

The rock wall was disappearing.

“What the…”

Alex’s eyes were as wide as they could be as he realized something

that hadn’t even crossed his mind once.

“The mountain isn’t real?”