Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex was on the third batch of Pill Bugs now.

The first two batches had produced an average of 40 Pill Bugs each, not including the ones that had died in their infancy or were deliberately gotten rid of by Alex.

Some of the Pill Bugs were born with clear deficiencies, such as short limbs, slow growth, or even discoloration that might have been a hint toward bigger issues. He could hardly allow such Pill Bugs to bear offspring, so he removed them from the group.

Since the Pill Bugs ate so much blood, he also wasn’t willing to waste any on them. It might have been a good idea to keep them around and use them just as they were, but after understanding the life cycle of a Pill Bug much better, he decided not to bother with it at all.

Pill Bugs had exactly four stages in their life cycle.

The first stage was when they were eggs. The eggs took somewhere between a hundred years and 150 years on average to hatch. If Alex hadn’t placed them in a region of his Soul Space where time moved at a frankly terrifying speed, he wouldn’t have seen new Pill Bugs for many more years.

The mother took care of the eggs the entire time. Once the eggs hatched, the Pill Bugs entered the second stage of life where they were tiny white or pale young Pill Bugs called mancae.

These Pill Bugs relied solely on their mother for food, which meant Alex had to provide a lot of blood for the mother to consume. Because of how much blood was required every so often, Alex sadly couldn’t place the mother and the mancae in the center of his Soul Space and had to move them further out so that he could provide them with the blood they needed.

If not for that, he would have had to spend every waking hour of his life doing nothing but bleed for the insects. There would be no time for him to cultivate if that were the result. So, even if this delayed the Pill Bugs by a lot, he decided to do so.

The mancae remained as such for somewhere between 20 and 50 years, which for Alex ended up being around a decade.

As the mancae grew, they slowly deepened in color, the pale white color of their shells gradually darkening. Annoyingly enough, they did not become gold at all, but rather black instead, just like the Pill Bugs Alex had found at the start.

That meant he would have to fasten them as well.

After the mancae stage, when the Pill Bugs had consumed everything they could to grow, they rolled into spheres and became dormant. This was the third stage, known as the juvenile stage.

Alex had tried feeding them at that stage, but they didn’t eat anything.

Instead, they went through a molting process where the outer layer of their shells puffed out and turned entirely white. The process took over a dozen years, and finally, they came out of their shedded skin as adult Pill Bugs.

The moment they emerged, they rolled back up into black balls and finally reached adulthood. These were the Pill Bugs Alex had seen back in the insect hall in the Beast God’s palace.

Alex finally began fastening them.

After the first two batches, along with the 10 Pill Bugs he had first received, Alex now had over 98 Pill Bugs. For the third batch, he wanted to go bigger, so he had selected 22 adult female Pill Bugs to breed and lay eggs. He tried his best to keep the Pill Bugs from inbreeding, but surprisingly that wasn’t something he had to worry about.

Neither the female Pill Bugs nor the male Pill Bugs ever went after their siblings at all. There appeared to be a natural repulsion between siblings, which meant Alex didn’t have to waste his time concerned about them.

With the 22 Pill Bugs, Alex was certain to get over 150 Pill Bugs in the next 3 to 5 years. And at some point during that time, he could get some of the remaining adult Pill Bugs to breed as well and start another batch.

At that point, he would have created a system where all the Pill Bugs would be at various stages of life at all times.

Alex was ready to be overwhelmed at some point, but if he was overwhelmed, he could just stop. There was also the good news that the Pill Bugs’ life cycles took centuries, so he could easily move them around his Soul Space to make up time if he was lacking any.

With that settled, Alex left his room as today was the day he was going to leave the Sky God’s palace for the first time. He met up with Ronron outside and then made their way through the palace, heading in a certain direction.

Alex realized that they weren’t headed toward the gate at all and was a little confused.

”Is there a secret way out? Where are we going?” he asked.

”I can’t leave the palace on my own, father. I need to leave with senior Greensoul,” Ronron told him.

”Ah! Right. Are we headed toward his courtyard then?”

Ronron nodded. A few minutes later, they stopped outside a decently large courtyard. The doors opened and a handsome man with dull green hair and an ageless face walked out. The man was quite handsome compared to many other people Alex had seen around.

He looked toward Alex, no expressions on his face as he had seen him countless times before.

It was only Alex’s first time seeing the man.

”Greetings, senior Greensoul. It is a pleasure to finally meet you. I thank you for looking after my daughter all this time.”

The man looked at Alex for a brief few seconds before giving a curt nod. ”I’ve heard quite a bit about you during these past few years. If half of what they say is true, then it is my pleasure to meet you as well.”