Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex explained how and why there were only four Death Sages he was searching for when there were a dozen in the past.

”The one we’re searching for is a man, so that means it’s not Curselake, Mournfall, Ghostmind, or Rotspine to begin with,” he started. ”Of the remaining, Gravespinner, Lastwail, and Endbringer are all dead as well, leaving me with five names.”

”You are, of course, one of the names, along with Deathgrim, Deadcall, Tombmaker, and Pallideyes. Among those, Tombmaker’s status is unclear, which is why, for now, he is being assumed to be dead. If any clue suggests that he may be alive, then I will have five people to go through, instead of four.”

Somberskull held a strange look on his face as he scratched his chin, nodding along the way.

”I see what you mean,” he said. ”If you’re only searching for alive male Death Sages who were alive during a specific time in the past, then these are indeed who you should be looking for. In fact, I might even go as far as to say that Pallideyes might not be who you are searching for at all.”

”Really?” Alex asked. ”What makes you say that, senior?”

”Just a hunch more than anything,” the man answered. ”He’s a good acquaintance of mine, so I have come to understand him a little over the past few years we’ve known each other.”

”That means nothing to us,” Bladedance said. ”We still must visit him and try to learn about him as well as we can. Do not warn him.”

”I wouldn’t dare,” the old man quickly said. ”I’m afraid I can’t be much help after all. I do not know if any one of them was responsible for the creation of Godslayer. In fact, I wasn’t even aware a Death Sage had been responsible in the first place.”

”That’s understandable,” Bladedance said. ”Just learning that it isn’t you is already a huge help.”

The old man gave a few nods. ”Tombmaker would have been the strongest contender on the list for who may have been responsible for the creation of Godslayer. He was known for his strange artifacts that he created to place inside of his tombs.”

Alex didn’t say anything, but he had a feeling that the man who had been with the Artifact God didn’t have as much knowledge about artifacts in general. At least, he had to be a relatively unknown person for him to so easily take advantage of Steelmind’s carelessness to get him to create a sword based around some information left behind by the Death God.

”If it is Tombmaker, we’ll first need to figure out if he’s alive,” Bladedance told the old man. ”Until then, we’ll have to look for these other three. We know where Pallideyes and Deathgrim are. Do you happen to know anything about Deadcall?”

”Not at all. All I know about him is that he doesn’t have a home and moves from place to place,” Somberskull said. ”So he could be anywhere at all.”

”That’s what we figured,” Bladedance said. ”Anyway, let us know if you have any other thoughts in this regard. If not, we will be leaving.”

”My apologies for not being able to help you any further, Your Majesty,” the man said. ”It is also unfortunate there are so many of us Death Sages to begin with. At least you’ve managed to narrow it down to just the men, or else you’d have to go through 13 different names.”

Alex looked at the old man with a slightly confused look. ”13?”

”Yes.”

”13 what?” he asked.

”Death Sages.”

Alex quickly went through the names in his head. ”You mean 12?”

”Umm... no. 13. There are 13 Death Sages in total. Or rather, there were, back when the Death God was still alive. We were called the Cursed 13, after all,” the man said, remembering the past.

Alex wondered what mistake he had made. He went through the names quickly in his mind.

Four women, eight men.

Eight who belonged to the Death God’s cult.

Four who were independent Death Sages.

12 in total.

”The Wine God’s library held a book about the Death Sages,” Alex said quickly. ”There were 12 names listed in there. Are you saying it’s missing one?”

”Yes,” the old man said confidently. ”After all, not counting the Death God, there were 13 of us.”

”Really?” Alex asked, very much surprised. ”Which one did I miss?”

”Let’s see,” the old man began, naming the Death Sages. ”There’s me, along with Pallideyes, Deadcall, Deathgrim, and Tombmaker, who you are searching for. There are the female Death Sages, Rotspine, Ghostmind, Mournfall, and Curselake. And the dead ones, Lastwail, Endbringer, and Gravespinner.”

Alex waited for the old man to continue, but he had stopped.

”And?”

”That’s it.”

Alex frowned. ”Senior, that’s only 12. You said there were 13.”

”That’s 13,” Somberskull said.

”No, that’s 12,” Bladedance said. ”Count again.”

Somberskull quickly named all the Death Sages, his fingers out with each name. Once he went through all ten fingers, he restarted, ending at two, for a total of 12. He frowned slightly.

”Well... that can’t be right.”

He counted again, ending up at 12 again.

”Huh? What’s going on?”

Alex looked toward Bladedance, who kept staring at the man. ”Tell me the names of the Death Sages again,” she said.

The man replied with the same 12 names all over again.

Bladedance looked toward the ceiling in thought. The names he had just said were the exact ones in the book in the Wine God’s library, so there was none missing. But they couldn’t just ignore the fact that the man remembered there being 13 Death Sages in the past, and not just 12.

For the briefest moment, Alex wondered if something was wrong with the old man’s mind and almost offered to examine him. However, he found it hard to believe that a Death Sage at the edge of the Celestial realm could have a memory problem that was entirely his fault at all.

That made him wonder something entirely different.

’Is this the same thing as what is going on with my memories?’