Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

The rocks could not be placed into one’s Soul Space for some reason, so any cultivator who tried to take the stones away and crush them later in search of stars was sorely disappointed.

Alex was in the same situation, so he had to go through each rock there and find the stars one by one. Thanks to Demon Eyes, however, he and his family had an advantage that no one else had.

Some time later, the mound of rocks had been completely pulverized by the many Immortals who had come to realize that it held stars. Once nothing remained, they finally moved away from the place.

Alex grouped up with his people and counted how many stars they had managed to receive.

”I managed to find 44 of them,” Alex said to the group. ”How about you guys?”

”I found 29,” Helen said, rather proud of herself.

”I got 31,” Liz said with a slightly smug expression.

”I only got 22,” Ronron said. ”Why were they so difficult to break?”

”They were made so cultivators couldn’t destroy them easily. That’s why,” Alex said. ”You all received a good amount from this challenge, it seems. It’s good that we came here.”

”What did you guys do exactly?” Battlesage asked with a strange look on his face. ”I broke hundreds more rocks than you did, and I barely found 12 stars in total. How were you guys so accurate?”

”Because of a technique, senior,” Alex said. ”I can’t go into detail right now, but it’s an eye technique that gives you a breadth of vision, including the ability to see aura.”

”Is that so?” the old man asked with a rather interested look on his face. ”I see. No wonder.”

”Where to now?” Helen asked, looking at her star compass. ”There are still no red spots on the compass. The closest one is a yellow one in that direction.”

”A yellow spot, huh?” Alex asked, growing curious about what he would find there.

The group moved toward it to find out more. By now, they had been to two red spots, one yellow spot, and one green spot.

Their highest recorded gain had come from the green spot, but that had been slightly in their favor thanks to everyone there being able to use Demon Eyes. The individual highest gain anywhere had been by the old man who had received over 50 stars in the maze.

’Red can’t be the spot with the highest amount of stars to give away, can it?’ Alex thought.

It somewhat made sense, but it also felt wrong at the same time. Something about the entire thing didn’t feel right. He was missing some pieces of information, and he would need those pieces before he could make an accurate judgment of the situation.

They arrived at their second yellow spot and found what lay before them.

A massive puppet nearly five times the size of the average human sat cross-legged on a flat piece of land with two of its hands pressed together, as though in worship. At the same time, a dozen different hands emerged from its back on both sides, each one not only long but also containing multiple joints.

The arms gave off an uncanny feeling, especially because the puppet had nothing but a blank face.

”Well, it’s not the stone guardian, but it is another humanoid thing,” Liz said. ”Are yellow spots just different humanoid beings?”

Just like with the stone guardian, a golden banner lay next to the puppet with words written on it in red thread.

Bet your stars. Gain tenfold back for finding the correct bowl.

Before the puppet lay over 20 different bowls, each one turned upside down. The puppet’s dozens of arms moved at the same time, switching the bowls around for the cultivator who stood before it.

The cultivator who was participating at the moment stared at the bowls with utmost attention, watching every single movement they went through. However, the bowls moved so quickly and in such an orderly manner that the cultivator nearly lost sight of the correct one by the end.

The bowls came to a stop, and the puppet lifted all of its arms, leaving just the bowls behind.

Spiritual sense didn’t work here. Regular eyesight didn’t help at the end, and neither did any of the other five senses.

If one wanted to answer this correctly, one needed to have paid attention from the very start.

This cultivator certainly had, so he picked what he believed to be the correct bowl.

The puppet flipped the bowl, revealing that it contained nothing inside it at all.

”Impossible!” the cultivator exclaimed. ”I know I paid attention. It had to be under that bowl.”

”Unfortunate,” a voice came from inside the puppet as it reached out for one of the bowls on the lower right side with one of its many arms.

As soon as the bowl was flipped, a red crystal lay inside for all to see.

”You have lost.”

That was all the puppet said before presenting an open palm to the cultivator.

The cultivator snorted in anger, but he didn’t go against the rules of the battle he had chosen himself. He brought out three stars, which was what he had likely gambled, and handed them to the puppet.

The puppet quickly put away the stars, then sat tall with all of its hands closed before it, as though they were all praying.

The young cultivator was very much annoyed, but there was nothing he could do. He could only grumble as he walked away with an irritated expression, having lost the stars he had bet.

Despite the failure of the young man, there were several others ready to take his place.

”Oh... my... god!” Ronron said, nearly shouting. ”That is incredible. Father, can we join this? Please?”

Alex turned toward his daughter and then toward the rest. ”Are you all of the same mind?” he asked.

Battlesage shrugged. ”I’m curious how I would fare against it, so yes. I would like to join this as well.”

”Same here,” Liz said with great confidence. ”This is our chance to increase our stars tenfold. There’s no reason not to do this, right?”

Helen nodded as well.