Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Over a month had passed since the opening of the Red Heaven Realm.

Alex was the last to come out of another one of the tests they had taken part in, where they had to fight a wave of puppets, one after another, until they could no longer keep up at all. Of them all, Alex had been the last one to leave, lasting nearly two waves longer than even Battlesage, all thanks to his Blood Origin.

Once he walked out, he met up with the rest.

”How did you guys do?” Alex asked as he looked through the group.

”12 waves,” Ronron said without much happiness in her voice.

”Same,” Helen said. ”We only got 40 stars each.”

”I lasted a wave longer, and it’s only 10 more stars somehow,” Liz said with a sigh.

”What about you, Senior?” Alex asked the old man.

”19 waves,” Battlesage said.

”Ah! Two less than me. I ended at 21,” Alex answered.

The old man wasn’t surprised. ”I got 240 stars. How many did you get?”

”350,” Alex said. ”It seems the higher the waves went, the more stars we got too, huh?”

”Sounds like it,” the old man said.

”Well, I’m tired,” Ronron said. ”We should go take some time off to cultivate.”

The others nodded.

”You guys go,” the old man said as they all prepared to leave. ”I don’t need to cultivate, so I will just leave right now.”

Everyone turned toward him with strange expressions on their faces.

”Are you going to leave now?” Helen asked. ”You could stay with us for some time longer.”

”That’s fine. I already made my decision,” the old man said. ”You guys enjoy your time here. I would rather be on my own going forward and enjoy some adventures alone.”

Alex gave a subtle nod. ”Well, we did decide on this some time ago, so that’s alright. Have fun, Senior. We’ll meet once the year ends.”

”Yes,” the old man said with a bright smile. ”Good luck to you all.”

He brought out his compass and flew away immediately.

The group watched the old man leave for a moment before turning around.

”Alright, let’s go find a place to cultivate.”

Between cultivation and visiting the various places around the Red Heaven Realm, time began passing faster and faster for everyone. As more and more spots vanished from the map, especially the green ones that weren’t reformed at all, people were left with fewer places to visit, which meant they had to wait longer, which in turn took up more time.

Ronron and the rest had been gaining a lot of stars in quick succession toward the start, but as time went by, the number of stars they earned began dropping significantly. It came to a point where finding more than 50 stars from any test, yellow or red, started becoming nearly impossible.

The three women took part in every test they came across, but Alex didn’t join them in all of them. He only took part in a few so he could have a relatively good number of stars to last through the next 49 years, or at least until one of the women could last.

Half a year in, Ronron counted her stars again after all this time and found that she had gained over 16 thousand stars by now. She wondered if that was high or not.

”How many do you have, Grandma?” she asked.

Helen counted her stars afterward and found herself to have much fewer than Ronron did.

”I only have 12 thousand stars,” she said.

Liz counted her own stars next and found that she also had a little above 14 thousand stars.

”How did you get more than us?” she asked. ”I thought our performances were similar to each other’s.”

”I’ve been able to make use of my knowledge of this realm a few times to get ahead of you,” Ronron said. ”Other than that, I believe it’s mostly just luck.”

Crossing those numbers now would be hard, but at the start, it was easy to realize that Ronron might have gotten ahead and stayed ahead.

”What about you, Alex?” Liz asked.

”6200,” Alex answered.

He had a decent number of stars, but nowhere near as many as the women. He took part in very few tests now, but whenever he did, he often got the best results.

”That’s not a bad amount,” Helen said. ”Since you can’t get challenged once you’ve been challenged every day, you can lose for 17 years in a row and still not get sent out with this amount.”

Liz and Ronron turned toward Helen with blank looks on their faces.

Helen looked at them with confusion. ”What?”

”Grandma, that’s not how it is,” Ronron said.

”Isn’t it?” Helen asked. ”People who’ve been challenged once can’t be challenged again for that day.”

”By the same person,” Ronron added. ”They can’t be challenged by the same person over and over. That doesn’t stop others from challenging them.”

Helen realized her mistake. ”Shit! Yeah, then the stars aren’t nearly enough.”

”They’re enough for me,” Alex said. ”I can always earn more afterward if I’m running out.”

”True,” Liz said. ”Though, it’s not like that’s ever going to happen. Who can get a star from him?”

Helen and Ronron nodded in understanding.

”Alright, if you three are done, then we should head over to the next spot,” Alex said. ”People are starting to gather there again, so we should get to it as quickly as we can.”

”Alright, alright,” Ronron said, standing up. ”Let’s leave.”

The three made their way toward the next test, which was a red test. Until they arrived by the test area, they couldn’t sense or see what it was that they were facing next. So, when a platform appeared before them, they grew curious as to what the test was going to be.

Several people were already inside the platform, sitting and cultivating. The others outside lay in wait.

”No banner again,” Ronron said as her eyes scanned the place. ”So we won’t find out what we’re getting into until we enter ourselves.”