Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex took the crystal and looked at it for a moment. Even without using his technique, he could tell to a certain extent that this crystal had a Water aura. Based on his current understanding of the Water Dao, this had to be the Dao of Refraction.

He closed his eyes and used the Artifact God’s Trait Spectrum Analysis technique.

As soon as his spiritual sense landed on the crystal in his hand, it began morphing like a book being flipped through, each page representing a different property, until he arrived at a place that felt familiar. He placed the crystal down.

”This crystal holds a defensive aura, closely related to the Dao of Refraction,” Alex answered.

”Correct,” the woman said, taking the crystal back.

”And this?” she asked, handing him the large amber.

Looking at the amber, Alex couldn’t tell much about it. He hadn’t seen that material before, and it certainly didn’t have any aura that was instantly recognizable. He closed his eyes and used his technique on it.

As he flipped through the aura, he landed on something that was close to something else he had learned about, but not quite the same.

”It’s like one of those Emperor Bee waxes from what I can tell,” Alex said. ”I believe the wax is used to help Qi flow through the artifacts at a uniform rate?”

”Close,” the Artifact God said. ”This is called a Nightwood Amber. It comes from the fossilized resin of a hundreds-of-thousands-of-years-old Nightwood tree. It is similar to the wax you’ve learned about, but instead of just helping Qi flow steadily, it helps Qi flow to every spot equally, all at once.”

Alex looked down. ”Instant?” he asked.

”Practically,” she said. ”I’m sure it actually takes some time to transfer if you try and see, but it’s so fast that even a Divinity will fail to follow it. From what I know, it’s faster than shattering glass.”

”And it also uniformly transfers the Qi?” Alex asked. ”How exactly are we using it?”

”This will coat the inside of the shield and make it so that when you pour Qi into it, the Qi reaches each region instantaneously,” she said, taking the amber back from his hand. ”With this, activation of the artifact will happen at the same time the user uses his or her Qi.”

Alex nodded. ”That’s very useful.”

”It is,” she said, before handing over the last item to Alex. She didn’t dare toss this one.

Alex took the bottle carefully and looked at it. He could feel some sort of liquid inside. As for what it was, he couldn’t quite tell from the outside.

”May I look inside?” Alex asked.

”Yes, but do so very quickly,” she said. ”The liquid inside is especially prepared, and it reacts to the outside environment faster than I would like. See what you can figure out and close it instantly.”

Alex nodded. After hearing as much, he couldn’t spend more than just a moment looking at what was inside.

From the Artifact God’s perspective, Alex’s hands blurred so quickly that she barely made out the fact that he had opened the bottle and closed it again.

She blinked for a moment. ”Are you done?”

Alex nodded. ”This is a strange one,” he said. ”It’s regular water, but... I sense Fire aura from it. A bunch of it, actually, each one strange. Like it was meant to do something specific.”

The Artifact God took it back. ”That’s because it is,” she said. ”You really looked into it so quickly?”

”I can manipulate time. You didn’t want it reacting to the atmosphere, so I tried my best,” Alex said.

Shen Yaojia was left staring at him for some time, unsure how she was even supposed to react to that knowledge.

”You can manipulate time too? Not just space?” she asked.

”One needs to know how to manipulate both time and space to even try and navigate the Void, senior,” Alex said. ”That’s how I was able to escape Hell.”

It took a bit for the Artifact God to get over that shock. When she eventually came to terms with the information, she looked down at the bottle.

”You are correct in what it is,” she said. ”It is indeed water that has been charged with specific Fire aura, or a combination of them. Can you tell me why?”

”Why?” Alex asked.

”Yes. Why? What is the point of this?” she asked. ”Just so you are aware, the water isn’t what’s important. It’s the aura. The water is just the vessel because of its availability. It could have been anything else too.”

Alex looked down at the stone floor, his eyes focused on everything and nothing at the same time as his mind raced to find an answer.

A set of Fire aura, being used on the scale of a primarily Water material. If those two were to come across...

”Wait, are you trying to destroy the scale? I don’t understand,” he said. ”Fire and Water, they don’t mix so well.”

”No, they don’t,” she said. ”You’ve got a Fire Dao, I believe. How many of them?”

”All. I have the True Fire Dao,” Alex answered.

”All of them? Dear god, leave some for other people,” she said, rolling her eyes. ”In that case, you should know exactly what aura there was and what it is good against, if you want to look at it again.”

She tried to hand him the bottle again, but Alex refused. ”There’s no need. I think I understand what you’re going for,” he said.

”Go on. What am I doing?” she asked with an expectant look.

”You’re trying to destroy part of the scale,” Alex said. ”Or more accurately, you’re trying to destroy the part of the scale that makes up the various properties that you believe you do not need.”

The Artifact God grinned.

”That is exactly what I am doing.”

She stored away all three of the things. ”Great job on figuring that out. Since you understand it, it’s time to get started. This one is going to take a long time.”