Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

There was something in Firestar’s eyes that caught Alex’s attention, a sort of emotion that usually wasn’t seen in a Divinity. Was that… shame?

Firestar took a moment to suck in a deep breath and then spat out what was on her mind.

“One of the disciples that came with me to the competition failed today. She was so close to passing. Had she stuck it out for maybe 5 more minutes, she might’ve passed, and yet…”

Silvermist crossed his arms, waiting for Firestar to continue speaking. She was taking her time with her words, causing him to get impatient.

Firestar looked toward Alex. “You know who I’m talking about, right?” she asked.

“Sister Riveroak, I’m assuming,” Alex said.

Firestar nodded. “She said you two became friends during the competition. So, she wanted me to ask you if there is any way you could help her.”

Alex paused for a moment.

“Help her?” Silvermist asked. “How the hell is my disciple supposed to help her? What, is he supposed to go talk with His Majesty and ask him to take her back?”

Firestar sighed. “No, that’s not—”

“Sister Riveroak wants my pin. Is that it?” Alex asked.

Firestar looked at Alex, the same look from before flashing within her eyes. The woman seemed greatly embarrassed to have to ask this.

“The girl is talented, talented enough that she would have passed even the next competition if she had the opportunity to. Her disciple has been training hard himself and is a master of alchemy now. If she only had a second chance, then she would…”

“Hell no!” Silvermist said, shouting all of a sudden, a look of anger in his eyes. “If your disciple failed, then she failed. You can’t come and ask my disciple for what he gained.”

Firestar didn’t react to Silvermist’s anger. She had expected it, so she was ready for it. She moved her eyes away from him and toward Alex, wanting him to say something.

Alex thought for a bit and said, “While I sympathize with Sister Riveroak’s situation, I cannot bring myself to help her, Senior. It’s a cutthroat tournament, and the chances that I mess up during the next competition are high as well. Even if I don’t, the Alchemy God himself has said that these pins will give a big advantage to those who pass on to the final competition. You can see why I vehemently do not wish to give this to her.”

Silvermist gave a strong nod. “That’s right. We won’t give it to you, Sister Firestar. Honestly, I cannot believe that you would even come here asking for something like this. You should know better than anyone how important such a pin is to my disciple.”

“No… no… I understand,” Firestar said. “I’m sorry if I offended you, Brother Silvermist. I shall leave now that I have my answer.”

She turned to Alex and said, “Good luck in the upcoming competition.” And then she left.

Silvermist fell back into his seat, still emanating anger. “How dare she think she can ask my disciple to give up on such a great advantage,” he said in a low rumble.

“I do not believe she expected you to give it to her,” Grimsight said from the side. “Poor woman probably came because that disciple pressured her to. She has always been an empathetic person, so she probably couldn’t stand that disciple’s cries. She must’ve felt forced to come and ask for that pin.”

Silvermist remained quiet for a moment. “Still, she should know better.”

“It’s alright, Master,” Alex said. “She has the right to ask, and we have the right to refuse. She was ashamed to be asking for it anyway, so I don’t think she ever hoped to get it. She just wanted to take a chance. There’s no reason to get angry over that.”

Silvermist thought for a bit and simply nodded. He didn’t say anything else afterward, choosing to remain quiet for the most part.

Seeing as it was over, Alex went back to what he was doing and chatted with Momo, teaching her from his own experience what she could do if she were ever in a situation like this.

After a while, Silvermist decided that it was time they returned to the court. There was no point in staying here any longer.

It was morning when they arrived back at Silvermist City, back in the court. This time around, there was no fanfare, as everyone knew they would be returning anyway.

There were people who cheered for Alex as he entered, but it was a small group who had come to see him.

Silvermist ran away from Nurei once again, not wanting to hear her complain about him skipping out on work. He had done exactly that last time and left before delivering the pills he needed to.

Once Alex was back in the mansion, he chose to rest for a few days. He hadn’t fully recovered from the loss of Qi in the competition, and his blood aura was still weak. As he was, he couldn’t even improve his Blood Origin, so he had to give himself some time.

He spent the next week cultivating for as long as he could before finally returning to his normal state. Once he was done, he needed to get back to the two important things at hand once again.

He needed to train Momo even further, especially after learning the importance of her competition. And he needed to improve what he had come up with for the combination to the Provenance Duality techniques.

In the past decade, he had already thought up the base technique, along with what it did. Only, it was in a state that was incredibly inefficient. It was usable, but only if he was okay with spending many millennia in the Immortal Origin realm.

He needed to improve its efficiency and effectiveness. He didn’t believe it would take that long. The time-consuming part of it was already done.

Now, he just needed to spend a year or two and improve it to its peak.