Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Bladedance had grown quite curious about Bai Jingshen after hearing him talk of so many things.

“I do not believe you to be that old, but you seem to have quite a bit of knowledge and connection,” she said. “Tell me, how did you become acquainted with the Divination God? So far as I’m aware, the man is a social outcast that does not wish to talk to anyone unless necessary.”

Bai Jingshen smiled. “We came to know each other through another mutual party. We journeyed somewhere together.”

Bladedance raised an eyebrow. “Fine, I will not ask you to reveal more than what you wish. I have other issues to deal with at the moment anyway.”

Her eyes turned toward the heavens, a look of worry flashing for the smallest period before disappearing.

“I hope there’s a secluded area close to your home that I could use for dealing with my tribulations,” Bladedance said.

“There are plenty,” Bai Jingshen said. “Senior may rest and recover her Qi before dealing with the tribulations. However… I must warn you, Senior. You will likely have to leave this world sooner than later.”

Bladedance gave an annoyed look. “I know. So long as I can deal with these tribulations, we will leave.”

“Leave?” Alex’s voice was laden with confusion. He looked to the two, having no idea why either of them were so quickly agreeing to such a notion. “Why must you leave, Master? Can’t you stay for longer?”

Bladedance gave a smirk. “I’m not welcome to stay in this world.”

Alex frowned. “Because you’re a human? Or perhaps because you’re a god. Are they scared?”

“Neither,” Bladedance said. “It’s because I’m a Celestial. They do not wish to keep a Celestial in their home for long, lest I steal away their precious Celestial Qi.”

Alex lowered his eyes, considering her words. “Celestial Qi is dying, isn’t it?” he asked. “Are there not many sources of it remaining?”

“Celestial spirit veins are dying, but not all are dead,” Bladedance said. “But if one does absorb from the spirit vein, you want the Celestial to stay around that region so that any Qi they may lose will go back to the spirit vein. If the person leaves, that’s detrimental to the spirit vein.”

“The fact that they’re letting me absorb enough to fight off this upcoming tribulation is only because I will be using up most of it in that fight,” she finished explaining.

Alex hadn’t expected there to be such a system between Celestial realm cultivators.

“Then… I imagine there to be a few Celestials among the Heavenly beasts too,” he said.

“The beasts are a close-knit group that don’t venture off their own world unless they have to,” she explained. “So most of their strong cultivators end up remaining here. They are also wealthier than any human alive, so they have no reason to travel outside of their own realm. And then add on certain other factors that have led them to have the most Celestial spirit veins in all the land, and suddenly you’re looking at a world that has more Celestial realm cultivators than any other Immortal realm.”

Alex and the rest around him found themselves shocked at the answer.

“How… how many?” Alex asked.

“I don’t have an exact number,” Bladedance said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if this single world has as many as 10 Celestials.”

“How many do humans have?” Alex asked.

“Not counting any that may still be in closed cultivation and forgotten since a long time ago, there are about 15 I can think of off the top of my head. 12 of whom are the Gods.”

That was quite a surprising piece of news for Alex. Not because he now learned there were so many Celestials, but because there were so few.

15 Celestials was less than 1 Celestial every 2 Immortal realms the humans had. Alex had known the situation to be dire, but had it really been this dire?

Just how few of them were there?

“Have there always been 15 or was that the result of the war?” Alex asked.

“I can’t really say,” Bladedance answered. “There have been few from the start, yes. But there have also been quite a few that died during the war. The Hell Emperor, for example, would be one such person. There are certainly half a dozen at least that are in hiding, recuperating themselves from their times of war, but they may never surface again.”

“I see,” Alex said. “What about the demons?”

“No idea. They certainly have Celestials, but I don’t believe there to be many. Especially after the World Tree fell, there can’t have been that many,” Bladedance said. “Not to mention, they had to give away 3 entire Celestial veins to the humans after the war ended. There already weren’t that many to begin with, so they should be hurting.”

Alex got curious. “3 Celestial spirit veins?” he said. “What else did the demons have to give away?”

“Most spirit veins. Over a dozen Divine spirit veins, over a hundred Immortal spirit veins, and I don’t even know how many other regular spirit veins there were. That, plus a few spirit realms. Those were the requirements for the humans to stop attacking.”

Alex’s world had been part of that bargain. His was the third of the six major realms that were given away, along with 12 other minor spirit realms.

“Where did all that loot go?” Alex asked. “Does the Sky God hold it, or has it been given to others?”

“There was a contribution system during the time of war. And those with the highest contribution that didn’t already have Celestial spirit veins in their land were given those. I think one was given to the Blood God, one to the Fatekeepers, and one to… I don’t quite remember who the last one was given to. It was after my sword was taken away, so my memories of the period within are not so good.”

“Suffice to say, us humans got enough out of the war, so there shouldn’t be a need for another one.”