Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

The ground lay soaked in blood where Alex and Bai Jingshen fought, destruction surrounding them in the large meadow that had now become a wasteland.

Alex huffed strongly, clutching his chest where his heart still beat to the strange rhythm of the Blood Devil. His sight was filled with red, blood aura hungry to devour any and all blood in the surroundings. The more he fought, the more he hungered for it.

He had long since completely lost himself to the bloodlust now.

Bai Jingshen fought Alex in his frenzied state for quite some time before deciding to end it immediately with a single kick. The kick tore his head clean off his shoulders, smashing it into the ground where his brain lay open.

A second later, Alex’s head regrew from his neck, a sense of clarity returning to him. The frenzy in his system lessened, and Alex gained freedom from his bloodlust. He was about to get right back into it, to continue fighting with Bai Jingshen, but he was stopped.

Alex paused halfway through and let the Blood Devil retract back into his Spiritual Sea. After that, he watched Bai Jingshen, waiting for him to say something.

Bai Jingshen considered his words for some time before speaking.

“This Blood Devil of yours is legitimately one of the strongest transformation Creations I have seen in a long time,” Bai Jingshen said. “And what’s surprising is that it is not even a Creation. Just a replication of the same effect.”

Alex nodded slowly. He didn’t know much about transformation Creations, but he understood that the Blood Devil had to be good. The only thing that could be better was perhaps the Four Heavenly Beasts or maybe the Fifteen Primordials, but even that wasn’t something he was certain about.

“Since it’s not a true Creation, you will be able to use it alongside your other Creations too,” Bai Jingshen said. “That’s quite strong.”

“I’m pretty sure I can do that with my regular Creations too when they’re formed,” Alex said. “At least, I think I can. The Replication technique allowed the Saber God to create multiple of his own Creations, so I should be the same. Except, each one will be a different one.”

Alex’s words made Bai Jingshen look at him with a slack jaw for a long time before he coughed and continued.

“Anyway, your power with the Blood Devil is strong, but it is not without its flaws from the looks of it,” Bai Jingshen said. “There is a clear improvement in your fighting capability as you use all of your powers alongside your Blood Devil, and you reach its peak when you are at the edge of losing yourself to the bloodlust.”

“The transformation makes you stronger, faster, and more importantly, far more reflexive to every attack, which adds overall to your strength. But when you step past it, when you lose yourself to the bloodlust, your battle sense seems to deteriorate, with you clinging only to basic instinct to continue with the fight.”

Alex rubbed his forehead and frowned. “Yeah, I can remember almost everything just like you said, but in the moment, it’s difficult to realize just what I am doing wrong. I imagine this is what it must feel like to be drunk on some really good wine.”

Bai Jingshen laughed. “We need to get you drunk sometime.”

“Doesn’t work,” Alex said. “My body won’t let me. It neutralizes all toxins. I can force it to stop for a while, but as soon as I get drunk, I lose control and my body detoxifies everything.”

“That’s a shame,” Bai Jingshen said. “Anyway, you need to practice some more, so you can fight right at the edge of where you fall into the bloodlust. So long as you can teeter on that line, falling on neither side, you can make tremendous use of your power.”

Alex nodded. “Thank you. I should do just that.”

“Of course,” Bai Jingshen added. “That means you will have to train a lot. We have a while to go, so let’s continue training. We’ll return a month later.”

Now that Bai Jingshen had helped Alex with judging the strength of his Blood Devil transformation, all that was left now was for Alex to train and get himself used to fighting at his peak capacity while using the Blood Devil.

He made many mistakes during the training process, oftentimes underestimating how much he could go, and sometimes overestimating it. The times he did end up losing himself to the bloodlust, Bai Jingshen was there to help kill him.

So long as either his heart was destroyed or his connection to his Spiritual Sea was cut off, the effects of the Blood Devil vanished from his system, leaving only him with his skin carrying a crimson hue.

Thankfully, Alex was getting better and better at understanding his own limits as well as how to push them when necessary. He also learned how he could revert his skin’s color quickly after using the Blood Devil if need be. It turned out to be as simple as controlling the blood on the surface of his skin and pushing it back in.

After a rigorous training schedule that lasted a little more than a month, Alex and Bai Jingshen finally returned to the White Tiger’s

palace.

Upon returning, Alex went to meet Pearl immediately, who, as it turned out, had begun forming two Creations by now-his Blood Essence and the Guardian Tiger.

His third Creation was to come from Bai Jingshen, and his fourth one was still something he hadn’t thought about just yet, but he was leaning toward either something to do with his spear or something to

do with Space.

Since Alex was forming a Creation with Void, he at least thought one

with Space would be good for him. But he was still in the consideration phase, so nothing was decided just yet.

Alex cultivated for a few days after returning, and the next time he

left his cultivation, Pearl let him know that he had recently visited the Patriarch to receive some news.

The trial would start in five days.