Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex held a strange expression on his face upon hearing Zi Mengyao’s words.

”That’s a little too early to decide that I have lost,” he said. ”We haven’t even completed the challenge yet.”

Zi Mengyao heard him, but that did not increase her confidence in him. After all, she could not see someone like Alex, who had to have trained with alchemy and Daos his entire life, being any good with weapons.

”5000 stars, huh?” Firefang said with a slight laugh. ”How many stars did you say you have?”

”Me? A bit more than 5000,” Alex said. ”Do you need an exact number?”

”No, that’s fine,” Firefang said. ”I’ll just increase the bet to 6000 stars instead.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. ”I don’t think that’s going to work out. I don’t have that many stars.”

”I know you don’t. That’s why I increased it as much as I did. So that when you lose, you’ll be forced to pay all your stars to me.”

Zi Mengyao quickly spoke. ”Isn’t 5000 enough? Why the need to increase it more? It’s not like he offended you or anything. He just wanted to use the Marker.”

”No,” Firefang said. ”He should’ve listened when he had the chance. And he dared increase it to 5000? He had it coming.”

The increase to 6000 stars had been set.

”How shall we start?” Alex asked.

”Well, do you even use a weapon?” Firefang asked. ”If you do, you should bring yours out.”

Alex nodded and brought out Midnight. He held it low, the tip touching the sand.

The woman looked at the sword without much surprise. It was understandable that she didn’t find the sword that good with just a look.

Not only did it lack a particularly strong spirit at the moment, its build wasn’t as intricate as many weapons tended to be. That part in particular was immediately proven to him by Firefang as she brought out her saber.

Her weapon was made of bright pink metal, separated into darker and lighter shades by a wavy line that went across the middle on either side of the blade. There was a circular hole near the base of the blade, giving it an uncommon look. The crossguard was made of gold, while the hilt was entirely wrapped in bright red fabric, with two thick ribbons hanging by the end.

Compared to Alex’s sword, Firefang’s saber looked like an actual Immortal artifact.

She pointed the saber toward Alex before letting it dip slightly. ”Well, at least you have a weapon, so we can perform the test,” she said. ”Let us start.”

Alex shrugged. ”Go ahead. I’ll follow your lead.”

The woman scoffed, but did as told. Instantly, Saber Intent flowed around her saber, giving it a white outline.

”Surely you can use this much.”

”Of course,” Alex said, using Sword Intent on his sword.

The ease with which he did it caught the woman’s attention, but that hardly meant anything at all, so she could only smile.

”Good. Now the next part,” she said.

The white outline around her saber completely covered every part of the blade, making it all glow white. ”Do you have weapon Qi?”

”Yes,” Alex said, using Sword Qi. His sword too was covered in bright white light, indicative of his Sword Qi.

Zi Mengyao’s eyes widened slightly upon noticing that. While Sword Qi in and of itself wasn’t that incredible a feat, especially when it came to cultivators in the Immortal realm, it was still something that took time for someone to learn.

The fact that Alex had learned it, despite him being an alchemist, made her wonder just when he had the time for it.

”Not bad,” the woman said, letting out a slight chuckle. ”But can you continue still?”

The saber Qi around her weapon began exploding outward, immediately surrounding her and forming her Saber Aura.

Alex copied her, doing the same. Sword Qi sprang out of his sword and moved around him, forming the Sword Aura.

The woman’s face fell slightly. ”I see. So you have that as well. Not bad. How long ago did you learn it?”

”Oh, a while ago. It’s been about 2 millennia, I believe. Maybe I’m off by 5 years at best,” he said.

”Is that so?” the woman asked, her face suddenly beaming upon hearing that. ”If you only learned it 2 thousand years ago, then you likely haven’t had the time to move on, have you?”

Just as she asked the question, saber Qi formed around her all on its own, quickly surrounding her. Her Saber Domain was quite a display of her talent. The saber Qi nearly came close to Alex, as if trying to attack him, but it was nothing more than a scare.

He remained still, and the domain didn’t touch him.

”This is what it means to learn a weapon,” Firefang said proudly. ”You learned your Sword Aura 2000 years ago. By then, I had already learned my Saber Domain. I’m afraid you were late.”

Zi Mengyao looked toward Alex. She knew that Alex had probably lost the battle now, if what he had said about when he learned his Sword Aura was true. However, something about the entire experience made her not immediately trust her own understanding.

There was still more to Alex.

Alex smiled. ”Can you really say I was late?” he asked. ”After all, I was only 21 back then.”

Firefang’s smile froze. ”What?”

Zi Mengyao’s eyes widened at the same time as well. She tried understanding whatever hidden meaning Alex’s words could have been hiding, since the plain truth was far more impossible than anything else she had heard until now.

”You were 21? What does that mean?” Firefang asked.

”Can it mean anything else?” Alex asked. ”I was 21 years old when I learned Sword Aura.”

Firefang’s face fell. ”That’s... that’s not possible. No one can learn Sword Aura that quickly.”

Alex shrugged. ”I did,” he said. ”And then, not even a century after that...”

Powerful Sword Qi formed around him, independent of his sword, forming into a domain.

”...I formed my Sword Domain.”