Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex was a little bored these days with nothing much to do. He lay in the sand some distance away from a village, as he looked at the starry sky in the night.

He knew those weren’t stars now, so it didn’t give him the same feeling as it would when he was just a young man.

‘I wonder how many of those had people living in it,’ he wondered. The moon was still the most brightest, and while part of it was dark, the majority was still very bright. Bright enough to light up the entire area of the dune he rested upon.

At night, the cold wind blew, contrasted by the sand beneath him that was still warm. As he stayed there, he slowly fell asleep.

Alex woke up half-sunken in the sand. He quickly dusted himself off and walked away. He arrived at the village that was close by and went over to a well to wash himself off.

After washing himself, he moved over to the hall where the Sacred flame used to burn. Now, there was only a single bird at the center that cultivated.

Alex felt Scarlet’s cultivation and sighed. ‘Finally,’ he thought.

About a month ago, he had arrived at this location with Scarlet. This was a location that was overrun by beasts, like the Bonehead tribe. Except, there truly was no one that wanted to return here.

Alex didn’t kill the beast this time around as there was no need to. Instead, under Scarlet’s insistence, he walked over to the center of the room where the sacred flame still burned.

Scarlet got rid of the flame and started cultivating in the Qi. Alex sensed that it was True Qi, and sighed.

At this point, he was all but certain that there was no way he could find Saint spirit veins anywhere in the wastelands. As far as he could tell, during the many years the flames must have sucked away the Qi so much that even if there was a Saint spirit vein, it would have degraded to a True spirit vein in the end.

At first, he was happy seeing Scarlet slowly improve her cultivation base. However, when he asked her to leave, she refused.

Alex wanted to go to the south, but Scarlet wanted to continue cultivating here where she could do so without any restriction.

The two of them argued for a long while before coming to an agreement. Alex would let her stay here but only until she entered the True realms. The moment she did, the two of them would leave.

Scarlet was angry at not being able to stay on for much longer, but under the threat of breaking off their bond, she quickly caved in.

It had been a month since then, and only now was she starting to enter the True realms.

‘Sigh, I wouldn’t have told her so if I knew she was going to take this long to break through,’ he thought to himself.

In the month of their being here, due to the lack of the Sacred flames, the beasts had moved away from the place and went to various other locations.

At the same time, Alex had spent the month going around various different tribes around the area in search of his father.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like he would be able to find him at all.

The Qi in the area fluctuated as in one swift motion, Scarlet broke through from the Mind Tempering 9th realm to True Disciple 1st realm.

There was absolutely nothing in her cultivation base that seemed to require careful consideration. ‘Is this how the children of the Heavenly beasts are?’ Alex wondered. ‘Would Pearl have been the same if he had gone through the ritual where he would truly become a white tiger?’

Thinking so wouldn’t help him at the moment, so Alex stopped thinking about it.

He looked towards Scarlet who had grown quite big as well. Alex wondered if she could fit on his shoulder at all.

“Come on. Now that you’ve broken through, it’s time for us to leave,” Alex said.

Scarlet looked towards Alex. “Okay,” she said with her own voice.

Alex was taken aback a little when he heard her. “You can speak now?” he asked.

“Yes,” Scarlet said. “I’ve always known how to speak. I just wasn’t able to since my body isn’t meant for speaking. But breaking through to the True realm allows me to speak.”

“I see,” Alex said. “How did you learn the language though? Did your parents teach you?”

“I learned it from them and others I was around, yes,” She said.

“Alright, let’s continue this conversation on the road,” Alex said.

“Can’t we spend some more time here? I want to break through to Saint realm,” Scarlet said.

“No,” Alex said. “If you want Qi, it’s there in the south as well.”

“Oh… right,” she said with a confused look. “It’s so weird.”

“What is?” Alex asked.

“My mind,” she said. “It feels so… clear. I should have reached this cultivation base a long time ago. That would’ve been so helpful.”

“Well, whatever. You’re there now and that’s all that matters, right? Let’s leave,” he said.

“Okay.” Scarlet didn’t hesitate this time around. With a better understanding of what was happening, she could make decisions she would’ve otherwise been reluctant to make due to her lack of foresight.

She flew and landed on top of Alex, perching on both of his shoulders with one leg on each, sitting on his head.

Alex paused awkwardly. “Can you… get smaller or something?” he asked.

“Huh? Oh yeah,” she said and flew up before changing size to become her original size and landing on top of him. She perched only on his right shoulder, and finally, Alex felt comfortable enough to walk away.

“Can all beasts change shape so easily?” he asked. “Is it that just to those that have the blood of the Heavenly beasts?”

“You know about Heavenly beasts?” she asked with a surprised look on her face. “Oh yeah, that would make sense, wouldn’t it? You have the White Tiger’s scent in you after all. How did you get it, by the way? Are you not from this world?”

“I am,” Alex said. “I just happened to come across the White Tiger’s blood essence and took it in.”

“Weird,” she said as she looked at him closely. “But then, I should have known you had the White Tiger’s blood essence. I think that was why I bonded with you because  your aura felt familiar to me.”

“You feel that my blood is familiar? Do the Vermilion birds stay around the White Tiger a lot?” Alex asked.

“No, we come from the same place and have the same origin, so we can tell,” she said. “Speaking of which, where are you from?”

“From the Western Continent,” Alex said. “Well, technically from the Central continent, I guess.”

“Central continent? There is life there?” she asked.

“Oh yes, quite plenty too,” Alex said. “Although I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t know. Your lord must have been wounded a long time ago. I’m not sure if he’s healed by now or not.”

Scarlet’s eyes shined when she heard that. “You know about that too?” she said. She was starting to get curious about how he knew that.

They left the village he was staying at for the month, but not before reigniting the flame so that the beasts could come back here and not disturb anyone else.

Since Scarlet was finally capable of proper conversation, Alex decided to ask some more questions.

“Where’s your home?” he asked.

“In the land of… wait, you mean here. It’s a big city in the south. I think they call it the Sunborn Sanctuary,” she said.

“I did mean here. Where were you born? Here right?” he asked.

“Yeah, I suppose. It gets confusing at times to decide,” she said.

“It gets confusing? Why?” he asked.

“Well, it’s hard to explain because it has to do with my feeling. It feels like I wasn’t born here, even when I was born here. Especially when you know it’s not a permanent place for me to stay at and at some point I will have to return.”

“I see,” Alex thought. “You do only have a millennium or so still. Enjoy it while you are here.”

“Also, can I go to your place, this Sunborn Sanctuary? I would love to go there and see the various other Vermilion birds that live there. Although… would your parents or whoever you came with to this world get angry? The ruler of this continent won’t get angry and just kill me, right?”

Scarlet was amused to hear the question. “Don’t worry, no one will be angry at you if you go there. Well, not any Vermilion bird at least. I can’t guarantee about the humans though. Also, even if you do get in trouble, you can just break off our bond, right? You seem to really want to do it,” she said.

Alex coughed a bit and didn’t say anything. He thought of something and asked, “do you think I can ask your lord for some phoenix blood? Maybe even some blood essence?”

Scarlet gave a confused look. “Why?” she asked.

“Uh… I want to see if I can improve my Fire spiritual root by using the blood of a Heavenly beast,” Alex said.

Scarlet thought for a bit and said, “I can put in a few good words. But only if you quickly bring me to the south quickly enough so I can cultivate even faster.”

Alex smiled. “Alright, that’s a deal then.”