Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

“What can you do?” the old man asked curiously, despite the anger and frustration that was in his voice just moments ago.

“There is something I can do, but…” Alex thought for a bit. “Whatever, I will deal with the consequences later.”

He sat back down and started making a pill again.

The old man watched curiously as to what Alex was going to do this time around.

Alex didn’t do anything differently. He simply made the pill he was supposed to make and the pill clouds formed once again.

“What now?” the old man asked.

Alex didn’t say anything and sent in his Qi to protect the pills. The first bolt of lightning fell from the skies and struck the cauldron.

One of the pills formed a lightning scar, but other than that, nothing happened. Alex breathed in and out as he prepared for the second lightning bolt to drop.

He watched the bolt fall onto his pill, but his pills were protected once more. Two pill veins had now formed on the pill.

The old man saw it too. “Now what? Am I to eat this pill again until it works?” he asked.

“Not yet,” Alex said as he brought out Midnight.

The old man’s eyes narrowed when he saw the sword. “No way you are going to fight the pill cloud, right?” he asked. The old man wasn’t sure if that would work or not, but seeing that Alex was already incapable of protecting the pill from the 3rd lightning bolt, he didn’t see how he could possibly protect against the third one now.

“I do not know if fighting works,” Alex said. “It might, but I’m not in the position to make experiments.”

As he said that, Alex took the sword and cut his palm. He then pulled away Memory’s lid and dripped his blood inside, that surprisingly never heated up at all.

The old man was very confused at the moment. “What are you—”

Before his words were finished, the next lightning bolt fell from the pill clouds and struck the pill. However, this time, there was a layer of blood protecting it.

His blood aura was very strong now that it had improved in the nearly 10 years of Alex having been here.

So, when the lightning fell on the pill, all that happened was that it gained another Pill vein.

A 3-veined pill.

The old man was starting to get very excited at the prospect of eating this pill, but Alex wasn’t done yet. His blood aura wasn’t so weak that it could only protect the pill ones.

The 4th lightning bolt fell as the old man looked in awe. It struck the pill and couldn’t do anything.

Alex looked inside and found that his blood had now lost most of its aura. He could probably protect the pill from another lightning bolt if he put in some more blood, but he wasn’t sure about that.

So, it was better if he quit while he was ahead.

He pulled the pill out and the pill cloud disappeared. Before he could look at it, the old man snatched it away and looked at the pill with gleaming eyes as if he were looking at his own child.

“This will definitely do it,” he said. “This will definitely heal me.”

Alex looked at the old man whose madness was now showing its face again as he ate the pill without question.

Alex gave a mental note to Whisker to be ready.

The old man ate the pill and suddenly he fell to the ground in pain, unable to do anything.

“Senior?” Alex looked at him with fear in his eyes. Had he done something bad? Was the healing pill actually killing him by mistake?

If that were the case then the result would be his own death.

The prophecy rang in his head. He was going to help recover a fallen power, and in doing so that would cause his death.

Was this it? Was this what the prophecy meant?

Was the prophecy not that he would die at the hands of others that he helped, but rather it would be the helping part that killed him?

Fortunately, Alex was wrong for now as the old man actually was healing. He checked closely and realized that the old man’s destroyed nerves had formed before anything else, so the pain from his still-wounded body had assaulted him all at once.

Slowly, the red wounds and charred skin started healing on their own as the old man’s grunts and cries lowered quite a lot.

After 5 minutes of time, his breathing got natural as he was fully healed.

The old man lay on the ground with a wide smile on his face. “I… I healed,” he said.

As soon as the man spoke, Alex felt the clutch around his throat that he had gotten used to by now vanish. No longer was an invisible force going to choke him out at any moment.

He was finally free of his oath.

However, he couldn’t be happy at the moment. After all, the main event was going to start right now.

The old man got up, happy that he was healed. However, before he could express his happiness, a loud resounding boom could be heard from the sky outside.

The tribulation had come for the old man.

The old man’s face darkened for a moment before it lightened up. “Oops, nearly forgot,” he said as he pulled out a necklace from his storage bag and wore it around his neck.

Suddenly, Alex could no longer feel or sense the old man at all. It was as if his entire body had been shrouded in something that stopped him from being able to be sensed.

As a result, the tribulation that had appeared for a moment disappeared too.

Alex’s eyes went wide when he saw that. ‘Fuck!’ he couldn’t help but curse. This was the worst-case scenario.

“Now then, I don’t think I can hold it off for much longer than a few months, so I should get to work,” the old man said.

“Wh-what are you planning on doing now?” Alex asked.

The old man looked around. “Isn’t it obvious? I am going to reclaim the continent for my own as it has always been rightfully mine,” he said.

“What does that entail?” Alex asked.

“Well, I will have to kill the old geezers that destroyed my sect. Although most of them should have died already, so I will have to go after the others that tried to kill me not long ago. Yes, that should be a good starting point for my return,” the old man said.

“You are going to kill people?” Alex asked. Internally, his mind churned as he tried to think of what he could do at the moment as it was obvious the old man would be doing this.

There was one thing he could do.

“Senior, it has been 8 thousand years since the Snow Immortal sect fell. Everyone that was involved in its downfall has most likely already died,” Alex said. “Can’t you just let the past be past and start anew?”

“No, I cannot,” the old man said. “Not only did they destroy what remained of my sect, but they also tried to stop me from returning to power. The only reason I couldn’t heal all these years was that they feared me and stopped alchemy from flourishing in the continent.”

“I will show them exactly how right they were in fearing me,” the old man said. “These big sects think there is no one bigger than them, don’t they? I shall brand my name onto these 5 sects by destroying them all. I shall kill the disciples and elders in front of their ancestors before killing them too.”

Alex’s eyes went wide. He didn’t think the old man would go this far.

“Innocent men and women will die if you do that,” he said.

“Who cares about innocence? This is a world ruled by the strong. The only thing you can be is either strong or dead,” the old man said.

“They were right in calling you mad,” Alex said. Without hesitation, he pulled out a talisman from his storage ring and tried to send a message to his aunt to tell everyone to prepare.

However, before he could do so, the old man destroyed the talisman.

“You are trying to help them too?” he asked with disappointment in his eyes. “I thought you were going to be on my side. I even said I would make you my heir.”

“I will never side with someone that thinks murdering innocents is justified just because they are strong.” Alex glared back at the old man as he held Midnight in his hands.

“You’re going to fight me?” he asked.

“I will,” Alex said. He had no chance of winning but he would do whatever he could to wound the man.

The old man sighed and even chuckled a bit. “And here I thought I could use you to slowly make you spill all of your secrets.”

The old man moved and white Alex’s demon eyes saw what he was doing clearly, his body was far too slow to react.

The old man landed next to him and grabbed his right hand. Then, he grabbed his middle finger and ripped it off. And along with it, he took the storage ring.

“I guess I won’t have to wait for you to spill all your secrets,” the old man said as he pulled the ring out of the torn finger.

Alex didn’t even flinch in pain at the missing finger. “What are you doing with that?” he asked.

“What?” the old man asked. “Did you think I wouldn’t recognize a storage ring after you flaunt it over my face for so many years?”