Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex arrived at the Battle Hall half an hour before his match was to begin. He met with someone who had been waiting for him and went along with her to a place inside the Hall.

The girl took him through a hallway with no natural light, bringing him to a waiting room.

Only after he sat down to wait did the woman leave and Ren Jurong entered. "I am happy to see that you are here. Would you like to know who your opponent is?" he asked.

Alex shrugged. "Sure, who is it?" he asked.

"Gong Buxiao," the man said.

Alex showed absolutely no reaction to the name, and that surprised the man a little. "Are you not worried?" he asked.

"Why should I be? I don't even know what that is," Alex said.

"Huh, I would've thought you would have done more research on the possible opponents," the man said. "You must not be here to earn, but to just have fun."

"I'm here just to train," Alex said. "Fighting humans is different from fighting beasts, and I've been lacking that experience for a while now."

"I see," the man said. "Now that you've heard of your opponent, would you like to wager on whether you will win or not?"

"No, it's alright. As I said, I'm not here for the money," Alex said.

"I understand. Then please wait here for a while. We will call you as soon as the current fight ends," the man said.

Alex nodded and relaxed a bit as he waited for the next battle. He knew that the first few were going to be easy for him. Since no one believed that he could fight Saint Core realm cultivators, his opponent would be incredibly weak for him.

But, it wasn't like he couldn't use that to his advantage. His blood aura, Qi, and sword aura were strong, but his body was still not that good.

He hadn't tested it enough to know, but he was certain that it was about Saint Condensation 8th realm in terms of strength. If he were to only use physical attacks, he wondered if he could win it.

A few minutes later, Ren Jurong arrived to call him to the fighting arena. Alex nodded and went along with him.

Alex arrived in a massive room with sunlight gleaming through the sky. The walls were tall and far apart, but there was no ceiling. However, there was something gleaming in midair, like a barrier.

It took Alex a few moments to figure out that there was a vision-obscuring formation that stopped the outside folks from peeping in. The walls were full of formations that made them sturdy enough to block a Saint realm cultivator's attack, and they also blocked spiritual sense from going in and out.

On the other side, another staff walked out, and behind him followed a girl with twin tails wearing blue and yellow robes.

Alex sensed her cultivation base and could tell that she had the exact same cultivation base as his.

Which was to say that she was weaker than him.

"Here, please fight on your own terms but do start within the next 10 minutes. Here is your talisman. Whoever breaks this is considered to have lost," the man he had come with said and walked up.

"That's it? No one is going to make sure that the victory is fair?" Alex asked.

"All victories are fair here," the man said and walked away.

Alex was surprised at the level of disregard for the fairness of the fight and couldn't help but wonder if they in fact indirectly motivated one to cheat.

Whatever, he thought and looked at the talisman in his hands. He was to destroy it to declare his loss. Since that would be unnecessary, he stowed it away.

The girl walked into the middle of the arena after the staff with her left her too.

"You new?" she asked.

"Yes," Alex said. "How do we begin?"

"Don't be in such a hurry to fight," she said. "Do you have any additional rules you want to propose?"

"None," Alex said. "Why? Do you have any?"

"Yes," the girl said. "I'm practicing some archery skills, so for the first 5 minutes don't attack me and just block or dodge. I need to get used to my new skill."

Alex thought about it for a bit and shrugged. "Sure, I'm okay with it as long as the attacks aren't intended to make me lose," he said. "Then after 5 minutes, I get to attack?"

"Yes," the girl said. "Do you have any you want to add?"

Alex thought for a bit. "Yes," he said after he thought of something. "If I can hit you on your body 5 times, consider it a loss."

"On my body?" she asked with a confused look on her face. "Won't I be dead if I take that many attacks directly to my body?"

"Don't worry, they will be weak," Alex said. "Besides, you can always give up if it gets too dangerous."

The girl nodded. "Fine, let's work with those rules then," she said and brought out a bronze-colored bow with a silver string and beautiful red flowers growing on each end of the bow.

"I'm starting," she said and pulled the string back. A green arrow coalesced from nothing, appearing on her bow. Once she pulled it far enough, she let it go.

Alex had already pulled out Midnight by this point as he got ready for the attack. The moment the arrow left the bow, he swung his sword.

Using nothing but just his body cultivation, he struck the arrow as hard as he could. But of course, an attack from a Saint Foundation realm cultivator was not something his body could so easily fight against.

With nearly 2 realms of difference, he was sent flying back nearly 10 paces before he caught himself.

"Are you okay?" the girl asked. She was both worried and confused at the sight of Alex getting sent back.

"I'm fine, please continue," Alex said. He understood that he couldn't take her attacks head-on.

The girl shot once again, this time striking with a red-colored arrow that she had created. Alex was a little curious about the arrow's color, but he focused more on its speed.

To his Demon Eyes, the arrow flew at an incredibly slow speed. However, his body wasn't fast enough to move along with his vision.

He struck the arrow again, this time a little to the side. Instead of attacking it head-on, he slightly moved the arrow in another direction so it wouldn't hit him.

It was a little hard to time correctly, but he had done it. The flame arrow flew quite far behind him and struck the wall.

A giant explosion rang inside the arena, but when the fires died down, the walls were intact. The formations on those walls weren't something that was so easily destroyed by either of them.

Alex turned around and waited for more attacks to come.

One by one, the woman shot arrow after arrow, all with energy belonging to one of the 5 different elements, surprising Alex quite a lot. People with such spiritual roots were supposed to have a hard time in cultivation, but here she was, a Saint Foundation realm cultivator.

Alex struggled a little during the attacks. With just his body cultivation, he couldn't block the attacks, so he had to instead dodge most of them.

After 5 minutes of doing that, he finally stopped and spoke to her. "Your five minutes are up. Are you ready to fight properly this time?" he asked.

"Oh," the girl said with a surprised look on her face. "Yes, let's fight."

"Good, here I come then," Alex said and dashed forward.

With nothing but just his body cultivation, his speed wasn't that fast. The girl could see him coming and pulled her bowstring as another power coalesced on it.

However, when Alex saw the color, he was surprised. The girl let go of the arrow, and a lightning arrow came flying toward Alex.

Alex immediately dodged to the side, losing some momentum in the process. At the same time, the girl pulled her string again, preparing another arrow.

Alex dashed back towards her and dodged another arrow that was much harder to dodge because of how close he was getting.

The third arrow appeared again when she pulled her bow and this time Alex was right in front of her.

He saw her let go of her bowstring and realized that he couldn't dodge it in time at all. A bit of Sword Intent appeared on his sword as she struck the girl right as the arrow left her bow.

A massive explosion rang in the arena, sending both of them backward because of how close they were to it.

The girl fell on her back with ringing ears. She could only use her senses to see what was happening, and before she could realize it, Alex was already next to her.

The girl spun to the side to dodge and pulled her bowstring at the same time before shooting another arrow out.

However, Alex had been ready for it and thus barely dodged it as he ran up to her. He swung from the side, and the girl put up her bow to stop the attack.

The sword and the bow clashed, and Midnight left a nick on the girl's bow. She tried to push it away, but Alex spun quickly, bringing Midnight from the other side.

This time, he struck her in the chest with all the force he had. He struck her in the armor and thus she was fine, but a hit was a hit.

"One," Alex told her. "4 more to go."