Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex arrived back in the city of Many Flowers again and couldn't help but be surprised when he saw the massive amount of pollen all over the city.

It seemed that the Orchard had just blasted out pollen once again today. He wondered how frequently it was happening now that it was 3 months since the last time he was here.

Alex walked straight to the Alchemy Association to find out. Before he could even enter, the person that was on guard noticed him and stopped him.

"Alchemist Alex, you're finally back. The leader has asked me to tell you that you need to go see him urgently," the guard said.

"Oh, thank you. I'll go see him right away," Alex said and continued. He was planning on doing that anyway, but now he was curious why he was being called.

"Senior, you wanted to see me?" Alex asked as he walked in.

"Oh, you're finally back. I knew I shouldn't have been worried," the leader said.

"I wouldn't miss any of it," he said. "So, what's so urgent that you wanted to see me just as I came back?"

"It's this." The old man pulled out something from his storage bag and handed it to Alex. "We received it yesterday."

Alex looked at the box he was getting and got curious. When he finally saw it, his eyes went wide.

The box itself was nothing special, but the text on top of it was everything to Alex at the moment.

'To only be opened by Alchemy Alex. This box contains information on Graham Benton.'

"No way!" Alex said as he looked at the leader. "Your investigators actually found something?"

"No," the leader quickly shook his head. "As I said, we received it yesterday. We have no idea who this came from."

"Hmm, could it be the 10 sects and families?" Alex asked. "I've asked the council to help me in the search, so I know their sects and families have begun the searches as well."

"Hmm, maybe," the leader said, slightly surprised that Alex was able to get the 10 council members to do something for them.

"Have you checked inside?" he asked as he started unwrapping the box.

"No, but I did check it to make sure there wasn't anything else in there and found that there is a talisman. As for what's written in the talisman, I did not read," he said.

"Oh, right," Alex said and stopped. He was so excited about learning about his father that he didn't even think to check what was inside. What if this was a nefarious joke by someone? Maybe a rival alchemist hated him and wanted him to stop making the pills every 3 months?

The timing surely made sense.

He slowly sent his spiritual sense into the box and saw the Talisman that the leader was talking about.

However, it was wrapped in some sort of thread that was disturbing his spiritual sense from entering. He could see the talisman itself, but trying to read into it was pretty much impossible.

"What is this?" Alex couldn't help but ask. "I've never seen a thread like this."

"Hmm?" The leader checked as well and gasped. "No way, that's a Heavenly Silkworm's silk thread."

"Heavenly Silkworm? what's that?" Alex asked.

"It's a very rare creature that is supposed to be extinct in this continent. The thread itself also is supposed to be very rare. A Heavenly Silkworm's thread can block one's spiritual sense from passing through it," the leader said.

"Woah," Alex couldn't help but be surprised. "How strong must  the creature be to produce a thread that can disturb one's spiritual sense?"

The leader shook his head. "The creature isn't strong at all since it cannot cultivate," he said. "I don't know much about them to tell you everything, but they are supposed to have some sort of food that doesn't exist anymore in this continent, which is why they have gone extinct."

"So… they are just like Seeking Mouse," he said. "No cultivation, but very good at doing one thing."

Alex got even more curious as to what information the talisman was hiding if the sender would use something so precious.

He quickly opened the box and pulled out the talisman. He let the box drop and started pulling out the threads that were wrapped around the talisman.

"Well, this itself is a great find," Alex said as he kept the small loom of thread he had just gathered and put it into his storage ring.

Then, he finally checked what the talisman had for him.

'Hello, Alchemist Alex. I hope this letter finds you quickly. I know you are a great Alchemist, so I would like to ask you to hand over all the different recipes that you have advertised.'

"What the hell?" Alex's happiness went away at once when he read the talisman. He continued reading.

'You might be angry right now and want to destroy this talisman in anger, but I suggest you don't do anything like that. The talisman is laced with a powder which is the only thing that can save you now that you have released the odorless, colorless poison from the box.'

'I'm sorry if there were anyone beside you, as they are most likely going to die.'

THUMP~

The leader fell to the floor with a loud thump as he started fidgeting and frothing at the mouth.

"SHIT!" Alex cried out the minute he realized that he had been poisoned.

He grabbed the old man and pulled him up to check on him. He was frothing so much that he couldn't breathe anymore.

His veins were starting to show and his lip was turning purple as well.

Alex used his Qi to slam the door shut and quickly took the talisman to scrape off whatever powder it had before feeding it to the old man immediately. He himself had no need for it as no poison could affect him at all.

The froth stopped appearing after a few seconds and the old man's breathing got calm and he stopped moving like a fish out of water.

"Phew!"

He quickly had the Yang Qi in his own dantian go through his entire body once to make sure there was no poison in this system anymore. At the same time, he burned the box that came with the talisman so that the poison there was completely gone as well.

"Shit, someone actually tried to poison me," he thought and read the talisman again. He had left off halfway through because of the leader, so he had to continue from there.

'The powder is not an antidote, it will only delay the effects of the poison. There is no antidote for this poison with you, we've tried them all, so don't even bother.'

'If you want to live, leave the compounds wearing a blue robe with a red hat on your head. Just walk straight out of the city and we will get you. I pray that you don't die before you eat the antidote.'

"Bastards! They are still in the city, aren't they?" he thought. He looked back at the leader again and saw that he wasn't getting up.

'He's still poisoned,' he thought. He brought out an antidote pill and fed it to the leader, but he did not wake up at all.

"They weren't lying," he thought. "But that's not all the antidote pills I have."

He brought out another antidote pill. Only this time, this pill had 5 lightning scars on it.

He quickly fed it to the old man and waited.

At first, it didn't seem like anything had happened, but slowly, the old man's eyes moved and he woke up.

He slowly got up from the floor in a daze and watched the foam on the floor where he had just been in.

"What happened?" he asked with a confused look.

"You were poisoned," Alex said. "How are you feeling?"

"Uh… great?" he thought. For some reason, he was feeling very good.

"That's a relief," he said. "Someone tried to poison me to get my recipes. Thankfully, I had an antidote on me."

"Really?" the leader asked as he looked around. "I'm going to go ask who it was that gave that box."

"No, wait," Alex shouted. "The room is still full of poison. Don't open it just yet."

The leader was slightly scared and backed off. "What should we do now?" he asked.

"I was hoping you would have some idea," Alex said as he looked around. "I'm sure phoenix fire could burn it all, but there is nowhere we can get that, is there?"

The leader shook his head. "Phoenix fire is dangerous, so any remaining fire had already been isolated and snuffed out by the council members," he said.

Alex nodded. "Well, then… I might have a way."

"What are you going to do?" the leader asked.

"I am not very sure myself," Alex said. "I have never done this since I was healed, so… well, I hope this works."

As soon as he said that, a violent amount of Qi erupted from his body, forcing the leader away from him.

The various formations in the room started lighting up, but Alex didn't notice them.

He kept forcing out as much Qi as he could and in just a few minutes, the entire room was filled with his Qi.

It wasn't just any Qi, however. It was his strongest Qi that could destroy all poison, venom, and toxin in his body. Now, he was using it outside to do the same.

Alex had filled the entire room with his Yang Qi.