Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

"Are you sure I will go with you?" Alex asked.

"Of course you will," Scarlet said. "I'll drag you with me even if you don't want to."

Alex chuckled a bit. "That's not what I meant," he said. "Do you know how old I am?"

Scarlet looked at him for a bit. "Uhh… 2 thousand years old? No, wait, 1,500," she said.

"Lady Phoenix, young Alex is one of the players we told you about earlier," the elders said. "He can't be older than a century."

"What? No way," Scarlet shouted. "That sort of cultivation speed is considered decent even in the higher realms."

"All the players are like that," the elders said. "They are terrifyingly talented."

"Most of us are, for sure," Alex said. "Which is to say, I will probably reach immortality before it is your time to leave."

"But why?" Scarlet asked. "Why are the players suddenly so talented?"

"Because we're humans," Alex said.

The elders looked at him with a slightly confused looks. "What are you talking about?" they asked.

"You probably won't understand, and I don't want to tell you for your own sake," Alex said. If they learned about how being a hybrid was very bad for one's talent, they would most likely grow some sort of complex, which would hurt them during their breakthrough to Immortality.

"Scarlet will understand," Alex said and turned towards her. "Don't you?"

Scarlet looked at him for a bit before speaking through their bond. "Are you saying you do not have demon blood in you?" she asked.

Alex nodded. "Absolutely none," he said.

"But how?" she asked.

Alex thought for a bit and sighed. "For that, I'll have to explain to you about players, which will take some time. Let's talk about it later," he said. "I might even have an idea about why you want to remain bonded to me, but I don't want to talk about it out here in front of them."

Scarlet was curious, but she let the matter go for now. "Sure," she said.

"So, what else is left for you to tell me about?" she asked the elders.

The elders looked around and shook their heads. "I suppose there's nothing that pops out in our heads. Do you have any questions you want to ask us about?" they asked Scarlet.

Scarlet shook her head as she had no more questions, but Alex did.

"I have something," he said. "What was up with the Northern lights? It was a big deal in the Wasteland, but no one seems to even care about it here at all."

"The northern lights?" the elders looked around at each other, looking for some answers. They shook their head as they had no idea what he was talking about.

"It was apparently in the desert in the north, and every night it glowed bright like a second sun. It disappeared some dozen or so years ago, sending the beasts that were gathered around it in a fury to attack the tribes there."

"Ah!" one of the elders realized what he was talking about. "Is that what the tribes call it?"

"You know about it?" Scarlet was curious as well.

"Of course," the elder said. "It was your dead body, lady Phoenix."

"What?"

"Oh!"

The two people gave two separate reactions to the old man's answer. Scarlet understood what was going on, while Alex was very confused.

"That makes sense," Scarlet said.

"What makes sense?" Alex asked. "Can you elaborate?"

"I was going through a rebirth," Scarlet said. "The light everyone saw was my burning body, which took thousands of years to burn fully, because of how weak my flames most likely were."

"Your body was burning for five thousand years?" Alex couldn't believe it. "How are you reborn if your body continues burning? Actually, tell me how rebirth works entirely."

"Sure," Scarlet said. "It's simple. When I am dying, I can choose to go through rebirth. If I don't choose it, the chances depend on how much Qi or blood essence I have remaining. Most of the time, it's enough to go through rebirth."

"When I start the process, my body starts burning and fueling the rebirth process, slowly reverting my body to what I was long ago. The more of the fuel I have, the faster it gets."

"The process is supposed to be not more than a century or two, but this time around, I probably had very little blood essence to burn, so my body had to spend a very long time reverting itself back to the point where I was just a young little chick again."

"Those people probably saw my burning body from afar and called it the light that you were talking about," Scarlet said.

"I see," Alex said as he thought for a moment. "I suppose that makes sense now that I hear it. Then, does that mean you were reborn there in the desert and were there for so many years?"

"Yeah," Scarlet said. "Fortunately I can thrive off of the sun, so I was fine. If I needed actual food for sustenance, I would've most likely died."

"I hadn't even realized that your body had stopped burning, Lady Phoenix," one of the elders said. "Had we known, we would have most likely gone out looking for you."

The others nodded in agreement.

"Whatever, it's fine," Scarlet said and looked toward Alex. "What's wrong? Did you not like my explanation or what?"

"Well, more like I am confused by your explanation," he said. "When you said rebirth, I assumed you would randomly be born to some other beast or your soul would escape and a body would grow around your soul. But what you said was completely different. Your body reverts back, is it?"

"Yes," Scarlet said. "It reverts back to how it was when I was just born."

"Okay, so are you becoming a new one, or are you turning back your time?" Alex asked.

"That's the question, isn't it?" Scarlet asked. "Even we don't know what it is exactly, but popular belief is that we're turning back time, instead of growing a new body, if that is what you're asking."

"Popular belief amongst the phoenix?" Alex asked.

"Yes," Scarlet said.

"Can you tell me why they believe that?" Alex asked.

"Simple," Scarlet said. "Because us Phoenix have the ability to sense Time aura."

Alex was stunned for a moment. "What?" he asked in surprise.

"You heard me right," Scarlet said. "Phoenixes have the ability to sense the Time aura, so we believe being able to revert time back for our body at death's door is a blessing given to us. It works in line with what the other 3 beasts got as well."

Alex was too stunned to say anything. 'Sense Time aura,' he thought. "Do you think I have a chance at learning how to sense the Time aura too?"

"It's… possible, but highly unlikely," Scarlet said. "To be able to sense Time aura or Space aura, you need to be born with the talent to do so. If not, you will have to spend thousands of years trying to sense it in a place that is thick with Time aura. Even then, there is no guarantee that you can actually sense it."