Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex explained everything he could to Scarlet. He explained his origin, his journey, and the next goal he wanted to achieve.

Scarlet was surprised at just how ridiculous it all was, and how Alex really had only been cultivating for no more than 30 years until now.

"That's one hell of a story," she said while still trying to put together the information she heard. "So, the Western Continent had items that don't belong here?"

"Yes," Alex said. "Including this ring."

"I see," Scarlet said. "I was wondering how you got those. As long as we hide the fact that the Nine Yang Divine Tree was here, we should be fine."

"Yeah, we should definitely hide that," Alex said. "What about the rest?"

"What other things exactly are there?" Scarlet asked.

"Uh… there's the black stele, the yin orb that I ate, the Blood God's manual that I have, and Ocean God's legacy treasure," Alex said. "I don't think I'm aware of any other. The people must be hiding the rest.'

Scarlet nodded. "I would love to see what else there are," she said. "Unfortunately…"

"Hmm? You want to go?" Alex asked. "Then we should go. I want to go find my mother too. We can take my father."

Scarlet shook her head. "The way I am right now, we will die out there in less than a day," she said.

Alex nodded. "I know," he said. "That's why we go on a ship."

"I don't believe we have any ship," Scarlet said. "At least not one that can make the travel between Southern Continent and the Western Continent. That's the largest expanse of water, and not many ships can travel through it."

"But there has to be some right?" Alex asked.

"I never really had any use for them, and with the existence of the teleportation formation, no one really had any need as well," Scarlet said.

"Then what about when the elders went to the Western Continent to rob it?" Alex asked.

"That I believe they used the ships given to them by the Eastern Continent, so it was taken back," Scarlet said.

"I… see," Alex said "but we can still go soon right? As soon as you get a little stronger?"

Scarlet shook her head. "I can't," she said.

"Why not? If you're strong, you won't have to worry about the beasts," Alex said.

"No, but I will have to worry about my oath," she said.

Alex frowned. "What oath?" he asked.

"To protect the worlds we come to, we make an oath to never kill the people here, and to never go to another ruler's land without the ruler present," Scarlet said. "This means I can go to the Northern Continent and the Eastern Continent, but because the White Tiger is not present in the Western Continent, I cannot go. Not just me, even the Dragon or the Tortoise can't go there either."

Alex felt a little dejected when he heard that.

"Is there no way for you to go there at all?" he asked. "Even if you're inside of the beast space?"

"That… I do not know," Scarlet said. "But I would definitely not want to test it."

"Alright," Alex said. "Uhh. do you not have any treasures with you then? One that you brought here from your home world? There should be some there that should help us, right?"

"No," Scarlet said. "I mean, I do, but I don't have access to it right now."

"Is it locked away somewhere? Can we go there? I might have a way to open it if it's a formation or script," Alex said.

Scarlet chuckled a bit. "It's not a place you can access at all," she said. "Unless… no, that would be stupid."

"When will you have access?" Alex asked.

"When I reach the Immortal Realm once more," Scarlet said.

"Oh right," Alex remembered. "You used to be an Immortal. You know what it feels like to break through to Immortality. Can you tell me anything that I might get to use? Any hints that would help me?"

"Uhh…" Scarlet hesitated for a bit. "We try not to tell people about Immortality. It… it can make them fail."

"Hmm?" Alex was surprised. "That… I feel like someone told me something similar before. It might have been the panther."

"Well, it was a smart panther then," Scarlet said. "The thing about Immortality is… it's different from what a mortal expects of Immortality."

"What do you mean?" Alex asked.

"You sure you want to know?" Scarlet asked.

"Absolutely," he said.

Scarlet sighed and asked. "What's the first thing you think of when you hear the word Immortality?"

"Umm… that I won't die," Alex said.

"And do you think Immortals can't die?" Scarlet asked.

Alex shook his head. He knew of Immortals that had died. Hell, there were 7 different people's fragmented memories in his head that he knew had already died.

One had to rip out their spirit and memories to pass along the Undying Physique technique as their inheritance. None of the Undying Gods had lived after their spirit was hurt.

Even the White Tiger had died.

"No, they die," Alex said. "But that's only when you get killed or poisoned or that stuff, right?"

"Yes," Scarlet said. "But… uhh, I don't know if I should tell you or not. This might end up helping your inner demon very much, which is why I'm hesitating."

Alex hesitated to ask for her to continue as well when he heard that. "It's… something bad?" he asked.

"Kinda, yes," Scarlet said. "Should I still say it?"

Alex thought for a bit. Was he going to give up on his chance to learn about the Immortal realm? Most definitely not.

"Tell me," Alex said. "I'm ready to hear it."

Scarlet thought for a bit and nodded. "Fine, I'll tell you," she said. "The truth is, when you reach Immortality, you stop growing in age and can thus essentially live forever. Your lifespan becomes infinite."

Alex nodded as that was to be expected.

"Buuuut, Immortality is not something the heavens can allow one to keep," Scarlet said. "That is not the natural order of life after all. So, from time to time, the heavens will attack you with tribulation lightning. You cannot stop it, and you cannot hide from it. The only thing you can potentially do is move it back by a few years. But for that, you will have to break through to the next realm."

"The higher your realm is, the later the heavens will come after you. But they will come. As such, your mortality rate actually goes up way high once you reach the Immortal realm," Scarlet finished.

Alex's eyes were wide. "The heavens not only judge us before we enter the Immortal realm but after we reach it as well?" he asked.

Scarlet nodded.

"And people die from this easily?" he asked.

"If you don't have something special about you like a strong technique, or strong artifacts, the chances of dying is over 60%," Scarlet mentioned.

"And… how often does this tribulation lightning come? You make it sound like it's often," Alex said fearfully.

"There's no fixed time period, but it is about 10 thousand years after reaching Immortality," Scarlet said.

Alex was a little taken aback. "Wait, 10 thousand? You worried me for no reason," he said.

"Yes, it's not scary at first," Scarlet said. "But the more you survive it, the stronger the lighting becomes. Unless you can continue breaking through your cultivation realms, at some point, the lightning would get too much for you and you will die."

"I don't see why this is so scary though," Alex said. "You just have to continue breaking through and you will be fine."

"You say that, but what about people whose cultivation speed isn't the best?" Scarlet asked. "A normal person takes 10 to 20 years to break through in their early Saint realm. Later on, it reaches anywhere between 2 to 3 centuries for each realm. The ones out there won't reach Immortality for the next thousand years minimum."

"Imagine that sort of speed, but you are actually an immortal now. Cultivation speed drops so much that the average cultivation speed amongst people who don't belong to big clans and families is anywhere between a thousand and 2 thousand years. And that's just for the start."

"As they progress, their speed lowers. At that point, the heaven catches up to them very quickly," Scarlet said. "I imagine you are not very scared about this, but for normal people, the knowledge that reaching Immortality is just finalizing their mortality is an unbearable knowledge. If they learn about it, their Inner Demons get a very powerful weapon to use during their breakthrough to immortality."

"And if that manages to get into their head when the lightning comes, they won't survive," Scarlet said.

"I understand," Alex said. He thought about his family and if he should be worried about them by any chance. However, almost all players had better talent than most mortals, so there was nothing for him to worry about.

"That was some fascinating information," Alex said. "Thank you."

"You are happy that I told you Immortality does not make you Immortal, huh?" Scarlet asked with a chuckle.

"I can imagine the shock one would feel when they learn about this information after they reach the immortal realm. I am actually very happy to have learned about it now," he said. "Thank you for telling me about this."

"Well, if you're happy then it's fine, I suppose," Scarlet said.

Then she looked to the side. "Oh, the beam is here. Do you want to leave the place? Or can you handle the heat?"