Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

The walls surrounding Alex changed to a barely blue color. Seeing the color, he was sure that he was on the verge of completing all the trials. All he had to do now was pass the final test.

He sat on the cold floor, wondering what the next test was going to be. He had a hunch that it was going to have to do with talisman again and not just runes or scripts. 

The people of this world were more used to talismans, and most of the people who came to get tested were ones who were good at talismans. So testing any other skill was counter-productive.

The woman had already tested their knowledge of runes and scripts, so the final one had to be a talisman-based trial for certain. 

He had to wait for a while longer than he had expected to. There seemed to be some participants remaining that were still trying to control the last trial. When they ended, either in victory or in failure, the female soul spoke once more.

"For the final trial, the two of you will have to make the same talisman once again," the Soul said. "Get your materials ready. You'll begin right away."

Alex frowned at the last trial. He disregarded the knowledge that there was only a single other person in the trials with him and focused on the main trial itself. Even as he brought out the ink and blank talisman paper, he wondered why the test was so easy.

Simply remaking the talisman he had already made, did the soul think he was tired or something? Alex placed the blank talisman in front of him and waited for the moment he was allowed to draw.

Since he had already made the talisman once, it was easy to repeat it. A talisman with 100 runes was hard to make the first time, but not after that. This would be a walk in the park… so long as there wasn't something the soul was hiding about the test.

"Begin!" she shouted, the chilling voice entering Alex's ears.

The moment he heard those words, he put the brush to the page and… 

He couldn't move it.

He couldn't move any part of his body at all as his mind focused as best as it could against the mental assault that was pressuring him. There was no aura here at all, no Qi. It was all Spiritual energy and a very strong Intent, by none other than the female soul in front of it.

'No wonder,' Alex thought, grunting a little. He flared his own spiritual sense to protect his mind and used his Intent to fight off the woman's Intent. It was difficult.

Struggle was all he could do right now.

'No wonder the test was so easy,' he thought. 'Making the talisman wasn't even the real test. It's this.' Even as those thoughts crossed his mind, he had to refocus his attention on fighting back the woman.

He struggled for 2 whole minutes against the Immortal soul's Spiritual sense and Intent before he took in anything that was happening outside. The woman had spoken.

"This will go on until you drop unconscious or you make a talisman that is acceptable," the woman said. "You better get started."

Alex felt a pang of anger at the fact that an Immortal was showing off her senses against regular Saints. Were they supposed to be as strong as her? No. Then why was she going so hard?

Of course, those were just complaints born out of the struggle. In reality, he knew that the woman probably wasn't even trying. As an Immortal, she could probably destroy their spirit with a single attack. Her Intent alone would be able to do some permanent damage to someone even without any Qi or energy behind it.

After a few minutes of struggling, Alex felt the spiritual sense let off just a tiny bit. At first, he wondered why she was lessening her assault. But, after a bit of self-check using the small amount of focus he was free to use, he came to understand that the rate at which she was pushing on them, making him use up his Spiritual energy was exactly the same rate at which it was replenished.

That was to say that she wanted to keep doing this forever, so long as the two finalists could endure the mental strain. One could lose consciousness even if their Spiritual sea was full after all.

The little relief that the woman had given Alex was enough for him to open his eyes and look down at the talisman in front of him. He was on his hands and knees at this point, and he slowly got himself back into a position where he could start drawing the runes on the paper.

Nearly 10 minutes had passed, and not a single drop of ink had touched the paper. Alex struggled however much he could, and tried to create the first of the many runes in the talisman. 

The runes were small, so he needed a lot more attention than normal. He wasn't sure if he could get them right now, but he had to do it anyway.

Only… he wondered if he didn't have to do it right away.

He paused and looked back at the soul who wasn't even paying attention to him. He waited for a moment, thinking through things, trying to make sense of what he was planning. He didn't see anything wrong with what he wanted to do here.

He stopped himself from drawing anything into the talisman and moved his body back before sitting up straight. He stared at the woman with intense eyes, fighting back her own Spiritual energy and Intent as best he could.

The woman finally noticed what he was doing. She was a little confused as to what was going on. The other finalist was still struggling, even though she had reduced her spiritual push on them so that she could replenish her spiritual energy and not run out in no time.

And yet, Alex was not struggling. At least, not to the level she had intended him to struggle. His spiritual energy's replenishment rate hadn't improved obviously, so what had made his time easier here was his Intent.

It was much stronger than the other finalist. To the point that he had freed himself from only focusing on his own survival and instead had the chance to do something else. He had the chance to draw the talisman.

She had no plan on increasing her spiritual pressure on either of them anymore, but Alex didn't know that. For all he knew, she could increase her pressure any time now. And yet he was doing nothing but fighting back her pressure while staring at her intently.

That was when she realized exactly what was happening. "This kid!!" she couldn't help but say in surprise. "Is he serious?"

She stared back at Alex and saw him struggling, but this struggle was not something that was born out of a sense of self-preservation, but rather out of a sense of improvement.

She realized at that moment that Alex was fighting against her Spiritual energy and Intent to improve his own spiritual energy and Intent.

Instead of completing the final trial, Alex was training.