Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex prepared to leave now that he had passed the test. He placed the talisman into his storage ring and waited for the trial master to send him out.

However, he wasn't immediately sent away. He frowned a little and turned to look at the soul that was now staring back at him rather intently. That surprised him a little.

Unsure what he was supposed to do here, he quickly bowed in respect and said, "Thank you for helping me train."

"That was training for you?" the woman's voice finally drifted into his ears.

Alex nodded softly. "That was a rather opportune moment to improve my Intent. Please forgive me if I did something that I was not supposed to do."

"You certainly did," the woman said. "But I do not care about that right now. I care about something else."

Alex was taken aback a little. "What are you concerned with?" he asked her.

"You did something at the end there," the woman said. "With your sword? You weren't suffering from my spiritual attack. What did you do?"

"Oh, that," Alex answered quickly. "It's a technique to protect one against spiritual attacks."

"What sort of technique?" the woman asked.

"A very good one, I think," Alex answered.

The woman frowned. "You know I'm not asking you what the technique is like. I'm asking what it is and what exactly it does."

Alex had to take a moment to think what he was going to say. After a moment, he understood. "I can't tell you," he said. "It's not a technique I'm comfortable with sharing."

"I'll buy it from you then," the woman said.

"I'm not comfortable selling it either," Alex said with a gentle smile, hoping the woman wouldn't get angry.

"I'm a Level 8 Immortal Talisman maker. You might now know how good that is right now, but if you ever go to the Immortal lands, you will know that this is a rank that not just anyone achieves. And I am willing to share my knowledge of talisman if you—"

"I'm sorry to have to cut you off right there, but I have no interest in giving away anything regarding the technique," Alex said.

"But I am a Level 8 Immortal Talisman Maker. I can make scripts you can only dream of. Do you not want that?" the woman asked.

Alex scratched his head a bit as he spoke again. "Actually, I'm an alchemist so I don't really care about talisman."

"A what?" the woman's face was an incredible sight to see right then as she tried to process what Alex had just said. "An… alchemist?" 

"Yes. When I get to the Immortal realm, I'll learn what I can about talismans on my own. If I don't, it doesn't matter to me since I'm primarily an alchemist. Talisman is just a hobby of mine," he answered.

The woman looked at him in shock this time. "Hob- Hobby?" she asked, wondering if she misheard him somehow. "This… is just a hobby for you?" 

"Yes," Alex said. "I simply entered here to see how good I was with the talisman, and I'm happy to learn that I'm quite good."

"Good?" the woman asked. 'Good? Does he not know that nobody has passed it all in the last few centuries?'

"I'm sorry, senior, but I can barely hold it all together. I need to rest to recover from my mental fatigue. Would you mind sending me outside?" Alex asked.

The woman stared at him for a few seconds before nodding. She paused right before activating the formation and asked, "Will you come by again? I can teach you more about talisman."

"Maybe I'll come with my mother," Alex said. "She's better at this than I am. It won't be anytime soon though."

"I see," the woman said. "If you want to make the deal I proposed earlier, come back. I'll be willing at any moment."

There was no way Alex was ever going to trade away a technique created by the Weapons God to a mere immortal. Still, he nodded. "I will if I think I need it," he said. "Thank you for everything, senior."

The woman finally nodded and flicked her wrist. The silver teleportation light surrounded him along with the white light that represented how far he had come in the Talisman trial.

He arrived outside, in the midst of many people once again with white light surrounding him. There was a silence around him that wasn't normal at all. 

He looked around, seeing everyone's eyes land on him. They were all shocked to their core to see Alex come out victorious in all the trials. The ones who knew he had come out with a very bad result the last time around were even more shocked to see how far he'd come.

They couldn't imagine how he could have improved this much in just a couple of days.

The crowd erupted at once in a loud cacophony of exclamations, questions, and congratulations. They all cheered for him, calling out his name while trying to get close to him.

The soldiers quickly surrounded him, saving him from the crowd's words. He did what he could, smiling back at the crowd before looking away at a figure that walked into the soldiers.

The Gold King was there once again to congratulate him like last time when he had come out with a white light around him. Only this time, the king wasn't smiling at all. His face held a deep sense of shock that he couldn't get rid of.

It emulated the same shock most of the others in the crown held. The inability to come to terms with the fact that the King of the Southern Continent was not just a master of Alchemy and Pills, but also a master of Talisman and Scripts.

They had not known about that before. They did now.

The king quickly scampered to congratulate Alex after having realized that he was staring blankly for a bit too long. He gave kind words like the last time that Alex had to suffer through before being able to voice out the fact that he was abnormally tired.

The king himself led him back to the hotel before leaving him with his elders. 

"Your Majesty! You completed the entire Talisman trial?" Yao Ning asked in surprise.

"You have learned a lot from her Highness, haven't you?" Liang Shufen asked. "I never knew your Talisman skills were as good as your Alchemy skills. Why do you always focus on Alchemy?"

"They're not," Alex quickly said. "They're realms apart. My head hurts right now. I'll go rest."

He left the two elders full of questions that they would have to wait for it all to get answered.

Alex got in a meditating position and started cultivating while resting his mind. He couldn't help but find it funny that the two elders thought his talisman skills were as good as his alchemy skills.

That was a disrespect to his Alchemy skills.

The only reason they both seemed similar in skill was because the tests in the trial stopped at a certain difficulty. If the test had continued increasing in difficulty, he could have shown just how great his Alchemy skill was.

Then no one would doubt exactly what it was that he was good at.