Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex wondered how many individuals failed the first and second tests. The two tests were diametrically opposite in what they wanted. One wanted to test the skill of a painter, and the other wanted to test the skill of a cultivator.

And Alex had no doubt that the next one was going to be a mix of the two. He wondered how many would pass that one. How many had? He hadn't heard of any passing this final test. Surely it wasn't that hard, right?

Anyone who passed the first two tests would have no problem completing the third one if the task was to do the two tests in one painting. So Alex couldn't help but be curious about what the actual test would entail.

He waited a decent amount before the last test started.

The blue walls around him suddenly lost all color, changing to a bright white color that surprised Alex. Was there a mistake? Had he just passed?

He looked for a hint as to what was going on, and at that moment the Deer spoke to calm everyone down. 

"The light had changed to no misguide your colors for the third test," it spoke. "And the third test is here."

"You have 2 days to create the best painting you can with a very strong aura to it," the deer said.

Alex was surprised at the fact that the test was what he had expected. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had been something else.

'But that's so easy,' he thought. 'How many painters complete the trial each time it is open? Hundreds?'

He took his brush and started drawing. He had been to various different cities in the Gold Kingdom, so he decided to draw an icy mountain he saw in one of those cities that had gold shining in most of its cliff walls.

It was in the Golden Mountain range, so one could easily see the gold in it.

Alex began painting it.

A sprawling city at the bottom, with most of its buildings clad in gold. A massive wall that surrounded the city with a barely visible dome around it.

The outside of the city was covered in snow with barely any signs of life peeking through the thick white plane. Beyond the city and the snowfield was the mountain that was the main focus of his painting.

Despite being part of the mountain range, this icy mountain stood alone, dwarfing everything else around it. The top of the mountain was completely white and colors only started showing once they reached a little below it.

Black and gold shined through the spots in the mountain that wasn't covered in snow. About a third of the mountain was covered in this, and the gold almost looked like decoration on the mountain.

Beyond the mountain was the spotless silver moon that forever shined brightly in the night sky.

For the golden bits throughout the painting, he made sure to add every bit of Intent from his Dao of Metal he had into the painting. That was the most important point of the painting, so he did so exactly. 

Alex put on the finishing touches to the painting and put down his brush when he was done. He took a deep breath and looked at the painting somewhat satisfied. 

The art itself was quite good and the Intent from the Metal Dao was certainly coming through his painting. He had managed to make both of the two things work, so all he had to do now was to wait for the deer to—

"Try again!" the deer's voice floated into his mind.

Alex paused for a moment. "What?" he asked, but the deer didn't seem intent on answering. It was already focused elsewhere, its care for Alex and his painting long gone.

Alex waited in the hope that the deer would say something, but he could only hope. Nothing happened.

'So I failed?' he asked himself. How could he fail? He checked his own painting once more, looking at it from a critical eye. The art looked fine. There was nothing amateurish as far as he could tell, and the aura of the Dao of Metal was certainly sensible from it.

So why had he failed?

"Did I make some mistake I can't see?" he questioned himself. But then another possibility came up that made him frown. "Or is even a painting of this level not good enough?"

If he had to bet, he would definitely bet on the last one. His painting, one that was certainly to turn heads if it was placed in a hallway, was not good enough for this deer.

'So that's how there aren't many individuals that pass the trial with a white glow," he thought to himself. 'This deer must only be happy with a quality that can place you in the Hall of Fame.'

He sighed in disappointment at his failure, but at least he hadn't been sent out. "I have another chance," he thought. "That is good."

Alex brought out another canvas and thought for a while as to draw what exactly. He needed one with more aura, so believed it had to be a fire-related painting. With True Fire Dao, he believed that it was the only one he could place a lot of aura into.

'A fire-related painting,' he thought, waiting for some inspiration, one he hadn't already used before.

Inspiration struck and his mood soured a little. It wasn't something he wanted to remember, but he was inspired to paint it. And it certainly did involve fire so he didn't find any reason to not draw it.

The background was the edge of a barren cliff, beyond which was a slightly brighter but still barren desert. On the cliff were a group of men and women, all half naked, standing around something at the edge of the cliff.

The sun was directly overhead in the sky, but the bright light seemed to have little effect on the dark and gloomy atmosphere in the painting.

Next to the cliff were a bunch of dead bodies, all wrapped up in fur and leather of the best kind. There was one in particular that Alex made the highlight of the painting.

A single corpse that he focused on.

Then, he dipped his brush in bright red paint and pasted it onto the center.

The corpses burned. Fire of red, pink, yellow, and purple surrounded them. The surrounding humans cast a long dark shadow because of the burning pyre at the center.

The fire in the painting felt hot and dangerous, but the death was what made it feel so real. Alex drew and drew and drew as he remembered the day back in the Wasteland, in the Stepstones tribe when he had to watch as the chief burned his daughter's body along with the many that had died in the beast attack.

He felt sadness once again, but he ignored it as he drew and drew until he was finally done.

He let the brush drop to the ground and looked at the complete painting of the corpses that burned in phoenix fire. He could feel not just the aura of fire from this one, but also the aura of death.

This was certainly one of, if not, the best painting he had made since he began to paint.