Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex found what he wanted nearly a day later. He traversed the entire Soul Space for so long that he wasn't even sure how much of a distance he had covered.

However, one thing was for certain. 

The size of his inner world was most certainly many times larger than just the Central continent. Many times. And the most incredible part about this was that the size extended not just in length and width, but in height as well.

Just the cross-section of his Soul Space was many times larger than the area of the Central continent. The volume that gave him was… immeasurable as he was currently.

Somewhere within this domain, he had found the World Tree's seed and the Nine Yang Divine Tree's seed. And to his surprise, they were together.

But that surprise was vastly dwarfed by the surprise of what he was looking at right now. In front of him hung the two seeds. The palm-sized seed of the yang tree was on the left and the human-sized seed of the World tree was on the right.

And both of the seeds had sprouted.

Tiny roots had grown out of each of the seeds and were in contact with each other. At the same time, they also had a small sprout on top, their infant leaves coming out from the top.

And what's more, Alex could sense Qi around the tree. The Qi wasn't as strong neither was it a lot in amount. But there was Qi, and Alex could not believe where it originated from.

"No… no way!" he thought to himself. "How can… how is this possible?"

The Qi was being created by none other than the World Tree.

"But… this… wasn't the entire reason the gods were trying to go on a war because of the World Trees seed?" he asked himself. "Wasn't it because they couldn't find any way to get it to germinate?"

That was what Senior Yang had told him after all.

"Then how?"

Alex wasn't certain, but he believed the Nine Yang Divine tree was partly the reason. He could see the brown and thick roots of the World Tree entangled with the thin and golden roots of the Nine Yang Divine Tree.

He could feel the slightest amount of heat coming from the Nine Yang Divine Tree, and when he looked even more carefully, he could see signs of the Nine Yang Divine Tree's roots reaching the World Tree's seed itself.

It was definitely part of the reason, if not the majority of the reason, why the World Tree root had started sprouting.

He couldn't help but frown at this moment. He needed to return to the Central continent and ask Senior Yang what was happening as soon as he could. This was too big a development for him to handle on his own. 

"First, I need to make sure they don't wilt or die here," he thought. "Speaking of that, there should have been no sunlight here. How did they grow at all?"

To his spiritual sense, everything looked normal as if there was light all around the objects. He would require actual vision to see inside. He thought of using a recording talisman to see what was happening inside, but he had a better idea.

This was the perfect opportunity to check if Whisker could survive here or not. He could be his eyes, ears, and hand inside. 

"You want me to go inside you?" Whisker asked, his confusion clear through the bond the two of them shared.

"Yes, I opened my Soul Space and there's something I need you to check there," Alex answered. "I was hoping you could help me check it."

Whisker had no reason to refuse. "Sure, when do I go?" he asked.

Alex was about to send him in immediately, but he had to stop himself. "It might be a little dangerous," he said. "Let me prepare something for you."

He brought out some blank talisman paper, and some ink, and then started drawing on it. He made runes specifically for this mission that Whisker was going to go on.

There was no air or Qi in his Soul Space, and the majority of the area was a vacuum, so he had to make talismans of protection for Whisker.

A few minutes later, he had done a pretty decent job with the talisman and he gave it to Whisker. "Use it throughout. It will protect you from all external forces and let you breathe in there. I can also control you with my spiritual sense, so I can take you out at any time."

Whisker nodded. "I'll let you know if I need help," he said.

Alex nodded back. "Let's go then."

Whisker used the talisman and a small, golden shield appeared around him, covering him entirely. Alex felt the warmth coming through that shield around Whisker.

Once he knew Whisker was ready, he sent him in.

Whisker arrived in a world of darkness, the vision shared with Alex who hadn't seen the world as such to this point. To his spiritual sense, it did not matter if there was light or not, but through Whisker's eyes, the darkness was terrifyingly deep.

And it wasn't just darkness or shadow either. It was more than that. This was nothingness altogether. It was both a fascinating and horrifying thing for both of them to experience.

Alex followed Whisker with his spiritual sense while looking through the other senses that Whisker could use as well.

Whisker let his whisker do its work. Most of what his whiskers could do was useless in this place where there was nothing, but he could sense the temperature. It was terrifyingly cold. 

"Are you fine?" Alex asked, despite knowing the answer.

"Yes," Whisker said, "I don't feel much coldness at all."

Alex couldn't be sure if it was the shield that was helping Whisker, or if it was Whisker's cultivation base. "Be careful anyway," he said. "We're moving toward the seeds next."

He showed Whisker the way, letting him fly through the nothingness for nearly 50 kilometers before he arrived upon the seeds that were always within Alex's spiritual sense's range.

When he got close, Alex saw something through Whisker's eyes. It would have been imperceptible anyway, but here in the darkness, he could see a small amount of dull light coming off of the golden seed.

"There is light," Alex thought to himself. "It's so very mild, but it's there."

The Nine Yang Divine Tree's spout was giving off light, reminding Alex of the fake sun in the Forbidden Field's desert. "It might glow brighter as it glows."

"What's that?" Whisker asked, pointing at something. Alex followed his gaze and saw something hidden within the folds of the roots that he hadn't checked very thoroughly.

Hidden within the many roots was something that appeared to be nothing to the spiritual sense. But to Whisker's eyes, it seemed like a decrepit organic matter.

Alex took a closer inspection with his spiritual sense this time around and noticed what they were. 

"The three leaves!" he shouted out in surprise. "Those are the leaves the Yang Tree gave me before it faded away."

He had never known what the leaves were for and had been intending to make a pill for himself when he could. It had never occurred to him at all that the leaves were meant to be nutrition for the Nine Yang Divine Tree. 

"It swallowed all the energy from the leaves," Alex said softly. "No wonder why it's sprouted." He looked at the World Tree's seed next. "After sprouting, the roots must've found this seed and took hold. The question now is, did the Nine Yang roots try to swallow this as well? Did the World Tree sprout to protect itself?"

These were questions Alex was curious about, but the answers seemed impossible to gain. So, he kept searching. 

"Go look around the seeds, see what else there is," Alex asked Whisker and continued looking around himself. He saw some spirit stones around the two roots, all of which were completely covered by the roots and were impossible to find without searching for them.

Other than that, there seemed nothing between the roots at all, except each other.

Whisker got closer, sensing the mild Qi surrounding him at the moment. "Brother, did you sense it?" he asked. "There's Qi here. Where did it come—"

Whisker's words stuck in his mouth when he saw one of the Nine Yang Divine Tree's roots shoot at him with a speed that was simply ridiculous. It grabbed onto him, draining the energy from the shield around him.

Whisker's face paled in fear.

"Brother!" he shouted for help, but he didn't have to.

Alex uses his spiritual sense to force the root to open up. Inside his Soul Space, his intent was king. The root forcibly opened, letting Whisker leave.

Without hesitation, Alex pulled him out into the real world. 

"That was dangerous," Whisker complained. "I don't want to do it again."

He seemed to be on the verge of tears. Alex looked at the pitiful face and sighed. "Fine, I won't ask you to do it again," he said. "Not for a while at least."

Whisker nodded and quickly returned to his beast space, leaving behind the talisman. Alex picked up the talisman and looked at it for a moment before thinking about something.

He threw in the talisman and sent it directly at the two seeds again. The golden roots shot out and grabbed the talisman. Then, right in front of Alex's eyes, the energy from the talisman was completely drained.

"Is that so?" Alex thought. "You want more Qi huh? I'll see how I can help you. I will help you both grow as healthily as possible."