Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

"I was surprised when little Hao told me you wanted to meet me again," senior Yang said. "I did not expect you to want to meet me this early."

Alex had just arrived in the backyard of the mansion when Senior Yang spoke to him all of a sudden.

"Greetings, senior," Alex said with a respectful bow. "I hope you don't mind me returning so early. Something important came up."

"I understand," the senior said in a warm tone.

"Young Alex," the snake walked out of the lake, turning into his human form with a slender body and long black hair with blue robes. His slit eyes tried to be as human-like as they could, but they failed.

"Senior Xuan," Alex bowed toward the heavenly beast. He called out Pearl and Whisker, both of whom respectfully greeted the two.

Senior Yang's eyes widened ever so slightly. "I had heard that he had become a White Tiger, but I didn't expect him to still have a White Cat's features," he said. "Did you see yourself as a cat more than a tiger when you evolved?"

"Umm… I don't know, senior," Pearl said with a hesitating look. He barely remembered thinking about anything when he was going through the pain of evolution. Thinking was the least of what he did.

"Does it matter what he views himself as during his evolution?" Alex asked the senior.

"Oh yes," senior Yang said. "How you view yourself goes into your Intent in keeping yourself one way, and Intent is a very powerful thing you'll find."

"OH!" Alex said in surprise. That made sense. "I have come to notice that Intent are truly quite strong."

"If you have learned some Dao, you will start noticing it in the Saint realm. Most end up noticing it in the Immortal realm," the senior said. 

"Congratulations, junior," the snake from the side. "You are one of us now."

Pearl gave a wide smile.

The snake walked close to check on Pearl when his eyes perked up in surprise toward Alex's direction. "Saint Soul realm?" he asked in surprise. "Were you not only in Saint Core 5th realm less than a decade ago?"

"I have made good progress in my time in the Eastern Continent," he said. "That place is truly quite amazing."

"It has stronger Qi than all the other continents combined," Hao Ya said from the back. "They should have already had a good amount of Saint Spirit Vein, but their raid in the Western Continent must have given them more."

"That place is teeming with Saint realms like you wouldn't expect," she finished.

"And yet not a single one is close to breaking through to the Immortal realms," the senior said with a sigh.

"The Dragon Emperor is," Alex said. "He can break through any time he wants. I'm not sure of his chances of succeeding in his breakthrough, but he is ready to begin it at any time. He is at the peak of Saint realm and has been there for many years now."

The senior looked surprised. "I… wasn't aware of that," he said. "Are you certain?"

"Yes," Alex said. "His cultivation base is strong and deep. I have sensed people with cultivation bases up to Saint Transformation 7th realm, and none of them are nearly as strong as the Dragon Emperor's cultivation base. The only ones I've sensed with stronger cultivation bases than him are probably the Immortal beasts I've met with."

"Hmm," the Senior frowned for a second. "Are you confident? Why did he not break through yet?"

"He's a coward," Alex said straightforwardly. 

Everyone around him looked at him in surprise. "A coward?" the senior asked.

Alex paused for a moment, thinking through what he just said. "He won't break through because he won't be in control once he leaves. He likes being in power, and he doesn't want to go to a world where he will become the weakest. So for the longest, he has been doing whatever he can to become the strongest he can before he leaves."

"So… he's been preparing all this time, huh?" the senior said with a contemplative look. "Hao Ya, did you meet with him?"

"No, he never showed himself to me," Hao Ya said. "He remained in closed cultivation for a long time, due to a trade he did." She pointed to Alex as she said so.

The senior turned toward Alex. "You made a trade of some sort?" he asked.

"I did," Alex said. "He wanted to learn how to make pills that could create Pill clouds, so I traded him the knowledge for whatever I could get in return."

"Really?" the senior said with a hint of surprise. "I didn't see you as the type to pass along your knowledge to strangers. May I ask why?"

"So I could live and leave," Alex said with a self deprecating look on his face.

The senior frowned a bit. "Live?" he asked.

"He's the damn Emperor of the strongest continent in the realm, and so long as he stays in that place, no one can touch him. If I were to refuse him, I feared what would become of me while I stayed there. I can never be too safe in a place where someone else rules."

"I see," the senior said. "Still, Hao Ya, I want you to go talk to him when you can. See if you can persuade him to break through. You'll have to tell him I'm willing to take him to the Sky God's Palace and make sure he is safe and won't have to—"

"No!" Alex spoke, cutting off the man. Everyone around him was surprised to see him speak over the man. That was a very disrespectful thing to do.

The man slowly turned his head towards Alex and looked at him with narrowed eyes. "No?" he asked without any inflection in his tone. 

"No," Alex said with a straight back. "I'm sorry, but I cannot let that happen. I cannot let that man leave this realm this early."

The senior's eyes narrowed this time around. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"The Dragon Emperor, if not responsible, is most likely directly involved in Pearl's parent's death. His grandparents died while the Dragon Emperor ruled, so we cannot let him leave until we know for certain what the truth is," Alex said seriously.

Senior Yang didn't say anything for a while, contemplating those words, and only spoke after some time had passed. "What if he did it? What if he was responsible? What would you do then?"

"Kill him," Alex said as a matter of fact. 

The senior gave a surprised look. "Do you think you can do it?" he asked. "You did just say he's the strongest under Immortals."

Alex nodded. "And I will still kill him," he said. "I made that promise to Bai Jingshen, to Pearl. It will take some time for me to get strong enough to be able to contend with him on equal footing. He's very strong right now but he won't grow any stronger. I'm willing to give it my all to reach that point myself."

"If he is in fact responsible for all the harm he's caused Pearl, I will find a way to kill him, one way or another."