Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Life became quite easy for Alex for the next year. With the new work he found for himself, he began earning enough money that he didn't have to worry about anything else.

For the first 10 days of every month, he worked the best he could to knock out all the pills he had to make, and then for the remaining 20 days, he was free to do whatever he wanted.

He spent most of that time training or cultivating, and some small amount of that time going around the sect, helping the likes of Liao Xumei and others who wanted him to look after their garden.

Alex didn't need to accept that work, but he was too bored most of the days and needed something to do in between when he wanted to relax. Taking care of the poison plants was in fact a way for him to relax.

Bai Wanzhao's death was made public a week or two after it had happened, and while it had been quite a shock, it was quickly forgotten. People moved on.

Alex was thankfully not bothered by the First Elder. He was certain she would hold grudges, but nothing had come of it. While it could be true that she had let go of her grudge, Alex believed more that she couldn't do anything due to the rules of the sect.

Most likely, she didn't want to do anything to put in jeopardy the rank she had finally managed to obtain. At least, not by killing someone that was not the definitive killer of her son.

Alex made significant improvement in his cultivation during this time, but still, he was nowhere close to being able to break through. It wasn't an exaggeration when they said breaking through in the Immortal realm took millennia.

Alex still had to wait many years. Thankfully, Pearl and Whisker were showing much better progress.

Pearl had broken through twice since coming to this realm, and Whisker had broken through once, and that was only because Alex didn't have the time to cultivate the Undying God's physique as much. If he did, he had no doubts that Whisker would have broken through many more times.

In Pearl's case, Pearl took his time with his breakthrough, just like Alex had on the last portion of his own breakthroughs.

While he wouldn't take 50 years like Alex had, he was still going to take a dozen or two years to reach Immortality.

After all, there was no hurry.

Elder Lan was quite happy with Alex's progress with his pills and had more than understood that he wasn't using him to the best of his potential.

"After the next Poison Assembly, I will let you make 15 pills a day. And maybe more if you feel like you can do it."

Alex was more than happy with this proposition. "Thank you, Elder Lan."

The Poison Assembly was just a few days away now, which meant very soon he would begin making more than 250 Immortal Spirit stones a day.

While Alex was very much satisfied with 150 a day, more was always better. It was not like he was risking anything to do more of it anyway.

1800 Spirit stones were what Alex had thought he would earn in the first month, and he had been close. In total, he had ended up earning 1742 Spirit stones.

Of that, Alex had to spend a few Spirit stones to buy various ingredients to make more pills, but he had saved 1600 Spirit stones in total. He knew he couldn't save this money to go to the other realms. It simply wasn't feasible.

But, hopefully, this would let him come across opportunities that he could then take advantage of to come up with the actual fortune that would let him to go a different realm.

The time for Poison Assembly came again. And it was time for Alex to rank up once more. This time, he was going to enter the 3000s. This wasn't the year when his house would change, so there was no point in ranking up any higher for this year.

Next year, he would rank in the 2000s and finally become an Inner Sect disciple. While becoming an Inner Sect disciple had lost most of its charm for Alex, there was still the fact that he could leave the sect through some missions if he became such a disciple, so he was more than looking forward to next year's Poison Assembly.

Tai Guidao stood next to him as always in the assembly, waiting for his name to be called out. He was in the 5000s, so it would take a while before it would be his turn to go up.

Tai Guidao had changed slightly throughout the year. He had become slightly colder, his emotions being suppressed just that much more.

Thankfully, he still had enough emotions that Alex didn't mind his company.

Tai Guidao took out a pill and showed it to Alex. "This pill works for Brute Bloom poison, right?" he asked.

Alex looked at the pill. It was something he had made for the man a while ago as an antidote for several poisons. He quickly remembered the ranking for the Brute Bloom poison and nodded.

"This is more than enough for that poison," Alex said. "Are you intending to try out that poison this year?"

"Yes," Tai Guidao said. "Whatever the case, I must enter 4000s by next year. I have to do what I can for that."

"It's quite dangerous, but since you have the pill, you should be fine."

After long enough, it was time for Tai Guidao to go up and take his poison. As he had said he would, he asked for the Brute Bloom poison, which was provided to him not a moment later.

Tai Guidao ate the poison and immediately began struggling.

Alex watched from the ground, watching with everyone else, as Tai Guidao began sweating profusely and then fidgeting heavily.

'It's not working,' Alex thought. Everyone could see that Tai Guidao had chewed on more than he could swallow. He was dying. At this rate, he would be the first to die.

Tai Guidao didn't immediately eat the pill, trying to see if he could maybe handle the poison. But it was apparent to everyone experienced that he wasn't going to make it.

'Don't be stubborn,' Alex thought. 'Eat the pill.'

As if hearing Alex's thoughts, Tai Guidao quickly opened the bottle he had been holding in his hand and downed the pill. He struggled for a moment longer before relief showed on his face.

The sweating stopped and he was only left panting. His face slowly took on color as all the poison was destroyed in his body. He had failed to rank up in this year's Poison Assembly.

Tai Guidao flew back down. "I failed," he said simply as if nothing important had happened.

"What happens now?" Alex asked. "Will you be expelled?"

"No, I knew something like this might happen, so I already took the test a few days ago with a simple poison," Tai Guidao said. "I will rank up based on that poison, and not this one."

"Ah!"

The man at least had the foresight to not throw away everything at once.

Then, a while later, Alex was called on to the sky.