Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex looked at the man in front of him. He was a couple of years older than him, not much, and had a stoic-looking emotionless face that was cleanly shaven.

The most surprising thing about him to Alex however was the orange linings on his yellow robes. 'A Core disciple? Of course, that makes sense,' Alex thought.

He didn't remember seeing the man anywhere in the sect before, so the man shouldn't remember him at all. 'To be fair, I didn't see very many core disciples in the sect,' he thought.

The man looked at Alex for a single moment before ignoring him. He didn't care about anyone else at all. He started walking down the stairs and soon went past Alex.

Alex secretly checked his cultivation base and nearly missed a step of stairs in surprise. 'Holy sh*t. 3rd Mind Tempering realm? That's nearly as strong as Senior sister. The core disciples of Tiger sect are no joke,' Alex thought.

As he turned away from the guy, a girl walked past him. "Brother wait for me, don't walk out so fast," the girl said as she tried to catch up to the man.

'Sh*t,' Alex thought. He quickened up his pace to hide inside, but suddenly, a hand fell onto his shoulders stopping him in place.

"Hey mister, wait for a second," the girl stopped him. "Can you turn around?" she said. Ning sighed. He didn't know if he should turn around or not.

In the end, it would be more suspicious to just keep walking, so he turned around. "Can I help you with something?" he asked.

"YOU!" the girl said in surprise. "I thought I recognized you, but how could it be you?" She said in surprise.  She looked all over his body and asked," W-Why are you wearing this uniform? Where is your Tiger Sect uniform?"

'Sigh, Master made us go separately so that I didn't have to face this same situation, and yet, here we are,' he thought. He looked at the girl in front of him. The twin-tailed cheerful girl, he recognized her very well.

'She's the First Elder's disciple, right? She came with him to recruit me. Which mean…' Alex's eyes moved past her to the young man behind her who had stopped to see what his junior sister was doing with this man.

'Du Yuhan, Number 2 of the Tiger sect. He had finally met the second-best disciple of the Tiger sect.' Alex looked at him a bit and thought, 'His reputation suits him.'

"Hey, I am talking to you," the girl said. "What are you doing in these robes? Who did you even come with? I didn't see you on the ship?"

"I am a disciple of the Hong Wu Sect. Is there anything wrong with me wearing these robes?" he asked.

"What? What are you talking about? Did you leave the tiger sect? Is that why nobody has seen you this last week?" she asked

"SuSu, what's wrong?" Du Yuhan walked up after seeing his junior sister in a heated talk with the man.

"Brother, it's him. The disciple that defeated Huo Tu; the one master wanted to recruit but got denied," the girl named Su said.

Only finally did Du Yuhan's bother to take notice of the man in front of him. He was very far away when he checked the man's fight on the stage back at Tiger sect, so he hadn't got a good look at him, but now, he saw him clearly.

He took notice of his clothing and asked, "Are you not part of the Tiger sect anymore?" he seemed genuinely confused as he asked the question.

'Damn him, he got straight to the point I wanted to avoid. Sigh, the master said he would reveal the next time, but I am afraid I might have to do it now. Damn, should I say it or not,' he quickly thought and in the end decided to say that he was still part of the Tiger sect.

"If you don't want to speak, then you don't have to say anything. If you aren't part of the Tiger sect, I'm not going to say anything about it. Even if you are and are dressing like this for some reason, I will just ask that you don't do anything to bring down the name of both Tiger sect and Hong Wu sect."

Du Yuhan then nodded and left Alex. 'What the—? I didn't expect that at all,' Alex thought.

"Huh? Brother, are you going to leave just like that? Don't you want to ask him how he won against Huo Tu" the girl asked.

"It doesn't matter. As long as I become the strongest, nothing else will matter," Du Yuhan said and started walking away.

The girl wanted to ask Alex some more questions but quickly left behind her senior brother.

Alex stood in the middle of the stairs, dumbfounded at what had just happened. 'I thought the First Elder wanted to recruit me, so I assumed he would be the same type to either get me on his side or get rid of me in case I turn into  an opposition in the future.'

'However, he seems nothing like that. He… just wants to become strong huh? I can't help but admire his resolve. The strongest, as long as I become one, nothing else will matter.' Alex replayed the man's words in his mind.

"One doesn't simply become the second greatest disciple of a nearly 1st-grade sect without having an ambition huh?" Alex thought. "What about me? Do I have any ambition?" he started thinking.

He had wanted to see the city from early on, which he fulfilled. He wanted to earn money; he fulfilled that as well. Now, the next thing he wanted to do was…

"I want to explore the world. I want to see The desert, the ocean, the frozen lands, the giant jungles, the volcanoes. But I can't do that unless I… I cannot do that until I become strong as well."