Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex was handed many empty storage bags at once by the elders.

"Sect Leader told us you would need these too," one of the elders said.

Alex took the bags and nodded. "I will need these for sure," Alex said.  "Alright, then. I will get on with the work."

He walked into the Alchemy garden on the side of the inner sect mountain and immediately started picking up all the ingredients that were ready.

That was the only thing he needed to do now. One after another, he picked up every ingredient he could see. Whether they were roots, leaves, fruits, flowers, branch, stem, or any part of a plant that could be used in alchemy, Alex picked it.

The elders kept watching on the outside, while he worked tirelessly on the other side. It took him about an hour and a half to pick up every single ingredient in here and make sure that there were none here that could be harmed needlessly from what he was going to do.

Once he saw that there wasn't anything left, he was finally ready. He walked up to the top of the mountain at the very peak and looked around him. He looked at the sect valley in front of him down below.

He saw the sect leader's mountain on the left and the inner sect disciple's mountain on the right side.

He then slowly turned around and saw nothing but jungle for a long distance until it ended and there were no trees behind there.

'So the desert goes on for quite a long time, huh?' Alex thought. He stopped looking around and checked for a suitable spot.

'Hm, maybe master knows which spot would be better. It might be better to call her,' he thought. So, he took out his talisman and sent a message to her.

He tried to look around and figure out in the meantime, no matter what he did, he couldn't find out at all which would be a good location.

After 10 minutes, Ma Rong came to the top of the mountain, next to Alex.

"You picked up all of the ingredients already?" she asked.

"Yes, master,"  Alex said. "I need your help a little right now."

"Regarding?" Ma Rong asked.

"I wanted to know if you have any idea which spot would be better. I think we can put it in any place, but maybe you know more," Alex said.

Ma Rong kept quiet and looked around to search for a spot. "I don't see anything special around this place, so we might have to go with anything we want," Ma Rong said.

"If… if there is no special spot, then we should make one," Alex said.

"How will you do that?" Ma Rong asked curiously.

"With this," Alex said as he brought out something from his storage.

Ma Rong saw her disciple pull out a wooden box and slowly open it up. Inside it was a small flower that had 5 petals, all of which were bluish-black in color.

The center of the flower was a little white, but that was the only light color in the entire flower. The moment the flower showed up, Ma Rong felt the familiar aura that was about the same as her, but far more stable and reserved.

Her mind started churning out information until she was left with a single answer that widened her eyes in surprise.

"An Umbra Lotus. Those are incredibly rare. Where did you get one?" Ma Rong asked.

"This was one of the items auctioned off in the Pink Cloud Auction house during the break day in the competition," Alex said.

"You bought this? This should've been quite expensive," Ma Rong said.

"Oh no. I tried to buy this, but I couldn't. Zexi kept on outbidding me. But… in the end, it still came back to me," Alex said.

"I see. So, what do you think we should do? Wrap using the flower?" Ma Rong asked.

"Yeah, I think so," Alex said.

"Very well, let's try," Ma Rong said as he reached into her storage bag. There she brought out a small wooden box as well, and slowly opened it.

Alex could see a pill on the inside of the box. Only, it was not a pill. 'Finally, after so many months of waiting,' he thought.

"I hope we can do it," Ma Rong said as she stared at the seed in her hands. This was the seed to the Yin Gathering tree. It was a very hard seed to find, and even harder to grow.

Ma Rong has spend quite a lot during the first auction Alex had gone to with her to get it. The only reason she hadn't spent a lot more was due to the Yin Gathering Tree not having a great chance at germinating.

But, with the Umbra Lotus, it would now have a really high chance since it would have a head start in the quality of the Yin Qi from the very beginning.

"A seed that is rarer than the Spirit Cleansing lily, eh?" Alex thought. "I hope this works out."

"I hope so too," Ma Rong said. She slowly lifted the Umbra Lotus towards herself and wrapped all 5 of its' petal around the seed. The flower wasn't very big, to begin with, so it could only barely wrap the seed in it.

Ma Rong then lowered them both onto a small hole on the ground she had prepared and buried it. Then, she released some of her own Yin Qi and scattered it around on the soil so that the tree could have an easier time finding Yin Qi when it started.

"Do we have to keep the place away from the sun?" Alex asked.

"No, the dirt will do that for us. Once the seed has started germinating, at that point there will be no need to keep it away from outside Yang energy so it will all be okay," Ma Rong said.

"I see," Alex said. "So we're done here?"

"I believe so. I will come back once a week or maybe more frequently to cultivate here. While I try to practice containing my Yin Qi, the tree will get benefits from me doing that at least," Ma Rong said.

"Okay, since we're done. Let's go to the next one," he said.

Ma Rong nodded and flew down to the gate. Due to the formations around both of the Alchemy gardens, they couldn't just fly away.

Alex and Ma Rong then quickly went to the other side of the sect to the second Alchemy garden.

Alex stopped out of the gate and looked at the formation that was set out of the Alchemy garden. "We should set it on the inside, right?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, that's better. Although, are you sure we shouldn't call someone that actually knows about formations to set them?" Ma Rong asked.

"Do you not trust your disciple with setting a formation?" Alex asked jokingly. "Besides, it's not a formation we can reveal to someone so easily. You will understand once it has been set, master."

With that, Alex went in. Ma Rong followed behind and went on to see what he was doing but all Alex did was walk around. He reached the very peak of the mountain and looked down.

"What are you looking for?" Ma Rong asked.

"For locations," Alex said. "I need to make sure the nodes are perfectly aligned on the same altitude, or the same orientation if they're on different altitudes."

"I will have to set 3 different formations for it to work as effectively as it did back there," Alex said.

He stopped speaking and looked around to find the most suitable placements. Once he thought he had it, he walked over to the places.

He took out a formation rod and started digging a bit of the ground. The more inside the formation was in the ground, the better it would be for the Alchemy garden. After all, many of the trees and plants got their nutrients from the root.

So, if he could make the soil they grew on rich with Qi as well, then it would be a great success.

Ma Rong stayed up on top of the mountain and watched her disciple put in one after another formation flags.

She was surprised how well he was handling the task he had put upon himself. 'So he really knows how to make and set formations, huh?' he thought with surprise. 'I wonder who taught it all to him.'

Not only was he getting great in alchemy, but his formation skills were also above average too. And that was considering he was making and setting True formations.

Alex went around the mountain to place down the formation flags in the night and occasionally went back to the peak of the mountain to check if his angles were correct. Once he made sure they were, he went back down to plant some more flags.

It took him nearly 3 hours to just plant those 24 formation flags. He might have finished it earlier if he didn't have to dig for all of them. Unfortunately, he didn't have any convenient earth technique that could move aside the ground for him.

Once they were all ready, he flew back to the peak of the mountain and looked down. "That… looks symmetrical to me," Alex said. "Don't you think so master?"

"Yes, it does seem that way, but I'm not sure how well it will work," Ma Rong said.

"I guess we will have to find out," Alex said. "To start with, why don't you go and pour in some True Qi on that node."