Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

"A test?" Alex asked curiously. "You didn't mention any test before."

"It's… less of a test exactly, and more of a ritual. At least, it's a ritual for people from the family that have part of the bloodline of the Original White Tiger but not fully. The ritual is carried out so that they can improve their bloodline, and maybe even evolve to become a white tiger," Lady Ren said.

"Evolve?" Alex's eyes went wide. Finally, someone spoke about something he had been searching for for a long time.

Pearl's evolution chance was still at 40%, and Alex had been wondering what it was for all of this time. However, nothing in or out of the game had ever mentioned anything about evolutions.

The most he could find was other players wondering what their newly tamed beast's evolution was about.

"Pearl has a chance to… become a white Tiger?" Alex asked. "Does that mean he will stop looking like a cat, and start looking like a tiger?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Lady Ren said. "I don't really understand how it works, but not everyone that has evolved has turned into a white tiger. Sometimes, they keep their original appearance while acquiring the abilities of their evolved self."

"If Pearl evolves and doesn't produce black stripes, then he would likely still show the other characteristics of a white tiger. Honestly, we can't guess it at all. All I know is that Evolution is definitely good for him," she said.

Alex then looked around the entire hall once more and asked, "who are all of these seats for? And why are they all empty?"

Lady Ren sighed when he heard him ask that. "Those are seats belonging to the subordinates of my husband. Namely people of the palace that served the King. These two's parents used to be one of them. However, they lost their lives during the many battles the followed after the death of the king."

"The only ones that still remain are hidden away in their own chambers, waiting for the next king to arrive," Lady Ren said.

"Is that so?" Alex then looked at the golden seat once more. "What about the two seats next to the throne?" he asked.

"That would be the seats of the Queen and the crown prince. The one with the red leather if for the queen and the one with the blue one is for the prince," Lady Ren said.

"Oh," Alex said and a question popped up in his head. "If there is a place for a prince, why is there no king yet? Did the prince not want to take the throne?"

"There was no prince," Lady Ren said. "Unfortunately, amongst the children born to the king, none of the male heirs had the necessary bloodline to become the king."

"Also, senior sister didn't manage to conceive a child in the time the king was alive, so the king never had a direct heir to the throne regardless."

Alex thought for a second and said, "if the king was gone, why didn't the queen rule? Surely she had the authority to do so, right?"

"She did, to a certain extent. Even if she would eventually be dethroned, she could rule until the next king arrived."

"However, my sisters were never here for the land, they were here for our husband. So, when he was gone, they all decided to leave and go back to the family. Senior sister also had to report his death to the family, so she left as well," Lady Ren said.

"And left you behind?" Alex asked.

"Haha, no. I was just stubborn and decided to stay behind, hoping my husband would come back someday. Sigh, if only my stupid delusions could be erased at that time," Lady Ren said.

"Anyway, come one. Let me take you to someplace else," she said and walked on.  She entered a door to the left side of the hall and continued walking.

Alex followed behind and entered the door to see a white corridor.

He looked behind him and realized that the other two beasts were already gone. He, Pearl, and Lady Ren were the only ones remaining.

The stalactites in the ceiling shined everything stark white and there was not a single other color to accent all the white color in there.

"The king really did like the color white, didn't he?" Alex asked.

"Haha, he did. White and Gold were his favorite colors since birth. Which was probably a bias he learned from his family that favors the two colors as well," Lady Ren said.

"May I ask how you met the king?" Alex asked.

"How did I meet him? Let's see, I was the lady of a very minor house whose elders were desperately looking for connections. So, they set arranged my marriage with my husband back then. I remember being quite angry at the time, but over the course of many years, I learned to love him as everyone else did."

"When he was sent here to rule as a king, I chose to come with him," Lady Ren said.

Alex nodded and stayed quiet as he followed her. Finally, they reached a place that seemed to have an opening on the roof that let him see the night sky.

The spirit vein ended right around here and there was no longer much light for them to work with.

"It's just ahead of us," Lady Ren spoke as she walked forward. At the center of it all, underneath the open sky, were many stones stuck on the ground all over the open space.

Alex looked at it all and was a little surprised. "Are these… graves?" he asked.

"Yes," Lady Ren said. "We bury here those that we have lost over the years. Not many get to be buried here, but even so… the numbers have reached quite high over the years."

Lady Ren was starting to sound a little sad by now. She slowly sat down in front of a gravestone and said, "I may have found your successor, dear husband."

Alex looked at the white piece of rectangular marble that was stuck on the ground. The headstone had some words carved onto it in a language he couldn't read at all.

He wanted to try using his spiritual sense to see if he could read it, but now was not the place to do something like that. It would be incredibly disrespectful, and he didn't want to create unnecessary problems.

"What does that headstone say?" Alex decided to directly ask instead.

"It reads 'In memory of A King, a Husband, and a Father, Bai Jingshen," Lady Ren read.

"Bai Jingshen… was that the name of the king?" Alex asked.

"Yes," Lady Ren said. "Bai is the surname of the White Tiger family. If he succeeds, this little child will inherit that surname as well."

"Meow?" Pearl asked.

"No, you can keep your current name. We will just give you a secondary name that you will have to use officially," Lady Ren said.

"Meow," Pearl said.

"Haha, sure, sure. I will be sure to choose one of the best ones for you," Lady Ren said with a smile.

"That grave… it's empty right?" Alex asked.

"Yes," Lady Ren said. "We couldn't get back anybody from when he died in the central continent, so we had to give him an empty burial."

"Then… how are you sure that he really is dead?" Alex asked.

"Because the other three Kings themselves came to give us the news. They saw him die while trying to save this realm," Lady Ren said. "Only the stupid humans didn't realize that and thought he was trying to attack them. In retaliation, they took everything they could get their hands on from this land."

"Now, a normal beast can't even grow enough to enter the saint realm," Lady Ren said.

"I see," Alex said. "I do remember hearing something about beasts fighting in the central continent long ago, so that was a lie, right?"

"Yes," Lady Ren said. "The 4 great families have rivalries, but it ends there. There is no enmity between them and thus they have no reason to fight. Besides, there really is nothing worth fighting for here."

"So the other people were misinformed and attacked you? Why didn't the other kings try to clarify that misinformation?" Alex asked.

"I don't think they know there is misinformation being shared. From what I know, they were gravely hurt during whatever happened in the central continent, and so they have likely gone into secluded cultivation to heal up. It wouldn't be surprising if they started healing up all those years ago and are still healing," Lady Ren said.

"It's likely the only time we will ever see them is either when this kid becomes the king, or another king arrives," Lady Ren said.

"Sorry… another king?" Alex asked.

"Yes," Lady Ren said. "Since my husband died nearly 5 thousand years ago, the family will take about that long of a time to choose the next candidate to be sent over. So, in less than a century, someone will come to see if we already have a king or not."

"If we do, they will verify whether the king deserves to be one. If they can't, they will send over the next candidate."

"However, most of the new generation of the great family have nothing but arrogance, and I do not want to see them destroy what my husband worked so hard to build," Lady Ren said.

"For that, we will need to turn this little child into a full-fledged King in less than a hundred years."