Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Sparks flew in the air.

Two swords clashed against each other in mid-air, away from most of the other fights.

Wen Cheng looked at a middle-aged man of similar height to him, wearing a brown robe. The man had streaks of silver hair on his head that made him stand out quite a lot amidst the other bandits.

Wen Cheng didn't know the man, but he was familiar with the title. He was one of the most ruthless bandits in the east.

The Silver Bandit.

Despite his streaks of silver hair, he didn't have any natural gray hairs at all, as he was still a youth in terms of a cultivator's age. The silver hairs were something he apparently dyed on himself.

Every time he killed someone, he would dye a small patch of his hair. Judging by the amount of silver hair on his head, he had killed hundreds.

Wen Cheng could feel the True King realm cultivation base of the enemy, the same cultivation base as him.

It was going to be difficult. He dashed forward once again and slashed at the Silver bandit.

The silver bandit returned the blow back with his own sword and the sparks flew in the air once again.

Wen Cheng was very concerned about this fight. Fighting against someone so similar in strength to him, there was a definite chance that he could suffer some damage, if not lose.

He had to be extra careful.

'What the hell is going on?' he thought. 'Why are the bandits here?'

He tried making sense of the situation, but this was one of those times when the more you thought the more confusing things became.

He had sent someone to let the Hong Wu sect know of the invasion, but he wasn't sure if they knew about it or not. The messenger he sent could very well be in the midst of a fight just like him.

'Not the time to think,' Wen Cheng told himself and got back to fighting. Red Qi flowed into his sword which he slashed towards the Silver bandit.

The bandit too charged his sword with brown light and slashed towards Wen Cheng.

The two energy clashed in the middle, making a deafening blast between them.

Wen Cheng took the moment to look around him and saw that he was being pushed back towards the sect.

"No, it will be dangerous if the disciples get caught up in the battles," he thought and went on the offensive.

He got close to the bandit and started fighting again. With his Elusive Heavenly sword, he could attack while constantly dodging the attacks of the bandit.

Still, it was hard to consistently dodge someone that was so strong, so he had to back away a few times. Right now, he just wanted to force the bandit to back away as well.

After a minute or so of fighting, the bandit was getting pushed back thanks to Wen Cheng's relentless attack.

The bandit looked around and realized so as well. Then, once again he started attacking Wen Cheng more and more to force himself back.

Wen Cheng's eyes widened when he realized what his foe was doing. 'Shit! Is he intentionally pushing me towards the sect? Is their target the Tiger sect?' he thought.

He sent out the third strike of the Elusive Heavenly sword, which was a bright green slash that went flying towards the enemy.

The slash was much stronger than anything Alex could ever muster up even if he had the same strength as Wen Cheng due to Wen Cheng's superior Wood spiritual root.

At the same time, he took out a talisman and sent a message onto it.

"Everyone, beware! The assailant's target might be the sect. Protect the sect at any cost," he sent the message.

Everyone from elders to disciples received the message. Alex did too.

Alex opened his badge and got confused when he saw that message. 'Why would bandits care about the Tiger sect? Is there something there that they want?' he wondered.

He had been helping the other people all this time and had managed to turn the situation around to favor the guards and the elders.

Now that he was needed less around this place, he decided to go back to the sect to see if it was safe there.

He flew towards the sect and reached the gate. He was about to fly in when he saw some people on the ground.

He flew down and saw that there were elders on the ground. 'Are they dead?' Alex feared and quickly rushed to them.

However, when he reached there, he saw that they were actually just knocked out, at least that was what he thought when he saw the weird smile on their face as they lay there unconscious.

"Elder?" he called out to them but they didn't hear him. He shook them up a little and they finally opened their eyes.

"Wh-what happened?" one of the elders asked.

Alex was fully visible by now, so they looked at him to ask.

"I don't know, Elder. You should tell me instead. The entire city is under attack, what are you guys doing here?" he asked.

"I— I don't know," the elder said. "I remember… I just remember feeling happy, happiness like never before, and the next thing I know, I'm here on the floor."

"Happiness?" Alex asked with a confused look.

"Oh no, someone was here," the elder finally remembered. "We need to go save the disciples. Someone infiltrated the sect."

Alex's heart skipped a beat. He immediately turned around and flew off, no longer caring for the elders as they could take care of themselves.

When he reached the outer sect disciple's houses, he could see a few of them destroyed, along with corpses of those disciples buried in the rubble.

There were at least a dozen such houses destroyed, and he could hear another one being destroyed as well.

Alex turned around and saw a figure in black destroying the houses. When he saw the face, he realized who it was.

"Black Venom!"

Seeing the female bandit called Black Venom killing his fellow disciples, especially ones that could not fight back, Alex's anger reached sky-high.

He lost all sense of reasoning and his will to kill flared up like never before. He immediately went invisible and rushed at her with his sword in hand.

Golden light flared from his sword, along with a pure white outline around it. That was something he was unable to hide at all.

Black Venom was about to destroy another house when she saw something glint from the side of her eyes.

Just as she turned around, the sword came to strike at her neck. With her impressive reflex, Black Venom managed to put up her hands just in time to block the sword.

Still, she felt herself being pushed back a step. Her long sleeves now had cut in them, revealing a bronze-colored bracer on them.

The light had died after she was attacked, so she couldn't see who had attacked her and that only made her more vigilant.

She turned around, her amber eyes glowing in the dark, as she used an eyes skill to look for hidden auras but she couldn't see anything.

Unable to find anyone, she was forced to speak.

"Who is there?"

A beautiful melody escaped her mouth as she asked that question. The melody sounded like she had the voice of gods, and anyone who heard it was blessed by them.

Ecstasy was all Alex could feel as he heard her beautiful voice. A smile rose on his face as he slowly drifted onto the ground and lay there in happiness.

He had never felt happiness like this before.

Alex's two skills he was using right now were the Invisibility skill and the concealment skill. The concealment skill was an immortal grade technique that didn't require him to do anything for it to work.

Rather, he had to do something to stop it from constantly working, which was how he kept it most of the time.

On the other hand, he had to consciously keep up the invisibility technique. If he ever lost control of himself, the invisibility would also go away.

Which was exactly what happened when he lost himself to euphoria after listening to Black Venom's heavenly voice.

He fell on the ground, with a smile on his face, and his whole body perfectly visible to Black Venom.

Black Venom was initially surprised to see that someone was in fact hiding that even her eye technique couldn't locate.

However, when she saw the person, her vision turned dark as her facial expression changed to one of anger.

She remembered Alex from back then and had been searching for him for a very long time.

"So this is where you were hiding huh? You bastard," she said. "Good! I'm glad I get to kill you by myself."

She took out a weapon from her storage bag, a sickle, and walked towards Alex as fast as she could.

"Now you die," she said and got ready to strike at him. Just then, Alex's face changed from one of ecstasy to one of dread.

His body had once more gotten rid of whatever was causing him to lose consciousness, and he opened his eyes just in time to see the attack coming.

Without even thinking, he suddenly used Heavenly Impact on her. Alex then used that moment to slip away from under her and ran to the side.

Now, it was Black Venom who was on the ground, and he was the one who could attack her while she was down.