Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex looked a little stunned. "I was the reason? Wait, what? How can that be?" Alex asked.

"Tell me exactly when you ate the Yang source," the girl demanded. She seemed furious, but it didn't look like she was going to harm him.

"Uhh… it was early in the morning 5 days ago," Alex said.

"It is you, then," the girl said. "You ruined everything!"

"No," Alex said. "Why would I ruin everything by simply eating something? That doesn't make sense. Also, what did you mean by destroying a system? I don't understand."

"Goddammit! This was why I told him not to get mortals to do it," she said in a soft voice.

"How did you even survive eating that Yang source? It was so powerful that it traveled back through your connection and destroyed all of our systems," the girl said.

"I… just did. Wait, did you say YOUR system?" Alex asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicions.

"Yes, our system," the girl said.

Alex had a thought occur in his mind that he wasn't sure if he wanted to be true. Still, he decided to ask.

"Were… were you the one that sent us to this game?" he asked.

"No," the girl said. "That's my master. He's the one responsible for all of the artifacts and formation. My job is just being his voice for the mortals."

"Wait, wait, wait. Artifacts? Formations?" Alex asked in surprise. "You don't mean in our homeworld, do you?"

"Obviously I'm talking about that. What else would I be talking about?" the girl said.

"Huh?" Alex exclaimed in surprise. "But our homeworld is a world without Qi. Even if someone managed to gain the knowledge to make artifacts and formations, there is no way they could run it without Qi."

The girl stared at him for a bit before rolling her eyes and saying, "Your home is not without Qi. It's just lacking Qi."

Alex looked at her without a single change in expression. "That's the same thing I said," he said.

"A little different. Saying your home is without Qi is wrong because that insinuates that it never had Qi. But that is wrong. It used to have Qi long ago, but it no longer does due to a terrible battle," she said. "Since it once had Qi, it's easy to use Qi if you get a hold of it."

Alex looked surprised. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. 'There was Qi in our homeworld previously? So why is it absent now?' he thought.

He then remembered a certain piece of information that was tucked away in his brain.

His eyes went wide as he asked, "does it have anything to do with the apocalypse our homeworld went through 600 years ago?"

"What?" the girl asked. "Of course not. Your home hasn't been without Qi for over a few millennia."

"Oh, so I was wrong," Alex said. "Wait, getting back on topic. So our home-world is still without Qi. So how would artifacts and formations even work?"

The girl looked at him with a face that said that it was obvious. "You can't think of anything?" she asked.

Alex shook his head in response. He couldn't figure out where his home-world would even get Qi from.

"Have you earned money from the game?" the girl suddenly asked.

"Yes, I've earned a few," Alex said, a little proud of himself, even though it wasn't really him that earned it.

"What did you sell to get the money?" she asked.

"That's obviously the—" finally, the realization hit his mind as his eyes went wide.

"The spirit stones," he said. "The spirit stones that we sell are sent to our homeworld?"

Alex's eyes were full of surprise with this thought. He never thought that something as simple as selling spirit stones in the game was what was actually running the system back in his homeworld.

"Yes, we use the spirit stones that you players send back to us. That is the only way to keep the formations running," the girl said.

"Wait, does that mean I could've cultivated back in our homeworld if I ever got spirit stones?" he asked.

"Yes, that's possible," the girl said. "Also, please stop calling it your 'homeworld' that makes it sound so distant. Just call it home."

Alex was confused again. "What do you mean? It is distant."

"I mean, yeah it's far. But it's not that far," she said. "It's just an ocean's flight away."

Alex's heart started beating as he looked at her with more confusion and suspicion. "Umm… what are you trying to say?"

The girl looked at him with a bit of confusion as well. "Oh, right. You don't know," she said. "You home, or as you call it, your homeworld is just a small land hidden inside the Central continent."

"WHAT!" Alex exclaimed with surprise and shock very much apparent in his voice.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait! A-are you s-saying… that the central continent that is said to be devoid of life… is actually our homeworld?" he asked.

"Devoid of life?" the girl's eyes flashed with a shine. "Have you learned something about the Central continent? Not many should know this information."

"I-I learned it from the White Tiger's palace. Apparently, the white tiger died there in a battle some 5000 years ago," Alex said.

"But let's forget about that for now," he said. "Are you sure the central continent is my home?"

Alex was starting to get teary-eyed now. If what she was saying was true then there may actually be a way back home.

"You've been to the White Tiger's palace?" the girl looked at him with surprise. "That is truly surprising."

Alex wasn't listening to her, however. The thoughts in his mind were chaotic at the moment. He was trying to process everything he was hearing.

He quickly wiped off his tears as questions flooded his mind again. "Wait, what about the void around our world? Does the central continent have that void?"

"Void? What void?" the girl asked. "Ah, I remember. That's a lie my master told you to keep you all from killing yourself trying to find out what's outside your small Qi-less safe land. It's actually just an all-destroying chaotic Qi which will turn metals to shred in a matter of seconds."

The girl sighed when she said that. "Sigh, I finally found the culprit and it didn't even seem like he knows what he did."

"I'll go and let my master know what I've learned here today. You go and tell the rest of the people that it's over."

"Wait," Alex said. "What do you mean you're leaving? When do we get to leave?"

"Didn't you hear me?" the girl asked. "The system is broken. We can't take you back even if we wanted to."

Alex's eyes ran around trying to find ways to convince her. "Wait, wait. Your master, he's the one that made the system right?" he asked.

"Yes," the girl said with a suspicious face.

"T-tell him about the teleportation formations that lie in the central continent. It used to exist as a hub to teleport people around the other conti—"

The girl put up her hands to stop him from speaking. "I'm genuinely surprised that you know about the teleportation formation in the central continent."

"However, let me ask you this," the girl said. "What did you think the system you destroyed was?"

Alex's jaws dropped. "No way… you're lying," he said.

"Nope, you destroyed the thousands of years old teleportation formations that we used to send you all throughout the other continents," the girl said.

She brought out a talisman and started using it.

"What's that?" Alex asked.

"A one-time use teleportation talisman. I'm going back to master," she said.

"Take me along!" he asked.

"Can't do. It's a one-man teleportation talisman," the girl said.

"Then give me one of them too," Alex said.

"There were only two with me. I already used one to get here. This is the only one remaining until my master makes some more," The girl said.

"Then how do I get back? How do any of us get back?" he asked. His home… it was so close, and yet, he couldn't reach it at all.

"Hmm," the girl seriously thought about his question. "With the system destroyed, it will take master a while to finish repairing the formations. Just wait until then, and we will get you all back."

"Oh," Alex said. Waiting a little longer… he could do that. After all, he had already waited 7 months.

"Will it be done in a few weeks?" he asked. He was planning on going to save Pearl. So he hoped that it was later than that.

"Week?" the girl nearly scoffed at his question. "It's going to take decades. At minimum 3 decades, and at maximum... never."

"What?" Alex lost all hope he had gained in the past few seconds. "I can't wait for 3 decades."

"Unfortunately, you will have to," the girl said and continued using her talisman. She caught him glancing at her as if he wanted it for himself.

"Don't try to do anything unneces—"

Suddenly, Alex dashed forward at an incredible speed that surprised himself. He put his only arms forward to grab the talisman from her hands.

However, at the last moment, a massive aura erupted from her, pushing him down on the ground.

Alex could feel the floor crack beneath him. He knew the girl was likely in the saint realm, but this was too much. She was likely as strong as the two saint beasts.

'Dammit!' he thought. His one chance at returning back home didn't seem to go as he wanted it to. He tried to fight the aura that was pressing him down.

"You really did it huh? You think you can walk away after you've tried to steal from me?"

The girl had gotten angry.