Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Liang Qiu and Han Daiyu both brought out pill testers and proceeded to put their pill into them.

Alex waited as they watched the fog around their testers start to grow. Even Alex got a little curious about it.

He wanted to know if the tester was in fact accurate around higher percentages. After all, the testers themselves were formations with not a lot of Efficiency to them.

The girls watched as the fog reached 50% and continued to grow without stopping. Of course, they knew the pill was going to be better than that, so they patiently waited.

As the fog grew past 60%, they finally showed signs of nervousness. From the pills they had seen before, around 65% to 70% was the best they could hope for.

If Alex was lucky, he would have reached 75% even. They wanted him to be lucky.

Soon, the percentage grew past 65%, and with each increase after that, they watched in fear as they half-expected the fog to stop growing.

However, it wasn't going to do that. The fog continued to grow and soon went past 70%. Still, it did not stop.

The girls were stunned beyond belief. They thought they would be able to see it now, something they had never seen before.

An Immortal grade True Pill.

Finally, when the fog hit 75%, their face was a sight to see. It was fortunate that they were in the corner of the hall, very early in the morning.

Otherwise, a lot of people would've noticed their faces and would've definitely been interested in what they were seeing.

"Alchemist Yu, you… you are an Immortal rank alchemist now?" Han Daiyu asked with a shocked face.

"No," Alex said. "You need to make more than just a single type of pill to become an Immortal alchemist I believe."

"But since you made this, you should be able to make others too right?" Liang Qiu asked.

"Of course," Alex said. "But I will hope you keep this a secret for now. I don't want people coming to me expecting an Immortal grade pill. After all, you saw how time-consuming it is to make this pill."

"If that is what you want," Liang Qiu said. "Still, I can't believe you were able to make a pill that reached 75% in ha—"

Her words stuck in her mouth as her eyes widened once more when she saw the static number on the tester.

She had assumed that the tester would stop when it reached 75%, so she had begun speaking, but who would've thought it would increase so much.

Han Daiyu too quickly stared at her own tester and then at Liang Qiu's. Both of their pills had the same Harmony.

Together, they spoke in a very serious voice.

"83%".

"How?" Liang Qiu asked.

"3 weeks, sister Liang. That's how," Alex said. "Also, I had to improve on 2 other things aside from the pill recipe itself. That was how I was able to improve the pill past Immortal grade."

"This is incredible!" she said. "I don't know how I can ever repay you for this."

Alex shook his head. "You don't have to pay me anything for those two pills. Consider it my payment for bringing such an incredible pill recipe to me," he said.

"What? But we do need to pay you," Liang Qiu said.

"Ah, I believe you misheard me," Alex said. "I don't need any payment for those two pills. Yes. But I suppose you would want to buy these pills too, right?" he asked as he brought out a storage bag.

"What's that?" Liang Qiu asked as her spiritual sense slowly entered it and saw what was inside.

"There are 12 pills in there," she said with a hint of shock in her voice. "Are those all…?"

"Yes, they are the same pill. Although they aren't as good as the one I gave you, they are still Immortal Rank," Alex said. "So… will you buy them?"

"How much?" the girls didn't even need to say yes.

"Your wish," Alex gave them the reins.

5 minutes later, Alex was about 3000 True Spirit stones richer. Each one of those 12 pills was sold to the girls for at least 200 True Spirit stones, which Alex was quite happy about.

"Thank you, Alchemist Yu," the girls said. "We would like to come to you whenever we need something again."

"Sure," Alex said with a smile. "But this time you might have to go through protocol." Alex pointed to the reception.

"Of course," the girls said.

"Oh yeah, one more thing," Alex said. "I don't doubt that you will be showing these pills to your elders and they will want to rope me in. Please tell them I am not interested."

"Nothing they can give me will interest me at all to join you guys. Sure we can have a friendly relationship, but I won't be joining at all," he said.

"I see. I will pass along the message then," the girls said. "Once again, thank you, Alchemist Yu."

After that, the girls left, leaving Alex alone with the newly acquired money.

He added that money to some he got from his mother this morning and a smile crept on his face.

"Screw this," he thought. "I'm not staying armless anymore."

* * * * * *

Alex showed off his new arm to his mother and Pearl.

"It looks quite real," Helen said as she stared at his arm.

"Why are you joking, mother? It looks nothing like a real arm," Alex said as he looked at the puppet-like arm.

"Oh, I thought you wanted to hear that," she said.

"No, I'm just showing off my new arm. This should help me for the next… what? 10 years it might take me to reach Saint realm?" he said.

"It will take you 10 years to reach Saint realm?" Helen asked and started counting in her mind.

"You have to breakthrough 24 more times to reach Saint realm. If you hurry, at 1 month per breakthrough, it will only take you 2 years," Helen said.

Alex shook his head. "That's impossible. At my current cultivation base, advancing once every month is too risky. Even once every 2 months is barely acceptable."

"It has to be close to 3 months per breakthrough, that being for my current realms. As I break through more, I will need to put in more and more distance between each breakthrough," Alex said.

"Even the best of the best disciples from the great sects, who get all the resources one can find, don't go over less than 9 different in 3 years."

"Han Daiyu broke through maybe 5 times in the last 3 years, and Liang Qiu broke through a similar amount too," Alex said. "So, I know I can't rush myself through this."

"Alright, alright," Helen said. "What are you going to do now then? Wasn't your original plan to find ingredients for your arm? Now that you seem to not want an actual arm anymore, what do you want to do?"

"That's where you're wrong, mother," Alex said. "I still want my arm, and I will take opportunities if they show themselves for me to get my arm back."

"But I can't keep waiting for it to show up. I need an arm for the times when I will need them," Alex said. "Especially because I use a sword that won't take my Qi in at all, I need an extra arm to use my techniques when I fight or use another sword side by side."

"I see," Helen said solemnly. "So you really take fighting with such high regard, huh?"

"I have to, mother," Alex said with a serious face as well. "This is not the world we lived in where the law protected the weak. No, this is the world where the strong live and the weak die."

"If I can't become strong and defeat those that come after us, I can't protect you, I can't protect myself."

"I already lost someone because I was weak before… I don't want to go through that again," Alex said.

"I see," Helen said with a sad look on her face. "It took me a while to realize, but now I do. My son that left his house to go study in the university is no more."

Alex's heart stung a bit when he heard that and a single tear dropped from the edges of his eyes. "I'm sorry, mother. I have become someone you hate."

"Nonsense!" Helen shouted. "I don't hate you. I could never hate you. What I hate is this world that forced my sweet little boy to become a fighter just to protect himself. That is what is hate."

More tears streamed down Alex's eyes as he involuntarily went to hug his mother. Helen took him with open arms.

"I'm a fighter too, and a sweet little boy," Pearl said from the side, bringing a bit of chuckle into both of the human's silent cries.

"Come," Helen called Pearl and hugged him too.

After their emotions faded away, Helen asked, "What do you want to do now then? You don't need to force yourself to learn talisman, formations, or even alchemy."

"You won't be searching for a way to get your arm back either. So what do you want to do now?" Helen asked.

"I… I think I will focus on my cultivation for now," Alex said. "I will have to train a lot for that. I might need to visit the Eastern mountains a lot."

"Why the Eastern mountains?" Helen asked. "What's wrong with fighting against normal people?"

"Where would I find normal people to figh— Wow, how did I not think of that before?" he said to himself.

Helen smiled. "I will talk to master later."