Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

The crowd gathered for the final day of the competition.

They poured into the stands, more than ever, as this was the day that would reveal to them who the strongest person amongst the younger generation was.

The host appeared on stage and started welcoming little kids who had barely started cultivating to show off before the crowd while they waited for the actual matches to begin.

Alex heard a knock on the door and walked out. He was then led by the staff all the way out into the sun.

Alex walked onto the stands just as the rest of the people arrived. He smiled at Liang Qiu and said, "Good luck on your match today, sister Liang."

Liang Qiu smiled. "Thanks, I probably need that," she said as he glanced toward Guo Chiang.

Alex had come to learn more about Guo Chiang after his fight had ended. Apparently, the Broken Ravine sect was built on top of a giant ravine that was said to have been carved out by a single attack belonging to an immortal.

It is said that people could not enter the ravine at all as it was full of the immortal's sword intent. However, if one did manage to enter, they could learn about the said immortal's sword intent and grow out their own.

Alex didn't know how true this was as it had been thirdhand information, but he thought there to be some truth to it.

Liang Qiu turned around to him and said, "Good luck on yours too."

Alex thanked her and went to go sit on his own. He looked at Fu Tao who didn't seem to be in the best of moods.

"You okay, brother Fu?" he asked.

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine. I'm just angry that I will have to be 3rd place when I could have been second or even first if I was just able to break through to the Saint realm," Fu Tao said.

Alex's eyes narrowed as he nearly chuckled when he heard that. Fu Tao's words seemed arrogant, but Alex could understand that he wasn't even expecting Alex to be much of a challenge at all.

Well, he wasn't wrong to expect that after how easily Guo Chiang wiped the stage with him in the last match.

When the fights on the stage finished, the host finally called for the two fighters that would be fighting for the 3rd place in the tournament.

Alex walked onto the stage and walked up to the edge before turning back. Fu Tao also went to the other edge and got ready.

The referee for this round was from the royal family, and he looked at the two fighters to see if they were ready.

When he turned to look at Alex, his eyes narrowed a bit at what he was sensing. 'Wasn't he…?'

Alex brought out a sword, The sword, and waited for the match to begin.

Fu Tao didn't have any weapons. He only had 2 defensive items and that was it. As far as Alex could tell, the next 3 items that Fu Tao was allowed to bring into the match were most likely all formation plates, which he would have to be careful about.

Once the referee saw that they were both ready, he decided to start the match.

"Begin!"

Alex immediately felt his earrings buzz a bit. Fu Tao had already started attacking just as the match started.

Alex ignored the mental attacks as rushed forward toward Fu Tao.

Seeing that his mental attacks weren't gonna do it, Fu Tao decided to end it with his fire technique. He poured his Qi out and a fiery bird formed in the air that flew towards Alex.

Alex smiled. He released Fire Qi from his hand which turned into a spear which then flew directly into the bird.

A fiery explosion rang out as the attacks clashed, with both of them getting destroyed in the clash.

Fu Tao looked at him with a confused look. 'How is that possible?' he thought. His firebird was made out of Saint Qi and yet it couldn't overcome Alex's own fire attacks?

Alex smirked and pushed his left palm toward Fu Tao. A massive yellow palm attack flew towards Fu Tao.

Fu Tao immediately activated his movement technique and got out of the way of the attack. At the same time, he sent out a bunch of fire arrows toward Alex.

Fu Tao was having a problem understanding how Alex was suddenly keeping up with his attacks. It was just yesterday or even the day before that Song Shing's and Guo Chaing's attacks were absolutely wrecking him and now suddenly he could keep up with him? Was he that weak?

Due to Alex hiding his cultivation base the entire time, Fu Tao hadn't realized that Alex was now a True Emperor as well. And the jump from True King to True Emperor had given him a significant boost in power.

Alex sent a golden fist towards the arrows and destroyed them all at once.

A formation plate slid below the explosion, taking advantage of the chaos. However, Alex had been expecting this as formations were one of the strengths of the Fu family.

The moment the formation plate came close to him, he immediately stabbed it to destroy it. However, when he did stab it, he realized that it was a dummy as the real formation plate arrived right afterward.

Alex pulled the sword out and turned around to move, but the formation was already activated and a barrier sprung around just the formation plate like a dome.

Alex's earrings started buzzing like crazy as he was being attacked with mental attacks from everywhere. The formation was affecting everything on the stage aside from just Fu Tao.

Even the referee was being affected. However, a saint realm's mental fortitude was too strong for a measly True rank formation to do anything.

Alex rushed to the formation plate and struck it as hard as he could, but he couldn't break through the barrier at all. At the same time, Fu Tao attacked with his fire skills, which Alex had to avoid while thinking of a way to break past the formation that was constantly pressuring him with its mental attacks.

He did think of going directly to fight Fu Tao, but that was a bit too dangerous as Fu Tao most likely had more than just one of these formations.

If he managed to trap him in another one, Alex would be in trouble.

Alex dodged one of the fiery birds that went on to explode behind him and tried to pour Qi into the barrier. However, as he had expected, it wouldn't expect the Qi from anyone other than the person that created the formation.

If only he could find a way to…

Three spears of fire forced Alex to move away from the formation. The buzzing of his earrings was getting weaker and weaker, and it was only a matter of seconds before it would be destroyed and Alex would have to rely on his spiritual sense to fight against the formation's mental pressure.

That would start an uphill battle that would only end in a loss in most cases.

Alex was preparing to go attack the barrier as much as he could to quickly destroy it, but the problem was Fu Tao. He was already creating more Fire arrows to throw at Alex.

Alex looked at the fire arrows and then at the barrier with a look of frustration. However, just then, his face changed as an idea came to him.

He immediately dashed toward the barrier and Fu Tao attacked him on reflex. The fire arrows flew through the air towards Alex to stop him from getting close to the formation.

However, when Alex saw this, he smiled.

Instead of attacking the arrows to destroy them, Alex struck one of them with the side of his blade and pushed the arrow towards the barrier.

The fire arrows that were filled with Fu Tao's Qi struggled, but managed to enter the barrier. Just as it was halfway through, Alex appeared next to it and poured his Qi into the fire, and wrestled the control over from Fu Tao's Qi.

As soon as the control was taken away, the barrier tried to force the fire arrow out, but Alex was already ahead of it as he poured more Qi into the arrow from both himself and the surroundings.

As the fire took in the Qi, Alex used his authority over it and gave it his command.

"Explode!"