Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex looked at the white mask with no features at all. The only reason he was even sure it was a mask and not some random piece of curved plate was that there were slight carvings on the inside of the mask where one's nose went.

There was a talisman attached to it like everything else that he read.

The mask was called Mask of Spirit's Hell. It was a Saint Earth-grade artifact that was focused on one's spirit. Or more exactly, on one's spiritual sea.

The mask was capable of creating a continuous burden on one's spirit, causing them to weaken over time. Alex couldn't help but wonder what was so good about that, but he quickly learned that the purpose wasn't to suppress one's spirit entirely but to suppress it to the point where one could fight back.

When done properly, the person could slowly increase their mental strength and improve their spirit in the long run.

The mask itself was made up of materials that stopped spiritual sense from entering. As a result, it also obstructed spiritual sense to a certain extent.

Alex tried reading just how much it obstructed one's spirit and came to learn that there were exactly 9 different stages of suppression that one could set up.

It was advised that newly ascended Saints start with the first stage as that itself would be quite difficult for them.

Alex frowned a bit. He had to wait until he reached the Saint realm to even try this out?

His spiritual sense was currently close to about half as strong as that of a Saint realm cultivator. It would likely be a little stronger than half by the time he was in True Emperor 9th realm.

If he was somehow able to break through 3 realms every year and reach the 9th realm in 3 years worth of time, he would still have to wait another few years before he could break through to the Saint realm.

'Well, it won't help me immediately as a weapon would, but it's still quite good,' Alex thought. He knew what to choose now.

He brought out the white mask and handed the storage bag over to the old man.

"Are you all satisfied with what you got?" the old man asked.

The three of them nodded.

"Great. The Tournament of Champions has hereby officially ended. Thank you all for taking part in it and congratulations once again on what you have achieved. Goodbye."

The old man turned around and left with the rest of the staff. The rest of the people slowly started to disperse.

"You chose the mask?" Liang Qiu asked him from the side.

"Yes," Alex said. "There wasn't anything better. What did you get?"

"A spear," she said. "A really good one."

They slowly left while talking to each other. They dispersed once they reached outside the arena, but not before making plans to return back together.

Alex returned to the hotel where they were staying and told his mother about what had gone on in the arena.

Once she learned that they would return back later afternoon today, she quickly decided to go around the city and see if there was something she wanted to bring back with her.

While she was gone, Alex stayed in his room alone with the mask in his hands.

He kept staring at the mask, wanting to put it on. He wanted to check whether or not the stress was really something he should be worried about before reaching the Saint realm.

He slowly brought it to his face, forcing his fingers to be ready to pull it away at a moment's notice, and… nothing.

From what he could tell, the mask didn't work on its own, and he would have to activate it to make it work.

'Good design, I guess,' he thought and slowly poured some Qi before he received feedback telling him the mask was now at the first stage of suppression.

The pristine and glossy white mask was now different. A bit of black, like ink marbled in water, appeared on top of the mask.

The black was a small amount in total, but in a background of white, it was the only thing that was visible.

Alex slowly put on the mask once again and this time, he was extremely cautious.

When the mask fell on his face, at first he felt nothing. However, the very next second a subtle pressure was applied to his mind that only grew with time.

In about 10 seconds, it stabilized at a point where Alex had to constantly use his spiritual energy to protect himself.

The feeling wasn't pleasant, but it was one he had felt before. It was the same suppressive feeling as the one from yesterday when he was in the crimson barrier.

Only, this one was much stronger even at just the first stage of it. He could only imagine how hard the later ones would be.

'And I have to use this continuously to improve my spiritual sense?' Alex thought. With this, it wouldn't even take 10 minutes to fully deplete his spiritual energy.

That made it hard to imagine how it could possibly be improving him at all. Alex took off the mask and deactivated it to return it back to the white form.

Once he was sure it wouldn't help him much at the moment, he placed the mask into his storage ring and decided not to use it very often.

A few hours later, Helen returned from her trip around the capital where she had bought many different things that had caught her eyes and even had Alex take some.

She brought him a black and gold robe that she really wanted him to try. It was a good robe and from what he could see, it was a True rank artifact too that was capable of protecting him against attacks to a certain extent.

The defensive aspect wasn't helpful for Alex, but the comfort the robe provided was still not bad.

He wore the robe and left the hotel with his mother. It was time to return back to Dawnspring City.

<A/N: Thanks for reading>