Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

THWAP~! THWAP~!

Helen heard the sound coming from outside her room and tried to ignore it. She was busy making some talismans to practice her teaching before she was to go out today and teach the disciples of the sect.

Now that she too was an elder of the sect, having become an Immortal grade Talisman expert for a few years, Helen was required to teach the disciples as well.

Which was why she was currently practicing what she was going to teach. Well, at least trying to practice.

She didn't have a noise canceling formation at hand, so she was forced to constantly listen to the sound coming from outside.

At some point, she couldn't handle it anymore.

She walked out of the room and walked over to the location where the sound was coming from.

"Son, can you stop doing that, please? I'm trying to concentrate," Helen said.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. Am I disturbing you?" Alex asked.

"Yes, the sound is annoying. Also, stop destroying that tree," Helen said.

Alex looked at the tree in front of him and the surrounding. Maybe she was right.

"I will leave to the mountains then," Alex said and instantly flew away.

Once Alex left, Helen returned back to her room and continued practicing.

It had been a few days since Alex had returned back to the Flowing Brush sect. The next day, the jaguar had taken Pearl back to the Beast realm to train him as he was reaching closer and closer to the Saint realm.

Once Pearl was gone, Alex was alone in his house, with nothing to do. Slowly, it had crept up to him. The realization, the understanding of the new feeling he was having. The feeling of… emptiness, a lack of purpose.

Before he was he, his clone was playing the game for the purpose of earning money. At some point, that purpose had changed to seeing outside of the small city he was in.

Once Alex got his body back, his purpose had changed. His purpose then was to save Pearl from the beast realm and then try and get himself his arm back.

He had saved pearl rather quickly, but getting his arm back had taken him nearly 7 years. For 7 years, whether directly or indirectly, everything he had done had been in an attempt to get his arm back.

Once he did, his purpose changed to help get his body fixed, which he also succeeded.

Then, as a flimsy attempt at having a purpose, he switched his focus to the competition.

Now, that was gone too.

What did he have left now?

Alex was struggling to find an answer to this very question. What was he cultivating for? To reach immortality?

Alex never thought of reaching immortality. It was something he was going to reach either way.

It was a bit narcissistic of him to think of it this way, but it was what it was. With his talents and body, if he didn't reach immortality, it was unlikely anyone else would.

Besides, immortality couldn't really be a purpose in the truest sense. Immortality was usually the prerequisite for other things people wanted to achieve.

Just because you were falling didn't mean the ground was your goal. Just because you were swimming didn't mean floating was your goal.

Just because you were cultivating didn't mean reaching immortality was your goal. There had to be something beyond that.

So what was Alex's goal now?

Alex reached an empty mountain with a rather sturdy tree that could be used to make saint-ranked items.

He walked up to the tree that would need 3 of him to hug it entirely and started carving a circle before placing a dot at the center.

He was making a bullseye.

Alex moved about 4 meters away from the tree and turned around to face it. Then, he brought out something from his bag. A common-ranked weapon.

A whip.

With a saint-ranked whip with him, Alex couldn't dawdle around and not learn it. However, to begin with, he needed to learn how to control whips.

So, starting this morning, he had been practicing whipping at the tree in front of his house, and after 3 or so hours, he was making some noticeable progress.

The first few times, Alex couldn't even get the distance right to hit the whip properly. It was only about 10 minutes later that he could make the whip hit the tree.

Then it took him another 2 hours to hit an exact location on the tree.

Now, Alex was a lot better than he was at the start. He just needed an hour or so before he could accurately hit the whip on the bullseye every single time.

As the realization that he was going to get good at the whip came to Alex, the fake answer to his purpose, the one he had found at needing to practice the whip because he had one, was starting to fade as his conscience was asking for the real answer.

Many times, his talent was a boon he could never replace. Today, however, it felt like a curse as it didn't let him hide behind some facade he could build.

Alex swung the black whip at the tree and hit a few centimeters away from the dot at the center.

Thoughts gathered inside him, reminding the things he had yet to do that could serve as some sort of purpose in his life.

He had yet to read the Human language. Although that wasn't something that was a great purpose, it was one. However, that would have to wait until he was stronger, strong enough to handle the intent of the person who carved the technique onto the black stele.

There was also that place he had to find, the one whose map he found in the Demon Realm. Alex had scoured some records, but there hadn't been any information about any other secret realms that were known to people.

As far as they knew, the Demon Realm and the Beast realm were the only two secret realms on the Western Continent.

That had led Alex to believe that this other secret realm was most likely not a secret realm, but just a random location that he would have to find on the map.

Given that the map only located 6 different mountains on it, it would take forever for Alex to find anything close to it on the continent.

But roaming the entire continent in search of what might be a secret realm was something that would take an enormous amount of time for someone in the True realms like him.

Still, he had to start somewhere, so he had decided to start it inside the beast realm where the jaguar could assist him. However, even then, that wasn't the purpose to get Alex going.

He struck the whip against and it came ever so close to the dot at the center, but he still missed a bit.

Alex then remembered the thing that would be the main burning reason for him moving forward for the next decade or two. He had to find his father.

He believed wholeheartedly that his father was alive. Only, he needed to go and get him now. For that, however, he needed to be strong enough to fly through the vast ocean and reach the other land.

That was a good purpose to have. That was a good purpose to keep him going. However, Alex frowned. Was that really enough?

Finding his father was a good goal to have, but it wasn't a long-lasting goal, was it?

What about after he found him? Was he going to just hope that there was a purpose after that? Or was he once again going to wallow like he was doing right now?

What about just taking care of his mother? Taking care of Pearl? Taking care of his master and fellow disciples?

What about becoming a master at swords? What about having strong body cultivation? What about having a strong mind?

What about learning more about alchemy? Learning more about formations and talismans? Learning more about many different things he didn't know about?

Could they be his purpose? Yes, they could. But those weren't his main purpose. At least, not a grand one like many others seem to have.

He didn't have a single large goal in life.

Alex pulled back the whip and struck it at the tree again.

THWAP~!

He hit the target right on the bullseye, but the whip still landed just a tad away from the point at the center. Even after such a long time of doing the same thing, he was still missing the point.

Alex froze. His mind thought of a million different things before he opened his mouth to speak.

"I'm missing the point, aren't I?" he said. He wasn't talking about the bullseye, but rather his overall goals.

He was missing the point. The point was never to have goals, was it? The point was to have a reason to keep him going.

And that, he had many.

He had goals that were small by nature, and wouldn't last long. However, that didn't make them any less of an important goal.

Alex realized that he didn't need a big goal. He didn't need a light at the end of the path, guiding him towards it.

There could be several lights in the middle, guiding him to places he had yet to know he would go to.

It wasn't about finding a destination for him, but rather a journey he would have to go through.

Learning the human language, finding the secret location on the map, and even finding his father and bringing him back, were just checkpoints in his life.

They weren't great goals, but they were his goals.

Alex smiled as something dawned on him.

He didn't need a purpose in life. He just needed to be ready for when he had one. He might have small goals or even big goals, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that he reached those goals.

For that, however, he needed to be strong. He needed to be strong enough to fulfill any goals that could pop up in his life.

He wanted to learn the human language, find the location on the map, and find his father. He even wanted to find the creator of the game.

They all however wouldn't be fulfilled until he was stronger than he was now, much stronger.

In that sense, his purpose in life was to be strong enough to reach any goal he might have. Rather, in essence, it was to keep going even when he had no goals.

Alex sighed as it all came back together. "So that is my purpose huh?" he thought. "To keep moving forward."