Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

"That must be terrible," Alex said. "Does that mean the other senior also has to go through Heavenly Judgment?"

"No," the Tortoise said. "While we are considered one and the same, we are still two different beings. We do go through Lightning Tribulation alone, but that's just because our cultivation bases are entwined."

"I see," Alex said and made a thinking face.

The tortoise slowly looked down at Alex and stared at him for a while. "Did you not know that?" he asked.

"Uh, no. This is the first time I've ever met with a Black Tortoise like yourself, senior," Alex said.

"But you have read about us, right?" the Black Tortoise asked.

Alex thought for a moment and said, "No. Everything I know about you comes from what I learned in the White Tiger's palace, which wasn't a lot."

"You haven't learned about us before? Hah! Where did you come from, young human?" the Tortoise asked.

"From the Western Continent," Alex said.

"No, no. Where do you really come from?" the Black Tortoise asked.

Alex was surprised for a bit. Did the tortoise know that he had come from the Central Continent? No way.

"I came from the Western Continent. Actually, I teleported here from a secret realm of the Demons on the western continent. I teleported over to that mountain," Alex said.

"I see," the Tortoise said as it looked at the mountain. "No wonder the senior's barrier has a hole this time. Maybe that was why he even blocked it in the first place."

"Good to know," The tortoise turned back to him. "So, where did you come from actually? And who let a little True realm cultivator go in an Inter-realm journey?"

"Um, what?" Alex looked at the tortoise with a confused face. "I did n— You think I came from a different realm? Like the immortal realms?"

The Tortoise looked at him. "Of course. Where else would a human come from to these lands?" the Tortoise asked.

"Ohh…" Alex finally understood why the Tortoise thought so.

After the Eternal war was over, the 4 beasts were sent to this realm to look over as the new rulers, and in their rule, the humans and demons lived without much conflict.

Due to this, the humans and demons started getting intimate, and soon enough, they bred and gave birth to a human-demon hybrid, who went on to give birth to more hybrids, and soon enough, the entire world was filled with nothing but hybrids with not a single hint of either the original human or demon lineage.

Alex already knew he had no demon blood in him, but he was still surprised that the Tortoise would think of him as coming from out of this world.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, senior. But I was in fact born and raised here," he said. He was still debating on whether or not to tell the beast that within the last 5 thousand years, there was now a civilization living in the depths of the central continent.

"Are you? You must be a lucky one then, to not inherit the demon blood," the Tortoise said. "Really lucky in fact. This means that you have a way better chance of becoming an Immortal than anyone else on this realm."

"Sorry? What do you mean by that?" Alex asked.

"You must not be aware. The reason why your world doesn't have many strong cultivators, let alone cultivators who can ascend is because their talent has been muddled as have their bloodline," the Tortoise said.

"The only time you can truly have someone strong is if either their human side or their demon side is suppressed to the point that it becomes irrelevant to you, but that very rarely happens in this world. Most are simply born as hybrids and thus never have great talent, constitutions, or even spiritual roots."

Alex was simply shocked to hear this. People who were hybrids were untalented? People who had a single bloodline were talented? Did he know about this before?

Alex tried to remember what Shen Jing had told him, but he had only mentioned the people being hybrids, and never about them having less talent or opportunities because of it.

'So that is why they are all so talentless,' Alex thought. 'Wait, is that why the players are so talented? Because they are all humans with no demon blood in them?'

Many things were starting to make sense to him, that he would have previously chalked up to just being luck on someone's part.

'Then the creator of the game must have been desperate to see so many talented people be around and not cultivate. Is that why he sent us all out?' Alex thought. That certainly seemed to be a plausible scenario. Although that didn't explain the end goal of doing all of that.

Alex ignored the thought at the moment and looked around. "What are you doing here, senior? This should be a secret realm belonging to demons. why are you here?"

"I don't know," the tortoise said. "The seniors that came before me chose this place to stay in, so I followed them as well."

'Seniors?' Alex looked curiously. "There were seniors that came before you?"

"Of course, as I said, we only come here for every 15 thousand years before going back. Our time ends in a thousand years from now," the Tortoise said.

"Ho-How many such seniors have come to this realm already?" Alex asked. He wanted to know something, but he didn't know if he should directly ask that question.

"Hmm, I should be the 6th one, so 5 before me," the Tortoise said.

Alex's eyes went wide when his mind instantly understood how many years that was.

90 thousand years.

That was how long it had been since the Four Heavenly beasts made a pact to come and rule over the worlds that were won over by the humans from the demons.

That was how long it had been since the Eternal War had ended.

That was how long it had been since the Undying God left behind his inheritance in this secret realm.

That was how long it had been since the Undying God was stuck in the Timeless Palace, trying to find a way to live when his spirit was dying.

"Wait, I think I remember why my seniors stayed here. I believe it was so that the humans at the time wouldn't attack this secret realm as it had been housing some of the only demon resistance at the time," the Black Tortoise.

Alex nodded when he heard that. This was in fact the place where the Undying God and his little squad of demons hid and fought from. As far as he understood now, they would fight in the Northern Continent, get into this secret realm and disappear back to the Demon realm back in the Western Continent.

While humans searched for them here, they were training and preparing back in the other realm.

'They definitely went back, so I should have a chance too if the script on the other side isn't broken, and if the Demon realm opens up. If I haven't found a way to get back in 10 years, I should get back here at that time and see if the script functions at that time,' Alex thought.

"Thank you for explaining that to me, senior. I didn't know any of that," Alex said and bowed.

"It's fine. I'm just helping someone with the tiger's blood understand a few things," the Tortoise said. "Are you going to return now?"

"Return?" Alex gave a wry smile. "I'm afraid I can't return. The teleportation script doesn't work for some reason."

"Oh, Uhhh… then is someone going to come to get you?" The Tortoise asked.

"No. I don't think anyone has any idea that I'm in the Northern Continent," Alex said.

"Hmm, then how are you going to get back? You can't fly over the ocean yet," the Tortoise said.

"I… don't think I have a way. At least not yet," Alex said. "You can't help me, can you?"

Alex asked. That was a little presumptuous of him, but he didn't have any choice here. He needed to rely on the Tortoise.

"I don't have anything to help you, young man. I'm sorry," the Tortoise said.

Alex sighed. 'Dammit,' he thought. "You don't have any family members? Any vassals?" he asked just in case. Even if it was someone like the Jaguar, that would be a lot helpful to Alex.

"I have no one working under me. Sorry," the Tortoise said.

"No one? Not even family members? Aren't you the ruler of this land?" Alex asked.

"I hold that title, yes. But I don't like ruling. Ever since I arrived here 14 thousand years ago, I have left the people to their own devices. I only pop out whenever they need help, but even then, I haven't left in nearly 5 thousand years," the tortoise said.

Alex looked at the tortoise with a look of incredulity. He didn't imagine he would find a ruler that didn't like to rule.

"I see, then I'm sorry to have bothered you," Alex said.

"It's fine, it's fine. I like having company once in a while. The last time was 5 thousand years ago, so this talk was nice. But now I must return to my sleep and continue healing," the tortoise said.

"Sorry, one last thing," Alex quickly asked.

"Go on," the tortoise said.

"How do I get out of this secret realm?" Alex asked.

"Oh, on the furthest mountain from here, there is a script. If you run it, you will be sent out," the tortoise said.

"Thank you," Alex replied and bowed towards the beast.