Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex's assistant came by after the Alchemy God was gone, excitedly congratulating him for passing in such a manner. "I don't believe I have ever even thought of anyone doing what you did," the young man said. "Both times too. I honestly believed there was only one way to replace an ingredient."

Alex smiled. "If all ingredients could be replaced by another ingredient, then we wouldn't have to struggle so hard to find the ingredients. Sometimes, you have to compromise and make use of what you can."

The young man nodded feverishly.

He then helped Alex get off the stage and go into the hall where he would have to wait. The young man said his goodbye as this was the most he could let Alex go.

Alex entered the empty hall, seeing only 20 or so people inside. They mostly remained on their own in different corners, but three seemed to be gathered together, seemingly talking with each other.

Alex walked toward that group and sat beside them.

"Oh, Brother Dawnblade, you're finally done?" Aethersage asked when he saw Alex.

"Just got done," Alex said and turned to look at the other two that sat there.

One of them was a man who looked slightly older than Alex, with dull brown hair and a fair face. He had a gentle smile on his face, but one that seemed wrong for some reason.

The other person was a beautiful woman with a cold attitude about her. There was not a single hint of a smile on her face as she watched Alex with her unending gaze.

Alex bowed slightly in greeting. "I'm Dawnblade. Who might you two be?" he asked.

The smiling man greeted back. "I am Faithseeker. It is nice to meet you, Brother Dawnblade."

"You may call me Palesilver," the woman said.

Alex raised his eyebrows upon hearing their names. He had just seen the list that was outside, and these two were right at the top. Faithseeker had completed all 12 replacements the fastest, while Palesilver had only been behind him by a mere half hour.

"Oh, congratulations on your rankings," Alex said quickly. "I was amazed at how quickly you completed it."

"Not as fast as Brother Aethersage here," Faithseeker said.

"Right," Alex said, turning around. "How did you do it so quickly? Honestly, I was quite surprised."

"I just… knew the answers," the red-haired youth said. "It's quite easy when you know the answers, you know. You can just skip a lot of steps."

Alex didn't believe him completely. He knew the answers too, and yet he had to test around a bit. The way Aethersage had completed the competition, he had done so without having to check whether or not the ingredients he received worked with the recipe.

One had to at least understand how the pill was made to get started, after all.

Alex didn't voice any of his thoughts at all though. If the man had a secret to keep, he let him. He had many of his own, and he wouldn't like it if someone came sniffing for them.

"Truth be told, you surprised us quite a bit too, Brother Dawnblade," Faithseeker said to his side. "What is that number next to your name? How did it turn to 9 from 12?"

Alex smiled a little and explained what he had done.

"You… changed the entire recipe?" Aethersage asked, his eyes wide in disbelief. "That's like… instead of changing numbers in an equation to get an answer, you changed the whole formula."

"That… is what I did in essence, yes," Alex said. He was quite surprised by Aethersage using a mathematical analogy. He hadn't heard cultivators do much of that.

"If you don't mind," Palesilver suddenly spoke. "How did you have the pill clouds form so often?"

Alex wasn't the only one who had formed pill clouds on the stage. There had been a few others too, nearly a dozen. And yet, not a single one of them had been able to make the pill clouds happen twice. Alex was the only one, so everyone was curious.

"I suppose my control with the pill is quite good," Alex said, choosing not to explain his technique. Palesilver tried pestering him for an actual answer, but Alex didn't budge. In the end, she let it go.

As the competition went on, the four talked some more, and Alex quickly came to learn more about the two.

Faithseeker was the disciple of a Reverend under the Alchemy God by the name of Yun Taixun. The Reverend was someone of great understanding of alchemy, who didn't appear to the public as often.

As a result, not many knew much about him, and those that did thought not much of him. Still, as a Reverend, he was one of the best alchemists out there currently, perhaps a tier below, if not on the same tier as the 10 Stars of Alchemy.

Palesilver, on the other hand, was a subordinate to Goldgrass from the Pillheaven Continent. She had learned a lot from him and considered him to be a master figure, but had never officially taken him as her master.

Her knowledge of alchemy had far surpassed her peers, and it was evident in the competition today. With how she had done, it was more or less certain that she would be moving on to the final competition.

If she did, then so would Faithseeker.

With two such talented cultivators joining the tournament this late, Alex could only feel more excited about the finale.

They talked here and there for the rest of the tournament, but mostly they just sat around and watched.
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Alex cultivated most of the time, using the month he had to improve his Origin ever so slightly. It had been years since he started, and he was finally about to reach a level where he could be considered to have reached the threshold before he could break through to the next cultivation realm.

It was so very close now.

The month passed without much of anything else happening. There were a lot of times when the pill clouds formed in the sky, and each time the crowd cheered.

All 499 participants passed by the 20th day and continued to replace the remaining ingredients. Many knew they would fail, but they were ready for it.

The entire time, Windborn never made it to the stage. It was evident by the end that the man had lost. He would be disqualified, but thanks to his pin, he should have made it to the next round.

It was a sad thing to have to use your pin when you were so close to the end. Alex couldn't help but feel bad for him.

Killersky was in the same situation as him now, only she didn't even have a pin to use. She was out of the competition fully. Alex wondered what had happened to her.

Was she really just late?

The hall slowly filled with people who passed, and when the competition ended a month later, all 3000 participants were there, mostly exhausted.

The Alchemy God arrived at the end to give a speech of commendation and to congratulate everyone who had passed.

"I will see you all in 10 years, where we shall finally end this 50-year-long competition. Do the most of what you can with these next 10 years as they shall make or break your future."