Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

"Yes!" Shen Jing said as he ate another piece of the meant. "I brought it for you. Eat it later tonight."

Alex looked at the bright red and yellow pear-shaped fruit with swirls all around the outside of it.

"Um, I don't need it though," Alex said. "I've already gone through Mortal Cleansing."

"Oh, you've eaten this already?" Shen Jing asked with a bit of surprise.

"No, I've never even seen this before," Alex said. "I just went through Mortal cleansing… on my own."

Alex wasn't sure if he wanted to reveal the existence of Pearl's help in Mortal Cleansing. While he was sure that one would need to ingest the White Tiger's blood essence to do what he did, there was still the chance that Shen Jing would think Pearl would help him and take him for his own.

While the chance was very, very small, Alex didn't want to take it.

"You went through mortal cleansing without a Divine Devil's fruit? Now that's interesting," Shen Jing said. "Wait, how did you know about this fruit if you've never eaten it or seen it in the first place? There's no way there are pictures of it out there, right?"

"No, I just know the names of all alchemy ingredients out there. So while I haven't seen it before, I recognize it," Alex said.

"Huh?" Shen Jing gave a weird look, maybe even a confused one.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked.

"This isn't an Alchemy ingredient," Shen Jing said. "Why would you think a Divine Devil's fruit is an Alchemy ingredient?"

"Huh? But it is. I know the information of all Alchemy ingredients," Alex said as he grabbed the Divine Devil's fruit.

He was about to say something when he noticed something weird about the fruit. The fruit was indeed the Divine Devil's fruit and it was about 122 years old, however, it had no energy in it at all.

Or rather, it did but the information about it that he was supposed to get wasn't there at all.

'What's going on?' he thought.

"Yeah, right. Like anyone can create pills out of Divine Devil's fruit. If they can do it, I will call myself their little brother," Shen Jing said.

Alex was still confused. "But… I know the name," he thought to himself.

"I have never even heard of anyone talking about making anything out of plants that descend from the three Demonic plants," Shen Jing said offhandedly.

"The three Demonic Plants?" Alex asked as his eyes narrowed. He had heard of that before… but where?

As he thought for a moment, an answer came to him.

"Ah! The plants blessed by one of the gods," Alex said as he remembered Godslayer's words.

'There are only two true gods in the world. One that blessed the Four Heavenly Beasts, and the other one that blessed the Three Demonic Plants.'

"Wait, are you saying the Divine Devil's fruit is one of the three Demonic Plants??" Alex asked with a shocked face.

"What? No. It's descended from one. Pretty close too," Shen Jing said.

"If you don't mind me asking, what are the Three Demonic Plants?" Alex asked.

"Well," Shen Jing mulled for a bit as he saw Alex's face. "Fine, I'll tell you."

"The Demonic plants are just normal plants that were blessed by the gods to be the best of all the plants in the world."

"There are 3 of them, each that affect one of the 3 things for a cultivator."

"Body, Qi, and Mind."

"The Divine Devil's fruit is a plant that descended from the plant that affects one's body. While the Demonic body Plant affects the body with every single part of the plant, its descendant, the Divine Devil plant, only affects the body with its fruit," Shen Jing said.

"Oh," Alex said. "Does it have a name? The Demonic body plant I mean."

Shen Jing smiled. "It's too early for you to know about them. Just learning they exist is already more than you should know."

"I see," Alex said, not asking any more questions. "I wonder why I know the name if it's not an alchemy ingredient. Maybe I just know the plant names."

Alex looked at the fruit once again and started considering what he could do with it.

"Stop acting like this is your first time seeing something like this," Shen Jing said as he continued eating his food.

"Huh? But it is my first time seeing this fruit," Alex said.

"Not the fruit, a descendant of one of the Three Demonic plants. It's not like you're looking at one of the Demonic plants itself," Shen Jing said.

Alex's face suddenly got serious. "I've seen another one? Where? When?" he asked.

"Did you forget what I said?" Shen Jing said. "The Demonic plants affect Body, Qi, and Mind."

Shen Jing pointed to his head. "Have you never seen anything that affects that?" he asked.

"I have?" Alex thought for a second and immediately his eyes went wide. "I HAVE!"

"Spirit Cleansing Lily!" he shouted.

"Yes," Shen Jing said. "It's a descendant of the Demonic Mind Plant where only the flower of it actually works."

"Is that why it is not part of any pill?" Alex said. "I didn't know I was so close to the descendant of one of the Demonic plants."

He then looked at the fruit in his hand and said, "Two, now."

"Are there any more?" Alex asked.

"There are," Shen Jing said, "But most of them don't do anything. It's like when you have too good of a physical constitution, so you have a hard time having kids since Heaven doesn't want you to pass on your advantage to your offspring."

"Huh?" Alex was confused.

"Are you an only child?" Shen Jing asked.

Alex nodded.

"Point proven," Shen Jing said as he chewed his meat.

"Wait, what are you saying, brother Shen? Are you saying that my parents couldn't have more than me?" Alex asked.

"They might have wanted only one child," Shen Jing said, "but it is more than likely they wanted more, but they just couldn't."

"The heaven is really considerate about letting a person with great constitution have children. Just the fact you were born means your parents had to fight the odds for that," Shen Jing said.

"Is… is everyone like that?" Alex asked. "What if the parents are normal? Can their child not be special?"

"Oh, they can. Absolutely," Shen Jing said. "But do you think your parents are normal?"

Alex thought for a moment and shook his head.

"Yeah, the plants are similar too. Heaven just can't let a Demonic Plant's offspring be good too, so most of their offspring end up mutating. Mostly into something useless, but sometimes into these," Shen Jing said.

"Even then, it is hard to acquire them," Shen Jing said. "Not only are they rare, to begin with, but they are also hard to pick."

"For the Spirit Cleansing lily, you have to choose it from one of the many flowers that grow. It's nearly impossible unless you have a particularly strong spirit."

"As for the Divine Devil's fruit, you have to pick them up after they have become 120 years old and before they become 123 years old."

"If you eat anything that was picked outside of those 3 years, you end up causing problems for yourself," Shen Jing said.

Alex nodded. He had already seen the effect of eating a raw Divine Devil's fruit on Fu Wen's mother back in the Scarlet city where she had fallen into a coma after reading halfway through Mortal Cleansing.

"Thank you, brother Shen, for explaining it all to me," Alex said.

"Yeah well, turns out you didn't need it in the end," Shen Jing said.

"About that, I have a favor to ask," Alex said. "Can I take this fruit anyway?"

"Hmm? Why?" Shen Jing asked. "You want to feed it to Pearl?"

"No, I want to feed it to my mother," Alex said. "Wait, it works on beasts too?"

"Of course," Shen Jing said.

'Right, if the Spirit Cleansing lily worked, then, of course, the Divine Devil's fruit would work as well,' Alex thought.

Now, he didn't know what to do. He had been thinking of giving this fruit to his mother for a while, but if Pearl could eat it, then he deserved it too.

Especially since his cultivation had been slowing down for a while.

'What should I do?'