Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

"Yu Ming… and Rogue cultivator," the lady wrote. "Give me some identification for this."

"Here," Alex handed her his Alchemy badge that had the information written on it.

"What? You're from the Alchemy guild?" the woman looked at him with surprise.

"Yes," Alex said.

"Why didn't you say so? I will put that as affiliation." The woman went on to change the information, but…

"Stop." Alex stopped her. "I know what I said. I don't consider myself affiliated with anything in particular."

"So you really want to leave it blank? Being affiliated will help you, you know? You won't have to fight with people in your own organization early on," she said.

"Is that so?" Alex asked. He was surprised that was the case. Although it did make sense so as to not make allies fight so early in the tournament.

"I'll still go with blank," Alex told her.

"Well, your choice," she said. "Place your whole palm on the formation."

Alex nodded and did as told. As soon as he did so, the formation crackled and a bunch of information floated on top of it.

"27… and a True King 8TH REALM?" the woman's voice increased by a few octaves and decibels as she read the information that floated in front of her.

"Anything else you want to know?" Alex asked her seeing as she was too stunned to do anything else.

"No… no," the woman shook her head.

"Ok then, I'll go ahead." Alex started walking away.

"Wait!" the woman suddenly shouted from behind him.

"Yes?" Alex turned around.

"Here, your number for now," she said and handed him a number that read 314.

'I'm the 314th person to register today? So many,' he thought. He then thanked the woman and made his way towards the center square where there would be a test for the people to finally join the tournament.

The woman got back to doing her own thing now that Alex had left, but even as she did, a weird feeling arose in her heart.

'A 27-year-old alchemist called Yu Ming? Why does that name sound so…' her eyes suddenly went wide and she turned to look at Alex. However, he had already mingled with the crowd and disappeared.

'No way,' she thought. 'I heard he died though. Can it really be him?'

'I wonder what the test entails,' Alex on the other hand wondered as he walked up to the crowd.

When he got there, he saw someone appear and stage and get tested for their cultivation base. Alex watched a girl activate a formation that read the words True King 3rd realm for her.

The staff members recorded the information and sent her along. After that, they called another person using the number they were given. 122.

"Oh, it's that far already huh?" Alex couldn't help but say.

As more and more people kept being called, Alex suddenly felt a nudge on his shoulders.

He ignored it the first time, but when the nudge got stronger the second time around, he had to turn around to see who it was.

When he did, he met the eyes of two girls that had their hands to their mouth in shock.

"Alchemist Yu, is it really you?" Liang Qiu asked with utter shock on her face.

"It has to be him. Look, it is him," Han Daiyu said from the side. Aside from there, there were a few other disciples of the Han family and Heaven's Peak school, but Alex didn't recognize the rest.

"Hello, Sister Daiyu, Sister Liang, it's been a while," Alex said as he bowed a little towards them.

"It's been a while. of course, it has," Liang Qiu said.

"6 years really," Han Daiyu said. "I haven't seen you after you made our pills. Then suddenly, two years ago I hear you died. Why did you spread the false rumors?"

"Oh, I didn't spread any rumors," Alex said. "I really was missing, so they assumed dead. I only managed to escape from where I had been half a year ago and spent the rest of the time cultivating secretly."

"You were in a dangerous place?" Liang Qiu asked curiously.

"Yes, in the Icy hell." Alex nodded at her.

"Well, I'm glad you're alive. It would've been a tragedy if the greatest alchemist the empire has ever seen were to die just like that after winning the competition." She pat his shoulders.

"Oh right, let me introduce these people." Han Daiyu started introducing Alex to the rest of the people there who were immediately friendly since they had learned who he was.

No one wanted to be enemies with someone that was an Immortal Grade alchemist.

"Are you not with the Alchemist guild?" Liang Qiu asked.

"No, how did you know?" Alex asked.

"You're not wearing their colors," she said. "Why not?"

"I just didn't want to have anyone take credit for who I am. Those who deserve it aren't here, so I won't let others take their place."

Liang Qiu smiled. "That's admirable. Anyway, what's your number?"

Alex looked at his paper. "314. Yours?" he asked.

"These here are around 270, but we two don't have any numbers," Han Daiyu said.

"You guys aren't registering?" Alex asked.

"No, we don't need to," Liang Qiu said. "We are seeded into the top 128 even without having to register. That's a benefit of the reputation we've built as some of the strongest younger generations.

"Oh, how many of you are there?" Alex asked.

"Around 16 of us I believe." Han Daiyu gave a thoughtful look. "7 great clans, 4 great sects, 1 from the Royal disciples, and 4 very strong and popular folks from everywhere else."

"I see, you're quite lucky then," Alex said.

"It's no luck. It's all hard work," Han Daiyu corrected him.

"Right, sorry."

One of the people he was introduced to was called on stage and they all watched.

The man that was called managed to receive a True Emperor 2nd Realm assessment and was sent away. The crowd buzzed with hushed discussions at the man's cultivation base.

"That's a weird reaction from the people," Alex said. Sure a True Emperor 2nd realm was great, but it wasn't anything amazing. There would be a lot more of them here today. After all, some had been waiting for 20 years just for this competition.

"Ignore them, most of them are just jealous," Han Daiyu said from the side.

"Of course, but I just don't see the need to be jealous," Alex said. "It's not like he got that cultivation base without putting in work."

"Oh no, they're not jealous of the cultivation base at all," Liang Qiu said.

"They're… not?" Alex was confused now. "Why else would they be jealous then?"

"Because he just got to skip directly to be registered," she said.

"I don't understand." Alex urged for more information.

"Do you not know?" Liang Qiu asked. "If your cultivation base is in the True Emperor realm, you basically automatically join the tournament."

"And if it's not?" Alex asked.

"Well, if it's not then, you have to sit around with these people and go through a test to see if you have what it takes to join the tournament or not. That will take you quite a long time though."