Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex walked into a room, following the woman from the Falling Lotus sect. It was a medical facility for people that were injured in the tournament.

Alex looked at the many beds that were in the room and asked, "What do I do now?"

Just as he asked, he heard a set of footsteps as a whole lot of people simultaneously walked in from the other side of the room.

He had seen almost half of them before, but he only recognized Xue Mufan amongst them.

"You should not have cheated, young man." An old man amongst them spoke up as he walked ahead of all of them.

"I did no such thing, senior," Alex said, wondering who the old man was.

"And you lie as well," the old man sighed and shook his head.

"What exactly is happening, senior? I'm missing the match outside and that may cost me tomorrow's match. Please hurry up and test me so I can leave," Alex said.

"Alright, give us your storage bags so we can check it," the old man said.

Alex's eyes narrowed. "Why do you want my storage bag? Isn't the suspicion here that I ate a pill?" he asked.

"Yes, and you might have more in your bag," the old man said.

"Senior, do you really believe that I would be stupid enough to cheat in the way I did and would be even stupider to keep the evidence lying around?" Alex asked.

"That's…" the old man had no response.

"Even if you did find something forbidden in my storage bag, you are here to prove that I used it in the first place. Surely it is not a crime to own something, right?" Alex asked.

"Sigh, Mufan, Zirong, take over," The old man said and walked back.

Xue Mufan walked up front along with another man in a white, burnt robe. 'That's Zhou Zirong?' Alex thought to himself. It wasn't every day that you got to see the two most famous Saint Alchemists of the empire in a single room.

"Seniors," Alex greeted them with a bow.

"Sigh, young man. You caused quite the commotion today," Xue Mufan spoke up.

"It was either that or lose without fighting," Alex said.

"Bring a puppet please," Zirong asked someone from the tournament staff. The man nodded and walked away for a while.

"Please tell me if you really ate something or used something to enhance your abilities," Xue Mufan asked.

"I did nothing, senior," Alex said.

"Sigh, I really hope you are telling the truth," Mufan said under his breath.

The staff that had left earlier arrived with a puppet. When Alex saw it, he realized what was happening.

"You want to test my strength?" he asked.

"Yes," Zirong said from the side. "Before we do what we do, we need to test your strength to see if you still have the pill in your system."

Alex frowned but agreed. "Okay, I'll do it," he said and turned towards the puppet. Without waiting for anything, he punched at it.

A golden fist emerged from his punch and flew at the puppet, hitting it dead on the chest.

After a second or two, a single line of sentence emerged.

- True Emperor 9th realm-

Alex turned toward the two alchemists. "That's enough right?"

Xue Mufan and Zhou Zirong looked in shock. They simply knew of no drugs that could produce such a massive result for someone that was in True King 9th realm.

That was an entire realm above where he was currently. "Just what did you eat?" Xue Mufan muttered to himself.

"Here, eat this." Zhou Zirong produced a blue pill from his storage bag. He handed the pill over to Alex, who looked at it with a dumb face.

"What's this?" he asked.

"It's a type of nullifying pill. Unlike a normal nullifying pill that works only when recently created and just as the pill is in effect, this one can be used long after one has eaten a pill," Zirong explained.

"That's… that's quite good," Alex was surprised to hear of the existence of such pills.

"It is, but it's not without its drawbacks," Zirong explains. "For one, it can only be used after the pill has taken effect. So if it's a harmful pill you ate, this would be useless."

"And worse of all, especially when concerned with the current situation, this pill needs a full 24 hours to completely get rid of the pill you ate from your system," Zirong explained.

"Which means… I won't be freed until after 24 hours?" Alex asked.

"I'm afraid that is so," Zirong said.

"You don't have to worry about your match if that's what you are concerned about," Mufan said from the side. "If we don't make it in time, your match will be postponed by a bit."

"Then, we will find out if it is you or He Liwei that will get to pass to the next round," Mufan explained.

"I see, so I better eat this early," Alex said and was about to eat the pill when he stopped.

"What will the pill do to me when it doesn't find anything in my system?" Alex asked.

"Nothing," Zirong answered.

"I see, very well then," Alex said and popped the pill into his mouth before swallowing it.

Xue Mufan watched him swallow the pill with his spiritual sense and followed it until it reached his stomach.

Spiritual sense was hard to use on someone else's body, but a Saint realm cultivator using it on a True realm gave way for his senses easily.

Once he saw the pill dissolve, he finally nodded. "Good, now you will be under supervision for the next 24 hours here. Anything you need will be provided by the staff but you won't be allowed to get out," he explained.

"I understand," Alex said.

"That's it, senior. We will take our leave now," Zirong turned to the old man at the back of the room.

"Thank you, brother Mufan, brother Zirong," the old man bowed in thanks.

"Keep an eye on him. In 24 hours, if he still has the same strength he showed earlier, he will have passed," he explained.

After the two alchemists left, the staff also left one by one until only a few remained to watch over him.

Alex sighed and went to sit on one of the beds where he started cultivating, ignoring the person that was watching him.

Yang Qi raged through his body, destroying any part of the pill he had just absorbed. While he trusted the words of two Saint alchemists to not harm a young man like him, he still decided to be careful and destroyed the pill in his body after they left.

That in turn gave him a boat-load of Qi that he now needed to refine in his body. So, for the entire 24 hours of the time he remained in the room, he cultivated.

Once the 24 hours had passed, he stopped and walked up to the staff that was watching over him now.

"Can I test now?" he asked.

The staff nodded and let Alex attack the puppet.

The golden fist struck the puppet and the same information was shown in it again.

True Emperor 9th realm.