Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

"Bring out your cauldron," the old man said. "It is time to see if you can acquire more than a single pill vein."

Alex nodded and brought out his cauldron. He had prepared many ingredients for this very moment. He started heating up the cauldron while he glanced towards the old man from time to time.

It had been 8 years since the last time he had seen the old man, and the things he noticed regarding the old man had changed quite a bit as well.

The old man still had a very high cultivation base for Alex to even sense the slightest bit of it. But, he didn't need to sense someone to see how strong they were.

He could see it.

His purple eyes seemed to glow in the firelight as they looked at the aura around the old man. Being unable to do anything to hide the leaking aura, he saw it all.

He could see the green and black aura. They were the Qi that was coming out of the old man's dantian, and Alex could see them with his naked eyes.

After all, one of the things he had managed to advance upon in the last 8 years was his Demon Eyes.

At stage 2, his eyes could now see elemental energy and aura for what they were in different colors.

Red was for fire, blue for water, green for wood, and so on. Alex knew all the 7 various element's colors. He also saw the crimson color for blood.

As for space, it had no color from what he could see. But then, space was something that was related to the third stage of his eyes, so maybe he would see the color after he reached that.

Alex looked at the old man's green aura and knew it was related to wood. But the black aura was weird. It wasn't simply black like it would be for yin.

It was pitch black and very thick. Which Alex associated with a single thing.

'Death aura,' he thought. 'Of course, the old man's death aura must be quite high.'

The old man was simply too strong for him to sense something in him without touching him, so only now was he realizing it.

'Could I perhaps pump enough death aura in him to ki—' Alex stopped thinking as power seemed to wrap around his neck, strangling him.

'Shit, I can't think about that. I have to heal him,' he thought. The oath was simply too powerful for him to think of doing anything that could deviate him from healing the old man.

Still, learning that the old man had a lot of death aura could be quite a helpful hint he had been missing for a long time.

He quickly told Godslayer who gave him a disappointing answer. "If I could help you with that, I would, but the old man dying is the last thing you should be thinking about. Because the moment he dies, you die too."

'Sigh, I know,' Alex thought. That was still one more piece of information than what he had before so he didn't lose hope yet.

"Don't forget to eat your pill before you start," the old man said. Alex nodded and took out a random pill to eat, which he acted like would improve his cultivation base by 2 realms.

He then started making the pill as he put in the ingredients one by one. He was very familiar with the pills now, and it was even easier for him as both his cultivation base and his spiritual energy had improved vastly in the last 8 years.

It didn't take much out of him as he completed making the pills and one of them had 100% Harmony in it.

Immediately, the room was filled with miniature storm clouds that crackled with lightning. The old man felt uneasy when he saw the lightning but did nothing to show his fear.

Alex covered the pill with a portion of his Qi to protect it from the lightning bolt. The first bolt of lightning dropped from the ceiling and struck the pill.

Fortunately, Alex's protection was strong enough for the pill to survive. However, it wasn't over yet as the lightning would still strike 8 more times.

His Saint Foundation 1st realm strength could most likely protect the pill against the next strike. Alex hadn't tried it yet, but he had a feeling it could.

He was cautiously optimistic as he covered the pill with his energy again. The lightning struck once more and fortunately, the pill survived, barely.

Alex knew that if he did not increase his energy, he could not protect the pill against the next strike.

"Senior, this is all I can do," he said. "The pill will get destroyed."

"No, continue it," the old man said. He wasn't worried about the pill getting destroyed at all. If it did, he would just ask Alex to make another one. But if it did survive, then that was so much more chance for him to heal.

Alex wanted to let go, but he didn't. If it was destroyed then it would be the old man's fault after all.

He continued protecting the pill and as expected, it was destroyed. Alex slumped back as he breathed heavily to show the fatigue he had gone through. It wasn't as bad, but he had to exaggerate it.

"Good cauldron," the old man complimented. "Start again."

Alex frowned. "Let me rest a few moments, senior," he said.

"No, start again. You barely used any Qi last time," the old man said. Being close to healing himself had made him care less about Alex.

Alex frowned but did as asked. He stood back up and started making the pill again.

Once again, he made another pill that called down the lightning. He easily defended against the first strike, and barely defended against the second one.

He then brought out the pill immediately to show the two intertwining lightning scars on it, or as it was called in Alchemy terms, Pill veins.

"Here you go, senior," Alex said.

"Good job," the old man said. "Not great, but good."

Alex felt a pang of anger when he heard that. Not only did he have to make a pill, but he also had to suffer from unnecessary judgment by a man that relied on him to survive.

'If only I could kill him after healing him,' he thought.

"Haha, you can't," Godslayer said. "You would need an immortal to win against him. Do you know any?"

"Of course I do," Alex said.

"Not that cat lady," Godslayer said.

"I know. I know a different one too," he said.

"Oh, you do?" Godslayer asked curiously.

Alex didn't say anything. Talking about the four heavenly beasts was not something he wanted to do with Godslayer since he would immediately get mad at them and throw a whole fit.

He had in fact thought of asking the tortoise for help, but how could he? He could only leave here after he had healed the old man. Then, he would have to somehow get away from his clutches and find a way to the Ruler's Domain where the tortoise lived.

Then he would have to get past the fact that the tortoise was wounded. He would have to have a pill with so many pill veins that it could heal an actual immortal.

After that, he would have to wait for the tortoise to go through Heavenly Judgment, which last he remembered had most likely killed Lady Ren. The tortoise would most likely survive, but even then Alex would have to heal him again.

In that period of time, the madman will have done all the destruction he could.

So, there was simply no way for Alex to place all of his hopes on the tortoise.

"The immortal I do know wouldn't be of much help to us," he said.

However, he could still be there when all else failed, so Alex hadn't exactly given up on the idea of healing the tortoise. Even if it was just as a form of common courtesy, he would help him heal.

The old man ate the pill in his hand and waited for it to heal him. He was very optimistic, and that was why he was even more disappointed when the pill failed.

"Dammit!" he cried out.

Alex could see the man's anger start to boil up, and he was worried that it would pour all over him. So before the man could even fully bring out his rage, he spoke.

"Senior, there might be a way to improve your chances of healing," he said.

"What?" the old man turned his head.

"I have a way to possibly help you heal better," Alex repeated.

"What do you mean?" the old man asked. His rage was dying down a bit because of just how confused he was.

"I never before noticed it, but now I do. Your body has a lot of death aura building up on it for a long while now. If you let it fester any longer, you will never be able to heal yourself. The life energy in these pills that are supposed to heal you would get eaten up by the death energy, making them practically useless," Alex said.

The old man couldn't find any lies in those words. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"I'm not entirely sure if that is the main cause or not, but I can guarantee you that it is part of it," Alex said.

The old man thought for a moment and nodded. "Go ahead, if you can do something about it, then do it."