Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

The sun rose back again, and according to Shen Jing, there was still a couple of hours before the realm would start.

So, everyone was just staying there, waiting for it to be open.

So, Alex was quite bored and decided to ask Shen Jing something that had been in his mind for a while.

”Brother Shen, what happened to the demons?” he asked. If there was a demon realm here, then there had to be demons living on this continent, or more likely all 5 continents. 

Why was there no information about demons anymore in this world?

”Oh, nothing bad,” Shen Jing said with a glowing smile. “Once the war was over, they left the secret realm and went out to live with humans in harmony, happily ever after.”

Alex stopped his face from frowning. “Please be serious, brother Shen,” he said.

”Oh but I am serious,” Shen Jing said. “When the war ended, the demons had no longer any reason to stay in that realm, so they left it and went on to live on the main continent with the humans that had now occupied most of the land.”

”And where are these demons now?” Alex asked, half expecting Shen Jing to make up something else to continue his lie, and half hoping that he was telling the truth and that there really were demons, but he simply had not seen them.

”Well… there are no demons exactly so to speak,” Shen Jing said. “Since the war, I am talking about happened so long ago that records of it are hard to find, the demons that lived together with the humans started really living together.”

”As in they got into relationships and even had children of their own. Those children had their children and those children had their children.”

”Slowly, the pure demon bloodline diluted to the point that it is nowhere, and yet everywhere.”

Shen Jing looked at everyone in-crowd and slowly said, “Each of these humans here has some level of demon blood in them. But it is so diluted that their physical properties, like the horn, eyes and superior body usually don’t manifest at all.”

”I see,” he said. “So… in a sense, we are all at some part demons too huh?” 

Shen Jing looked at Alex with a smile that looked like it was keeping a chuckle from showing through.

”Everyone, please gather here for a quick meeting,” a man with no hair called out to the people in the crowd.

He wore a white robe that had burnt edges that were fully black. Next to him, stood 2 other people. 

One of them wore a white robe that was nearly filled with red all over as if the man stood on in a blood rain while wearing white.

The other one, a woman, wore a fully purple robe with multicolor linings on the inside.

Of the 3, only the bald one had spoken.

”Let’s go see what it is,” Alex said to Shen Jing, who half-heartedly stood up and walked to the crowd.

Finally, as Alex got closer, he was able to sense more and more cultivation base of the people that were on the island.

Even while they tried to suppress their aura, the Saint realms could still be sensed from a kilometer away.

But these True realm cultivators were harder to sense from where Alex was, at least without sending out his spiritual sense.

So, now that he was sensing them, he looked surprised. ‘So strong,’ he thought.

These normal-looking disciples ranged from the True Master realm, all the way up to the True King realm. Amongst them, Alex ranked somewhere in the middle, he thought.

”You will have a hard time in the secret realm, but it’s also a good opportunity to see where your training has brought you,” Shen Jing said.

Alex nodded. It wasn’t a competition that he needed to be afraid of True King participants. All he needed to do was walk aside when they were around.

As Alex was looking through the crowd, watching the Myriad people in there, his eyes fell on a young man —well, young for his cultivation base— standing next to two elder figures wearing the same fully red, almost crimson robe.

His eyes flashed as if to sense someone watching him, and he turned around towards Alex and looked at him.

Alex gave a smile and a nod to this young man, confusing him if he had even seen Alex before.

However, as he searched through his mind, he quickly remembered where he had seen him before.

”Brother Yu Ming?” a shocked voice entered his mind, surprising Alex. ‘Spiritual sense? He didn’t have it last time,’ Alex thought.

The young man rushed towards Alex, while the rest of the crowd was focused on the older men that were still in the process of gathering everyone.

”Sorry for startling you like that with my spiritual sense,” the young man said.

”It was a pleasant surprise, brother Fu Tao,” Alex said, bowing a little in greeting.

”My surprise on the other hand is undeniably shocking, brother Yu,” Fu Tao said. “You really did come to the Luminance Empire.”

”I did, and it was all thanks to you,” Alex said.

”Right, right, don’t worry about that. I remember you talking about wanting to save someone, right? Did…you…” Fu Tao slowly asked.

”Yes,” Alex said, pushing Pearl a little until his head popped out of his robes.

”Meow!” Pearl greeted. After Alex’s insistence that he only meows from now on to strangers, Pearl remembered not to say ‘Hello’ even if he wanted to.

”Oh, it was a cat huh?” Fu Tao said, with almost all of his interest in the conversation disappearing slowly.

He turned to the side and looked towards the older bald man and said, “Something seems to be happening, we can talk later.”

Then, he walked back to where he had been before.

”True King 7th realm?” Alex softly asked.

”8th,” Shen Jing replied while staring at Fu Tao. “He sure doesn’t know how to hide his disinterest, does he?” 

”I think he’s a good guy, but I wouldn’t trust myself to judge a person,” Alex said.

”Better to be careful,” Shen Jing said.

Alex turned around to look at the front where the people were gathering and by coincidence looked at the monument to the side of them.

The monument was rectangular in shape and had something carved onto one of the faces that Alex couldn’t see from where he had been before this.

’Are those… writings?’ he thought. He read the word ‘Demons’ at the very top of the monument, but other than that, he could read nothing else.

It didn’t even look like the other languages that the beasts and immortals used.

”Brother Shen, what does that say?” he asked, looking at the carving.

Shen Jing looked at Alex, then turned to the monument, then looked back at Alex, then turned to the monument and looked back at Alex for the final time.

”You do remember that I cannot read, right?” he asked.

Alex stopped his urge to laugh out loud. He really had forgotten. “I’m sorry. I read the word Demon at the top, but other than that, I couldn’t read anything,” he said.

Shen Jing turned around to look at the monument once again and said, “Ah, I do know what those are.”

Alex looked at him with narrowed eyes. 

Shen Jing gave a bright smile back. “I do,” he said. “Did you forget that I’ve been here before? I simply remembered what they are.”

Alex’s suspicions disappeared and he asked, “So, what do they say?” 

”Nothing,” Shen Jing said, keeping his bright smile to himself.

”Brother Shen, please don’t joke around,” Alex said.

Shen Jing chuckled a little and said, “I’m really not joking. That thing might say demon at the top, but other than that, it’s all just runes carved into the block.”

”Runes?” Alex asked with a confused look.

”Yes, runes,” Shen Jing said.

Alex frowned. He looked at the monument once again and carefully looked through each of these ‘runes.’

’Oh my god,’ he thought. 

”They really are runes,” Alex said out loud.

”See? I told you I wouldn’t lie,” Shen Jing said.

Alex was genuinely surprised to see runes carved on the monument’s wall. After all, as far as he knew, runes were only used in talismans. 

”Why are there runes on the wall?” Alex asked as he looked at the monument again.

The perfectly carved runes flowed artistically in all sorts of geometrical figures as well as curves, making designs in the monument that was intrinsic, artistic, and most of all… Symmetric.

Alex couldn’t help but wonder what all of these runes did or meant. He desperately wished to know anything about talismans right now.

But, he didn’t, so he had no idea.

”Of course, you would find runes here. It’s a demon’s realm after all,” Shen Jing said.

Alex turned his head to look at him. “What does that have to do with anything?” he asked.

Shen Jing gave him a curious look and asked, “Do you not know?” only to immediately say, “Ah right, you only learned about Demons today after all.”

Alex’s curiosity was obviously piqued by this statement.

”What do I not know?” Alex asked.

”That it was the demons who created the runes in the first place,” Shen Jing said.

”What?” Alex asked in surprise.

”Well, created is a wrong word. Discovered is more like it,” he said. “While the humans discovered pills and formations, it was the demons who discovered runes and medicinal pastes.”