Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

“War?” Grimsight asked, feeling a deep sense of terror at just the thought of it. He remembered the cries of the innocent demons. The tears of ones who wanted nothing more than to just protect what was theirs.

He could still feel his spear coated in the blood of those who had never been his enemies. His hands were still red with those deaths. “Why… why will there be another war? Is one not enough already?” he asked. “We already got what we wanted. I helped you all get what you wanted.”

The Winter God watched his outburst with narrowed eyes. “You helped, yes. So I am asking you to help us again.”

“No!” Grimsight said. “You cannot let this happen again. Not the war.”

“You want to influence this matter? Become a god,” the Winter God said. “Otherwise, just hand over the treasure, or whatever it is.”

“I will not,” Grimsight said, no longer bowing toward the Winter God. Now he stood straight, no longer a crooked old man. “If you wish to use it for war, I will never hand it over to you.”

“You have no say in this,” the woman said. “I can force you to fork up this information.”

“You can try,” Grimsight said. “But without me giving you this information, you cannot take it away from me. There is nothing you can do to make me give you this information. This is something that shall die with me.”

The Winter God looked at Grimsight, a look of anger flashing through her dark eyes. “I… am a God. You will do what I tell you to do,” she said.

“I will do whatever else you tell me to do, but not this. No other innocent life shall be taken because of me. Not even when a God demands for it.”

“You…!” the Winter God got angry. And when she got angry, it was not just herself that changed.

Snowflakes appeared in the room suddenly, like a thick snowfall. The temperature in the room dropped dramatically within seconds, and frost appeared on top of every surface. “Spearheaven! Do not forget your standing. You gave up the title of a god, so you are beneath me now,” the Winter God said. “You will do as I say. There will be consequences if you do not.” “I will not.” Grimsight stood his ground. A God was strong, sure, but he was not a nobody either.

“I have the power to make you regret not doing as I say,” the Winter God said.

Grimsight let out a deep breath and said, “And I have nothing to lose. Would you like to test me, Winter God? Would you like to fight me, right here in the middle of your beloved empire?”

The two men who had been outside rushed in upon hearing the commotion, weapons ready to attack.

“LEAVE!” the Winter God said suddenly, striking fear into their heart.

“Yes, Your Majesty!” the two said, walking back outside.

The Winter God seethed for a while before calming herself down. She sat back down on the couch and only glared at Grimsight now. “I thought you didn’t want to kill anyone innocent. And yet you are ready to fight me when so many others will die?”

“I might be dying, but I don’t want to die just yet I suppose,” the old man said. “Besides, if I know anything about you and the others, I know that you have your hands tied. And you were always kind to everyone. I simply bet on you not fighting because of that.”

“Tsk!” The Winter God rolled her eyes. “If you won’t tell me your secret then I have wasted my time here. I am leaving.” She got up to leave.

Grimsight nodded. “Take good care of yourself, your Majesty. And please, whatever happens, do not let it all head toward another war.”

“It’s not like I want the war myself,” the woman said in a solemn voice. “It is a matter of survival for many of us. It… might even be inevitable.”

Saying as much, she walked away, leaving the room, and taking away the snowflakes with her.

* * * * * Alex watched as the woman surrounded by clouds floated out of the alchemy store, leaving. Everyone bowed toward her and so did he.

He couldn’t believe his eyes. She… was a god?

She looked so… beautiful. Alex wasn’t sure if that was the right word, but something about her seemed attractive to him. This was weird. He rarely felt this way about women at all. It had been so long since he had such feelings that he had begun thinking of himself as someone asexual. But he clearly wasn’t.

“Damn False Gods,” Godslayer said in his mind. “Look at her, acting all high and mighty. Makes me want the stab her through the heart.”

“She does seem cold,” Alex said. “Do you think it is because she is a god of Winter?”

“They name themselves weird. Why not just call herself the god of Yin? That’s easier to remember. Winter God makes it sound like she controls Winter.”

Alex looked at the snowflakes that formed around him. “She does create snow around her, like winter time. Do you suppose this is her domain? Spreading her Creation around.”

“No, that’s not her Creation,” Godslayer said. “That’s… something else. Even I don’t know. There are gods who change the environment with just their presence. Somehow. I never managed to figure it out. Those were the gods that I could never kill.”

“Even you don’t know, huh?” Alex asked.

Godslayer remained silent.

The Winter God left, leaving behind a sunny sky. People in the city seemed to have known about the god coming previously, so they had gotten out to watch her leave. Now that she was gone, they talked about her.

Alex was confused about the woman and wanted to see how people looked at her. Was she a narcissist? He soon lost any feelings he had for her.

They returned to find Grimsight sitting alone in their room. When asked what he had talked about with God, Grimsight said nothing. They couldn’t get a single word out from him, aside from the small fact that they had known each other before, long before the Winter God had been a god.

After some time, everything returned to normalcy and Alex spent some time cultivating. After cultivating for no more than 10 days, he couldn’t keep up with Godslayer’s consistent nagging, asking him to go back to the Ever Dark realm.

He really wanted the Darkness aura that gathered close to that realm. After some deliberation, he decided to go there once again.

Alex made sure Silvermist and Grimsight knew about this, but this time around he was going alone. He especially didn’t want Grimsight to see himself gathering the Darkness aura.

It took a little convincing to let him go alone, but once he did, he was free to do it as many times as he wanted to, so long as he returned within 3 days of leaving.

With 2 more years before they left for Medicine Realm, Alex began his bimonthly journey to the Ever Dark realm and back where Godslayer absorbed all that he could through Alex.