Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

A rose bloomed within the two months, and Alex wasn’t there to see it. He was there every week, yet he still missed it. However, now he knew exactly what time next year he had to come.

He marked down the time and would keep track of it with his Voidsand Hourglass.

His progress in front of the Voidgate improved steadily as well. He was making steady progress with learning everything, but more importantly than the others, he was getting better at recognizing the auras.

The most important aura he managed to recognize, aside from the ones he already knew, was the Dao of Temporal Stillness—the dao to freeze time itself.

It was the dao that allowed a person to freeze entropy, to stop something from changing. It was a powerful ability, should Alex ever be able to obtain it. Alas, he doubted he was going to learn it anytime soon.

It took him two months just to realize it was there, even though he had been sensing it for hours every week. And there were other Daos that he wasn’t even sensing yet. He could tell there was at least one other.

A few weeks after that, nearly five months since the start of the tournament, Alex noticed another rose bloom. This time, he was even at the location, on his way to the flower, when he noticed the phenomenon that accompanied the blooming of the Seven-Colored Angel Rose.

He rushed to reach the flower, but someone stronger was already nearby and claimed it before he could. Alex could only watch as the flower was taken away.

Had he known it would bloom today, he would have come much sooner. Alas, he wasn’t lucky enough.

Still, he did what he needed to do. He sat down before the flowerless plant and took note of its energy and the time it had bloomed. Once he did that, he knew exactly when he had to come here next year.

There was also something else he learned thanks to his observations. Because he was keeping weekly records of how much energy each plant had, with the two plants that had bloomed, he now knew, within a week’s margin, when the next one was most likely to bloom as well.

He wasn’t entirely sure if the plants needed an exact amount of energy to bloom, but there had to be a threshold they needed to reach, and if there was one, Alex now had an idea of what it was.

There was another plant in the entire rose garden getting close to the threshold he had in mind. From what he could tell, it was about a month and a half away from reaching it.

The rest were further behind, at least three months away at the minimum. He would test his theory on this one and see if he was right.

He left for the mountains to meet with Rosemist when he noticed people following him. He hadn’t noticed them inside the garden, so they must have started following him once he left.

‘Were they waiting for me?’ Alex wondered. They were hiding their cultivation base, but Alex noticed them with just his eyes. No matter how much they hid their aura, unless it was entirely concealed, it stood out in the air as a bubble of color.

There were three people following him.

A multitude of possibilities ran through Alex’s mind, but he couldn’t say for sure why they were following him. He landed before he reached the mist and began walking, waiting for them to approach him.

They didn’t come immediately.

‘Did they notice that I noticed them?’ he wondered. It was possible, but he decided to wait and see. He slowly made his way into the mist, trekking up the slight incline.

As he walked into the mist, the colors overwhelmed his vision, and soon he couldn’t tell where the three cultivators were. They were now more or less concealed from him. Unless he actively searched for them, he wouldn’t be able to find them.

He waited to see what they would do, but they never approached. He continued waiting for about an hour before he decided to ignore them. Whatever they were planning, he would find out if they confronted him. If not, he didn’t need to worry about them.

He met up with Rosemist and explained what had happened.

“I did sense people trying to come in, but they left once I turned them away,” Rosemist said.

“Oh, your powers reach quite far, huh?” Alex said.

“I empower the mist to aid me, so wherever the mist goes, my power works,” Rosemist said. “Were you worried about the people?”

“Well, someone was following me,” Alex said.

“Ah! They must be surprised that you’re coming in and out of here. They try to come all the time to figure out the mystery behind the mists,” Rosemist said.

“Ah! So they’re following me to see what I know,” Alex said. “Will it be a problem if people find out you’re here?”

“Hm? No problem at all,” Rosemist said. “They can try all they want; they’re not getting in here anyway.”

Alex thought for a moment and then shrugged. If Rosemist had no issue with it, he didn’t either. He paid no further attention to the people and continued with his work.

They flew to the Voidgate, and Alex began learning from it once more. In the past few months of training this way, he had grown much better at it, so he no longer needed to focus so intently to learn everything.

Now, he could even hold a conversation with Rosemist while learning from the aura, which made her rather happy.

Alex trained and talked for many hours before finally leaving the mountain again. He made his way back toward the city. Only, he wasn’t alone.

The three people from back then had not only waited for him to come out of the mist, but had now chosen to follow him on the way back. and this time, they didn’t bother hiding themselves at all.