Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

The old man didn’t seem to have expected that answer at all. He seemed surprised when Alex told him pills with Pill veins still had a chance of affecting him.

“You can call pill clouds?” the old man asked.

“Did you not hear me say it before? I’m one of the best alchemists in the Medicine World,” Alex said. “If you will cooperate with me, I will do my best to heal you.”

The old man’s body slumped finally. “You can call pill clouds…” he said softly. His eyes darted around for a bit before they fixed back on Alex, looking at his eyes.

He saw Alex’s determination in them, the will to do anything he could.

‘Maybe…’ the old man thought. ‘Maybe I might have a chance with him.’

“Are you willing to help me help you now?” Alex asked.

“Alright,” the old man said. “What do you want from me?”

Alex smiled. “For now, why don’t you tell me everything you can? The more I hear about your situation, the easier it will be for me. For example, how did you fail in the Dao lightning.”

“Let us head on in,” the old man said. “I will explain everything.”

They finally walked off the street and into the house. The interior of the house looked empty as well, and even stunk a little. There wasn’t anything worth looking at along the way, so Alex directly followed the old man into a room with some seating arrangements on the floor.

Alex sat on one of the thin cushions and let the old man speak.

“I had passed the Tribulation lightning with relative ease, so I thought I had a good chance. I had prepared a long time for my breakthrough, so my confidence was at an all-time high. I was… overconfident. I did not realize that while I was having an easy time breaking through, I was low on Qi and there were still 7 Dao lightnings to fight.”

“I fought the easier ones like the Dao of Wood, Dao of Wind, and Dao of Water. Then came the harder one.”

“I barely survived the lightning that carried the Dao of Swiftness. I thought I could continue, but the next one sealed my fate.”

“The lightning that came for me fifth was one that carried the aura of the Dao of Ice,” the old man said. “It nearly destroyed me back then. I was nearly dead, my body wrecked beyond recognition. I managed to survive and call off the Dao lightnings but it was then the aura that was around me at the time ingrained into me.”

“The aura of Dao of Ice flowed into me and found the most optimal place to put itself in: my Water spiritual root. It mutated my damn spiritual root.”

The man grumbled as he thought of the past. “Ever since then, whenever I try to use my Qi, the aura takes effect, freezing all the Qi that try to get out of it, or around it. I cannot use my Qi at all.”

“Not even through other spiritual roots?” Alex asked.

“No, they all get affected by the aura,” the old man said.

“Have you tried removing your spiritual root before?” Alex asked.

“I tried,” the old man said. “It was a long time ago. But whenever I did remove it, my body naturally healed one back into place. So yeah, that doesn’t work either.”

“What about the aura?” Alex asked.

“You mean the mutation? The mutation is permanent for me. When the spiritual root grows back, it is the mutated one,” the old man said.

“I see,” Alex said.

“So, do you think you can help me?” the old man asked.

Alex thought for a moment. “Give me a week. I should be able to make a pill or two for you.”

The old man narrowed his eyes. “You cannot heal me with a pill kid. You cannot undo the mutation,” he said.

“Uh, we’ll see about that at that time,” Alex said. “Just to make sure, there is no other issue with you, right? I cannot see much around your dantian, so you will have to answer me.”

“No, no other issues. Just the mutated spiritual root that won’t let me be,” the old man said.

Alex frowned a little. “I do understand that what you are going through may be difficult, but surely False Divinities aren’t condemned to death. You can still live for a long time.”

As he said that, a thought came to him. He looked up at the old man, staring at the scar that poked through his robe.

“Do you mind showing me that wound?” Alex asked.

The old man shrugged and slid down the robe past his shoulders, revealing more of the wound that was hidden around his arm and chest.

What he saw before was a single branch in the multitude of wounds that seemed to span out from one section on the back of his body. A single shape of a bolt of lightning spread around his skin.

“You didn’t get that from your Dao lightning, did you?” Alex asked.

The old man shook his head.

Considering the old man had removed his spiritual root multiple times, he should have been able to heal any wound or scar on himself before the mutated spiritual root healed back.

Which meant that the wound on the old man’s body was more recent. “You got that wound during your last Tribulation lightning, didn’t you?” he asked.

The old man nodded. “The final attack wounded me despite my body being stronger than other Immortals,” he said. An Immortal went through Immortal Tribulation every 10 thousand or so years. For a man who couldn’t use his Qi, such a thing was a death sentence.

“You have managed to survive all this time,” Alex said.

“But I won’t much longer.”

“You will,” Alex said. “I promise you that.”

“Don’t make a promise you can’t keep,” the old man said.

“I will keep it. I will heal you,” Alex said. “Let me make a pill for you. In 1 week from now, you should be healed.”