Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex traveled through the desert, searching for Death, and yet still didn’t find her.

He wasn’t sure if he was even on the right track or not, but he had to continue searching for her nonetheless. He wanted desperately to practice his sword with her, even if that meant dying a hundred times just to improve his sword skill once.

Alex visited many tribes and many villages, staying there for half a day or so each time to help them if he could. When he was done, he would leave the place.

Alex asked for Death everywhere, and while sometimes he got some information, it wasn’t enough to find her. He continued searching for any trails that might lead him to her.

At some point, Alex wondered if he should just stop and go back to one of the cities to go back to the Endless Night sect, but he had a feeling things wouldn’t be so simple in the Endless Night sect anymore.

The only witness that could prove his innocence was dead thanks to Death, so they would punish him for the entire crime, even though he never committed any. Whatever sect or group of people had killed the Hell Warrior sect would get away freely.

A month passed with Alex searching for Death.

During his search, he ended up in an unusual location.

He arrived at a village that was covered in sand all around, as if they had dug themselves deep within a sandy region and made that their home. There were people working on the edges of the region, shoveling away the sand.

Alex landed close by and walked up to them to find out what they were doing.

“We’ve had terrible sandstorms recently,” one of the working men said. “We’re being covered in sand over and over. We’re trying to clear it out before beasts start occupying this region as their own.”

Alex gave a look of surprise and looked throughout the land. “You mean to say this land wasn’t previously sandy?” he asked.

“No,” the man explained. “It’s the sandstorms.”

Alex thought of helping, but he couldn’t tell how he could help at all. He couldn’t clear the sand away since he could only use his Qi within a certain range of himself. At this small a range, even True Qi did the same.

These people were already doing what they could do.

Alex watched the men shovel away the sand, putting them all into their storage bag, so they could release it somewhere else.

“You should leave, friend. We might get another sandstorm again. No one can really tell these days. You should not be here since the sandstorm tends to delude the beasts into thinking this is their area. You don’t want to get caught up in that battle.”

Alex shrugged. “I just stopped by to ask something,” he said. “Do you know if Death has been around here?”

“Death?” the man froze, no longer shoveling. He wasn’t the only one; there were others that were now staring at Alex too.

“Why do you ask about Death, friend?” someone else asked.

“I just wanted to know if she was anywhere near here so that I could avoid her,” Alex said. “I heard that she was in the vicinity in the previous village?”

“Really?” one of the men asked with a fearful look. He looked toward the group. “Tell the people to not leave the village. Stay in for the time being.”

“But we need to get rid of this sand so we can make use of the storage bags,” another one said.

“Would you rather live with sand for a few days longer or go meet Death?” the man asked. “Just delay it for a few days. It will be fine.”

The other men reluctantly agreed and kept on working.

Alex frowned. “So, I assume you have no recent information on her?”

“Sorry, friend. You are the first to bring us that information. Not that we have had the chance to leave the village these past few weeks,” the man said.

Alex could only sigh.

Just then a man stumbled and fell to his knees. The other men quickly walked up to him and pulled him to his feet again.

“Gaixun, go back and rest in the shade,” one of the men ordered.

“I… I can continue,” the fallen man said.

“Don’t be stupid,” the man talking to Alex added. “Go back and rest.”

“But…”

“No. Go rest. We can finish this ourselves.”

The tired man reluctantly walked away, going back to the village.

“What’s up with him?” Alex asked.

“Heatstroke,” the man explained. “Everyone’s been getting it these past few weeks.”

“Everyone?” Alex asked.

The man nodded. “Even the strongest warrior is falling ill to the heat these days,” he said. “The sandstorm is doing something to them all.”

Alex frowned. Warriors were used to working in the heat, so the fact that they had started experiencing heat stroke was quite unusual. He looked down at the sand and frowned a little.

Now that he was paying attention to it, there was more redness in the sand now. It was a shade darker than the regular orange that filled the entirety of the inner region of Hell, perhaps a shade lighter than the redness of the core region.

Alex grabbed a handful of the sand and examined it like he had never before. He brought it up to his chest where Whisker could examine it too.

“There’s a lot more Yang here than normal, brother,” Whisker said.

“I sense that too,” Alex said. He wondered if these sands were blown over from the core regions, which was why they were so much redder, and filled with much more yang.

‘These men must be poisoned by Yang,’ he realized. Even ones with a Yang constitution would be poisoned if they were around this much Yang constantly.

“Where are your men that are suffering from heatstroke?” Alex asked. “I am a healer, so let me see if I can help them.”