Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex’s confused look confused Nanjing as well. He wondered what he was thinking about and turned to the side where his eyes went to.

“Oh, senior. You’re here?” he said with a hint of surprise. “Father wishes to see you as well for the feast if that’s possible.”

“Tell your father I won’t be able to join him,” the old man said. “I was distracted in the middle of my work, so I still have a lot to do.”

Nanjing nodded. “You need not hurry as you had to before,” he said. “Our friend here has healed most of our sick and wounded. We should have a greater workforce starting tomorrow.”

“No, no,” the old man said. “You’re still in danger of beasts invading and making this their territory. I should head back to work.”

The old man walked out, not staying for any more questions.

Nanjing bowed slightly as the old man left, and turned around toward Alex. “If you aren’t busy, should we go?”

Alex nodded absentmindedly and stood up. “That old man… I had been thinking of him as the chief of this tribe. Is he not?”

“Him?” Nanjing said with a surprised look. “Of course not. That’s senior Shaozhen. You might know him as the Giftmaster.”

Alex frowned. “The what?”

“Giftmaster,” the man said. “Do you not know about him?”

“First time I’m hearing about him.”

“Huh? Well, I do think I remember hearing about him saying he doesn’t help big cities since they can help themselves, so it’s understandable.”

The man turned around to leave and Alex followed.

“People seem to respect him quite a bit.”

“Of course,” Nanjing said. “Senior Shaozhen is welcomed in any and all villages. We’ve grown up hearing about him, how he brings gifts to the children and aid to the villages in need. You can’t find a single person in the village that doesn’t respect him for that.”

Alex was quite surprised. “Does he come here all the time?”

“Every few years,” Nanjing explained. “He has other villages he needs to visit too, so he can only come by every so often. Even when he does, he only stays for as long as he needs to.”

“Where does he come from?” Alex asked.

Nanjing shrugged. “We don’t know actually, not that we bother to learn. Senior has made it clear that he doesn’t want anyone asking about his background, so we don’t. We accept the gift he brings and thank him for it.”

Alex was quite fascinated by the old man.

“What’s he doing here now?” he asked.

“He came to help after the sandstorm. He’s helping us hide the village from the beasts even if more sandstorms were to come afterward.”

Alex got curious. “How is he doing that?”

The man shrugged again. “I don’t know. I just know what he’s doing. I guess I’ll find out once he’s done.”

Alex couldn’t help but wonder a lot about the old man.

They arrived outside of a large hut wherein the chief lived. Alex walked in and found an older man, bearing some resemblance to Nanjing. The chief was nowhere near as old as he had expected; at least he looked younger than Shaozhen did.

The chief thanked Alex for all he had done and requested for a simple checkup on himself as well. Alex obliged, checking the old man’s body to see what issues he had.

The chief didn’t need anything at all as he was still fit, but Alex handed him a paste to drink every day that would make him much healthier than he already was.

The chief talked with Alex for some time, before asking him to rest the night in a room that had already been prepared.

“Actually, could I visit this senior Shaozhen to see what he is doing?” Alex asked.

The chief appeared reluctant. “I’m not sure senior Shaozhen will like anyone disturbing his work, and it is important work.”

“I simply plan on watching. If it’s too much, you could ask him beforehand, see if he rejects it.”

The chief turned toward his son, who nodded and left.

“We’ll know soon,” the chief said.

Alex patiently waited for a few minutes before Nanjing returned. “Senior Shaozhen says it’s fine, so long as you don’t disturb him.”

Alex stood up with a smile. “I don’t plan on that at all.”

Alex was taken through the house, out the back and toward another large building that no one seemed to live around. As he approached, Alex felt the coldness of the night amplified in this region and quickly understood this was where the village kept their Sunhearts.

Pooled up in the center, the well of Sunhearts would be a deterrent for other beasts with Sunhearts as they would believe this region to be a territory of another strong beast.

However, there was a chance that weaker beasts would be desperate enough to find any Sunheart that they would come to attack it. With so much sand from the sandstorm, the villagers would have a hard time realizing any beast was there before it got too close.

Alex entered the hut and was quite amazed at how simple the region was. The hut was a storage space, keeping large amounts of cured meats that couldn’t be kept anywhere else in the heat.

The entire room was filled with dried meat, with a well at the center that gave off a small orange glow from all the Sunhearts.

Beyond the well, the old man quietly worked with a hammer and a chisel, hitting away at something Alex couldn’t quite see just yet.

“Please, do not disturb him. We don’t want to offend him into never returning to our village again,” Nanjing said with a pleading look.

Alex nodded earnestly, and only then did the third son leave the hut.

Once he was alone, Alex walked over to the well, and looked beyond at the old man to see what he was doing.

To his surprise, the old man was carving gashes into a massive cylindrical metal plate.

‘Is that… a formation?’