Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

“What are you eating?” Bladedance asked.

She had noticed after some time that Alex had begun to eat something whenever he had the chance. He would quickly bring out something and pop it into his mouth before she could get a clear sight of it.

“Are those pills? Won’t they poison you?” she asked.

“Hmm? Oh, no. It’s the fruit I got from the tree, Master,” Alex said, quickly bringing out a square chunk from his storage space and tossing it toward her. “You should try one. It’s great.”

Bladedance caught the fruit and looked at it for a short while. The yellowish-orange pulp of the fruit looked like a delicacy, making her waste no more time to consume it.

She swallowed it and soon saw the effects of it on her body. It was wonderful.

“I feel as though I have gotten stronger,” she said slowly. “And my body feels slightly energetic too.”

“Have you gone through Mortal Cleansing, master? If not, you can eat some. You will likely do so,” Alex said, bringing out a handful more.

“No!” Bladedance shouted suddenly, before calming a little. “That fruit was for you. I cannot consume it. Not that it will help me all that much. I am already a Celestial to begin with. Use it on yourself.”

Alex saw the seriousness on her face and nodded. He took it back.

Once he was done resting, he went back to learning from the Void.

Alex was progressively learning more and more from the Void. And he learned more, the harder it became, for he now began recognizing even more aura.

There was a Dao within Space that had to do with its ability to become boundless, as well as a Dao that had to do with Space itself being nothingness. Alex had only understood as much about those two daos, but sadly nothing more.

Within Time, there were other new Dao too. There was a Dao that had to do with the inevitable flow of time, a Dao that was the lack of time, and a Dao that had to do with Time moving backward.

The more individual Dao he recognized, the harder it became to focus on just one. With so many Dao assaulting him at the opening of Void, Alex was forced to take some of them in, despite not wishing to.

For now, the main Dao he focused on were the Dao of Spatial Contraction, Dao of Spatial Distortion, Dao of Time, Dao of Temporal Stillness, and the Dao of Temporal Swiftness.

Alex was confident that so long as he learned those Dao, or got close to learning them, he could navigate the Void without much issue. And for that, he had to continue as much as he could.

He trained his Sword Domain during the downtime, practicing it with Bladedance for a short few hours. And even at that rate, Alex feared that he would fully experience his Sword Domain before he could start to learn a single one of these Dao.

To fully learn a Dao in the absence of Heaven was pretty much impossible.

Even though Heaven did exist in Hell, it did not give a helping hand, leaving the people to learn all on their own.

Alex learned, both Sword and Dao, for the next few months before Bladedance decided that it was likely time for them to return to the sect again. He needed a few months to himself, trying to learn all of this in a closed cultivation.

He also needed to cultivate, so it was time for them to return.

Once they returned, Bladedance left him. “I’ll give you a year’s time to do what you need to do. To cultivate and grow. I’ll find you again after a year has passed, and we can go right back to finding and learning more from the Void.”

“I’ll do as you say, master,” Alex said and left for his room.

Even though Alex and Bladedance stayed outside for months, no one in the sect —old or new— failed to recognize either of them. One was Death, and the other was the Red Death.

Alex arrived back at his room and laid down on his bed, relaxing. It had been such a long time since he got to just lay down and do nothing. He simply closed his eyes and laid there for hours, letting his mind wander all on its own, thinking of things he had ignored for now.

He thought of the future, planning all the things he had to do and all the things he had promised he had to do.

He needed to get rid of his two seals. He needed to go back to the Tree and the Guardian Tiger. He needed to let Pearl and the rest out. He needed to try and isolate the various improvements of the fruit for Pearl and many others.

He needed to form a Sword Heart, and he needed to learn a Void Dao.

He needed to get out of Hell.

Alex sighed, but in that sigh was happiness this time. There were many things for him to do, but all of those things were something he strived to do. And when he was done, he would be one step closer to meeting all of his goals.

He could finally go back to his family and be assured that they are safe and sound. There were other things to do before and after that, but he would worry about those problems when they came.

Whisker arrived a few hours later. “Brother, you’re back!”

“Have you been well, Whisker?” Alex asked, getting up. “What have you been doing?”

“Teaching Alchemy, and learning runes. Also learning how to fight large armies. The Grand Elder knows a lot, brother.”

Alex nodded. “I know he does. It’s good that you’re not wasting any time and learning from him.”

Whisker nodded. “What about you? What will you be doing now that you’re back? Cultivate?” he asked.

Alex nodded. “Cultivate,” he said. “And then… I might have to start working on the Blood Beasts.”

It was another thing to work on, so he might as well be done with it sooner rather than later.