Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

The dark-haired woman looked down at her chest and smiled. “I knew I was forgetting something in my hurry. You don’t have to worry about that though,” she said. “You should know what I’m here for, so let’s get it over with.”

“To fight me. Is that so?” Alex asked. “What will you do if I don’t agree to it? What if I don’t fight back?”

The woman seemed taken aback, but after some thought, she shrugged. “That’s perfectly fine as well, but can you afford to?” she asked.

Alex narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Ooh, those eyes are scary,” the woman said. “Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting anything nefarious. Only that… I’m likely the only one here that you can fight without worrying about killing, right? Do you want to give up such an incredible chance when you’re so close to forming your Sword Heart?”

Alex’s expression changed.

‘She’s been watching me more closely than I thought. She knows I just need one good inspiration.

It was annoying to think that there had been something keeping watch on him that he couldn’t even locate. At the same time, he was thankful that it wasn’t someone with nefarious thoughts targeting him.

Alex quickly stopped wondering who exactly she was and decided to fight. It had been a while since he’d gotten into any fight anyway. All those days of concentrating on just the dragons and their blood had gotten him a little fed up, if he were to be honest.

A quick duel would be a nice palate cleanser.

“If you wish to fight, then I’m not against it.”

Alex swung his sword, releasing a powerful strike that flew toward the woman. The woman waited for the attack to reach her and simply struck it away, destroying the attack in a single hit. Her hand remained in the same place, powerful water energy coalescing before her before turning into a volley of attacks that sprayed toward Alex.

Alex could feel the strength of the attack before it even reached him and knew he had to dodge them. He moved aside, letting the attacks pass him by, and struck back with his own attack.

Explosions rang out from behind him where the attacks struck, and for a second he worried he might have let the dragons get hit by accident. However, the direction was wrong, so they were safe.

The woman stood by, taking in Alex’s attacks while throwing out her own once in a while. From start to finish, she did not move a single step at all. Such strength was enough to confirm her power, even with her Qi suppressed, but for some reason, no one had come to take her away.

He could not understand why.

“Do you remember the question I asked you last time?” the woman asked in the midst of their battle.

Alex thought for a moment. “The one about the fastest creature in water? I remember,” he said.

“Would you like to learn why I asked that?”

Alex wasn’t sure if there was anything to learn, but that in itself made it necessary that he find out.

“Sure,” he answered. “Why did you ask me?”

The woman smiled. “Touch me with your sword, and I’ll tell you,” she said. “Surprise me, and I’ll tell you who I am.”

Alex stopped, looking at her. “You’ll tell me who you are?” he asked.

“So long as you surprise me,” she said.

“Okay. I’ll do my best.”

Alex instantly teleported, arriving behind her, his sword coming down on her. The woman spun around, water flowing around her palm as she deflected the sword, never letting it touch her. The sword struck the ground, dirt erupting in an explosion, but before the dirt could even hit the woman, she was already a distance away, an attack ready to come toward Alex.

Alex teleported again, trying to outpace her, but she reacted in time again, dodging it. The woman was not going to get hurt even if he attacked her. She had withstood a direct strike from him the last time they had fought. However, this time she wasn’t even letting that

happen.

She constantly dodged around, not letting Alex catch up.

Alex frowned, thinking about the various ways he could do it. He took

a deep breath and teleported again. This time, he employed not just a spatial dao but also a temporal dao.

Time slowed for everyone but him as Alex teleported next to her, his sword coming down upon her. The speed at which his sword moved was so quick in real-time that even Bai Jingshen likely couldn’t dodge it if he attacked him for real.

Hurting him would’ve been an entirely different matter, but hurting was not the thing the woman had dared him to do-just touch. However, at the last second, the woman moved. Even though the temporal dao only affected Alex’s own speed, the woman somehow managed to turn around and flash a big grin toward him.

She took one step back, letting the sword fly past her, nearly touching

her.

Time returned to normal speed, and the ground blasted open from the force of his strike. The woman stood a distance away from Alex,

her smile never fading.

“Temporal daos are strong,” she said as the dust settled. “I won’t lie. Had I not known you had learned Time Daos, this might’ve been

something I would’ve considered surprising. But alas, it isn’t.”

Alex stared at the woman with a careful gaze, trying to discern what had happened earlier. How was it that she had managed to move in

his slowed time?

‘She knows about my dao. Was she prepared for it?’ he wondered. He wasn’t sure if it was a technique or an artifact, or if she had a constitution that naturally rejected temporal daos. Either way, she couldn’t be surprised that way.

So, he had to go about it another way.

Alex took a deep breath, his aura flaring massively. And then, with a single dash, he charged toward her.