Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex went through a few more corpses and the loot kept piling up.

The spirit stones pile was the highest, followed by the pills pile, although that was mostly because these tigers tended to keep many ingredients with them. He had learned that with the Azure Dragons too.

There weren’t as many talismans or books, but there was no

shortcoming of artifacts. Most of them were useless, but they would make for great testing materials once Alex properly started his artifact-making stage.

“Why are there so many similar artifacts?” Pearl asked as he looked through them. “Most of them have armor or some type of metal claw.” “Because that is usually what they are lacking,” Bai Jingshen explained. Pearl turned toward him, waiting for him to explain further.

“As you know, there are 4 major White Tiger techniques. White Tiger’s Golden Claw, White Tiger’s Dominating Body, White Tiger’s Roar, and White Tiger’s Steps. Each of the White Tigers past the patriarch’s generation is born with either just one of them or two. It is very rare for anyone to have three at all. So, whatever they are missing, they make up for it with their artifacts.

“That or they make it their Creation.”

Bai Jingshen gestured to the armor. “Those lacking the White Tiger’s Dominating Body get an armor Creation, and those missing White Tiger’s Golden Claw receive a claw artifact. There are other Creations too, but those are the most popular, especially among the Purists who wish to be as close as they can be to their bloodline.”

Pearl stared at the gathered loot with some sign of surprise. He hadn’t wondered why Bai Yanbei had a claw Creation, and now he did.

“Why didn’t they mix it?” Alex asked.

“What?”

“The claw and the armor. Why not use something that covers your entire body,” Alex asked.

“Flexibility, I guess. There is some purist ideology inside there too, but mostly, I suppose it’s because of their pride. No White Tiger wants to appear as if they are only strong because of their artifacts. A claw here and an armor there is fine, but a full-body armor is despised.”

Alex nodded and continued.

He had been through a dozen different corpses before he brought out something curious. It was a necklace of sorts, with a silver chain and a golden bream, like a sun encased in a crystal.

“What’s this?” Alex asked, not recognizing the artifact at all.

Bai Jingshen took it and looked it over for a few seconds. “Ah! It’s a Sun Stone Seed.”

“A what?”

“You know what a Sun Stone is, right? The thing the Vermilion Bird palace is made from,” Bai Jingshen said.

Alex nodded.

“Wherever those are found, you usually find this as well. If you place it in a location with plenty of sunlight, in a few dozen millennia, you will have Sun Stone growing around it, like silver crystals. Consider this no different than a Sun Stone, except, along with sunlight, it also absorbs the other aspects of the sun.”

Alex didn’t understand what Bai Jingshen was trying to say at first, but then a possibility sprung in his mind.

“Are you saying this can stop the destructive powers of the sun?” Alex asked.

Bai Jingshen nodded. “It’s a defensive treasure you can wear and stand around in space without any protection for a long time.”

“How long a time?” Alex asked.

Bai Jingshen shrugged. “A few hundred years or so before the crystals start forming, at which point it finally stops working. It’s hard to say how long it’s been in use for though.”

Alex tried to remember if he had seen anything like this in the Artifact God’s memories, but he didn’t believe he did. This was something

new.

“Where can you find it?” Alex asked.

“Most Sun Stone Seeds were used by the Vermilion Birds to make

their palace. The others were most likely used up too. So, if you want

to find one, you would have to go to the source itself, which we

happen to be visiting very soon.”

Alex’s eyes widened slightly. “The Sun’s Talon realm?”

Bai Jingshen nodded.

“I hope we can find more of these then,” Alex said. “These seem incredibly helpful. To travel in the sun without ever worrying about it hurting would be incredible.”

Bai Jingshen couldn’t argue. “Just don’t rely on those though. You can never really tell how old they are, so you could be using one that’s

about to form crystals. You would never know.”

Alex nodded and continued on to other loot. It was more of the same.

Spirit stones. Formations. Talismans. Artifacts.

Alex went through another dozen before finding a golden mask that

fit a tiger’s face. There was a red gem on the forehead of the mask,

causing Alex to wonder what its purpose was.

“Oh! Some ancestor is going to be very angry they’ve lost it,” Bai Jingshen said with a snicker on his face.

“Grandpa? What’s this?” Pearl asked curiously.

“The Mask of Roaring Strike. With this mask, the White Tigers that

can use the White Tiger’s Roar technique can use it through the mask to turn it from a spreading attack into a targeted one. It amplifies the damage by quite a bit since all your power is focused on a single being.”

Pearl’s eyes widened and he turned toward Alex. “It’s like your Heaven’s Impact, brother.”

“Sounds so,” Alex said. “And it sounds like it might be stronger too.”

Pearl nodded excitedly. He took the mask and wore it, finding it to fit him rather perfectly. “I’ll refine it soon enough. Is it a rare mask?” “There should be no more than a dozen such masks in the entire palace, so yes, it’s quite rare,” Bai Jingshen explained. “Take care how you use it though. If you end up in a conflict with more than just one enemy, you need to get rid of that mask.”

“I can’t choose how I want my Roar to work?” Pearl asked.

Bai Jingshen shook his head.

“I see,” Pearl said. “I’ll be careful with it.”

Alex looked at Pearl, smiled, and continued on.