Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Yan Changying and Bing Taizhen had the easiest life they could have. Their days were either spent lazing around the citadel or going on tours around all the nine realms.

Most people would likely be bored with that, but the husband and wife were more than happy with what they had. They couldn’t have asked for a more favorable situation.

“Father, mother. I’m home.”

Shumi’s voice came from outside their room.

“Shumi?” Bing Taizhen’s eyes perked up in surprise. “You’re back already?”

She quickly opened the door, letting her enter.

Shumi walked in, wearing no veil and only a smile on her face. She looked at her mother, who still grew no horns, and immediately gave her a hug. “I’ve missed you guys so much.”

Here, Shumi wasn’t the disciple of the Glacial Blade or the Moon Goddess at all. Here, she was just the daughter of her parents.

Her mother took her into a deep embrace and patted her on the back.

“Where is father?” she asked, looking around the room. There were so many paintings and tapestries that decorated the room that Shumi couldn’t even keep track of any at all. They seemed to keep changing every time she came here.

“He’s cultivating. I’ll call him out,” her mother said. “Come, sit.”

The two walked over to a set of couches in an adjacent room and sat down.

“Shumi?” Yan Changying rushed out of another room and beamed when he finally saw his daughter. “You’re finally back! I’ve been growing worried.”

He too had grown no horns at all. The requirement for someone to grow a horn had something to do with the level of Yin someone was exposed to throughout their life, along with the purity of their blood.

Shumi’s parents had lived in places filled with Yin, but their bloodline had been far too mixed with human bloodlines for them to grow any horns.

Shumi smiled. “Yes, I just returned, father. How have you been?”

Yan Changying smiled, releasing his aura. “Can you tell? I finally hit Immortal Ascendant 4th realm. I’m now 3 realms ahead of your mother.”

Bing Taizhen snorted. “I’m just slow because I like to take my time. I’m not rushing through things like you are.”

“What rushing? We’ve been here for close to 2 thousand years now. Just agree that you can’t keep up with me.”

Shumi completely ignored her parents’ bantering. “I’m happy to hear you’re progressing well, father.”

Yan Changying smiled. “Well, enough about me. How have you been, Shumi?” he asked before sitting down on the couch. “What happened to that important thing you were leaving for?”

Shumi hadn’t actually told the two what she was going to do. She had told them it was important, but not that it would be related to the Moon Goddess. Only the Seven Shadows and select followers of the Seven Moon Hall knew anything about her mission.

“It was a success,” Shumi said. She still didn’t want to burden her parents with the truth, so she kept it to herself for now. The day before she would announce it to the world, she would tell them.

Her parents started asking several questions about her trip this time around and were surprised to hear that she had been to a beast realm. She spoke of her time there, including the trial she had been on.

“I met someone there,” she said finally. “Do you remember the young man I talked about? The one we met in the Medicine World? The one who helped me get out of a coma?”

The husband and wife’s eyes widened slightly. “You met him again?”

She nodded. “Yes, but this time we weren’t enemies at all. Instead, we worked together.”

“Oh, that’s good. I really didn’t like that you nearly killed him the last time around,” her father said. “He had been truly a great help. Did you find out if he was an Immortal that happened to go to the lower realm as well?”

“Him? No. If anything, he was from the lower realm as well,” Shumi said.

“Really?” Yan Changying couldn’t help but be surprised. “How come he was so good at healing you, though? No one in the Dragon Empire could heal you. And yet, he came out of nowhere and solved the issue.”

“He’s a healer and an alchemist,” Shumi explained. “He told me about it back then. Apparently, he was the king of the Southern Continent. His name is Alex.”

Yan Changying’s eyes widened slightly. “He was who?”

“The king?” Bing Taizhen asked, surprised to hear that. “Now that I think about it, the King of the Southern Continent had been visiting the Eastern Continent for the first time around then.”

Shumi looked at her parents’ expressions and wondered if she should tell them about how she felt about him. Would this be too soon? Probably not, but she couldn’t imagine the sort of reaction there would be if this news were to go out.

For the sake of her own sanity, she would have to hide that information, at least until she was strong enough that any backlash from this could be mitigated. She had been to enough religious parades to know how fanatic these people were and the rage they would feel if they were to find out that their goddess was no longer solitary or ’pure’.

For that, she couldn’t tell her parents either.

She told them about the other things, including having seen the graves of Primordials. While her parents were surprised by that information, they just didn’t understand the scope of what it meant to be a Primordial, so they didn’t understand much.

After the day passed, Shumi received a message from the Moonlight Priestess.

“The treasury is open. You should visit as soon as you can.”

Shumi spent an hour more with her parents before deciding to leave.

“I have to go,” she said. “I have somewhere to be.”

Both Yan Changying and Bing Taizhen nodded.

“Go,” her father said. “Do what you need to do. We’ll be right here when you come back.”