Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex thought of how he could get any answers to his questions and quickly realized that Ray could likely answer it for him. So, he talked to the bird, trying to figure things out.

”I do remember the crystal pillars, but I wasn’t the one who created them,” Ray answered.

”You didn’t? Then who did?” Alex asked.

”Well, technically I did create them, but the principles behind them are entirely Father and Mother’s,” Ray answered. ”I’m sure such systems were prevalent back before we died, but as of now, I cannot explain how they work.”

Alex left the conversation even more puzzled. He ended up wondering even more about the crystal pillars and how they functioned. Could he ask Heaven?

He really didn’t want to waste any of his energy if he didn’t have to, and he could never be certain that he could even get the answer he wanted by wasting what he had. So it was better not to spend it at all.

”Why didn’t we bring your mom and dad?” Pearl asked Ronron around the same time. ”Have they already been tested?”

”No,” Ronron said. ”They just can’t be tested. You need to  at least be an Immortal to activate the pillar, so they will have to wait until they eventually break through to Immortality.”

”Ah!” Pearl gave a few nods in understanding.

”Oh? You’re all here.”

A voice spoke just then. Alex and the rest turned to find the Sky God walking side by side with Bladedance, followed behind by a few people, one of whom Alex recognized. He didn’t know the man’s name, but he had seen him in the gathering of gods during the Alchemy tournament.

Everyone greeted the Sky God as she appeared.

Ronron greeted them as well and quickly introduced Alex and the rest to the others.

”These are my senior brothers and sisters,” she said, gesturing first to the man in a blue robe that stood at the front. ”This is my senior brother, Riftblade.”

Alex greeted the man, who gave a wordless nod in return.

”This is my senior brother, Silkspear,” she introduced the second man, and then pointed to the last person, a woman. ”This is my senior sister, Brasswind. They are all Reverends of the cult.”

Alex blinked in surprise. He greeted them all again. ”It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”

”So you are the person who has been causing a headache for the Storm God,” Brasswind said with a strange look in her eyes. ”I had thought you would be stronger, but you’re only an Immortal.”

”Don’t let that fool you. He was much weaker when I last saw him,” Riftblade said. ”I believe he was in the Immortal Origin realm back then, so he has broken through quite a bit in less than a millennia and a half. And that includes the time he spent in Hell.”

Brasswind raised her hand. ”I’m not trying to say anything bad about him. I was just making a meaningless statement.”

”You can make those statements at a later date,” the Sky God said, pushing herself into the conversation. ”Let us move on with why we are here.”

The conversation vanished with the Sky God’s single sentence.

”How many of you are testing today?” she asked, looking around. She quickly counted the group. ”Is that 5? Or should the mouse get a chance as well?”

”Uncle Whisker deserves a chance, master. He is as much a cultivator as anyone else,” Ronron argued on behalf of the mouse.

”Very well, that’s 6 then,” Newheaven said before turning toward Bladedance. ”Should we make it 7?”

Bladedance shook her head. ”I have no interest in finding out if my talent has dropped since the previous time or not,” she said. ”So, I won’t be participating.”

Newheaven smiled. ”That might be for the better. The pillar struggles to handle Celestials.”

Alex turned toward Bladedance. ”Have you already done this in the past, master?” he asked.

”Everyone who comes here goes through it, and that is especially true of gods,” she said.

”How much did you score?” Alex asked.

”If I remember correctly, she managed to get a solid 63,” Newheaven said. ”Isn’t that right?”

”That’s right,” Bladedance said with a sigh. ”And yet I reached to become a Celestial. That should tell you that talent isn’t always required.”

”You’ve always had a knack for swords, so while you didn’t have talent in many things, you had talent in the sword,” Newheaven said. ”Besides, you weren’t nearly the worst gods we’ve had. Killshot scored a full 10 points less than you when she took her test.”

”Which gods had the best results?” Alex simply asked without thinking. He was so curious that he didn’t even take a moment to wonder if he should ask it or not.

”Best gods?” the Sky God fell into thought. ”Aside from my master and me, there is the Storm God and the Stone God. If we’re counting all gods, then there used to be one in the past that was quite talented, but sadly he’s long since passed away.”

Even Bladedance seemed curious at that information.

”It was the Fiend, who scored an 89, the same as Ronron here,” Newheaven said.

”He was that talented?” Bladedance asked in surprise. ”I never knew.”

”I barely met him a few times as well, and I was only just a child back then,” Newheaven said. ”He had tested before I had come here, so I only know the information from records.”

”Is this the same Fiend after whom the realm is named, master?” Brasswind asked curiously.

”He was,” the Sky God said. ”It used to be his world from the start. And after changing his own name, he changed the name of that world to instead call it the Fiend’s Sanctuary.”

While the others in his group didn’t react much upon hearing the name, Alex could only listen to the Sky God’s words in awe. They didn’t recognize the name of the dead god, but he did.

This was the same person that was previously named the Dark God. He was the man who had fought and killed the 6th Undying God.