Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex was a little annoyed at how short the battle was. As soon as he started fighting, he had realized that it wasn’t going to be difficult at all, but he still hoped it could last for some time.

But the silhouette that was his enemy ended up being a few cultivation realms weaker than him, allowing him to win in a few minutes. He didn’t even find it as cathartic as he had hoped it would be in the end.

Once the silhouette was defeated, the tower came back with another announcement.

”Congratulations on successfully passing the eighth trial. You have received your reward. Would you like to continue?”

”Yes,” Alex said, and a simple formation appeared before him in the empty white space.

”This is your ninth trial. Please step upon the formation to test your talent,” the voice said.

”Hmm. I thought you already tested my talent with the cultivation trial. I suppose not,” Alex said and walked onto the formation. As soon as he stepped onto it, the formation came alive and stayed lit up for some time.

Finally, the formation dimmed once again, and the tower’s voice returned.

”Congratulations on successfully passing the ninth trial. You have received your reward. Would you like to continue?”

”Yes,” Alex said for the last time as he was brought along for his tenth and final trial.

Colors blossomed around him, like mists springing up out of nowhere, remaining amorphous around him.

”This is your tenth trial. Please walk through the door,” the voice said.

Just as it said that, Alex saw a black door open in the room of white. He looked around to make sure that was the only door in the room.

’Walk through it?’ he thought. Something was wrong. This was a bit too easy. For what was the final trial of the tower, this was far too easy.

Alex looked at the formless colors and wondered what they could be. Some sort of poison maybe? Or would they grow solid out of nowhere and take hold of him?

”Let’s just get out of here,” he thought and teleported to the door.

Or he tried to.

”Huh?”

Alex tried teleporting again, but it didn’t work.

A slight frown appeared on his face as he realized that the tower did not want him to teleport to the door. It likely wanted him to walk through it.

”Alright, let’s see what you have in store for me then.”

He took a step.

The moment he walked forward, the colors coalesced a little, somewhat taking form, but not really. He took another step and the world came more into focus. The entire surrounding had become a sort of beach-like atmosphere with some people all around, but it was just too hard to tell what was what. It was all still so blurry.

He took another step and everything gained a sudden clarity.

Alex stood on the beach at the western end of the Western Continent back at his home, with several people standing close by.

Bai Jingshen was there, and so was Scarlet. His master Wen Cheng was there, and alongside him were Luo Mei and Du Yuhan. Lang Shun stood to the side, along with a few other people, all of whom held somber looks on their faces.

’Ah,’ Alex realized. ’Is this supposed to be the day I ascended?’

He saw everyone’s faces and how sad they were to let him go. Seeing them all did make him wonder how they were doing. He wanted to see them again.

”Alex, aren’t you going to say goodbye?” his senior sister’s voice came, sweet and enchanting.

”I won’t get to see you again for a long time, my disciple,” Wen Cheng said. ”Let us give you a proper goodbye.”

The several other people said the same thing, asking for Alex to turn around.

A part of Alex wanted to do the very same. Even though these people were clearly not real, there wasn’t any harm in giving in to the illusion and giving them a hug since he had missed them for such a long time.

However, the majority of Alex was certain that this was the wrong thing to do. He was absolutely sure that this was what the tower wanted him to do. Doing anything that wasn’t moving toward the door would likely count as giving up on the trial.

”I’m afraid I must continue,” Alex said, turning away from everyone before taking a step further.

The world around him collapsed to color once again, returning to its amorphous state. Alex was quite impressed by how vivid the illusion was, as well as how closely it had managed to read his memories and create that illusion. This had to be a powerful tower for that to be possible.

Alex took a step further and the colors formed around the world. This time, he was in a desert somewhere, unsure of his exact location.

”Yu... Ming?” a voice called out to him.

Alex slowly turned around once again, wondering who would call him this. There weren’t many.

His eyes lay on a bold young woman with strong muscles and dark skin. Blood dripped out of her mouth, with a hole in her stomach spilling more blood.

Alex recognized who this was immediately.

”Li Yun...” he said softly.

”Yu Ming...” she called out again, reaching for him.

Alex showed no expression at this moment. This was one of the deaths in his life that had hit him the hardest, so the fact that the tower had shown him this meant that it was trying to toy with his emotions, and likely his heart.

’It wants to affect me and see if these pasts of mine can stop me from moving forward,’ he thought.

”Yu... Ming?” Li Yun called out before stumbling to the ground. Alex nearly stepped to catch her, but he caught himself at the last moment.

”That was close,” he said. ”You’re good. But unfortunately for you, I’ve long since moved on.”

He turned away from the woman he couldn’t save in the past and stepped forward.