Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Once Helen finally left the comprehension trial site, she met up with Alex and the group to give them the good news.

They had all assumed it was Helen who had done it, but they had no confirmation at all, which they now had. They congratulated her on learning her second True Dao.

”You chose to come out, Mother? I believe the month had just started,” Alex said.

”What do you mean?” Helen asked. ”The voice told me to leave.”

”It didn’t give you another Dao to learn?” Ronron asked.

Helen shook her head.

Alex thought for a moment. ”Ah! It must be because you learned all the Daos pertaining to that element. Since you were in the Metal region, there were no more Daos left to be learned, so it sent you out. With us, it simply moved us to another room.”

”Hmm... I never moved rooms,” Helen explained.

”That’s fine,” Alex said. ”Do you want to go back in, or should we leave?”

Helen looked around and shrugged. ”We can leave. I can learn the others on my own when I have the time for it.”

Alex nodded, and the four flew away from the location. Each one of them had already cultivated their fill at this point, so they could just jump into some other trials. Red trials took much out of them, so they went around to some Yellow trials for a few days before visiting another Red trial.

There were still many more places left to go, but unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time. With only a little more than 2 months to go, their time roaming the secret realm freely came to a close.

Battlesage found them merely 2 days before the year’s end.

Everyone was busy cultivating in preparation for it, so when he arrived, Alex was the only one who wasn’t busy recovering Qi.

”How has your time been, Senior?” Alex asked the old man.

Battlesage appeared quite happy. ”Honestly, this place is not much to look at or explore. It’s even worse than Hell in some ways. But all these little tasks and trials have been some of the most fun I’ve had in a long while. If I am to get thrown out tomorrow, I will leave satisfied.”

Alex smiled. ”I doubt you’ll get thrown out so easily.”

The old man chuckled. ”I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I don’t plan on fighting anyone directly, since I would win in that case.”

Alex nodded. ”That’s what I plan on doing too.”

The next 2 days passed quickly, and then the time finally came to an end.

The world rang out with the sound of a deep gong, denoting that the year had passed. Along with the sound, the voice of Riftblade came through the sky, explaining the next phase of the secret realm.

”Henceforth, all but a few trials are no longer available. The ones that are currently active with people taking part in them will end once everyone leaves as well. From now on, you are all able to challenge each other to anything you may wish. As previously said, you shall earn a star each time you win a challenge. However, the one challenged has the right to choose the type of challenge. Should you refuse, you must either concede, or place the difference in your number of stars as collateral to replace the challenge with one that shall be randomly determined by us.”

”You must challenge someone or be challenged at least once a day. If you wish to not be challenged, you must pay 100 stars for each day. The day shall last until sunrise. If you fail to participate in any challenge, then 1000 stars will be forfeited from you for the day.”

”You will soon sense some other restrictions placed upon you. You will need to continue on with said restrictions. As for the rest, I’m sure you’ll understand just fine. Good luck to you all.”

The moment Riftblade’s voice vanished from the sky, a suppressive formation activated, squeezing all of their spiritual senses to a fraction of what they truly were. For Alex, he could no longer sense anything beyond 200 meters in all directions.

Considering the task up next was going to be to challenge anyone weaker than you, it made sense to restrict one’s spiritual sense so people couldn’t easily find their victims.

Around the same time, Alex felt a strange vibration coming from his refined star, which he brought out. There were several colors on the star again. Red, Yellow, and Green. But they no longer pointed toward any trial location.

Instead, Alex turned and found the red part pointing toward the women. They all brought their stars out as well, and theirs pointed similarly.

”Why are they pointing toward us?” Liz asked.

”Because of the stars?” Ronron asked, looking around.

Helen nodded. ”We do have a decent number of stars, so the red might be us. Or rather, someone with a high number of stars.”

”Huh?” Liz raised an eyebrow. ”Does this mean we can track down people who have more stars than us?”

”Or less,” Alex said. ”Speaking of which, I think it’s time you all got ready. We’ll be going around challenging others.”

”Already? It’s barely started,” Ronron said.

”No time like the present,” Alex said. ”And for all three of you, I have some specific challenges I want you all to make.”

Alex turned toward Helen. ”Mother, you will challenge others to a regular fight.”

He turned to Liz. ”You will challenge others to a fight involving only swords.”

And then he turned toward Ronron. ”You will challenge others to a fight involving no techniques or Daos.”

”””HUH??”””

All three women blurted out at once.

”What are you saying?”

”Why?”

”Father, how can I fight without techniques or Daos?”

Alex looked at all three and shrugged. ”You will have to figure out what or how yourself. I might change these restrictions later depending on how you fight, but for now, you must always keep to them, no matter whether you are being challenged, or you are the one challenging.”