Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex and the rest got to challenge a dozen-odd groups of cultivators by the time night fell. By that time, Helen and the rest were tired, their Qi running low.

Alex too felt drained after the day-long training on Intent. The group gathered around a small rock and decided to spend the night there to collect Qi. Collecting Qi alone didn’t take more than the whole night, so it was the only proper choice they had here.

As they stayed there, Ronron counted her stars.

”I lost 12 stars today,” she said. ”So I lost 12 more times than I won a challenge.”

”12 is not bad,” Alex said. ”12 is less than the 100 you would have to spend to not get challenged all day.”

”I suppose so,” Ronron said. ”But the challenges are only starting, and surely they will get harsher as time goes on. And I won’t be able to win as much.”

”You still have tens of thousands of stars. That’s more than enough,” Alex said.

Ronron sighed. ”I just don’t want to lose.”

Liz had lost a few times as well, while Helen had surprisingly done the best. But that was only because she had the least restrictions of all.

Battlesage had given up a few too many times and thus had not gotten as good a result.

As for Alex, he had done the worst of all, winning only 2 battles.

The group cultivated through the night while being on the lookout for anyone who would come for them. They didn’t want to be challenged while they were busy cultivating, so they remained cautious throughout the night.

Since they weren’t truly cultivating, as soon as their dantians were full, they were done before sunrise. Liz had been the first to finish, and as soon as she announced that, Alex stood up as well.

”Come with me. We’ll train.”

Liz froze for a moment. ”Train? But I just got done absorbing Qi.”

”Yes, so you’re ready to train now,” Alex said. ”Don’t you want to learn your Sword Intent as quickly as you can?”

Liz made a pained look before nodding and walking away with Alex to train. They trained with their swords alone, as Alex helped Liz focus her understanding of the sword into her blade. She was a good enough fighter, so Sword Intent wasn’t that far from her. She simply needed someone to help her hone it.

The constant battles throughout the day would help her with the practical part of the training, and every dawn, Alex could help her with the more spiritual part of it.

The training lasted no more than an hour before Alex sent Liz back to rest for the time being. Then, he called Ronron over, who had just finished collecting her Qi, and had her fight him physically.

It was clear that Ronron wanted to refuse that, but she knew she couldn’t. So, they trained until the sun came up and it was a new day.

”Am I not training?” Helen asked once they started getting ready to walk along and find more people to challenge.

”No,” Alex said. ”There is nothing I can teach you right now that your challenges won’t help you experience. Once you’ve gained enough understanding of the different aspects of fighting, we can finally train so I can help you sharpen it all and become more efficient and proficient with it.”

Helen nodded in understanding.

The day went no differently than the last, with them finding several different people throughout their journey, some weak, some strong. No matter what, however, Alex forced the women to try and get challenged by everyone. When that didn’t happen, he made them challenge others instead.

There was no escaping the training.

Alex trained himself throughout the day, getting better at using his Intent to handle other people’s techniques. Throughout his training, he was beginning to understand that his Intent was effective against certain types of techniques and not against others.

In cultivation, there were four types of techniques.

The first were the cultivation techniques, which involved either absorbing aura and Qi from the outside, or using what was already inside oneself to improve some part of it. It could involve simple cultivation, improving specific organs, or just gaining different physiques.

The second were the controlling techniques. These were techniques that used Qi to control something in order for the technique to work. Qi Manipulation was a type of this, and so were techniques that controlled other objects like swords, spears, or any artifacts directly.

The third were the creation techniques. These were techniques that used Qi to create things that didn’t exist. Most skills fell under that category, as there were tons and tons of skills that created things out of nothing using this type of technique.

And finally, the last were the complement techniques. These were techniques that used Qi to improve already existing objects, usually by reinforcing them. This, naturally, was what made Qi cultivators physically stronger despite having weaker bodies. It included techniques like Alex’s Jade Skin technique, or techniques that empowered weapons to become sharper and more durable.

After days of training, Alex came to understand that he was better against creation techniques than he was against controlling or complement techniques.

Creation techniques used up the person’s Intent on the front half, as the Intent was mostly used to create the attack and then use it on a person.

Controlling and complement techniques required the opponent to use their Intent constantly, which was way harder for Alex to fight against. He could do it, but it usually resulted in him suffering far too much mentally.

As for the last type, cultivation techniques, Alex didn’t even bother testing those. He already knew how hard it was to use one’s spiritual sense and Qi inside of another person, and Intent was surely no different.

Alex improved very quickly when going up against creation techniques, while he struggled through the other two. But slowly, as he continued training throughout the remaining 49 years, he was bound to improve himself in those aspects as well.