Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Ronron lasted for 3 more days after they left the region where the Staff God was. She won a few more challenges than she had thought she would, but that luck couldn’t last long, and eventually, she too had no stars at all.

”5000 stars, okay?” she reminded Alex before she was teleported away.

Once Ronron was gone, Alex felt a sense of freedom he hadn’t thought he was missing. All these years having to move around Ronron and the others’ plans had made it impossible for him to do what he wanted. He wasn’t restricted as much as he simply felt burdened to do what served the three the best.

And now, with all three gone, he was left alone to make decisions for not a single person other than himself.

That was an incredible feeling.

Alex thought of what he was going to do next. He was going to fulfill his promise to Ronron in regard to getting others to call him the Sun God, but beyond that, he could just wander around endlessly or sit around somewhere and cultivate.

After a while, Alex decided that it was likely better if he took things slow for now. Not only did he need to cultivate more, he also had to complete the Yellow Fog Origin as it was getting close. He could start on the pill or the cloud once that was done.

For the next few days, Alex wandered around the area in search of a proper region to cultivate. He didn’t find any at first, as each place had people coming and going all the time, which made it quite annoying.

In the end, he realized that his best option was to find a community where people had been surviving for a long time.

It took him no more than a week to find a community, led by someone of the Luo family that he didn’t know much about. The woman was older than Luo Sheng and stronger.

They attacked him at first when he arrived, so he fought back without much enthusiasm. When they realized that he truly wanted to join the group, they stated their price.

”100 stars for every month you wish to remain in this community,” one of them said.

Alex blinked. ”100 stars? There’s a price?”

”Of course there’s a price,” the man said. ”Do you want to join or not?”

Alex thought for a moment and decided to join. He was about to hand over the 100 stars when the man stopped him.

”Hey! Don’t do that,” he said. ”I can’t take your stars.”

”But you asked—”

”I have to win it,” the man said before gesturing toward himself. ”Challenge me.”

”Okay. I challenge you,” Alex said.

The man nodded. ”I will set the prize to 100 stars. Accept the battle and forfeit it.”

Alex slowly nodded as he realized that the group was following a convoluted method of passing stars from one person to another since giving away one’s stars wasn’t exactly legal as per the rules of the secret realm.

After doing everything, Alex was given the number 232 and finally allowed in.

There were a little over 200 people in this community, each one of whom held a cultivation base of Immortal Transcendent realm or higher. Alex sensed not a single Immortal Origin realm cultivator, let alone someone from the Immortal Ascendant realm. It was as though every single weak cultivator had either been disallowed from entering the community, or they simply weren’t around in the secret realm anymore.

Alex found himself a tiny corner somewhere and began cultivating for the time being. A few hours in, someone walked up to him with a slight look of surprise on their face.

”You’re him, right? The Senior from the South who took over the Marker?” a male voice asked.

Alex looked at the young man, very faintly remembering seeing him in the south, though he hadn’t interacted with this person ever.

”I am,” Alex said.

”I thought so!” he said with a little too much enthusiasm in his voice. ”What are you doing here? Are you here to take her down by any chance?”

Alex narrowed his eyes. ”Take who down?”

”Luo Qingruo,” the man said, pointing to the Luo family disciple who was the leader of the entire community.

Alex frowned. ”Why would I need to take her down?” he asked.

”Well... I thought that was what you did,” the young man said.

”Not at all. If she is an oppressive person, I wouldn’t mind lending aid, but I have no reason to fight anyone or take anyone down otherwise,” Alex told the man.

The man nodded upon hearing that. ”I wouldn’t call her oppressive, but she is a little demanding,” he said. ”She wants everyone to give her a star every week for her protection. I think it’s fine, but at the same time, it feels like she’s slowly leeching stars from all of us.”

Alex shrugged. ”I’m sorry, but I can’t really help you. If you don’t like what she’s doing, you can just leave her. Or if there are more people, you can take a stand all together.”

”Are you joking?” the man asked. ”You’ll get bombarded by everyone’s challenges if you get out of line.”

”Then you are on your own,” Alex said. ”Now, please leave me alone. I wish to cultivate.”

The young man left.

Alex could finally start cultivating again, and he did so, along with adding Yellow Fog energy into his Origin. It was just an overnight cultivation session, so when the morning rolled around, he had to wake up and go challenge someone, or be challenged by someone.

Before Alex could think of challenging someone, a voice came from the front.

”Every even number will challenge the odd number one rank lower. Once done, the odd number will challenge the even number one rank lower. The one challenged will give up their star.”

It took Alex a moment to realize what was happening, but upon figuring out that they were passing the same one star around, he started with what he had for the day, and all his obligations to challenge or be challenged for the day were over.