Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Underneath the shimmering sky, Death stood atop the sand dune with her sword in hand. Her dark hair billowed in the midday desert wind, while she stared down at the ones that had still managed to survive.

Alex and the rest stared at her, fear gripping their hearts. Every single one of them was frozen in their tracks, not having a single thought on what they needed to do.

Alex was but the only one with any amount of courage in the moment, only because he didn’t fear death.

“You guys, you need to leave right now,” Alex shouted. “Go. Run now.”

The others seemed to awaken from their shock and immediately began scrambling.

Alex watched them move and wondered if he should stay or leave with them. Before he could make that decision though, the world turned upside down for him as he died once again.

Alex came back to life almost immediately. When he did, he saw even more dead around him. Those that had survived with a single wound the first time were now no longer alive.

Not a single other soul lived anymore.

Only Alex.

Alex looked toward Death, ready to fight. He had always wanted to meet her to improve himself, so now that he had the chance, he wasn’t going to let go of the moment.

He raised his sword, getting into his fighting stance, when he realized something. His sword was cut in half.

‘Shit!’

Just as he realized that his sword had been destroyed in the previous attack, Alex died once again.

The next time Alex came back to life, he saw something emerging from the sand. A giant beast like a rhino, but with a great shell on its back, came out of the ground sending sand flying everywhere.

It had emerged away from Alex and was on its way to pounce on Death.

Before it could even get too close, it was immediately cut apart multiple times, chunks of the monster flying everywhere.

Alex looked at it in shock. Death hadn’t moved at all for this attack.

Sure, he was weaker than Death by a large degree and would not be able to see all of her attacks, but he should have at least seen her move when she performed this many attacks at once, shouldn’t he? Some sort of blur maybe.

How had she remained still when cutting apart the beast nearly a hundred times?

He didn’t have time to think as Death attacked him once again. Being alive around Death meant dying the next second.

This time he saw maybe a blur at best before he died. He came back to life again and died again, and came back to life again and again. Despite nearly 2 decades passing since the first time he saw Death, the result was the same.

He died, unable to do anything to survive.

Beasts began crawling out of the sand, arriving at the location where Death had made her stand. With so much blood spilled, Alex could see what the end result of this was going to be.

It didn’t take much for things to escalate at all. Just a few deaths that drew in other beasts. As soon as that happened, the rest followed the scent of the blood, wanting to feed on those corpses to grow themselves, unaware of the fact that a greater threat loomed right above them all.

While Alex had his Qi, he came back to life rather quickly. Each time he came back, he tried to go up against Death only to see if he could learn anything from her.

However, the difference was far too great. He couldn’t do much to Death at all before dying. Each time he died, though, he got closer and closer to becoming certain about something.

Death had reached the realm of Sword known as the Sword Heart.

Alex knew of this stage right after Sword Domain, the stage that allowed the domain to be independent of the swordsman.

Wherever the heart commanded, the sword followed.

He had seen it a few times in his lives, mostly through Grimsight. His spear had already reached such a realm where he could use Spear Heart. He was capable of creating a domain around something of his choice where his Spear Qi would form at that distance, attacking that person.

Death did the same with her attacks.

Since Sword Domains couldn’t extend beyond the 3-meter range, she had to be using Sword Heart to kill things at a distance without even moving.

After so many years of being in Hell, Death being strong was of no surprise to him. However, Death having a higher knowledge of the Sword than he did was very much so.

Considering that many of the people in Hell failed to get above Sword Qi or Sword Aura, seeing someone who had managed to reach the Sword Heart was certainly surprising.

“If she can use Sword Heart, then she should be conscious, right?” Alex thought. He tried to talk to her as such, but Death did not answer.

There was life in her body, blood flowing underneath her skin, and yet her eyes were as dull as they could be. It was as if she was sleepwalking at the moment, her attacks merely a reaction rather than conscious actions.

Attempting to communicate with her was a lost cause. Alex only ended up dying more times.

It didn’t take long for Alex’s Qi to run out. There were also not as many beasts around this region, so Death didn’t have to kill as many. It took longer for Alex to come back to life after he ran out of Qi, but it was nowhere nearly as long as it did the last times.

After what felt like merely 3 days since the start, he came back to life and searched for Death again.

Only, he couldn’t find her at all. She had left this place, gone somewhere else.

Alex got up out of the sand and stared at the dozens of beast corpses. He wanted to follow Death, but first, he needed to cultivate.