Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

The moment Alex heard that the formation was using 20 times more energy than usual, he understood exactly what the culprit was.

”It’s because of me,” he said. ”My time dilation platform out here is speeding up time by 20 times. So inside there, it is consuming 20 times more energy to keep the formation going.”

Whisker was a little surprised. ”Is that how it works?” he asked.

”I don’t know, but it seems like it does, doesn’t it?” Alex asked.

He was a little curious himself as to why it was happening. The simplest guess he had was that he was stretching time for a place that was already stretching time, which overall meant it required a lot more energy to sustain.

He had slowed down time many times, but never had it been this sustained and for this long. He had cultivated for over 2 years in 20-fold time dilation, which had likely used up all the excess energy that was floating around in his Soul Space.

This had to have been happening for a long time, and it was only now that he was seeing the result.

It did make him momentarily question how it was possible that the Timeless Palace hadn’t fallen apart in the past when Pearl and the rest had spent over 1000 years in 50 days. How had the Saint spirit vein been able to withstand that?

But, given that he knew so little about what was happening right now, and even less about what had happened back then, he chose to ignore it for the moment. Instead, his attention was required somewhere else right now.

”Activate the formation,” Alex said. ”It should work now.”

He had gotten rid of the platform on the outside, so the requirement would have to be much lower now. Just as he thought, Ray activated the formation, and this time, it remained active without failing.

Afterward, Alex sent his Spiritual sense to where the Artifact God was and found her staring around with wide eyes, the fog now enveloping everything she had previously seen.

”Senior, are you alright?” Alex asked.

The Artifact God slowly turned her head. ”Was that... was that the Nine Yang Divine Tree?” she asked.

Alex waited for a moment before sighing. ”Yes, that is what it was,” he answered. ”Please continue what you were doing. Things should be going back to normal.”

”No, wait,” she quickly said. ”What is this place? Just how is it possible for such a location to exist? I’ve been alive for nearly 250 thousand years now, and never have I seen something this incredible existing inside of a Soul Space.”

Alex remained silent, not knowing whether to just take the compliment or say something to dissuade her words. He stayed silent.

The Artifact God looked around. ”Why did the fog disappear earlier?”

”There was a mishap with the formation that causes the fog,” Alex answered. ”It has been fixed, although time is no longer flowing 1000 times faster. It is now only 50 times faster.”

”Really?” she asked. ”Hmm, I’ll do my best then.”

Alex sighed in relief. Although, he shouldn’t have, as the most serious of the issues hadn’t even been settled yet.

”What was the other tree?” the Artifact God asked.

”Which tree, senior?” Alex asked.

”The other one. It was there,” she said, pointing through the fog. ”On top of the mountain. It was a giant tree.”

”It’s just a normal tree,” Alex lied. ”Nothing to concern you.”

”No, it’s not a normal tree,” she said. ”I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before. I just... I can’t remember.”

Alex had been worried about just this. He really hoped she didn’t know what she was talking about. Instead of letting her somehow figure it out later on, Alex decided to tackle the problem head-on.

At least, inside of his Soul Space, he had a little more control over everything.

”That... is the World Tree.”

The Artifact God’s eyes narrowed a little in thought. For a moment, it didn’t look like she understood much at all. But then, her eyes slowly widened as the force of the realization struck her.

”That’s how I remember it!” she shouted. ”I saw it in the recordings of the aftermath of the battle in the Forest Moon realm. That’s really the World Tree.”

Alex sighed a little and nodded. ”Yes, it is the World Tree. And I would like to request that you do not spread that information anywhere, senior.”

The Artifact God didn’t immediately answer. ”Why do you have the World Tree?”

”The seed fell into the lower realm, and I found it,” Alex said. ”Senior, please, I need your word that you will not speak of this to anyone else.”

”You have been keeping the World Tree in your Soul Space all this time? How did the seed even grow? I swear they have been trying all sorts of things. Even the Forest God failed to make it do anything. How did you succeed?”

”SENIOR!” Alex’s voice got a lot louder. ”Please, I need your word.”

The Artifact God looked toward the sky where Alex’s voice came from. Her expression remained unperturbed by his shouting. ”Who else knows about the tree? This is not something you should be keeping all to yourself.”

”A few people know,” Alex said.

”Is the Sky God one of them?”

”Yes,” Alex said.

”She does?” the Artifact God seemed surprised.

”She does, and so do my master and the Divination God. As for the other gods, you are the first one who has found this out,” Alex told her.

The Artifact God wasn’t expecting that at all. ”You told the Sky God you had this, and she didn’t take it from you?” she asked.

”No, she allowed me to keep this,” Alex answered.

”But why?”

Alex sighed a little.

”Because the alternative is far too dangerous. If anyone else finds out about this tree and that information somehow reaches the Demons, we will have another war on our hands. And nobody wants that to happen.”