Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

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“The ones you got are that bad, huh?” Godslayer couldn’t help but say. “How many slots do you have?”

“2,” Alex said. “One in the dagger, one in the bracer.”

“Well, let’s go find more then. How many of those shields and mirrors are there?” Godslayer asked.

“Not enough,” Alex said as his spiritual sense kept at around 15 meters and searched through the darkness around him. “I don’t think there is a specific number that anyone knows, but guesses are there are less than a hundred of each.”

“That’s still quite a lot,” Godslayer said.

“For 40 thousand people? I’m not sure,” Alex said.

Godslayer remained quiet for a bit. “Shit, you need to be careful then. How about you don’t use those slots when you find the next person? Instead, you run away.”

“Uhh… I can do that,” Alex said. “I’m not sure if that is the right approach though, since they can have one of those artifacts you know. If I can get their name, I can send them away and their artifact will remain.”

“Dammit! Why is this so annoying? I just want the Darkness aura,” Godslayer said. “Then we’ll do it this way. If you see someone, check if they have something. If they do, send them away. If they don’t, run away.”

Alex nodded. “That’s the best compromise,” he said. 

The two of them talked as they flew. Most of Alex’s attention was on the outside world, but he still kept up with Godslayer’s questions and answered them.

“Why don’t you hide your aura completely?” Godslayer asked. “If you do that, and remove your spiritual sense, people will think you’re just an object, right?”

“I don’t know about that. If they see my number, I’m doomed,” Alex said.

“Then don’t show your number,” Godslayer shouted.

“One of the main rules is that our numbers must never be hidden. If it is, we will get disqualified,” Alex said. 

“URGH! Why is this so annoying?” Godslayer shouted.

Alex couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. He moved a bit further and stopped when he sensed another spiritual sense. “Someone’s here,” he alerted Godslayer.

He waited to see the other person’s response. If he came closer, he would have an artifact, if he ran away, he didn’t have it.

The man came closer, letting Alex know that he had an artifact. Without hesitation, Alex flexed his spiritual sense to its peak to scan over the persona and see what he had.

When he did, he realized that it was a girl with a small talisman in front of her and absolutely no artifact with her. When he tried to check her number, he found his spiritual sense disrupting a little, becoming unable to take a proper look at her back where the number was.

Alex immediately ran in the opposite direction after realizing there was a problem. He couldn’t see the girl’s back, so he didn’t want to risk her seeing his. Thankfully, the girl didn’t follow.

“What’s wrong?” Godslayer asked realizing that something was wrong.

“The girl, she had a talisman to disrupt someone’s spiritual sense,” Alex said.

“Wait, you can’t see her number?” Godslayer asked.

“I could with a bit more focus, but it would’ve taken enough time for her to see mine as well. I didn’t see any artifact on her, but I would rather not take that risk right now,” he said.

“I see, good,” Godslayer said. “There’s no point in risking your number on the very first day.”

Alex nodded and continued in a different direction, waiting for Godslayer to sense something.

“Is that allowed though?” Godslayer asked. “Isn’t she hiding her number?”

“Not really,” Alex answered. “It’s more like instead of hiding, she simply turned off the light. We were never told that wasn’t allowed.”

“We were told that we aren’t allowed to hide our numbers and that we aren’t allowed to attack someone. Everything else was fair game from the start. That’s why so many people had prepared talismans, formations, and artifacts from the very start.”

“But…” Godslayer tried to argue, but he couldn’t say anything. “Did you not bring anything?”

“Honestly, I had thought of bringing some artifacts but decided against it as I had expected that we would be on our way to absorbing the Darkness aura. Speaking of which, why aren’t you doing it right now? Isn’t it all around us?” Alex asked.

“This is more like the smell of a tasty dish. If I want to eat it, I have to find the food first,” Godslayer said.

“I see,” Alex said. He thought about his recent experience and fell into thought. Memories surfaced in his mind from so long ago that he had nearly forgotten such things had even happened.

He smiled a little remembering those memories, but he couldn’t bring himself to fully smile as it was more bittersweet than anything. 

Godslayer seemed to have noticed that as well.

“What’s wrong? What are you thinking?” he asked.

“About my master,” Alex said softly.

“Your master? The one that’s alive or…”

“The other one,” Alex said. “She died before I ever met you.”

Godslayer remained silent for a bit. He had heard Alex talk about her a few times and knew that she had died not a pleasant death. Still, he couldn’t stop his curiosity.

“Why now? Why are you suddenly remembering her?” he asked.

“Well, I was reminded of something after meeting that girl just now. It’s a funny thought really,” Alex said. “If my master had taken part in this competition, she would have won handily. There is absolutely no doubt about that.”

“Huh?” Godslayer was a little surprised. “Isn’t your master from that backward empire where people don’t even reach the Saint realm? How would she win this thing at all? Did she manage to find some amazing technique that the idiot dropped?”

“No, not technique or artifacts or such,” Alex spoke. “It was her body constitution that would have helped her win.”

“Explain,” Godslayer said.

“Well, you see, she had a Yin body, a Celestial Grade one at that. Toward the start when she evolved her body, she couldn’t contain her Yin at all. So, she would be constantly exuding it, like I did Yang after I evolved too.”

“Her Yin, however, was so strong that anything that got close to her would lose all energy, including Spiritual energy. As a result, if you used your spiritual sense on her, she would be nothing but a void in your sense,” Alex explained. “If she was here, no one would be able to see her and she would easily win this thing.”

“That does sound strong actually,” Godslayer said. “How did such a strong person die?”

“Misfortune,” Alex said. “The Nine Yang Divine Tree’s fruit managed to ripen at an unfortunate time, stripping her of all her Yin, allowing the enemy to poison her. If she had Qi, she would’ve definitely survived.”

“I… see,” Godslayer said. “And you mentioned that you went through the same thing?”

“The Yin imbalance? Yes,” Alex said. “My body had a yang imbalance that took some time to control too.”

“And did it give you some advantage against others?” Godslayer asked.

Alex paused for a moment. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“Your master couldn’t be seen using Spiritual sense, right?” Godslayer asked. “What happened when people saw you through their spiritual sense?”