Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex went along with the two ladies for the rest of their remaining days in this place gathering the ingredients and teaching them about a few more. They easily went past the 7th Field full of carnivorous plants to the 8th Field of Poisonous plants. 

Alex finally got to gather the many ingredients he saw the last time he was here. Most of the ingredients he saw were still there, so he happily gathered them, leaving whatever he didn’t need for the girls to take.

He surprisingly found the Flameborn Nightsbane as well. It was towards the end of the 10th poisonous field, the one that he hadn’t checked because they had met up with the young alchemist, Wu Shun.

Past the poisonous field was the desert landscape for desert plants to grow. It wasn’t just desert plants, but any plants that needed a little amount of water to grow that could be found here.

Not that it would’ve been useful had he found it earlier.

Alex went through the fields, gathering what he could, once again focusing mostly on ingredients that had Wood energy to them. The desert fields were spacious with many plants that did not want to be near another one.

As such, it didn’t take them very long to go through this field and arrive at the last one.

The last one was less specific than the other fields. It looked like it was originally made for actual trees with thick trunks, but seeing the climbers and the other plants that were growing beneath those giant trees, it had ended up becoming a hodgepodge of plants that was simply a place to find any and all plants that they couldn’t find in the other fields.

This was a much denser field, so it took Alex and the rest a lot of time to get through. It was good since the girls had 5 days left in their month-long journey and had to spend it all somehow.

They took their time going from one field to another at a rate of 2 fields a day.

Alex didn’t find many new plants here that he hadn’t already seen back in the Forbidden Orchard. This place was quite small when compared to the Forbidden Orchard, just better well maintained.

Still, he found important Wood ingredients here that would come in handy for sure.

Once the 5 days ended, it was time for the girls to leave or else they would have to pay more to stay. Thanks to Alex’s help, they had gone through all the fields fast enough that they didn’t need to linger there any longer anyhow.

“Thank you, your majesty,” Fang Yimu bowed next to the bridge that sent them out of the fields. “If not for you, we would not have been able to gain as many ingredients as we did this time around.”

“That’s alright,” Alex said. “I had fun.”

Talia bowed as well. “Will we get to meet you again?” she asked.

“Certainly,” Alex said. “I’m not sure where you will meet me next though. I don’t know where I’m going to be myself.”

“Will you be participating in any of the other events around the continent? We might meet there,” Fang Yimu mentioned.

“I plan to visit all if I can,” Alex said. “Which ones are there again, outside of the remaining 4 secret realms?”

“There’s the Golden Auction, the Cave of Frost opening, the Continental Tournament, the Azure Festival… uhh,” Fang Yimu tried to think for some more.

“There’s the Celestial Peak, but it’s constantly open so I’m not sure if it counts,” Talia mentioned.

“That’s… quite a lot to be honest,” Alex said. “I’ve heard about those too, but I don’t know if I can make it to all. I’ll have to see when they open. If I do end up going, I’m sure you’ll find out. We can meet there again.”

“Yes, your majesty,” the girls said together.

“Farewell.”

Alex turned around and walked back into the valley after sending them away. He had a few fields to still go through. He took his time moving back through the 10th field, going into the desert area.

There, he moved to the Poisonous area where he spent a bit of time searching through if he missed something. Then, he went to the fields of carnivorous plants as he had definitely missed a few fields here. 

He spent a day roaming the entire 10 fields, getting what he missed. It didn’t take him long to go through it all and once he was done, he finally went back to the fields with mushroom.

He hadn’t even roamed half of it when he had been called to the man’s aid. So, he went through it from the start, looking for what he could have missed.

He found what he could in the first few that he could and started gathering more mushrooms in the remaining fields.

“Woah! They have it here too?” he wondered in surprise. This was definitely something he couldn’t miss out on. He started gathering the mushrooms and saw a few of them that had already been tainted with people’s energy.

There was also a lot that had been taken away, which made Alex wonder what they were going to use it for. Surely they hadn’t gotten the clean mushrooms, right? Or did they know how they were supposed to pick these mushrooms?

No one came when Alex gathered the mushrooms, so he freely used his space powers to cut through the mushrooms, gathering them all.

He left about half of it behind as he didn’t want to take everything. It wasn’t his place to take it all after all.

Not that the ones he left behind were of much use to him anyway. They were either young or tainted. Their only use would be to spread and grow some more.

He went through the remaining fields and finally left the Hundred Blossom Valley, and left it, going back to where the elders were waiting for him. 

It had been more than a month since he had gone into the Valley, so they were a little worried. However, they needn’t be as Alex returned just a few days later.

The elders immediately started questioning why he took so long, why he decided to stay back when the Cloud Iron sect had already left. Alex told the two about the girl he had to help heal, not mentioning who or where she was from.

After realizing they had been worried for nothing, the group prepared to go back to King Jin’s palace.

King Jin had been waiting for their return. He was more than happy to see Alex again and wanted to talk to him about his haul at the Hundred Blossom Valley, hoping to learn something from him.

Unfortunately, Alex didn’t have the sort of time.

“I’m sorry, I’m in a bit of a hurry. I can sense my cultivation reaching a bottleneck and must work toward it,” Alex said. “I will talk to you about it after I leave.”

“Of course,” the King said, showing an understanding.

“Thank you,” Alex said. “In the meantime, would you mind contacting the Crown Prince?”

“Sure,” the man said. “What do you want me to tell him?”

“Ask him if it is possible for me to go see the Beast Paradise in the near future.”