Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex walked along the newly familiar corridor with Pearl in his arms. The bright white walls and the glowing ceiling gave the area a different atmosphere compared to the outside he had been in not long ago.

He reached the door to the palace hall and was greeted by two feline beasts that were waiting for him and opened the doors for him as well.

"Meow!" Pearl thanked them as Alex nodded as well and walked in.

"Good afternoon, seniors," he said when he saw Lady Ren and the other 2 beasts standing next to her.

"Meow!" Pearl called out.

"Hello, my child. How are you feeling?" Lady Ren asked.

Alex kept quiet as the question was very clearly directed at Pearl. "Meow Meow!" Pearl once more found the opportunity to complain about having been forced to fight with the puma.

"He did that? I will make sure to punish him later, okay?" Lady Ren said.

"Meow!" Pearl finally got happy and smiled smugly towards the puma. The puma looked around not sure what to think. He had unintentionally made Pearl dislike him.

He grumbled how the testing was originally the jaguar's job and he wasn't even supposed to be part of any of it.

"You guys didn't spend very long in the library, did you?" Alex asked. "It's only been a few hours. Did you find anything?"

"Oh, it's only been a few hours for you, but for us, it has been days now," Lady Ren said. "Unfortunately, we were unable to find anything regarding your situation."

"There has been no precedent of humans with the bloodline of the Four legendary beasts. Many have tried, and some have even succeeded in integrating the bloodline for brief moments, but almost all of those have died," Lady Ren said.

"Those that still lived could never cultivate again as their body was mostly destroyed from inside out. However… you have somehow taken in not the blood, but the blood essence and survived it."

"You… are a mystery to which I don't have any answer," Lady Ren said. "Can I take a look at you more closely?"

"Uhh… Sure," Alex said and walked up close. Lady Ren closed her eyes and a wave of spiritual energy washed all over him.

"Hmm…" she said after a while. "I knew I wasn't being stupid when I said that your spirit and body are not aligned. But it's way too similar for it to not belong to each other. This is so weird."

She looked some more and said, "so much Yang energy. It's like your whole body is made up of Yang. Also, it's a shame your spiritual roots are 5 Elemental and Yang aligned. If it were less, you could have done better."

"However, your spiritual sea is quite massive for someone who hasn't even entered the true realm yet, and quite dense too. I'm looking forward to seeing how strong it will be when you enter the saint realm. That will be a sight to beh—"

Lady Ren suddenly stopped speaking and remained silent, looking at him with her spiritual sense once more.

After not speaking for a while, Alex started to get worried. "Is something wro—"

"SSHH! I'm concentrating," Lady Ren said as she continued looking for nearly a minute. Finally, she sighed and said, "dammit, I thought I saw something, but it's not there anymore."

Alex was a little confused and surprised. "What did you see?" he asked.

"I don't really know. It was some sort of texture or pattern. I thought I saw it for a split second, but I couldn't find it anymore," Lady Ren said.

"What sort of textures?" Alex asked.

"Some sort of lines. I think I only saw a part of it, but of even that I'm not sure now," Lady Ren said. "Are you hiding something?"

"No, no," Alex said. "How could I even hide anything from a Saint realm expert like you?"

"That is true, but… arghh! Just what is wrong with your body? The only thing I can even think of doing right now is taking the blood essence in you and giving it to the child so that he has a much higher chance of awakening his bloodline," Lady Ren said.

"You can do that?" Alex asked. "Is there any threat to my life if we do that?"

"This has never been done before, so I don't know," Lady Ren said. "All I know is that despite having the bloodlines of the White Tiger, you haven't awakened any skills the bloodline comes with, so we may be safe."

Alex nodded when he heard that but then stopped as he remembered something. "Um… actually, there is something I haven't mentioned before. I wasn't hiding or anything, I just forgot to mention something very important," Alex said.

The beasts got curious and looked at him curiously. "What is it?" Lady Ren asked.

"You see, whenever Pearl cultivates, I am forcefully made to cultivate the same thing with him as well," Alex said.

"Forcefully made to cultivate?" Lady Ren seemed confused.

"Um, let me just show you," Alex said and sat on the ground and pet Pearl as he told him to start cultivating.

Pearl sat on his lap and closed his eyes as white light shined around him. The white light soon turned to yellow, which then turned to golden. He had started cultivating.

As soon as that happened, numerous cuts appeared all around Alex, which hurt him quite a lot, but not enough to make him lose his attention from the current situation.

"See? This is what i— What's wrong with you guys?" Alex asked when he saw all of their eyes wide open and their pupils enlarged.

"It can't be," the jaguar said.

"He hasn't even awakened his bloodline yet," the Puma said.

"The White Tiger's Dominating Body technique. How… does he have the technique? Those should be memories lost to him for a very long time," Lady Ren said.

"Memories?" Alex asked.

"Yes, Memories of the first White Tiger," Lady Ren said. "When the first 4 beasts were blessed by the gods, they all received some sorts of skills, each different from each other."

"In the case of the White Tiger, the progenitor got a few different techniques that were later named White Tiger's Golden Claw, White Tiger's Roar, White Tiger's Steps, and a few others."

"These skills were skills ingrained onto the bloodline itself, and whoever acquired the bloodline, acquired the memory of these skills as well. The first children of the progenitor White Tiger could all use these skills pretty well."

"However, as the White Tiger's bloodline extended and started to get diluted, the number of skills they acquired also started to dilute. If they did retain the memories, it would only be some of them, not all."

"My husband had the knowledge of White Tiger's Steps and White Tiger's Golden Claw, just like many of his brothers and sisters. However, only very few White Tigers ever acquired the memories of the White Tiger's Dominating Body technique."

"To think I would get to see such a fabled skill on this child; I did not expect that," Lady Ren said. "This child is no longer important to us alone. If the family learns about him, they might just take him there to rear him."

Alex was about to argue after hearing that when Lady Ren herself spoke once again.

"No!" she said, surprising the lot. "He is too young right now. He will either grow up to be a pawn or die before getting any strong at all. So, the best choice is to keep him here until he is old enough to know better and fend for himself."

As she said that, she turned to look at Alex who still had cuts appearing all over him. "Does it not hurt, little human? All of these wounds," she asked.

"Huh? Oh yes, it hurts. But I'm used to it. Do you know why this is happening?" he asked.

"I'm not really certain, but I believe that because of your 'Bond of Equal' and you also have the same bloodline, you can cultivate what this child does. However, because of your lack of a similar physique to the White Tiger, your body cannot handle the cultivation method," Lady Ren said.

"I see," Alex said, even though he had already guessed that much.

"Do you have anything else to ask?" Lady Ren asked.

"Yes, a bunch."