Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex wasn't the only one who was stunned at the moment. The whole world was.

Everyone, whether they were at the stadium, outside of the secret realm, or in some other continent, could see what had just transpired. In just over an hour, someone was able to replace 6 of the 12 ingredients for a pill, in a competition where you were only allowed to get 5 ingredients every hour.

Anyone could put the two and two together to realize that Aethersage had replaced each ingredient without any testing. He had simply used the ingredient and directly turned it into a pill.

Alex couldn't fathom how Aethersage could do such a thing. How was he so good at Alchemy despite having only started about a century ago? He had taken half the time Alex would have and somehow ended up better than him.

'He's a naturally talented alchemist,' Alex thought. 'That must be it. He just needed someone to guide him, so with Wineweed helping him, he flourished.'

Alex had never thought he would ever meet an Alchemy genius as good as Aethersage in his life, but here he was, and he didn't know how to feel about it.

'No, focus on yourself,' Alex thought. 'Continue making your pill.'

Alex quickly took away his attention from the name in the sky and looked down toward his cauldron. He took the ginger and was about to place it into the cauldron when he stopped.

What was the point? What was the point in doing any of this now? Read latest stories on empire

He had rushed only to get the next pin, but with Aethersage's performance, Alex was not going to get the pin either way. Getting 2nd place wasn't worth it.

'No,' Alex thought. 'I should still make the pills. I should get the second rank. Who knows what the points could be used for in the upcoming tournament.'

The words of his master calling himself a failure still rang loud inside of him, which was all the ember he needed to light the fire within him again.

Alex looked back and focused on the task at hand, quickly replacing the ingredients. He worked on the Diamond Iceflow Wood at first, quickly using it to replace the Silver Cherry Vine.

Once he completed that, he handed the pill over to his assistant and then began working on the 6th replacement.

The Gloomhorn Mantis leaves replaced the Heaven Reaver Pine leaves, which he used to make the 6th pill. He handed it over to his assistant, detailing what he used as an ingredient.

The assistant quickly reported the information and went to deliver the pill. A few moments later, Alex saw his name appear right before Aethersage.

[Dawnblade (6/12): 1 hour 22 minutes]

'18 minutes late,' Alex thought while letting out a sigh. Aethersage had just been so very quick with the pills.

He relaxed a little as he began wondering how Aethersage had done it all so very quickly. He would have to have requested 5 individually unique ingredients the first time around, and then do the same the second time. That meant he wouldn't have the chance to learn more about the ingredients since he would need it for the pill.

'How did he do it?' Alex thought. It couldn't be that the man knew the exact 6 replacement, did he? Could he have just gotten lucky?

Alex looked at the sky again, looking at Aethersage's name. It was the same as from nearly 20 minutes ago, which was quite confusing for Alex.

'20 minutes have passed,' he thought. 'Then why does he still only have 6 out of 12 replaced?'

For a moment he did wonder if it meant something else, but he asked his assistant and he gave the same answer as well. It was the amount of ingredients that had been replaced.

'Is he stuck?' Alex thought, and began looking around. Aethersage shouldn't have sat down far away from him. He remembered seeing him close by, so he glanced around. But the man wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Hey, can you see where Aethersage is sitting? Or what he is doing?" Alex asked his assistant.

"Alchemist Aethersage? He left already," the young man replied.

Alex paused for a long second. "What? He left?"

"Yes. He left not long after the confirmation that he had won," the assistant replied. "You were focused on your pill when he left. He walked right past behind you."

"Oh…"

Alex couldn't help but wonder if he should do the same. He hadn't won, but he had gotten second place. That was good enough. As for points…

'You're doing this for your master. Remember,' Alex told himself, clearing his thoughts of giving up. He quickly threw away the thoughts of Aethersage, bringing his head back to the competition.

He was doing this for his master, but that wasn't all. He was doing this for himself as well. He was doing this for his family.

His image would soon be sent throughout the world, and should his family be in any of the worlds, they needed to see him. He had a reason to do what he needed to do, now he needed a plan.

There were 4 requirements to gaining points.

Rank, Speed, Uniqueness, and Pill Clouds.

Alex had received the 2nd rank, but he didn't think he stood out at all. Besides, a new name never caught people's eyes. Actions did.

Ranks and Speed were great, but they weren't flashy enough. Alex needed to stand out.

He thought for a moment and asked his assistant a simple question. "Can I redo my previous replacements?"

The assistant was confused. "Redo? You want to use different ingredients?" he asked.

Alex nodded. "Is that allowed?"

The assistant wasn't sure, so he contacted a higher staff and got the information.

"It is allowed, but each replacement will set you back on the ranking to the time when you finally complete it," the assistant said. "Will that be okay?"

Alex smiled. "Thank you. That's all I needed to know."

Then, he closed his eyes and began making preparations. It didn't matter to him that he was going to drop in ranking soon. All that mattered was that he did this the best way he knew he possibly could.