Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Bai Jingshen didn't seem overly concerned with Alex's questions. "Qi can do various things. Maybe there was something before Heaven that did something similar," he said.

Alex thought about that for a moment. "Can Qi do that all on its own?" he asked. "I don't think it can, right?"

"On its own? Probably not. Maybe the Sun God and the Moon Goddess made that change," Bai Jingshen said.

Alex shook his head. "That can't be possible. They didn't exist until the humans came around, right? Before humans were only the beasts, and before the beasts were the plants. If the gravity was as strong as I think it should be, regular life wouldn't be possible. Did the two Gods exist as far back as that?"

Bai Jingshen had no answer for that. "I don't know that much about the past. No one really does. Everything before the cataclysm is lost to us," he said. "We don't even have many written records from back then, let alone knowledge of what that world looked like ages before that when humans and beasts didn't exist."

Alex nodded. "So anything could be true," he said softly.

He did have a vague memory of the world. The memory he saw the clearest was that of the first Undying God, and in it, he remembered seeing plants that looked no different from the ones these days. But by then, the Moon Goddess had already come into existence, so the Sun God should have too.

'Even if I go further back and think about the Primordials, the Guardian Tiger doesn't look as deformed as beasts in that gravity should have,' he thought. 'Then… does that mean Qi has been here in this world since the time of the plants? Maybe even before the time of the plants?'

Alex couldn't help but then wonder when exactly Qi had appeared on the planet. Or had it always been there from the start?

'If so, why did it start to fail?' he wondered. 'Why does it continue to fail? Does it have anything to do with the Primordials reaching godhood?'

There were so many questions and not enough answers. In the end, he could only push down those questions as deep as he could and suffocate them so that they wouldn't speak to him again for a long time.

The ship flew past the barrier of the White Tiger's palace and landed on the open field again. The three of them got off and began walking back.

Alex felt a sense of unfamiliarity walking through this place despite having just walked out from here a couple of hours ago.

Back then, this had been a place exclusive to the beasts. And now, it was part of a bigger world that had always had everyone together. But for some reason, that world had been broken apart, forming these floating worlds where everyone was separated.

The Cataclysm—was it intentional?

Pearl and Bai Jingshen split off from Alex and returned to the main palace. Alex found his way back to the palace he was living in and retreated to his room. He had so many thoughts, so many questions, that he could not let himself get lost in them.

So, he started cultivating, letting his mind go blank and without any thoughts.

He only cultivated for a few days, but that had been enough to get himself to move on from what he had learned. He would circle back to this when it became pertinent again.

For now, he had other matters to deal with.

First of which came knocking on his door not long after.

Alex opened the door to find his master standing outside, wearing the same white robe that the White Tigers had gifted her. She looked ready and prepared.

"Are you ready to leave, Master?" Alex asked.

"Yes," she said. "Are you sure you don't want to leave with me?"

Alex shook his head. "I have things to do here; more things than what I had originally planned."

Bladedance shrugged. "I see. I was hoping you would change your mind, but that's fine as well. Is the old man ready?" she asked.

"One moment, I'll call him out."

A few seconds later, Battlesage flew out of Alex's Soul Space and stood before the two. "Ah, is it time?"

"Yes, are you done with what you were doing?" she asked.

"All runes have been mapped out. I will need a short time to figure out how to rearrange those runes, and some time after that to make the physical changes," Battlesage said. He turned to Alex. "By the time you leave here and find me again, I should be ready to make the changes."

Alex smiled. "I will look forward to it."

"Do you have everything ready for me?" Bladedance asked Alex.

Alex nodded and brought out a few scrolls and handed them over to Bladedance.

Bladedance narrowed her eyes a little and unfurled one of them. The scroll flattened to reveal a realistic image of a young woman with dark hair and striking eyes of emerald and silver.

Bladedance gasped slightly. "Newheaven?" she asked for a moment before shaking her head. "Wait, no. That doesn't look like Newheaven. Who is this?"

"That's my daughter, Ronron," Alex said. "Who is Newheaven?"

"Your daughter? I wasn't aware you were married," Bladedance said.

"I'm not married," Alex said quickly.

"I… see…" Bladedance said with a weird look.

"I can imagine what you're thinking, Master. But I'm not like that either," Alex said. "She is my daughter, but she was born of my clone and his wife."

Bladedance paused for a moment before nodding her head. "I see. I do remember them saying they had a daughter. Her eyes are so similar to Newheaven's, I mean, the Sky God."

"Oh! Then that makes sense," Alex said. "Ronron has the Sky God's Physique, so her eyes are like that. She was being taken to the Sky God's palace to become the Sky God's disciple, which is why I'm hopeful that the Sky God will help me in finding my family if they haven't made their way there."