Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Han Mengli cultivated alone, telling no one of what he had found. He slowly improved over the next few months, his body becoming stronger and better. The chunk of missing flesh from his arm hadn't healed, but it likely never would.

He now understood why the blond-haired man liked to stay alone and interact as little as possible. He had a secret to hide, and now so did Han Mengli.

A few more decades passed, and in that time, Han Mengli had noticed something very important. The people who showed the best results in the mines were never seen again.

As the others said, he believed they were taken somewhere else where the menial labor was harder, requiring them.

Whatever that work was, Han Mengli did not wish to do it. So, he did the bare minimum each time, spending most of his days just cultivating.

By now, he had diverted the mine from the original path, far enough away that he had hidden the path to the spirit stone mine. At the same time, he had also mined away all the metal from that side of the wall, making sure no one would try to mine in that location.

He left the wall opposite it as it was so that they would mine it and move on. But even after years, very few came this far down. Those who did either left after realizing the hardness of the soil or simply failed to reach their quota and died.

So many had died by now that Han Mengli hardly remembered the living faces. So many more slaves were brought in every few years too, making him wonder just how many battles the humans were losing.

He knew about the demons that were kept enslaved after battles, so it wasn't so different on the other side either. He ignored any of those thoughts and focused on cultivating.

His cultivation base slowly improved, but he very much did not appreciate the speed. He lacked talent for it, yes, but this was still far too slow.

During the day, he was interrupted each time to walk all the way to the mine's opening to deliver the ores. That cut into his cultivation time, making it difficult to break through at a steady rate.

He had reached the True King realm by now, but reaching the True Emperor realm seemed like a far cry at this rate.

'The nights are long and uninterrupted,' he thought. 'I get nearly ten hours of time all by myself. Why can't I use that time to cultivate?'

It was frustrating. If only they weren't stripped naked every day and searched for anything they might have carried out with them, he could have brought some spirit stones back with him to cultivate.

Han Mengli walked out close to sunset, gave the last of his ores, and walked into a line. He dropped his clothes and stood in a group with a dozen other men, blasted with water until all the dirt left their bodies.

Then they were made to stand in a line with their arms stretched out and mouths open. They even made them bend to check other hidden spots where they could have hidden pieces of metal from the mine.

Han Mengli had gone through this forever, so he had grown accustomed to it. However, this time around, since the thought of bringing along a spirit stone was still fresh in his mind, he noticed something.

The next day, he mulled over the entire day whether he wanted to try out what he had noticed the day before.

After a lot of thought, he decided to throw caution to the wind and try it. At this point, if he didn't do this, then he would be a coward who would forever remain in hiding.

It would take him thousands of years to reach the Saint realm, and by that time, he would most likely be dead.

So, if he was going to do anything, he might as well do it right now.

But he didn't have a death wish either. He didn't take with him a spirit stone or even a piece of ore, but rather a simple rock. He tucked it away, and as the final light of the day began to die, he walked out.

Handing off his quota, he mindlessly got into a line, stripped, and let the water wash all the dirt away. Then he stood in a line, arms outstretched, mouth open, letting the guards search for anything.

The guards searched them all as diligently as they had for the past decades and let them go.

The guard hadn't noticed the incredibly nervous look that flashed through Han Mengli's face multiple times as he checked through his body. The water droplets from before had been perfect to hide his sweat.

The fear had been palpable, but it was missed.

Han Mengli had his meal in the dining hall and quickly left for his quarters, where he got to the top of his bunk bed and pulled a sheet over him.

He watched everyone begin talking to each other, each morose, each having lost all their light in life. And then, he slowly put his arm through his clothes, reaching to his shoulder, sliding down his left arm.

He fingered the region where the chunk of his muscle had been torn off and dug into it to drag out the stone he had brought from the mine.

The guards hadn't noticed that. Not a single one of them suspected that his unhealed wound from long ago could be used as a pouch to carry something out of the mine.

Han Mengli knew he couldn't be happy just yet. This one time could very well be a fluke. He needed to try a few more times to be absolutely sure he was safe.

But once he had done that, he could bring out the spirit stones. Then after that, he could begin cultivating at night as well.

With that, his speed should at least double, if not improve by a lot more.