Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

The woman raised her eyebrows at Alex's frontal assault. She couldn't tell what he was attempting to accomplish by directly challenging her when he couldn't even do anything with a sneak attack.

A look of curiosity surfaced on her face, wishing to see this through in its entirety. She did not attack him and let him arrive before her, swinging his sword down at her.

At the last moment, however, her eyes widened slightly, and she ducked at the last moment.

Something passed through where her neck had been a moment ago, cutting through the incoming Alex. Alex disappeared in motes of yellow light, his visage vanishing along with his aura.

The real Alex revealed himself finally, coming out of his invisibility. His aura was still completely hidden, both the concealment technique and his Yang aura working extra to help conceal him.

And even then, he had been noticed.

"That… was close," the woman said, her eyes widening.

"Are you surprised?" Alex asked.

"Nearly," the woman said. "Had I not noticed you until the last moment, I might've been. But one expects the unexpected in a fight, so I can't truly say I was surprised."

Alex frowned. He had hoped he would get to touch her this way, and even that wouldn't work, it seemed.

But perhaps, this was just a mistake. What if he continued trying a few more times?

Alex turned invisible, his Yang aura burning through everything. He ran around, attacking her, but the woman had already gotten used to his trick. It wasn't so easy to catch her off guard anymore.

"That is an interesting power," the woman said, stepping to the side as she dodged another strong blow. A wave of blue aura erupted below Alex's feet that threw him dozens of meters backward. Before even landing, he pushed against the air and dashed back into the fight.

She dodged a few more attacks, letting Alex's sword swing past her.

Alex continued swinging, again and again, and then it happened. He hit her right on the neck.

"I did—" he was about to celebrate when he saw a thin layer of blue aura stopping the sword inches away from her neck. That was what he had hit.

"Sorry, but you didn't," the woman said, blasting Alex backward.

Alex skidded along the ground for some time before coming to a halt. He looked back at the woman, no longer motivated to continue fighting. There was nothing he could do to her that could help him.

She was quite literally better than him in every aspect.

He relaxed, his body slumping a little as his muscles no longer bulged.

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Surely you're not giving up, are you?" she asked.

"Not exactly," Alex said. "It's clear that I can't physically touch you, so I will need to do something different."

The woman snickered. "I was hoping you would learn that sooner, but now is fine too."

"Do I have to touch you?" Alex asked. "Or can my attacks hit you as well?"

The woman tapped her chin in thought. "I'll count your attacks if you're at least 100 meters away from me. How's that?"

"Hundred meters…" Alex thought with a sigh. His idea of using his Sword Domain to hit her with an undodgeable attack went down the drain. But, if Sword Domain didn't work, then he would just have to try the next one.

Alex raised his hands forward, aura coalescing in his palms. The three Sword Intents appeared, each ready to clash with the others to show supremacy without Alex's intervention.

With Alex there, they were less violent and willing to work together. They were even willing to become one. Only, Alex could not make it happen. It was fundamentally impossible for him to convert those three Sword Intents into a single one while he did so himself.

'I have to remove myself from it,' he told himself, but what exactly am 'I' in this context?

How exactly was he supposed to remove himself from intents? After all, he was the source of the intents.

Bladedance had explained to him that each person had their own understanding of what part of themselves they had to remove in order to form their Sword Heart. It would've been so much easier if he were to gain his understanding of Sword Heart from someone else's Sword Heart so that he would gain all the answers.

Alas, he was forming his own unique Sword Heart, so he could only rely on himself.

'Remove myself. Me. I. What am I? A cultivator? An alchemist? No, why should that matter to the sword? To the sword, I am a swordsman, right? Do I remove the swordsman? Or do I remove everything else and keep the swordsman?'

Thoughts came to Alex in pieces scattered all around his mind that he had to go hunt for. He wasn't even sure what he was thinking about half the time, just that he was thinking of something.

The woman, thankfully, didn't seem to mind Alex's absence from the battle as she let him take his time with the various thoughts that ran through his mind. She had already seen part of what she needed to earlier on, having noticed something that helped her learn part of what she had come to learn here.

She would need more than that for the whole truth, but she was willing to wait for it. There was no hurry anyway.

She turned her attention away from Alex and looked toward the riverbank where the dragons cultivated, none the wiser that a battle had broken out this close to where they were.

She smiled a little, remembering her own days when she could be so carefree. It wouldn't be long before these too would grow and gain their own responsibilities, but for now, they were just children.

After some time passed, she realized that there was no point in waiting around for much longer. The young human wouldn't accomplish his—

A flicker of light appeared next to her before vanishing.

The woman's eyes widened slightly, clearly surprised.

'Oops! Hope he doesn't find out.'