Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex and Scarlet discussed for a bit to figure out just exactly how he had become able to sense Time aura at all. They came up with a few reasonings, but none of them held any ground at all.

It was not because he had a family member that could do it. It was not because he had entered the void where time and space were amalgamated into something indescribable.

And it was definitely not because Alex had suddenly learned a new skill overnight.

So, whether it made any sense or not, Scarlet had to accept that she was the reason Alex could now sense Time.

“I didn’t imagine I would be able to do such a thing so soon,” he said. “I expected to have to wait many, many years before I could do such a thing.”

“I wouldn’t have expected you to ever be able to do it at all,” she said.

“Hehe, I can now sense both Time and Space,” Alex said while unable to hide his giddiness at the news.

“Don’t get too happy so suddenly,” Scarlet said. “Just because you can sense time, doesn’t mean you can use it so easily. Sensing it is only the beginning. You will have to learn a whole lot more about it before you can do anything.”

Alex nodded. “That I understand,” he said. “It took me over 2 decades to be able to sense and use Space aura, and that was with the help of the Space stone. I assume Time aura will take much longer than that.”

“You are underestimating just how long it will take,” Scarlet said. “Time and Space maybe talked together, but don’t mistake them to be similar. They are worlds apart.”

“I suppose,” Alex said with a thoughtful look. “Oh right, is there something like a Time stone, just like a space stone?”

“There’s no such thing,” Scarlet said. “Space is far more prevalent than Time. If you want to learn more about time, you will have to spend some time around places with dense time aura.”

“How dense are we speaking?” Alex asked.

“Dense enough to affect time on its own,” Scarlet said.

“Maybe the Ancient Battlefield can help me,” Alex thought. “But it will be a while before I return there.”

“Are we done?” Scarlet asked. “Because I would very much love to bathe in this sunlight please.”

“Oh, sure. I have things of my own to do as well,” Alex said and turned to leave. However, before going out, he stopped. “Is it safe to just jump out? My body won’t tear itself apart because of the time difference inside and outside, right?”

“Huh? No,” Scarlet said. “Your body naturally changes speed when you go out of a time field. You don’t have to worry about one body part moving faster than the other.”

“Oh, good,” Alex said and flew away from the glowing rock. He landed some distance away from the lava and turned around to look at Scarlet.

From his perspective, the concentrated beam of light was hitting her with very high intensity, but he knew what it was like inside, so he knew she had nothing to worry about.

‘I must be stuck in her sight for hours, even though I only stayed here for a minute or two,’ he thought. Then, he finally turned around and left the dome.

The door opened for him when he reached the gate and he went back outside, to the backyard of the palace.

He looked to the side. “Right, pills,” he thought when he saw the swine again. It had already been half a day since he had returned, so he should be getting started anytime now.

He walked back into the palace and went to check on his father. When he arrived, he found a few maids outside of his father’s guest room.

“Senior has finished his meal and has told us to tell you that he is going to sleep for now,” the woman said.

“I see,” Alex said. “You guys don’t have to stay around here. You can go do other more important tasks too.”

“Taking care of the guests is one of our most important tasks,” the maid said.

“Ah, is that so? Um… let him know where to find me once he wakes up, okay?” Alex said and left the area.

He walked back towards his own room, and on the way, he walked past the throne room where the elders were gathered and seemed to be working with a lot of other servants.

He popped inside the throne room and looked around. “What’s going on?” he asked.

Liang Shufen, who had seen him walk in, answered. “Preparation, for tomorrow,” she said.

“For tomorrow? What’s tomorrow?” he asked.

She looked at him weirdly for a second before shaking her head. “Coronation, of course,” she said.

Alex was surprised for a second. “Why?” he asked. “Isn’t she already the—”

Before he could speak fully, she placed her hands in front of her mouth before shushing him.

“What’s… going on?” he asked.

“We are making it look like Lady Phoenix is actually the descendant of our previous phoenix lord. We’re making the people believe that she is a new phoenix and not an old one that died and came back weaker. This helps her a lot as people are more accepting of a new ruler than an old one that abandoned them,” Liang Shufen said.

“Ah, I see,” Alex nodded as he finally understood. “She knows about it, right?”

“Yes,” Liang Shufen said. “We’re preparing this room as this is where she will be crowned the ruler of the continent.”

Alex nodded as well and looked around the room as he took in the changes. They were changing old seats, and curtains and such. The servants were taking it all outside one by one.

As he looked, he noticed two things that made him think for a bit.

“Where’s the crown?” he asked.

“Brother Huang and Sister Ren took it to clean it for tomorrow,” Liang Shufen said.

“I see,” Alex said. “Well, I will let you continue working then. I have some pills of my own to make as well.”

“Sure,” she said. “But don’t spend too much time on it though. You probably want to see the coronation happen as well, right?”

“I mean, I’m not really looking forward to it, if I have to be honest,” Alex said. “It’s just a formality anyway, but I guess I can be there. I’ll try not to miss it.”

“Do whatever you want to do,” Liang Shufen said and Alex left.

As he walked out, his mind wandered back to the 2nd thing that he had seen in the room, which was a bit surprising for him.

The curtains had been changed behind the throne and it was once again in red and purple colors, the color of the Vermilion Bird.

When Alex had come here over 3 years ago, he had wondered what purple and red meant. He could understand that Red meant Fire, or it just referred to the color Vermilion, but purple was something he couldn’t get a grasp on in terms of the element.

However, after today, he had new information that helped him formulate an understanding of the color, that he would have otherwise not known before.

“Time,” he thought to himself. “Purple means time.”

It made sense since the Phoenixes were able to sense time aura as well as given the fact that the Void was an amalgamation of silver and purple, representing space and time.

“That’s one mystery solved,” he thought as he returned back to his room.

As soon as he was back, he went straight to his bed and lay down on it. The soft bed embraced him as he let it take all the fatigue away.

‘Such a long day,’ he thought to himself remembering everything from the Void to getting out of the Sanctum to finding his father in the Sunless land to finding that Scarlet was actually the immortal phoenix that was sent here to rule over the people.

“No, I can’t just rest right now,” he thought as he got back up. There was so much for him to do after all.

The first thing he did was assess the damage he had received from his fight today. He checked on Whisker and Whisker was still dead.

‘He’s got plenty of Qi this time around,’ Alex thought. ‘Should take no more than a day to return.’

Then, he called out the Blood God’s Manual. The manual appeared in front of him, coming out from wherever it hid in his body.

The manual opened to the 4th page and Alex looked inside. As soon as he did, he couldn’t help but sigh.

“So many died,” he thought with a sad look on his face. He had sacrificed his blood beasts to soak up the attacks that were thrown down at the people he was saving, and while that was a noble cause for their death, he was still slightly mad that he had to do it.

“Over 80 of them died, huh?” he thought. “I should get some more in the future.”

When he thought about that, the sadness lessened a bit. There were many beasts out there in the ocean, just waiting for him to retrieve their cores and make better blood beasts.

“I should improve my blood even more as well,” he thought. He then closed his books and pulled out the Sun’s Womb.

It was time to make some pills.