Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex logged back into the game and walked out of the room. 

As soon as he was in the hallway, he heard something. It was an ambient sound, like a static of a radio. "Could it be?" his eyes went wide and he walked out. 

Opening the door, the sound got much louder and he could hear each individual sound that collectively made the overall sound. Cold air with drops of water struck his face.

It was raining. 

This was the first time he had seen rain in the game. 

"Haha, it's actually raining," he said with a smile. He looked out and saw many disciples in the rain, practically dancing, letting the rain hit their faces. 

Alex was quite surprised, but he understood. 'They haven't seen rain in a long time as well, have they?' he thought.

He walked out into the rain and let it fall on him. He could easily create a layer of Qi to block it, but he didn't do so. He walked to the front of the ship and saw that his master was already there. 

So were the two elders. 

"Ah, you are here disciple Yu. Came to check the rain?" the Second Elder asked. 

"I just came out because I thought I had enough rest," he said as he looked around the deck. The various disciples were all happily walking around in the rain. 

Fan Ruogang had Wan Li in her clutches and was walking around the rain with him. Even Zhou Mei was smiling a little after seeing the rain. 

He then looked up at the sky and saw the clouds were looming for quite a long distance. There were even some lightning discharges in the rain. 

"We… won't get hit by the lightning, right?" he asked. 

"Don't worry, the ship has protection. It can divert lightning attacks around us with its barrier, similar to how air is diverted away," Ma Rong said. 

"But the rain still hits us?" he asked.

"That's because we can allow what to enter and whatnot," Ma Rong said. 

"I see," he said. "Anyway, this is my first time seeing rain since I joined the sect. I wouldn't have imagined the sect to be in such a place of drought," he said. 

"It's not really in a place of drought. There are springs of water deep underground. It's only that it never rains. Even when the sky gets cloudy, it immediately goes away," Ma Rong said. 

"Huh, Why?" Alex asked.

"No idea. It's never rained in Scarlet City for nearly hundreds of years. Thankfully, the weather doesn't get too hot, or we would be a desert right now," Ma Rong said. 

"Like the forbidden fields?" Alex asked. 

"Yeah, like the forbidden fie—," Ma Rong stopped. She remembered what was happening in the forbidden fields for the last few years. The land was getting deserted. 

Alex realized what she was thinking. It was not far off in the future when the scarlet city would become a desert as well. And no one knew the reason why. 

"I think we should put up the barrier, sect leader. Or the deck will be full of water," Second Elder said. 

Ma Rong got out of her stupor and nodded. Suddenly, with a wave of her hand, the rain stopped falling. All the disciples stopped and looked up. Rains were streaming down the air as if there was a glass roof on top of them. 

"We will go back now, sect Leader," Second Elder said and walked away with the third elder. 

Alex was left alone with his Master. 

"Are you worried about the sect becoming a desert later on?" he asked.

"Yes. As a sect leader, I can't help but be worried about it. At first, I thought it not raining in Scarlet City had to do with the geographical location, but now, I'm starting to think it has something to do with the desert in the forbidden fields," Ma Rong said. 

Alex had no answer for that.

"Anyway, you should go back and cultivate or something. You don't need to stay out here in the rain. I can stay all by myself," Ma Rong said. 

"It's okay, I can cultivate here too," Alex said and called out Pearl. 

"Hide him," Ma Rong got a little frantic. 

"It's okay, master," Alex said and quickly hit Pearl in his robes. "Pearl, start cultivating," he said. 

"Meow," Pearl said and started to snuggle up on his body before glowing a bright white color. He then turned to yellow before fully glowing in golden color. 

Thankfully, Alex's robe was hiding most of the light so only Ma Rong could see the shine. 

Slowly, cuts started appearing on Alex's skin. Ma Rong got scared a little thinking he was hurt. "Yu Ming, are you okay?" she asked in a hurry. 

"I'm okay, don't worry. This is just how I body cultivate," he said. 

"But… that looks so painful. Are you really fine?" she asked. 

"Yeah, don't worry about it. I'm used to the pain now," he said. 

'Used to the pain' and not 'it's not painful'. Ma Rong felt a deep pain in her heart when she heard that. She knew she couldn't shelter him forever, but she wanted to keep him safe for as long as she could. 

However, he was already getting hurt in ways she couldn't imagine. The physical pain of such body cultivation and the psychological pain of killing a person. She never wanted him to feel those. Yet, he did, and she couldn't stop it.

She stood there for a few hours, watching him cultivate and making sure that he didn't make a mistake during his cultivation. Fortunately, she was worrying needlessly. 

Alex could talk through his cultivation now, so she just talked back whenever he spoke and let him be when he was just cultivating. 

Soon, the clouds parted away, giving ways to the moonlight. Clears rays of moonlight lit the world below. And in that light, Ma Rong saw something. 

Another monster hoard attack.