Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

"What?" Luo Mei lost her train of thought and immediately sprinted forward. "No, no, no, no, no, no. Father, what's going on? What is happening to you?" 

"I don't know, my child. I've been asking myself that as well. Unfortunately, COUGH COUGH something is really wrong with me," her father said. 

"Then what were you talking about with him?" Luo Mei asked. 

"Oh, he heard about me being sick from somewhere, so he acted like he came to check up on me."

"But that bastard was really just trying to ask your hands in marriage. That bastard, he thinks he can get my lovely daughters just because I'm sick? I will be dead and still not hand you guys over to that bastard," her father said. 

"Oh," Luo Mei said. "I'm sorry. I got overly emotional, father." 

"Haha, it's alright, COUGH COUGH. Let's go somewhere else, this place is dirty now," he said and walked out. 

"Oh, Mengmeng, you came back too. Go meet your mother, Meimei is fine now," he said to Meng Yun who swiftly took her leave. 

"And… are you Meimei's junior brother that Xingxing told me about? Wen Cheng's youngest disciple, right?" he asked. 

"Yes, senior. I am Yu Ming," Alex introduced himself.

"Oh, good to see you, young man. Since you are Meimei's disciple brother… you can call me Uncle Keng," Luo Keng said. 

"Yes, Uncle Keng," Alex said. 

"Did little Xun not come? It's been a while since I've met him too," Luo Keng said. 

"Senior brother is the leader of the guards. He can't leave whenever he wants," Luo Mei said. 

"Well, at least your junior brother is free to go around as he likes. Haha, COUGH COUGH," Luo Keng said. 

"He is not that free, he came here with a purpose father," Luo Mei said. 

"He did? Oh, right. Xingxing told me about that," Luo Keng said. 

"I just saw Meng Yun leave. Is Mei'er back?" A woman's voice came from the hallway. Luo Mei immediately walked out and hugged a middle-aged woman. 

"Mother, I'm back," she said. 

"Oh, my sweet child. You must be tired from your journey," the woman said. 

The woman was wearing a refined, violet robe. She had a fair face and had her hair braided down the side. 

She looked nothing like Luo Mei, but did have features belonging to Luo Xing. 

"Oh, and who's this young man?" She asked when she saw Alex. 

"This is Meimei's junior apprentice-brother who came with her, Yu Ming. And as far as I can tell, he's going to be my doctor for the next few days," Luo Keng. 

"Ah, the boy Xing'er was talking about. I am Shi Nangong, Mei'er's stepmother. Welcome to the house, young man. Think of this as your own home," the woman said. 

"Mother!" Luo Mei screamed in annoyance. 

"Haha, yes yes. Mother, not stepmother. Mei'er hates when I say otherwise," Shi Nangong said. 

"Mother, show little brother to the guest room, please. He's been making pills non-stop for the people injured in the beast hoard attack. He is extremely tired," Luo Mei said. 

"What?" Luo Keng said. "You've been helping the people all night long. You must be extremely tired. My bad young man for keeping you here."

"Honey, show him to our guest room," Luo Keng said. 

Shi Nangong took Alex through the house to an area where the guests stayed at. There were multiple rooms there, and all of them were for the guests. 

A door suddenly opened as a young man walked out. 

"Oh good afternoon Auntie. Huh? Junior brother, did you just come?" Xiao Huang asked as he saw them. 

"Yes, I just arrived with my sister," Alex said. 

"Oh, so your sister made it back safely? She wasn't attacked by the beasts or anything right?" Xiao Huang asked. 

"Oh no. Mei'er is fine. Little Yu here on the other hand is particularly tired from helping everyone overnight. I was bringing him to his room to rest," Shi Nangong said. 

"Ah, yes of course, Auntie. Sorry for stopping you, junior brother," Xiao Huang said and left. 

"This is your room. If you need anything, just ask any servant in the house. I will leave you alone now," Shi Nangong said and left. 

Alex entered the yellow-colored room and walked up to the bed. He felt how soft the bed was and just fell on top of it. 

"Arghh, that feels… good." He felt himself losing his mind to sleep but made no effort whatsoever to stop it.

The moment he fell asleep, his eyes opened up. He was inside of his capsule once more.

"Oh right, people automatically log out when they fall asleep in the capsule," Alex said and pushed open the lid. 

Alex got out of the capsule and went to go get fresh. After that, he went to the kitchen to get his meal. 

There he saw Hannah heating her food in the microwave. 

"YAWN, good afternoon, sister," Alex said. 

"You woke up late too?" Hannah asked. 

"Yeah, I ended up making pills from midnight until noon. 12 hours of nonstop pill making. I'm feeling mentally fatigued out of the game too," Alex said. 

"Oh, take care of your body then," Hannah said. 

"Yeah, I need to exercise more often," Alex said. "What about you? Why'd you wake up so late?" 

"Oh, uh… I just cultivated for a little too long I guess," Hannah said. 

"Huh? I thought you didn't need to cultivate," Alex asked. 

"Whatever, it's my matter. You don't need to know. Here, heat your food too," Hannah said. 

"Why are you getting angry all of a sudden?" Alex asked as he put his bowl in the microwave. 

"Let's change the topic. Actually, I wanted to ask you about something," Hannah said. 

"I'm all ears," Alex said. 

"Sigh, do you still believe that the game is real?" Hannah asked. 

"Huh? Why are you asking this?" Alex asked. 

"Recently… I've started… experiencing stuff that feels way too real to be fake. When I thought about it, I remembered you saying that the game is real. Do you… still believe that?" Hannah asked. 

"More than ever actually," Alex said. "Someone in the game looked into my memories of real life. That sort of thing shouldn't be possible normally. Not to mention, I've… recreated the formation in the chip and it… works."

"The plate I made it on was wrong so it did nothing, but it was the right formation. From what I could tell, it's a super high-level formation, one that is not possible in the world of Eternal Cultivation," Alex said. 

"What about you tell me it's just an easter egg?" Hannah asked. 

"Maybe. But given everything else that has happened. All the senses, all the information of how taking over a dead body as a clone works to how the people are all so real. Even the language is different in each place. Those sort of thing is hard to make, especially by people that don't have a strong company behind them," Alex said. 

"So believe what you want, but I will believe it's real. That was why I stopped mom and dad from playing too," Alex said. "I didn't want them to live in such a world of murder and violence. They would be traumatized if they ever found out it was all real."

"I…see," Hannah said. "You truly thought quite far ahead. I guess you're not the little Alex I knew after all." 

"I… guess," Alex said. He himself felt like he had been hardened as a person after living in the world of Eternal Cultivation. It was a gradual process, and there was never an immediate change, but he surely felt it now that he thought about it. 

"Alright, we'll talk about this some other time. I need to go back soon," Hannah said and quickly finished her meal. 

Alex slowly ate as he had nothing to look forward to in the game for at least 6 hours. 

'If I remember correctly, I can't log in while I am asleep right? Or was it only when I fainted?' Alex wondered. 'Whatever, I will just stay outside.'

Alex finished his meal and went to watch some TV. The house was silent with the only sound coming out of the TV. Alex spent the next 6 houses just relaxing, doing nothing. 

Finally, once night fell, he went back to his room and got into the game.. It was finally time to go see what the hell was wrong with Luo Mei's father.