Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Blackfrost hadn\'t seen the switch coming.

\'Poor Yanwei,\' he thought. He wasn\'t worried about Alex at all. Being a disciple of the Blue Silk sect, there was no doubt he would be fine. Similarly, the other workers in Alex\'s store could just leave for another store to work in or come to the guild.

But Wang Yanwei would alone be the victim in all of this should Alex fail. Hell, even if he somehow miraculously won, there was nothing that said that their store was going to be saved.

\'Stupid child,\' he thought and sighed.

He arrived back at the guild and thought to go meet the two others. Their conversation had come to an abrupt end earlier, so he wanted to apologize for that.

He knocked on the door and walked in.

Silvermist, the tall and muscular man, sat on the bed with his eyes closed. Grimsight sat on a chair close by, balancing a single spear Qi on his index finger.

It vanished when he saw Blackfrost walk in.

"My apologies for making you two leave earlier," he said. "Have the two of you come to any decisions regarding your departure?"

Grimsight said nothing and turned his one eye over to the man who sat on the bed. Silvermist opened his eyes and said, "Since we didn\'t find what we were looking for, we\'ve decided to go check the Spring Grass continent. We\'ll go there and then to the Rosesteel continent and search around there. Hopefully, by the time Snowleaf returns from Godkiller\'s tomb, we\'ll have found what we\'re looking for."

"I see," Blackfrost said. "Will you be leaving right away or wait around for a while?"

"I think we\'ll leave," Silvermist said. "I see no reason to stick around here anymore."

"Well, stay around until the Duel in 5 days then," Blackfrost said. "That kid from earlier, Dawnblade, went ahead and agreed to some stupid terms, so at the very least, you should watch something entertaining before you leave."

"Dawnblade?" Silvermist asked, confused. "Is that the girl or the boy we saw?"

"It\'s the boy," the one-eyed man answered. "The one with the Sword Domain. I have yet to see anyone that capable in sword at such a young age."

Blackfrost was a little surprised. "He has what?" he asked.

Grimsight sighed. "Yeah, you wouldn\'t know. I doubt he reveals it to anyone either. The Sword Domain of his is dull but strong. He must not have used it in a while now. On top of that, there is that weird Saber aura around him, which confused me even more."

"And that young kid is trying to duel?" Silvermist asked from the bed.

"He\'s confident if nothing else," Blackfrost said as he sighed. "Well, I only came to see what your next plan was. I suppose you will be leaving soon then."

"In a few days, yes," Silvermist said. "We\'ll have to watch this duel first. How good is this kid\'s alchemy?"

"I don\'t know if you remember, but this was the kid that brought along the True pill recipe to our sect that heals missing organs and body parts," Blackfrost explained. "And I have heard of customers that have explained that he makes pills upto 85% in Harmony regularly."

"A multi-talented young man then," Silvermist said. "What family birthed such a talent?"

Blackfrost shrugged. "I think he came from a lower realm, not belonging to any great family."

"What?" Silvermist found it hard to believe. "He does not belong to any family?"

"None up here," Blackfrost said. "I think he\'s only been here for less than 20 years. He joined a sect early on, but I don\'t think he would\'ve had enough time to learn much of Alchemy there, so he came from the lower world with that talent."

Silvermist raised his eyebrow. "Now I must really see this duel," he said.

* * * * * * * Days passed and the morning of the duel arrived. The announcement of the duel had been made days ago and people from all around the city, maybe even farther away, would be heading toward the center of the city right now.

Everyone around Alex was flustered regarding the duel, Wang Yanwei more than ever. They gathered at the store an hour before the time of the duel to talk one last time.

The only one not there from the staff was Pearl, who had gone to visit the other Alex and Emily for a few hours, which would be a month and a half out here.

"I\'m going to miss this store," Rocksoul said with a sad look.

"We\'re not losing the store," Alex quickly replied. "I told you, I\'m going to win."

"I don\'t know, boss. Sister Yanwei brings up many good points. Your record isn\'t good enough to win against her, and she lost in her duel."

"But I will win," Alex said. He turned toward Yanwei and the others and said, "Remember to bet on me. We need to earn as much as possible from this since I changed the duel terms."

"That was a stupid choice and now you\'re asking me to make some more stupid choice," Wang Yanwei said with a scornful look. "You\'re just making us lose more money."

"Trust me, we\'re not losing anything," Alex said. "If you lose your money at the end, I\'ll give you the shield I got from my sect. You can sell it to get your money back."

"Can I get your cauldron, boss?" Rocksoul asked.

"No, but I do have metal shards that went into making that cauldron, which I will give you should you lose your money too."

Rocksoul smiled happily. Nôv(el)B\\\\jnn

Fang Yuxie shrugged. "I trust you\'ll do it. I got no worries in betting, but are you sure you want me to bet so much of your money?" she asked.

Alex had handed her close to 400 thousand spirit stones, which was just asking for trouble. He hadn\'t told her that he had kept the majority of it for himself. "Yes, all of it," Alex said. He was about to say something else when the door to the store opened.

"We\'re closed this morning. Please visit another—"

"Dawnblade!" the voice cut through Fang Yuxie\'s words, stunning her.

Alex turned around, curious to see who it was that had come, and was genuinely surprised to see Ninerise standing by the door.

"Brother Ninerise, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I finally found you!" the young man said with a deep sigh of relief. "You left so abruptly that I didn\'t think I\'d get to see you again. I\'m glad you didn\'t stay in your sect or I would\'ve never found you again."

"Find me? Why would you want to find me?" Alex asked.

"I want a duel as well," the young man said. "I hear you do that. You\'re doing one today, aren\'t you? You and me, we fight. Whoever wins, tells the other person the truth."

Alex was a little stunned. "What truth are we telling each other?"