Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy
chapter-1997

"I give up," a woman shouted from the front. "I can't do it anymore."

Alex and everyone else looked toward the front at the woman.

She had given up? It was nearly evening time at the moment, and Alex turned back to look at the hourglass at the bottom of the stairs. It hadn't even been 8 hours yet. Was someone giving up already?

"This is the most I can go. Please help me!" the woman cried out from far in the front, at around 16000 steps. There were only 2 people ahead of her, and they too seemed very pained at the moment to continue on.

Alex wondered just how much weight they had to hold at those steps. Was it just too much for them? The ones before the woman turned back toward her, but they showed no sign of surprise at all. Just a look of understanding.

Alex and the others only wondered if the woman was going to fail when something came flying in her direction. They all looked at what it was and recognized it to be some sort of medallion.

The medallion fell right in front of the woman and she quickly wore it. Immediately, all looks of pain and fatigue disappeared from her face and a look of relief appeared upon in. The woman gave a deep sigh as well as a look of regret. But whatever had happened had happened and she couldn't do anything about it at this point.

She stood up, taking one last look at the trial, and flew to the top of the mountain.

Many of the people gasped in shock when they saw her fly. They had figured out very quickly that flying was impossible, so seeing her fly away made them understand what the medallion was for.

'So we can give up?' Alex thought. The woman had given up and yet she had been allowed to fly to the top. Was she not going to just leave?

Alex quickly thought back to the Elder Shang who had made the climb this staircase. He remembered her words.

'Your tests will take place tomorrow. If you are not at the peak of the mountain by the time this hourglass is empty, you will be disqualified from taking the entrance test.'

His eyes slowly widened. Never in those words had the woman ever said that they would fail if they failed to reach the top. She hadn't even ever said that they needed to climb the staircase either.

Hell, Alex could probably fly around the mountain, keeping away from this pressure aura, and they could have most likely passed the test.

He had seen the people at the front run, and so he had run along with them.

'Did we all make a mistake? Did we needlessly choose the hard path?' Alex wondered.

A few of the people who were struggling to take a single step forward began calling out to the senior at the top of the mountain. They gave up and soon a medallion came down to them.

'That woman, she knew she could give up,' Alex thought. She had to be one of the ones who were taking a repeat test. She knew from the start she could give up. And yet… she struggled all the way to the very top.

'Why?' Alex thought. 'Why not just take an alternate path or give up earlier? Why push yourself?'

Maybe they hadn't needlessly taken a difficult path. Maybe this was the path they needed to take. The ones that were retaking the test most certainly knew what they were doing, no doubt.

'So there really is nothing else to do in the end, huh?' Alex thought. 'I just have to keep moving forward.'

He took another step and then another and continued climbing the mountain.

* * * * * * At the top of the mountain, standing right before the final step, Shang Haolei surveyed the entire mountain with her Divine Sense.

She looked at each disciple, taking a look at their health and how far they had come.

"Not bad," she said softly. "We might have a few good seeds this year."

She turned to look at the man that was sitting on the side. "Your young friend is doing quite well too. I thought you were exaggerating at first, but he truly seems talented."

Lan Douhan sat with his head slightly bowed toward the elder before him. "I knew he was special the moment I found out he came from a lower realm, Elder Shang. When I saw how good of an alchemist he was, I knew I had to have him join the sect."

The old woman nodded. "I looked forward to his alchemy talent, but he might be talented in other things as well. We will have to thoroughly test him."

There was not a shred of lie in the woman's words. In fact, she had been underplaying the amount of shock Alex had given her.

From the beginning, she had known that Alex had a Battle Power of 3. His cultivation base had taken her by surprise, but now he was showing better results than many of the people around him.

'To make it this far so quickly, it does not match his Battle Power at all,' she thought, confusion filling her mind. 'What is going on?'

She wondered if Alex had somehow hidden his cultivation base from everyone. She didn't see that being the case. He had to have worn the All Dispelling belt during the previous tests. He could not have hidden his cultivation base.

But then, looking at the result he was showing, he needed to have a cultivation base of at least Immortal Origin 5th realm. And he was continuing even higher.

Something didn't make sense. His cultivation base alone should not have been that strong.

'Unless…' the woman thought as she raised her wrinkled eyebrows. She turned to Lan Douhan.

"Were you aware that he is a body cultivator too?" she asked the man.

Lan Douhan looked up, his face showing a look of confusion and disbelief.

"So you didn't," the woman said, turning back around. She took out a talisman to look at Alex's answers from the previous tests.

"He doesn't mention anything about his body cultivation. Neither does he mention anything about his body being resistant to poison." A small smirk appeared on her face. "Does he think he can get through our tests without showing us his entire potential? He must think us dumb."

Lan Douhan seemed surprised. "He must have reasons to do so, Elder. I'm sure he didn't mean to hide it on purpose."

The woman chuckled. "Calm down. I'm not going to punish him for hiding anything. In fact, I'm more interested in him now."

She observed the situation below her with her Divine Sense. "How many steps do you think he will reach?" she asked. "A regular person with his cultivation base should not cross 10 thousand, but he's already closing in on 12 thousand steps. I wonder if he'll stop at 13 thousand or keep going?"

Lan Douhan looked down with his spiritual sense. "He can go at most 2 thousand steps before he has to stop," he said.

The woman smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I don't think he will go any further than that either."