Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy
chapter-2002

The woman in front of him was using some power he had no idea about to divine something about him.

'Is she trying to look into my future?' Alex thought, both fearing and being curious about what she would see. Was it good? Was it bad? Would he find out where his family was? Or if they had already arrived at the Sky God's Palace?

But then there was a possibility that she would also find out about the plants inside his Soul Space. He prayed she did not see it. He had to as this might be the easiest way to find his family.

Alex didn't move anymore and let the woman fully see whatever she could see.

"Argh!" the woman screamed at once, surprising Alex.

Her frosty blue eyes suddenly cracked and then it shattered in a dozen different ways, each creating fractures inside her eyes like a cracked mirror. It wasn't just her eyes that cracked but in fact, reality itself seemed to fracture when her eyes did.

Alex could feel the watchful gaze of whatever had been looking at him suddenly stop and then disappear. The woman reeled back away from Alex and one of the men quickly caught her.

"Sister Frosteyes, are you alright?" the man asked and the other women quickly moved to grab her as well.

"I'm okay," the woman said in a high-pitched tone and took a deep breath before calming down. "I'm okay." Her voice became normal.

She looked toward Alex and her cracked eyes were no longer there, just her regular eyes. It was such a surreal experience to have seen her eyes change so drastically.

'And why had they cracked?' Alex wondered. Did something bad happen?

The woman continued staring at Alex, not saying anything.

"Sister Frosteyes, what did you see?" the old man with the mole asked.

"I… I don't know," she said. "I thought it would all be clear, but…"

"Was it hazy?" one of them asked.

"No, it was not hazy. It was just… too many," she said. "So many possibilities of what would happen in the future. I couldn't even glimpse any proper ones at all."

"What did you see? What can you pick out?" the man asked.

"There were so many," she said. "I don't know what I… I think there was some sort of fire. I saw something burning white. Tribulation lightning, I think? there was a sword, maybe black? A blonde human. A single eye. And suffering. A lot of suffering."

Everyone slowly turned their head to look toward Alex in surprise.

Alex looked around, unsure why they stared at him like that.

The old man turned to the woman and asked, "You could not see anything clearly? This is different from all the others you tested?" he said.

"I know. I don't know why it is so difficult to divine with this young man. Did I overdo myself?" she asked.

"You should rest, sister," Elder Shang said. "Maybe you should enter closed cultivation. You faced similar issues a few years ago as well."

"That was different," the woman said, almost angrily in defense. "I'm sure that man found a way to hide himself. This is different. I saw things, just… too many. It's almost as if with him, the possibilities are endless."

They all went silent for a while. The woman named Sunheart turned to look at Alex curiously.

"Okay, so what does it mean with him?" the old man asked. "You stopped him from leaving and tried your divination on him. Do you think I should accept him along with his requests?"

The old man seemed to be genuinely asking. Alex could tell that he greatly respected the woman's words.

"I think… there may be a chance that if we let him go, we will come to regret it," she said.

The old man seemed surprised. He looked down as he thought of something for a while and looked up at Alex. "Okay then," he said. "Because sister Frosteyes said so, I will do something that I haven't done. I am willing to accept you as our disciple and will let you leave, under a few conditions."

Alex narrowed his eyes. "I am willing to listen, senior," he said.

"First of all, it all depends on just how talented you are, so let us start there," he said and pointed to the black monolith that stood at the center of the courtyard.

Alex turned and looked at the thing he had seen when he first entered the courtyard. "Place your hand on that monolith. If you can make it glow with blue light, we shall proceed," the man said.

"Blue light?" he asked, turning to look at the black monolith. "How do I make it shine?"

"Just place your hand on the monolith and stand there. It will do the rest," he said.

Alex nodded slowly and said, "May I ask what that monolith does before I start?"

"It's a simple thing, it tests your talent," the man said.

Alex raised his eyebrows. "Talent?" he asked. It had been a long while since he had ever come across something that tested his talent. The very last thing was the helm that they put on the players and that had been a rough artifact created by the senior for quick testing. Alex looked at the monolith and understood that this thing was most likely the real deal. 'Should I show them my talent?' he wondered for a moment before letting go of that thought process. 'They know enough already to do something if they wish to.'

"I will start then, seniors," he said and walked up to the black monolith. He took a deep breath and placed his palm on the smooth stone.

As soon as he touched it, he felt a cold energy pulse out of the stone and enter his body in waves. The energy felt normal with no intention of harming him, so he let it do its thing.

The black monolith glowed brightly with black light that shined all around him and it slowly began changing color. The dark light became dark red light that became more and more red as time went on.

Once it was fully red, the color changed some more, turning purple slowly. It lost the red color and gained the purple color.

Alex could see the elders talking among themselves from the corner of his eyes, but he couldn't hear what they were saying. He ignored them and focused on what was before him.

The rate of change in color began slowing down significantly, but they could still see the purple color gradually losing more and more red to become blue.

'This color scheme,' Alex thought. 'It's the same one from the Realm of Trails.'

He remembered the many trials he had taken in the Gold Kingdom of the Eastern Continent where each time he passed a test, his color changed.

'That means, black is worst, then red, then purple, then blue, and finally white is the highest,' Alex thought.

The old man had told him that he needed to reach the blue light, but that was the least he needed surely.

'Should I…?' Alex wondered. After a bit of thought, he nodded to himself.

'Let's go all the way to white.'