Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy
chapter-2013

It was close to dusk when Alex returned to his store and was glad to see that it was still open. He walked inside and saw a few people on the seats, waiting for their turn to be checked up.

"You're back!" Fang Yuxie said, nearly screaming out loud when she saw Alex walk in through the door.

"Hey!" Alex said and walked up to her. "How are you doing? Everything fine with the store?"

"Everything is fine," Fang Yuxie said. "Sister Yanwei has been taking good care of it in your absence."

"Glad to hear that," Alex said. "Where is she? Working?"

Just as he said that Wang Yanwei walked out of the room at the back. "Next!" she said out loud and turned toward Alex. "Oh, you're back. How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Alex said. That was a weird question to greet someone with. He looked around at the patients. "Do you want me to take over, or are you good?"

"I would love it if you took over," Wang Yanwei said with a sigh. "I can take the pill commissions instead. We should be done soon."

"Alright."

Alex switched with Wang Yanwei and dealt with the patients. There weren't as many patients, and their problems were also simply that could be fixed with a few specific pills or two.

Once Alex was done checking up on the patients, he finally walked out to an empty store. Fang Yuxie walked to the front and closed the door, shutting the store down now that it was evening.

"Did we lose many customers while I was gone?" he asked the two women.

"A little," Fang Yuxie said. "But it was mostly because they knew you would be gone and there would be no point in coming here. Now that you are back, they should be back as well."

Alex nodded. "That's nice, but I would rather the customers keep coming even when I'm not here. The store can't hang on my presence alone."

Fang Yuxie shrugged. "It's your store, it will hang on you of course," she said. "But maybe I can share the load once I become an Immortal Alchemist too. Shouldn't take more than a few decades."

Alex shook his head. A few decades was too long of course.

"We should leave," Wang Yanwei said and then turned toward Alex. "You need to rest properly. You may be feeling fine, but it's still better to rest."

"Rest? For what?" he asked.

Fang Yuxie walked up to him from the side and patted him on the shoulder a few times. "Don't get too disappointed, okay? There's always next time. I'm sure they will let you in as soon as you show them your Battle Power."

Alex couldn't understand anything. "What are you guys talking about?" he asked.

Wang Yanwei gave a sad smile. "We… heard what happened," she said. "Actually, the entire city heard what happened."

"What happened?" he asked curiously.

"That you were knocked out during the very first test. What sort of test was it that you were knocked out so easily?" Wang Yanwei asked before shaking her head. "That doesn't matter. We learned that you missed the rest of the test because you were knocked out so early."

Alex paused for a moment. "What?" he asked. "You… you know about that?"

"The entire city does," Fang Yuxie said. "Everyone knew about how someone so weak like you had managed to get a chance, so hearing that you were knocked out at the very start, that news took no time to spread at all."

"The entire city knows about what happened to me?" he asked. "I was sure you weren't allowed to spread anything about the tests outside of the sect."

"No, we know nothing about the test itself. Just that you were knocked out," Wang Yanwei said. "Must've been serious for you to be knocked out for a whole week too. Can you tell us what happened?"

"I overdid on the first test and lost all my spiritual energy in a very short time," Alex explained, saying no further about the test itself. The situation around the stairway was supposed to remain unknown to everyone else.

"Well, that doesn't matter now. You can try again next year," Fang Yuxie said.

"Try again?" Alex asked, a weird smile forming on his face. "You think I failed, don't you?" "Think?" Fang Yuxie asked. "What's there to think? We already learned that you failed. You missed the entire test because you were unconscious."

"Oh," Alex said and fished out something from his Soul Space. "Then what is this?" Fang Yuxie looked at what he had brought out, a golden pentagon, half the size of her palm, with a small image in the middle. The image in the pentagon was of a branch with a thin leaf growing out of it.

Around that image was an inscription that read 'The owner of this pendant holds the authority of a Blue Silk sect inner disciple'.

Fang Yuxie's eyes went wide in shock. "That… that… how can that be?" she asked out loud.

Wang Yanwei got curious. She walked up to Alex and looked at the pendant he had brought out. Seeing that, she too began freaking out.

Alex shook his head. "You two had absolutely no faith in me whatsoever, did you?" he asked. "I passed. Congratulate me, instead of giving me your sympathy."

"H-how? The news, it said—"

"I heard what it said," Alex said. "And it only said half of it. I did faint, but that was only for 2 days. After I woke up, I met the elders and took a small test to join the sect. I've been doing my necessary tasks as the disciple for the past 5 days. I finally completed it all and returned to the shop."

Both of the women were simply too flabbergasted about the whole thing. They could not believe at all what they were hearing.

For the past week, they had only ever heard about Alex's failure. Even the patients who came to the shop said nothing but a few pitiful words in his favor. As such, it had been long since ingrained into their mind that he had actually failed when the truth couldn't have been further away.

"You really passed?" Wang Yanwei asked, still in disbelief.

"If this doesn't prove it, then will this?" he asked as he brought out his nameplate to show them. The nameplate was special enough and expensive enough that she had no doubt at all.

"If that doesn't work, I can show you these robes too," he said as he brought out the Blue Silk sect's vibrant blue robes.

The women watched him pull those out with absolutely no idea how to respond to any of it at all. They had never expected in their wildest dreams that all of the news was false and the weak Immortal Ascendant 1st realm cultivator had in fact managed to join one of the 3 biggest sects in the entire Myriad Spirit world.

It was already night before the women were finally out of their stupor and began congratulating Alex. They went back home quite late that night, choosing to stay in the sect for a small celebration.

Fang Yuxie brought out some wine and the three of them drank all night long.