Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy
chapter-2020

Alex arrived back in the Blue Silk sect, making his way toward the cave he had left alone for more than a year and a half. It took an hour or two to take care of his mountain before he made his way to the Sunheart Peak.

His arrival had apparently been notified to the many elders as Sunheart wasn't surprised when he arrived at her doorstep.

"You're back. I thought you would be staying out for much longer," she said.

"I would've, Elder, but I need to breakthrough, and one of my bonded beasts needs to break through to Immortality as well," he said. "So I had to come back."

"Oh, you're breaking through?" she asked. "That's quite early from what I know about you. You only came to this world around a decade ago, did you not?"

Alex nodded. It was in fact a little less than that even. "Did you come here to inform me of that?" she asked.

"Yes," Alex said. "That and ask if you know of a place where my beast can break through to Immortality without having others disturb us."

"There are plenty of empty mountains for that. You can go and request for one," she said. "Although, you don't have that many contribution points in the sect, do you?"

She quickly pulled out a talisman and handed it over to Alex. "If they say they can't give you any, show them this talisman. They will hand over one of the tribulation mountains to you."

"Oh! That's good," Alex said. It seemed he wouldn't have much of a problem then. "I had thought I would have to go somewhere desolate to do that."

"The sect provides you one," she said.

"I'm surprised it does, given a regular breakthrough shouldn't require that," Alex said.

"But our tribulation does," the woman said. "You must not know about Immortal tribulations. You're not old enough to know, I suppose."

"Immortal tribulation?" Alex asked, confused for a moment before he remembered what it was. "Ah! That thing where Immortals have to face lightning tribulations every 10 thousand years."

"Yes," the woman said. "I'm surprised you know."

"I read about it a while ago," he said. Of course, he had never read it but was told so by the Immortals back in the lower realm. "It sounds frightening, but it doesn't appear to be much of a troubling matter, does it?"

"Why would you not be scared of lightning tribulation?" the woman asked.

Alex shrugged. "I mean, it comes once every ten thousand years, slightly stronger each time, so there's not much to worry about. There are 36 realms in the Immortal realm alone. You have 360 thousand years to go to the next realm."

Alex could barely even comprehend the amount of time he had just mentioned.

"I do think you have a misconception there," she said. "Why do you believe it is ten thousand years for each realm?" "That's what I read," Alex said. "Or at least I think I read it."

He tried to remember back to the actual words that were said to him. Was it not 10 thousand years? Had he got the numbers wrong?

"That is a mistake for certain," she said. "It doesn't come back stronger compared to each realm you broke through, but just stronger in general."

"It is impossible to tell how much stronger it would be. While it is true that it might match the strength of each subsequent realm for most people, that is not entirely the truth. The strength of the lightning tribulation depends entirely on the person themselves. And the increment depends on them as well."

"While two Immortals may start with the same strength lightning tribulation, in 10 more tribulations, one would have a much harder time than the other one."

Alex looked at the woman, surprised. "So there is a chance that my tribulation will be so strong that I won't be able to do anything about it?" Sunheart shook her head. "No, I don't believe you have much to worry about. Even though it could be much stronger, it still won't be an unreasonable amount of strength. If the heavens are one thing, they are fair."

Alex let out a breath of relief. There was no chance he would've had an easy time with this at all.

"You need not worry for the Immortal realms at all," she said. "But… when you do reach the Divine realm, things… will get a little tricky."

Alex looked at her, somewhat confused. "What do you mean?" he asked.

She shook her head. "You are too young to know. Reach the Divine realm and you will find out on your own. For now, forget about Immortal Tribulation. It is a distant matter for you."

Alex frowned a little. What had she been about to say? What was it about the Divine realm that changed things?

Alex looked at the woman and realized he wasn't going to get any answers at all. That was all he was going to get.

"Thank you for your help, Elder."

He turned and walked away. Alex made his way to a teleportation formation that took him to another section of the sect where he could get himself a tribulation mountain to breakthrough through.

He asked for one from the elder who worked in the administration section of the sect and was happy to learn that he didn't need any sort of contribution points to get that mountain.

It appeared he had gained a bit of leeway in almost everything thanks to his somewhat special status within the sect. As the first person in the sect to legitimately have a Celestial-grade talent, they were more than willing to go the extra mile for Alex.

Alex took full advantage of that.

Alex had received a large medallion that not only gave him permission to go to one of the mountains but also to the many formations that were there.

Alex had thought of getting his own formations to create barriers for stopping other people from seeing what happened inside, but it turned out he didn't have to.

Now that everything was ready, all that was left was for Alex to go and break through.

The tribulation mountains were spread throughout the entire sect, and the one Alex got was one deep within the southern region. Rarely anyone but beasts lived in this region of the sect, so Alex was mostly free to do whatever it was that he wanted.

Alex took out the medallion he had received and quickly checked the many formations that he could activate. One by one, he activated all of the formations that were laid around the mountain and felt a powerful barrier emerge around him.

The size and strength of the barrier surprised Alex as to exactly how strong it all was. He looked around, making sure there was no way for someone else to sneak in or let their Spiritual senses into the area.

That was of the utmost importance here.

After all of Alex's security concerns were gotten rid of, he finally sighed and arrived at the peak of the mountain.

"Come out, Pearl," he said and Pearl arrived next to him.

"Are we ready?" Pearl asked.

Alex nodded. "Go ahead," he said. "You can begin your breakthrough here."