Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy
chapter-2031

It had been nearly 17 years since Alex had come to the Myriad Spirit realm, and while he had hoped he would be gone from here already, it wasn't so bad that he was making decent progress on his journey to go find his family.

Time was much more lenient anyway in the Immortal world, so he could afford to waste much more than this before he got to them.

Alex cultivated for a while after completing the breakthrough and when he was done, he checked the Blood God's Manual. The thing was still not opening or accepting any blood.

He had expected as much though, so he ignored it soon enough.

Alex decided to return back to his store and was making his preparations to leave when Elder Sunheart called for him. Wondering what the reason could be, Alex made his way to the Sunheart Peak.

"Elder Sunheart!" Alex greeted her with a respectful bow.

"You've broken through? I thought I felt as much," she said. "Congratulations."

"Thank you," Alex said.

"Are you going to return to your shop soon?" she asked.

"Yes," Alex said. "In fact, I am going to leave right now."

"I see. I only called you here to tell you that you are required to come here 3 months later," she said. Alex was a little surprised. "Is there a reason, Elder?" Sunheart nodded. "The Twin Saber sect is opening their secret realm in 3 months, and every disciple below the cultivation base of the Immortal Origin realm is required to go there. You will have to go there too."

"Oh!" Alex said in surprise. "It's in 3 months? I thought I still had some time. Thank you for reminding me, Elder."

Sunheart stared at Alex for a second and smiled. "It seems you were looking forward to that."

"Yes. I bought the ticket to the secret realm about 13 years ago," he said. "Speaking of which, can I go there myself? Instead of having to go through the sect."

"It would be better if you go through the sect," she said.

"Is it mandatory?" he asked.

"It is mandatory that you go," she replied.

"Ah! So as long as I go, it should be fine, right?"

Sunheart paused for a bit and nodded. "I suppose that is correct," she said. "If you want to go on your own, you are free to do so. But you have to go there nonetheless. If we find that you didn't go, you will be punished."

"Don't worry, Elder. I will be punishing myself if I don't go there," Alex said. "I wouldn't want to miss such an amazing chance. If I can find those sabers, it would make me rich enough to not have to worry about money for a long time."

"It's… not really about the sabers," she said slowly. "You aren't going there to search for the sabers, although that is a part of it. There are other, more tangible opportunities in there that you can make use of. It's a good place to find who your rivals and peers are in this generation. Who is better than you and who is more talented."

Alex nodded. "I'll keep that in mind, thank you."

Sunheart nodded. "Alright, that's all I had to say to you. You may leave."

Alex arrived back in Newsky City sometime later and made his way back toward his shop. It was not even close to noon just yet, so he would have to go right back to work when he arrived at the store.

The distance to his store from the place where he teleported was quite far, so it took him some time even when he flew back. On the way, he began looking around at the streets near his store and sighed.

A new Apothecary store had opened up there recently, a small one but clearly with quite a bit of backing. They were just starting up, but that was still one more store to take their customers away.

And they were not the only ones. In the past few years, just as Yanwei had predicted it to happen, more and more stores had popped around their store at specific locations so that people coming from that direction would never even have to make it to their store.

Thankfully, Alex's store had just enough reputation to not immediately be in trouble due to the lack of customers, but their profits had been lowering day by day. A few more stores, and they might even be forced to close down the stores.

He knew he would have to suffer through this fate for what he needed to happen, but it was still quite frustrating to go through it himself.

Alex arrived back at the store and was quickly made to handle the customers. The ones who came just for his expertise as a physician had to wait for his return before they could be healed.

And soon he forgot about the immediate troubles.

Three months passed, and it was finally time for him to leave for the Oldbranch sect where the Twin Saber sect was.

"Be careful in the secret realm. It is said that people have died there before," Wang Yanwei said.

"I will," Alex said. "Look after the store. I will return with Pearl in about a year's time."

"Good luck on finding the treasures in there," Fang Yuxie said from the side.

Alex nodded and waved goodbye before flying away toward the teleportation platform near the western side of the city. Pearl was going along with him too, but until they were inside the secret realm, he was staying inside of his Soul Space. Alex did not want any shenanigans happening with Pearl where he too would require a ticket to enter. He would have to join through the sect at that point.

Alex had considered that, just so he could give Rocksoul the ticket and have him join the secret realm as well, but given the situation at the store, they couldn't keep away any more manpower than they already had with Alex.

Alex teleported to the Oldbranch city to the southern region from where Newsky city was. It was much closer to the mountain ranges where the Blue Silk sect was located.

The Twin Saber sect was located at the southern end of the city, so Alex made his way toward it. He arrived in front of the sect, with a decently well-kept gate and many of the Blue Silk sect's employed workers standing around it.

They were in charge of checking the tickets, and when Alex showed his, he was let into the sect.

Alex walked in, feeling the elevated levels of Qi within the sect. They were not close to the level of the Blue Silk sect, but they were still quite great.

He was then taken to a large room with many people already gathered, each one wearing different colored robes, signifying their origins.

Surprisingly, there were only a few people from the Blue Silk sect. Considering how large the sect was, he was surprised that he couldn't even see more than 25 people in the room. Were there really only that few weak individuals in the Blue Silk sect? Considering that the remaining individuals in the large hall numbered over a thousand, it was going to be an interesting year inside the secret realm.