Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy
chapter-2035

Pearl was a little surprised. He had fully expected to pierce the woman's chest with his spear. He hadn't known that she would be saved in the end. Did she have a protective treasure?

"That counts as victory, right?" he asked, turning around toward the man who came down on him with an axe swing.

Pearl's body glowed golden suddenly and the axe merely clanged against his White Tiger's Dominating Body technique. He smiled as the axe did nothing to even his clothes and struck back with his spear.

The man managed to block the attack at the last second, but that still sent him flying into the trees at the back.

Alex watched as the man he attacked was sent away in a burst of teleportation. He too was surprised to see that there was a protective mechanism to the talismans.

'I'll have to be careful,' he thought. 'I can't let it accidentally get used up just because it doesn't know how much I can handle.'

Pearl was fine since he didn't have a talisman, but he had one, so he quickly sent it far away into his Soul Space where it wouldn't notice what was happening outside.

Alex went back into fighting, dodging an attack from a spear attack while punching the man with the staff. He then attacked back against the man with the spear, who was too weak to withstand a single attack from him, and teleported away.

He and Pearl fought those few people until there were only two left. A woman with a blood-red mask and a young man with a spear.

Alex fought the woman, surprised to see her use blood aura to fight. She wasn't as good at controlling blood, but it was still rare to see someone fight with blood aura, so he spent some time seeing just what she could do.

Pearl fought the man with the spear, clashing spear against spear as the two fought. Pearl didn't have much training with the spear so against a true master, he fell quite behind.

What he lacked in talent, he made up in strength and speed. The man with the spear wanted to gain some distance to fight with his spear properly, but Pearl kept a close distance, striking whenever he could. He did not have very good spear techniques just yet to be fighting in a distance.

Pearl stabbed with his spear, which the man quickly blocked with his technique. He spun his own spear around, swinging back at Pearl, trying to cut him with the sharp end of the spear.

Pearl moved forward, letting the spear shaft hit him on the shoulder, while he brought his own spear for a hit.

The man acted quickly, using the Dao of Hardness to add some durability to his body even as the spear hit him on the side.

Pearl felt the feedback from his spear striking and knew that the spear did nothing to hurt him. If he wanted to hurt the man, he would have to use actual techniques.

The man took a step back, his spear spinning in his hand as he let out a flurry of tiny slashes fly in Pearl's direction. Pearl quickly moved his spear, striking away all the strikes that came toward him.

He then moved, dashing toward the man, suddenly turning into 5 different individuals once again.

The man looked at all of them, guessing which one it was that was the real one. He struck the one on the middle-left, hoping he got it correct. Unfortunately, that Pearl disappeared into motes of light as the rest of the four struck him all at once. Somehow, all of the attacks hit him, dealing just as much damage as a single Pearl would've done.

Pearl's four bodies conjoined back into one and he smiled as he saw the Dao of Hardness that the man used had protected him once again.

He grinned even as he began fighting the man in full force once again.

It was hard to say that Alex fought the woman with the red mask. It was more akin to him playing with his food. He only attacked just so he could get a reaction out of her and see what she could do.

From what Alex could see, the woman could not use blood at all, just the aura. When she wore the mask, it allowed her to control her own blood aura and add it to her attacks. It made her stronger, but that wasn't as fascinating to Alex.

He could do the same without using the mask after all. He had hoped to find some sort of key to maybe understanding what was going on with the Blood God's Manual, but it was just wishful thinking on his end.

Alex wasted no more time and attacked the woman with decent enough strength to send her teleporting away. Once she was gone, he turned around and watched Pearl's battle.

He nodded to himself as the two clashed spears, understanding what Pearl was doing. It was clear that both Pearl and the man were around the same level of strength at the moment. Pearl wasn't holding back exactly, but there was also more he could do to win here quickly.

Alex saw the spearman use some sort of Dao to protect himself, something that he could tell had to do with Earth dao, but wasn't sure exactly what it was. Whatever it was though, it was the only thing keeping him in the secret realm.

That, and Pearl's enjoyment at finally finding a serious Spearman to fight.

'If Pearl had Spear Qi or even Spear Intent, this fight would've been over a long time ago,' Alex thought. It was Pearl's lack that allowed the man to remain there too. There were many times when he had been struck when he shouldn't have been able to defend against it even with his Dao.

The man had long since realized that as well. In fact, he had already come to the conclusion that he was being played with.

'Monsters!' the man thought. 'How could they be so strong?'

The man looked to the side and saw Alex completely fine with not a single wound on his body. He had fought more than half of their group and had won without a single one of them putting so much as a scratch on him.

He was beginning to believe that the two had been hiding their powers so as to catch people off guard.

'Screw this!' the man thought and struck Pearl away once before turning around and running away. He used his movement technique to the fullest and ran away.

"Oh, he's going away," Alex said.

"Not really," Pearl said and raised his spear to his chest level. True Metal Dao poured into his spear, putting in strength that he hadn't produced before.

He stared at the man running in the distance and took a deep breath. Then, his vision distorted.

Everything changed in Pearl's eyes, as distance no longer felt relevant. The man who had been running away appeared as though he was no more than just a few meters away from him.

Once Pearl was certain the man was within his reach, he struck him.