Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy
chapter-2044

When Alex got closer to the location, he saw a barrier surrounding the inside of the place with only quite a few people hanging around outside. Whoever was fighting, they were doing so within the formation barrier. Alex looked at the red soil of the place and was surprised to see something else inside of it, laid out in perfect symmetry.

Gravestones.

A stone plaque lay before the gate of this place that said the name of what this place was.

'Bloody Graveyard,' Alex read the name. 'Are those real gravestones?'

He could read the names from right here and from what was written on them, they seemed pretty real. It was as if individuals of the Twin Saber sect who had died were buried here. 'They are fighting in such a place?' Alex thought.

He walked up to the gate, looking for someone to walk out. He knew the deal about these groups by now, so he was ready for anything.

The man closest to him looked toward Alex. To Alex's surprise, he recognized the green robe the man wore. 'Spring Grass sect disciple?' he thought, surprised that such a man was here.

"Are you here to join?" the man asked.

"I do not have any intention of joining any group," Alex said, his words almost recited from memory at this point.

The man raised an eyebrow. "Who said anything about a group?" he asked.

It was Alex's turn to be surprised. "If not a group then what am I joining?" he asked.

"The fights," the man said.

"I'm not interested in a fight," Alex said.

"You must be here to search for treasures then," the man said. "If you come in, you have to be ready for a fight. You will be forced to join no group, but if you want to come into the graveyard, you need to be prepared for any fight at any time."

Alex frowned. "What if I only want to enter for a brief moment and leave?" he asked.

"Then pray that no one challenges you," the man said. "The only requirement in staying in this place is that you fight when someone challenges you. Otherwise, do whatever you want."

Alex thought for a bit. "Alright, I'll join then. I get to leave whenever I want right?"

The man nodded. "You must know that if you join and refuse a fight when challenged, you will be attacked by everyone in here."

Alex gave a small nod. "He is my bonded beast," Alex said, pointing to Pearl. "Can I fight on his behalf if he is challenged?" "If you are free at that point, sure," the man said. 'So he expects me to be challenged a lot,' Alex thought, nodding to himself. "You can come in if you understand," the man said and ignored Alex, going back to his relaxed cultivation.

Alex looked at Pearl. "What do you want to do?" he asked. "Do you want to fight here or wait until I get done with searching?" "I will go too," Pearl said. "I will fight who I can. If I can't, I'll go back into your Soul Space."

That was a good enough plan, so both Alex and Pearl walked in through the gate. As soon as they walked in, a woman jumped down from one of the graves and pointed at Alex.

"I want to fight you." Alex and Pearl were both taken aback at the suddenness. "Why me?" Alex asked the woman he had never seen before. "Because I want to fight you. Now come in here and stop making excuses," the woman said.

Alex sighed as he saw the eyes of everyone turn toward him. They were ready to attack him should he refuse. "Alright, one moment," he said and turned toward Pearl. "Search through these gravestones and see if you can find anything that stands out. There could be techniques written on some of them, so don't miss on anything."

"Yes, brother," Pearl said, but before Pearl could go on to do something, an old man walked up front.

"I think I will fight you."

Alex looked toward the man and so did Pearl. The man had hidden his cultivation base, so neither of them could see what it was. "He is my bonded beast, so I will be fighting on his behalf," Alex said quickly.

"Not when I challenged you already," the woman from before said. "Are you coming or not?" Alex looked around and realized he had no choice. It was that or get attacked.

'Immediately give up if the man is too strong,' Alex told Pearl and moved on to his fight.

The woman happily skipped into the barrier formation that did nothing to stop her. Alex put his hand against the barrier and realized that it was only there to hide sound and sight from the outside.

He easily walked through and appeared in the midst of a massive graveyard, the whole of which was filled with nearly 300 different people, sitting around with about 30 of them in the middle of some sort of fight.

The battles were happening in every which where, which was more than surprising considering that they seemed to hold the graveyard with no regard as a sacred place. Since no one could fly above a certain height within this place, most of the fights took place at ground level. How had there not been a bunch of broken gravestones by now?

"Are you ready?" the woman asked after putting a good distance between herself and Alex. She had brought out a sword and was ready to fight.

"Are you not worried about destroying the gravestones? There should be dead people buried here," he said.

"The gravestones?" the woman asked, chuckling almost. She swung her sword, striking the gravestone with a strong attack. And yet when she was done, not a single grain of sand was missing from the gravestone.

"Do not worry. Us measly immortal won't be able to do a single thing to this graveyard," the woman said.

Alex wasn't expecting the gravestones to be that strong. He had been thinking too lowly of this place.

He noticed Pearl and the old man enter from the side, going toward their own battle.

'I need to finish this quickly,' he thought and brought out Midnight.

"Ooh, finally ready to fight?" the woman asked.

Alex nodded. "What counts as victory? Do I throw you out of this realm?" he asked.

The woman laughed at the question. "There is no way for me to lose, but since you must know, victory counts as long as the other person gives up. If you're stubborn though, it's okay for me to throw you out of this realm as well."

"Make others give up. Got it," Alex said. "You can start."

"Here I come!" the woman said, slashing her attack. A wave of blue released from her sword, making its way toward Alex.

Alex swung, a slash of blackness moving across the graveyard, destroying the woman's attack and coming for her.

The woman hastily pulled out a defensive treasure to protect herself and barely managed to survive the attack. She looked up at Alex in horror.

Alex propped Midnight on his shoulder and asked, "Are you giving up now, or should I send you out of this realm?"