Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy
chapter-2049

Whisker walked up to Alex from the side. He had been waiting for Alex here ever since he failed to get anything out of the other two buildings.

He climbed up Alex's shoulders, looking at the two of them. "Did something happen?" he asked.

"I wish something did," Pearl said. "That is what we had been hoping for. The problem is nothing happened."

"Oh…" Whisker said.

"It's alright," Alex said. "We knocked down one more possibility for where the treasure was being hidden. That is the most we can ask."

Pearl thought for a bit and nodded. "Exiting the Maze is not the way to finding the treasure then, and that's alright. We'll find other ways."

Alex nodded. "Should we go to the other two places right now or do you want to wait for a bit?" he asked.

"Let's go in. We can wait at a dead end. It doesn't feel right waiting in the open here," Pearl said. As he said that, he looked back. "Brother…"

"Yes?" Alex asked.

"What if we completed it the wrong way?" Pearl asked.

"Hmm?" Alex thought, looking back at the exit. That was not the exit at all. This was the entrance. The place they had come from was the exit. "Do you mean that we probably have to go back?" "Yes," Pearl said. "Should take us a couple of hours. If we knock that off the list of possibilities, that will be a lot helpful."

Alex nodded. "I don't believe that might be the case, but we might as well check."

Both Alex and Pearl felt a little more hopeful about their situation, while Whisker looked around the place.

The three of them walked in and began making their way through the maze. However, before they could even go further than 2 forks, Whisker said something.

"Brother, why is everything named after an organ?" Whisker asked.

"What do you mean?" Alex asked, confused.

"The places within the secret realm. Everything is named after organs," Whisker said. "You know, like Trueheart Plaza. It has a 'heart' in it."

Whisker's words made both Alex and Pearl pause for a second.

"Yes, it does," Alex said.

"And the Mind Palace has 'mind' or brain," Whisker added.

"True," Alex said. "What about the gardens?" Even as he said that the answer came to him.

Lungs.

"Shit, there are even two of them," Alex said. "Just like regular lungs."

"Yeah, and they move up and down like breathing lungs," Whisker said. "I've had an entire month of waiting to do, so I've thought about it a lot."

"Okay, that's 4 places," Pearl said. "What about the Junkyard?"

"Belly of Treasures," Alex said. "Stomach."

Pearl's eyes widened.

"And this maze, it's called the Maze of Guts. Like intestines," Whisker added. "That's what made me think about it all in the first place."

Alex was shaking with excitement at finding out something that had been hidden in plain sight all this time. He didn't believe he was the first one to have found this connection, but he sure as hell was one of the few ones.

"Brain, Heart, 2 Lungs, Stomach, and Intestines," Alex said, counting the organs. "Everything really is based on organ names."

"What about the graveyard?" Pearl asked. "What organ is it?" "It's bloody red, so I thought heart at first," Whisker said. "But that doesn't work. A human can't have two hearts."

Alex thought for a bit. "But… it's not a place with blood," he said. "It is a place with dead blood. A 'Bloody Graveyard'."

Pearl didn't understand. He wasn't a physician, so it didn't make sense to him, but to Alex and Whisker, it made immediate sense.

"It's spleen," Whisker shouted. "I was too focused on the blood part, and not the graveyard part."

"Yes," Alex nearly shouted. "Huh…" Pearl commented. "It's almost like we are inside of a human body."

"Body!" Alex said. "No wonder. It was a clue."

"What?" Pearl and Whisker both looked at Alex.

"The words on the man's graves. It was a clue. There was a focus on the 'Body' part of his gravestone. I was curious why that was."

Pearl's face changed in surprise. "You're right. It was there."

Alex couldn't help but laugh at this point. It was such an easy thing, and yet it took him nearly 6 months to figure it all out. "All 7 spots within the secret realm…"

He trailed off, his eyes narrowing as a different thought crossed his mind.

"What about the 7 spots, brother?" Pearl asked, wanting to know where he was going.

A smile formed on Alex's face. "The 7 spots?" he asked.

"I… don't know," Pearl said, confused. "These are all named after organs, and…"

"Are there 7 spots?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, the two buildings, two gardens, junkyard, graveyard, and… maze. Wait a second, there's one more," Pearl said.

Alex's smile was never any wider. "There is one more," he said and immediately turned around and started running away.

Whisker held onto his robes to not fall off while Pearl followed behind quickly. They arrived back outside of the entrance and looked in the distance at the lone and forgotten white hall they had arrived in the secret realm.

Alex ran, making his way toward the building, while several thoughts ran through his mind.

"Brother, what is that hall?" Pearl asked. "What organ is it?"

"What do you think?" Alex asked him.

Pearl frowned. "While everything is not an exact replica of a human body, it is in a generally similar area. So since this is below the intestines… is it the nether region?"

"Could be the womb," Whisker said. "It's large and empty."

"Could be," Alex said. "But Sixghost was a man, so do you think he made this in the image of a womb?"

"Then… is it—"

"No," Alex said before either could guess. "You guys are focused on the gender part too much. Focus on what's common between both male and female in this area of the body."

The two of them thought for a moment and the answer came to them at once.

"That's…"

"The Dantian!" "Yes!" Alex replied. "That white building should absolutely be the Dantian." Both Pearl and Whisker were in stunned silence when they heard that. The fact that they were heading toward the 'Dantian' region of a human body made them quite excited about what they could find.

They arrived outside of the hall, with not a single soul around the place. The closest anyone was here would be the forests, if at all.

Alex quickly made his way around the hall on the outside.

"What are you searching for, brother?" Whisker asked.

"A plaque. A board, a name, something to confirm that this is the Dantian," Alex said. "Does this place not have a name?"

He had hoped it did. A confirmation that this was the Dantian equivalent would be so very helpful. Alas, there was none.

Still, Alex's mood wasn't soured in the slightest. He was absolutely certain that he was right, so with that confidence, he walked into the hallway.

"Thanks to you two, I think I have figured out what I needed to," Alex said. "Now, I need to figure out what the point of all of this is."

Did the fact that these were all organs have anything to do with the Sabers at all?