Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy
chapter-2051

There were four major pathways outside of a Spiritual root, which determined usually what the technique was going to be about. The Create pathway was the one that was used when someone needed to create something with their Qi. It could be anything from creating a ball of fire to complex objects using just one's Qi. Most long-range attacks were created using this pathway. The Control pathway was the one that allowed Qi to control something. This was most commonly used for object manipulation using Qi or simply for flying. The Compliment pathway was the one that allowed Qi to be put into something to either strengthen it or change it. Cultivators naturally used this pathway on the daily to keep their body strengthened, and use it on their weapons when fighting. Any sort of formation, talismans, or the like used Qi from this pathway as well.

Finally, the Cultivate pathway was one that could be used to cultivate something. It didn't just have to be one's cultivation base, but also their physique, spiritual sea, or the likes.

Alex now stared at the only open door to the white hall that he was sure represented a Spiritual root and wondered which of the four pathways it represented.

'The Replication technique changes one weapon into two,' Alex thought. 'And perhaps it can be used multiple times too, otherwise, Sixghost wouldn't have six sabers when he fought.'

That told Alex that the technique Sixghost used most likely used the Compliment pathway to change one object into two.

'Could it be that he used the Create and Compliment pathway in consort?' Alex wondered. That would make everything much harder.

To begin with, he wasn't even sure if what he was going to discover soon was the Replication technique. For all he knew, it could be any of the many techniques that the Reverend thought worthy to pass along.

That created an even major problem here for Alex, almost enough to make him want to rip his hair out.

There were 3 things crucial to use a technique. The first was the Qi. Different techniques needed different types of Qi, and each Spiritual root was different enough that one couldn't substitute Qi from one spiritual root to the next one.

This one was solved —at least Alex hoped so— since the White Hall represented the regular non-elemental Spiritual root, thus Alex had to use the regular Qi for this technique.

The second crucial part of the techniques was the pathway. There were uncountable combinations of pathways that one's Qi could take to be used. This part was something Alex would have just guessed in the end once he scoured the secret realm and found the pathway that was being described through the white path on the ground.

The last but perhaps the most crucial of all was Intent. Without Intent, one couldn't use a technique at all. Just knowing where to start and how to move the Qi wasn't enough if one didn't know what technique they were using.

If Intent wasn't required, people would randomly start using techniques every time they brought out their Qi through any pathway. Intent was very important.

And that was something Alex lacked at the moment as he had simply no idea what the technique could be about. He hoped it was the replication technique, as he had hoped, but in case it was not, he would be in trouble.

'The man has to have left some sort of hint as to what the technique is,' Alex thought. 'Otherwise, it would all be useless.'

Alex was certain that was the case. He just hadn't searched the secret realm enough. There were still hints here he had to find. Surely.

"Are you ready to go, brother?" Pearl asked from the side once Alex seemed to come out of his thoughts.

"Yes," Alex said. "But I can't take the two of you. I'm sorry, you'll just slow me down. I'll keep you two updated on what I'm doing, so just stay in the Demon realm for now."

"Okay," Pearl said.

"The plants need me there," Whisker said as well as he nodded.

Alex put both Pearl and Whisker into the Demon realm and began making his way through the secret realm. He followed the white pathway again, wondering how accurate this was.

He sent his senses into his body, focusing on the clump of meridians that came out of the end of each of the four openings to the spiritual root. They numbered in the dozens for now, but would soon split and become thousands before they even reached the meridians, moving into every muscle, every fiber of his being.

Alex focused on the ones that made its way to the intestine.

He arrived in front of the maze once again and stared at the split pathways. Was this the actual number? Or the ratio?

Alex decided to take it as a ratio for now. By now, nearly a hundred different meridians entered the intestines, so he decided to follow and see how much it split within, if any.

He knew the map of the maze like the back of his hand now, so treading through it was more than easy enough.

He followed the paths to go to locations where the white path had crossed through. He went to each location, making sure not to miss any parts that were split up.

The path itself never split, but it went through locations Alex had never been through in the maze before, so it took him a bit to map out those locations, but in total, it took him no more than 4 hours to completely map out the entire maze.

By the time he came out of the exit on the other side, he was confident that the single white path had gone through the entire maze without ever bending or splitting.

Alex tried to follow a meridian within his own body that didn't bend at all, and frowned as he didn't find a single one like that. Even when his field of search included all four starting pathways, there was nothing.

'No meridians go straight,' he thought. 'Does that mean I'm looking at it the wrong way?'

He closed his eyes again, focusing on meridians that didn't enter the maze, but rather went around it, not from the sides, but either above it or below it.

Checking this way, he found a good clump of meridians that made their way up along the vertebra. They went in just behind the opening of the intestines and came out around the section where the intestines met the stomach. Alex saw the white pathway before him take the same route. His frown disappeared. 'This must be it then,' he thought.

He had followed one of the 3 split pathways and knew exactly where it led, which lowered the number of possible routes that the meridians took through the body for this technique.

Now it was time to lower it even more by seeing how the other two paths functioned. Alex looked to his right, seeing the white path in the distance that made it to the graveyard and the junkyard.

Depending on how they split between the Spleen and the Stomach, the choices would become even much narrower.