Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex walked back to the 5th mountain. By the time he was there, the sun had set already and night had fallen.

The open sky was filled with dozens o bright stars and many more that twinkled. The bright half-moon hung in the sky, illuminating the far reaches of the Demon realm.

Even though night had fallen, the demon realm was still restless. The sound of distant bangs told Alex that there were people at the top of the mountain, still attacking the door with everything they had.

'Well, keep on working guys. I'll see if I can reap some benefit from you,' he thought to himself and went up the mountain to find a house that wasn't opened yet.

There were still a few cultivators here and most of the elite ones were likely just around too, so Alex didn't dare use his spiritual sense to search for anything.

Not even halfway up the mountain, Alex found a decently large house with its door intact.

When he lightly punched the door, a solid blue barrier appeared like a film around the house to protect it.

Since those barriers could withstand attacks from the Saint realm, Alex didn't even think of attacking it twice.

He slowly turned around to see if anyone was looking at him. Once he was absolutely sure that no one was looking at him, he placed his palm on the door and poured in his Qi.

Once again, the rune of the door glowed yellow. Alex sent out his spiritual sense and bypassed the door to slowly peep inside the house.

The house, was as he had expected just a single room. There was nothing of value in there from what he could see. Even if it was, Alex doubted it could have lasted so many years.

There was a bed, a table, a chair, and a bookshelf from what he saw. There was a metal sword to the side of the shelf, but from his senses, he could see that it was just a light tap away from crumbling.

It didn't seem like a weapon that was meant to last. Even if it was, it was likely not a very good one then.

The bed was messy, with part of the wood rotting all the way through. The chair and the table were the same as well.

The shelf to the side seemed to have lasted a little longer, but it too seemed to be rotting at the sides too.

Alex couldn't tell if the rotting speed was slow or fast. For one thing, it was only rotting halfway despite being here for so many years.

For another, it was likely a strong wood from one of the better trees in that forest that wouldn't succumb to rot so easily.

'That doesn't help me at all,' he thought and looked through the other things. He checked the bed, pillow, table, and chair but found nothing. There were many items on top of them, but time had taken everything.

On the shelf, however, there was still a book in it. For some reason, Alex couldn't read it at all.

'A book that my spiritual sense won't bypass?' he thought. Now he really wanted to check it.

"What do I do?" he thought for a moment. Then, an idea struck him.

'No way a random home can have the same strength as a door that leads to the entire mountain right?' he hoped and prepared to hit the door.

He looked around to make sure there was no one there. There were likely people around and would hear him if he hit it too hard, so he needed to time the kick right.

He waited for the banging noise from the top of the mountain to fall into a rhythm for him to learn.

Then, timing it perfectly, he hit the stone door at the same time someone attacked it on top of the mountain.

~CRACK~

The stone cracked and Alex didn't feel any hint of pain. This was not a very strong stone from what he could see.

Although, it would surely still be considered a treasure to not get destroyed by a True Lord 1st realm cultivator's attack.

Alex hit the door twice again and only then did the stone crumble and fell down. When the run was destroyed, the barrier disappeared as well.

Before anyone could realize what had happened, Alex rushed in, grabbed the book, and rushed out.

He also grabbed one of the pieces of stone from the door and walked away from the location. Not long after, a few rogue cultivators came to see what had happened.

Despite timing the hits with the attack from the top of the mountain, they were still not fooled at all.

'Thank god I walked out,' he thought.

People immediately started shouting and telling people that someone broke open a door that was previously locked.

Some called Alex lucky, while some just believed that the barrier was on its last leg.

Still, a lot of people were motivated to see if they too would get lucky like him.

"Tsk!" Alex thought to himself. With this many people occupying the mountain and more likely being called here, he wouldn't be able to try out the same thing here again.

"I will have to do it some other time after the people here realize that they won't be able to do it on their own," he thought and left to go see what was happening at the plateau.

When he saw Han Daiyu, Fu Tao, Lu Yan, and a few others still attacking the door one after another, Alex understood that he had some time to spare.

He felt the Qi in his body start to pile up a bit and thought, "it's about time I breakthrough."

So, he left the mountain and walked towards the 3rd mountain, the Cultivation mountain.

Along the way, Alex took out the stone piece from his storage ring and looked at it.

"This certainly isn't an ordinary stone," he thought to himself. "Since a rune was carved onto it, I wonder if stones are to runes what metals are to formations."

"No, that wouldn't make sense," he immediately thought. "Formations can be carved onto stones too."

"Hmm, then maybe the reason is just to have a sturdy door," he thought and tossed away the piece of stone.

Then, he took out the book from his ring.

The front of the book was stuck to the rotting side of the shelf, so a few of the front pages were rotted away as well. Using his spiritual sense, Alex realized that there was no seal or anything in the book. It was the material itself that stopped him from doing so.

The remaining part of the book was legible, so Alex flipped it to read in the moonlight.

[My eyes still haven't healed. I know I was lucky to be chosen for this and everyone expects great things from me, but I don't know how much help I can be until I can actually see.]

"It's a diary?" Alex looked with a surprised face.

The demon language was easy for Alex to read as it was the normal language of this world. So, he continued reading.

It looked like the diary of a demon who lived inside this realm. There were a few unimportant information like when the person broke through or how long he cultivated that day.

So, Alex focused on the important ones only.

[I hear the war outside is reaching an end soon, mostly since we are losing. I don't want to die, but we might be exterminated.]

[I killed a human today. I vividly remember as his blood melted the snow beneath his dead body. I can't believe I had it in me.]

[I hear the young lord nearly died when he was ambushed by 4 humans on the outside today. Thankfully, he is Undying.]

[My eyes reached the next level today, and I'm really happy about it.]

[I hear the lord is taking in a lot of those little fellas into his house. I wonder what he's doing with them.]

[News says that we are reaching the humans for some sort of truce. I hope it happens. I have fought the humans too many times and I hate fighting again and again endlessly.]

[I lost my left leg in the fight today. The enemy hid under the frozen lake and sneak attacked me. I'm a little saddened.]

[Good news. The young lord might be passing on his techniques to one of us. I will have to try extra hard to get it.]

[The young lord took heavy damage to his spirit today. He has gone to closed cultivation and likely won't come out until he has broken through to the next realm. He says that is the only way for him to live.]

[Truce seems to have been met, and we demons are definitely on the losing side of it. But since we get to live, I don't really mind. I just hope these new rulers aren't evil humans that hate the demons.]

[We are leaving today. The young lord still hasn't left the timeless palace. I hope he successfully breaks through.]

Alex turned the page, but there was nothing else written besides that. That was the end of the book.

Who was this person? What happened after he left? Who was the young lord? Did the young lord ever survive?

Many questions moved around in his head, but there wasn't nearly any information in the diary as he had expected.

Still, he got to hear the thoughts of someone who was present during the war between the demons and the humans. So, Alex considered that a win.

With a sigh, he put the book back into his ring and continued on his way to the 3rd mountain.