Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

The snake started to change its attack pattern once it got hit. Instead of lurching at Alex, it started going for his legs.

Alex didn't know exactly how strong a Muscle Tempering 3rd realm monster could be, so he was apprehensive about going on the offensive and risk getting hurt.

Alex also didn't know if it hurt inside the game, the same way it did outside. They had told him the developers wanted to make the game realistic, so pain might have been added to add realism to the game.

He kept trying to hit the snake, but the snake was just too agile. It constantly weaved and dodged his attack while simultaneously going on the offensive from time to time.

After a while, the snake targeted his neck and attacked him once more. Similar to last time, he dodged the attack and hit the snake once more.

Thud

The snake only got a minor cut once again. Alex started to get worried. 'I don't have any abilities. I should have waited until I got my class or whatever equivalent this game has before coming here.' He thought.

The snake was getting cautious now. It wasn't attacking any chance it got any more but was rather waiting for the perfect moment.

Alex decided to do something. He didn't care he if died. This was a game, so he probably would just respawn somewhere.

Thinking that Alex unequipped his sword. He had never learned to use a sword, so doing it now was just not the right choice. Instead, he would fight with his hands.

Seeing Alex keep away his sword, the snake must've thought it was its opportunity, and lunged at Alex. Seeing it jump at him, Alex immediately caught the snake with both his hands, around its neck and started choking it.

The snake started to fidget around now that its head was immovable. It wrapped its body around his hands trying to squeeze him, but it didn't work.

He was after all 3 realms higher than him. Alex put his hand to the ground and started stomping on the snake's head. After a few vigorous stomps, he got a notification.

<You have defeated the 'Earth Snake'>

<You have gained 'Earth Snake's Venom'>

<You have gained 'Earth Snake's Core'>

'Finally' he thought. He took out his sword once more and looked at it. "This is kind of a bad sword huh. Guess I'm not very lucky." He put the sword back.

He took the snake's corpse and put it into his inventory as well. He then looked towards the flower.

If it wasn't for the feeling he got, he would be completely incapable of telling apart the flower from its surrounding ones. It had 5 petals, was yellow in color, and completely ordinary.

He got closer to the flower and touched it. A name popped on top of it.

[Spirit Cleansing Lily]

'Woah,' he slowly plucked the flower from the plant and took a closer look at it. 'This must be a very good alchemy material for me to get this fantastic of a feeling.'

He quickly kept the item in his inventory. His inventory was getting full, and he would have to do something about it soon.

He looked at the time, and it was half-past 6. He ran his way back to the city. He didn't bother selling any of the animals today and kept it for tomorrow.

After he reached the tavern room, he logged out.

Alex got out of his bed and waited. In a few minutes, all 3 of his roommates woke up too, and together they went and had dinner.

After returning from dinner, the rest of the 3 went back to the game. Alex however didn't. Tomorrow was the first day of university, and he wasn't used to playing overnight.

So, he called his parents, talked for a bit, went onto the internet for a bit, and then went to sleep.

He woke up around 7 AM. Logan and Matt were already awake, so they waited for Eric, and went to get breakfast.

After returning he looked at the time. It was about 7:20 AM. He remembered the person in the game asking him to return tomorrow to check his result.

'Should I go play the game right now? The orientation starts at 11.' He turned to look at the other 3, but they were already in the game.

'Whatever,' he said as he entered the game as well.

He logged in to the tavern and quickly left the room. Within 15 minutes he was at the gate of Hong Wu Sect.

He had arrived a bit early and had to wait around 10 minutes for the results to be posted. There were many other youths hoping to get a chance. They were practically begging to get into the sect.

After the result got posted, there was a massive crowd around it. Alex weaved his way into the crowd to see the results.

The results were very simple. They were simply numbers on the list. The numbers were the same numbers everyone had on their registration slip.

He didn't remember his number so he took out his registration slip to look at it. After seeing his number, he started looking for number 174 on the result sheet.

The numbers were written in ascending order, so it was very easy to find the numbers. Very soon, Alex found his.

He looked around and saw a few people walking up to a person, and showing them their registration slip. He too walked up to them and asked, " Hello, I have passed the test, what should I do now?"

The men asked for his registration slip, and after confirming his number, they sent him to a group of other youths who had just passed.

After an hour and a half or so, around 27 people were gathered in the group. These were all the people who had passed the test.

The man who took their test yesterday walked up to them and introduced himself.

"My name is Lang Shun. You can call me elder Lang."

"Greetings elder Lang." Everyone greeted. Alex hastily greeted too.

"Since you have all passed the test, you are now a disciple of the Hong Wu Sect. Though you are still an outer sect disciple, if you do well in alchemy, you will be promoted to the inner sect. And who knows, you may even end up being a core disciple."

Elder Lang continued, " In Hong Wu Sect, your cultivation matters not. Only your talent, knowledge, and passion will get you forward here. You may have true Qi, but if you can't form a mortal grade pill, you will forever stay as an outer sect disciple."

He then turned around and went forward. "Follow me," he said after going a bit ahead.

They soon followed the elder to a residential area in the mountains. Alex wondered if these were the homes he could see from the gate.

The elder then assigned a single-room cottage to each of the 27 disciples. There were thousands of these small cottages on the mountain range, so they had no problem assigning one to each.

The elder then took out 27 different small pouches, and in a single wave handed it to every single one. He then proceeded to explain.

"These bags have 2 sets of sect outfit, 1 handbook that has all the rules and regulations of the school, a map of the sect grounds including the places you are forbidden to go to, and an alchemy introduction book to get you started on the theory of alchemy. Read them when you have time."

He was about to send them all away when he remembered something. "Who here is named 'Yu Ming'?" he asked.

Alex was startled to hear his name. Still, he raised his hands and said, "I am called Yu Ming."

"Show me your registration card." The elder asked.

Alex took out his registration card and handed it over to the elder. After confirming he was in fact 'Yu Ming', the elder took out a weird-looking metal coin.

"Everyone else but him, leave, and go to your cottage." He said sternly. After everyone left, he looked at Alex and handed the metal coin he was holding.

"This is a library token, your reward for the test results. Take this to the library, and you can borrow 1 Earth grade or lower book for free. Do well." The elder then left.

Alex looked at the metal coin, and was confused, "Earth Grade or lower? " He didn't know what that meant. He walked to his cottage and closed the door.

He opened the bag he had just got and was stunned. He was about to open everything inside when he realized, he had completely forgotten about something.

It was nearly 10 AM now, and he had to leave. It was the first day of the University after all.

He put everything back into the storage bag, including the library token. Once everything was gone, he logged out.