Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

The following months went by very quickly. With nothing much to do, Alex spent most of the time just focusing on himself.

The Winter Moon cultivation technique his master gave had become practically useless long ago, but even so, that was all Alex had most of the time to contain his Yang aura.

Even though it took his 3 days of cultivating with this technique to revert 1 day's worth of change, he did it as he had no other choice.

He did find Yin treasures that affected him, but they were getting harder and harder to find. It was as if the more he used Yin treasures, the more tolerant his body was getting to it.

So, each time he had to go out and find something strong, as weaker ones only made the yang stronger.

In the final 10 months that Alex had remained in the palace, nearly 4 months of his time was spent on just fixing his body, so there wasn't much time to cultivate either.

As such, in that time, he had only managed to reach True King 5th realm. Pearl on the other hand didn't have the same problem as him, but he was still slow and only reached True King 7th realm.

He would've probably done better had he managed to go out and train, but Alex had no time to leave the palace and go all the way to the east.

He hoped Shen Jing would help him, but Shen Jing never came to train them again. Alex guessed he must've left without saying goodbye. He had said he would likely leave without telling him, but it still stung him a bit to know that he wouldn't see him for at least a decade more.

Without Shen Jing, Alex's life became that more simple once again. Whether it was a bad thing or not, he wouldn't know.

Due to the increase of his Yang aura, he had slowed down Alchemy as well. Most of the time, it was getting difficult to make pills for longer than a few hours.

Not only that, it even hampered his task to improve recipes. So, Alex stopped making pills for a while and focused on Formations, Talismans, and poisons.

Zhanrou had taken over the task of making most of the pills after Alex gave her some of the recipes.

She begged him to teach her how to improve, but he didn't feel like giving out all the advantages he had.

If everyone started having good recipes, his value would certainly lower quite a bit. While he wasn't materialistic as most other people, he still cared about his worth to people.

His time with the royal family was coming to a close and in just another day, he would be leaving.

The princess wanted to throw a big farewell party, but Alex didn't want such a thing.

So, she compromised with him and threw a small one with amazing spirit foods and quality entertainment full of the greatest musicians and dancers of the city.

The party was small and the guest lists smaller. Aside from Princess Xumei, there were a few other princes and princesses that Alex had managed to befriend.

Shurin was there with her mother who she introduced to just at that party alone. In the 2 years, she was with Alex, she had grown from Peak Mind Tempering realm cultivator to a True Disciple 6th realm cultivator.

According to the people around her, her cultivation was very fast and she would one day become one of the leading members of the next younger generation.

Ruoran had come as well to visit him. After Alex's help, Ruoran's cultivation journey had become smooth and he was now a True Emperor 3rd realm cultivator.

Alex thanked him as he would a master for teaching him everything he knew about growing and taking care of plants.

Ruoran thanked him for all the aid he provided him.

Zhanrou was both excited and sad about the farewell party as she felt her only friend in the palace was about to leave her. Sure she had other friends, but none of them had the same interest in Alchemy as Alex did.

"I'm sure we'll meet again. This isn't our final meeting," Alex said.

"Yeah, but I will feel lonely," she said. Alex could only smile at that.

The party ended not long after and everyone went their separate ways.

Alex returned back to his room and cultivated one last night before he was going to leave in the morning.

The next morning, he heard a knock on the door. Alex opened the door and found the princess standing outside.

"Come with me," the princess said. She started moving before he could even respond.

Alex followed her quickly and asked, "where are we going?"

"My father wants to see you," the princess said.

"Oh," Alex was surprised. In the 2 years, Alex had stayed here, he had never, the Emperor had never once bothered to visit him or call for him, so he was surprised he was only being called while he was about to leave.

Alex reached the Palace hall and entered with the princess.

"You're finally here," the Emperor said when he saw Alex.

"You called for me, your majesty?" Alex asked.

"Just to bid you farewell and thank you for all the things you've done for us," the Emperor said.

"That was my job, your majesty," Alex said.

"We both know you had no duty or responsibility to us and yet you still helped us. For that, I thank you," The Emperor said as he even bowed a little.

"Father?" the princess was surprised. She had never seen her father bow before any.

"Your majesty, please trust me when I say that I wouldn't have done it if I didn't enjoy it. I am sure in the future I will look back to these days of mine in the palace with nostalgia," Alex said.

"That makes me a little happy," the Emperor said. "I wouldn't want to anger someone who even he values so much."

"He?" Alex was a little confused. "You mean brother Shen Jing?"

"Yes," the Emperor said. "You call him brother? Can you tell me what your relationship is exactly?"

Alex shrugged. "I guess he's like a master to me. He treats me like a little brother. He teaches me different things and helps me out a lot."

"You are quite lucky to be treated like that by him," the Emperor said with a hint of fear and envy in his voice.

Alex got a distinct feeling in his heart and so he asked the Emperor. "Do you know his identity?" Alex asked.

"Of course," the Emperor said and finally saw Alex's curious face. "Do you not know?"

"He never tells me who he really is," Alex said. "Can you tell me?"

The Emperor hesitated a bit.

"My father made an oath to keep his identity secret. He won't even tell me," the princess said from the side.

"An oath?" Alex looked at the Emperor in shock. Just what was Shen Jing's identity to make even the Emperor say an oath just to keep his secret.

'Do the hegemony islands have that much power?' Alex wondered.

"Anyway, I didn't call you here to talk about him. I came to say thank you and goodbye," the Emperor said.

Alex quickly threw out the thoughts he was having and thanked the Emperor himself.

Once they were done, the princess and Alex left the Palace hall.

"I guess this is goodbye then," Alex said to the princess.

"You're leaving now?" she asked.

"Yes," Alex said. "I already have my farewell so I should leave now."

"Where will you go next?" she asked.

"Um, remember that chilly area you told me about in the east? I think I will go there," Alex said.

"The Icy Hell?" the princess asked. "Are you still looking for Yin Treasures?"

"Yes," Alex said. "I'm afraid I will have to keep looking for them until… nevermind. I will leave now."

"Okay, take care. Come to us if you need anything," the princess said.

"I will, thank you," Alex said. "Goodbye."

Alex turned around and left the palace. He felt a bit of melancholy in his heart for leaving a place he had been in for the last 2 years, but his need to go to the place known as the Icy Hell triumphed every other feeling.

'If what they say about the place being a frozen nightmare is true, then I will have to prepare some pills to heat me up,' Alex thought and made his way to the Alchemy guild.

While he trusted his yang body to keep him host in most situations, he would still prepare for the cold just in case his body couldn't handle it.

He walked into the guild and saw a long crowd out front. So, he walked to the back of the hall.

"Oh, hi brother Yu, did you come to register for the Alchemy competition?" one of the friendly staff that recognized him asked.

"The wha— Oh right, I forgot it was starting soon. No wonder there are so many people in the front," Alex said. "But no, I'm not here for the competition. I won't be taking part in it."

"Really?" the staff gave a disappointed look. "I would've thought you would join the competition and want to show them how good you are. Given how young you are, I'm sure you will have a lot of people try to sponsor you too."

Alex smiled, he knew what would happen if he went through the competition. Even if he didn't get the first place and just came in the Top 10, just based on his age alone, there would be a line of people that would try to take him in their group.

They had done so to his mother and she was already 49 when she got 2nd place in the talisman competition. Not to mention, she already had a sect behind her and they still came.

Given how Alex had nobody behind him, these people would be like vultures to his dead meat.

"Yeah, I'm not taking part," Alex told the staff member.

"Well, I guess it's your choice, so I can't say anything," the staff member said. "Still, given how many times you come here to find Yin treasures, I'm surprised you are going to let go of this one."

"Sorry?" Alex was a little confused.

"I was talking about the rewards for the Alchemy competition," the staff said. "Have you not seen the rewards yet?"

"No," Alex said. "It has a Yin treasure?"

"An incredible one too. Look, it's a saint rank Yin ingredient," the staff member said as he gave Alex a talisman.

Alex read the talisman which turned out to be full of information about the competition. Alex skipped all the other information and went directly to the rewards.

The rewards were quite incredible, to say the least.

The top 10 all got a True Heaven ranked artifact each along with 5 thousand True Spirit stones.

Those that entered the top 5 got a few rare True ranked ingredients, along with another 10 thousand True spirit stones.

The person that came in Third place got 1 saint ranked artifact on top of what the Top 5 got.

The person that came in Second place got 1 Saint ranked artifact and 2 Saint pill recipes on top of what the Top 5 got.

The person that came in First got 1 Saint ranked artifact, 2 Saint pill recipes, and 3 Saint ranked ingredients on top of what the Top 5 got.

Alex read the names of the 3 ingredients.

The first one was a Hammerhead Snake's venom. Alex had never heard about the venom being used in any pill, but it would work well as a venom alone.

The second ingredient was what the staff had told him about. It was a Blizzard's Rainbow core, a multicolored fruit that was filled to the brim with Yin energy. This was something that would definitely help him a lot.

Alex was already wondering if he should change his decision about not joining the competition when he laid his eyes on the third ingredient on the list.

His eyes went wide as his breathing became shallow with shock. He had done it. He had finally found it.

There it was, the final reward for the first place in the competition.

The Blood Spirit Ginseng.