Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex looked at the woman that had appeared in the room. She wore dark green robes and had shiny black hair that was tied in a bun behind her head.

She bowed in front of the group, especially at Alex who she seemed to recognize the moment she came into the room.

"Greetings," Alex spoke. "And you do not have to call me a senior."

"My apologies, but I am not close to you like the rest of them are, so I cannot bring myself to call you by your name," Shao Chun said. "And I call your mother 'senior' as well, and based on strength alone, I hear you are far beyond her, so I cannot think of anything else I can call you."

"My name is Alex. It's enough to just call me that," Alex said. "It's nice to meet you, sect leader."

"I can't just call you just by your name," the woman said. "I shall continue calling you senior Alex."

Alex sighed. "Very well," he said.

The woman looked around the room and looked at the many people. "Senior Alex, is your reason for coming here just a simple visit or...?" she asked.

"Partly for visit," Alex said.

"Partly?" the woman seemed a little confused. "May I ask what the other reasons are?"

Alex looked at the woman. "Is there something in mind that you were hoping I'm here for?" he asked.

"Not hoping exactly," she said. "I was more so expecting to hear that you came here for your mother. I am expecting you to take her away, am I wrong?"

"You're not wrong," Alex said. "But there's more."

"More?" the woman got curious.

"If they accept, I am willing to take away everyone here and bring them somewhere else," he said.

The woman wasn't expecting that at all and was taken aback. "I beg your pardon?" she asked. "You want to take everyone here away?"

"Are you talking about us?" Wan Li asked.

"Where do you want to take us, Mingming?" Fan Ruogang asked.

The others were surprised and a little hesitant even. Alex looked at Lang Shun and the rest, "I will give you time to think about it and only ask you once I have everything ready. By that time, you will have all the information you could want to make the decision and I will respect any decision you make."

"Where will we be going to if you take us away?" Zhou Mei asked.

"As I mentioned previously, I currently live in the Southern Continent, so I will be taking you there," Alex said. "It's a very faraway place, so you will have to make your choice carefully."

"How long do we have to make the decision?" Kong Yuhan asked.

"Don't worry, you have plenty of time. You might even choose to not go after I'm done with what I came here to do," he said.

"What exactly did you come here to do?" Shao Chun asked.

"Well, first of all, I came to visit my master's grave," Alex said. "After that... well, are you willing to give me full authority over the sect so I can make some changes?"

"Full... authority?" the woman frowned for a moment. That was something that she couldn't give so easily, especially because Alex was an outsider at the moment.

"Are you not willing?" Alex asked.

"Please forgive me, but that is a decision I cannot make alone despite being the sect leader. If you'll excuse me, I will gather the elders to discuss this topic," Shao Chun said and turned to walk away.

"Feel free to take your time," Alex spoke to the leaving sect leader. "We will be by our master's grave while you do so. Also, I can make this promise to you. You will most definitely not be disappointed by what I do after I gain full authority."

The woman stopped for a second, nodded, and walked away while pulling out a medallion.

Lang Shun, Zhou Mei, Wan Li, and Fan Ruogang immediately received a message on their medallion, asking them and every other numbered elder to gather in the Elder's hall immediately.

"Please excuse us," Zhou Mei said and left with the other two.

"I will see you guys later," Lang Shun said and walked away.

Kong Yuhan and Zhou Mi remained with the rest, making Alex and the others look at them. "Do you not need to go, brother Kong?" Alex asked.

"Haha, I'm not a numbered elder, not yet," he said.

"Me neither," Zhou Mi said.

"You two should go and visit your master," Helen said. "We will stay here and wait for you guys to return."

Alex and the older Alex walked away from the room.

The two of them went through the valley, making their way toward the Alchemy garden on the left. As they went there, the older Alex slowed down a little and looked to the right.

"That's... where I stayed, isn't it?" he asked.

Alex looked to the side and realized that he was passing by the sect leader's mountain. "Yes, that's where we lived. I can see that our old house is still there. Do you want to check it out?" he asked.

"Can we go? Isn't the pathway to the mountain guarded?" the older Alex asked.

"Don't worry about that," Alex said and grabbed the older Alex. "Let's go."

The two of them teleported at once, arriving someway up the mountain. The older Alex was disoriented for a moment, but Alex quickly saw the house where he had lived all those years ago.

It hadn't been exactly him that had lived there, but the memories and experience made it so that it was.

The older Alex noticed it as well and made his way toward it.

"Oh, someone is living there," Alex said as they reached outside.

The older Alex nodded when he saw the smoke coming out of the room's chimney. Someone was making pills in there and they shouldn't be disturbing that person.

Alex checked who it was through his spiritual sense and saw a young man inside. "Must be the sect leader's disciple," he said. He could see the rest of the building and smiled a little.

Nothing had changed in there at all. Everything looked the same as it was all those years ago.

He watched the older Alex with a soft smile on his face as he reminisced the time of his past that he had all but forgotten. The flashes of memories that returned to him regarding this place made him happier than visiting the place itself.

"Let's go back," he said after a few moments. "This isn't our place anymore."

Alex nodded and took the older Alex back down to the base of the mountain. From there, they walked over to the alchemy garden that was constantly guarded.

Alex could already feel the thick yin energy in the air around him. He brought out a bit of Yang Qi and covered the older Alex so that his mortal body wouldn't be affected by the Yin Gathering tree he had planted so many years ago, which seemed to have grown to become such a large tree.

The elders gave them free access before they had even asked for it. They were already ordered to do so, so they had no hesitation.

The two Alex walked in and immediately got weird looks from the disciples that were inside. The Alchemy mountain was filled with females that came to cultivate their yin arts, just as Ma Rong had intended all those years ago.

If she were alive, she would have been cultivating under this very tree as well.

The yin aura manifested itself as a thick fog that covered the entire atmosphere. While Alex could see everything more or less clearly, the older Alex with his mortal body couldn't even see past 10 meters away from him.

As they climbed higher, the visibility got worse and worse until he could only see 5 meters away from him.

A few girls tried to stop them and question why two men were there, but they were easily persuaded to let them be when Alex told them that the sect leader had agreed to it.

They seemed to trust the sect leader a lot.

"There," Alex pointed ahead of him and the older Alex looked as well. He couldn't see anything just yet, but as he walked, a small headstone appeared.

Alex saw the headstone and felt his heart grow empty all of a sudden. When he saw past the headstone, there was another mound of land that seemed like a grave as well.

'Grandmaster?' Alex thought, but there was no gravestone, so he didn't believe it was his grandmaster that was buried there.

When he thought about who else it could be, he quickly realized that something was missing. 'Master's pet,' he thought. The snake that was together with Ma Rong was missing.

'I see,' Alex thought. The snake had died as well.

For the past 4 and a half decades, the snake had looked after his master's grave, but during that time, it had also passed away.

Alex sighed, not knowing what to think.

The older Alex didn't seem to care about any of it at all. He took a few steps forward and fell to his knees in from of the grave.

Tears started flowing down his eyes and he planted his forehead on the ground. "Master, please forgive your unfilial disciple for not coming to visit you sooner," he shouted as loudly as he could with regret evident in his voice.

Alex walked next to the older Alex and knelt as well before planting his forehead on the ground.

"I have returned once again, master," he said. "I'm sorry I kept you waiting for so long."