Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex's instinct told him that the center of the whole maze-like cave structure was only a few minutes' walk away. So, despite the cold, and despite the time he had spent on learning the Dao, he had to continue.

He had to see what was at the center as he would never let go of the regret if he ever stopped out here.

"Congratulations on learning a new Dao," Godslayer said. "I thought the next few days after that woman's spirit died would have been normal, but nothing is ever normal with you."

"Thank you for the compliment," Alex said with a chuckle in his voice. "You weren't awake before?"

"I was, but I didn't bother checking what was happening outside," Godslayer said. "Are you in the cave?"

"Yes," Alex said. "I'm about to reach the center of the Yin cave. It is so damn cold though. I had assumed learning about Yin would've removed the coldness but it barely made it bearable."

"Most of the cold is Yin cold, I'm sure," Godslayer said. "You will either need strong Yang energy or Dao to fight it off or need to learn the Dao of Yin cold itself to make it easier on yourself."

"I would've loved to learn about Yin Cold," Alex said. "I wonder why it is so difficult. Is it because I need to learn regular Dao of Cold first?"

"Maybe," Godslayer said. "I don't know much about the cold Dao."

Alex shrugged and continued. "I have a plethora of Yin that forms in my body. I think I will have ample time to dwell on coldness later," he said. "Let us see what lies here at the center."

Turning a corner, he saw a small opening that led to a large cave with a bright blue center. Once he walked through it, he could finally see it all.

Beyond the path was a large opening with brilliant white light glowing in the underground cave. The hollow cave was large beyond Alex's wildest guesses. Nothing he had been to could prepare him for what he had arrived at.

The room was nearly 200 meters wide, circular by design, with even cave walls surrounding it. The circular walls could not have been natural as they were perfectly flat for the most part.

The walls were smooth, with the only imperfections on them being the large indents and inscriptions that took Alex a moment to realize that they were runes. The entire room was in fact scripted all over.

Alex looked around at the floor and the ceiling, all of which were certainly carved as well, but they weren't smooth like the walls, and unlike the walls, they had ice built up on them over the many thousand years that this room had been here.

"So much Yin," Alex thought, entering the room. He could tell that however, this room had come to form, the Yin there was way too much. It was too strong and potent for this place to be natural in any way.

He looked at the center of the room at a small monument that stood there. He wanted to look at what it was up close, but the walls took his attention. He could tell very clearly that they were still working and they were doing something important.

Alex just wanted to figure out what they were. He started at the left side of the opening to the cave and walked around the hollow room, looking through the runes to see what they did.

To his surprise, he came across multiple runes that he didn't have any idea about. Looking closely, he could tell that they were supposed to be combined runes, made out of two or more. He just couldn't tell what that could have been as the extra edges and protrusions from the combined runes had been cut off.

He would have to learn the technique to do this as well as know what it is in the first place to figure out more. For now, he tried to understand what he could.

Going around the room took him no more than 30 minutes, noticing several different pathways to enter this room from all sides, and in that time he could tell a few different things, albeit vaguely due to the lack of understanding of many of the runes he came across.

The runes there were the main reason for the Yin that had gathered in the cave. He had assumed it was a Yin cave due to a natural treasure at the start, but as it had turned out, it was instead this scripted room that forced the Yin to gather here.

"How many millennia has this been doing this?" Alex couldn't help but ask. But even Godslayer had no answer. He watched around, just the same as Alex.

Alex could tell one thing for certain, however, which he had understood as soon as he had started going through the walls.

"Demons built this place," he said. "They had to. Immortal ones at that." He looked around the place and his eyes fell on the small monument about 100 meters away from him.

He could see it clearly, but he wanted to make sure what he was seeing was correct.

He walked across the room, the icy floor doing nothing to stop his stride as he arrived in front of the monument that wasn't even taller than him. He looked at it, a thin triangular object seemingly made out of glass-like black material.

And it was entirely cracked.

It had been destroyed and Alex had no idea why or when. There were words written on it, in a language he could easily read. The Demon language. However, the cracks had destroyed most of the letters and words, so he had to decipher the missing words himself.

Thankfully, Godslayer was there to help him; however much he could.

The words came to him and with some context clues and what he could see of the broken letters, Alex managed to make up a decent sentence. And then he read it.

"This stone shall reveal the one chosen by fate. Place your hand upon this holy relic and the truth will be unveiled. Should the essence of the ones lost to ages reside within you, the forest of the moon shall be filled again as we proclaim you our long-awaited goddess."

Alex said nothing for a long time after reading that.

"Shit!" Godslayer was the first one to speak. "That right there… that's a beacon."

"I guessed," Alex said while in absolute awe. "That monument, it was made for the demons in the Upper realm to find their goddess?"

"It seems so," Godslayer said. "And find they did."

Alex looked around. "So that means the girl had come here," he said. "She had to have arrived in the room and placed her hand on this monument."

He wondered… was this before or after her physical constitution had changed to the Moon Goddess's Celestial Yin body? Either one worked for him.

"Nothing is waiting for us here," Godslayer said. "We should return."

Alex nodded. "We should… but I might have some more time," he said, looking around. "Let me learn some of these runes and see what I can come up with. That shouldn't take very long."