Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex went around the place, copying the runes down so he could learn about it later. If not him, he could give it to his mother, so she could learn from it.

"My spiritual sense is struggling in this place," Alex said with a bit of a struggling look on his face. "Is that the room? Or just the Yin?"

"Could be the room," Godslayer said. "But a heavy concentration of Yin or Yang Qi is known to make it impossible for you to properly use your own Qi and senses."

Alex nodded. He was reminded of the Forbidden Fields, where the Nine Yang Divine Tree had taken root, and thus one could not use their cultivation base there at all. It was so difficult to use his spiritual sense there too.

The same was happening here as well but on a much weaker scale. The Yin Qi was strong, but not strong enough for it to stop him from using his spiritual sense and Qi entirely.

Still, it caused problems in other ways. His talisman refused to work properly in the room, so he was forced to take out his brush and start drawing those runes in paint. He had to constantly pump Yang Qi through his brush as the ink froze as well.

Simply remembering might've worked, but he wanted something more than just a memory. A painting would go a long way for him.

The coldness in this room was extreme, and Alex was barely getting by with multiple Daos and a strong physical body. Just sitting down and learning the mysteries again would've helped him learn so much about Yin Cold and Yin Ice.

Alas, he didn't have the time.

Once he was done copying the runes, which took him nearly 5 hours, it was time for him to leave.

He took one last look at the room, his eyes looking for things he had not seen, but there wasn't really anything to hide in this place. It was any moment now that the opening to the cave would close, so he had to hurry up.

He took out the talisman that was supposed to measure the coldness of the room, which would also take him out if only he just crushed it. He decided to not crush it immediately.

He could just run his way back.

So, he chose a random path out of the room and started hurrying.

Outside the cave, elder Yao and Liang started worrying a little. Most of the people had managed to come outside, and those that remained were forcefully dragged outside by remotely activating the talisman they had been given.

And yet, it hadn't brought out their King.

"Why is he not out?" Yao Ning asked the elders around her. "Is there any place inside to get stuck on?"

"No," the others answered her.

"Then… could he still be disoriented from having just learned a Dao?" Liang Shufen asked. "Should one of us go in and get him?"

"How will you even find him? There are hundreds of tunnels here, and days of walking in between," the Queen told her. "You will have to believe in His Majesty. He will make it out."

The openings to the cave had already started sealing, with still a few more hours remaining before they would become unable to fully open the ice. The cold was increasing every minute.

"Something is really wrong with the cave this time around," the Queen said to the others. "Have you ever remembered a time when it barely lasted for 2 weeks?"

"No," another woman answered. "Never have I experienced the cave being this cold. Something must've happened this year."

They still waited for a few more hours, but Alex didn't walk out at all. The elders feared that he would be stuck in the cave. They wondered what they would have to do if that happened.

As far as they could understand from the way the Queen and the sect masters talked, if you were stuck inside, you either had to survive for the next 15 years or so it took for the cave to open, or just die inside.

Neither of the elders believed Alex was going to die inside. Still, they couldn't help but fear a certain possibility of that happening.

Alex hurried as fast as he could, but that still took him hours to get anyway. The winding tunnels of the cave were just too long and took anyone hours upon hours to get anywhere.

He hurried to the best of his ability, while constantly hoping that he wasn't too late. Although, he wasn't sure if he had to worry as much. If the opening had iced up, he could just teleport outside.

It wasn't as if this place was separated spatially, making it harder for him to get out. That lessened his worry quite a bit.

More than half a day later, Alex realized that the light was getting brighter. He was getting close to the surface. No one was around him at this point. He had not seen a single soul.

"I must be the last person," Alex said. "Let's hope I can go past the ice wall and it doesn't somehow obstruct my ability to teleport out."

"You'll be fine," Godslayer said. "Stop worrying."

Godslayer was correct. He had to stop worrying. And there wasn't any reason to worry at all. After all, he had arrived at the surface.

And the opening of the cave was still open, with no ice covering it at all.

"Phew! I think we made it in time," he said, watching the world beyond the opening. He walked out of it, took a long deep breath of a world without much Yin, and immediately paused.

He looked in front of him, 3 young girls who were lazily standing around, who immediately stopped slacking off the moment they saw him.

One pulled out a spear, and the other two pulled out swords, pointing at him.

"Who are you?" one of them shouted. "Where did you come from?"

"Uhh…" Alex looked at the girls, but his attention was taken away by the short buildings all around him. This… wasn't where he was supposed to have come out.

Where had he come out?

"Answer us! Or else we will—"

The woman who spoke stopped halfway through speaking before taking a closer look. "Wait, are you King Alex, of the Southern Continent?" the girl asked.

Alex looked back at the girl speaking. "I am," he said, before focusing on her features. She was a tall woman, with a beautiful feminine face. Her hair was filled with jewelry and she wore familiar milky blue robes that Alex had only recently seen another person wearing.

When he actually paid attention to the girl, he recognized her. He had even talked to her a few years ago, albeit very briefly.

"You are… Su Railin, correct?" Alex asked.

"Your Majesty," the girl said in surprise. "You recognize me?"

"We talked, didn't we? Back during the time when I went to the Endless Shadow Abyss," Alex said. "I remember."

That was a complete lie. That was not why he remembered this girl at all.

The reason he remembered her at all was because she was one of the four girls that the Crown Prince had brought him the information of.

She was one of the Queen candidates.