Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Is this a battle you can win?

The Inner Demon had hit Alex where it hurt the most. From the very beginning, the chance of victory had been ridiculously low. However, he had still come all this way for Hannah, for Pearl, for Yao Ning.

In fact, the entirety of the battle depended on Hannah and Zhou Linfan. He had never been part of any sort of planning where he was the one that would beat the Dragon Emperor.

At the very least, he would be someone who would keep the Dragon Emperor busy while the others killed them. Due to his teleportation powers, it became somewhat safe for him to engage the Dragon Emperor, which was why he had even chosen to do something like that at all.

In the case that the others could not do it, he had prepared the pill that he would eat and deal with him.

Now, the people who were supposed to beat the man had failed to do so, and the pill he had prepared had failed to serve its purpose.

And the worst of it all, the Dragon Emperor was only going to get stronger now after all of their planning had failed.

What was the last resort here? Why had he chosen to fight his unwinnable war?

'I should be able to win,' Alex thought. He didn't have much expectations, but he had hope. Not in himself, perhaps, but he had hope.

"You will win against an Immortal?" the voice asked. "Do you know how strong an Immortal is? How powerful they can be?"

The voice paused, allowing Alex to answer.

But there was nothing Alex could say.

How strong was an Immortal? Well, the truth was he did not know. He knew they were strong, very strong. But the peak of their strength was not something he was clear about.

In fact, there was no way for him to know just how strong an Immortal was as none of the Immortals he knew had ever gone all out.

They never had to.

They were just that strong.

And now, was he going to fight someone like that? And he intended to win on top of that?

Fear crept in through Alex, just as the Inner Demon wanted him to.

There was a side of Alex that knew he was dealing with an Inner Demon and that he should not fall into its traps. And yet, there was a side to him, a much larger one that simply did not care at the moment.

It did not matter to him that he was dealing with an Inner Demon as the threat it posed on him took all of his focus away from it.

From time to time, Alex even forgot he was in this situation because of an Inner Demon.

'How can I win against an Immortal?' Alex thought. The question kept going through his mind over and over and over. Each time he thought of it, he thought of an answer to it.

Each time he thought of an answer, he realized immediately how stupid that answer was and how it would not work at all.

An array was not the answer. A subsequent breakthrough was not the answer. His Blood aura was not the answer. His Dao was not the answer. His mental strength was not the answer. His Body cultivation was not the answer.

Was his Qi an answer then?

That thought let Alex ponder for a bit. He focused as much as he could on his thoughts, ignoring the feeling of dread. The moment he gave in to those feelings, he knew that he would lose to the Inner Demon.

That was the moment he would fail the breakthrough, and most likely go through a Qi deviation. He could not allow himself that at the moment.

'Think, think, think.'

It became a chanting in his mind as he tried to answer the question that brought the fear.

How could he beat an Immortal Dragon Emperor?

'Qi,' Alex thought, returning back to the possible answer after going through so many other answers. Could he do it through his Qi?

His Qi made him stronger than he was by nearly 9 realms. At Saint Transformation 1st realm, it would make him 9 realms stronger.

Unfortunately, that wasn't how it worked at the chasm between two major realms.

The chasm between two minor realms and two major realms was inconceivable. Just because Alex was stronger than Saint Transformation 9th realm, did not mean that he had the strength of an Immortal.

He lay somewhere within the vast chasm between the two realms, and as such, despite breaking through to the next realm, he would not reach the Immortal realm with his strength.

He would have to be at least in the Saint Transformation 3rd or 4th realm to properly contend with someone who had just become an Immortal.

At least, that was his experience from before he had reached the Saint realm.

If that was the case then, how was he supposed to bridge the gap if he did manage to break through?

Was there a chance? Or was this all leading up to a failure nonetheless?

"It's a good idea to cut your losses and run," the voice spoke to him. "You cannot win this. Not with your Qi, not with your Dao, not with your blood. No amount of strength you conjure can match the Dragon Emperor."

"No, it can't," Alex said in a toneless voice.

"That's right," the voice said. "There is no path to victory. Only to death."

"I can't win," Alex said. The truth began to settle. "I can't win"

"Yes," the voice said. "You understand finally."

"I can't win…" Alex said once more. "On my own."

It was such a simple revelation, something he would've thought of the moment he came across the problem had he not been drowned with doubt and fear by the Inner Demon.

"I can't win on my own," Alex said. "I will need all the help I can get, whether that means using all of what I can do, or if I have to get help from the outside."

"You will still lose," the voice said.

"No, I will win," Alex said. "I must."

"There is no guarantee of that," the voice said.

"I do not need one," Alex said, confident in his own thoughts. "I know what I'm doing. I know why I must fight, so I will continue the fight."

"I was worried for a second that I would stand no chance against him, but that is not true. I can fight him. I'm certain that I can even win him under certain conditions."

"I can never know if I can win if I never fight him," Alex said. "There is no stopping now. I can only keep moving forward."

Alex did not need to listen to the voice again. He did not need to hear it say another word, for he knew that he had defeated the Inner Demon with his words.

He simply understood it as he slowly came out of the trance he had been, unknown about the time that had passed.

Without a moment's waiting, Alex continued with what he was doing, moving toward the breakthrough.