Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Chapter 3153 Bondless Black Tortoise

When Alex walked out of the hall, he saw a giant tortoise floating in front of him.

"If you're done with your audience with the matriarchs, I will show you to your quarters," the tortoise said, the voice clearly feminine.

Alex narrowed his eyes a little, finding some commonality in the way she spoke. "Are you senior Lingkai?" he asked.

"I am," the tortoise said. "My sister needs to head out for a bit, so I am taking over. Come."

Alex followed behind, not sure if he could ever get used to the Black Tortoises. Two beasts that were connected to each other to a point that they were considered the same beast was beyond something Alex could ever understand.

From what he knew, the Black Tortoises didn't just share memories, but also fate. He had heard rumors that they even shared Daos, but he had no proof for if that was true. He had a feeling the Black Tortoises weren't jumping at the chance to reveal that information, so he would have to be a little tactful when asking that.

Beyond that, he had other questions popping into his mind, which he didn't hesitate to ask.

He passed by a few guards that stood by in certain locations and turned to the tortoise Lingkai. "These guards, do they all have the Black Tortoise's bloodline?"

"In a way. You can't become a guard without the bloodline or a Black Tortoise Creation."

That was similar to the White Tigers, just as Alex had expected, but that only made Alex more curious.

"How does that work?" he asked. "I mean, the beasts that gain their bloodline later do not have a sibling they're connected to, are they?"

"Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't," Lingkai answered. "If there are two siblings, one that is a snake, and another that is a tortoise, then when they evolve together, there is often a chance of creating a bond between the two. It is really just in those cases that it happens. Otherwise, you just gain the regular bloodline without the connection."

Alex looked back at a crocodile-like beast that clearly had the Black Tortoise's bloodline. "So the guards mostly don't have a sibling?"

"Most of the time, no. In fact, when you're gaining the bloodline, you go with the expectation that you won't bond with anyone, even if you do have a sibling."

"I see," Alex said. "But regular Black Tortoises are all pairs, right?" "As a rule, yes."

"Are there exceptions?" Alex asked with surprise.

"Sometimes, there is a chance of the two children merging inside the egg and thus only one being born," Lingkai said. "In those instances, they are born with both Supreme roots and bloodline abilities of both sides of the Black Tortoise."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Both Water and Earth Supreme roots? That sounds powerful."

"It is powerful, but I'm not sure it's worth it for not having such a strong safety net."

Alex wanted to say that he and every single other being in this world was doing fine without not dying when killed, but that would be hypocritical of him.

It didn't take longer before he was taken to a large obsidian room, the gate doors of which opened on the underside of the room. Alex swam through the door and came out to air. To his surprise, the room he had been brought to had a giant air pocket that filled the entire room. Alex jumped out of the water and looked around, quickly recognizing

the placement of a few formations that were actively keeping water from entering the room.

"This is a nice room," he couldn't help but say as he looked around. It was a rather large room as well, with furniture that were either metal

or stone.

"We have many such places around the palace. Not all beasts who live here can breathe underwater at all times. There are many young beasts that regularly need air to breathe, so we have to have such places. We also can't make use of furnaces underwater, make pills, or employ anything that needs fire. Of course, guests from outside generally prefer not to stay underwater as well."

Lingkai followed inside, explaining about the presence of air in the room. She showed the various locations where formations and scripts were present and how he could use them to communicate with anyone outside.

"Do you want to rest for some time before I bring you the blood?" Lingkai asked.

"No need. I will just take the blood right away and get started with it," Alex said. "Also, alongside the blood, could I request for some information about how the bloodline was spread out from the progenitor? Primarily how many children he had and what blood

belongs to that line of the family?"

Lingkai gave a blank look. "We don't have that prepared. It might take a few more hours to get that sort of information prepared."

"I don't need any actual information besides the very first offspring. I just need to differentiate which blood came from which line of the family. It will help me narrow down just what part of the bloodline belongs to the Black Tortoise, while making sure I eliminate every other bloodline that may have mixed in some minor way along the

way."

It was clear that Lingkai understood very little about what Alex was going to do. The information about bloodline he had was something

he had barely learned from the Book of Boundless Healing that was later put to use by him to bring it to this degree of specificity. Still, she knew enough to follow his demand by the letter of the word. "That should be far quicker. I'll return in an hour or two then. Will you be needing anything else?"

Alex gave the question some thought. "Could I request for an actual pair of Black Tortoises so I could inspect them? I'm sure your two halves have some differences, so I wish to figure that out directly without having to guess."

"I shall do that as well," Lingkai said. "If there's nothing more, I'll return in a few hours."