Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Chapter 3168 Second Test

The two beasts that had been preparing for their upcoming evolution were surprisingly Saint beasts.

One was a snake. But instead of being a regular black snake, it was one with nebulous red and brown patterns on its body.

The other one was a turtle, with a green tinge around its flippers. Its body had a spotted pattern as well, but the color was so close to black that it was hard to notice it if one wasn't looking for it.

Alex asked the matriarch why they had been chosen. He was especially curious why they were Saints.

"Beasts that are weaker than Saint tend to not have gone through enough development to improve their chances at surviving an evolution. And if they are an Immortal, their bloodline tends to become a little less flexible than before."

"As such, for the changes we seek to see, a Saint beast happens to be our perfect subject."

Alex raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Does that mean it's a bad idea to try and improve an Immortal's bloodline?"

"Not necessarily. As I mentioned, their bloodline becomes less flexible. That does not mean that it cannot be changed. If you're worrying about the young White Tiger, I can tell you that his chances are no worse than if he were a Saint," the matriarch said and hesitated for a moment before adding, "That is of course partly because his chances weren't that good to begin with if you were to ask me."

Alex couldn't help but sigh a little. He focused his attention back on what he was doing and looked at the beasts before him.

He started with the snake, explaining how this was going to happen. He drained the snake's blood and added the bloodline elements into that blood. He then recycled the blood back into the snake, letting it slowly absorb it per his instruction.

The snake struggled a lot in doing so, more so than Xuan Luhei had done, but that was primarily because the snake didn't have as fine a control of everything within its body.

It took an entire session before the snake grew used to it.

Alex drained the blood again and checked for dead bloodline

elements. There were so few that he could move to the same blood and recycle it back into the snake again.

The amount of bloodline element within that blood was so weak that it would hardly be enough to make any changes had Alex not previously learned about Bloodline Consumption. Weak as it was, it was still stronger than the snake's bloodline.

The matriarch watched closely throughout the next few sessions, placing a great deal of focus on it as she could not let these children get hurt because of a mere experiment.

After a few sessions, she had Alex stop.

Alex looked at the snake with a slight frown. While it had improved quite a bit, it was still quite far from what could be considered a Black Tortoise. He turned toward the matriarch and told her as much.

"This much is enough. He will receive the rest of the improvement in the bloodline pool," she said. "Let us continue with the other sibling."

Alex nodded and did as she asked. The turtle also got the tortoise's bloodline, slowly improving over the course of the next half a day.

By the end, the two beasts now had a significantly stronger bloodline than what they started with. Now Alex could only hope that it was strong enough to help them evolve.

"Are you sure we shouldn't add some more?" Alex asked. "I think it will be better."

"This is enough," the matriarch said and spoke no further on the topic. The two siblings were taken away, likely sent to where the ancestral bloodline pool was.

"I believe it was mentioned that the pool was empty right now?" Alex asked.

"Has been for quite some time," the matriarch said. "Since this test was important, we could not take the chances of any outside interference disturbing these siblings' chance of evolving."

Alex gave a deep sigh. "Do you have any idea how soon they will be done evolving, if they evolve?"

"Evolution takes anywhere from a few days to a few months. It's impossible to ever be accurate on the amount of time it takes," the matriarch said. "The longest I have seen it ever take is a year and 2 months. So, all I can say is wait and see."

"A year..." Alex barely suppressed the grimace emerging on his face. "I guess I have time to waste then."

"I imagine these brothers will be done in a month's time or so. Two months at best," the matriarch said. "I'll have them notify you

immediately when they're done."

Alex nodded.

The matriarch left afterward, leaving Lingkai to return Alex to his

place.

"If you don't mind, I wish to tour the palace for a bit," Alex said. "I've come all this way, so always staying in my room without seeing all the important sites is a little wasteful, don't you think?"

Lingkai blinked for a moment and quickly nodded. "Of course. You have finally gained your freedom. Would you like to go on a tour right

now or after you have had some rest?"

Alex shrugged. "I don't feel particularly tired, so shall we go around

right away?"

Lingkai nodded and took Alex out. She took him on a grand tour of the Black Tortoise palace, something she should have done months ago, but couldn't because Alex was busy preparing for the matriarch's

test.

She took him through the various important locations of the palace,

such as the training ground, library, artifact hub, and whatnot. After some time of travel, they arrived at a massive open ground at the center of the crater.

At the center, Alex was surprised to see something majestic that shouldn't have been so surprising. He had seen one in every single palace after all.

Before Lingkai could introduce what it was, Alex looked at the statue of the tortoise wrapped with a snake, and said, "That's the progenitor,

isn't it?"

Lingkai paused and nodded. "That is the first Black Tortoise, Xuan Heichen."