Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Chapter 549 - Confrontation

Alex started to struggle the closer he got to the old man. The intense feeling of 'want' and 'need' he was feeling was enough to drive him crazy. 

However, the feeling of needing to kill, to get his revenge— that overshadowed everything else in his heart.

He could finally empathize with Wan Li. He now understood what it felt like to lose someone, to want to take revenge when someone killed your loved one.

He looked up straight ahead and accelerated his ship as much as he could. 

The sun had just gone down and the night was approaching. And yet, somehow, far away in the north, Alex could see a bright light hidden behind the high sand dunes. 

'Is that the source?' Alex wondered. His body at the very least thought it was. He was looking at the light when he noticed something. 

A small black figure in the distance crossed over the dune that was blocking the light and went downwards.

Alex's rage came back flooding all over again. He had finally found him. 

Alex dropped from his boat as the speed was really low at the moment. With how much suppression was around him, it was better to just run. 

Which he did. He ran for nearly 15 minutes before he reached the dune he had seen from the distance and looked down.

The light far away was still blocked by many other dunes, however, it also lit up the desert enough for Ning to see down. 

That bastard was currently running in the sand due to the suppression as well. He held a sword in his hand, ready to fight the beasts. However, there were none. 

Alex had noticed that too. The more he went to the source, the less the beasts became. By now, it was rare to even find a beast. 

Alex ran down the dune to follow after the old man. Considering the suppression he was facing, the old man shouldn't be doing very well either. 

Since Alex was starting to reach Muscle Tempering, he assumed the old man to be around Organ or maybe Meridian tempering realm. If that was true, Alex could easily kill him with his superior body cultivation.

The old man was running slower than Alex, so in the next 20 minutes, Alex finally reached close enough so that he could barely hear the old man's footsteps in the sand. 

In the next 10 minutes, he got close enough that even the old man could hear him, despite the low cultivation base he had.

The old man turned around, expecting a beast he would have to fight. However, when he saw Alex, he was shocked. 

"You followed me?" he asked as his eyes narrowed in suspicion. Then, he saw the anger in Alex's face and suddenly started laughing. 

"Hahaha! That bitch died, didn't she? Great!" the old man exclaimed. "Good riddance." 

Alex continued running towards him, his face unchanging.

"Hmph! You must be here for revenge. Let me do you a favor and send you along with your master. That will be my gift to you," the old man said and got ready to fight with his sword as well.

Alex looked at him and noticed not a single hint of wounds. Even the stab in his chest was healed, and his master's sword gone. 

He then looked at the old man's sword. Despite being in a fit of fury, he hadn't lost enough of himself yet to not be careful of the sword. 

That was the sword that was laced with the poison that killed his master. If even his master's superior body couldn't erase the poison, then there was no doubt that he himself would lose to it. 

The other poisons his body had managed to cure were usually normal poisons and toxins that were relatively low in grade. However, if the poison that man had was indeed Saint grade, or god forbid, a higher one— there was no doubt he would die.

The first thing he needed to do in this fight was figure out what the old man's current cultivation base was. 

With his own 5th Mind Tempering realm body cultivation, he needed to be careful if the old man had a higher or lower cultivation base.

Even if it was lower, having access to abilities he didn't at the moment would make the battle much more difficult than normal. 

He could guess based on the difference in their cultivation base what the old man's cultivation base probably was, but he didn't want to trust his instincts right now. 

The old man held too many secrets that were enough to make even the emperor jealous. Immortal ranked concealment art, Invisibility technique, and Saint grade poison were a few of the things he had. 

Alex wondered what else he could be hiding if any. 

Alex dashed forward at the old man, his only hand holding his sword. The old man saw him coming and got ready. He immediately went to the side and sent a flying yellow slash towards Alex.

Alex put up a barrier in front of him, but with his cultivation base, it was way too weak to do anything. 

The attack easily destroyed the barrier and came towards him. The attack was slower than when the old man had fought his master, so Alex could easily dodge it. Still, Alex didn't move and let the attack hit him.

Alex was sent flying a few meters and landed on the hot hand. He slowly stood up and dusted himself off. 

"Somewhere in the upper Mind Tempering realms, huh? This shouldn't take very long then," Alex said. 

The old man freaked out when he saw Alex perfectly fine. 'How is he fine? His body should be close to a mortal's in comparison to me,' the old man thought.

Suddenly, his eyes went wide as he realized something. "You brat. How did you cultivate your body to that level? Did the beasts help you or something?" he asked.

Alex didn't reply. Now that he knew he didn't have any dangers from the old man, aside from the sword of his, he was ready to fight seriously.

He immediately dashed forward and swung at the old man. The old man struck back with his sword too and felt Alex's force in his attack.

Although it was strong, it wasn't something he couldn't handle at all. Realizing this, the old man struck back as well. 

He pushed back Alex's sword and went for a straight thrust. Alex parried the blade and swung it at the old man's neck. 

The old man suddenly employed a movement skill to walk out of Alex's sword range. 

However, Alex dashed at the same moment and reached the old man. He slashed at the old man again, who barely brought back his sword to protect himself at the last moment. 

However, that didn't help him a lot. Alex's sword, which was glowing slightly white, managed to hit the old man on his left arm. However, the old man was sent flying before Alex could properly hit him.

The old man slammed into the sand, sending them flying in the air. He stood up and looked at Alex with a hint of anger on his face. 

"You are quite strong even with just a single-arm, huh?" he said. He held his left arm as it was bleeding profusely. He brought out a bottle and poured out something slimy before applying it on his arm.

'A medicinal paste?' Alex thought. Alex had heard about them but had never seen them. In other parts of the world, people used these pastes in place of pills since they were much cheaper.

'How does he know how to make one?' Alex wondered. 

The old man tightened his fist as his wound burned in pain. The paste was working. Then, he looked at Alex.

"Hmph! You really are quite talented. Not only do you cultivate very fast, but you also have body cultivation. And I heard you are quite talented in alchemy too. Combined with the Sword Intent you showed just now, you really can't be underestimated, huh?" the old man said with a snarl on his face.

Alex didn't care enough to listen to him and started preparing to go on the offensive again. 

Just then, the old man said, "You must be a player as well then."

Alex stopped. "How do you—"

"Know about players? Hehe, I've tortured a few to learn how you all cultivate so fast. To think it was so easy as just chucking in a few pills, or using spirit stones all the time. How wasteful."

"Not only wasteful of resources but of your own cultivation as well. Destroying your chance at reaching the heavens just for a few moments of glory. So stupid," the old man said. 

"Not only that, but you all are also stupid enough to believe this world is fake as well," the old man said.

"Are you sure you want your last words to be those?" Alex asked, preparing to attack.

"Hmph! Do you think you can kill me, boy? Let's see how you handle it when I actually try a little," the old man said. 

Suddenly, he went invisible. Alex looked around, but he had no aura either. 'Shit!' Alex thought. He had momentarily forgotten about his hiding skills. 

Alex sent out his spiritual sense around him, even pushing it to its limit, but the furthest he could sense was 15 meters.

Under a normal situation, Alex wouldn't mind having 15 meters worth of sense.. However, against the old man with his incredibly quick movement speed, and a sword that was sure to kill him if it ever hit him, Alex started to fear a little.