Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

He looked around, seeing the mountainous region he couldn\'t recognize. \'Where are we exactly?\' he wondered. He couldn\'t find the direction at all. The sun was also close to the zenith, so finding direction was a little difficult. "Let\'s start walking," Alex said. "We should be able to tell time when the sun moved a bit more in the sky."

"Where do we go, brother?" Pearl asked.

"Since we left the city, let\'s go in that direction and see where we end up," he said.

"Alright," Pearl said. "Come, young lady. We should get moving."

The young blonde girl nodded and slowly began walking. She looked around the area with a look of awe as she walked down the platform.

Alex released his spiritual sense around but found no one he recognized. \'Aethersage didn\'t come here,\' he thought. \'He must\'ve arrived at some other platform far away.\'

He had wanted to go around with him, considering he was the only person he knew at all. But that didn\'t seem possible now.

\'Some other time then,\' Alex thought and quickly caught up with Pearl and the young girl.

Similar to him, every single one of the thousands of Alchemists and their disciples had arrived out in the open and were making their separate way in all directions.

"Zhe Moyang, was it?" Alex asked.

"Yes, master," the girl said. "You can call me Momo for short."

"Momo? Is that what your parents called you?" he asked.

"I don\'t have any parents," the girl said with a straight face. "It\'s what my friends called me back in the orphanage."

"Oh, I\'m sorry," Alex quickly said. "Do you mind if I ask what happened to your parents?"

"Master, you don\'t have to be that polite to me," the girl quickly said. "I am your disciple. You can ask me anything."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Alright then, what happened to your parents, Momo?" he asked.

"Don\'t know," Momo said with a tone of uncare. "I was an orphan since I was born. I don\'t think anyone knows really why we were all orphans."

"They didn\'t tell you?" Alex asked.

"No," Momo said. "Not that we bothered to ask. Our lives were more occupied with thinking about what sort of person we would find as our master." Nôv(el)B\\\\jnn

Both Alex and Pearl gave her a weird look. "How long ago did you find out you would be doing this?" Alex asked.

"Since my whole life," Momo said. "They told us when we were children that we were going to be great cultivators one day. We were going to be great Alchemists because we would have great masters."

Alex frowned upon hearing that. "And you heard this your entire life?" he asked. "So for over 10 years?"

"Yes," Momo said.

"And… do you have any idea how many of you there were?" Alex asked.

"Well… most of the kids you saw earlier today," Momo said. "Some of them are my best friends."

Alex got a feeling that these young mortals that were brought today for the tournament had been raised for the sole purpose of being a part of this competition, to test one of these alchemists. "Can you tell me what your childhood was like?" Alex asked. "What city you lived in. What people you met."

"City? We… learned about cities, but we never go to leave the gather," she said. "We were forced to stay within the walls for our entire life. We were taught everything we needed to learn but everything practical was left for this time, for when we would be trained by your people, master."

Pearl sucked in a deep breath upon hearing that as he too had come to understand the situation.

Over a hundred thousand children weren\'t given a proper childhood because they had to be raised for the competition. They didn\'t get to see the outside world, or learn about the outside culture.

They grew up within walls, like pill swines being bred for the sole purpose of helping them understand the effects of a pill.

Alex felt a pang of anger at the thought of so many young children being put through such a past, but then, was his world any different?

For the first 18 years, he had lived in a place that was very different from the outside world. In fact, compared to what this young girl had gone through, it was a stark difference.

Still, he had come out alright. He just needed someone to hold his hand during the first leg of his journey, to teach him about the outside world.

Ma Rong, his master, has been that person for him. For this girl, he needed to become that person.

His anger faded away, replaced by a sense of duty and responsibility. He put on a smile and patted Momo\'s head. "Everything will be okay," he said.

Momo looked confused but nodded nonetheless.

Alex gave a proper introduction of himself and Pearl, letting her know who she had received as a master. When Momo heard Pearl was a big, fluffy cat, she immediately asked if she could see him, but they both had to refuse. Pearl\'s beast form was not something they could easily show to someone else.

They continued walking and had walked far enough in one direction now that they didn\'t have any humans in their immediate vicinity. They were more or less by themselves.

"Master," Momo called out after a bit. "I\'m tired."

Alex paused. "You\'re tired already?" he asked. "It\'s only been—"

He paused for a moment and slapped his forehead. "I\'m sorry. It\'s been a long time since I\'ve been around mortals. I didn\'t think about how quickly you would tire out."

Momo slowly nodded. "Can\'t you fly, master?" she asked. "Everyone else flew away. They must be by the city already."

"I can fly," Alex said. "But we can\'t go to the cities just yet."

"Why not?" she asked, confused. "Because going to the city alone won\'t help. We don\'t have any money to survive in the city," Alex answered.

"Oh… I see," Momo said. "How do we get money? You aren\'t allowed to sell anything you have right now, right?"

"No, I can\'t sell only the artifacts in my storage bag," Alex said. "Not that I have anything else I can sell."

"You could sell your clothes, brother. Those would fetch some nice price," Pearl said from the side.

"And what? Be naked?" Alex asked.

Pearl shrugged. "That\'s the easiest way to earn money."

Momo looked at Pearl. "Uncle Pearl, if you are a beast, can\'t you sell your clothes?" she asked. "You can just turn into a beast and you can walk around without clothes."

Alex chuckled upon hearing that and Pearl shook his head. "This isn\'t my clothes," he said. "This is something made from Qi. The moment I take this off, it disappears."

"It disappears?" Momo asked with a surprised voice.

Pearl nodded.

"Forget about clothes," Alex said. "We are entering the denser part of this forest soon. We will have plenty of things to gather and sell in a bit."