Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Silvermist was frustrated watching the competition.

"It has been 3 hours. Why is that young girl doing absolutely nothing?" he asked, the dissatisfaction clear in his tone. "She hasn't even made a single pill yet, let alone replaced anything."

"She seemed focused on something, senior," Pearl said from the side, but he too was confused as to what Momo was doing. The others had already begun replacing ingredients, and she hadn't even started.

Whisker didn't understand what she did either.

"I fear she may be going about this the wrong way," Silvermist said. "She needs to understand more about the pill before she can get anywhere. She needs to replace the ingredients, and I can't see how she is going to do that without actually using the ingredients first."

Momo's lack of action was making Silvermist fear that there was something wrong with her. Maybe she had fallen into some sort of comatose state, which was why she was unable to make anything.

"At this rate, the others will leave her far behind."

In his frustration, Silvermist turned to Grimsight. "Do you see anything with her? Is she under some sort of formation or artifact's effect? Why is she not moving?" he asked.

Grimsight remained quiet for a while, keeping his thoughts to himself. Then, he slowly tilted his head up toward the sky.

"I couldn't be certain if she was the cause of it or not, which is why I haven't said anything yet," he said.

Silvermist was taken aback. "What are you talking about? Cause of what?" he asked, looking toward the sky to where Grimsight was looking.

"You can't feel it, can you?" Grimsight asked. "Don't worry. You'll know any minute now. It's coming."

Silvermist frowned. "What's coming?" he asked.

"The Worldly Laws."

* * * * * * * * * *

Alex was unable to tell what was happening at all. Momo had her eyes shut since the beginning, and still she hadn't moved. There was something going on with her, and he couldn't tell what exactly.

Could it have something to do with the pill recipe?

He couldn't tell what that could be though. He had checked the recipe, and it was a simple antidote pill for a True rank poison called Drowning Vine poison. He could freely think of all the replacements for all of the ingredients in just a few minutes, so it shouldn't have taken Momo more than an hour to get started with the answers.

He knew how talented she was, so there was something else that had taken away all of her time until now.

'She was looking at the recipe the whole time during the start, so why is she doing nothing now?' Alex wondered. He thought of what she could be doing, and that was when he remembered how much she had practiced with poisons and antidotes.

'Does she know so much that she worries she doesn't know enough?' Alex thought. That couldn't be the case. If she knew, she would have started already.

Alex worried he was going to lose his pin if this continued for too long. No one had completed yet, but they were on their way. He doubted it was going to take any longer for the good ones to be done with the test. Maybe an hour or two more?

'What are you doing, Momo? I need you to start as soon as—'

Alex's thoughts were interrupted suddenly as he sensed something. He wasn't the only one who sensed it. One by one, everyone turned their head upward, trying to see up above what they could not.

"The worldly laws?" Jai Heiyun said. "It's close. Who's trying to learn a Dao here?"

"And what Dao is that? I haven't sensed it before," Leafheart said.

Alex was shocked to sense the Dao. His eyes moved back to the image of his disciple, and he saw her state.

'Could it be?' he thought. The signs were there, so the truth couldn't be much further either. Enjoy exclusive chapters from My Virtual Library Empire

'But… What is this Dao?'

* * * * * * *

Up in the VIP chamber, high above the rest of the audience, was a massive public booth where the Gods, Reverends, and Sages as well as the various representatives of the absent gods were gathered to watch the competition down below.

4 of the 12 Gods who had come to the tournament hadn't joined them for the time being and only decided to do so when the final competition was to be held.

Of the remaining 8, 2 chose to sit in a VIP room — War God and Storm God — leaving 6 in the communal booth.

Winter God was the first to feel the changes. "That young girl is learning a Dao," she said, somewhat amused.

"A Dao?" several of the other Gods asked. They held a special sort of respect for the Winter God, given her station placing her above them all. The only one that was her peer was the Storm God, who wasn't there.

"I cannot tell what the Dao is," the Winter God said. "It is descending. Tell me if any of you recognize it."

Very soon, they all could feel the worldly laws descending from Heaven. It caused chaos among the audience. Someone learning Dao in the middle of a competition was entertainment like no other. Among the Gods, there was only silence as they tried to discern the truth.

"I haven't felt this before," the Alchemy God said. "It's quite a unique Dao. Not one for the elements, I fear."

The others didn't know much either.

The Ashen-faced Poison God stood up from his seat suddenly and walked up to the window overlooking the entire stadium. "Interesting…" he said softly. "I wasn't aware a Saint could ever learn this Dao."

The Artifact God looked at him with curiosity. "Ah! So you know which Dao this is. Would you mind telling us?"

"Of course," the Poison God said, watching the event from the window. "This is the antithesis to the Dao I practice, to the Dao I pursue."

He turned around to look at the group and pointed down below. "That young woman right there is learning the Dao of Detoxification."

Several eyes in the group suddenly widened in surprise. They understood the importance of this specific Dao.

The Poison God looked toward the Alchemy God and said, "Alchemy God, I must ask if you would mind me recruiting this young child."

The Alchemy God wasn't expecting this. "You wish to make her your disciple?" he asked.

"No, nothing so serious," the man said. "I just wish to have her under me. She can train with some subordinate of mine of her choosing. If she improves under them, I can think about training her directly."

"Why her?" the Winter God asked. "I thought she was your antithesis."

The Poison God gave her a smile. "Understanding how to get rid of poison requires you to know about the poison," he said. "While this child has learned the Dao of Detoxification, she is very close to learning the Dao of Poison itself. And anyone who is that talented, I wish to have them under me."

He turned back to the Alchemy God. "So, what do you say? Is that okay with you?"

The Alchemy God thought for a moment and shrugged. "If you can persuade her master, then I have no reason to stop you."

The Poison God gave a simple nod. "Thank you."