Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

The woman was surprised. "What\'s wrong? What happened?" she asked, but not in a very loud voice so as to not draw the attention of the people around her.

The old man wiped his face and sat straight with an angry look on his face. "My soul was a little hurt," he said.

"Your soul?" the woman asked. "How? One of the challenges?"

"No, it was our target," the man said. "I died."

The woman couldn\'t help but narrow her eyes in surprise. "What the hell? How could you die?" she asked.

"He\'s strong, very strong," the old man said. "He must have been hiding his cultivation base. We were duped."

"Are you sure?" the woman asked. "We tested his cultivation base, he wasn\'t really hiding anything."

"What? Then are you saying that he was fighting beyond his—"

The man paused. "Wait a minute," he said. "I remember fighting a Saint Foundation realm bastard in the Battle Hall when I went to test that new body. He was so strong that he beat my new body, even though it was an entire cultivation realm higher than his. Dammit, that must have been this bastard."

The woman didn\'t know what to say. "Anyway, who died? The good-looking one?" she asked.

"No, the one with the scar," the man said. "The good one is with Kun Chongren."

"And the new one?" the girl asked.

"With Mei\'er," the man said. "One of the other two I\'m keeping on the 2nd floor to follow him if he fails, while with the other one, I\'m trying my best to go up the floor. Now, let me be. I need to concentrate on them."

"Don\'t overexert yourself. Tell the other two about the development. Don\'t let them get caught off guard," the girl said.

The old man nodded. "I will," he said. "But since you are the one in charge of this mission here, you need to make a choice now."

The girl frowned when she heard that. "What choice?" she asked.

"Unless we all manage to do the impossible and catch him as a group in this sanctum, I doubt he is ever going to agree to make the oath," the old man said. "In that case, we will have to start confronting him with the intention to kill."

The girl\'s frown suddenly changed to a smile, a nasty one at that. "Finally," she said. "I was getting annoyed by this farce."

The old man sighed. "So I guess I know what to tell them, right?" he asked.

"Of course," the girl said. "Let them know that we are no longer following the target. It is a hunt. The order is to kill on sight."

The old man nodded. "Just the way I like it."

* * * * * * *

Alex wasn\'t aware of what had changed in the assassins, but he had some guesses.

Until now, he had killed both the Jade-Faced assassin and the Faceless assassin on his own before they could relay any sort of information.

However, because he had killed a clone just now, the main body was bound to have now learned about his strength. After all, one could only ever consciously control a clone created using a dead person\'s body.

If this clone had been created the other way, he would not have been a corpse. Better yet, he wouldn\'t even have been able to cultivate to the point he had.

Which meant that the assassins now knew everything.

\'Going forward, they won\'t underestimate me anymore,\' Alex thought. \'I can\'t let down my guard now.\'

He arrived on the 13th floor and saw that the four different gates were darkened. So, he sat by the side, waiting.

"Master White Tiger," the spirit appeared by Alex\'s side, scaring him for a moment. He nearly cut the spirit because of how jumpy he was from being on guard.

"What is it?" Alex asked after calming down a little.

"I see that you\'ve killed someone on the previous floor," the spirit said.

Alex frowned almost imperceptibly. "Is that a problem?" he asked.

"Somewhat," the spirit said. "This is a playground, where the mortals come to play and train. This is not a place for death and unnecessary violence. Please don\'t kill people in here."

"I couldn\'t help it," Alex said. "They were assassins that are after me. I can promise you that I was not the one to start that fight."

"Hmm, that man did approach you first," the spirit said.

"So, am I being punished or something?" Alex asked.

"No, I understand that it could not be helped," the spirit said. "I\'m sorry to have disturbed you then."

The spirit turned to leave.

"Wait," Alex said quickly.

"How can I help you, Master White Tiger?" the spirit asked.

"What happens if I kill someone else?" he asked.

The spirit gave a slightly surprised look. "Are you planning to kill someone else?" he asked.

"In defense, yes," Alex said. "As I said, there are assassins after me, and I suspect there will be many of them who I will have to kill. Will I be in trouble for killing too many?"

"Normally, yes," the spirit said. "But if they are assassins as you say, I can give you a way out of the punishment."

Alex\'s eyes shined when he heard that. "How?" he asked.

"If the other person agrees to the fight before you get into one, I can turn a blind eye to the killings," the spirit said.

Alex slowly nodded when he heard that. "So… I have to turn my random fights into a duel then," he said.

"Yes, that way with both the parties agreed to the fight, there will be no repercussions to the battle," the spirit said.

Alex smiled when he heard that. "That\'s perfect," he said.

The spirit smiled too. "Can I leave now, master White Tiger," the spirit asked.

Alex almost nodded, but he stopped. There were a few more questions he wanted to ask. "What is the punishment for killing the participants?" he asked. "If they weren\'t assassin and I\'m killing a random individual for my pleasure, that is when I am punished, correct?"

"That is correct," the spirit said. "If you are caught murdering for no reason, I cannot do anything but disqualify you from participating in this competition."

Alex was not expecting that sort of punishment.

The spirit saw his face and gave a blank smile. "I do not have the authority to hurt any of the participants, so the only thing I can do is disqualify them and sent them out of this playground."

"I see— wait, send them out of the playground?" Alex\'s eyes went wide. "Are you saying I can leave this place any time I want?"

"Um, yes. You can," the spirit said. "There\'s no point in keeping you here if you\'ve already given up on the competition."

"Holy shit!" Alex thought. "Are you saying I could have left at any moment I wanted to?"

"Yes," the spirit said. "Do you want to?"

Alex did want that. He really did want to leave this place as soon as possib—

"You\'re misunderstanding his words," Godslayer said from his mind. "You\'re going to get us both killed."

Alex paused. "What do you mean? How?" he asked.

"The playground is the treasure that is this tower," Godslayer said. "It does not refer to the secret realm we are in."

"Oh… right," Alex thought. "Someone put this thing inside this secret realm. I keep forgetting that there was more to this secret realm than just this tower."

"Yes," Godslayer said. "And if you are sent out of this tower, you\'re still in this secret realm. However, by now the secret realm has already crumbled up, and all that\'s remained of it is—"

"The void," Alex answered with a terrified look on his face. He gulped a little and took a few breaths in. "Holy shit, I really did nearly kill all of us."

"Tell the spirit the outside is all void so that he stops throwing others out after they give up," Godslayer said.

Alex quickly turned around to the spirit. "Have you been sending people out of this tower because they have given up?" he asked.

"No, not lately," the spirit said. "I\'ve only been getting demon-blooded individuals for a long time, so I\'ve stopped caring about them for the most part, as per my late master\'s orders."

"Good," Alex said. "The outside is all crumbled space and is most likely a void now. If you send the people out, they will die. Don\'t do that anymore."

"Understood," the spirit said. "Although… I have been doing that with the corpses. Is that alright?"

"That should be fine," Alex said. "There\'s been a lot of deaths here?"

"Yes," the spirit said. "Most are unintentional, which I don\'t punish."

"What about the intentional ones?" Alex asked.

"They do get punished," the spirit said. "Except for the ones that happen in the rooms I cannot see."

"The crumbling ones?" Alex asked.

The spirit nodded.

"Well, you cannot tell whether it was intentional or not, so I don\'t blame you," Alex said. "So the clone I just killed was thrown into the void outside, right?"

"Yes," the spirit said.

"I see, thank you for telling me all that," Alex said.

"Anything you want, Master White Tiger," The spirit said. "May I leave now?"

"Yes, go on. Don\'t let me keep you," Alex said and the spirit disappeared.

Alex turned around and looked back at the gates in front of him. It was time to wait for a while longer.