Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

"Wow, you\'re a disciple of a god," Alex said. "Then you must be very powerful, senior."

"I don\'t like to toot my own horn, but I\'m not too shabby I suppose," the man said as he rubbed his nose in pride.

Alex nodded as he took in the information and felt a little confused. \'The Sky God... I\'ve heard that name before, haven\'t I?\' he thought.

He wondered where it was that he had heard about it. Had he learned about it back in the Sanctum? He didn\'t think so.

But he had definitely heard it more recently, so maybe it was from Scarlet. However, he couldn\'t remember a conversation where the Sky God had come up.

\'Then it has to be--\'

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck..."

As if chanting for his survival, Godslayer\'s voice rang in his head loud and clear. He could hear the surprise and fear in his voice as well, which was particularly surprising.

\'He\'s not disgusted or angry about the god talk, but rather frightened?\' Alex wondered. That was when he remembered where he had first heard of the Sky God.

"That\'s right," he said in his head. "You were trapped in the Sky God\'s treasury weren\'t you?"

"Don\'t let that man know I\'m here," Godslayer said. "My current self is too weak, and if he manages to get his hands on me, I will have to go back to that hellish place where I will have to spend another hundred thousand years trapped with nowhere to go."

\'I see what\'s happening,\' Alex thought. He looked back at the man in front of him and asked, "Senior, you said you robbed your master\'s place, right?"

"Yes," the man said.

"You took everything there?" Alex asked. "And did everything get brought to this realm?"

"Hmm, I don\'t know about everything, but I did bring most of it. Of course, I lost a lot of it during my crash landing, but I have managed to take a few backs already, and Hao Ya here has also brought a few for me."

"I simply couldn\'t search for the rest so I gave up. It wasn\'t like it would go anywhere with how weak everyone was," the man said.

"I see," Alex said. \'So he is the reason Godslayer came here.\'

"Don\'t worry, I won\'t let him take you. Try not to make it obvious you are there though," Alex said to Godslayer.

"Mhm," Godslayer voiced and stayed quiet after that.

"You wear my ring, so you must have a few of my items as well, don\'t you?" the man asked.

"Oh... uhh," Alex looked at his ring. "So this ring is yours too huh, senior?"

"That was the one my master managed to strip from me when I was teleporting. It\'s the one that the items scattered from. Was there anything in there at all?" he asked.

"Uhh, I did find one thing, but I lost it during my own teleportation disaster," Alex said. "It\'s now filled with my own stuff."

"Is that so?" the man said with a disappointed look on his face. "It\'s a shame then. I was hoping to find an item that I still haven\'t found."

"What item is that?" Alex asked.

"It\'s the seed of the World Tree," the man said. "Perhaps amongst all the items I brought here, it is the most important one. If you don\'t have it then, it must be somewhere in the Western Continent."

Alex\'s heart skipped a beat when he heard that. \'The seed of the World Tree was that important?\' he thought. He hesitated to tell the man the fate of the world tree. He was worried that he would kill him if he found out that it was destroyed because of him.

Alex needed to quickly change the topic.

"Why did you do it, senior? The stealing I mean. You said you had a reason. If it\'s not too rude, would you please tell me?" Alex said.

The man sighed. "It won\'t make sense to you unless you know more information," he said as he rubbed his forehead. "I don\'t even know where to begin."

He sat down on the grass on his own, and Alex followed suit. Hao Ya sat down as well with quite a curious look on her face.

Her master had never tried to explain to her the reason why he had stolen the items from his master\'s palace, and for some reason, he was about to explain it to Alex.

Why? Was Alex that important to him? More than his own disciple?

Hao Ya felt slightly angry, but she did not let it show on her face and simply listened to what her master had to say.

"I do not know if you know this yet or not, but the Sky God isn\'t a normal god. They are the ones that make rules for all of humanity. In essence, the Sky God\'s Palace is the equivalent of a royal palace but for all humans. In the same way, the Sky God is the Emperor of all of Humanity."

"This is the place that determines the fate of all humans as Gods gather every few dozen millennia to make decisions. As a result, many powerful organizations and families around the many realms end up handing over their precious artifacts and items to the Sky God for both safekeeping and showcasing it to the entire world."

"That is what I stole, and that is why I say I stole from Humanity."

"As for why I stole it, it all leads back to a God Summit that happened a few years before my arrival here."

"The gods from all around the many realms gathered for another meeting to make decisions. However, during this particular summit, an idea was brought forth, a radical idea that would bring forth a lot of death and suffering."

Alex\'s eyes narrowed. "What sort of idea, senior?" he asked.

"The idea was simple," the man said. "The gods... wanted to restart the war against the demons. They wanted to bring back the Eternal war."

"What? Why would they want that?" Hao Ya shouted in anger.

"Was your master the one that brought forth this idea?" Alex asked.

"No, my master was actually against this idea," the man said. "However, because of an incident a long time ago, as well as her relatively new status as the Sky God, her words no longer hold as much weight as a Sky God\'s words should."

"So, while she refused to accept the idea, she couldn\'t dismiss it entirely. The ones that brought up the idea desired to restart the war again," the man said.

"Why would they want to bring back all the pain and suffering?" Alex asked. "Unless... they have something to gain from the war."

"They do," the man said. "They stand to gain something that is slowly depleting from the world faster than these people could hope to keep it."

"What is?" Alex asked curiously.

The man put on a grim look as he stared directly into Alex\'s eyes and answered.

"Qi."