Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

"I\'m not. I\'m really going to do what I said I was going to do," he said.

"You— goddammit. Just listen to me. We\'ll find a way to keep the store afloat. Come on!"

Alex found joy in watching her be frustrated. "Alright, here\'s the deal," he said, his voice lowering to a whisper. "I\'m actually a very good alchemist. I\'ve just been acting like I\'m not that good."

"What?" Wang Yanwei couldn\'t begin to understand why he would say so.

"That\'s right," Alex said. "So you don\'t have to worry. We\'ll win the duel."

"No, what the hell are you talking about?" Yanwei asked.

"I just told you," Alex said.

"You told me some bullshit and expected me to believe it," she said. "You\'re not right in your mind right now, are you? What happened in that secret realm? Did they feed you an Intelligence-lowering pill or something?"

"Well, if you won\'t believe me, then there\'s nothing I can do here," he said, walking away. Wang Yanwei quickly realized where he was headed toward. Alex was going to the Blackfrost Alchemy Guild. "Why are you going to the guild?" she asked.

"You are stuck behind a lot of oaths that won\'t let you fully reveal everything that happened around your duel," Alex said. "So I\'ll have to ask senior Blackfrost."

"Oh…" Wang Yanwei realized. "Okay, that\'s good. Let\'s go get his advice."

She had no doubt in her mind that Blackfrost would change his mind.

They arrived at the guild a few minutes later and Alex found someone to tell the senior that he had come. After a while, the staff came to take him to a room where they could talk.

Alex and Wang Yanwei arrived outside of a room with a closed door and waited. The door opened, and two figures walked out that Alex had not been expecting to meet.

A tall and muscular man with salt and pepper hair walked out of the room, followed by a shorter, lean man with one eye missing.

As soon as he walked out, the man with the one eye stopped and stared at Alex with a look of confusion.

Alex could feel fear rising deep within him again. A sort of survival instinct, telling him not to mess with this man. He wasn\'t sure why it only appeared around this man when there were so many others he had been around.

He couldn\'t explain it.

"Greetings, senior," Alex said quickly.

The tall man smiled a little and nodded his head before walking away, but the one-eyed man stayed where he was.

"You\'re a swordsman, aren\'t you?" the man asked.

Alex was somewhat taken aback. "I am," he said. He wasn\'t sure how the man knew. His heartbeat grew faster.

"Then why—"

"Brother Grim, don\'t startle the juniors," the tall man said. "Come on."

The one-eyed man nodded and walked away, leaving behind a puzzled Alex. He watched the two men walk down the hallway for a while when his attention was taken away by a loud breathing right next to him.

He turned around, watching Yanwei breathe in and out rather loudly.

"Are you okay?" he inquired.

"More like, how are you okay?" she asked. "That was so scary! Was it just me?"

Alex felt a little relieved knowing that it wasn\'t just him that felt this way when the man looked at him. "No, I felt it too."

"Young Dawnblade, Yanwei, stop standing around outside. Come on in," Blackfrost spoke from within the room.

Alex walked in and saw a table with half-empty cups of tea, while Blackfrost held one in his hand as he sipped from it. "I haven\'t seen you in a while. You returned from your excursion to the secret realm?" he asked.

"I did," Alex said and sat down to the side. Yanwei sat beside him.

"How was it? You lasted long," the man asked.

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Has the news really not arrived here yet?" he asked. "It\'s been more than 2 weeks since then."

He couldn\'t imagine why the news of the sabers being found hadn\'t been made public yet. That was a big enough news that should have made rounds around the entire realm, not just the Blue Silk continent. And yet…

\'Are they perhaps keeping it a secret?\' Alex wondered. He thought of the reasons for it. Such news couldn\'t be kept hidden for long, so there were many biding for some time.

\'They may want to announce the news to the world,\' Alex thought. \'Get some publicity for themselves.\'

That was the only reason he could think of at the moment.

"What news are you talking about?" Blackfrost asked. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Nothing," Alex said. "You will know when you hear it. Might not be my place to speak."

Blackfrost raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"Senior," Yanwei said in a low voice. "Who were those people from earlier? They were scary?" "Just some friends I made a long time ago," Blackfrost said. "No need to worry about them. They\'re good people."

"That senior with the one eye was scary," Yanwei said.

Blackfrost couldn\'t help but laugh out loud. "Brother Grimsight does leave that impression on people," he said. "Most would do well to trust their instincts around him."

"Why… why doesn\'t he have an eye?" she asked. "How come it hasn\'t healed back yet?"

Blackfrost shook his head. "That\'s not for me to answer. Tell me why you guys are here today. I feel as though you are not here for some small talk given what I hear has been happening around your store."

"Yeah, it\'s horrible," Wang Yanwei said. "I feel like I\'m back in that nightmarish phase of my life again. They\'re pushing us to a corner, and this man decides that the best thing to do right now is to go duel them."

"What?" Blackfrost hadn\'t expected that. He turned to look at Alex, waiting for him to add something.

Alex simply shrugged. "I am going to ask them for a duel, the same way sister Yanwei did back then," he said. "That\'s what they\'ve been waiting for anyway, so that\'s what I\'ll give them."

"That\'s not a good idea," Blackfrost said. "For some reason, the Moonlight Alchemy store hasn\'t budged against their threats, so you\'re getting your resources supplied with no issue. You should stick with it. Sooner or later, this operation will just be too expensive for them to continue it."

Alex gave a nod. "I understand that," he said. "But truth be told, I do want to duel them. I came here hoping you\'ll help me with gaining favorable bets for the duel. I know I alone don\'t have the reputation to make them take the risk."

Blackfrost said nothing for a long moment, simply looking at Alex, judging him. "Why?" he asked. "Why take this risk?"

"Because there is no risk," Alex said. "It may appear risky to outsiders, but for me, there is no such thing. Because as long as everything surrounding the duel is fair, I know I will come out victorious."