Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Chapter 862: Steps

Not long after Alex\'s group flew out in the night, a group of cultivators appeared outside the city. All of them were in the True realms, and a few were even in the True Emperor realm.

    The group was far enough from the city gates that the guards didn\'t see them, so they weren\'t hesitating at all about flying after the ones that just flew away.

    While one of the men brought out a boat, another one excitedly spoke up. "Did you see how much he spent? At least 15 thousand True Spirit stones. Do you think he\'s some sort of young master?"

    "Who cares? As long as we get his storage bag, we will be set for a long time," Another man spoke.

    The flying boat was out. It was a large boat capable of carrying at least 30 people in it. It cost at least 20 True Spirit stones to operate for every 200 kilometers it ran.

    The 15 or so people in the group got onto the ship and the ship started. Without any hesitation, the person at the front moved the ship, and it flew in the direction Alex had left. 

    "Can you see them?" someone asked from behind, a young voice.

    "We only just moved. It will take some time," the girl in front of the voice spoke.

    "What are you guys going to do when you catch up?" the young voice asked.

    "We will see. If that guy hands over his belongings, we can let him go without harm, but if he dares to fight, we might have to kill him," the girl said.

    "Ooh, that\'s bad," the young voice spoke from behind. "You\'re bad. I shouldn\'t let you keep going after all."

    The girl turned around in confusion. "What are you tal— AAAARGHH!!!!" she screamed immediately the moment she turned around. 

    The men and women in the boat were pushed around by the woman and a few fell off. The man at the front stopped the ship and turned around angrily.

    "What the hell was… that?" his angry voice changed to confusion and surprise when he saw a white-furred cat stand at the back of the ship.

    "What is that?" someone shouted.

    "I am here to stop you all," Pearl spoke with a proud face. He then took a deep breath and roared.

    A massive tiger face appeared in the air and suddenly many different artifacts on the people\'s bodies started buzzing.

    About 4 of the weaker ones, who did not have any defensive mental artifacts fainted all at once.

    "It\'s a strong beast," one of the men said with a solemn face. "We need to kill it or we might die instead."

    Various weapons popped up all around the group as they got ready for battle. 

    Pearl smiled, he was ready for battle too. His right arm suddenly glowed golden and he swung it from afar.

    3 golden lines flashed through the air as it went toward the cluster of people on the ship. A few managed to get away, but 3 got caught in the golden ropes.

    An arrow flew towards Pearl, but he did nothing and watched the arrow hit his body and fall to the ground. His body was so strong that he didn\'t need to worry about some normal arrows that were fired by people that weren\'t even True Emperor yet.

    A golden spear formed of metal energy flew at Pearl. Pearl\'s paw glowed golden again and he punched the golden spear in the air.

    A man flew in with a sword and slashed at Pearl, but his body glowed golden and tanked the sword slash. Pearl then hit the man once and the man flew in the distance and skidded along the snow, bleeding from some broken bones.

    3 more attacks flew at Pearl. A flying firebird, an orb of blue light, and some shaking from the ground that turned out to be vines growing in the snow.

    Pearl\'s body glowed golden once again and all the 3 attacks landed on him directly. A massive explosion rang out, throwing snow dozens of meters into the sky.

    Even then, the attacks didn\'t stop. Another arrow flew from the side, containing brown Qi in it. A sword slash flew from another side, and so did a few icicles.

    A girl ran up to the boat and freed the 3 people that were captured there before they too joined the fight.

    Another person tried to wake the unconscious people, but that didn\'t work, unfortunately.

    The attacks kept throwing snow into the air, and while it looked like something good was happening, the stronger members of the group frowned. 

    There was neither any resistance from the attack, nor was there any blood from the beast dying.

    Suddenly, a woman flew up into the sky, spinning through the air, and landed on the ground with a broken arm.

    "Huh?" the group turned around with a confused look. At the same time, another man felt his chest cave in and he was sent flying. He struck the boat with a bang and vomited a mouthful of blood.

    Some of them realized what was happening. "It\'s invisible!" they shouted and suddenly everyone release their Qi to sense the surrounding.

    Pearl noticed their Qi and realized he had been caught, but that alone wasn\'t going to make him stop.

    A fist-shaped floating cloud of mental energy flew out of his mind and struck one of the men. The defensive mental artifact began buzzing very loudly, alarming everyone to the fact that Pearl had used a mental attack.

    "Be careful," the True Emperor that used the spear said.

    Pearl\'s arms glowed golden again and 3 metallic ropes appeared when he swung his hands. All of the remaining 8 people dodged at once and retaliated at once.

    Pearl jumped to the side and dodged the attack.

    Then he looked towards the weakest of the 8, one of the girls with the bow and arrow, and ran towards her.

    The girl nocked her bow and was about to shoot when Pearl suddenly glowed golden and turned into three different Pearls.

    She tried to feel Pearl with her Qi, and so did the others, but there was only one answer in the mind which they knew could not be the truth at all.

    All three of the Pearls were the real Pearl. They weren\'t that far off.

    "It\'s the one on the right," one of them shouted and everyone targeted the Pearl on the right.

    8 different attacks flew at Pearl, all hitting the Pearl on the right. Light warped for a split second around the spot where the 8 attacks landed and the Pearl there was shredded to oblivion.

    However, the other two kept running.

    The two Pearls converged into one and slammed onto the girl, folding her body in half forward as she flew into the distance.

    Pearl quickly dodged another set of attacks that flew towards him and once again roared at them.

    While the defensive mental artifact buzzed aloud, Pearl targeted the next weakest person in the group, a man in the True King realm with a saber in his hands.

    Pearl\'s body flashed and he turned into 3 once again.

    "Which one?" the young man asked in a terrified voice.

    The True Emperor woman used her senses to find the right Pearl, but it was hard. After all, to her senses, all Pearls felt like the real pearl.

    Still, she had to choose, and once again, like everyone else, she chose wrong.

    The real Pearl arrived in front of the young man and attacked him, but the young man managed to pull out a talisman in time to protect him.

    However, the talisman only protected him just once and Pearl still hit him a second time, easily breaking his shoulders and incapacitating him.

    Only 6 more people remained, each more troubled than the next regarding the fight. They had come out of the city to rob someone rich, and yet somehow they had ended up fighting with a talking cat that was extremely powerful for some reason.

    "How are we wrong every time?" One of the men shouted angrily. However, the others didn\'t have an answer for him. They too were stumped about it.

    It wasn\'t just them of course, everyone who had ever fought against Pearl was stumped by this.

    Previously, Pearl could only split his body into 2 different copies. During those situations, it was a 50-50 chance to get right, which most assumed they got wrong when they attacked him.

    However, now that there were 3 of him, it was impossible to believe that it was luck keeping them from hitting the right one on the first try.

    Of course, it was no luck at all.

    Whenever a White Tiger used the White Tiger\'s Steps, they formed copies of themselves that weren\'t capable of doing anything but running towards their opponent. Since it was a movement technique, attacks were almost impossible to perform.

    However, during those times, as long as the copies were out, they could not be harmed.

    Similarly, as long as Pearl\'s copies were running, his real body was safe. After all, his real body was separated into these very copies.

    When any one of the copies was harmed, the part of him in that copy returned to the remaining copies, turning them ever so real.

    When all but one copy remained, that copy would gain all of him which had split out, becoming the real Pearl in the end.