Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

The room was one meant to test one\'s accuracy. Each one of them was given a small rock that they had to strike at the target. Whoever could hit the center of the target won.

Being able to teleport around objects once again came in handy as his piece of rock landed on the center each and every single turn they played.

About 10 such turns, a small portion of them were sent to the next floor.

Alex waited around and went into another one of the rooms on that floor and passed it. Then, he went to the 8th floor, which he passed as well.

From the day he had entered this sanctum, about 5 or so days had already passed, and he had only just arrived on the 9th floor.

He waited around for about half a day before it was his turn to enter the room.

When he entered, he saw a few spots where he could stand in. \'What is this about?\' he wondered as he walked over to an empty spot.

Once everyone was in the spot, a voice boomed through the room.

"There will be 5 riddles asked in this room now. The 5 amongst you that can answer each of the riddles get to leave," the voice spoke. "You will have 5 seconds to answer."

\'That\'s the spirit\'s voice,\' Alex thought. \'But it sounds pre-recorded.\'

He quickly looked around and saw that there were 20 of them, and… most of them were not happy at all.

"Urgh! We\'ll have to go back now," someone said.

"Goddamn riddles."

"My grandfather says this is impossible."

Several others made similar remarks, leading Alex to believe that he might have made a mistake coming to this room somehow.

"First riddle," the voice spoke. "What comes after the Sense but before the Spirit?"

\'The what?\' Alex was confused. \'After sense and before spirit?\'

He thought for a moment. \'Sense… uhh, spiritual sense? That starts at the Saint Condensation realm. Spirit could be referring to the Nascent soul then? That comes in the Saint soul realm. So between Condensation and Soul…\'

He had two choices he could guess from, so he went along with the one that made sense for him.

"Core!" he answered, for Saint core realm.

The room gave no response at all. His answer was incorrect.

A few of the others tried their answer too, but not a single one of them was correct.

"No Answer," the voice said, letting everyone know they were wrong.

"Second riddle. If you have a Weapon, a Dao, or a Spirit, you can use me. What am I?"

Alex did not know the answer to this one either. He thought the answer was \'an attack\', but apparently, that was wrong.

A few of the people in the room walked out the gate, wasting no time in this room at all. They knew better than to stay around.

The others, however, still wanted to try their luck.

"No answer," the voice said again, not to anyone\'s surprise.

"Third riddle. I Ascend to an Origin that Transcends to a Spirit. What am I?"

Alex did not even bother answering this one. He simply had no idea what it was talking about at all.

From what he could see, since the artifact was one created in the Immortal World, the answer it was asking was too much for someone that was from a mortal world.

He wondered if like everyone else in the room, he should walk away as well.

"No Answer," the voice spoke.

A few more people left this time around. Now that Alex looked at it, barely 10 people remained in the room. The riddles were way too hard.

"Fourth riddle," the voice spoke. "I have no start and I have no end. I am eternity and infinity itself, what am I?"

Alex tried thinking of some proper answers, but he couldn\'t think of one immediately. One did come to mind a few seconds later to him.

"The world!" Alex shouted along with many other people who had come to the same conclusion as him. However, the spirit didn\'t seem to accept the answer as correct.

"What? That\'s not correct?" Alex thought. "Eternity and Infinity… wait… can this be… the void?"

"That\'s obviously the void," Godslayer said from his mind.

"It is?" Alex thought. "The Voi--"

"No Answer," the voice said.

He was a bit too slow. The 5 seconds had already passed by the time he had answered.

"Shit! You should have told me earlier," Alex said.

"I didn\'t think you would be needing my help. All of those questions were so easy too," Godslayer said.

"Fifth riddle," the voice said.

Alex felt like going into his mind and punching that little sword spirit, but he didn\'t have the time to go into an angry fit at the moment. He needed to hear the next riddle.

"Everyone looks up to us, and wishes upon us, yet we do not exist. What are we?" the voice asked.

\'Looks up to us… do not exist,\' Alex thought. \'False gods? No, wishes.\'

"It\'s obviously—" Godslayer said.

"Stars!" Alex answered.

"—stars. Yes, I was going to say that," Godslayer said.

"Correct!" the voice spoke finally.

Alex felt the energy from the room teleport him as he was sent to the next floor over.

The moment he appeared in the other room, he let out a big sigh and slumped to the ground. "That was hard," he thought to himself.

"That was so easy though," Godslayer said.

"Screw you. I know I\'m from a lower realm, stop reminding me every time," Alex said angrily.

"Oh, right," Godsslayer said. "You should have asked for my help early on then."

Alex wanted to shout at him but decided not to bother with that right now. He was on the 10th floor, finally.

He looked around and saw almost no people around once again.

\'Just like the 5th floor,\' he thought and looked towards the middle of the room to find another black pillar standing.

"Punch the pillar without using any Qi. You will be sent back to the 1st floor if you use a single bit of Qi." Alex read the words that floated on top of the room.

"That\'s it? Just punch the pillar?" Alex was surprised.

"That spirit must be trying to keep the ones without any physical body from going up," Godslayer said.

"Hmm, I suppose other souls and spirits could come and take part too," Alex thought. Now that he knew it, he walked up to the pillar and punched it lightly.

The pillar buzzed a little bit and a small light fell on top of him. The next thing he knew, he was being teleported away.

The 10th floor was just that simple, and after doing what it said, he was now on the 11th floor.

\'This is good progress,\' Alex thought. \'At this rate, I should be on the 40th floor in the next month or so."