Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

The puppet couldn't fly, and if Alex wanted to control it, he would have to spend way too much attention on it, leaving himself vulnerable for the most part.

So, unfortunately, he couldn't use the puppet for this fight outdoors. Still, he brought out the puppet and placed Whisker next to it.

"Protect these people from random attacks, okay?" Alex said. He brought out a bunch of formation flags and threw them on the ground. Immediately, a strong formation formed out of it.

"Everyone, stay inside here and don't leave. You will be safe as long as you stay in there," Alex said. "Father, you need to get inside as well."

"What are you doing?" Graham asked. "Alex, we need to run away."

"No," Alex said. "I've ran away too many times. Not again."

Every time he was up against someone strong, he had to run away. He ran away from the Beast realm when he had gone back to take Pearl. He had to run away from the Demon realm when the Saints came to kill him, and then he had to run away from the Northern Continent when the mad immortal sought to kill him.

Each time he had run away, and each time he had lost something.

He lost connections to his sect and friends. He had lost connection to his mother. He had lost connection to his aunt. He had lost connection to Pearl.

'Not again!' Alex said to himself.

"Alex!" his father shouted. "Son, back away. This is not a fight for you. Just leave."

"Father," Alex said as he looked back. "Remember what you used to say? What grandfather used to say?"

Graham looked confused.

"We don't run away. Whether we are beaten or hurt, we endure it and we stand up. Then, we keep moving forward," Alex said. "Just wait, father. I will make you proud."

Alex turned around and slowly walked away, going closer toward his enemy that had now reached nearly 50 in number.

Graham watched in shock as he realized that his son was not the naive son they had kept protected from the world. He had grown in the many years they were apart and was not an entirely different person.

He was no longer a boy, but a man. He didn't know whether he should be happy that he had turned out this way, or sad that he missed it all.

The patriarch looked at Alex and shook his head. "How I wished for it all to not end like this. I even gave you a way out. All you had to do was say a simple oath and you could've lived," the man said. "It's a shame that we will be losing our greatest alchemist now."

Alex smirked. "I don't really see what you're planning to do here," he said. "You've already been found out by the elders. What are you really going to achieve by killing me?"

"We can always tell them we didn't do it," the patriarch said. "If you and everyone here were to die, we can simply say you tried to fight with us and died. As for those behind you, no one even knows they exist. Their death won't even be questioned."

"How do you plan to get away with it if they ask you to speak the oaths?" Alex asked.

"I don't know," the old man said. "We will either be left alone, or we will get into trouble in the end. Either way, it will all be your fault, and killing you here is simply taking revenge before it happens."

"I see," Alex said. "Well, I never wanted you to get caught either. I would rather kill you all here myself."

"Brother, stop talking so much. Just kill him already," the older woman next to the patriarch spoke. "He killed my son. You have to make his father watch him die. I won't be happy otherwise."

"Fine, fine," the patriarch said as he brought out a crimson spear. "This is the end of the line for you, Alchemist Alex. If you have any words to say, speak them now."

Alex looked at the 50 people in the sky and said, "I do have something to say. Will all of these people you've brought along with you be fighting as well?"

The patriarch was confused. "Of course not. I alone am enough for you," he said.

"Having fun all by yourself, huh? That's not very nice," Alex said. "I believe they all should be allowed to have fun. They have come so far to kill me and the rest of us after all."

A crimson book floated out of him, making the people in the group look at him curiously.

"Let us all play together."

The book unfurled and landed on the 4th page titled 'Blood Beast'.

"Come out."

One after another, red beads floated out of the book and landed all around Alex in different locations. Everyone wondered what they were for a second before the first beast appeared.

A crimson eagle with a wingspan of over 6 meters. It stood tall with its glowing red eyes and looked at the people in the sky.

Then another beast appeared.

A crimson snake that was nearly a meter wide and 15 meters long. It slithered a bit before coiling on itself and looking at the people in the sky once again.

Then another beast appeared.

And another.

And another.

One by one, the beads turned into crimson beasts. Each one of them was massive, and each one of them was strong.

From the sea, the land, the air— Alex had every type of beast one could ask for, all of which together amounted to over 100 such beasts.

And each one had a cultivation base of over the Saint Core 6th realm, with some even reaching cultivation of base of Saint Soul realm.

Alex's own blood armor appeared on his body as he prepared his sword by drowning it in his own blood.

After all, it wasn't the beasts that were the strongest here. It was his blood aura.

The beasts reached a maximum of Saint Soul 2nd realm but his own blood aura reached Saint Soul 3rd realm. Together with all of his techniques and skills, he was sure he could fight them all.

As everyone watched in awe, both friends and enemies, the blood beasts started moving. They didn't immediately go and fight but rather moved to specific locations on the ground as per Alex's mental instructions.

Once they were all in place, it could be used. The thing that he had learned so many years ago, but rarely got the chance to ever use at all.

Hell Emperor's Divine Battle Array.

It was an array technique that Alex had thought was useless for the longest time as it was only useful with soldiers and armies. However, now that he had his own little army, it could be used.

Alex looked at the men in the sky.

"Attack."