Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex nodded. The name took him back to the first time he had come to the Luminance empire. After having spent a few days cultivating in the forest, he had walked out to the Riverweed town where he had learned most of the things he needed to about the Luminance empire.

There he had learned about geography, cities, people, and culture of the Luminance Empire. It was also this city where he had met Bai Jingshen or as he had introduced himself back then, Shen Jing before they went on an adventure of their own.

"Do you want to visit the town?" Helen asked.

"No," Alex said. "I\'m afraid we don\'t have that luxury. We will need to go to the Radiant City as soon as we can so that the news spreads faster."

Helen nodded as she thought that was their best course of action as well. "Should we find a city with a teleport then?" she asked.

Alex thought for a bit and shook his head. "We don\'t know how long it will take to teleport," he said. "As far as I remember, they have a fixed schedule for which city they can teleport to. I think it is better if we just fly our way to the Radiant City."

"Just hurry up already," Scarlet spoke with an annoyed face. She still stood on Alex\'s shoulders like she always did while impatiently waiting for the two to start moving.

Alex pulled out his boat and got on top of it before flying away. The boat flew quickly through the air at a speed that could only be reached by someone high up in the Saint realm.

However, even this speed was nothing compared to what Bai Jingshen could move at while carrying him. \'God, how did I not realize he was an Immortal back then?\' he wondered to himself. In hindsight, everything seemed so obvious.

The land below them moved by in a blur while even the mountains far away moved at a relatively quick speed. Most people didn\'t even notice that someone had flown past them because of how fast they were going.

Few saints that were staying in the cities that were along the way did notice them. However, because of how fast it all was, they did not dare come out to stop it. They did not want to risk their life just to see who it was.

Alex didn\'t know where the Radiant city was exactly direction-wise, so he couldn\'t beeline to the city. Instead, he had to take a slightly longer path wherein he had to fix his route multiple times before he was actually headed towards the Radiant city.

It was close to evening by the time the three had arrived outside of the city.

Alex quickly got out boat along with his mother and made his way into the city. They easily walked into the city without anyone stopping them at all.

As they walked, Alex saw the many Lightsworns that walked the streets of the Radiant City. They were the people that kept peace and order in the city as they worked directly under the Emperor himself.

Alex looked around at the city where nothing seemed to have changed and yet everything was so different. Both he and his mother couldn\'t help but be surprised by all of this.

Without stopping anywhere, they arrived by the royal palace. As expected, the two of them were stopped by the guards, not allowing them to walk inside immediately.

"Let your emperor know that the King and Ruler of the Southern Continent are here to see him," Alex said to the guards.

As expected, the guards looked at him weirdly, not trusting his words at all. The fault didn\'t lie with them as what Alex had claimed was clearly nonsensical to them after all. There was no way for any of them to either believe or even verify if what was said was true at all.

"Huh?" a voice spoke from not far away. "Brother Yu Ming? Is that you?"

Alex and Helen turned around to see a young woman in purple Wei clan robes standing not far away from them. The young woman stared at Alex, trying to figure out if he was who she was thinking he was.

Alex looked at the young woman as well and tried to remember if he had ever seen this woman before. His eyes brightened in surprise when he finally recognized who it was.

"Are you… Fang Shurin?" he asked the young woman in front of me.

"Woah, is it really you, brother?" she asked as she quickly rushed in close. "I would have never thought I would get to see you again. They said you had most likely died in the Demon realm."

The young woman was clearly shocked to see him alive and well. 

"No, I managed to survive," Alex said. "How are you doing, Shurin? I can\'t believe you\'ve grown so much in just 3 decades. I nearly didn\'t recognize you."

The young woman smiled happily. 

Fang Shurin had been the first person Alex had met in the palace aside from the Emperor and Princess Xumei. She had been his servant while he was the royal alchemist and helped him with anything and everything he asked for.

Back then, she was barely a teenager who had started cultivation at a young age. So even at that age, she looked particularly young. However, now that over 3 decades had passed since then, it seemed as though she had grown quite a lot in that time. 

She had become a fine young woman.

"When did you come back, brother Yu?" she asked curiously. "Where have you been this entire time?" 

The guards were listening to their conversation as well, and as Alex\'s fake name was thrown around, they started understanding just who they were talking to.

The young man named Yu Ming had been a legend in the Luminance empire. He had appeared just as quickly as he had disappeared, and in that short time, he had managed to rock the entire empire.

Yu Ming was a Heaven rank Talisman creator, Heaven rank Formation master, and most importantly, the first Immortal rank Alchemist, whose pills had shocked the world.

These guards remembered the Alchemy competition vividly and how amazing the final pill had been. 

Not only that, but they also remembered the combat competition that had taken place that year before the incident where the young alchemist had taken 3rd place, despite many stronger cultivators being around at the time.

And then after that, it was because of his absence that so many sect leaders and family heads had died at the hands of those beasts that brought nothing but terror to the empire.

The guards quickly bowed toward Alex. "We\'re sorry for not recognizing you, senior. Please wait around, we will go relay the information right now."

One of the guards left at once to go tell their emperor that their legend had returned.