Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

"There is something I need to relay to you all before you leave. Because this tournament will take you far and wide, you will be provided limited free teleportations all around the continent, so long as it is within the continent itself."

"You start with 1 free teleportation and will be allowed more each passing year."

"To teleport between continents, you will need to pay for it. For Saint realm cultivator, this comes with a handicap where you only have to pay a hundredth of the total price."

The Alchemy God let his words pervade among the many people before continuing.

"I wish for this tournament to be the greatest tournament to take place for up-and-coming Alchemists like you for a long, long time. Some of you may get the chance to participate in a tournament like this again, but most of you won\'t. Make sure to make the best of this opportunity as you can."

"I cannot wait to see how you all will rise through the challenge and become worthy of becoming my peer. The best of luck to you all."

With that, the many participants were allowed to leave the secret realm and teleport out one by one.

The Alchemy God slowly returned to the group that flew in the air. "Thank you, again, for the help," he told the two gods.

"It is our pleasure, Alchemy God. We get to watch such talented youngsters show off their alchemy skills. That is a boon in itself," Artifact God said.

"And I found someone that could possibly be my heir," the Formation God said, watching the red-haired young leave the secret realm. "No harm is to come to that child."

The Alchemy God gave a tiny smile. "I\'m sure we can make some arrangements like that," he said.

The Formation God nodded in satisfaction. "When will the others arrive? I was sure the Sword God was coming too," he said.

"He doesn\'t like these sort of things, so he\'s stayed behind," the Alchemy God said. "He only plans on showing up during the finale."

"Very well," the Formation God said. "Let us leave as well. The decade should pass soon. I wonder how many of them will pass your first test in that time." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"I do not think many will," the Alchemy God said. "There are enough issues with the ingredients they have to find for it to be too soon."

"It should be doable though, right?" the Artifact God asked.

"Of course," the Alchemy God said. "I had a few of our own Immortals tested for this and on average, they took about 22 years to complete this. I believe that should be enough time."

"That is enough," the Artifact God said. "Let us leave then."

She turned and flew away, teleporting out of the secret realm. "I shall see you in a bit," the Formation God said, leaving to remain in isolation for a decade.

The Alchemy God watched the two leave and made his way toward the old woman in white. "Anything yet?" she asked.

"Not what you\'re looking for, Your Majesty." the woman said. "The future is still clouded, very much so. But I can tell for certain that the reason for all of this is a participant of yours. Things have gotten slightly clearer since the participants began leaving."

"Oh…" the Alchemy God said. "And you don\'t believe this is intentional, do you?" "Not at all," the old woman said. "If it were intentional, I could tell you that too. When someone uses their Intent to hide themselves from fate, it shows a very glaring sign from us."

"Then… what does this mean?" the Alchemy God asked. "What could be the cause of this?"

"There are a few possibilities that I have begun to consider for a while now," the woman said. "3 big ones, in fact."

"Continue." the Alchemy God was curious. "As we previously suspected, it could be some sort of treasure that we do not know about. A large enough amount of Heavenly Silkworm can do that. Or it could be a Physique too, as those exist."

The Alchemy God chuckled a little. "And you are counting those all as one possibility?"

"It is one category of possibilities," the woman said.

"And the others?"

"The second possibility is that the future itself is so volatile that I cannot see it clearly. As if, there are variables here that are causing the future to undermineable."

"Oh!" the Alchemy God said with a bit of surprise. "Didn\'t that sort of thing happen during the war? I hear that happens when too many people gather in one location."

"That… is the case, but we\'re speaking millions upon millions of people, not hundred thousand. Weak seers may have difficulty seeing through that but I would have no trouble," the old woman said. "Still, we cannot deny that it is a possibility."

The Alchemy God nodded. "And what is the last one?"

The woman remained quiet for a bit and then said, "Since we connect with the heaven to see through upcoming fate, the third possibility is that… the Heavens just don\'t want us to see something."

The Alchemy God was stunned for a while. The possibility that Heaven itself was stopping the future from being seen was stunning for him. And a bit too farfetched even.

"If that were the case, is there no way for anyone to see the future?" the Alchemy God asked.

"It depends," the woman said. "If heaven is trying to hide the future of many at once, breaking through it all is difficult. But if it is only a person or two, I have ways to break through their heavenly defenses and see the future."

The Alchemy God breathed a sigh of relief. "If it is just one, then we can wait until the end as we\'ve planned," he said.

The old woman nodded. "Although, I was certain you had already received your answer. None of these young participants have any of the treasure you are looking for," she said.

The Alchemy God shook his head. "You know the chances of them lying is still very high," he said. "We need to be thorough to make sure those books get used properly. I can\'t have some low-grade Alchemist hiding it for themselves. Those treasures are what will help humanity survive the upcoming war. I will find them one way or another."

The old woman looked at the man\'s determination and couldn\'t help but sigh internally. \'Born from the same parents, and yet their differences are heaven and earth apart,\' she thought.

"Let us go rest now," the Alchemy God said. "Soon, we will need to prepare for the next contest."

The old woman nodded. "What is the next contest, Your Majesty?"

"I\'m not sure myself," the Alchemy God said. "We\'re set on the final contest, the other 4 could be switched around depending on the resources we have. Let us see what we have in stocks and what we can do with them."

"Hmm… weird," the old woman said.

"What is?" the Alchemy God asked.

"My vision isn\'t clouded for this," she said. "I already know what you are going to choose."