Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

He held onto a Divine artifact that constantly buzzed with a weird but even tone. It was an artifact meant to make certain the holder was speaking truths and any unevenness in the sound would give away that there was a lie.

Unlike an oath, there were many ways to bypass this artifact, but no Immortal realm cultivator could be able to do that and not be found by all the Divinities standing by.

Alex\'s best course of action was to speak the truth.

His age was asked next, to which Alex truthfully answered that he was no older than 500 years old. That got a few eyebrows to raise, but nothing more. These people had seen enough talents to not be surprised by an Immortal at 500 years old.

Silvermist smiled at the side, knowing that Alex was half the age he made it sound like he was. A convenient truth that was also a lie.

The person asked about his cultivation base next, confirming that he was not hiding his cultivation base. Once Alex gave them the answer, they moved on.

"Any bonded beasts?" the man asked.

"Two. A White Cat and a Seeking Mouse," Alex answered.

The artifact made no noise.

Grimsight looked at him with a confused look that he managed to hide from the others. His scars made his emotions harder to see on his face. Still, he was quite shocked to hear Alex lie, and even more shocked that the artifact hadn\'t picked up on it.

Not to mention, he was lying twice in one sentence. Not only was the White Cat, not a White Cat but rather a White Tiger, but he also had another bonded beast that he wasn\'t telling them. Grimsight could see an empty beast space, so that was a lie as well.

He couldn\'t see Alex using any technique or external aid to lie, so he was very curious about how he was getting around it. There were no more questions to be asked of Alex except who he put as his master. With Silvermist\'s name placed into the registration, he was allowed in.

They were allowed up to 5 total people per participant, so Pearl and Grimsight were allowed in as well.

"You will have to register your beasts and your artifacts within the next 5 days or you will not be allowed to participate," the guard told him before they were let in. Nôv(el)B\\\\jnn

They made their way to an assigned room where they would be staying for the week. As they walked away, Grimsight closed in on Alex and asked, "How did you lie? I could not see anything even with my eye."

"Lie?" Alex asked, confused. "I didn\'t lie."

"You told them you only have 2 beasts bonded when you have 3 beasts," Grimsight said softly.

"Yeah, but I only have Pearl and Whisker here right now," Alex said. "So only two."

"They asked for all," Grimsight said.

"Oh… I did not realize," Alex said.

Grimsight was taken aback. It was only now that he realized that Alex hadn\'t done something crazy. He had simply misunderstood the question entirely.

"What about Pearl?" Grimsight asked next. "You said he is a White Cat instead of what he really is."

"Oh yeah, that part was intentional on my end, but again, it\'s not a lie since Pearl is a White Cat. His mother is a White Cat, so he was born as one. It was only afterward that he evolved to his bloodline."

"Oh…" Grimsight said, surprised to hear that. He turned toward Pearl. "You weren\'t born a White Tiger?"

"No," Pearl said. "I was a White Cat for a while, even after I reached the Saint realm. My grandpa helped me evolve later."

"Your grandpa, huh? He is the same one that has his technique carved into you?" Grimsight asked.

Pearl nodded.

Grimsight finally understood how Alex could\'ve lied. He had misunderstood one part of the question, and intentionally told a half-truth that the artifact was too oblivious to catch.

"Why does it matter if he lied or not," Silvermist said. "We\'re already in. Let\'s just go to our place and wait."

They nodded and made their way to the designated rooms. The place they were staying in was previously clearly some sort of commercial building that was hastily redecorated to be a living space.

These couches, tables, and other furniture as well as decorations around the room were clearly new and even only recently added.

Alex waited for a while and got up. "I will go register my artifacts, master," he said and left the room with Pearl.

They quickly made their way out of the building and onto the street before searching for where the registration locations were. The answer, it turned out, was everywhere.

Multiple locations all over the city were handling the registration, so Alex went to the closest one. When he arrived, the amount of people that were there to register surprised him. There were already dozens of people within the place already and waiting.

Alex feared that was the case all around the city, so he got into the line and waited. As more people entered the city, more got in the line here as well. And it appeared that registering artifacts took much longer than registering oneself for the battles. The committee handling the registration seemed to make careful consideration between a team to decide whether the artifact could be allowed to be used in the tournament or not.

Alex was thankful to see that the cauldrons were immediately approved. It was the other things that needed time for approval, especially artifacts that weren\'t as straightforward as cauldrons or weapons.

After a long wait, it was finally Alex\'s turn, so he stepped forward with Pearl.

"Bring out the artifacts you wish to register," the woman said in a lazy tone.

Alex nodded and brought out Memory. He placed it before her. The woman quickly used a ruler-shaped artifact and waved over it. "Done. Next one."

Alex took away Memory and brought out one of the other cauldrons he had. The woman waved the ruler around it as well. "Next."

Alex brought out another cauldron and the woman registered it.

Then he brought out another and another. By the 6th cauldron, the woman seemed frustrated at the sight of the cauldrons that kept on coming. "Are you trying to prank me or something?" she asked.

Alex was taken aback. "Why would I want to prank you, senior?" he asked.

"Then why do you keep bringing out these many cauldrons? You don\'t need this many," she said. A few other people waiting behind Alex voiced their agreement as well. They asked him to hurry up and move on.

Alex frowned a little. "Are you sure I won\'t be needing all the cauldrons, senior?" he asked. "Do you happen to know if there will be no competition in the tournament where I will have to make many pills at once?"

The woman fell silent. Whether she knew about the tournament or not, she could not reveal anything here. She simply grunted and waved the ruler over the cauldron. "Next." Alex brought out more cauldrons.