Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

"Haha," the man laughed. "I hear you\'ve placed some pills of your own here or were at least planning to."

"I am," Alex said. "You should have seen it on the item list."

"I did," the man said. "But it\'s hard to believe that such a thing is possible at all. I mean, who in their right mind would ever believe a 95% pill would exist in our mortal world? Only the immortals of the past should\'ve been possible of such a thing."

"They most likely still are," Alex said. "I just got lucky."

"How did you get those recipes?" the man asked.

"From a secret realm that I visited. That\'s all I can say really," he said.

"Secret realm huh? Which one?" the man asked. "The Sundering Sanctum? Or the Forbidden Orchard?"

Alex got curious as he had heard neither of the names before. "Neither, I\'m afraid. It\'s a secret realm from another continent."

"Oh, you\'re from the Eastern Continent? No wonder your alchemy is so good," the man said. "How did you come here with such a weak cultivation base?"

"I didn\'t," Alex said. "It was a teleportation malfunction that sent me here. I\'m looking for a way back."

"Oh, I don\'t think I\'ve ever heard of people traveling like that," the man said.

The curtains opened up front as the auction began. The auctioneer, a woman that looked to be middle-aged, came out and started introducing the auction.

Around the same time, a thought came to Alex.

"I hear your family is part of the 10 that is responsible for ruling the entirety of the Southern continent. Is that true?" Alex asked.

"Yes, we are," the man said. "Although I would say governing is a better term than just straight-up ruling."

"Does that mean you have access to the teleportation formation?" Alex asked. "I wonder if I may use it somehow."

"Ah, that\'s what you wanted to ask, huh?" the man said as he shook his head. Unfortunately, I am not the one you are looking for."

"Despite being a family head of one of the 10, I have almost no say in anything that goes on in the actual council. The council itself is made up of 10 ancestors from various different sects and families, and they are the ones responsible for it all."

"The best I could possibly do is provide some minor suggestions here and there,"  the man said. "It is the ancestor that chooses everything else."

"I see," Alex said.

He remained quiet after that and simply focused on the auction. The family head was here for the auction too, so he started focusing on the auction too.

The auction auctioned off various different things from weapons, armor, artifacts, and formations to puppets, pills, and even newborn beasts.

Alex was surprised by the quality of the items being auctioned off in this place especially since this was a monthly auction.

The man by his side bought many of the items as well, each of which easily went over 1000 Spirit stones.

Alex remembered the feeling of being so rich. He didn\'t appreciate it at the time, but now that he wasn\'t, it truly was an amazing feat.

\'Whatever, I\'ll make it back again,\' he thought.

"Do you want something bought? Do tell me," the man said.

"It\'s alright," Alex said. "I don\'t need anything really."

"Is that so," the man said. "Then how about I gift you something instead then?"

"Gift me?" Alex looked toward the man. "Why would you want to do that?"

The man chuckled. "Isn\'t it obvious?" he asked. "I\'m trying to get on your good side."

"If that is so, then I won\'t stop you," Alex said. "I\'m not going to refuse free stuff anyway."

"Haha, let\'s see if I do come across something you will like," the man said.

Alex looked forward to seeing what he would be gifted as well.

Time passed by and Alex\'s pills were sold as well. Given how great they were, the crowd had gone into a frenzy for every single one of the pills.

In total, selling those 10 or so pills got him over 12 thousand spirit stones in total. With that sort of money, he was back to being able to afford most of the things.

As long as he didn\'t go for anything in the Saint rank, he would be fine for a long time.

"Oh, I think you will like this one," the man said suddenly.

"Hmm? What\'s next?" Alex asked. Since he didn\'t have any money, he hadn\'t bothered looking at the items being sold in today\'s auction. Besides, he wanted to be surprised anyway.

When he saw the large object being pulled out, he could tell by the shape just what it was.

"Oh, they\'re selling a cauldron, huh?" Alex said. The round shape was an immediate tell.

"Yes," the family head said. "I hear that this cauldron belonged to someone from thousands of years ago when the Phoenix still ruled the Southern Continent."

Alex got a little surprised when he heard that. "Oh, the southern continent was ruled by Phoenix before?" he asked.

"Yes, but that\'s thousands of years ago," he said.

"Why did they stop?" Alex asked.

"Who knows? I hear that the Phoenix simply went into the Sunborn Sanctuary and stopped coming out. That was thousands of years ago," the family head said. "All I know now is that in the absence left behind by the Phoenix, our 10 ancestors rose to the occasion and took control of the chaos that came from an ungoverned continent."

Alex thought of something. \'The phoenix was one of the 5 beasts that fought the inhumanly strong person in the central continent, right? Maybe he too is hiding in the Sunborn Sanctuary because of a possible Heaven\'s Judgment being dropped upon him?" he thought.

He wondered if the reason for the Phoenix was the same as the reason for the Black Tortoise. After all, they had both given their all with their Immortal cultivation base in a world that held no Immortal Qi.

It would be rather strange if some of them didn\'t have to survive Heaven\'s Judgment.

Not just that, Alex wondered if the other half of the Black Tortoise, the Snake was also hiding somewhere because of its own Heavenly Judgement. While being the same being, they were also separate, so they both could have been hiding from it at the same time.

Following the train of thought, Alex wondered what had likely happened to the Dragon on the Eastern Continent.

Was that the reason why all the Heavenly beasts that had returned from the fight had disappeared from the minds of the common people?

Alex\'s attention was pulled back to the auction by the family head next to him who had bid 14 thousand True spirit stones for the Saint Earth rank cauldron in front of him.

Alex finally saw the cauldron too and saw that it was covered in colors depicting Phoenix flames.

"What did they say the name of this cauldron was?" Alex asked.

"They called it the Sun\'s Womb," the man said. "Apparently it can handle a lot of heat."

Alex nodded. \'Memory could handle a lot of heat too,\' he thought. Once again, he was reminded of the things he had lost.

The bidding for the Sun\'s Womb went on for another 5 minutes before finally ending with 37 thousand True spirit stones being the final bid.

The man next to him had indeed won it. "I hope you like this gift of yours. It cost quite a bit more than I was expecting, to be honest," he said.

Alex turned to look at him. "Why are you doing this exactly?" he asked.

The man gave a confused look. "I told you, to get on your good side," he said.

"I understand that," Alex said. "But why? What do you get out of being on my good side?"

Alex leaned in closer and said, "I can see that you want something from me. Tell me, is there a specific pill that you want me to make?" he asked.

The man suddenly smiled. "Finally, I thought you would never understand it," he said. "I do want something. For the last 2 decades, I\'ve noticed that my cultivation speed has slowed down a lot. As such, I\'ve been looking for a way to speed it back up."

"And you want pills for that?" Alex asked.

"I can\'t see any other way, really," the man said. "I will be needing pills and lots of it."

Alex got confused. "Why me then? Certainly, there are other alchemists that could make those pills for you," he said.

"They can, but eating so many of their low-quality pill will cause problems for me sooner or later. I need stuff that I can chomp a handful at a time and I would still be fine," the man said.

"I see," Alex said as he rubbed his chin. "So you are worried about pill poisoning. That\'s a valid reason to be afraid of eating many pills."

"Right? So..." the man asked.

Alex nodded. "I do have a recipe for a pill like that," he said.

"Great," the man said with a happy face. "Let\'s talk about this at my home once the auction is over."