Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Momo walked into the soundless zone the moment she was ordered to. The instant the sound vanished from all around her, she looked into the medallion she held in her hand, looking through the list.

The ingredients she had to recognize were either ranked Common, True, or Saint. Thankfully, there were no Immortal Rank ingredients, which made things a lot easier.

She looked through the list instantly and kept 20 or so in mind. She would have to locate them as she searched for the others and remember their placement so that she could go back to them once she found the ones that came before them.

Unfortunately, the search had to happen in the order they were listed for her.

The first on the list was something called a Waterfall Bamboo, which Momo knew was something that grew relatively frequently. The bamboo would be considered mature between 8 to 12 months, so she wouldn't have to go that far to search for it.

She ran off with her eyes closed, using her spiritual sense to search through everything. Her senses were all around, competing with other senses in trying to find the ingredient that belonged to her.

The amount of ingredients began to assault her focus, trying to pull away her attention toward them, partially to make her look at them, and partially due to her urge to remember every ingredient.

She fought through it all and quickly moved on.

She stopped at certain ingredients occasionally to recognize what they were and at what age those ingredients would be considered to have matured.

The pile of the ingredients was spread in rows by their age, but from what Momo understood for now, there was no reason why it was set up in multiple columns.

She should have tried to find the answer, but she was unable to while she was outside. She could only run along sideways through the area, searching for her ingredient.

About half a minute into the competition, she finally found the Waterfall Bamboo. She picked up the slightly blue piece of bamboo wood and called out its name.

Once she was done, she was off to the second ingredient.

For the next 10 minutes, she ran around, as did all her peers, in search of the ingredients. She looked everywhere she could, gathering 16 ingredients in the time. While she found some easily, some ingredients became harder to search for despite knowing their maturity age.

While she could figure out the general rows the ingredients would be in, the column in which it would be kept became an issue for her.

Something just wasn't right here. Momo was missing something very simple, but she wasn't sure what. The ingredients were sorted in one way through maturity, but what about the other way? What was the reasoning behind that sorting?

She had first believed the order to be what part of the plant the ingredient would be considered. Roots on one side, leaves on another. But that wasn't correct. They were all over the place.

She then thought of another possibility, and that was by its name. But that wasn't true either.

In her rush to find the ingredients, she hadn't had much time to think this through properly, but she had managed to rule out a few possibilities. It wasn't age, name, or type. So what other category could they be sorted by?

She rushed to find something called a True Ocean Orchid: a true rank ingredient that could only grow in saltwater. The flower blossomed every year, so Momo looked for it.

This was surely an easier one of the many she had to look for since she knew where it was. She had made a mental note of its availability when she had come by to find the Waterfall Bamboo a while ago.

She found the Orchid nearby and…

Momo paused. She didn't move on to the next ingredient and instead stopped at the orchid. With her senses, she could see the bamboo a few steps behind her. They were practically next to each other at this distance.

Why? Aside from the age at which the two matured, what other commonality was shared between the two?

The answer immediately became clear to Momo.

'Element!' she thought. Her senses looked at more than just the flower and the bamboo. She now looked at everything, and everywhere she looked she found ingredients with similar elements to be put beside each other.

She took a few steps to the side and saw more of the same thing.

'Ingredients of the same elemental type are placed together,' Momo thought. That meant while age was a factor in them being sorted one way, the other way was element. ᚱα𐌽ỒᛒĘS̈

Of course, Elements had no order. It could only be ordered based on how the competition holders wanted to. So Momo needed to find out which element was where.

For that, she needed only to look.

As Momo's eyes opened once again, they glowed purple as she activated her Demon Eyes. After years of training, she had managed to enter the 2nd Stage with it, allowing her to see colors based on the element.

Immediately, she could see clouds of similar-colored auras all around her.

To the far right was Yang, followed by Fire, a mix of Fire and Wood, Wood, a mix of Wood and Metal, Metal, a mix of Metal and Earth, Earth, a mix of Earth and Water, Water, a mix of Water and Yin, and finally Yin at the far left.

With that information, Momo could now immediately tell which section of the platform she needed to go to in order to find her ingredient.

She looked at her next ingredient: Iron Carmine Seeds, a Metal seed from a fruit that took 4 years to mature, and ran toward the section with the metal aura.

It took her a fraction of her average time until now to find the seeds, so she moved on to another one. One after another, she ran through the place easily finding what she was looking for.

10 more minutes later, right as she finished naming one of the ingredients, her time was over.

"Everyone, stop what you're doing and gather up!" a voice called in the silent place, so Momo turned toward the Divinity who spoke up.

"You may return to your place. Your points will be up a minute later."

Everyone began walking away and Momo did too. As she passed the barrier, the cacophony of cheers and shouts returned, reminding her of where she stood once more. She felt a sudden fright, followed by a realization that she didn't feel as nervous as before.

She was still quite shaken from the competition, but compared to how she felt at the start, it wasn't much. She could handle this much.

She walked away from the stage and arrived back at the hall where everyone sat down—some happy, some not.

Momo sat down and looked at the screen, both hopeful and worried. She waited, alongside everyone else, and watched as the rankings updated.

Instantly, the name on the first rank changed, replaced by Zhe Moyang.

Momo's heart skipped a beat at seeing her own accomplishment. Then, her eyes moved to the side, looking at the points she had scored, and that was what shocked her even more.

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