Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Dusklily had never felt this incredible in the entire time she had been in this competition. There had been times when she had been proud of her results, but never had she thought that her disciple would win her an entire competition.

Sure, she had trained him for the express purpose of winning this competition, but many others had as well. She had just done more than others, it seemed.

Her disciple was, of course, not the best. He came in 5th during the first competition, 4th during the second one, 6th during the third one, and 3rd during the fourth one.

He never stood out either. The only time her disciple had done anything of note in the competition—when he came in 3rd during the Replacement test—had been overshadowed by the Worldly laws that had come down.

And yet, he didn't need to. He hid in the shadows of the giants and showed his prowess when one of them fell.

Dusklily understood that it was only happenstance that her disciple had won. If not for the one who called the Pill Clouds failing, her disciple would have come second.

But things had gone her way, and now she was going to receive a pin. She didn't know what the pin did, but it was something that would certainly help her in the competition.

'You've done well, Qushen. You've given me an opportunity. Now, let your master handle the rest.'

Just like her disciple, she had come up this far, hiding in the shadows of giants as well. But unlike her disciple, she couldn't wait for the chance for others to fail.

Dusklily promised herself not to let go of this opportunity that had been given to her by her disciple. In the final competition, she would show everyone that she too was a formidable alchemist.

* * * * * *

Alex looked at Shi Qushen's name and then at Dusklily's name. He ran his memory back through the previous competitions, checking where she was.

Except for the first competition, which he had no idea about, Dusklily had managed to land in the top 10 rankings in each of the rest of the competitions.

He turned around and saw her sitting among her few friends. They were congratulating her, as one would expect. Looking at her, he remembered her now.

She was the only woman in the group who was one of the last 10 to fail during the Endurance test. She was a middle-aged woman with flowing black hair, a high cultivation base, and no doubt an immense amount of skill and knowledge regarding Alchemy.

She was a formidable opponent who had only failed to make her name known because she had never come in the top 3 in any of the competitions. In no way did that mean that she was a pushover.

And with the pin she would be gaining, Alex could only wonder what damage she could do to them.

"It's regretful you didn't win, brother Dawnblade," Aethersage said. "Truly regrettable. But I can't say I am not happy about this. I can't imagine what sort of trouble I would've been in had you gained two pins in total."

"Oh, right. That would've been problematic," Leafheart said from the side. "On one hand, I do feel bad for you. But on the other, I am happy too."

Alex looked at the two and chuckled. "Sure, be happy," he said, turning to look at Jai Heiyun. He was about to ask if she was happy too, but he noticed she was distracted by the ranking instead.

Alex looked toward the ranking again and read through the names. Leafheart's disciple had come in 3rd behind another individual who had always been high in the rankings, but never first.

Aethersage's disciple came in 7th, and Jai Heiyun's disciple was…

It took Alex a moment to find the young man's name. It was down in the 80s. It was no doubt a poor performance.

"Are you worried?" Alex asked her.

"Hm?" Jai Heiyun turned around before slowly nodding. "I think I'm failing."

"Really? I think you did well," Alex said.

Jai Heiyun slowly shook her head. "I've barely passed this entire time. The only time I did any good was in the Replacement test, and even then it wasn't that good. It is alright, though. I expected as much."

"Hey, we don't know how they count points. You could come through still. You can't give up just yet," Aethersage said from the side.

"It's alright," Jai Heiyun said with a sigh. "I came this far anyway, so it's not like I have entirely failed. Reaching as far as I did, I'm happy to be leaving now."

Alex wanted to comfort Jai Heiyun, but the truth was that she was right. Her performance had always barely pushed her through to the next competition. If not for her body constitution, she might have even failed during the Endurance test.

As an individual who had only recently broken through to the Immortal realm before being thrust into this competition, the distance she had made with that late start had been incredible.

"Whatever the result, you did good in this competition," Alex said. "Never forget that."

Jai Heiyun smiled. "Thank you."

The Alchemy God had gone silent for a while to let everyone check the results of the Disciple's test. Now that he believed everyone had done so, he began announcing the second result.

"Of 500 participants who managed to last until now, we will have to say our farewell to 400 of them," the Alchemy God said. "We have tallied your results from the first competition until the sixth, and together, we have formulated 100 different names who will go on to the final competition."

The crowd met his words with a great cheer.

"Here are the names, ranked in the order of the most points earned throughout all the competitions until now."

The 100 names were revealed in a large ranking list, starting from Leafheart at the top.

Leafheart had earned the most points out of anyone else in the entire competition, followed by Aethersage. Alex came in third, which surprised everyone.

He had come in third despite missing out on an entire competition's worth of points, which, if he had gotten points for, would've been more than everyone else's since his disciple would've won.

That fact was enough to stun many.

"I got the most points?" Leafheart asked, confused by her own result. She hadn't thought that would be the case at all.

"I wonder if it is because of what I did," Aethersage said. "I probably should've stuck through the entire Replacement test. My master was quite angry at me for that."

Alex looked through the names, searching for more. He found Dusklily's name 7th in the overall ranking. He searched for more familiar names and, sadly, didn't find many.

He scoured through the names for Jai Heiyun, but as she had previously believed, she hadn't made it through to the final competition at all. This was as far as she could go.

"This is it then," she said, her voice carrying a tinge of sadness. "This is where I stop."

The ranking was news of happiness to quite a few. But to many, it was a message that their journey through this competition had come to an unfortunate end.

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