Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex felt the energy underground and grabbed onto the tail end of one of the spirit veins using his Qi.

He flexed his muscles and suddenly the tip of the main vein showed its face out of the ground. As soon as Alex saw that it was out, he pulled it out even more and the entire vein started coming out of the ground.

The white crystalline spirit vein was entirely uprooted a minute later and hung in the air. Alex felt the strain of having to hold something so strong with his own Qi, especially because the vein was sending out its own Qi, disturbing his own.

However, he had done it a couple of times today, so he had ready for it. He took the free storage bag that was prepared and sent it down onto the tail end of the main vein.

As soon as it reached the spirit vein, it started dragging in all of the spirit veins that was in the air, and not even a minute later, it was all gone.

The storage bag came flying back to Alex who held it in his hand and nodded to himself. He turned around towards the elders. "That was the last of it, right?" he asked.

"Yes, your majesty," one of the elders answered.

Alex looked at the destroyed land. "Do we bother planting some trees here, or what?" he asked.

"You don't have to worry about this, your Majesty. The trees will grow on their own in a few years," one of them answered.

"I see," Alex said. "How many did we get in the end?"

"We took all 56 spirit veins that were here," one of them said and put forth a pile of storage bags. Since the spirit veins were large and full of Qi, they couldn't be stored together at all or one would most likely destroy the other.

On top of that, the chances of the veins entangling were high as well, so it was better to keep them separate. Besides, they were large enough that there were barely any storage bags that could keep more than one spirit vein anyway.

Alex took all 56 bags and kept them inside his robes. His robes bulged around his waist, but no one said anything about it.

"What else do we have to do here?" Alex asked.

"There's nothing that needs your attention here, your Majesty," the elders said. "We can take care of the rest."

"Good. I will return then," Alex said.

He wanted to return on his own to let the elders do their job, but the elders ended up insisting that they follow him back. They would come back later to do the few things that were remaining.

Alex tried to argue, but it was more annoying to argue with them than to just let them come with him, so he did.

He returned back to the palace late in the evening and went to find Scarlet to tell her that he was done.

"Oh, you're back?" Scarlet asked from atop the sunstone where she was resting for the time being. "Did you get it all?"

"Yes," Alex said. "Where do I keep these? In the dome?"

"No, just place it all in the Treasure room in the palace," Scarlet said.

"There's a treasure room?" Alex asked with a surprised look on his face.

"Of course, there is," Scarlet said. "It's a palace after all. If a palace doesn't have a treasure room,  then where would we keep all the valuable items?"

"I don't think I've seen it," Alex said.

"That's the point, isn't it?" Scarlet asked. "If anyone can find it, then it's not a very good treasure room."

"Makes sense," Alex said. "Where is it then? I'll go store these."

"Those elders should know the location, ask them," Scarlet said.

Alex nodded. "Alright, I'll do that," he said.

"By the way," Scarlet said. "I've decided to form a royal army. Can you take care of handling the logistics of it?"

"The logistics? I don't know if I'm right for the job though. Shouldn't one of the elders be better for this?" he asked.

"Oh, they will do all the job. You will only be there to approve or disapprove stuff. The continent needs them, but I don't want to deal with it at all," Scarlet said.

Alex sighed. "Did you really appoint me as the King just so you don't have to do the annoying work?" he asked.

"Of course," Scarlet said as she laughed. "Why would I make you a King if I was going to do everything on my own?"

"Damn you," Alex said. "I'm going to the treasure room. I'll see you later."

"Okay," Scarlet said. She watched Alex walk away and thought she was forgetting something important that she had to tell him but couldn't remember it immediately.

"Ah! I forgot to tell him how to open the room," she thought. "Whatever, he will come back when he fails."

Alex found one of the elders and asked them to lead him to the treasure room.

The path to the treasure room was simple but definitely surprising. One could only go to it through the throne room using a hidden door behind the throne itself.

"It's right through here, your Majesty" the elder showed the empty wall in front of him.

"Thank you," Alex said and looked at the wall. There were no signs of formations at all, but when looking through his demon eyes, he could see that it was hidden very well. Even with his demon eyes, he could only see a faint energy aura coming out of the wall.

He placed his palm on the wall and poured his Qi into it.

"Your Majesty, you can't just—"

The elder was going to warn him not to try and unlock the formation, but seeing how nothing happened, the elder stopped halfway through his sentence.

"What did you say?" he asked.

The elder looked surprised and confused. "Why did the formation not attack you?" he couldn't help but ask. One couldn't just pour Qi into a formation after all, especially on one that required something else to activate it.

There were defensive mechanisms to these sorts of formations that were more of a seal. However, seeing as nothing happened to Alex, the elder couldn't understand what was going on.

Alex frowned too. He had activated the formation that locked the door, but he was missing the key.

'Is it Phoenix blood?' he wondered. To enter the treasure room back in the White Tiger's realm, he needed White Tiger's blood. However, he didn't have the Phoenix blood at all.

"Do I need to go back and ask Scarlet to help me open this?" he asked.

"Your Majesty, the crown," the elder said. "Wear the crown and you will be able to open it."

"Oh!" Alex said and quickly brought out the crown. Scarlet had let him keep it, so he did. He placed the crown on his head and suddenly felt a coolness as his mind felt refreshed.

"Whoever made this crown is very talented for sure," Alex said softly.

The elder didn't say anything as he didn't know the crown's origins. The crown definitely preceded him by thousands of years at least.

Alex placed his palm back on the door and poured his Qi. This time around, the door made a humming sound as it slowly vanished into nothing.

Alex saw the opening and walked in. The opening led to a long hallway that was nearly 200 meters long and ended up in another room that had a door of its own.

Alex opened that door too and finally, he could enter the treasure room.

The treasure room of a palace was by no means a normal place. It was a 20-meter wide room that was about 2 floors high and had various sorts of treasures that were gathered throughout the ages, be it from techniques to weapons to all sorts of different items.

Alex was overwhelmed for a bit by the number of things in the room. The elder that had followed behind him was surprised even more so.

He couldn't help but want to browse through everything that was there.

"Your majesty, you should take these armors for yourself. I don't recall seeing you wear armor ever," the elder said.

"Maybe," Alex said. It was definitely a good idea to do that. He looked at the swords and they weren't bad either.

There were formation designs, talisman scripts, and even some pill recipes there that may come to use sometime in the future.

Not only that, he even saw various different pills that were kept there.

Fortunately, everything in the room was named, or else Alex would have no idea what was what.

He found an empty corner and placed all 56 storage bags there before taking out a talisman to write exactly what it was.

After storing it, he went around the treasure room to see if he could take something. Given that he was the king, he doubted anyone would mind.

He took an armor that he desperately needed. Then, he took a few defensive and offensive talismans as well. After that, he learned the various different scripts and blueprints as well as some of the pill recipes.

He found a defensive technique, something that he had been lacking for a very long time. He had been using the same defensive technique he had learned back in the Crimson Empire, so it was about time to change them.

He wasn't lacking offensive techniques though, so he didn't take any of those.

As he looked around for a while longer, his eyes fell on something. When he read the description, he couldn't help but be surprised that something like that existed at all.

"This is not bad," Alex thought as he took the item too.