Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Chapter 2362  Opportunity for Plants

Alex always knew his master's court was big, but not THIS big.

Hills and plains stretched as far as his eyes could see, and his eyes could see very far. The shape of the land was slightly trapezoid—the narrower of the two sides held the hall at the center with a few mountains for people to live and learn, and the rest of it was entirely for alchemy gardens.

Alex wanted to visit these garden, but that wasn't something he was allowed, even as Silvermist's disciple. There were rules for who could enter these gardens and for how long. Everything had to be kept track of, so no one was allowed to enter freely.

There were, however, platforms prepared around every alchemy garden where people could stand and look down at the fields to see what grew and how the people worked on them.

From time to time, people came there on trips and watched from these platforms to learn about the happenings inside an alchemy organizations such as this one.

Alex was more than happy with watching from up here, not needing to go down. He could see everything from right where he was, and that would do for now. He went to all the alchemy gardens, climbing the platforms to look down at the gardens before leaving.

The gardens weren't separated as Alex would've expected them to be. Everything grew everywhere with no order to anything. The order was in the disorder itself.

From what Shi Quanli explained to him, the plants were allowed to grow on their own wherever they wanted. People did try and sow seeds in places, but if something else grew in their place from some other seeds, then they let nature take its course.

Unless the plant they wanted to grow was very important for them, they almost never interfered.

"I'm curious," Alex asked her during his visit to one of these gardens. "How often do these plants become human? Over half the plants here are either in the Immortal or Divine Realm, and that number is easily in the millions. So there must have been at least a few plants that have turned into humans, right?"

Shi Quanli thought for a moment. "I do believe there have been a few," she said. "I can't tell the exact number, but one of our elders was a man that used to be a tree here before. Of course, the chances of plants becoming human are very, very low."

Alex nodded. He understood that.

Plants didn't cultivate, per se. They grew on their own, absorbing Qi only for the purpose of survival and not cultivation. The absorbed Qi did affect them in the same way it would a cultivated individual, which was that it improved them.

When they finally 'became Immortal,' which was to say that the energy gathered inside of them was so condensed now that it crossed the threshold of becoming Immortal Qi, the entire plant ascended.

During those precious few moments, something happened to the plant. Through heaven, they were given a permanent, irreversible opportunity to become human so they might continue to live in a different way.

By this point, almost all plants would have created some sort of sentience in them as a form of spirit, even though it wasn't sapient. They had intelligence, but most plants weren't smart enough to understand the opportunity and continued to remain as plants. But a very few of them recognized the possibility this gave, especially the ones that could not reproduce so easily and had been looking for a way to change that for a long time.

This opportunity was something they grabbed without further thought, and at that point, they became human, forever to remain as one.

They couldn't reproduce as humans did, as that would only give birth to more humans. For the true survival of their kind, they continued through their Creations.

"I wouldn't be surprised if there were no more than 20 plants that became human in these gardens since the war ended," Shi Quanli said.

Alex nodded. At the same time, he also wondered if he would ever be lucky enough to watch one transform. Any alchemist should have the opportunity to see what they were working with firsthand, shouldn't they? Understand why it was wrong to strip a tree naked of its fruit or uproot an entire bed of herbs.

The court was so vast that by the time Alex thought about returning, an entire day had passed. He sent a message through his bond and found Pearl replying back almost immediately.

He was out of cultivation.

"I'll see you later, Sister Shi," Alex said and went to talk with Pearl.

Pearl hadn't broken through. In fact, he wasn't even that close to breaking through at all. That was not unexpected, however. Alex had known this would be the case.

"How's your blood essence?" Alex asked him.

"Top notch," Pearl answered. "Everything is back to how it should be."

Alex nodded and smiled. "So you can seriously start cultivating now."

"I already have been, but yes, I can focus more on my Qi and body than just my blood now," Pearl said.

"You might have to take a while longer still," Alex told him. "I have a few things I want you to learn."

"What things?" Pearl asked, curious.

Alex told Pearl about everything he had done and what he thought of doing in the future. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Pearl listened to the end and gave a dry laugh. "Every time you complete one task, three pile on top of you, doesn't it?"

Alex couldn't help but repeat the same laugh as Pearl. "I suppose it does," he said, thinking about all the things he needed to do in the future. There was so very much to do.

"Very well, I will wait, Brother," Pearl said. "Get the techniques ready, and I will learn them all as best I can."

"I am sure you will do your best," Alex said. "Although, you might have to wait until after this upcoming tournament before I give them all to you."