Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

While the Artifact God took her time inside of his Soul Space, Alex cultivated in the workshop outside. He didn’t use any treasures to cultivate, as he was certain he wouldn’t need a lot of time.

At 1000 times the speed of the outside world, the Artifact God would be done in no more than a few days even if she needed years to figure out the artifact they were going to make.

Hopefully, it wouldn’t take too long, but even if it did, there was time to spare.

Alex cultivated without much worry, simply absorbing Qi and refining it slowly, giving himself the option to stop immediately if that was required. Before he knew it, 3 days passed, and his cultivation had to come to a stop.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t because the Artifact God was done with her task.

A strong message came from Whisker with such an urgent feeling that it took Alex out of the cultivation session.

"Brother, the formation stopped," Whisker’s message said.

Alex quickly threw himself back into his Soul Space, unsure what formation he was talking about. When he did go in, he was shocked to realize that it was the actual formation that covered the secret realm inside of his Soul Space.

The formation that governed the zones with sped-up and slowed-down time, as well as the fog that covered most of the inner region, giving it a sense of security from others they did not wish to see it.

The formation had entirely stopped, making every rivulet, every lake, every growing alchemy plant, and the two trees wide open for everyone to see.

And the Artifact God was currently staring at it all.

Alex frowned immediately. For a split second, he thought that this was the god’s doing. She had somehow destroyed the formation so she could see what Alex was hiding.

However, had she used any Qi at all, he would have sensed it. His Soul wasn’t so strong that it could handle a Divine Domain realm cultivator using their power. There would have been mental pain that accompanied such an attack, and Alex felt none of it.

Which meant that the cause for this was something entirely different.

Alex searched for Whisker. "What happened, Whisker? Why is the formation down?" he asked, ignoring the god for a moment.

"I don’t know, brother. It just suddenly stopped. I’m trying to find if any of the formation nodes are down, but I’m afraid I don’t see any. There are thousands of them, so it might take some time."

"Hmm..." Alex frowned. "Ray!"

The fiery bird that remained inside the tall mountain that housed the tiny sun spoke upon hearing Alex call him.

"How may I be of aid, master?"

"Can you tell us what is going on?" Alex asked. "Why is the formation down?"

The bird wasn’t sure what had been going on outside, but after being asked as much, he scanned the place. After he took a moment to see what was happening, the bird gasped with a slight hint of surprise.

"You know what’s happening?" Alex asked.

"Yes," Ray said. "The aura is completely gone."

"Huh?"

Alex couldn’t figure out what the bird was talking about. "What aura? The Primordial’s aura?"

"Yes," the bird replied.

Alex was taken aback. "It’s gone? How could it be gone?"

"It’s not gone," Whisker said, looking around, his long and thin whiskers twitching. "It’s still here, strong as ever."

"My apologies," Ray said quickly. "It’s not the aura itself that is gone, but the portion that was converted into usable aura."

"Ah!" Alex realized what the bird meant. "The Celestial aura that came from the degrading God aura is gone?"

"Yes," Ray said. "It’s all completely gone."

Whisker finally caught on to what was happening as well. He looked around. "How could that happen, though? We made sure the amount of aura that would be required to run the formation would be much less than the average amount that is converted each day. It was part of our calculation."

"I do not know what has happened, but the aura is completely gone. There’s not a bit of it remaining anymore," Ray said. "Just the bits that have started forming again."

Alex and Whisker were just as confused. The only new variable inside of the Soul Space at this moment was the Artifact God, so Alex once again looked toward her, trying to see if she had done something. Maybe she hadn’t acted on her own accord, but used an artifact.

"Is she responsible for it?" Alex asked Ray.

The bird took a moment to itself before speaking again. "No. She is in no way responsible."

"Well, it could’ve just been a mistake," Whisker said. "Let’s activate it again and see if it works. If not, we may find out the cause instead."

Alex agreed. "Ray, activate it."

The bird flew out of his mountain and arrived next to the main dragon scale that was the center of all the other nodes.

The Artifact God watched with awe on her face, refusing to say anything about the appearance of the bird. Ray activated the formation, and suddenly, the fog returned to the world.

The formation activated again.

"It’s working," Whisker said. "Maybe it was just a mistake."

"Maybe," Alex said.

"Oh?"

Ray reacted just then, causing both Alex and Whisker to turn their attention to him.

"Is something wrong?" Alex asked.

"Yes, well, you see—"

The formation shut down once again, the fog vanishing.

"—the formation is using way more energy than it is usually supposed to. It’s far outpacing the amount that is usually converted."

"Huh?" Whisker turned. "Why?"

"I don’t know," Ray said. "I can’t find any actual reason why it is happening. Just that it is."

"Then, will we have to shrink the formation?" Whisker asked. "How much more energy is it consuming, even?"

Ray took a moment. "By my estimation, it is now consuming at least 20 times more energy."

Alex froze upon hearing that.

"I see..." he said after a moment. "I think I know the cause."

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