Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Chapter 2222  Discourage

While Alex was off doing all that was needed of him, Pearl had nothing to do. He simply sat around the house, waiting for time to pass. It was the 2nd day of their stay here and would soon be the 3rd night.

Once Alex had gathered all that he needed, he would be ready to leave, to go to one of the big cities. Maybe his life would be slightly better at that point.

Momo knocked on his door at some point and he looked toward her. "Come in," Pearl said. "Are you bored too?"

"Yes," Momo said. "How did you know?"

Pearl shrugged. "I was bored as well," he said.

"Do Immortals feel bored too?" she asked, a surprised look on her face.

"Of course," Pearl said. "Especially when they have nothing to do. I could be practicing my spear, but I have nobody to train against, and this place is a little too weak for me to train properly."

"Are you that strong?" Momo asked, her eyes wide.

"Uhh… yeah," Pearl said. "I'm definitely not the strongest of course, but I have a good amount of strength."

"What cultivation base are you, Uncle Pearl?" Momo asked.

"I am…" Pearl was about to answer when he stopped. "I'm not sure if it is right for me to answer that question."

"Huh? Why not?" Momo asked.

"I am told it can be a bit of a… problem later down the line," Pearl said. "Problem? How?" Momo asked with a confused look.

"How do I explain this…" Pearl thought for a moment. "Alright, tell me, with your current cultivation base, are you happy?" "Of course," Momo said. "I am so strong suddenly. My body feels light, and I can even jump nearly high enough to cross my own height. I tested it all earlier."

Pearl smiled. "This example should help you then. Imagine you are earning 30 spirit stones a day, and you are happy with it. 30 spirit stones is not a lot, but it is enough for you."

Momo nodded. "Then one day, you see someone else who does the same thing you do and has been working for a while, so you ask him how much he earns."

"And he tells you, until now, he has managed to earn 30 Million spirit stones. How would you feel?" Pearl asked.

"I…" Momo thought for a moment, trying to put her into the shoes of a person who would take a million days to reach what someone else had reached. The gap seemed incomprehensible to her.

"It feels… discouraging," Momo said. "Like everything I work for has been all for nothing."

"Exactly," Pearl said. "I could tell you what my cultivation base is, but you would be discouraged by that because you start thinking about all the work it would need you to get here and the time you would have to put into it."

"You don't yet have the concept of how long Immortals have to cultivate to break through. You think you know it takes long, but you cannot fathom it just yet. So, it is better to give you information in bits so you have smaller goals, instead of one insurmountable mountain to climb."

Momo came to an understanding and nodded. "I get what you're trying to say, Uncle Pearl. I should keep my expectations low and my goals achievable."

Pearl nodded. "You can have a big goal, sure. But you need to make it so that there are smaller goals for you to cross on the way there." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Momo nodded. "What should my goals be then?" she asked.

"Let's see. Do you understand the cultivation realms within the Self-Tempering realm?" Pearl asked.

"Kind of? Master mentioned them, but I can't recall all of them properly," Momo said.

"It's simple. You are tempering your body, one part at a time. Going from outside, to inside. You start with your skin, then your muscle, then your bone. Then you move to your organs, and then to your meridians. Once all of these have been improved, you finally improve your mind."

"Once you have done all of that, you will have broken through to the True realm. That is your first goal."

"The True realm…" Momo said softly. "I understand. And I should only cultivate during the night, right? Is there a reason why only night? Is it because the other people are sleeping."

"No, it is because of your technique," Pearl told her. "I'm sorry my brother isn't here to teach you. He has a lot of work for a few more days so we can leave this village and go to a big city. Once he's there, he should teach you a lot more."

Momo said nothing. "Is there anything you can teach me?" she asked.

"Maybe," Pearl said, thinking about things. "Hmm, this should be relevant to Alchemy, so let me teach you about elements and their interaction."

Pearl found himself no longer bored as he had someone to talk to. Momo wasn't bored as well as she was learning throughout her interaction with Pearl.

Pearl told her about the elements, their interaction, the spiritual roots, and so much more that would be considered common knowledge amongst the cultivators.

He also told her a little about the beasts and how they cultivate, how they gained techniques and all.

As he was teaching her for a while, he quickly sensed something from outside. He stopped while explaining things to her and stood up.

"Wh-what's wrong? Why did you stop?" Momo asked, confused at the sudden interruption. "We have guests it seems," Pearl said and walked outside. He arrived outside where the old man who had brought them over to this house the other day now had 3 more people with him. The man was clearly not feeling good about having to bring these people over as he was in the back, lowering his head the entire time he was there.

Pearl looked at the 3 that had come, 2 men and 1 woman. Not a single one of them had the medallion on their chest, so he quickly understood these weren't people who were part of the tournament.

Not only that, they were quite old as well, but still only in the Saint realm.

"Are you the one that is staying in this place?" one of the men asked.

"I am," Pearl said. "Can I help you all?"

Momo walked over to him, keeping to the back. She couldn't tell what they wanted, and strangers scared her a bit.

The men and women looked at both Pearl and Momo and scoffed. "We came a long way and are tired. We want to stay in that house henceforth. Leave," the woman said.

Pearl was a little taken aback. He wondered if they could not see his cultivation base perchance. It took a moment for him to remember that he practiced Alex's concealment technique, so he was naturally concealed from such weaklings.

"Sir, is there not another place in this village where these friends can stay?" Pearl asked the old man. "Why have you brought them over here?"

"Forgive me, senior. They insisted on coming here. Please forgive me," the old man said with a quivering voice.

Pearl couldn't help but feel bad for him.