Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Chapter 3748: Internal Strife

It took the man Alex challenged a few seconds to recover from the shock and realize that he had been targeted. He quickly shook his head, bringing out a star to give to Alex before any challenge could take place. They had all seen how easily one of their strongest members had been tossed away like a ragdoll by a single attack.

It took him a bit to sift through his thoughts, but he managed to get to his answer a few seconds later.

"I concede," the man said and brought out a star to hand over to Alex.

Alex sighed and lazily took the star. He made a show of looking at it, as if to check whether it was real, before putting it away. "You do know you could have just challenged me to something simple that was in your favor, right? These other people chose to flip stars and guess what side it landed on. Two of them even won."

The man looked toward the others, but it was too late for regret.

"Why are you in such a hurry to challenge them?" Wangju asked with a strange look on his face. He found Alex’s urgency confusing.

"I just want to earn more stars," Alex said, turning to everyone. "Don’t you all?"

The others slowly nodded one after another. Who didn’t want to earn stars, after all?

"See?" Alex said, pointing to the last man who hadn’t been challenged. "He understands. So, let us fight, shall we?"

The man grimaced slightly, although he knew this was coming anyway. So, he thought for a moment and nodded. "I will accept your challenge. Let’s flip stars for the challenge."

Alex gave a light shrug. "Absolutely. You go on ahead."

The man nodded and brought out a star, marking one side of it before flipping it through the air. It landed on the unmarked side, making Alex win the star.

The man looked somewhat disappointed, but since he was challenged, he was losing a star anyway. Losing it after accepting the challenge didn’t change much at all.

"What’s wrong? Why are you guys gathered here?" a voice called, suddenly arriving near the group.

A few people turned, each one surprised by the new person’s arrival.

"What the hell is wrong with all of you today?" the woman from the first group of 3 complained. "Why the hell do you keep popping up out of nowhere?"

"Huh?" the newly arrived woman, standing beside another man, made a sound of confusion. "What do you mean? We walked here normally."

"Huh?" the others cried out.

"Hey, I challenge you," Alex said, cutting their conversation off.

The woman turned toward Alex, looking him over. Her eyes widened slightly upon fully seeing him.

"Wait. Aren’t you that person who survived 10 days in the suppression formation?" she asked. "You beat Fang Xianhai."

"What?"

"Fang Xianhai?"

The group was startled to learn that Alex was actually a rather well-known person who had clearly done something that had surpassed one of the strongest cultivators of the current generation.

Alex looked at the woman. "What about my challenge?"

"Hell no. I’m not accepting that challenge," she said, bringing out a star. "I have no intention of being humiliated."

Alex had wanted her to accept the challenge, but she had so easily rejected it. He turned toward the man. "I challenge you. And before you—"

"I concede," the man gave up, wasting not a single fraction of a second.

Alex took the star he was given and sighed. He looked at the group. "Anyone want to redo my challenge? I can challenge you all."

No one responded.

The newly arrived woman looked at all of them. "Have you been wasting time challenging him?" she asked. "You should know he is really strong."

"We know," Wangju said with a frown on his face. "I got to learn it firsthand."

"Okay... then why are you still accepting his challenges?" she asked.

"I have to," Wangju said. "It’s a rule."

"You only have to accept once. Not all the time."

"I have only accepted once," Wangju said, his voice growing louder.

"Then what the hell are you doing here? You should have left this place ages ago," the woman said.

"I only just got here," the man shouted back.

"Huh? Didn’t you come here nearly half an hour ago?" the woman asked.

"No, just a few minutes ago," Wangju said.

"Yeah," one of the others said. "We came here just a few minutes ago as well. It was these three who were wasting their time here."

"Huh?" the woman from the very first group looked completely confused. "What the hell are you guys talking about? We just came here maybe 5 minutes ago as well."

"No," the group that came second said. "You left the place nearly half an hour ago. We came because it was our turn next."

"Have you gone mad? We were caught by him the moment we left the canyon. And you guys arrived right afterward," the woman explained.

"No, you have been here for nearly half an hour now," the men said.

"The hell are you going after her for?" Wangju asked. "You’ve been here for half an hour too."

"So have you," the newly arrived woman said. "Hell, didn’t her group leave like an hour ago?"

"No? We just left a while ago," another person said.

Alex watched the group quarrel among themselves, trying to determine when it was that they had come. To each one, the answer would be completely different.

After all, they had been caught in his small trap, where he slowed time all around them, including them, so they were spending hours of time in a matter of a minute or two.

Not a single person there realized that it was Alex’s doing, and neither did they realize that he was still keeping it up.

Time ate away at these people the longer they shouted at each other. And not even a minute or so later, another group arrived since these people had been gone a long time.

This time, however, the group consisted of more than just a few people.