A decade passed in a flash, during which Alex hadn't made any significant improvements for himself.
Momo, however, had learned and grown far more than anyone could have expected of her. Her eyes could now change to purple when activated, allowing her to see movements faster than her senses could naturally prehend.
She had also made tremendous progress with her spiritual roots, leading to improvements in her everyday life. Best of all—perhaps better than anything else she had achieved yet—she had learned the Dao of Fire.
Alex had helped her with it, providing different fire auras for her to study and feeding her the Dao pill he had developed a recipe for long ago.
He had initially wanted her to learn the Dao of Heat first, as it would be far more useful to her, but the Dao of Fire was still a great acplishment. Just the fact that she had managed to grasp a Dao at all was an incredible achievement.
With this, she could easily continue to learn the rest of the Fire Dao, and soon be able to learn the True Fire dao.
Alex and the others returned to Hardrock City for the petition. However, Alex took a detour to visit Rosemist first. She was delighted to see Alex after a decade of his absence.
He explained what he had been doing over the years, and Rosemist listened happily. She didn't have much to share herself, as not much happened around the mountains, and she rarely left her home. All she could do was wish him the best of luck and bid him farewell.
When Alex arrived at Hardrock City, he quickly returned to the rooms that were reserved for him and his group and met up with the rest. This time, there was no mention of priority selection or any similar process, so there was no reason for Alex to leave the room for. It seemed everyone would have an equal opportunity.
As the day of the petition came closer, the feeling of shock that had slowly faded away from him slowly returned now that he was back here. He still couldn't shake away the emotion he felt back then when he first learned that nearly 80% of the participants in the previous petition had been disqualified in a single moment.
Now, only about 5,000 participants remained—if that many. Who knew how many more had been eliminated since then? Had everyone managed to pass the first petition?
The day before the petition, nearly 10 days after Alex's arrival, the participants were called together, as the event would begin the next day.
Alex left his master and the others behind and headed toward the park.
As he walked, he could feel countless eyes on him. Many people now knew who he was and how skilled he was. To them, he was like a celebrity—whether they were opponents or simply admirers. He feared there may be people with bad intentions among them as well.
Alex soon met up with his panions. Aethersage, Killersky, Riveroak, and Jai Heiyun had gathered at their prearranged location and were waiting for him.
He greeted them, noting with surprise how much Jai Heiyun had improved over the last decade. Her cultivation base had reached the Immortal Ascendant 8th realm, far higher than before.
He could only imagine what kind of pills she had been consuming to progress so quickly. It was clear that Alchemist Firestar had spared no effort to ensure her disciple remained petitive.
Once they arrived at the park, the group was teleported back into the secret realm, which had once again been drastically altered from the previous times.
The massive stadium surrounding the edges of the secret realm was still there, but it seemed to have been improved again, now capable of housing far more spectators than before.
The hedge maze, however, was pletely gone. In its place stood a massive platform, similar to the one from two petitions ago, but far larger. The platform was nearly square, with each side stretching over two kilometers, large enough to acmodate countless participants.
They were directed to the hall where they had always stayed. The hall itself hadn't changed in size—it was still vast enough to fortably seat a hundred thousand people.
However, with only around 5,000 contestants remaining this time, the space felt eerily empty. At the staff's suggestion, people gathered toward the center instead of staying near the walls.
They waited for the remaining participants to trickle in. Most had already arrived, so the wait wasn't long.
As they waited, they discussed what the next petition might involve. No one truly knew what to expect.
"Surely one of the petitions will focus on the quality of the pills, right?" Riveroak speculated. "I can't imagine an alchemy tournament where that isn't a major focus."
"Maybe that's for the final petition," Jai Heiyun suggested.
Killersky disagreed. "Is the quality of a pill really the best measure of an alchemist's skill?" she asked. "At lower levels, when you're just following someone else's recipes, sure, that might work. But in the Immortal realm, an alchemist's worth should be measured by their overall understanding of alchemy, not just the quality of their pills."
"I haven't been practicing alchemy for very long, but I agree with Sister Killersky," Aethersage said. "The quality of a pill often depends on the quality of the ingredients, which is largely a matter of luck. With so many skilled alchemists here, if pill clouds were the only metric, the best alchemist would just be the strongest cultivator. I don't think that's how they'll structure the tests."
Despite their speculations, the truth would only bee clear once the petitions were revealed. So, they waited.
Nearly three hours later, the Alchemy God finally arrived in the hall.
"Wele back, everyone," he greeted them with a warm smile. "Congratulations to all of you who have made it this far. You have proven yourselves worthy alchemists. I hope you will continue to do so."
"Now then, to begin... would you like to hear some stats?"
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