1710 Saint Qi

Zhou Linfan was very much looking forward to what was going to happen, even though he could not perceive what could possibly be happening next.

For the past few weeks that Alex had been here, he had focused his time on getting ingredients to heal his spirit. So, Zhou Linfan could only wonder what was happening next.

"So, what's next? Do we go to find some special plant?" he asked.

Alex looked at the man and didn't immediately answer. Instead, he asked a question. "May I ask why you are helping me?" He had been curious for some time now and wanted to know. "Healing me at first cost you nothing, but you are going well beyond your way to help me now, so I'm curious what is making you help me."

Zhou Linfan showed a somewhat stunned expression as if he had not considered the question himself. "I…" he fell into a thought. "I guess it has to do with the fact that you and I have a common enemy. Maybe, or the fact that you are a King and I don't want the Emperor to kill another king. He has some deep-seated hatred against kings."

"Maybe those are not it either, and I just want the world's best alchemist to return to his former grace. Honestly, I don't know at this point. All I know is that what I have been doing here for the past few decades is no longer necessary and I feel… liberated somehow."

"All in all, I think the best explanation here is that I'm helping you because I have nothing better to do. So, are you going to tell me what you're doing next? Or is it a surprise?"

Alex stared at the old man for a while before giving him a gentle smile. "It's no secret," he said. "It's… not even a good plan actually. I can't tell if it will work or not. I just hope it will work."

The old man was only getting more and more curious now. "What are you going to do?" he asked.

If it was yesterday, the old man would say that Alex had been planning to use his Spiritual sense to pull out a pill from his storage ring to heal his dantian and return to cultivating once again.

However, he hadn't gained his spiritual sense back, and yet somehow he was still confident, so the old man could only wonder.

"How many years have you been here again? 60? 70?" Alex asked.

"About," the old man said slowly. "Why?"

"You've not remained in hiding all the time, have you?" Alex asked. "You must have fought many beasts both on land and sea and got into some serious fights during your time here."

The old man narrowed his eyes. "Why are you asking that?"

Alex put forth his hand. "Can I get one of those beasts' core?" he asked.

"A beast core?" That was the last thing the old man had been expecting.

"Yes, one from a beast that was in the Saint Foundation realm or Saint Core realm," Alex said while gesturing to the old man to hand one over.

The old man was pretty confused and didn't know what one could use the cores for, but seeing Alex ask him for it made him think Alex knew what he was doing. So, he quickly searched for a few cores in his storage bag and brought out one.

A small thumb-sized orb lay clutched in the old man's three fingers, the purple and blue swirl making intricate patterns on its surface. "This is the beast core of a White lion shark that I killed a long time ago. The White Lion shark was in the Saint Core 2nd realm at the time, but that was ages ago. I don't know what you want with this, but I hope this can—"

Alex grabbed the core from the old man's fingers and ate it.

"Wait!" the old man screeched in panic. "What are you doing?"

Alex swallowed the core and took a deep breath. Either something incredible was going to happen next… or he was going to die. He did not want to die.

"Spit it out! Quickly!" the old man said, but Alex had already begun ignoring all outside sound. He quickly closed his eyes and sat down to concentrate on what was going to happen next in his body.

Eating all of those meals and plants had let him know that his body was still capable of converting anything he ate into energy. He didn't need a cultivation for that, only his body constitution.

Alex had wanted to do this using the plants he found on the islands, but eating them didn't give him much energy at all. All healing pills would try to heal him as he was wounded, and he had little control over that energy.

It was only when Alex ate poison that his body converted the poison into Qi. He had realized after eating a few poisons that regular poisons were not going to work for him. He needed Saint-rank poisons.

But he didn't dare find a Saint rank poison to eat. He didn't want to take the risk at all.

That didn't matter, however, as his plan had been from the start to eat a beast core. Poison was just a fun little diversion that didn't pan out.

Alex felt the core lay in his stomach, getting ready to be consumed by his body. Pure energy was ready to flow in his veins, but something was still stopping it.

The Beast Core's spirit.

It was less of a spirit and more of an impression of a spirit, like an Intent of the beast left behind after it died. And that spirit was now starting its clash against Alex's spirit.

This was the entire reason Alex had spent weeks consuming Spirit-healing ingredients. The main thing he needed in his current state was Qi. The easiest way to get Qi, aside from pills, was using a Beast core. And when he ate a Beast Core, he had to battle the spirit hidden within.

Alex could feel the pain in his mind. He didn't know if the beast had shown up in his spiritual sea or not. He didn't know if it was even open or not yet, but he could feel the mental pain.

But he was strong now. He was much stronger than the beast had been when it died. The White Lion Shark's beast core could not possibly compare against Alex's current spirit.

It was annoying that Alex couldn't fight back at all, so all he could do was let the spirit waste all of its attacks on him while bearing through the pain.

He continued sitting with his eyes closed, his clothes drenched in his sweat as he persevered against the endless assault in his mind.

Then it stopped, and as if a floodgate had been opened in his stomach, Qi released through his veins, pumping to not just his dantian, but all across his body.

Alex didn't even have to do anything next. With so much Qi for his body to use, his Undying Physique kicked in immediately and his Dantian began to heal on its own.

All of Alex's effort for the past few days had led to this point, and it had been a success.