730 King

With the trouble of having to make pastes all the time gone from his mind, Alex was finally able to focus on what was important.

Over the course of the month, he once more made the necessary pills for the princess. With the recipe for the pastes out in the world, she didn't ask him to make them.

After all, making pastes was very easy for just about anyone.

In his free time, Alex went back to learning and training more and even made time for his practice fights with Shen Jing.

A month later, Alex felt like he was ready to break through to the next realm.

So, on one auspicious day, he locked himself into the cultivation room in the room he was living in and started cultivating.

He thoroughly examined himself as he prepared for his breakthrough.

The Yang energy in his body had flared up once more. The Yin treasure the princess found for him barely helped at all. In just a matter of weeks, their powers disappeared and his Yang energy flared up once again.

Fortunately, one thing the yang energy never did was cause problems for his cultivation.

The reason Alex was so against it was that it caused problems in Alchemy. If it weren't for Alchemy, Alex would've already taken advantage of it and tried to find out how it worked and what else he could do with it.

Since it affected his Alchemy, however, he needed to get it under control.

Alex continued checking through everything and then started thinking about the things that were causing him mental problems.

'Thank god I stopped overworking myself for the last month, or this breakthrough would've gone to trash before I even started,' he thought to himself.

After making sure every little thing was in order, Alex started his breakthrough.

At first, nothing happened. But slowly, as time progressed, Alex started hearing the voice again.

"Are you really trusting Shen Jing for all of this?" the voice asked him. "Are you going to believe whatever he tells you?"

And his inner demon got right to the point. To Alex, it felt so real, but somewhere in the back of his head, a logical brain kept saying this wasn't real and that he shouldn't be affected.

However, the logical brain was far too quiet when facing something that was formed by heaven.

"It's fine, I trust him," Alex said.

"What if just like the third elder's father, he too wants your body. You know how much people would love to get your body?" the voice asked.

"He's known about my constitution for years. If he wanted it, he would've taken it already," Alex said.

"What if he wants Pearl then? He spends an awful lot of time with him," the voice said again.

"If he wanted to take Pearl, he would have taken him already," Alex said calmly.

"Do you really trust him that much already?" the voice asked.

"No," Alex said. "There are still so many things about him that are a mystery that I worry about. However, in the last 7 years, not once has he done something that would be harmful to me."

"He even teaches me so many things that I would otherwise not find out for ages," Alex said. He realized just how much he respected Shen Jing.

"He's a wolf, fattening up the little sheep before he's ready to devour it," the voice said.

"And since there is not a single thing I can do if he decides on that, so there is no point in thinking about it," Alex said.

Alex felt something change, but he was too out of it to realize what had happened.

"Your father is most likely dead," the voice said.

"Father is a tough man. He's more hardworking and resourceful than I could ever hope to be."

"If he fell into a forest, he will make a farm out of it. If he fell into a cave, he will break the rocks until he can walk out of it."

"If he fell into a desert, I'm sure father will dig a river through the sands and make his way out."

The voice stayed quiet for a bit while Alex continued his breakthrough.

"You are stifling Pearl's cultivation," the voice said.

"I'm not," Alex said in a calm voice. "Even if I was, it doesn't matter. He will still be the Pearl I know and love."

"No, you will abandon him, as you've always done," the voice said.

"I don't abandon people," Alex said.

"What about leaving behind everyone you've know—"

"That is not me abandoning people," Alex said. "I left there to go find Pearl. I never abandoned them. One day, I will find my way back there, that I can promise."

He waited for the voice to speak again, but nothing happened. Slowly, Alex came back to being fully conscious and realized that he had been talking with his Inner Demon.

"Does that mean I passed?" Alex thought. That was when he realized that he was on the last leg of the breakthrough.

He quickly got hold of himself and continued his breakthrough. After a couple of minutes, he had successfully broken through to the True King realm.

Now, he was in the same cultivation realm his master was when she died.

"Look at how far I've reached, master," he spoke softly. "And I don't plan on stopping any time soon."

He called his mother to let her know that he had successfully broken through. His mother was perhaps happier at the fact that he even sent her a message.

After all, due to the workload, he hadn't had the time before. Once he was done talking with his mother, he put away the talisman and brought out Pearl.

After a little talk, he went on to cultivate with him in hopes that Pearl would breakthrough soon as well. After all, he watching just 2 realms below him once again.

Alex spent the next few weeks making as many pills as he could right in the palace. They had prepared a top-grade Alchemy room for him and he was going to use it as much as he could.

In those few weeks, he made all the pills that could be required by the Lightsworn for the next few months and then some more.

Once that was done, Alex returned his focus to two different things.

Perfecting the recipes in his mind that he had yet to do, and learning the process of downgrading a True rank ingredient to a common rank.

Once he was done with the second part, he would then move on to downgrading a Saint rank ingredient to a True rank. That would be the most difficult part for him.

But that was still some time away. Alex's days barely consisted of visiting the clinic. After all, with the widespread of pastes, rarely anyone needed him anymore.

His name now only came up when they talked about the source of the pastes.

Alex made his way to the garden in hopes of finding the princess. Now that he had some free time, he wanted to give learning about poisons a go too.

Since the Royal Wei family was known for their poison arts, that would be the perfect place to start from.