"Tempering skin, huh?" Alex asked. He remembered that it was only the skin of Song Zun that was tough. Once he broke through that with the Ebony sword, the rest of Song Zun wasn't so tough.

"So I can use it to make my skin more durable too? Can you teach me how?" Alex asked.

"Do you have knowledge of formations?" the zebra asked.

"A little, yes," Alex said. "I'm an alchemist by profession, but I dabble in formations too."

"If you can understand the terminologies, then I can teach you," the Zebra said.

"Every formation has nodes where the different strokes meet up at. For example, this formation has 10 separate nodes. What you will have to do to make it work automatically is put your energy source around the ingredient."

"However, you cannot just put it just randomly. Each node must have the same ratio of energy as the strokes in the nodes. Also, depending on the distance between each of the adjacent nodes, you may or may not have to add even more energy to the nodes."

"Once you are done, and it is perfect, the energy will start to flow on its own, and the formation will automatically start. At that point, the formation will last for as long as the energy remains," the Zebra said.

"Oh, so I don't need to worry about making a mistake right? Since the formation won't even start if I made a mistake," Alex asked.

"Yes. You can make as many changes as you want. You can even stumble upon the correct answer by just trying. Just hope that there aren't other formations that work with the same energy source but have a slightly different formation design," the Zebra said.

Alex nodded when he heard that. "Can I use other formations without metal as well?" he asked.

"I mean, you can, but I don't see why you would. Using formations without metals, especially at the Saint rank and below is a lot less efficient than using metal as support."

"Not only is the efficiency bad, but you also can't even keep the formation continuously running since the energy in it will die. Then you will have to use another batch of energy source and put them in the same pattern all over again."

"There is no reason people in the saint realm or below should even try to make anything other metal-based formation plates and rods," the Zebra said.

"I see," Alex said. "Thank you, sir. That was all I wanted to ask."

"This enemy of yours you got this formation from… be careful of him. He might be in league with some very strong individuals to be able to get such fearsome formations," the Zebra said and walked back in.

Alex didn't even get to say anything else before the Zebra was gone back to his hut-like home.

"Was that the answer you were looking for?" Yao Jia asked.

"Yes, that was exactly what I needed to know," Alex said.

"Good for you. Let's return now."

They returned back to the palace and separated. Just before they went their ways, Alex asked for permission to use some area to make formations for himself.

Yao Jia told him he could use one of the empty rooms right by his room and left. Alex smiled and excitedly went back underground.

The more he went in, the more excited he got. The formation was something to be excited about, but that was not the reason why he was so excited right now.

There was something he needed to do before he could use the formation. He went back to his room and found Pearl on the bed.

He meowed when he saw Alex walk in and welcome him back.

"Today's an exciting day, isn't it buddy?" he asked with giddiness in his voice

"Meow?" Pearl asked, not understanding what was so exciting about this mundane day.

"You will find out soon enough," Alex said and got onto the bed. He sat cross-legged and took a deep breath.

"Status," he called out before a blue screen appeared in front of him. The screen had information written on it that made him feel the excitement he was feeling right now.

[Player Name: Yu Ming

Cultivation: Mind Tempering 9th Realm (1,000,000,000 Qi : 100%)

Body: Sun God's Divine Yang Body

Talent: God

Spiritual Roots: 5 elements Yin-Yang roots

Cultivation Method: Starry-Sky Cultivation Method

Qi: 1,128,383,384

]

The breakthrough button was bright green, and everything was set. Alex felt his heart start to beat faster as his hands refused to follow his orders. Finally, he controlled himself and slowly reached for the button.

And he pressed Breakthrough.

Alex felt it happen. All the Qi that was hiding all over his body started moving in unison. It was different from any feeling he had felt while breaking through up until now.

The Qi started following a certain path around his body through the meridians, which Alex had never seen them do. He had no clue why his Qi was even taking that path, but for some reason, his body seemed to be familiar with that path and it allowed the Qi to do its own thing.

Alex thought about it for a second and his eyes went wide. "No way, is this the cultivation route my Qi takes every day?" he asked himself.

He had always fallen asleep when cultivating, so he never knew what happened during those moments. This was the only time he could see and feel the cultivation happening in real-time without falling asleep.

The Qi in his body slowly started to get denser and denser by the second and soon all of it had turned denser to the point where it was basically the True Qi his body made every time after cultivation.

He was simply watching it happen in real-time right now. Once all of the Qi in his body turned to True Qi, including the ones that were hidden most of the time, he felt a slightly muffled boom coursed through his entire body.

He had broken through. Notifications started appearing, congratulating him for successfully breaking through.

"Nice," Alex said as he felt his own cultivation base. What he was feeling now was many times stronger than what he was feeling just moments ago.

Breaking through to the True realms had increased his strength by a lot. He was about to get up from bed to check himself properly when another set of notifications arrived, notifications that made his eyes pop out in surprise.

<Your Spiritual Roots and Talent satisfy the conditions>

<[Alchemy God's Knowledge] has successfully leveled up>

[Alchemy God's Manual:

Grade: Earth (Growth)

Level 1:

Unlocked: You have knowledge of all alchemy material.

Unlocked: Can learn any alchemy recipe instantly.

Unlocked: +50% chance to produce an extra pill during alchemy.

Level 2:

Unlocked: You can tell the age of Alchemy materials

Unlocked: You can tell the elemental alignments of all materials

Unlocked: You have a chance to improve Common rank recipes

Level 3 is required to Unlock more

]

Alex was really very shocked when he saw that. He had expected to see something like this long ago but had long since lost his hope for it.

So, when he finally saw the notifications, he was really surprised. "So those levels really do come every major realm," he thought.

He was about to look through the newly unlocked skills of his Alchemy God's Knowledge when suddenly more notifications came his way.

<Your Spiritual Roots and Talent satisfy the conditions>

<[Flame Mastery Scripture] has successfully Leveled up>

[Flame Mastery Scripture

Grade: Earth (Growth)

Level 1:

Unlocked: Can freely control existing fire and influence its temperature

Level 2:

Unlocked: Can create fire and influence it with greater control.

Unlocked: Fire Energy deal reduced damage to you

Level 3 is required to Unlock more

]

"Oh god, I forgot this was even a thing. That's right, this too was a growth ability, wasn't it?" he thought. He was a little disappointed with the new unlocks since he had already found himself other ways to create fire, but it was still better than nothing.

Also, the technique wasn't really an Earth grade technique and only was written that since it could grow. It was the growth attribute of the skill that was more important than the grade itself.

And somehow, neither of this two skills had the 'MAXED' attribute to them which was a cause for celebration in and of itself.

Alex opened the Flame Mastery Scripture's information and read it again to make sure he didn't miss anything. From what he could see, there was nothing he could miss even if he wanted to.

He then opened up the Alchemy God's Knowledge and read up on the new unlocks.

"Hmm, knowing the age of an ingredient will be super useful, won't it?" he thought. "That's like having one of those instruments that vaguely checks the age of ingredients."

"As for being able to tell what energy an ingredient is, I can always tell them after I am done with them. I guess it will be useful for new ingredients I have no clue about, but at that point, I'm not sure how useful that information could be," he thought. "Anyway, it's always good to have more information I guess."

Alex read up on the final unlock and fell into thought. "Being able to improve common pills… how exactly does it work?" he wondered. His eyes shined with a hint of anticipation.

"I guess I will have to check it right now."

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