Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Scarlet stared down at the men and women who knelt before her. Everyone ranging from the Elders to Zhou Linfan to Alex's family, including Alex himself, knelt in front of her.

"Rise!" Scarlet ordered and everyone slowly got back up.

Alex could feel the strong aura that moved around Scarlet, the aura that made him believe that even if the sky fell tomorrow, she would keep them safe.

It was a very reassuring aura.

"Congratulations, Your Majesty," Alex spoke first.

The others followed quickly, giving their own congratulations to Scarlet with a look of reverence in their eyes.

Scarlet smiled slightly. "Thank you," she said as she looked at her hands. "I can finally fit in with you all, don't you think?"

"Uhh… you will still stand out, one way or another," Alex said. He looked at her face and was surprised at just how beautiful her human face was.

He remembered seeing it before once, but it was just an image from someone else's memory. The real thing was obviously extremely better.

Scarlet turned toward the other people down the hallway who had stopped to stare at them all. Most were in awe at what was happening without understanding it at all, but some had understood and were in more awe because of that.

"Let us all find some privacy," Scarlet said and started walking toward the throne room.

Everyone followed quickly and filled up the palace hall. Even there, many congratulated Scarlet for not just her breakthrough but also her new appearance.

Soon, Scarlet started to find all the words of congratulations annoying.

"Let us move to other topics," she said, sitting atop the throne where Alex usually sat in her absence. With her present there, he was seated on top of another throne, but a smaller one.

Scarlet turned toward Alex and said, "Now that I'm done with my cultivation, I can take upon my responsibility as the Queen. You will be free of most burdens. You should be able to use this free time wisely, can't you?"

"I will make the most out of it," Alex said.

"I must admit that I do not know much aside from what Whisker has told me and what I could figure out by your actions. Do fill me in on what I have missed while I was in closed cultivation."

Alex followed her request and gave her a short but detailed summary of what had happened until now, including how he survived and what had been done to those guards.

"We've declared war, so everyone is preparing for a battle," Alex finished.

Scarlet frowned a little and her eyes unfocused a little. "I might have been able to help a little but my oaths strengthened again after I broke through earlier," she said softly.

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Alex asked.

"Nothing," Scarlet quickly said. "Do whatever you can. Our primary focus is to bring back those alchemists who are held hostage by the Emperor. Our secondary objective is to take revenge for Yao Ning and our soldier's death and for the Dragon Emperor trying to kill our King."

"However, we also must be realistic here," Scarlet said as she turned toward Alex. "I'm going to be honest, the chances of us winning is… very low."

"I know," Alex said with a grimaced look. "That is the one thing that has been worrying me this entire time. The Dragon Emperor is strong, but he's not the only strong person there."

"Even his Legion has strong individual, that on their own would be on par with our strongest fighters. But on top of that, they have that special array that makes them gain so much strength at once."

The elders slowly nodded. That would indeed be a problem.

"We have an array too," Scarlet said. "You have one, don't you? How good would that be?"

Alex thought for a bit. "If… if our soldiers don't have to stray from the battle and can fight all together in a single location, we can improve everyone's power by 4 realms."

A wave of small shocks ran through the room, emerging from people who weren't aware of the Hell Emperor's Divine Battle Array.

"How many minimum for that?" Scarlet asked.

"10 thousand," Alex said. "We have 3 times that number right now."

Scarlet nodded slowly. "But they are much weaker still compared to the Eastern Continent," she said. "I might be able to help with that though, but we still need to—"

The door to the room opened and Bai Jingshen strutted in proudly, followed behind by his seven wives and Pearl.

"My apologies, I couldn't wait for someone to announce my arrival," he said as he walked to the front. The elders quickly stepped away from their seats, making room for the 8 new 'humans' to sit.

Scarlet frowned a little. "You really don't have much etiquette, do you?" she asked.

Bai Jingshen simply laughed. "I felt your breakthrough from the Western Continent and came to congratulate you. Don't mind my lack of etiquette for that."

The other 7 women beside Bai Jingshen respectfully bowed toward Scarlet and gave her their congratulations.

While Scarlet was still much weaker than them, she was still a Heavenly beast, a mighty Vermilion Bird, and was thus While Scarlet was still much weaker than them, she was still a Heavenly beast, a mighty Vermilion Bird, and was thus deserving of their respect.

"Sister Scarlet? Whoa! You're a human now? Congratulations on breaking through to the Immortal realm," Pearl said with a bright voice. "I'm so happy for you."

Scarlet sighed and couldn't be mad anymore. A small smile formed on her face. "Thank you, Pearl."

She looked back at Bai Jingshen with a slight frown back on her face. She didn't remember sensing any spiritual sense from him at all, so she wondered how he even knew where they were gathered. Had he just followed the aura?

"Why did you hurry to get here?" she asked. "Surely you didn't come here this quickly just to congratulate me."

"No, we were all ready to come anyway," Bai Jingshen said. "Your breakthrough just gave us the excuse to leave. We have a stake in your upcoming war, and so we wanted to help too."

"We? You are going to lend beasts for this war?" Scarlet asked. "I… don't remember many strong beasts remaining in your realm."

"I have a few," Bai Jingshen said. "I can lend you about 20 strong beasts for most of the leaders of the many legions. They will come in handy."

"That will be very helpful," Scarlet said. "Still, this is not quite enough, is it."

"If we could somehow drag him out of the Eastern Continent, I could easily deal with him. But so long as he stays in there, he is out of my reach," Bai Jingshen said with an annoyed look on his face.

"For now, we just need to find a way for them to deal with him on their own," Scarlet said.

"Don't tell me you're helping. I should be fine as long as I'm not instigating the war, isn't it?" Scarlet asked.

"Maybe," Bai Jingshen said. "Still, I would be careful if I were you. Give them the resources and knowledge, but don't give them any commands."

Scarlet slowly nodded. "Damn these oaths."