Alex was excited about having done an attack that put him in the top 92%. Considering where he was currently, that was more than exceptional. Still, there was one more attack he could do that would be stronger.

Alex prepared the same attack once again, only this time, he added True Fire Dao into it. He poured every bit inside of him into it and slashed, using the attack he had named True Immolation Strike.

The attack left behind a trail of fire which struck the puppet and immediately immolated it. The chrome metal burned, revealing the pink surface underneath, while there was also a chunk of the piece at the center missing.

The fire was extinguished a moment later and the puppet restored everything else a moment after that. Then, the messages appeared, giving Alex an absolutely blissful feeling.

Immortal Origin 2nd realm.

Fire Elemental attack, Metal Elemental Attack, Blood aura attack, Spiritual energy attack.

81%.

“Wow!” Alex couldn’t help but be surprised by the jump in number. He had gone from 92% to 81% at once.

“That attack of mine should be as strong as a regular Immortal Origin 2nd realm cultivator,” Alex thought. If he improved in other instances, he could do a lot better as well.

Alex put back Midnight and sat down, taking a bit of a break. He had used up a bit of Qi during this test and had been somewhat tired. He needed a bit of rest.

“Did I overdo it by getting 6 hours in here?” he wondered. Nearly an hour had passed since he came here, but not much more than that had been needed. He decided to get his money’s worth back by fighting a bit more.

He began tossing out attacks and training using the puppet. By using more True Immolation Strike, his body and soul got used to the burden and requirements of the attack, and that would help him get used to it better.

At some point, he also realized that he could change the puppet from a stationary mode to two other modes. One of those modes made the puppet run around the room, trying to dodge Alex’s attacks.

The other mode made it fight back with only physical attacks. The attacks were too weak to hurt, but the point of it was for the cultivator to understand their shortcomings, so that was more than enough.

After recognizing those possibilities, Alex trained with the puppet for a few more hours until he was too tired. By the end of it all, he had managed to place himself in the top 80%.

With 2 hours remaining still, Alex sat down and began cultivating to get back the Qi he had used up. At the same time, he called out Pearl and had him train against the puppet.

There was going to be no wastage here.

Pearl trained for the next two hours, at which point he managed to use his strongest attack which was in the Immortal Ascendant 1st realm. Having entered the Saint Transformation realm, Pearl had a bit of Immortal Qi inside of him too, and that was more than strong enough to reach that strength.

That still put him nowhere above the Top 100%, which saddened Pearl a bit. He would have to get strong.

After the 6 hours were over, the room let Alex know that his time was up.

Pearl went into Alex’s Soul Space, and Alex grabbed the stamp from the formation before walking out. Once the stamp was taken away, the room shut down completely, unable to be used by someone else.

Alex flew down to the counter and handed back the stamp before leaving the training center.

The sun was already out for a good few hours when Alex left the place, so he needed to go back to his store and prepare for customers. As he flew along, however, he noticed some noise from a close by distance and turned to look.

There was a gathering of people there, a rather large one at that, and that made him curious.

Before he realized it, he had already decided to go and check what was happening there.

Alex wasn’t the only one brought along by curiosity as many more people were flying in that direction. Alex tried to understand what was happening from their conversation, but they didn’t seem to know either.

He finally landed on a rooftop close by where many people already were and looked down on a large space that had been created in the middle of the road. Guards from the Blue Silk sect governed the area around them, making it so that no one else bothered about what was happening down there.

Whatever it was, it seemed to be something official.

“I don’t know who I should bet on,” a young man on the same roof as him said.

“Isn’t it obvious?” the other one said. “Just bet on the Supreme Alchemist.”

“But what if the other alchemist is also a Supreme Alchemist?” the first man said.

“She’s not. I went to her store yesterday to check. She’s only a Superior Alchemist.”

“Oh, you should’ve told me beforehand.” The young man left to make the bet. Alex walked toward the man who remained and asked, “Excuse me, can you tell me what is going on here?” The man turned to Alex and looked over him for a moment before shrugging. “It’s just a competition between two alchemists in the city. It happens from time to time when some weaker Alchemists challenge a stronger Alchemist to a duel and the whole city comes together to bet on who will win.”

Alex looked down at the crowd and was surprised that they were here to see a match between Alchemists. It reminded him of the time when he had a match with the Dragon Emperor.

“Do you know who the alchemists are?” Alex asked.

“Supreme Immortal Alchemist Ming, and Superior Immortal Alchemist Wang,” the man answered.

Alex frowned immediately upon hearing the first name. He had heard of Supreme Immortal Alchemist Ming. It was a name he came across when researching the Gale’s True Apothecary store. Alchemist Ming was their best Alchemist.

He hadn’t ever met the guy, but since he was involved with those people, Alex couldn’t help but think of him in a negative light. “She’s here!” a few people began saying one after another, and Alex turned to look at where they were pointed.

From the other side of the city, a woman in a fine pink and white dress glided down onto the empty space and landed gently.

She stood up, revealing the leaf-shaped pendant she wore on her chest, one that claimed her a Superior Immortal Alchemist.

“One of them is here. Where is the other one?” people began asking. Everyone began looking around.

Alex looked around too, more as a reaction to everyone looking around. He wasn’t particularly searching for anyone at all.

As he did, his eyes fell on one of the other roofs, pausing instantly as he noticed someone looking directly at him.

Alex felt his soul shake for a moment as the single eye of the thin and bald one-eyed old man was staring directly at him.

He hadn’t thought that he would see this man once again after meeting him back in the BlackFrost Alchemy guild once before.