Alex brought out the Alchemy Godâs book that he had kept hidden away a long time ago. The amateurishly leather-bound book was the same as it had been since a long time ago.
The book itself contained little knowledge for an alchemist, merely teaching the basic fundamentals. What it contained within it instead was a puzzle for someone to solve.
And when that puzzle was solved, Alex believed he would get his hands on the secret the Alchemy God was talking about.
"So the secret is in here somewhere," Alex thought. "But I need a keyword or a set of them to decrypt this text. Do I have that already?"
He had tried many other keywords in the past and those had failed. But he had a few more pieces of information now, so he tried out those. The names of the treasures, the location where they were hidden, and the people who they were withâAlex tried everything he could think of, but nothing revealed anything other than gibberish.
Alex sighed, not finding anything. He hadnât expected to find it though. From the sound of it, he would only get the secret when he found all three books.
âThe books are likely keyed into the Intent with the Alchemy Godâs inheritance. Once I find them all, more information will be revealed to me... surely,â Alex thought.
He wondered if then he would hear the name of this person that was omitted from the current message for some reason.
âWhat could the secret be? Is it important that the secret remain buried?â Alex wondered. It just didnât sit right with him to not do anything to find the information when it was clear that it was something big.
Now that the Alchemy God had hinted at the extraordinary nature of this secret, there was no doubt Alex was going to want to find it. In fact, he would try his best to get all of those other books as soon as he could.
"The Alchemy God has one already, so I can just ask him to lend it to me," Alex told himself. "I still have that right for winning the tournament."
As for whether he would allow Alex or not was a different question entirely. But at the very least, there was a way there.
"For the Book of Countless Ingredients, I will have to go to the Godkillerâs tomb," Alex thought. "When does it open again?"
It took him some time to calculate just how long it was since it had last opened. Thankfully, he had a very clear idea of how much time had passed. As Alex calculated it, he realized that there was a bit over 200 years before the Godkillerâs tomb opened once again.
Thinking about it, he couldnât help but frown.
"200 years... thatâs too short," he thought. He wasnât sure how long he would be staying in the Land of the Blessed Sun, but no doubt it was at least a few decades. Even if he himself was ready to leave at any time, he had to give Pearl some time with his family.
Since he was in the Land of the Blessed Sun, the next place he could teleport to was the Sacred Lotus Dominion. From there, he would have to teleport to the Eternal Isles, then to the Formation Monarchâs Realm, then to the Golden Dao Realm, then to the Three Jewel World where the Godkillerâs tomb was.
If he was lucky and teleportation schedules aligned, then he could reach there in a few years. But if he was unlucky, then it would take him 5 decades to get thereâa decade per teleportation.
If Alex were to stay in the Land of the Blessed Sun for another 150 years, then leave for the Three Jewel World, he would technically have the time he needed to reach there and enter the Godkillerâs tomb.
But there were 2 issues with this idea that he could not neglect.
The first was that after reaching the Sacred Lotus Dominion, the Sky Godâs Palace was just a single teleportation trip away, which he could not ignore. Not only did the balance of the entire world depend on his quick visit to the Sky God so that they may prevent war, but that was also his only way to start finding his family.
He needed the Sky Godâs help in finding them if they hadnât already arrived there.
Secondly, he did not have a ticket for the Godkillerâs tomb.
The thousands of tickets for the Godkillerâs tomb were delivered to almost every world out there, which people could search for and find. The tickets themselves became a beacon, beckoning every cultivator in the surrounding area to come find it every 500 years.
Without that, it was difficult to tell what was a ticket and what wasnât.
And since Alex had missed that moment lost in some other world, he did not have a ticket with him.
"I canât go to the tomb without the ticket," he thought. "I will have to miss it then."
It was a big decision to make, but Alex made it as simply as he could.
It just wasnât the time to go to the Godkillerâs tomb.
He then also thought of the 2500 years oath he took to return to the Blue Silk Sect. If he took any more detours, he would not have enough time to go find his family.
Even if he did find them, he wouldnât have the time to spend his days with them and would have to leave abruptly.
"Yeah, Iâm definitely not going to the Godkillerâs tomb this time," Alex thought with a sigh. That meant the Book of Countless Ingredients would have to wait for another 1200 years at least before he found it.
"That and everything else that awaits me at the tomb," Alex thought. He still wasnât sure what else there was for him to find there, but the only way to find out would be to go there himself.
So that was what he was going to do, in 1200 more years.