Rise of the Alchemy God

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After almost two hours, Ethan and Da Shu finally arrived at the Spirit Forest.

At that moment, Da Shu was taking out the equipment needed to cut down the trees, while Ethan stretched a bit.

"Thanks for the ride," Ethan said with a relaxed expression as he looked around to see which trees would be suitable for their mission.

"No problem. But sooner or later, you'll need to break through, especially since the annual evaluation is just around the corner," Da Shu replied, pulling out two axes from his dimensional ring.

After about an hour, Ethan and Da Shu had only covered a quarter of the long staircase.

At this pace, it would take them too long, so Ethan came up with an idea and decided to use Da Shu's strength to his advantage by getting a ride from him.

Da Shu wasn't thrilled about carrying Ethan on his back, but understanding that otherwise, it would take at least another three hours to descend, he swallowed his dissatisfaction and carried Ethan.

With his cultivation base at the second level of body refining, Da Shu descended the long staircase in less than an hour.

Finally, they reached the mission site of the sect.

Da Shu finished taking out the equipment and handed one of the two axes to Ethan, keeping the other for himself.

Ethan took his axe and glanced at the one Da Shu was holding.

'Heavens, how heavy is that thing?' he thought as he looked at the axe that was at least five times the size of the one he had.

And so, they each chose a tree and began chopping with their axes.

Ethan lifted his normal-sized axe, tightened his grip on the handle, and with a strong blow, struck the trunk of the spiritual tree.

CLANG!

A loud metallic sound rang out, and a strong vibration spread through the axe and into Ethan's hands.

Ethan gritted his teeth as the vibration traveled up his arms, almost making him lose his grip on the axe.

He looked at the small notch his blow had made in the trunk of the spiritual tree and sighed.

"These trees are as tough as iron," he murmured, observing Da Shu, who, with a single blow of his enormous axe, had already made a deep gash in the trunk of his chosen tree.

He didn't know what to make of this situation.

He had come to help his friend to speed up the work, but at this rate, it would be a miracle if he managed to cut down even one tree by the end of the day.

'Haa, if only I could break through, I would tear down these trees like twigs,' Ethan thought, sighing as he shook his head to dispel his pessimistic thoughts.

Unbeknownst to him, when he struck the tree and managed to make a small cut, spiritual energy leaked from it, which was immediately absorbed by Ethan's body and directed to his spiritual sea.

There, the Seven Sages' Amphora, which usually hovered high in the sky, absorbed this small trace of spiritual energy and emitted a small luminous pulse.

At that moment, just as Ethan was about to start striking the tree trunk again, a faint sound in his head stopped him.

DING!

For a moment, Ethan didn't move and focused his gaze forward.

There, half a meter from his face, a thin blue rectangle appeared, floating in the air.

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[--------------------------------

[Daily Mission]

- Successfully cut down 10 spiritual trees by the end of the day.

Mission Status (0/10)

REWARDS:

- Assignment of a random Rare Flame.

Time Remaining: 12 : 43 : 04

--------------------------------]

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"..."

Ethan almost dropped the axe from his hand as he read what was written on the system screen.

'A rare flame?'

He rubbed his eyes just to be sure as he read once again what was displayed on the floating screen.

When he heard from Bai Yu that obtaining a rare flame was difficult even in the celestial realm, he realized he had almost no chance of finding one, so he had already set aside the idea of breaking through using a rare flame and wanted to focus on finding the awakening pill.

But now, seeing that he had just received an opportunity to obtain one, he could hardly believe it.

Suddenly, he started laughing loudly, shouting things like "Finally, the heavens smile upon me" or "My days of misery are over."

Da Shu, who had just finished cutting down his first tree, turned to look at Ethan, and seeing him laugh like a madman and say nonsense, thought, 'He finally lost it?'

Ethan didn't care about anything else and picked up the axe that had slipped from his hand earlier. Tightening his grip on its handle, he began hammering against the tree's bark.

He ignored the pain caused by the continuous shocks he received as he struck and continued to hit without stopping.

He hadn't even taken a moment to reflect on the fact that he had just over twelve hours to cut down ten trees.

He didn't care; all that mattered was that he finally had a chance to turn his situation around.

He had spent almost a whole year searching for a way to break through without success.

And although it wasn't visible, he was at the brink of despair.

He knew that, independent of whether he stayed in the sect or not, if he couldn't cultivate, the only option left would be to keep his head down and hope not to perish due to someone's whim.

He was aware that his life would be anything but simple, both as a cultivator and as an ordinary individual.

However, in the first case, he would at least have the means to change his fate in the future and aspire to a better life.

At that moment, Ethan was benefiting from the protection provided by the sect, but he knew that once outside, he wouldn't necessarily find a safe environment to continue cultivating in peace.

When he saw the opportunity represented by the mission, his determination grew even stronger.

With a determined look, he began striking the tree with all his strength, determined to use every ounce of energy to cut down those trees in time.

He wouldn't let his weakness dictate his destiny.

With each blow, he felt the fatigue growing, but also his resolve.

He continued to strike the tree as if it were his sworn enemy. After almost half an hour of continuous blows, a sound finally came from the tree.

CRACK.

Ethan, hearing it, stepped back to a safe distance and watched as the tree slowly began to fall.

THUD.

With a loud sound, the tree finally fell to the ground.

Ethan, panting nearby, wiped the sweat from his forehead and moved on to the next tree.

"One down, nine more to go."

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FRANK_LEE_JUNIOR:

Here's today's chapter.

I hope you enjoyed it, and as always, if you have any comments or notices of errors, write them down below.

See you tomorrow.