Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Chapter 2263  Child of Heaven

Alex had no way of answering the woman's question. To begin with, he didn't even understand what she was trying to ask. "A brethren?" he asked. "I do not understand what you mean."

"Yes, brethren," the woman said as her smile grew wider. "I've always wanted to meet another one of us."

"I'm sorry, senior. I still do not understand what you mean by that," he said. "I do not see how we can be brethren of any sort."

The woman's smile faded and a concerned look appeared over it. "Are you not like me?" she asked, now slowly moving around Alex, her frilly clothes trailing behind her. Alex couldn't tell where the clothes ended and where the mist began.

The woman encircled him. He felt her fingers trace him along the back as she moved, coming around to the front. At the front, she laid her gentle fingers around his jaw, slowly moving his head."

Her eyes went slightly wide in shock at that point. "It's true," she said, her voice failing to hold in her intrigue at the situation. "You are actually a human, aren't you?"

"I always was," Alex said.

The woman nodded. "I can see that now," she said. "But your aura. I could swear you were a Child of Heaven. Just like me."

"A Child of Heaven?" Alex asked, confused at the words. He had never heard anyone use a word like that. The woman nodded. "That is the word that has been used to describe beings like us," she said. "Well, beings like me. You are not one of us."

A million different questions went through Alex's mind, each wanting to get answered first, none coming out. The woman's words made it seem as though she wasn't a human. And from the way she looked, she was no demon either. Alex thought she was a beast for a moment, but then she would've called Pearl a brethren, or perhaps Whisker. Not him.

Alex also did wonder if she was a plant, but he had the knowledge of all plants that had ever existed and she was not one of them. She was no plant.

No human. No demon. No beast.

What was she?

Still, the most burning question was the one he asked first.

"Senior, what is a Child of Heaven?" he asked. "And why did you mistake me for one?"

"A Child of Heaven is obviously someone born from heaven," the woman said. "They have no parents. They do not grow from a seed. They just are."

Alex couldn't make sense of her words. If she wasn't anything he had thought before then… "Are you a Spirit?" he asked. That was the only thing left.

The beast in the form of a man moved closer. "Do not be rude to this one," he said. "Comparing her to a spirit is blasphemy."

"My apologies, senior," Alex said quickly. "I just didn't know what to think. I do not know what she is."

"Little Lin, you do not need to be angry on my behalf," the woman said.

"But I must," the man said. "You cannot be mad yourself."

"Why should I be mad?" the woman asked in her lovely voice. "The young man isn't wrong. I am a spirit."

"You are more than a simple spirit," the beast said.

"A spirit nonetheless," the woman said, turning back around toward Alex. "You are correct in your assumption. I am indeed a spirit."

Alex was flabbergasted to imagine of such a kind. She looked so alive, so human. Alex had seen human-shaped spirits before. His Playground spirit was one, and even many nascent souls were similar.

Except, they all lacked one thing that this woman had.

A body. Those spirits were all incorporeal, while this woman was an actual, living spirit in a body. What did that mean? How could a spirit have a body?

If a spirit did have a body, was it not a human?

Also, why was he never taught about this by anyone else? No one had even come close to speaking about being of this sort. Spirits in a human body.

Had she perhaps taken over a body? Alex did not believe so. There was something more mystical happening here that he could not place his finger upon.

'More than a Spirit,' Alex thought, not understanding the information hidden within those words. What was more than a Spirit? A Soul maybe?

"Tell me, young man," the woman asked. "Why did you come here? Was it not to meet me?"

"My apologies, senior, but I did not know about you before I came here. I had come here because my disciple wanted to go to the top of the mountain and look down at the continent from the top," Alex said. "That is all the reason I came here for."

The woman seemed disappointed at that answer. "I had hoped you had come for me. Someone who knew I existed, but alas I seem to be mistaken."

Alex didn't know what to say to that. He could only change the topic. "If you wish for me to return, I will," he said.

"No," the woman said. "You've already come this far. There is no point in stopping now. Besides, I wish to learn more about you. Maybe, I will find a friend in you."

Alex wasn't sure what to say except nod his head. "Would you like to go to the top right now, or do you wish to walk there?" the woman asked.

"We will walk, senior," Alex said. "My disciple probably wants to experience walking to the top."

"Your disciple is…"

"Her," Alex said, pointing to Momo.

"Oh, if she wants to experience walking to the top, then maybe she should get off his shoulders and walk on her own feet.

"Yes, but she can get lost that way with the mist—"

"The mist won't affect her," the woman said resolutely. "I won't misguide her anymore. Any of you four."

She turned around. "Come, let us go to the peak."