Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

The fingernail-sized Origin, currently swirling with its own energy, suddenly flickered when it was given its command.

It wobbled, the spherical shape of it no longer stable, and the entire thing began appearing as though it was falling apart. Like a perfectly solved picture puzzle separating half and half, the Origin extracted half of itself from its remaining half.

It was impossible to say which part of the Origin considered itself the real one and which one was the separated one. Perhaps both were the real one, and neither was at the same time.

As Alex watched the two Origins separate, he could feel this happening in his mind as well. The power that was one was now two, each containing exactly half of the other.

Alex felt each of the Origins to the best of his ability, and despite the fact that they didn't have any aura, he could tell that each of the two Origins was, in fact, separate and not the same.

Provenance Duality: Replication was a technique that allowed the Origin to separate into two. But when it did, it was still the same Origin that broke in half, both of which would still be the same as the whole.

But this was different. Here, Alex had changed it. For better or for worse, his Origin could no longer duplicate itself. Instead, he replaced that part with something else.

Provenance Duality: Transformation allowed an Origin to be two different Origins while in the same place, with one being the face of it at all times.

Alex took that property from the Transformation technique and applied it to the Replication technique to form this new technique.

Now, instead of one Origin becoming two of itself, he could make the different facets of the Origin split off into becoming themselves separately.

It took away the downsides of both techniques at once. Unlike Replication, he no longer needed to choose whether or not he wanted Sun or Sword. And unlike Transformation, he could have both Sword and Sun at the same time.

The currently divided Origin, until he gave the command to change, would remain divided. That was perhaps the most important advancement he had made when combining the two techniques.

This meant he now had two distinct Origins.

Alex felt delight in his achievement. Sure, there was a downside to the changes he had made when combining the two techniques, like losing the ability to duplicate his Creations, but he found that acceptable.

After all, it allowed him to use two separate Creations at the same time. He was sure everyone would agree with him as well.

Alex was looking at the two different Origins before him, both now half the size they were when combined, when a thought came to him. He paused for a moment, his mind scouring all his knowledge regarding his understanding of the new technique to see if there was a flaw in his reasoning.

Even as he tried, he couldn't find any. And so, just to check, he quickly left his Spiritual Sea.

Arriving outside, Alex felt the slightest hint of discomfort in his mind, like an itch deep within his bones that couldn't be scratched. It was something he would have to live with.

The discomfort came from the separated Origins. While they could remain separate, his body did not like it much. It protested. It wanted him to put them back together.

Alex's meridians were sore from cultivating for the past week, so he needed to take a break. But he couldn't bring himself to do anything else during that time, so he studied his Origins as well as he could.

He let the Origins snap back into one and then pulled them apart multiple times to get the hang of it. When together, he could choose which face would be at the front.

He also didn't mind the discomfort as much once he got used to it. It took a few days, but he was okay with it afterward. Maybe it would continue to grow, maybe it wouldn't. Only time would tell.

For now, his meridians had returned to normal, and he could begin his cultivation session once more.

Before starting his cultivation, Alex split his Origin into two. That was important. Then, he began cultivating. The entire time he cultivated, he looked forward to when he was done.

Alex was feeling impatient for the first time in a long while. He waited until the end of the cultivation session, and as soon as he was done, he went back into his Spiritual Sea to see what was happening.

He flew up to his Origins, two separate blobs of light floating next to each other. They were smaller than a fingernail this time around, but that was only because they were two, and his energy wasn't enough to increase their size much.

Alex ignored that. That wasn't why he had come here. Instead, he connected to his two Origins with his physical body and focused on the one on the left.

He took a deep breath and gave the command.

"Divide!"

The Origin on the left wobbled and pulled itself apart, slowly turning into two smaller Origins.

Alex felt his breath catch in his chest. He looked to the Origin on the right and gave the same command.

"Divide!"

Just as with the one before, this one separated as well, turning into two different Origins.

Alex gasped and slowly moved backward, looking at the entire scene from a wider perspective.

Because he had cultivated the new technique while having the Origins separated, his energy had now treated his two separated Origins as individual ones. And thus, they were now both affected by it and capable of separating.

Alex looked at the four Origins that hovered in front of him, each an exact duplicate of the other visually, but internally completely different.

It was no different than having four separate Origins inside of him.

He froze in shock for a long while before finally coming back to himself. Only then did he wonder, what was he going to do with four Origins?

And the next question came organically.

"And can I separate them even further?"

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