1056 Making the Pills
“Die? What do you mean?” Alex asked.
“Nothing, you don’t have to worry about it,” the old woman said and kept on flying.
Alex was curious but he didn’t ask any further as it didn’t look like she was going to answer at all. He looked away from the old woman and towards everything around him. He saw the metal dome again and wondered why Scarlet wasn’t here yet.
He could sense her somewhere to the northeast vaguely, but that was about it.
They returned back to the palace where the old woman was handed the list of pills Alex was supposed to make.
“Let me add the pills I need in here and we will start grabbing the ingredients,” Yao Ning said. “You can go rest in your room in the meanwhile. Jianhong, show the young man his room.”
“Come.” Jianhong took Alex through the outer halls of the palace until they reached a guest room. The room was extravagant with golden pills and designs all around, with beds the size of actual rooms, and furniture which seemed to cost a fortune.
“This is the guest room. We will either have to make some changes to this place so you can make pills, or you will have to go out to an Alchemy shop where they have pill-making rooms. What do you think?” they asked.
“I will take your offer to have it built here. I won’t have to lose focus on different things by having to move in and out just to try something,” Alex said.
“Sure, we will have it done tomorrow morning,” the man said. “You should rest for now.”
“Senior!” Alex called him out quickly.
“Hmm?” the man turned around. “What is it?”
“It’s about my payment,” Alex said.
“Don’t worry about your payment. We will pay you generously. Whatever harmony you get on your pill, we will pay you that many thousand True spirit stones, maybe even Saint Spirit stones itself if that is what you want,” the old man said.
“Thank you, but I wanted to talk about something else,” Alex said. “I was wondering if I could get paid back with help.”
“A help? What sort?” the old man asked.
“I have a person that I’m looking for in the Southern Continent. He was supposed to have come to the Wastelands, but I couldn’t find him there, which meant that he had most likely come here, but I can’t seem to find him at all. I have been looking for him with the help of the Alchemy Association, but no one can find him at all,” Alex said. “I was hoping you could use some of your influence to help search for him.”
“I don’t see how we can be of any additional help if the Alchemy Association is already helping you with it,” the old man said.
“I’m sure you will be,” Alex said. “The problem is I suspect they are not giving it their all to find the person.”
“Not giving it their all?” the old man asked. “What makes you say that?”
“Nothing, it’s just a suspicion because it’s been 6 months and they still haven’t found him. I suspect that they are not giving their all in hope that they can keep me there longer. I hope I’m wrong, but I can’t just place all my hopes on them. I need help from elsewhere as well,” Alex said.
“Hmm, so you worry that they aren’t doing what you’re asking them to do, or worse hiding the truth from you,” the old man said. “Who exactly are you looking for?”
Alex hesitated a bit before sighing and revealing the truth. “I’m looking for my father,” he said. “Just like me, he was a player too.”
“Ah, your father,” the old man finally realized why Alex was so worried. “Okay, give me as much information as you can, I will try something.”
“Thank you, senior,” Alex said. “I promise to not take a single spirit stone now that you are doing this for me.”
“Nonsense, that’s just added bonus. You will still get paid,” the old man said. “Stop worrying and just rest for now. You should have a clear mind before you start making pills.”
“Yes,” Alex said and retreated into his room. The old man left, and Alex sat on the bed alone as he wondered about his father again.
Dark thoughts appeared in his mind, and while usually, he would be quite worried he was thinking like that, he was reaching a point where he had just expected that to be the truth.
He kept his hopes high, but his expectations were at an all-time low.
“I should really just rest,” Alex thought and started cultivating. There was nothing else to do for the entire night.
The next morning a few of the 10 came along with other cultivators to help build formations and pits for where Alex was going to make his pills.
Alex watched as they worked in less than an hour and finished everything. Most of the work was something he could’ve done himself, but there was no way he could have done it this quickly.
“Here,” the old woman Yao Ning handed him a talisman. “These are all the pills we need. And here are the ingredients. Please go from the top when making pills. Those are the ones we need urgently. As for the rest, you can take your time with it.”
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He could make some for them, but when he thought about the pill cloud, the questions, and the possible greed that would show up from it, he thought it better to stay in his hands and make pills that were less than 100% harmonious.
The group that had come left him alone, so he started working. With the ingredients, he had to spend quite a lot of time improving them so he could waste no time.
It took him the whole day to improve the ingredients and once he was done, he was all out of Qi. One of the 10 came to check on his progress and was disappointed to learn that Alex hadn’t even started making the pill, but after hearing his assurance that he would hand over the urgent pills within the week, they returned without any remark.
Alex took out one of the pills from his storage ring and ate it. It was the pill for improving his cultivation and he ate it for the moment.
He wouldn’t be able to do anything else for the next 2 days, but he was okay with that. In the meanwhile, he left Whisker to go and practice making pills in his stead.
For the next two days Alex cultivated as well as he could, and after the pill’s effect wore off, he finally stopped and went on to start making the pills for the council members.
Alex made 2 pills at a time, making a small mistake here and there so they wouldn’t reach 100%. Each pill came out to be around 95% and he was happy with that.
He spent the entire day making nearly 40 such pills with a lot of breaks in between. He was also mentally fatigued by the end and needed to take a break. Once he could no longer continue, he took the pills he made and went to find one of the council members.
“Senior Kang!” He met Kang Xuefeng first so he called him.
“Hmm? Do you need something, young man?” the man asked.
“Oh, I made some of the pills you requested. Should I hand them over to you, or?” he asked.
“You are done with some pills? Did they come out good?” he asked.
“Yes, they are all in the 90% and above range,” Alex said. “Do you want to check?”
“I would like to check, yes,” the old man said and took the storage bag. He checked the pills and was surprised to see that there were 40 different pills in there.
“Wait, you made 40 pills in just 4 days? And they are all over 90% in harmony? How?” he couldn’t help but ask. “You must be very tired from working endlessly. You should go and get rested, you can leave the pills with me. I will distribute them.”
“Thank you, senior,” Alex said. “Is it okay if I go out to the city for a bit?”
“Um, sure? I don’t see why you have to ask,” the old man said.
“Huh? Oh, I didn’t know if you wanted me to stay in here until I’ve finished making the pills or something,” Alex quickly said. He shook his head in slightly hidden frustration.
He had been forced to make pills without being able to go anywhere in the presence of stronger folks that he forgot he was free for a moment.
“I will go out for a while then, please pass those pills along to the rest of the seniors,” Alex said and walked out of the palace.
It was already evening time, so he needed to be quick. The place he was going to go most likely still functioned even at night, but he wanted to be careful and go there while he was certain it would still be open.
“If I remember correctly, it’s on the other side of the dome isn’t it?” Alex thought as he remembered back to the various places he had gone to in the city and started flying in that direction.