1043 Accusation

Alex looked at Harry with a strange expression on his face. "You know about Combinations and Structure?" he asked.

"I've known it for a long time," Harry said. "I know you have to have knowledge of it to progress in your pill's harmony level. But no matter how much I try, I just can't seem to use what I learn in my pills."

"I've tried following the rules when making the pills, but they never take effect," Harry said.

"Hmm, is this a common knowledge here? Does everyone know about it?" Alex asked.

"No, as far as I am aware, only I know of this. I got an alchemy book in my treasure box when I joined the game and have made use of it since then," Harry said.

"I see," Alex said. "I wouldn't mind teaching you, but I don't think I can do it so soon. How about the weekends? You must be free then too right? I can teach you a bit around that time."

Harry got happy. "Thank you," he said and walked away.

Alex returned back to his room thinking about how he was going to teach Harry. He didn't mind teaching him obviously, but he also didn't want him to know that he knew way too much.

"I'll have to do it in moderation," he thought and got into his room.

Once inside, he focused the rest of the day and night on cultivation. While he was cultivating, Whisker would be to the side making pills all night.

Alex still hadn't received his money yet. That would happen at the end of the week when everything was calculated and everyone was given their share of the profit.

When that happened, Alex thought of getting the ingredients for the cultivation pill again. However, he couldn't make the pill here at all. In which case, he would have to take a month or two leave to go out into the sea where no one could witness the lightning that came with making pill veins.

Alex got up early next morning and went to check on Whisker. He had been making steady progress in all the pills and was getting closer and closer to making True rank pills that consistently reached over 60%.

Since Alex hadn't taught him the Supreme Elemental Accord technique, which he couldn't even learn due to his lack of 7 elemental spiritual roots, he was in fact working with normal ingredients. So, reaching 60% was already doing way better than most of the alchemists that would be of his cultivation base.

If one were to add age to the equation, Whisker would be one of the most talented alchemists under the age of 25. When added in the fact that he was a beast, it would be hard to argue that he wasn't amazing.

"Well, he did learn from me," Alex thought to himself and quietly laughed.

Once he was done judging Whisker's progress with Alchemy, he took Whisker and went toward the pill making building.

As he was going there, he felt a talisman buzz in his storage ring. He quickly pulled it out.

The talisman was a communication talisman given to him by the leader of the association just in case Alex ever wanted to ask something. At the same time, it was also a two way talisman, so Alex was the one receiving a message.

Alex quickly read it and put on a confused look. "Why outside?" he wondered and started walking towards the front of the association, outside of the gate.

There was already a crowd there, so Alex wonder what it could have been about that the leader wanted him to come out. 'Do the people want to see what I look like?' he wondered.

He walked up to the crowd and immediately someone shouted out loud. "That's him, that's the bastard!"

Alex looked towards where the voice came from and realized what the problem was. "I see, so its you," he said when he saw the man standing in the middle of the crowd.

The family head of the Huang family had come all the way to the city of Many Flowers after learning about Alex.

"That's really him? I wouldn't have thought the new alchemist would be such a criminal."

"I wonder how someone like him can be that good."

"He must have stolen the knowledge from someone else as well."

The various people in the crowd, especially ones that were jealous of Alex and would love nothing but to see his downfall started voicing their opinions.

"Young man, he is accusing you of stealing and running, is that true," the association leader asked.

"Uh... kind of," Alex said. "He's not lying, but he isn't telling you the whole thing. You should wait a bit before you make any judgment."

He walked towards the family head. "So, what can I do for you, brother Huang?" he asked.

"Bastard! I am here today to get back my justice," the family head shouted. At the same time, a few of the people from the Huang family moved up front together to threaten Alex.

However, to Alex's eyes, they were simply too weak to be of any threat to him.

"Justice, you say? May I ask you to clarify?" Alex said.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about. Just because you changed your name doesn't mean your crime washes away as well," the family head said. "Listen up everyone, this man promised to make me pills to help my cultivation. He asked me to buy him many ingredients. When I did, he made me a single pill."

"I took the pill and went to cultivate, but when I returned, he had already beaten up my man that was standing guard and had run away with not just the ingredients but even my cauldron I had lent him."

"He stole so much from me, I demand that we punish him for it. At the very least, we must cripple him," the family head said furiously.

"Yeah, we must cripple him."

"Punish him!"

A few people started shouting in the crowd. However, there were more people that didn't think with their emotions.

"Isn't crippling too intense?"

"We can't cripple such an amazing alchemist. That would be a crime against humanity."

"I'm sure sir alchemist can make the pills for senior, or just pay back what he stole with some added interest as punishment."

Alex remained quiet as he heard everyone speak. He wanted to see just how far the family head would go. And as expected, the family head did start speaking again.

"Friends, you don't need to worry about losing a valuable asset to humanity. The valuable asset isn't him, but rather his recipes that he uses to make the pills. As long as we have those recipes, any of the alchemists here can reach the same level as him," the family head said.

The people were persuaded a little by his words. They started thinking of Alex as not someone valuable but rather someone holding something of value.

Still, they believed crippling someone like Alex was going a bit too far.

The association leader stepped forward and everyone calmed down. "Brother Huang, I'm afraid you are wrong with your words there," he said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" he asked.

"An alchemist doesn't suddenly get better just because he has a good recipe. There are a lot of factors involved when making a pill. Even I doubt I can make any pill reach the same height as young Alex here can even if you give me the recipe," he said. "I'm sure the recipe helps him a lot, but that's not the only thing."

"What? No way, but he said..." the family head looked at Alex. "Bastard, I can't believe you lied to me regarding that too. Either way, it doesn't matter. I demand justice."

"Sigh, what do you have to say about this, young man," the leader asked. Everyone turned to look at Alex.

"Well, first of all, I would like the family head to say everything that happened back then, not just the part that fit his narrative," Alex said. "Please stop holding back information. Since you want justice, you have to tell people everything that has happened."

"What? I have nothing more to say," the family head said.

"So you are not going to say everything?" Alex asked. "Then let me tell everyone exactly what happened."

He looked at the crowd. "This man gifted me a cauldron so that I would come to his house. I did not steal the cauldron. I accepted his request and went to his house to make him some pills, which I did."

"I made him one pill to show him that I could. However, he wasn't there for the pill. He was there for my recipe. When I made the pill, he imprisoned me and told me that the only way to get out would be to sell him the recipe, which I obviously refused."

"He left to give me time to think, but I didn't need to. I beat up the person that standing guard and stole what he had on him. I must say I was incredibly poor at the time, so I needed that money."

"After that, I left the city and never saw him again until today. If you think fighting back against someone that tries to imprison you is deserving of punishment, then go ahead, punish me," Alex said.

The crowd quietened down.

"He's lying," the family head said. "Don't listen to him."

"Am I?" Alex asked. "Then prove it. Make an oath saying that every word that came out of your mouth was the truth. I will do the same as well. Do you agree?"