1055 The City

"This is something our Jade Fire sect most likely salvaged from the Sundering Sanctum as well," Lei Zhong said as he brought out a simple piece of paper. Just like Tan Yang's paper, this listed down a recipe too, only this had half a recipe.

There were 6 ingredients on the list and was halfway cut before anything else could be told. However, it did have a name at the top and exactly what the pill did.

Water Elemental Enhancement pill - Improves one's Water Spiritual root.

"Woah," Alex couldn't help but say when he saw the pill.

"Brother Lei, you never told us you had a pill recipe like that," Liang Shufen said.

"I didn't find the need to," Lei Zhong said. "After all, this was half the recipe and that was useless on its own."

The others nodded since they understood that without Alex they wouldn't have brought up the recipe either.

"Do you think you can do it?" Lei Zhong turned to Alex and asked excitedly.

Alex frowned a little. "I'm not sure," he said with a hesitating voice. "I've never made a pill like this before after all. I will try my best to come up with the rest of the recipe, but please don't expect me to complete it."

"No, no, it's fine if you can't do it. I am asking a lot after all," Lei Zhong said. "Just try your best and see where you go. Do focus on the other pills though, as they are definitely a priority."

"I will," Alex said.

"Let us make a list of the pills we will be needing then," Qiu Jianhong said. "Sister Yao, can you take our young friend out for a while so we can discuss this?"

Yao Ning's eyes drifted toward Huang Chen for a moment and she nodded. "Yes, it will be easier if he's out," she said. "Come, young man. Let me show you around the city."

Alex nodded and walked out with her. Along the way, he wondered how he could help them with the pills.

The lightning pill would be easy and would only take a day or two to completely fix the recipe, but the rest would be hard.

The Dao pill would certainly take a long time to figure out and finding out the rest of the ingredients for the water pill would be hard as well.

'Can I help them with the Earth pill too?' he wondered. Certainly, he could try something with it, whether it was using pill veins or other methods.

"Are you thinking about the pills?" the old woman asked.

"Sorry? Ah, yes. It's hard not to think about them when I've been asked to make such unique pills," Alex said.

"Ah, sorry about that. We should have considered whether you could or not before placing it all on you," the old woman said.

"Oh, no no, I wasn't complaining," Alex quickly said. "I was merely stating what was in my mind. I do love a good challenge, and these few pills you guys have asked me to make are anything but."

"Well, as long as you are not overwhelmed, we are happy," the old woman said. "Focus on the pills you can make for now, and leave the rest for later. You can take as many years as you can for the rest. We're not going anywhere for another thousand years at least."

Alex nodded. They walked out to the city with wide roads with people walking through it as if it were a busy day.

The people stopped to greet the old woman, and from that Alex realized that the old woman frequently went around the city talking with people.

"You like to go around and meddle with the mortals a lot?" Alex asked.

"It's not just me, every one of us does that," the old woman said. "Aside from cultivating, there's not much to do here anyway."

"What about going back to your family and friends? Even though it has been a while, I'm sure there are some still around, are they not?" he asked.

"No, I'm an old woman and I was one of the better cultivators, so everyone who I've known is dead by now," she said. "It's not just me either, most of us have no one close to going back to, so we choose to just stay here."

"You don't think of going back to your family to help them improve?" Alex asked. "Or maybe stay as their guardian?"

"I sometimes have those fleeting thoughts, but they disappear as quickly as they come. Even if I did want to, I am no longer capable of going that anyway," she said.

"Huh? Why not?" Alex asked.

"Because of our oath," the old woman said. "The 10 of us made an oath which forces us to stay in this city and cannot leave for anything unless the majority of us can agree that what we are leaving for is a good cause."

"So you can't just leave because you want to? Did you have to consult before senior Qiu went to get me today?" he asked.

"Of course," the old woman said. "And that was one of the things we all agreed was necessary for us. Speaking of which, come, let me take you to register your aura into our formation's memory so you can teleport in and out without worry."

The two continued walking through the streets, but the woman had certainly taken a turn. After a while, they were forced to fly as it turned out where they were going was on the other side of the 50 kilometers wide metal dome that was the real Sunborn Sanctuary.

Flying so close to the metal dome, Alex finally saw the dome clearly. He hadn't paid attention to it previously, but now he did.

"Is that… supposed to represent a Sun?" Alex asked.

"Of course," the old woman said. "Most of the things you will find here are all about suns and fire. They don't call it the Sunborn Sanctuary for no reason."

Alex looked up at the sky towards the sun and then back down at the dome. "How old is this thing exactly?" he asked.

"The dome? Who knows? They say it's been here since the phoenix first came to rule us, however long ago that was," she said.

'90 thousand years ago,' Alex thought and looked at the dome again.

He tried to view inside, but the metal dome was solid enough to stop him from seeing anything, not even Qi. As for his spirit, he did not dare use it for fear of angering the many phoenixes and phoenix descendants that may be inside.

So, he wordlessly made his way toward the other side of the dome. When he crossed it, he came face to face with something he should have known would be here, but never expected to see it.

The Intercontinental Teleportation formation.

"That's the Intercontinental Teleportation formation, right?" he asked just to make sure.

"Yes, that is it. How do you know about it?" the old woman asked. "We try to keep it a secret if possible."

"I learned about them back in the Western continent. They say there was one there in the past, but there isn't anymore," Alex said.

"Jianhong did tell us a bit about your origin. Is the history easily accessible for anyone to read in the other continent?" the old woman asked. "Does it call us monsters?"

Alex looked towards her and thought he saw a face of regret. "It's not simple information you can just learn," he said. "I had to learn it myself from whatever remained of the White Tiger's legacy. They said that the Intercontinental teleportation was one of the things that were destroyed and taken as resources during the war."

"That's true alright. The Dragon Emperor did not leave anything behind at all," the old woman said.

"Since it's not there, I suppose sending me back using the teleportation formation isn't possible either?" he asked.

"It's not," the old woman said. "We wouldn't know how to without a location to send you. You would need the same formation masters that created these, but many say those were immortals of the heaven, so I don't think we ourselves can do it."

"I guessed that," Alex said. There were many other teleportation formations there as well, all of which lead to different cities in the Southern Continent.

The old woman made Alex insert his Qi into a formation so that it could be recorded. Using this Qi, if he ever did go into the Wasteland, he could now come back through the mountain, passing through the barrier as well.

Once they were done, the woman insisted on taking Alex on a tour of the rest of the city which he accepted.

Along the way, he saw the community that had formed in this small self-contained city. There was minimum outsider influence, and while it didn't fully develop, it managed to remain quite peaceful.

Alex visited the many shops, saw the many landmarks, and met the fantastic people of the city.

After that, the two of them flew back toward the palace so Alex could start making pills for them.

As they flew, Alex remembered everything they talked about today and wondered something. "Senior, the oath that you made, did you leave a condition too?" he asked.

He remembered the others asking him if he left a condition or not. He wanted to learn if they were speaking out of knowledge or experience.

"We did, of course," the woman said.

"Oh, what was it?" Alex asked.

The woman smiled. "I'm sorry, but that's part of the oath itself," she said. "but, I suspect that the day our Oath does end will be our last."