1543 Switched Trade

Alex was speechless for a moment. What was he to do here?

"Is this what your second trade is?" the Dragon Emperor asked. "I can't accept that. I already know of the mushrooms. There's nothing for me to gain here."

Alex still didn't know what to say. His first trade was supposed to be the recipes that could help the Emperor make better pills altogether. His second trade was to be the mushrooms. 

The third one he had planned on was the Immortal pill-forming technique he no longer used, and finally, in the end, he would hand over the Pill Splitting Qi technique. Since so many of his own alchemists already had it, he didn't think it was such a bad idea to hand it over.

It was incredibly difficult to learn anyway, with complexities that would take a regular saint decades to learn.

Still, now he was stuck on a problem and couldn't help but wonder if the next two were going to become the same.

"I'm… kinda in a stump now. I don't know what to do," Alex said. He worried now. Would he die? Would the oath work backward to punish him for not fulfilling his side of the trade?

After a bit of consideration, he came to the conclusion that he would only die after the 20-year period was over. He still had 14 more years to go. Surely he could come up with something else to give the man, right?

'Dammit!' he thought. Had he provided the mushroom and was refused by the Emperor, he could have gotten away with it. But since he had already accepted what he was given and couldn't return it, Alex was forced to bring up something.

For a moment, he even thought of the later trades that he could pull up. But that wouldn't help him. He needed 4 total trades nonetheless.

'Could it work if I give back the Dragon Medallion?' Alex wondered there. 'No, of course not. I can only give items related to improving his alchemy potential.'

His mind was truly running in many directions to try and overcome this problem. In the end, he had to give up as nothing of worth came up.

"You really use the mushrooms every day, huh?" Alex asked the man, disappointed.

"Whenever I require it," the Dragon Emperor said. "So what happens now? What do you give me?" 

"Honestly, I do not know," Alex said. "That Mushroom was what I intended to give you this time around. I think I'll have to use the third thing I was preparing here and try to come up with something in the next 6 years."

"I hope you can," the Dragon Emperor said. "Because I've already paid for two."

Alex nodded. He looked through his storage ring, searching for an empty talisman paper. As he hadn't prepared this beforehand, he had to do it now.

Profound Revolution of Myriad Combination. That was what he was going to give away.

He started writing on the talisman paper, and the Dragon Emperor sat there, watching him. He looked curious as to what he was going to be given.

"This isn't something I already know too, is it?" he asked. 

"Uhh… I hope not," Alex said with a bit of a nervous laugh before handing it over to him. The Dragon Emperor took it and read it for a bit before frowning a little.

Alex worried that he had failed again but then the man spoke up. "Is this a pill-forming technique?" he asked.

"It is," Alex said.

"I have my own pill-forming techniques," the Dragon Emperor said. "But it seems this one capitalizes on my knowledge of the details of what goes into making a pill. The sub-components that are never truly seen by anyone."

"So you accept it?" Alex asked hesitantly.

"Hmm? Yes. It is better than what I use," the Dragon Emperor said. "And it seems I don't have to strain myself for each pill."

The Emperor seemed interested in the technique and continued reading through it, trying to learn for a while. Alex sat there, watching him read. At the same time, he tried to see what else he could give away.

The only other thing he could give away was the Supreme Elemental Accord technique, and that was the main thing he had going for himself. He didn't want to give it away.

The Dragon Emperor put down the talisman after a few minutes. "It's truly quite good," he said. "Mind if I ask how you came across this?"

"The senior in the Central continent," Alex told him. It was technically true too. After all, it had come down in a meteor shower, along with the senior.

"Makes sense," the Dragon Emperor said, pocketing the technique. "This is good. You were keeping this for the third trade I assume?" 

"Yes," Alex said. 

"I see," he said. "It's a shame you chose the mushrooms for the second one. Now you'll have to come up with something else."

"Well, I don't think anything else matters if you manage to form Pill Clouds with what I've given, correct?" Alex asked.

"In a way," the Dragon Emperor said. "But according to the oath, you still have to offer me everything you can."

"I know," Alex said. "And I will."

"I'm curious though, why you chose the mushrooms," the Dragon Emperor said. "I can't see how that helps me at all."

"I mean, it does," Alex said. "I can't form pill clouds nowadays if I can use the mushrooms." If he was in a hurry and didn't have the time to improve the energy of his ingredients, Alex always fell back on the mushrooms.

"What?" the Dragon Emperor asked, surprised. "How can that be?"

"It just is," Alex said. He wanted to change topics to the Ivory Kingdom, but the Dragon Emperor didn't let him.

"The Mushroom is just a substitute for when an ingredient is lacking in amount," the Dragon Emperor said. "How could it possibly help, when you can do the same with the real ingredient."

Alex paused for a moment. "What?" he asked. "What do you mean?"

"World Defying Mushrooms," the Dragon Emperor said. "You use it when you're lacking an ingredient, right? For rare ingredients when you need a lot, you duplicate the ingredient with the mushrooms," the man said. "Half the time, it barely helps me get to 90%."

Alex didn't speak for a long moment before speaking again. "So… let me get this straight, you use the mushrooms to replicate an ingredient," he asked.

"Yes," the Dragon Emperor said. "Why do you act like that isn't normal?"

"Because…" Alex stopped himself from speaking the rest. He was smiling on the inside, happy even. He was excited to learn that the Emperor, and most likely everyone on the continent, had been using the mushroom the wrong way this entire time.

"Why are you smug?" the Dragon Emperor asked. He could see through some of Alex's emotions.

"I'm not smug," Alex said. "Just jubilated. I am happy to learn that I know what my third trade to you is going to be."

The Dragon Emperor was no idiot. "The Mushrooms?" he asked.

Alex nodded. "Let's keep that talk for 6 years later though," he said. "I don't want to give away any more information right now."