1922 Bai Wanzhao

Alex was more than a little surprised when the house he was brought to turned out to belong to the 2nd highest-ranking disciple of the whole sect. Even from the outside, the courtyard was much larger and much better looking, not different from a small palace.

There was a small garden at the front with aromatic flowers blooming on every plant and a tiny pond at the side with a few golden fish swimming within it.

A man walked out from inside, one whom Alex had seen in the Poison Assembly before, but always from far away. He wore an almost pure blue robe with just a hint of green toward the top, meant to show just how close he was to being at the very top.

This man was the 2nd highest-ranking disciple of the sect, Bai Wanzhao.

He had blue eyes dark brown hair, and a look that made Alex feel that he needed to be on his toes around this person.

As for his aura, he was strong, but surprisingly not that strong. If Alex wasn't wrong, he was either in the Immortal Origin 3rd realm or 4th realm. While that was quite a high cultivation base, there were plenty of disciples that had a higher cultivation base.

Even Liao Xumei was stronger than him.

'He must have trained the physique to quite a high level,' Alex thought.

Bai Wanzhao stopped at the gates of his house and looked at Alex. "Are you the Alchemist?" he asked.

"I am, senior," Alex answered.

"Junior sister Liao has spoken flattering words about your pill-making skills. I hope you live up to them. Follow me."

The man turned around and walked inside.

Liao Xumei quickly followed in and Alex was only a step later.

The inside of the house was quite magnificent as well. While there were no decorations, they were still well maintained and appeared to be made out of more expensive materials compared to where Alex was staying.

Bai Wanzhao took them to a room with a couch where he sat and asked the other two to sit as well. Once Alex sat down, he felt a sort of barrier ripple into existence around the three, which Alex locked onto as a concealment barrier.

"Alright, here is the deal. I need a pill that can save me from the Nether Ice Immortal poison. Can you make me one?" the man asked.

"Nether Ice Immortal poison?"

Liao Xumei seemed surprised to hear that. "You're trying out that poison already?" she asked.

The Nether Ice Immortal poison was a poison that was ranked 331 among the many poisons that were available in the ranking of poisons, which struck Alex as odd since the highest ranking disciple, the woman named Hei Tingxie, had only just consumed the poison that ranked just before it.

Was this man trying to beat her and get the 1st ranking? But then, it was already too late for that this year.

"I have to. I thought I had gotten ahead of her, but Tingxie ended up beating me too. So now I have to beat her." The man seemed quite determined.

"Is there a recipe I can use, senior brother Bai?" Alex asked.

"I do have it," the man said and pulled out a talisman, before handing it over to Alex.

Alex took the talisman and looked through it once. Without even knowing much about the poison or the pill, he could tell that the recipe wasn't the best. He could make a lot of improvements to it certainly.

Other than that, there was no issue. "I can do this," Alex said. "I will need 2 sets of ingredients."

"I only have one. I heard you're quite good; make it with one."

Alex frowned a little and looked back at the recipe. He could make one… but the pill certainly wouldn't be good since he would have to fully follow the recipe with no chance of experimenting with it beforehand.

"Brother Bai, that's ridiculous," Liao Xumei spoke up. "How is junior brother Dawnblade supposed to make a pill with just a single set of ingredients? Even experienced Alchemists will ask for2sets at least,3if they haven't made the pill before."

"But I don't have the ingredients, and I can't go out to buy one just now," the man said.

"I can do it after you get the ingredients, brother Bai. There is no need to rush," Alex said. "I can make better pills if you give me the time after all."

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea," Liao Xumei added.

"No, that won't work for me," Bai Wanzhao said. "I need the pill in less than 3 hours from now."

"Huh?"

"3 hours?"

Both Alex and Liao Xumei were surprised by the lack of time.

"Can you do it or not?" the man asked.

Alex thought for a bit. "Here's the thing, brother Bai. The pill can only be as good as the recipe is, and since I've never made this pill before, the chances of me making the perfect pill according to the recipe are impossible. So, with a single set of ingredients, you will have to make do with whatever Iend up making."

The man nodded. "I don't have much of a choice anyway. If I want to rank first,I'll have todo it in the next 3 hours."

'First?' Alex wondered what the man meant by that. The Poison Assembly wasalreadyover, so the rankings should havebeen set. Did he have some way? Perhaps he knew something that Alex didn't.

"When can you start?" the man asked.

"If you're fine with taking a risk, I can startright away," Alex said. "May we talk about my compensation?"

"I'm toldyou don't take much," the man said.

"That is when I get more ingredients to train with," Alex answered.

"Won't getting a new pill recipe count toward that?" the man asked. "Or maybe the fact that you can improve your reputation by saying you made a pill for me. I have quite the reach in the sectandI don't doubt you need reachat the moment."

"I need Spirit Stones, senior. Or Contribution points, whichever one you're more comfortable with," Alex said.

"20 Spirit stones. I'll pay that because I'm ina bit ofa bind," the man said.

Alex thought for a bit, considering how much work he had to put into what hewas going todo. Given that he didn't need to do anything with the recipe, that was plenty in his mind.

"I can work with that." Alex stood up from his chair. "Can you show me to your alchemy room?"

"This way."

Alex followed Bai Wanzhao and arrived at another roomclosebywhere Alex found a room with better resources for Alchemy.There were more formationsandtheywere even drawnbetter.

High-ranking disciples truly got quite the number of features compared to ordinary disciples. Alex wished for nothing more than to rank up quickly enough.

'Not rank up; I need to work toward leaving this place soon,' Alex thought.

"I can start working now."

Alex let the two other disciples leave him alone and got to work.