1972 First Day

Alex finally opened his Alchemy shop and named it the Dawn Apothecary Store. It was a two-room store with glass doors leading to a large waiting room and a smaller room at the back for checking on patients.

The entire room was mostly white with some yellow all around and had a plaque on the top where it confirmed that Alex was a Superior Immortal Alchemist and a Superior Immortal Physician.

Alex had bought furniture to place around the room and other important materials that were legally required for him by the city's laws.

He read through all of it so that he didn't accidentally do something wrong that would get his store closed or worse, his license revoked.

At the front of the shop was a sign posted on the side that mentioned two things.

The first was that Alex guaranteed 80% or higher Harmony on any pill that was listed below. If not, he would give the person a 100% refund.

And then on another sign, it said that the first 100 customers that came to the shop would get 50% off on all pills and checkups.

After that, all he had to do was wait.

Fang Yuxie stayed in the store with him, working as his receptionist. She had nothing better to do and had the knowledge required to work as one as she had often worked in her family's store back when her parents were still alive.

"No one is coming," Alex commented, looking up from the book he was reading. He was trying to gain more knowledge about injuries, diseases, and the like.

"Give it some time," Fang Yuxie said, cultivating. "People won't magically start coming. It will take some time."

Alex sighed and nodded. He could only wait.

After half a day passed by, the first customer walked in. It was a group of young men, each one looking around the shop with a doubtful look on their faces.

They were all in the Saint realm, seemingly part of the same sect, the robes of which Alex didn't recognize. He knew what the two major sects wore in this city, so these people weren't from those.

As soon as they saw Immortals inside the room, they quickly bowed.

"Are we late, senior?" one of them asked.

"For?" Alex asked.

"First 100 people. Did we miss it?" one of the other ones asked.

"No, you are included in that," Alex said. He looked at the 6 people that had walked in. "All of you, if you wish to buy something."

The answer excited them.

"Do you sell these pills?" one of them asked, giving Alex a talisman with a full list.

Alex looked at the pill names and nodded. "I sell these," he said. "What do the rest of you want?"

Each one of them began bringing out a talisman of their own, or just naming the few pills they wanted. Two of them also brought out ingredients for Alex to make the pills with those.

Alex took a moment to look through all of the names and checked his inventory inside his Soul Space. He had most of the pills, except a few ones which he needed to make.

"Give me half an hour, I'll get these all ready," Alex said.

The Saints nodded excitedly and one of them asked, "What about the price?"

"I'll tell you the prince," Fang Yuxie said and let Alex leave to the back where he was going to be making the pills as quickly as he could.

Without any wait, he brought out Memory and began making the Saint pills. By now, the Saint Pills were so easy to make that he could make them in his sleep.

He threw in the ingredients one after another, quickly extracting the energy from them to reach with the rest of the energy in the cauldron.

After a few minutes, he turned the powder into a pill, creating pills with nearly 90% Harmony on average.

It took Alex half an hour to complete making all the pills and he finally walked out with everything prepared.

"Here you go," he said, placing down 6 different storage pouches and letting the young men check the pills they received.

Each one of them was surprised to see that the pill they had received had over 90% in harmony. A few of them looked up at the plaque, still surprised at what Alex had done.

"This… this is so much," one of the young men said. "We can't pay for these."

Alex frowned and looked toward Fang Yuxie.

Fang Yuxie shrugged. "They said they could pay earlier," she said.

"No, but that was for less good pills. These… we can't pay for these ones."

Alex sighed. "It's the same price," he said. "For Saint pills or lower, I don't ask for much in return."

"Huh? Then I can buy all of this for just… 22 Immortal spirit stones?" the young man asked. That was equivalent to 22 thousand Saint spirit stones.

Alex nodded. "Yes," he said.

"Wait, but there's the discount too," another young man said. "That's… 50% less. 11 Immortal spirit stones?"

"It is," Alex said. He was barely being paid for his work, but whatever. He needed to get customers into his shop before worrying about earning anything else.

"That's amazing!" another young man said and quickly paid his amount. Following him, the rest of the young men paid their amount as well.

They gratefully greeted Alex and Fang Yuxie farewell and left the store.

It wasn't much of a sale for the very first one, but Alex felt quite great about being able to sell.

"Finally, our first sale," he said. "And 6 at once too. Maybe we might just do well."

"Saint customers," Fang Yuxie said. "Who barely paid you anything at all? You're happy about that?"

"It's something. We have to get started somewhere," Alex said. He had earned about 100 Immortal Spirit stones, so he wasn't mad at all.

"You should stop being so happy," Fang Yuxie said.

Alex looked at her with a confused look. "Why not? It was our first sale," he said.

"Yes, and you missed an Immortal customer during that time."

"Huh?" Alex couldn't understand what she meant.

"While you were making their pill, a customer came in looking to make a pill. I asked him to wait for a bit, but he left in a hurry. It seemed that he needed to find an alchemist to make his pill as quick as possible."

Alex frowned. "I missed that?" he asked. "Why didn't you call me?"

"You were busy making pills. I didn't want to disturb you."

Alex sighed. "Did he look rich?" he asked.

"He looked desperate enough to pay any price," Fang Yuxie said. "Honestly, you shouldn't bother yourself with Saints and True realm cultivators. Just focus on Immortal realm cultivators."

Alex thought for a bit and understood her to be right. Even if he didn't give up on serving those customers, he had to at least keep himself free from the Immortal realm cultivators that would walk in.

"Alright, I know what to do," he said. "We just need another alchemist in the shop who can help me with the less important pills."