444 Goodbye

It was 4 in the morning when Alex was done making the 100+ pills for the city lord.

Finally, he could proceed onto some pills of his own. The first thing he made was some Qi Renewal pills for his sister. She needed a desperate amount of them, so in the next hour, he made as many as he could.

Then he made two sets of common parasite removal pills. It came out to be 3, so he was quite happy with it.

He made other miscellaneous pills that he thought his sister's family would need and was finally done around 8 in the morning.

"Ahhh…" he stretched as he stood up. Sitting down on the same spot for over a day and a half in a row with minimal movement was very hard for him.

'How do people go on months like this? Is closed cultivation that easy?' he wondered. 'Maybe it gets easier the more I get used to this.'

He sorted out the pills and kept 40 for himself. He didn't want to do it, but he also didn't want to reveal that he could make more pills with a single ingredient.

So, he reluctantly hid those pills away.

He walked out of the alchemy hall and walked towards his sister's house. The city was bustling in the morning and was very different from the midnight or noon he walked around.

'People return to daily life so easily, huh?' he thought.

Once he reached his sister's house, he went directly to her room and knocked.

Luo Mei opened the door and beamed. "You're back," she said.

"Yeah, and I brought the pills for you," Alex said.

"Oh, come in," she said and took him inside.

Alex walked in and took out some pill bottles. "Here! These are the pills for fast cultivation. These are for a breakthrough, these are for Uncle after he is done with the parasites, these are normal healing pills for you and your sister, these are for smooth breakthroughs… and these are pills to improve your spiritual sense."

Alex handed out multiple pill bottles and Luo Mei was a little overwhelmed.

"Wait! Wait! Wait! There are so many. Aren't these expensive?" she asked.

"Umm… each one should be about 2-3 True spirit stones in cost," Alex said as he wondered if he was right. He had never really such good pills outside of auctions.

"I can't take that!" Luo Mei said.

"Well, you have to whether you like it or not. Especially this one," he said as he pointed to the one he had created himself.

"It's a recipe I came up with on my own. Well, that might be a little untrue… it's more like I stumbled on it by accident, but it's my own recipe nonetheless. It greatly increases your spiritual sense, so it should help you a bit," Alex said.

"But—"

"Just eat it, sister. Are you going to say no to your brother?" he asked.

"Sigh, okay. But I'm asking father to give you something too. You can't say no to your sister either," Luo Mei said.

"Uh… sure," Alex said.

"So… do I cultivate after eating this?" she asked.

"I don't think you need to," Alex said.

"Alright then, here it goes," she said and took one of the new pills out and ate it.

"Ah, it's so… warm," she said as she shook her head a little.

"D0 you feel any changes?" he asked.

"Let me check."

Alex felt a wave of spiritual energy wash over him as Luo Mei sent out her spiritual sense to the extreme without stretching it beyond her normal level.

"Wow!" she cried out.

"It increased by nearly 5 meters. That's amazing," she said. "My spiritual sense is now up to 40 meters."

"Was it 35 only before?" he asked.

"Yeah. I started with what was it… 32 I think? And got to 35 when I broke through to the 6th realm. I think it will increase when I breakthrough more," she said. "Oh, how many should I eat?"

"I don't really know. Just to be safe, don't eat more than 3. Give the rest of sister Xing," Alex said.

Luo Mei's face soured when she heard that. "You give it," she said.

"Sister, there is no bad blood between you two. You should also know how unreasonable you are being towards her. Imagine what she must be feeling like with her only sister hating her for something that was not her fault."

"Just go and make up with her. Say sorry! You are the one in the wrong here from what I understand," Alex said.

"But I…" Luo Mei couldn't come up with any argument so she just crossed her arms. "She told you about it? Or did mother?"

"She did. I asked first though," he said.

"Sigh… I will see what I can do," she said.

"It's okay. Just start slowly. You don't need to make up in a single day. Slowly build back the connections you've lost," Alex said. "As long as you come out of it being closer than when you started,  you will have succeeded."

"I hope to hear news about you two sisters being sisterly again when you return back to Scarlet City," he said.

"Oh right, that reminds me. You are leaving today?" she asked.

"In the afternoon, yes," he said.

"Hmm… this might be troublesome for master now," she said softly.

"Huh? Why?" he asked.

"I won't be returning for another 2 weeks. So by that time, my spot will have changed. Someone else will take that place," she said.

"Um… does master immediately leave his position when someone else takes the Prime Disciple spot? No right?" he asked.

"No, he stays as the sect leader for another 6 months to figure out what is going to happen next."

"When senior brother left his spot, it was only after 5 months that I finally managed to securely make my place on the first spot after defeating Du Yuhan."

"That was about 3 years ago. The stronger disciples just happened to be older than 25, and I got insanely lucky," Luo Mei said.

"Oh, then we have nothing to worry about. Just return back to the sect and you can take back your spot," Alex said.

"No. If Du Yuhan takes my spot, I can't force it back from him," she said.

Alex was surprised. "You can't win against him? You have a 3 realm advantage," he said.

"And he has Sword Qi," Luo Mei said. "I haven't fought him since 3 years ago. All this time, I thought he didn't bother since he was weak, but as we saw in the Annual Competition, he is insanely strong."

"If I'm not wrong, at his best, he can dish out a True Disciple level attack. That's not something the current me can handle," She said.

"That's… shit! That's a problem for sure," Alex said.

"Sigh, I will continuously try and take back the 1st rank, but I'm not sure if I can. We will have to see after I've returned," she said.

"Thanks for the pills."

Alex nodded and walked out to find Senior Jin. "Oh, senior Hong is here?" he said in surprise and went to find the old man.

"Senior, here are the pills," Alex said and handed the 100 pills to them.

The old man's eyes went wide when he saw the 100 pills. "You managed to make 100 pills?" he asked.

"Uh… you did give me 100 sets of ingredients, right?" he asked.

"Yes, that's why I'm surprised. You didn't make a single mistake?" he asked in surprise.

"Ah, I may not look it, but I'm one of the most talented alchemists amongst my sect disciples, senior," Alex said.

"I don't doubt it. Still, I've seen way too many alchemists that require 3 sets of ingredients to make a single decent pill and call themself talented. Compared to them, you are miles better," he said.

"Haha, you jest me, senior. Please check the pills," Alex said.

Old man Hong checked the pills and was about to thank Alex to end the conversation when he remembered.

"Oh right… uhh, a 100 so… here," Old man Hong handed him a storage bag.

Alex looked inside and saw about 300 spirit stones. 'That's about the right price. Plus I ended up with about 40% more pills so I profit quite a bit here,' Alex thought.

"Thank you, senior," Alex said.

"No, no, no. It's me who should be thanking you. I didn't know you could make so many pills. I thought we would only have around 40 or so pills. I will immediately bring it to my lord," the old man said and left.

Alex went to meet with Luo Keng and talked for a bit. Both him and Shi Nangong were very kind to him and reminded him of his own mother and father.

He met up with Luo Xing and gave her a few mental strength pills to thank her for helping him with the formation studies.

Since she wasn't in the Mind Tempering realm yet, she could thankfully make use of the pills.

Xiao Huang on the other hand couldn't get anything. Alex apologized and promised he would make him any pills he needed for free once he reached the True realms.

Xiao Huang laughed and said there was no need. They conversed for a bit and soon it was noon.

Alex went back to his sister and talked to her for a while longer. This time, Meng Yun was with her too.

She was rarely with Luo Mei inside the house since she was pardoned from serving Luo Mei for the entirety of their stay back home.

She would only resume her work once they left back again. Still, Meng Yun liked spending time with Luo Mei and came to visit her from time to time.

"Meimei, uncle Jin, please go see young nephew Ming to the caravan. I would do so myself, but unfortunately, I am unable to," Luo Keng said when it was time for Alex to leave.

"Take care, Young Man," Shi Nangong said.

"Goodbye little brother," Xiao Huang said.

Luo Xing silently nodded and waved her hand.

Alex said his goodbyes and went to the caravan with Luo Mei and old man Jin. The afternoon city wasn't as loud as the morning's but it was still pretty crowded.

Old man Jin had found a carriage for them, and the three of them rode on it to the outside of the city

It was close to 3, so the sun wasn't as hot and the days were also slightly cold.

"That's the caravan," old man Jin said as he showed them the way.

"hmm, little brother. You are okay?" Zhang Xie was surprised when he saw Alex return.

"Hello, senior Zhang. Yes, I'm okay," Alex said.

"I was told you were okay, but… it's still impossible to believe something like that after seeing those beast hoards," he said.

"The beasts didn't reach the caravan this time, right?" Alex asked. That was what Luo Mei had told him.

"Oh no, I'm talking about last month's. Actually, I also saw the month before that. Weird…" Zhang Xie thought of something. "Why are the attacks exactly a month apart?"

"Anyway, come you two, I have the carriage prepared for you," he said.

"Oh no, senior. I'm not going back. Only junior brother is," Luo Mei said.

"He is? Oh right, my men must-have set for him alone then. Come," he said and took him to a carriage.

Alex walked up to the carriage and looked inside. He could see about 4 different people in there. 2 of them were young men nearing 30 years of age. There was one woman that looked like she was 25, but who really knew.

The three of them were wearing similar clothing and had a cultivation base in the True realms.

And the final man in the carriage was actually an old man that seemed to be in his mid-50s.