688 Willow's Bark

Liang Qiu, the best disciple of the Heaven's Peak school, wore the famous Black and Red robes of her school.

She had pitch-black hair as well as a tall and slender body. Her fair complexion made her quite desirable to most of her peers of the opposite gender.

However, it was likely that no one dared get close to her with how above everyone she was.

3 years ago, or 3 months ago from Alex's perspective, she had been at around the 4th True King realm.

Right now, Alex could sense something close to the 9th Realm of True King realm.

It seemed she had stopped at the doorstep of the True Emperor realm. Alex sighed to himself. He wondered if he could ever manage to catch up to her.

Han Daiyu seemed equally strong as well. She was a big muscular girl with brown, half-sleeved, cultivator robes that showed her well-defined physical body that she certainly trained in the sun for a long time to get.

Alex could see the dark tan on her face, surrounded by light-brown hair.

Alex had only seen her with her hammer back in the demon realm where she had helped Tian Ye with the experiment to get the House of the Undying open. So, he found her a little unusual when she wasn't holding one.

Her cultivation base itself was around the 7th realm of True King, but Alex knew of the Han family's physique and he wouldn't doubt that she could manage to bring out attacks close to the same level as Liang Qiu's.

The two girls stood up when they saw Alex. Liang Qiu was a step faster than Han Daiyu.

"Are you really a True Heaven alchemist?" Han Daiyu said before even giving out a greeting.

Alex saw Liang Qiu give a stern side-eye to Han Daiyu who dismissed it slightly with a shrug.

Alex tried not to laugh as he said, "Yes, I am. Please don't let my age confuse you regarding that."

"I'm sorry about her. She didn't mean anything disrespectful," Liang Qiu tried to speak up for Han Daiyu.

"It's alright. I can see why sister Han is concerned," Alex said. "So, you said you needed my help, sister Liang. May I ask what it is about?"

"We need a pill," Liang Qiu said.

Alex gave a confused look. "I don't see why you needed to meet me for that," he said. "Please don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have finally met you two after hearing so much about you, but you could have simply left a mission for us. I'm sure any of the 3 of us would have gotten to it when we checked upon it."

"No!" Liang Qiu immediately shouted. "We do need a pill, but first we need its ingredients too."

"Oh," Alex said. "Is it not available in the guild?"

She shook her head.

"Not even in the entire empire?" he asked suspiciously.

The girls still shook their heads.

"Hmm," Alex mused to himself. "May I then know why you are exactly here?"

"We have a recipe for a pill that I would want to be made for me. But I can't gather all the ingredients."

"It is just one ingredient, but I can't find records of it anywhere, let alone knowing what it looks like. I've been to many people and places, but none of them have been any help," she said.

"So, you came here hoping that one of us would be helpful?" he asked.

Liang Qiu nodded. Han Daiyu didn't do or say anything. She let Liang Qiu do all the grunt work while she simply stood watching the two of them talk.

"May I know what the ingredient is?" he asked.

"It's something called 'Corrosive Willow's bark'," she said thoughtfully.

"Corrosive Willow? I see. You couldn't find its bark in the market huh?" Alex asked.

The girls shook their heads. However, even as they did, Liang Qiu gave him a weird look.

"Do you know the tree?" she asked confusedly.

"Yes," Alex said before thinking for a moment. He did know of the tree, but not about it.

Meaning that he had seen the tree, but had read nothing about its properties or even learned what the ingredients could be used for.

Han Daiyu's eyes went a little wide when she heard a positive response. "You know of the tree? Please don't lie, sir alchemist. It's fine if you don't know about it."

Alex gave a smile. "I can promise you, I know of the tree. In fact, I know the general area of where it is too," he said.

The girls' faces were a sight to see. "You really know of the tree? Please don't lie, this is a very important pill for us," they said.

"I can promise you on my pride as an alchemist, I do know of the tree and where it is," Alex said.

"Oh, where is it?" the girls asked.

"The Poison Swamp," Alex said.

"The Poison Swamp?" the two girl's faces drained a little in color when they heard that.

"Please excuse us for a second," Liang Qiu said and took Han Daiyu to the corner to speak with her.

Meanwhile, Alex couldn't help but think to himself, 'should I just move forward with my plan to go train and go to the poison swamp then? That's not a bad training area.'

'At the same time, I should be able to get their Corrosive Willow bark as well,' he thought to himself. 'Sigh, if only I got Blood Spirit Ginseng that way too.'

'Is it safe for me though?' he thought to himself. 'Without Shen Jing to look after me, they may attack me with no one to save me.'

Alex started to hesitate a bit when he thought that.

"Um, sir Alchemist," Liang Qiu spoke to catch her attention.

"You can call me Yu Ming," Alex said with a slight smile.

"Alchemist Yu, would you mind giving us an exact location of where the tree is?" she asked. "We can give something in return, be it spirit stones or something else."

"Uh, I'm sorry," Alex said. "I don't remember the exact location aside from the fact that it was in the Poison swamp," Alex said.

That was true. He had his eyes blindfolded, so as he went around the massive swamp, he had seen many things in many locations which he couldn't connect to s specific location due to his eyes being shut all the time.

"Um, can you tell us what it looks like then?" she asked.

"Yes," Alex said. "It's a 5-meter-tall tree, with a trunk about this big that grows into 7 different main branches that branch out, even more, to fill the tree with green leaves that…"

Alex trailed off when he saw the look on their faces. Frowns.

"I'm not giving a very good description, am I?" he asked.

"I'm sorry, I can't really visualize it properly," Liang Qiu said. "It's too…"

"Generic," Han Daiyu said from the side.

"I know," Alex said. "I'm afraid I can't help on that part. It is a generic-looking tree. That's how it had managed to hide from everyone, I suppose."

"That… makes sense," Liang Qiu said.

"What do we do now?" Han Daiyu asked from the side in a low voice, but Alex caught her words.

"I don't know," Liang Qiu said from the side.

Alex waited for a bit before saying, "If you don't need me, then I should go back to making—"

"Wait!" Liang Qiu said. "I mean, please wait, Alchemist Yu."

"Yes?" Alex waited.

The girl sighed for a moment before saying, "Would you mind accompanying us to the Poison swamp so that you can help us find the tree?"

Alex didn't answer immediately and stared at the girl for a moment. "What's in it for me?" he asked.

"Um, can't you do it for us?" Han Daiyu said, putting on a cutesy face and voice.

Alex openly chuckled in a non-disrespectful way. "I'm afraid I can't simply leave my job here at the guild without me getting something return, you know," He said.

"No, no. Of course not," Liang Qiu intervened, not before glaring at Hai Daiyu who simply laughed.

"We won't ask you to go with us for free," she said. "We can give you some compensation in return."

"Oh," Alex made an amused look. "What can you give me, sister Liang?"

"Anything that is within my capabilities, I will give it to you," Liang Qiu said with an air of pride.

"Anything?" Alex gave her a sly look that made her reconsider her words. She saw him stare at her and started getting the feeling that she should have phrased her words better.

'Anything? Stupid! What if he asks for you?' she blamed herself, but she didn't let it show on her face.

Alex chuckled. "I do know exactly what I want. In fact, I have two things I want," he said while looking at both of them.

This time, even Han Daiyu got a little uncomfortable.

Liang Qiu frowned a little and was about to speak up when Alex put up his hand.

"My apologies, I was merely having some fun. I really do need two things, however. One is armor, and another one is an artifact for stopping mental attacks. I need both of those of high rank and grades."

"You can get me either of these two things, but I would really appreciate it if you could get both of them to me," he said.

Liang Qiu thought for a moment and said, "Both of those can be arranged, so long as you will come with us to the swamp."