689 30 Thousand

"Great!" Alex exclaimed when he heard that. "When do we leave?"

"As soon as possible," Han Daiyu said.

"In 3 days," Liang Qiu said after a bit more thought than Daiyu. "We will need to prepare since it won't be just us."

"Oh," Alex said. "More people will come?"

"Yes," Liang Qiu nodded. "Since we are both very valuable to our sects and families, they won't let us go to a place like the Poison Swamp without some assistance, so to speak."

"I understand," Alex said. "I will make sure to get ready for that day then."

"I should be able to have a defensive mental artifact ready for you in the next 3 days. Daiyu here knows more about armors, she will be in charge of that," Liang Qiu said.

Han Daiyu nodded without saying any words. Alex was surprised they were going to help him with both of those items, and with so little thought at that.

"It seems the pill you want to be made is very important," Alex said seriously. "May I ask what sort of pill it is?"

Liang Qiu's face changed a little as she thought for a bit. "I will be very honest, Alchemist Yu. This pill is so important and… unique, that I'm not sure I'm even confident of letting you make it."

"Please do not take offense to that statement. I don't mean it to demerit your ability, it's just that the secrecy of the pill is our top priority right now," Liang Qiu said. "So, we might end up requesting senior Xue instead."

Alex nodded when he heard that. Xue Mufan was perhaps the most popular alchemist in the whole Luminance Empire.

If anyone asked who the best alchemist in the empire was, the names that would pop up were Xue Mufan of the Falling Lotus sect and Zhou Zirong of the Zhou family who made his name through his exceptional use of White Flame.

They were both Saint Earth ranked alchemists, meaning if they were to agree to do this, they could easily reach an amazing harmony.

"That makes me even more intrigued, sister Liang," Alex said. A pill that they had to request the best Alchemist in the empire to make, Alex was dying to learn what it was.

"I'm sorry, but we have to go with someone we know can create the best pills," Liang Qiu said.

Alex nodded since he understood. If the pill was as special as Liang Qiu was making it to be, then he too would suggest not wasting time on just about anyone and go straight to someone you know for sure can do it.

However, that didn't mean he was letting go of the chance to learn about said pill.

Alex thought for a moment and waved his hand to bring out two pill bottles. The two of them gave a confused look to Alex who placed one of the bottles each onto their hands.

"What is this?" Liang Qiu asked with a confused look.

"Are you trying to bribe us, Alchemist Yu?" Han Daiyu said with a gleeful smile from the side.

Alex shook his head. "I expect you to not eat these pills and return them to me… uh, where are we meeting to leave?" he asked.

"Outside our sect's gate. We will fly from there," Liang Qiu said.

"Yes, when I meet you two there, I expect you to return those pills to me," he said.

"Hmph!" Han Daiyu said. "Then why give it to us?"

Liang Qiu looked at him with an inquisitive look as well.

"Consider this my audition, a test if you will, so that I may prove that I am a good choice to make the pill for you," he said. "You won't have to go far away to meet Saint Alchemists who may not have the time to make True pills."

"You wish to sway our thoughts with these pills?" Liang Qiu asked with a smile.

"Yes," Alex answered. Then, he bowed to the two girls. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some pills to make. I shall see the both of you in the morning in 3 days."

"Thank you for your assistance, Alchemist Yu," Liang Qiu said.

"Thank you," Han Daiyu followed.

Alex gave a warm smile and a wave of his hand as he walked over to the mission board to complete some missions while he was there.

He took a few missions at once, one of the advantages of having the rank he did, and went to the alchemy room.

It wasn't until around evening that he finally left the room and handed all the pills that he made for the missions.

Then, he handed all the extra pills he made from the ingredients he got in those missions over to them as well to sell for him.

Alex knew he had close to 10 thousand True Spirit stones in the guild right now, but he never took them out. It was better to just use them to buy ingredients and so forth.

Also, with his money with the guild, if there was ever a Blood Spirit Ginseng on the market, the receptionists in the guild had his full authority to buy it at whatever the cost was.

Once Alex was done with his tasks in the guild, he went back to the sect and went directly to his room to make the pills.

Unfortunately, after his house was improved upon and more formations were added, there was also a formation to keep out spiritual sense. These formations only worked up to a certain range, but Saint realm cultivators were mostly unable to pierce them, so his mother had no hope of seeing him inside his room to check if he was back or not.

Fortunately, however, Pearl was with his mother, so he could let her know that he was back since their bond was stronger than this measly formation.

So, without any worry, he started making the pills that he was so desperate to make.

It took Alex nearly 2 days to finish all the ingredients he had bought with about 3 different breaks in between to cool off his head and go visit his mother.

In those 2 days, he made 7 different types of Healing pills, each with different strength and focusing on a different part of the body, as well as 5 different types of antidotes that worked on different types of poison, with many inter lapping with each other.

In total, he made exactly 193 pills, not bothering to separate any of the pills into two weaker pills using his splitting technique. However, he didn't give it his all for all of the pills so as to maintain his mental strength throughout the day, so only about 150 of those pills came out at Heaven grade with the highest being at 62%.

The lowest, however, didn't go below 43% either. So, all in all, this was an excellent acquirement for the sect.

Qin Shan's shock was a sight to see when Alex brought out all of those pills. It wasn't the number that shocked him of course, as he was used to having to buy pills in bulk for the sect.

No, it was the quality of those pills.

He gave a rueful smile to Alex as he said, "Junior Yu, I'm afraid the sect doesn't have enough extra budget to buy all of those pills at once."

"Oh, how much do you think these will cost?" Alex asked nonchalantly.

Qin Shan's eyes went to the pills while the rueful smile never left his face. " 24 thousand True Spirit stones for the pills alone, and likely 30 thousand if we add the cost of the ingredients too."

Alex smiled. "Close, the ingredients cost about 7 thousand, but I got them in 5 thousand since I bought in bulk and because of my rank."

"As for the pills, yes it will cost around 25 thousand, but I won't ask you to pay that."

"Pay me the 5 thousand for the ingredients and whatever extra you can manage for the pills. Consider the rest of it as me paying interest on the debt you have put me under for taking care of my mother all these years," he said.

Qin Shan's heart skipped a beat when he heard that. The thought of acquiring such impressive pills for such low cost was him coming upon a sizable fortune.

However, he didn't like the feeling of ripping off Alex's hard work as he too was a professional just like him.

"Say what, I don't have the money right now, so I will take these pills for now and pay for them later," he said.

"You don't have to do that. I really mean it when I say I don't need much," he protested.

"No, I would have a guilty conscience if I did that," Qin Shan said sternly.

Alex had to give up in the end. "Uh… fine," he said. "You can give the money to my mother."

After getting a nod from the sect master, Alex went to his mother and told her what he was planning to do for the next couple of days.

"What?" his mother freaked out a little when she heard his destination. "The Poison swamp? That's full of poison. No!"

"It's fine, mother. Don't you remember me telling you that I had been there for an entire year before? Poison doesn't affect me at all," he said.

"But still…" Helen tried to protest but Alex cut her off.

"Don't worry mother. I will be very careful. Besides, it is likely that strong figures from both Heaven's Peak school and the Han Family will go with us as well," he said.

"Sigh, if that is true then sure," she said. "But you must take good care of yourself. If something bad happens, you save yourself first and leave."

"I promise, mother," Alex said. After that, he stayed with his mother for a little longer before returning back to his room where he cultivated with Pearl for the entire night in preparation for tomorrow morning.

Once morning came, he went back to his mother and left Pearl there. Since he would be amidst unfamiliar faces, he didn't want to reveal the uniqueness that was Pearl.

"Take care, son," Helen said.

"See you later," Alex said and left the sect early.

He took out the boat artifact from his storage bag and flew off.

The Heaven's Peak school lay in the mountain ranges on the northeastern side of the Dawnspring city. It was further away from the city than the Flowing Brush sect was.

It took Alex a little longer to reach the sect to him having to take a detour around the city due to flight prohibition, but he still managed to get there before anybody.

He put away his boat and looked at the majestic gates in front of him.

"So this is the Heaven's Peak school, huh?"