"An oath? Why should we trust your words? You could very well lie!"
"Yeah, words mean nothing to us. You stole from the family head."
"Don't expect us to believe you just because you speak an oath!"
The few people around the family head that were waiting to talk negatively about Alex took the opportunity to slam him again. They were mere civilians and people of little note, so they weren't aware of the Oath.
However, it was impossible that someone like the Family head would be unaware of heavenly oaths. His face drained of color when he heard Alex say that.
Alex could see that the man had not expected him to know about the oaths at all. 'Oaths must be knowledge that's not so easily shared around here,' he thought.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" the leader asked. "You know what you are trying to do, right?"
"Of course," Alex said. "I have nothing to worry about after all, I won't be lying. As long as the family head speaks the truth, he shouldn't have to worry either."
The family head was fidgeting at the moment. He was racking his brain to get out of the situation, but there was nothing he could do that wouldn't make him look guilty at all.
"You are just trying to hurt me before your own crime is revealed. I won't fall for that," the family head said. He was grasping at whatever branch he could to hang on to the notion of Alex being a thief and a criminal in this instance.
Even as he did, the public perception was already changing. Just refusing such a simple thing to prove the accusation meant that the old man had something to hide, and anyone who mattered in the current situation knew about it.
The various alchemists, committee members, and elders from the Flowerhall sect that had come to request some pills were seeing through the family head's facade.
"Brother, you have said so much earlier, was there any lie in there?" the association leader asked.
The family head was having a hard time keeping hold of his own thoughts. "Ahem, I might have exaggerated about the cauldron. It's true that I had gifted it to him, but that was because I was hoping he would help me make pills that would help me with my cultivation."
"I promise with the heavens as my witness, this person beat up my man, stole my ingredients, and ran away while I was not there," the family head said.
But, people could already hear his twisting his words. After all, that was exactly what Alex had said as well, and the family head was only removing some aspects from it that suited him.
"Young man, you should clear it up. Make the oath so we know what is true," the leader said.
"Yes," Alex said. "I make an oath to the heavens that everything I have said regarding this situation is true. I was imprisoned by this man who told me the only way he would release me was to sell him my recipe. I ran away while he wasn't around by defeating the person that was standing guard and took everything that man had on him, which included the ingredients as well."
The Saints looked to the sky to see any changes, but there were none.
"Family head, do you have anything to say?" the leader asked.
"I… I…" the man looked around in confusion. "This man took my stuff. I demand that he return it or at the very least pay me back."
"And what about the fact that you tried to imprison me? What punishment should there be for someone that does that?" Alex asked.
"I… I wasn't imprisoning you. I only wanted to persuade you to—"
"That's enough farce for today," Alex said. "Seniors, I'm sorry you had to witness this joke of a person's act. As for the Huang family, I have something for you to say."
"With heaven as my witness, I made this oath today. I will never again knowingly make a pill for anyone part of the Huang family," Alex said.
Everyone in the area felt an invisible power slowly path through them before locking onto Alex. The oath was settled and there was no way to remove it ever again.
Since it was a one-sided oath with no conditions for breaking it, Alex would have to forever hold true to this oath or the heavens would strike him down.
The Huang family looked at him with a surprised faces. They could tell that their family head was already losing this argument and was being proven that he was lying, and now the world's best alchemist had promised to never make a pill for them anymore.
The people were distraught.
The family head himself was shocked, but he still had some hope. "I-I don't need you to make me a pill. There are million other alchemists that will help me," he shouted out loud.
"Great," Alex said. "Have fun getting them to make pills for you. Goodbye."
He turned around and left, leaving everyone to watch dumbly. The crowd dispersed when he realized there was nothing more to be said. Alex had proven his innocence somehow using oaths, and even while he had technically stolen, he was also imprisoned in the first place so there was no way anyone would hold him accountable.
The leader looked at the stunned family head and smiled at him. "Please feel free to request some pills to be made while you are here. Farewell."
He turned around and left as well. One after another, everyone left the family head alone and went away.
The family head who had been humiliated could only curse Alex in anger, and in the end, he had to leave as well.
Alex returned to his task like everyone else and the day came to a close. He returned to his room the same as yesterday and started cultivating.
3 days went by once again with him doing nothing but making pills. By now, he was popular for being able to make 3 different types of pills, all of which had reached upwards of 90% each time.
It wasn't just the customers that were excited, even the alchemists were happy when they saw Alex. They would greet him with a hearty smile and ask for some hints or tidbits of information that could help them in their alchemy journey.
Unfortunately, Alex couldn't help them since he didn't know much about them. Still, he didn't outright refuse them and only said he was busy right now.
The end of the week came around and with that came his payment. Alex was looking forward to seeing just how much his pills had been sold for.
He wasn't aware of the sales side of things, so the payment was definitely going to be a surprise for him.
'Let's see, unlike the first pill, every other pill only has a 10% cut on it, so I should still get a lot, even if it is just 90% of the actual earnings,' he thought. The association would take a cut away even after that which would be a flat rate for the room he was staying in the various other facilities the association provided.
All in all, it wasn't that much money for him.
The door opened and an old man walked in. "Ah, Alchemist Alex, it's good to meet you finally," the old man said as he took out a storage bag from his person. "Here is your earnings for the week. Please sign this talisman with your Qi so we can confirm you did get your earnings."
"Sure," Alex said and quickly checked the storage bag. He saw a massive amount of spirit stones that made his head hurt for a second. It was just too many to just count. He quickly signed the talisman with his Qi and asked, "how many spirit stones are here?"
The old man laughed. "You must have earned a lot," he said. "I'm afraid I do not know, but there is a talisman in there that should have detailed information on everything."
The old man left after that and Alex quickly opened up a storage bag to find the talisman. When he read the talisman, his eyes went wide.
"Woah… 1.8 Million spirit stones?" he thought as he looked at the amount. It was even True Spirit stones. That was so many.
"And it's just a week's worth of money," he thought. He couldn't imagine just how much richer he could become if he did this for an entire year. He would become so very rich.
He stayed in his alchemy room looking at his money while giddy in happiness. He wasn't leaving, even though it had already been long past his day's end.
Harry found him in the room and walked in. "Oh thank god, you're still here," he said as he walked in. "You look happy? You earned a lot or what?"
"It's not a bad amount," Alex said as he put aside his storage bag. "Sorry, did you need something?"
"Oh, I was just making sure you remember what you said to me," Harry said.
"What I said to you?" Alex asked. "Ah! The teaching part, yes I remember. We can have our lesson tomorrow. Uhh… why don't you come by my room tomorrow early morning and I can teach you for a few hours. How does that sound?"
Harry smiled. "That sounds great," he said. "See you tomorrow then."
