Alex was told that Qiu Jianhong, the ancestor of the Flowerhall sanctuary would come to get him personally.
All but a few teleportation formations in the Sunborn Sanctuary were still working and the ones that did work didn't lead to the city of Many Flowers.
Also, going into the Sunborn Sanctuary itself required a special type of access that the council members could only grant, so the ancestor had to come on his own.
A few days later, Alex stood in the lounge area of the Flowerhall sect where he waited for the ancestor to arrive.
The Flowerhall sect was right next to the Floral lake, so he could see the flowery water all day long if he just stayed there.
He looked at the Stone platform at the center of the lake and couldn't help but wonder about it.
"Do you know when that place might open up, senior?" Alex asked the woman that was sitting opposite him.
"The Forbidden Orchard? By our estimation, it will be another year at the very least, and a year and a half at the most," the woman said. She was named Qiu Hanyu and was the current sect master of the Flowerhall sect.
She was also the great-niece of the ancestor that was coming today, making her a blood relative of someone in the Council of 10.
"Do you wish to enter the Orchard?" the sect master asked.
"Yes," Alex said. "I've been curious about what's inside for a while now seeing as how much pollen gets spewed out every now and then."
"I'm certain you will be surprised when you do enter, but I hope you don't expect anything too great. In the end, what you will find are all plants after all," the sect master said.
"I understand," Alex replied.
The two of them talked for a while before Alex sensed the arrival of a strong cultivation base. He turned around to see a bald man with a face full of beards wearing a yellow robe walk towards them.
"Granduncle, welcome back," the sect master stood up and greeted.
"Haha, little Hanyu, how are you doing? I hope you're doing well," the old man spoke with a loud voice and a face full of smiles.
"I'm doing quite well, granduncle," she said. "You must be tired from the journey."
"What tired, I just took a small ride. That's nothing for me," he said and turned towards Alex. "Who might this young man be? So young and already a Saint Foundation realm cultivator."
"This young man is the one you are looking for. He is Alex, the Alchemist that you came here for," the sect master said.
"What? No way!" the old man showed a little surprised look. "But you're so young."
"Thank you for the compliment, senior," Alex cupped his fists and bowed a little. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"No, seriously, how old are you? You are quite young," the elder said.
"I am 46 years old," Alex said truthfully.
"Seriously? Only 46?" the old man asked. "Little Hanyu, are you sure he is the Alchemist that I requested? Isn't he a little too young?"
The sect master chuckled a bit. "It is in fact surprising to learn of alchemist Alex's age and youth, but that does not take away from his ability as an Alchemist. He is after all the best alchemist in the continent right now, maybe even one of the best in the entire world."
"Seriously, it's so hard to imagine," the man said. "I'm sorry if I'm being disrespectful in any way, it's just truly unimaginable that someone who hasn't even reached the age of 50 has gained so much achievement in Alchemy."
"I do not find any disrespect in your words, senior," Alex said. "In fact, I take them as nothing but a compliment."
"Haha, I quite like you," the man said. "So, are you ready to leave?"
"Yes. I can leave anytime you want to leave," Alex said.
"Great! Let's go," the old man said and turned to leave.
"Eh?, Granduncle, you won't be staying for a bit?" the sect master asked.
"I'm afraid I can't," the man said. "The others have been very excited about the prospect of having high-level pills being made for them. If I waste any more seconds here, they will skin me alive. So I will be leaving right now."
"Alright, please do come around from time to time," the woman said.
"Okay, okay," the man said. "Come on, little brother. Let's go."
He walked away and Alex quickly followed behind him. They reached an open area where there was a ship that had landed in a field of flowers.
"Do you like using a boat or do you prefer flying on your own?" the man asked.
"I'm fine with either," Alex said.
"Good, because I would have told you that you weren't allowed to fly on your own," the man said and jumped onto his boat.
Alex got onto it as well and asked, "I'm not allowed to fly on my own? Is there a flying restriction along the way where we are going?"
"No," the man said. "It's just that the mountain range that surrounds the Sunborn Sanctuary is filled with beasts that are very strong and will most likely hurt you if they see you flying through it."
Alex was a little surprised. "And it will be fine if we are on a boat?" he asked.
"Not really, but I will be by your side, and I'm stronger than any beast there so you will be fine," the man said.
'Then can't I jump fly too?' Alex thought but didn't voice his opinion.
The boat flew off and away from the city of Many flowers, going further and further away from the colorful place and into ones that were more of so just green.
The city of Many Flowers was at the very bottom left edge of the map while the Sunborn Sanctuary was towards the middle of the continent. So, even when they were flying on a Saint-ranked ship, it was still going to take them over 5 hours just to reach there.
"Is there a reason why we are not using the Teleportation formation, senior?" Alex asked. "I heard that a person from the Council of 10 could take me in through the formation."
"Hmm? Oh, no. That's a small bit of misinformation that has spread around that we don't bother correcting," the man said. "The teleportation formations only accept people whose Qi has been recorded inside the Sanctuary, so if we were to teleport, I would be accepted, but you would be rejected."
"The main problem here is that I cannot add your Qi into the record without taking you there myself first. Once I've done that, you should be able to teleport in and out into the few sect teleportation formations around the continent."
"I see," Alex nodded as he heard that. It made sense somewhat.
"Tell me about yourself. I want to learn how a young man like you can become such a talent in Alchemy," the man asked.
Alex nodded and explained as plainly as he could while hiding the most important information.
"Right, I forgot you players, or whatever you're called are very talented," the man said. "Still, you have had quite a journey. To think that you came from another continent. Which continent did you come from exactly?"
Alex was about to lie as usual and say the Northern Continent, but he paused. The man in front of him looked pretty frank and cheerful, so he wondered if he could ask something that he had been wanting to know about for a long time. A question he regretted not asking directly in the Northern Continent.
"From the Western continent," he said. "I came across a teleportation formation that sent me to the Wasteland."
"Western Continent? It's doing so well that it can raise someone like you?" the man asked with a surprised look on his face.
"It's... doing fine. I was luckier of the bunch as to where I got to cultivate," Alex said. "Senior, there is something I learned a long time ago, that I have been wondering about. I hope you will clarify this for me."
"Sure, what is it?" the man asked.
"It's regarding the invasion of the Western Continent," Alex said. "You were a part of it, right?"
The man's face grew a little serious. "You know about that?" he asked.
"I do," Alex said. "Would you mind telling me why you did that?"
The man hesitated for a bit and sighed. "We didn't have much of a choice at the time. Or maybe we did, but we chose to take the easy way out."
"What happened that you didn't have any choice?" Alex asked.
"This knowledge goes back to something that I have taken an oath to not talk about, so I am unable to clarify everything, but around 4000? No, 5000 years ago, we were in desperate need of spirit veins, so when the Eastern Continent approached us with the proposition to invade the Western Continent, we jumped on it," he said.
"The Eastern continent proposed it first?" Alex asked.
"Yes, and we accepted the proposition along with the Northern continent saying we are doing it for the good of the world, but mostly it was to use the opportunity to take away the Spirit veins," the man said.
"Why did you need so many spirit veins?" Alex asked.
"Do you know about the barrier that stops the Wasteland from the mainland?" the man asked.
"Yes, I've been there," Alex said.
"We needed spirit veins to run exactly that barrier," the man said. "We desperately needed it back then and we chose to take it from another continent than use the ones in our own."
