"Uhh… this pill and this pill." A young man pointed at two different pills that were showcased under formation barriers.
"Antidotes, again?" the seller asked. "Did the last few pills not work either?"
The young man gave a sad smile and shook his head. "None of them seem to work, so I have to keep on trying with new ones," he said as he looked through the various pills that were on show. "Are there any that are not on display?"
"No, I wouldn't dare hide pills from a customer when I could be selling them," the seller said.
"I see," the young man said sadly. "How much for the pills?'
"52 thousand true spirit stones," the seller said.
The young man gave a dry laugh when he heard that. "So expensive," he said softly as he fished for some spirit stones.
"It's a fair price, young man," the seller said. "I wouldn't try to profit off of someone's illness. It wouldn't sit right with my conscience."
"No, no, I'm not blaming you," the young man quickly said. "It's just that I'm used to having these pills cost less than what I'm paying right now."
"That's not possible unless you can get the alchemist himself to give you a discount," the seller quickly said.
The young man smiled. "I suppose. My family has a few good alchemists, so I never had to buy the pills myself. My father is the best at making them," he said.
"Oh, your father can make pills too? Why don't you just have him make some for you then?" the seller asked.
"I… don't really talk with him anymore," the young man said. "He had taught me quite a bit about alchemy when I was a child, but… I wasn't really into learning at the time. I regret it right now."
The seller didn't respond. "If only you could ask the King to try and look after your injury, he could maybe help you out," he said.
"The king?" the young man gave a weird look. "Does the new Phoenix ruler know about pills?"
"No, not lord Phoenix," the seller said. "The King, Alex."
The young man gave a confused look. "Who's Alex?" he asked.
"Have you not heard the news?" the seller asked with wide eyes. "In her Coronation event, lord Phoenix appointed the Alchemist Alex as the new King of the continent."
"Oh," the young man said with a surprised expression. "The Southern Continent has a change in rulership as well, huh?"
"Yes, after such a long time," the seller said.
"I see, and this king Alex is a great Alchemist?" the young man asked.
"The best in the world," the seller said.
"Haha, that's quite the boast. How good are his pills?" the young man asked.
"I hear most of his pills go above 90% in harmony, many even reaching 95%. Tell me they aren't good," the seller said proudly.
"I see, that's not bad for someone th—" the young man paused. "Wait, over 95%?"
The seller nodded after seeing the shock on the young man's face.
The young man was indeed very shocked. He had never expected there to be someone in this world that could make pills nearly as great as his father.
'Should I talk with him about the antidote?' he wondered before quickly shaking his head. 'I can't let anyone know I'm here. They will go to him first if any.'
"Here's you go," the young man paid for the pills with 50 thousand Spirit stones. "Thank you for the pill."
"Come anytime," the seller waved him away.
The young man put up his scarf and hid his face as he walked through the streets of the busy city. He reached a small tavern and walked in to go to his room.
He stood in front of the room and flexed his aura a bit before opening the door.
As soon as he walked in, a head turned in his direction. "I'm back," the young man said unenthusiastically.
The head followed where he walked and didn't miss any movement of the young man. The young man turned and looked at the woman that was sitting quietly on the bed.
She wore pink robes with a white veil that went over her head. An orange mask covered her face with absolutely no opening for her to see, breathe, or eat from.
The young man walked up to the woman and grabbed her hand.
"I am back," he spoke as he wrote the words on her hand with his finger.
The woman nodded after feeling the word. She used her Qi to create a set of words in the air.
"Did I get more…" the man read the words and quickly answered her back by writing on her palm again. "Yes, I got more pills."
He placed the two pills on her palm.
"Which one first?" the woman wrote in the air.
"Any," the man wrote back.
The woman nodded and lifted her mask to eat the first pill. She waited for a while and then ate the second one. After she was done with both, she shook her head.
The young man didn't even have it in him to feel dejected as another pill didn't work to cure her poison. At this point, the young man was feeling desperate.
"Should we… just go back?" he asked, but of course, there was no answer. The woman couldn't hear him at all after all.
The young man thought for a bit and quickly shook his head. "I can't go back. Not after…"
Since going back to his father wasn't an option, he wondered if he should go find the King of this continent. 'How do I possibly talk with someone so high profile as the king? I would have to reveal my own identity. I can't possibly do that,' he thought.
That wasn't a choice either.
In the end, the young man had nothing else he could do. He held the woman's hand and spoke, "Don't worry, I'll fix this somehow. I will take you back and heal you, even if that means I will have to stand up to father. Don't worry."
The woman stroked his head while he sat there wondering how long it will be in the future before their lives would finally return back to some form of normality again.
* * * * * *
Alex sat with wide eyes as he read the cost of keeping and maintaining a mere 5000 people army.
"Are you sure these numbers are not common spirit stones? There's no way it could be True spirit stones, right?" he asked.
"That's the correct number, your highness," the elder that had brought him the information said.
"How can 5 thousand people cost us this many spirit stones for just a year?" Alex asked.
"Ahem," the elder coughed a little. "That's monthly, not yearly."
"What?!" Alex's eyes went wide when he heard that. "This can't possibly be monthly."
"I am afraid it is, your majesty," the elder said. "1000 of those would be Saint realm cultivators after all, with the remaining 4000 being no less than a True King realm cultivator."
"Even then," Alex said. "These numbers sound simply absurd. I mean, 800 Million Spirit stones per month?"
"That is the requirement if we want to have a well-maintained army, your majesty," the elder said.
Alex scratched his head as he read through the numbers that made up everything.
"Salary, housing, training, talismans, formations, pills, weapons, clothing," he read through it all. "There's just so much. Is there no way to reduce these numbers?"
"There… is a way, but it is going to cost us a lot initially while being beneficial in the long run," the elder said.
"What is it?" Alex asked excitedly.
"You see, since most of the cost comes from stuff like pills and talismans, instead of buying them from somewhere, how about establishing royal institutes whose main purpose would be to make these items," the elder said. "If we get too many, we can even turn it into an actual business, bringing in some income."
"I see," Alex said. "That's not a bad idea, but it is going to cost us a bit early on, huh?"
"That's right, your Majesty," the elder said.
Alex fell into some thought. "Establishing those institutes does feel like the best way of going about this issue, but then, we have to hire them too, don't we? That's another hassle," he said.
The elder said nothing and let Alex speak out his thoughts for the moment.
"We can exclude salary, housing, and clothing for the time being as there's no need to change them exactly."
"We can even remove weapons for the time being as well since a weapon isn't necessarily something that can be considered monthly. Once they get one, there would be no reason to change it so quickly."
"As for training, that is one place we cannot slack off at all, so the cost there remains."
"So, pills, formations, and talismans are the only thing we can save cost on, isn't it?" Alex thought. "Very well, it sounds like creating an institute for it is the best way to go about it."
"It does," the elder said. "So, should I tally up the costs for these institutes as well?"
"Yes, please do so," Alex said. "Also, you can start spreading the message that the royal family is looking to hire Alchemists, Talisman makers, and Formation designers. We will be hiring them no matter what in the end, so we might as well get started."
"Yes, your Majesty," the elder said.
"Also," Alex continued. "Just to make it more enticing to the ones that might not want to join, tell them that the ones that join will gain monthly tutelage from me. That should help make the bigger names want to join as well."
