Everyone in the room was lost in their own thoughts, daydreaming of a time when they had multiple Dao learned thanks to the pill recipe they had received.
"So," Alex spoke to grab their attention again. "Do you guys accept the exchange or not?"
"We..." Tai Guan wanted to speak, but she couldn't speak on behalf of others. She turned towards her fellow Saint Soul realm cultivators and hoped they were of the same mind as she was.
Lady Xuan was fully on board from the look on her face, but she needed to hear someone else speak as well.
"Should I leave so you can discuss?" Alex asked the group.
"We do need to discuss this," the few elders spoke. "Can you two please leave for the moment?"
"Sure," Alex said and stood up to leave.
Hao Ya quickly grabbed his arm and stopped him. "What about your recipe?" she asked. "You need to take it back for now, don't you?"
"Take it back? No, there's no need," Alex said as he looked toward the elders that had it. "I'm sure the seniors will all come to a wise conclusion so they can make use of the recipe."
He turned around without looking at the elders and walked away with Hao Ya following behind him. However, before he went past the door, he stopped and turned around.
"I'm afraid we've already wasted the entire day on this, so in order to hurry it all up, please come to a decision in the next 10 minutes," Alex said. "If you don't, I will have to ask someone with more authority than you to make the decision for you."
"What is that supposed to mean?" one of the seniors asked with a gloomy look on their face.
"You damn boy, did you threaten us once again?" the man that had bickered with Alex previously spoke. "We don't even know if these damn pills of yours work or not yet. Do you then dare tell us to make a decision in just 10 minutes?"
"I do," Alex said. "You shouldn't be talking with me, but with each other."
The man crossed his arm. "I refuse," he said. "You can take your damn pills back."
Alex narrowed his eyes as he looked at him. He then stared at the rest of the people in the room. "Is that everyone's decision?" he asked.
"NO!" everyone shouted almost immediately.
Alex turned around to the man and smiled, "I hope you learn how little your words hold weight in this room. I'll be back in 10 minutes then."
He turned around and left the room, closing the door behind him.
Hao Ya was very curious about everything. "Why did you leave the pill recipes inside? If you sold them pills instead of recipes, you could have gotten the same result I believe, and you could have made money in the future too," she said.
"I could," Alex said. "But I don't have any particular need for money, really. Besides, the Northern Continent is quite behind the Southern and Eastern Continent due to the False Immortal, and I don't think it would be fair to try and leech off of their situation."
"Besides, these seniors helped me a lot when I wasn't very influential yet, so I am trying to pay them back for it," Alex said.
"Is... that so?" Hao Ya asked.
"Yes," Alex said. "I would've given them the recipe even if I were just visiting. In a way, I'm profiting right now from the recipes as I'm gaining something in return for it, which I was not hoping for."
"Do you really care about these people that much?" Hao Ya asked.
"Not... care, exactly. More like grateful," Alex said. "Think of it as I'm repaying them for everything they have done for me."
"I see," Hao Ya said. "Then I won't say anything."
They waited outside for a while before the door opened on its own before the 10 minutes had passed.
Alex walked in and smiled. "Have you all come to a decision?" he asked.
"We have decided to agree to your request, if you agree to one more of our requests as well," Lady Xuan spoke up.
"Oh? On top of the pill recipes?" Alex asked. "Are you sure?"
"I know we're asking more than we deserve, but this feels like the time to do so," lady Xuan said.
"Is that so? Then please say what it is," Alex said. "If it's feasible, I shall accept it."
Lady Xuan looked briefly at everyone around her and nodded before looking back at Alex. "We are hoping that you will teach our alchemists a few things about alchemy so that they can improve from your knowledge," she said.
She immediately bowed in front of Alex. "Please, this is a request from all of us," she said.
The other elders and seniors also got up and bowed toward Alex.
Alex looked at all of the, including the man that had talked back to him before. It seemed that they had talked some sense into him and he was now following in the other's footsteps.
Alex waited a while before answering, making them think that it was a rather hard decision.
"Gather everyone you can from all over the Northern Continent who wants to leave. At the same time, gather your alchemists as well. You will have a week to do so, and on the final day of the week, I shall hold an Alchemy conference here for whoever will want to listen to me."
"Does that work for you?" he asked.
"Yes!" the elders quickly nodded. "Thank you."
"Alright, I will be returning now. Please get to work immediately," he said and turned to leave.
"What were you going to do if we had refused?" Huang Xinyi asked. He had been curious ever since Alex had said so.
Alex turned back and smiled at him. "I'm sure you know who I mean when I say someone with more authority than you,' he said, waved them goodbye, and walked away.
"Dear god," lady Xuan couldn't help but say. "That kid was going to ask the Ruler to make the decision for us, wasn't he?"
"Do you think he knows the ruler?" Tai Guan asked.
"Who knows," Huang Xinyi said. "He's not someone we can judge through our normal understanding of the world. It is possible that he has already met the ruler."
"He was coming from the Land of Xue when we first met him. It's not impossible," Lady Xuan said.
"Phew! It's a good thing we could even bargain the alchemy lesson. Thankfully he wasn't offended at all," Tai Guan said.
The man that had argued with Alex came up to the group. "Seniors, I still don't understand why we have to be so respectful to that little brat. Did you see how disrespectful he was? He didn't even greet anyone after walking in."
"And yet you let him walk all over you," the man said.
"He did, and we didn't stop him," lady Xuan said. "Is that not enough of an answer for you?"
The man couldn't help but show a tinge of fear when he heard that but he still couldn't understand. "Why though? Neither he nor that girl was any strong at all."
"He doesn't need strength," Huang Xinyi said. "If you had offended him enough and he had wanted to kill you today, we would have aided him in the matter. Do you understand? If you do, go back and relay the information that needs to be relayed."
The group immediately disbanded as everyone went their own way to spread the news that the players had a chance to go visit their homes.
