"What secret?" the Lizard looked at Alex with a confused look. "What are you talking about?"
"The Beast Paradise closed about 50 years ago. I wish to learn why," Alex said. "If you tell me, I will make you 50 pills of any variety that you want, each with 5 pill veins.
"Okay," the Lizard said simply. "We closed it because the new humans were getting aggressive and killing our beasts. We closed it to keep the natural order of the wild without unnecessary deaths."
"Oh," Alex gave a surprised face. "That's it, huh?"
"Of course," the Lizard said. "Should I give you the pills I want now or later along with the ingredients?"
"You can give it to me whenever you speak an oath saying that is the only reason you did so," Alex said.
The Lizard looked at Alex with a grim look. "Young man, do not tempt me," he said. "I will kill if you try to make a joke out of this."
"It was never a joke," Alex said. "I simply wish to learn the truth. You are free to refuse to tell me. If you do want to tell me the truth, you have to simply speak the oath. I also have Truth Seeking pills that we can use to bring the truth out of you, but… I wouldn't dare disrespect a senior with that sort of pill."
The lizard glared. "I told you what you wanted to know. Now make me my pill," he threatened Alex.
"The agreement was that I would make you the pills after you told me the truth,' Alex said. "Have you told me the truth?"
"I should really kill you and be done with you for this disrespect. No one dares not follow my own words in my colony," the Lizard said, his voice getting deeper and the air around it thicker.
Alex could feel the aura around him crushing him from all sides as a strong pressure landed on him. He felt discomfort for a few seconds, and then a warm Yang energy flowed out of his dantian, on its own.
The energy from his body didn't help him fight against the incoming pressure, but it did remove the discomfort, allowing him to remain standing without worry.
He stood tall in front of the lizard, unbothered by the Saint Transformation realm aura that was pressuring him.
'So definitely in the Saint Transformation realm as expected,' Alex thought. 'But how much higher?'
The Heavenly Silk threads were ever so good at hiding the other person's cultivation base. Alex wanted some for himself.
The lizard looked surprised to see that Alex wasn't budging even a bit. Anyone else would be collapsed to the ground, but he barely showed any reaction at all.
Surprised, he stopped.
"Senior, just say no if you don't want to tell me. It's fine," Alex said. "I was merely curious."
He decided not to push it. He could ask the other 6 leaders for some information if he really wanted it. However, just the aggression from the lizard alone told Alex that they really were hiding something.
As for what it was, he could only guess it was related to either the death of Pearl's Grandfather or the Azure Dragon himself.
The lizard said nothing, but its wide eyes said enough.
"How about I extend the same thing to the Heavenly Silkworms as well?" he asked. "In exchange for a single one of them, I will make you 10 different pills of your choice."
The lizard contemplated on the offer for a while, not even making a sound the whole time. He made Alex wait for nearly 5 minutes which he took to come to a decision.
"Fine!" he said. "2 silkworms for 20 pills."
"Great!" Alex said with an excited look on his face. "I'll be waiting for the list then."
"You do know that the silkworms won't survive without any food right?" the lizard asked. "And it will only eat the mulberry leaves."
"Uhh…" Alex thought for a moment. "Yes? So I will have to get the leaves too, won't I?"
The lizard grinned. "And the leaves are not cheap either," he said.
Alex narrowed his eyes. "How expensive would you say they are?"
"Each leaf for a pill," the lizard said. "That's it."
"Each leaf for a pill? No way," Alex said. "It's fine then. I don't need them."
"What?" the Lizard got worried. "But you need the leaves to feed the silkworms."
"I know," Alex said. "But I won't buy it. It's simply too expensive."
The Lizard thought for a bit. "2 leaves for a pill then?" he asked.
"No, too expensive," Alex said.
"3?" the Lizard asked. "They will be enough to feed the silkworms for a month."
"Is that so?" Alex asked. "But still, it's a bit too expensive. I'm sorry, I won't be buying that."
"Fine," the lizard said angrily. "Then I won't be selling the Silkworms either."
"Okay," Alex said. "Then I suppose I'll have to leave for the next colony and hope the leader there will accept my request."
"Dammit, young man. Are you trying to make me angry?" he asked. "If you continue this, I will kill you."
"And will you dare face the wrath of a Vermilion Bird as well?" Alex asked the lizard, who quickly cowered at the words.
It thought for a moment and was about to answer when it realized it was better to not say anything.
"2 silkworms and 100 leaves for 40 pills," the Lizard said.
Alex thought for a bit. If he continued this any longer, he was most likely not going to get any silkworms from here. "Alright, I accept it," he said.
"Bring me anything else you can alongside that, and I will make you all the pills I can in the next couple of weeks after that, I will have to leave this place."
The Lizard sighed in the end. "Fine, you can leave once you are done," he said. "I will have them get you the list and ingredients for now."
"Thank you, senior," Alex said and returned back to his room.
Once inside, he set up all of his formations again and finally released a sigh of relief. He had been worried that he was going to get hurt angering the Lizard, but thankfully he was let go.
"Trying to sell me a single mulberry leaf for a pill? Hah! He must think I'm stupid," Alex thought with a chuckle. "He might actually kill me if he ever found out what I did."
He brought out a large wooden box from his storage and opened it to see the hundreds of mulberry leaves he had in there.
Over the last month, he had sent Whisker away every time he made a pill. During that time, Whisker would steal just 1 leaf and return without ever being seen.
With the techniques Whisker had, as long as he wasn't being searched for constantly, he could easily sneak around without being noticed.
Alex sat down, ready to make the next set of pills when he realized he had a problem that he hadn't thought about at all.
"Where am I going to keep the Silkworms?"
