Alex and the elders rested for a while after returning to the Dragon Palace.
Neither the Emperor nor the Crown Prince were there to welcome him back, and instead, it was the Emperor's servants that did so.
Alex somehow found it better that way since he didn't have to deal with the emperor or the crown prince and could instead do what he wanted to.
Late afternoon, he left the Dragon Palace and made his way toward the Royal School of Alchemy. It had been over 2 years since he had met up with these people, so it was more than important for him to see these people.
When the group of Alchemists found out that their King had returned, they were more than excited.
Every single one of the alchemists rushed out to greet him and Alex was happy to see them all as well.
Jai Heiyun was cultivating fine and had reached a high enough rank with her cultivation base. The rest were slowly coming along as well.
"I'm happy to see that you're all doing quite fine," Alex said. "How's your alchemy?"
"Our alchemy has been coming along well as well, your Majesty," Jai Heiyun said.
"Oh, good, good," Alex said. "What's the highest pill you've managed to make?"
"The best I've managed is 93%, your majesty," Jai Heiyun said. "But it was a fluke. My average high pill is around 85% these days."
"Not bad," Alex said. "You are all lacking a few skills that are keeping you down. Once you find those skills and perfect them, you will see explosive growth in your alchemy. How well is the pill-splitting Qi coming along for you all?"
Jai Heiyun gave a nervous smile. "Your majesty, that technique is truly impossible to master. I've tried so many times and yet I keep failing each time."
"Keep trying, and take it slow," Alex said. "Understand each pathway it is supposed to take by heart and that should be enough. I had an easier time with it because of certain reasons, so I won't say you are doing anything bad."
Jai Heiyun nodded.
After talking to the alchemists for a while, most of them left with only Hao Ya remaining behind.
"Sister Hao, I hear your work is going well," Alex said.
"Better than expected, honestly," Hao Ya said. "I don't know how long until the Emperor leaves his closed cultivation. Do you know when he will be coming out?"
"I can't say for certain, but it will be within the next 3 years," Alex said. "He will have to come out if he wants to learn about the mushrooms."
"The mushrooms?" Hao Ya asked.
"I'm planning on teaching him about the World Defying Mushrooms as my next offer for our trade," Alex said. "He will want to come out for that."
"Okay, so he will have to come out soon," Hao Ya said. "I will continue doing what I'm doing."
Alex nodded. "Try not to get caught," he said.
"Don't worry. Even if I get caught, I have many ways of escaping. Master made sure at the very least that I won't die here," Hao Ya said.
Alex sighed remembering that he didn't have something of that sort. Not anymore.
After talking to Hao Ya for a bit longer, Alex sent her back and left the area. This was only where the people from the Southern Continent were allowed to stay, so he wouldn't find what he wanted here.
After walking for a while, he arrived in front of a dorm and pulled out a talisman. He used the talisman for a few seconds, and within 3 seconds, someone came running out of the dorm.
"Your majesty," the young man said when he saw him. "You're finally here. I've been waiting for you for so long."
"Wu Shun," Alex spoke, looking at his robe. "Level 5, huh? Not bad."
"Right?" Wu Shun said. "I think I can reach Level 6 in just a month or two."
Alex smiled. "So, how's life? Have my alchemists treated you well?" he asked.
"Yes, they are wonderful. Sister Jai treats me like one of her own and is teaching me to the best of her abilities," the young man said.
"I'm happy to hear that," Alex said. "I will remain in the Dragon Capital for a week or two. In this time, I plan on holding up my end of the trade in these two weeks."
"I'm going to teach you everything you need to learn to reach the same level as the Dragon Emperor."
Wu Shun's eyes widened in glee as the time had come for what he had been waiting for since over a year and a half ago.
"Do you want my book nowe or later?" he asked in excitement.
"I am fine with either," Alex said. "As long as i—"
"Here!" the young man held up the precious book full of recipes.
Alex smiled and took it. He flipped through the book once to get an idea of what it had. His eyes shined when he realized what an amazing thing he had got his hands on.
"Rest well for today. We will start your lessons tomorrow," Alex said, and soon after left the school.
He went back to the Swan courtyard as quickly as he could and entered his room to privately view the book he had been given.
He opened the book again, this time slowly as he wanted to view it all. The first half of the book was nothing impressive at all.
It was full of recipes for Common and True rank pills, all of which were either useless to Alex or already had an alternative. Even if there weren't, he was already knowledgeable enough to create a pill with the same effects if he wanted to.
Doing the same thing out of Saint ranked pills would be a little more difficult, so he instead he read through the portion that wrote about the Saint ranked pill recipes.
The fun began for Alex when he viewed Immortal ranked pill recipes. There weren't much, just 7 of them, but each one was a useful one.
There were 2 healing pills, one for body, another for soul. There was one antidote pill for body. One pill to speed up cultivation, and another to help breakthrough in every realm in the Immortal realm.
The last 2 were quite the unique ones.
One of them was simply called the Spirit Pill. It enhanced the users Spiritual energy as well as improved his replenishment rate. Eating one before a battle would help one survive quite a lot, especially against cultivators with strong Spiritual energy.
Not only that, if you had strong Spiritual energy yourself, it would give you quite the edge as well.
Alex was quite excited after reading about this pill not because of the pill itself, but because of its effect. Now that he had the recipe, he could most likely downgrade the pill to create a Saint version of it.
With that, he could have another way to improve his battle strength in an instant.
Alex happily read through the pill's recipe and ingredients and took it to heart. Then, he flipped the page and started looking at the next pill recipe.
