Realm of Trials, also sometimes known as the Production Trials, was another one of the 5 secret realms that the first Azure Dragon and his son, the Dragon Emperor had created for the saints of this realm
It was a realm where one went to test their production skills through various tests and trials to see how good they were.
Alex had been planning to go there to see how good his Alchemy skills were and to improve his other skills if he could.
"Thank you for letting me know," Alex said. "I can prepare better for my future with this knowledge."
"Your majesty must be looking forward to it then," Lady Zhan said.
"Of course. Are you not looking forward to it, lady Zhan?" Alex asked. "It sounds like something you would be excited about as you are an alchemist as well."
"I have entered that place since I was a child," Zhan Luoyang smiled as she said so. "I no longer have much use in going to those secret realms. Instead, I can focus on my current task better and not have to spend it in there."
"I see," Alex said. "What is your current task, if I may ask?"
Lady Zhan hesitated a bit before saying it out loud. "I'm trying to come up with a new pill and for that, I have to spend my time researching and trying to understand more about pills in general. I've been spending my time trying to gain some enlightenment in that regard, but it hasn't been of much help yet."
"I will have to spend a while trying to do so," she said.
"Ah!" Alex said. "You're trying to create a new pill, huh? That is somehow both easy and hard at the same time."
Lady Zhan nodded. "It is," she said. "Creating a random pill is not that hard. In fact, as long as you even understand in the least how pills work, you can create any random pill."
"But the moment you need it to do something specific, it becomes incredibly difficult," she said with a sigh. "Of course, your majesty probably doesn't have that sort of problem. You created that Water pill during the showcase in just 10 days."
Alex chuckled. "I may not look like it, but I too struggle with making pills," he said. "It's quite hard having a make a pill that does something specific."
"I'm trying to make one currently, and it's been over a year and a half and yet I feel like I'm going nowhere," Alex said. "I swear it is going to take me decades to create it at this rate."
"Oh!" Zhan Luoyang was a bit surprised. "You struggle with pills too, your majesty? I assumed you would be good enough to make any sort of pill that you wanted to."
"That is not the case," Alex said.
"What sort of pill are you trying to make anyway that is so hard to make?" the girl asked curiously.
Alex didn't hold back at all and told her exactly what he was doing. "I'm trying to make a pill that can improve the Wood Spiritual root of any person by a decent level," he said.
Zhan Luoyang stared with wide eyes for a moment. "Improve one's spiritual root?" she asked.
"Wood spiritual root," Alex said.
"Is it like the one you made in the showcase?" she asked. "How long will this one probably last?"
"Last?" Alex chuckled. "It will last forever. I'm trying to make a pill that can permanently turn even the worst spiritual root into a superior Wood Spiritual root. And that is taking a lot out of me."
"Wow!" the girl couldn't help but give a look of awe. "Making permanent improvements to your spiritual root… I wasn't even aware that was possible with Saint pills."
"It is," Alex said. "Of course, as I mentioned, this is going to take me a very long time before I get anywhere."
"Still, a long time to you is probably nothing to the rest of us," she said. "I hope I can make my pill that quickly as well."
Alex thought for a moment. "Now that I think about it, the crown prince went to the Beast paradise for you, didn't he? He brought you back the 6-Eyed deer's bone marrow?" he asked.
"Ah yes, his highness brought the bone marrow to me a year ago," she said.
"And you used it for the pill you are trying to make?" he asked her.
"Not yet," she said. "I'm still trying to figure out if I'm on the right track. There is only so much of the bone marrow that I can use before I run out of it."
"I remember hearing that you were trying to make some sort of healing pill, is that true?" Alex asked.
"Uhhh… not entirely correct, but that is the gist of the pill I'm trying to make," she said.
"Oh. What sort of pill is it, if you don't mind me asking," Alex said.
"Well, I'm trying to make a pill that is more of a hybrid of two types of pills," she said. "I want my pills to both deal with poison or toxins that one might be dealing with and heal their body at the same time."
"Oh, so instead of having to use two pills, you can only use one?" Alex asked.
"Something like that, yes," the girl said. "But of course, I'm struggling with it a lot."
"Hmm, do you want my help?" Alex offered. He doubted she was going to take up on his offer to help.
After all, this was her test to create a pill on her own to reach Level 10 and wasn't going to let the possibility of someone else helping her to reach that level exist at all.
So, when Zhan Luoyang accepted his offer, Alex was more than surprised.
"Will you help me?" she asked excitedly.
"Uhh, yes," Alex said. "I meant what I said. I didn't expect you to accept my help though."
"I feel like I'm forced to," she said.
"Won't it cause problems with your level 10 test if I help you?" Alex asked.
"It doesn't matter. I will make some simple pills for that. I don't want to be stuck with this pill when it could be of so much help to the average person."
Alex smiled. "You are very kind, lady Zhan," he said. "Please, tell me how I can help you."
The girl brought out a talisman and started explaining what and how she was going about making this new pill.
Alex looked at the list of ingredients and asked, "Do you have any specific effect in mind? Or just a normal pill that does both healing and curing poison at once?"
"Hmm," the girl thought for a bit. "I would like it to remove the poison first and then heal and then once again try and do both at the same time if the problems still persists."
"That's… a lot of requirements for a single pill," Alex said. "That makes it quite the challenge. I do love a good challenge."
Alex looked at the list of ingredients for a few seconds and started coming up with changes that could hopefully send the research further in the direction of successfully creating a pill as Lady Zhan desired.
