Alex sat in his bed, with the two elders sitting on chairs inside the room. They were still worried about him, but hearing that he wasn't to be punished had more than calmed their hearts.
"I'm sorry that you two were stressed because of me," Alex said with a small sigh. "I caused you to worry for me."
"That's our job, Your Majesty," Liang Shufen said.
"Not that you make it any easier," Yao Ning said with a small smile. "Did you kill this battalion leader all on your own? I heard his cultivation base was quite strong."
"We don't know much, Your Majesty, but we do know someone that strong should be too strong for him. Did you use some artifacts? Perhaps the Mirror?" Liang Shufen asked.
Alex brought out the dull mirror and handed it to Yao Ning. "I used the Mirror long ago, against an Immortal attack he made against me," he said. The handing of the mirror told Yao Ning what her job was to be for the next few days. She gladly accepted.
"As for killing him, I did it on my own," Alex said. "Just a sword and a technique I created."
A small smile appeared on his face when he mentioned his technique. It really had ended up becoming quite extraordinary. It was all thanks to Godslayer, so he would have to thank the spirit by quickly finding him some Darkness aura.
Not that it was easy to find though.
The elders were curious, so Alex explained what he thought he could regarding what he did in the secret realm. He talked about the first 6 months when he had to give away pills, about the next few months when he had to take Shan Wangjiu as an honorary disciple, and then afterward when he focused on just himself.
"You get headaches when you use your technique?" Liang Shufen asked curiously. "Why?"
"You're forcing too many Dao at once, Your Majesty," Yao Ning said quickly. "I'm sure it is because of that."
"It's more than that, but I can't explain what it is right now," Alex said. The mixing of 4 Dao at once was certainly heavy on his Intent, but over the past year, he had gotten used to it.
If he used it just as a technique, instead of using the Dao, he didn't even have to use much Intent at all. Although that significantly reduced the effect of the technique.
No, what was giving him those headaches was the 'embracing' he had been doing as per Godslayer's suggestions. He was sure that would come to pass soon as well, but for now, he would have to deal with the headaches.
"Enough about me. How have you two been? Did anything happen in the Realm of Trials or the auction?" Alex asked the two elders, watching the both of them curiously.
"There is good news on the side of the Trials," Yao Ning said with a soft smile. "This time around, 3 of our alchemists managed to get sent out with White light. They had all passed the final test."
"Oh, incredible," Alex said with a look of surprise. Last time it had been just him, so it was great news that 3 had managed to do that.
"5 more passed the penultimate test, and the rest fell behind quite a bit. They are weaker in cultivation base, so I assume it makes sense for them," Liang Shufen followed. She didn't know much about alchemy, so she assumed it made sense that people with higher cultivation bases were better.
That wasn't directly true, but indirectly it meant the same thing. With higher cultivation came higher spiritual strength, and that was what determined one to have greater Intent.
Everything else that mattered was talent, technique, and hard work. Rarely to do with cultivation bases. As long as one was a few realms into the True Realm or the Saint Realm, they could be similar to everyone else in comparison.
"Who were those 3?" Alex asked.
"Jia Heiyun, Zeng Chunwu, and Wu Shun," the woman answered.
Alex was taken aback. "Wu Shun got white?" he asked. A stunned expression lay over his face.
Wu Shun had been an alchemist he had picked up back in the Hundred Blossom Valley after he incorrectly diagnosed Yan Shumi, the girl with the Moon Goddess's body that was taken away.
He had traded with him to get his book of alchemy recipes, and in return, he had taught him alchemy so he didn't make a mistake. That had been over a dozen years ago now.
It was hard to believe the young man had improved so much in such a short time.
"I was surprised too when I found out," Yao Ning said. "Honestly, that young man never struck me as someone who would be that talented. Tells you never to judge someone without all the facts."
Alex smiled. "He did good, but so did the other two. Are they here? I should congratulate them, and maybe give them the recipe for the Spirit pill I made."
"They're not here, Your Majesty," the old woman said. "They're back in the Dragon Capital."
Alex frowned a little. 'The Dragon Capital. Right next to the Dragon Emperor.'
Smoldering anger filled him every time she remembered that the Dragon Emperor had in some way been responsible for Pearls' mother's death and quite directly responsible for his cousin's death.
Still, he couldn't do anything rash for now. Not because he was weak, but because in some way, the alchemist close to him could be taken hostage. At the very least, he would have to wait 4 more years for them to return.
He could do whatever he wanted after that. He could come back with might given to him by Bai Jingshen if nothing else.
"Let them be there," he said, letting go of his thoughts and emotions before smiling a little. "What of the auction?"
"The auction was quite big this time too," Liang Shufen said. "Although, your pills ended up selling for a little less than last time. We still made a lot of spirit stones."
With a nod, the old woman handed over a storage bag, and Alex looked into it. "Ooh!" he couldn't help but say in surprise. "What's that? a million Saint Spirit stones?"
"Close to that," Yao Ning said. "940 thousand."
"Great, great!" Alex said. "It was a good idea to sell more pills this time then. What about items you bought?"
Yao Ning looked toward Liang Shufen, and Liang Shufen brought out another storage bag. "We bought formation flags that could help grow plants as you asked for. Aside from that, there was only one item we could buy."
Alex looked in and found the item in a single glance. It stood out amongst the short formation flags.
A long and golden interlinking chain came out, with glittering runes carved onto each of the individual segments of the chain.
A talisman came along with it, explaining the details of the chain.
"Golden Binding Chain. Needs to be wrapped around someone to activate. Upon activation, it can bind the person and force them to hide their Qi, making them unable to use any techniques for as long as the chain is active."
