"By the way, young man, how did you come up with the recipe? Did you have any information that helped you in finding that pill?" the Royal alchemist asked.
"No, senior. As I had said earlier, I really did stumble upon the pill. I was trying to make pills using the knowledge of ingredients I previously had and how they interacted with each other," Alex said.
"I had a lot of time in my hands, so I tried every single combination I could find before I made one that didn't threaten to blow up my cauldron. That one ended up being the pill and I made a recipe from there."
"I tried to improve the recipe a bit, but the most I could do was a few tries to improve the process to no avail. I was throwing rocks in the dark and hoping to hit something."
"Hmm," the Royal Alchemist said. "What's the best harmony you made?" he asked.
"Um, I believe it was around 28%," Alex said.
"28… that was the same thing I got. Meaning, you were definitely giving your best when improving the pill. Only you didn't have proper knowledge," the Royal alchemist said.
Alex remembered something and felt like this was the time to ask that. However, he wasn't sure if asking the question was rude or not, but he tried to go a different route.
"I did try my best. I even tried to use different combinations of rotations, speed, and temperature to change the structure and composition of the powder, but I was too naive to think I would learn anything about them by trying a few tests," Alex said.
Huang Fu's eyes went wide with shock, while the Royal Alchemist's eyes went wide in surprise and a glee appeared on his face.
"You know about Structure and Composition?" he asked. "Did you master already start teaching you this?"
Ma Rong who was sitting next to the royal alchemist shook her head. "I taught him nothing about it. I myself don't know anything about it to explain it to you," Ma Rong said.
"Then how?" the Royal Alchemist asked confusedly.
"Is something wrong, senior Lai?" Fu Wen asked.
"Not wrong, just… odd. He knows something that he shouldn't know at this point in his career," the Royal Alchemist said.
"I learned it from the book," Alex said hurriedly. He didn't want the Royal Alchemist to misunderstand him. "I learned it from a book from the higher floors from the library in the capital," he said.
"Book?" the Royal Alchemist said in surprise. "Written by who?"
"Uh…" Alex started thinking of a name he read in those books. 'Who was it written by again? Think! Think! It was written by… Lai Q—"
"It was written by you," Alex said. His face had shock written all over it as the realization had surprised him.
"I did?" the Royal Alchemist asked in confusion and suddenly his eyes lit up. He couldn't help but bring his palm to his face in annoyance.
"Tsk. It was probably during that one time in my youth when I was very young before I got my title from the emperor. The royal ministers approached me and asked me to write a book for Alchemy given how outstanding they saw my knowledge then to be."
"In my foolishness, I must have written everything I had learned up to that point. It seems I put in there things that shouldn't be so easily public as it would only add a layer of confusion to the new alchemists," the Royal Alchemist said.
"Do you remember what is written in those books exactly?" the Royal Alchemist asked.
"Uh…" Alex remembered the book word for word, but he changed it up a little and explained the writings of the book.
"I see," the Royal Alchemist said. "That does make me relieved that I did not give out the most important thing."
"Which is?" Alex asked curiously.
The Royal alchemist smiled, "I don't fall for those easily now, young man. You can give up," he said.
"Huh?" Alex thought before realizing what had just happened. "I'm sorry senior, I did not mean to pry for answers. I was just curious," he said.
"It's good that you are curious. As for learning about Structure and constitution, you are honestly too new to alchemy as a whole to teach you. Even little Ma who's been making pills forever will have difficulty understanding the exact concept behind the structure and compositions of powders and pills," the Royal Alchemist said.
"So you can forget about them for now." The Royal alchemist seemed hell-bent on not answering anything about it. Alex sighed and got a little dejected learning that the answers were in his grasp, but it slipped right under him.
"However," the Royal alchemist added after seeing Alex's face. "If you still wish to learn about it, find me once you successfully make a Heaven Grade True Pill. At that point, you should be eligible to learn about it."
"Heaven's grade?" Alex thought with a bit of contemplation. Given how fast he was learning alchemy, it was only a matter of time before he could make Heaven-grade pills.
"I understand, senior," Alex said. "I will strive to make a Heaven Grade True Pill," he said.
"Good luck," the Royal alchemist said. "You will need it, considering how awfully unrefined most True pill recipes are."
"Eh?" Alex said. "You mean to say that most pills can't reach 50% harmony just because I have the recipes?"
"Sort of," Ma Rong said from the side. "If everything from ingredients to pill making went perfectly then you can easily reach the 50% harmony mark with ease. However, it's hard to do so perfectly, so it doesn't usually end up reaching 50% harmony."
"Oh," Alex said. "Then… can't we just refine the pills as much as we can ourselves," Alex asked.
"Yes, you can," the Royal Alchemist said. "In fact, that is exactly what you do with the recipes you get. If the ingredients are abundant, you go through a period of trial and errors to see if you can improve the pill."
"Many alchemists do end up improving most publicly released pills, but they don't share it with the general audience. So, the ones you get will mostly have problems with it," the Royal Alchemist said.
Alex felt like he was learning a little more about the alchemy world from the Royal alchemist. His master taught him as much as she could, but even she would forget to bring up such topics as they never naturally came up during any learning periods or other such conversations.
"Anyway," the Royal Alchemist said. "I called you here for something else than just have a good ol' chat."
Ma Rong and Alex's faces grew curious.
The Royal Alchemist smiled and said, "You'll be happy to hear that your little contribution really did work."
"My… contribution…" his eyes went wide. "It worked?" he asked in surprise. "So the sweating pill helped her through the Mortal Cleansing?"
"Yes," the Royal Alchemist did. "All of the outer filth was removed, and her body is back to being well enough for the body itself to do the rest of the work."
"I have given her some pill to help with it, but even without our won help, she will be okay now," the Royal Alchemist said.
"Thank god it worked," Alex said.
"No, thank YOU," the City lord said. "It was all thanks to you that my mother was healed, young man. Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you."
"I don't need anything, City lord. I'm just happy to help," Alex said.
"Well, even if you say that the emperor already knows of what you did and has asked me to give you some compensation," the Royal alchemist said.
"We can't really put a price on someone's life, but with how much you've helped, I hope this much is enough."
The Royal Alchemist handed him a bag. Alex didn't know what was inside, so he curiously checked inside.
When he saw what was inside, his eyes went wide. There were only 2 types of things inside, but there were a lot of them.
Alex could see about 4 to 5 thousand different True Spirit stones, as well as hundreds upon hundreds of different alchemy ingredients.
"The Emperor wanted to give you some proper rewards other than just money, but you will have to make do with that. The empire is in a bit of trouble right now, and I don't think he has enough free time to care much for anything else," the City lord said.
"No, senior. This is enough. This is more than enough. In fact, I think I've been compensated for more than I deserve," Alex said.
"Nonsense. Do you think that little of my mother's life? Take it. I added a portion of my own in there to give it to you for saving my mother's life. Even though senior Lai made the pill, it is you who came up with it, so you deserve a lot of credit," the City lord said.
"I… I understand," Alex said. He was still baffled by the amount he saw in the bag and a small bud of happiness grew in him.
The bud of happiness was about to grow some more, but it was stumped on by something else. A feeling, that had appeared out of nowhere.
Every single piece of emotion Alex was feeling at the moment was washed away as a single feeling of dread remained.
The beast horde for the month was coming.
