"Father," Zhou Ren walked into the room where his father was staying.
"What's wrong?" Tainqiu asked after seeing both of his sons come together.
"I've brought it, father," Zhou Ren quickly handed over the talisman with the recipe.
"What have you brought?" Tianqiu asked, not getting his hopes up.
"The recipes, father. For the pastes," Zhou Ren said.
"Are you telling the truth?" Tainqiu asked while checking the talisman. From what he could see, it really was the recipe.
"Good job, son. I knew you could do it," Tianqiu said to Zhou Ren. Guyang looked dumbfounded that Zhou Ren was getting the reward for what he had done.
He wanted his father to be proud of him too. But if he spoke now, he was afraid his brother would get angry and may even beat him for speaking out of turn.
So, he kept quiet and watched his father and brother continue to speak.
"Have you tried and found out if this recipe is true?" Tainqiu asked.
"I just got this recipe father. I came to show you the moment I got it," Zhou Ren said. "Worry not. I've already sent someone to get the ingredients. We will find soon enough."
Not a minute later, a servant returned with Zhou Ren's ingredients and handed it over to him.
Zhou Ren didn't have a mortar and pestle, so he simply handed the ingredient over to his father who crushed them in his hands.
As a Saint realm cultivator, these mere common rank ingredients were crushed as easily as if they were made up of sand.
Soon, the familiar scent of the medicinal pastes formed and without even looking at the final product, everyone in the room could tell that this was the real stuff.
"Great!" Tainqiu should. "Now we can branch off from just pills and make pastes too."
"Yes, father," Zhou Ren. "Given how early we've gotten here, we can quickly have a monopoly on the pastes too.'
"Yes," Tainqiu said. "As for that kid who you got the pastes from, we will have to make sure he isn't around in the picture anymore."
Zhou Ren's face got serious. "We're going to kill him?" he asked. He was ready to do it, but it seemed a little too extreme in his eyes.
"No. He's the Emperor's guest. If we do anything directly to him, we will surely be in trouble," Tianqiu said. "No matter how strong my position in the family is, if I get on the emperor's bad side, everyone will join together to get rid of me as the family head. Then that bastard Zirong will take over."
"Then what do you suggest father?" Zhou Ren asked.
"Buy him off," Tianqiu said. "Promise him you'll teach him how to make pills. Getting a lesson from our family, he should be more than happy."
"Yes, father," Zhou Ren said. "I will go right away."
"No, I will go with you too. Where is he now?" Tianqiu asked.
Zhou Ren turned around and looked at his brother with a questioning look.
"He should be returning back to the palace right about now," Guyang said.
"Yes, let's go," Zhou Ren said and the father-son duo left without their youngest son. Guyang felt saddened and returned to his room feeling like the black sheep of his family.
Zhou Tianqiu and Zhou Ren reached a street near the palace and hoped Alex hadn't returned to the palace already.
Fortunately for them, Alex was running a little late today and only returned five minutes later than when they had arrived.
"Father, it's him," Zhou Ren pointed to Alex who was walking over with Shurin beside him.
Tianqiu nodded and walked ahead to stand in front of Alex.
"Excuse me," Alex said and tried to move away but Zhou Ren appeared and stood in front of him.
Alex finally noticed that they were blocking him purposefully and stopped.
He looked at Zhou Ren and the at the old man who was definitely in the Saint realm.
"Greetings senior, brother Zhou," Alex greeted the both of them.
"You can call me Ren," Zhou Ren said.
"I believe we haven't been introduced yet. I am Zhou Tianqiu, Zhou Ren's father," the man said.
'Zhou Tainqiu? The clan head of the Zhou family?' he thought to himself.
"I am Yu Ming. It's my pleasure to meet you, Clan head Zhou. May I ask what you want from this weak me?" Alex asked.
"Weak? You are younger than my younger son and already on the verge of entering the True King realm. No one is going to call you weak," Tianqiu said.
Zhou Ren gave a look of surprise. Due to Alex's concealment technique, he hadn't been able to tell how strong Alex was, but he would have never guessed he was this strong.
"You are the one with the pastes recipes, aren't you?" Tianqiu asked. "I have a proposition for you."
"What proposition would that be?" Alex asked.
"From today on, you will stop making pastes for the people," Tianqiu said. "We, the people of the Zhou Family will take over that process."
Alex was about to speak up, but Tianqiu cut him.
"I know what you are going to ask. You want to know how we got the recipe," Zhou Tianqiu said. "The truth is it doesn't matter. My son here managed to get his hands on your recipe."
"If he can do it, anyone else can too. So, I say that you stop making pastes and let us take over the business," Tianqiu said.
Alex tried to speak again, but Tianqiu didn't let him. "I'm not finished. I won't ask you to leave this business for nothing. In exchange for stopping, we will help you become an Alchemist."
"I promise you, with our resources, we can make you a True Earth Alchemist in no time," Zhou Tianqiu said with a smile.
With the lure of being an Alchemist, that too from a world-renowned family like the Zhou Family, Zhou Tianqiu was sure Alex would be surprised and excited.
However, Alex showed no such expression as the ample smile remained on his face.
Alex wanted to speak, but he waited just in case he was interrupted again. Since this was the third time he was trying to speak, he was already annoyed on the inside and decided to not say what he was going to say the first two times.
Instead, he said, "I do not need an Alchemy lesson, clan head Zhou. I am fine as I am. As for the pastes, I had already planned on not making any more pastes to sell from tomorrow on."
"Really?" Zhou Ren asked from the side, but Zhou Tianqiu cut him off.
"Nephew Yu is wise," Zhou Tianqiu said. "In case you change your mind and want to become an Alchemist, you may find my son."
After saying that, he left.
In Tianqiu's mind, What Alex had said was a roundabout way of agreeing to his demands while not asking for anything in return. Tianqiu thought Alex respected him a lot and was feeling happy with the successful venture he had set out for today.
"See? That's how you do it. From now on, our family will be the only one that sells pastes in the entire capital. No, the entire world."
Tianqiu's smile was wider than the northern half of the Luminance empire while his head was held so high he was nearly taller than his son.
Zhou Ren too was surprised at how well his father did today. "Although, I hadn't taken him for a coward," he said.
"What coward? He's a young man with a brilliant mind. He knew not to go against us and—" Zhou Tianqiu's words got lost in his mouth when something else called for his attention.
He saw a massive group of people crowding the outside of the Alchemy guild and wondered what was happening here.
"What's going on? Did they put out information about the Guild Competition already?" Zhou Ren asked excitedly. He couldn't wait to embarrass Xue Meirong in front of the entire world.
When the two walked inside, the group parted to let them in. However, along the way, they started hearing about pastes this and pastes that.
"What's going on?" Tianqiu demanded of the receptionist to explain everything.
"Senior," the receptionist bowed hurriedly. "The physician Yu Ming just came by the guild 15 minutes ago and gave away a whole bunch of paste recipes for free. He distributed it to everyone in the guild and now the recipe is spreading around the Empire like wildfire."
Tianqiu's eyes went wide with shock and anger. "He did what?"
