Alex arrived at the garden in the backyard and saw the Princess' two early Saint realm guards.
But the princess wasn't around them at all. Alex walked up to them, and only then did he notice the veiled princess in the distance.
He wanted to talk to her, but he saw her talking with an old man that limped a little as he walked.
Alex waited for the princess to finish talking with that man.
After a few minutes, the princess walked away and returned back towards the table to see Alex sitting there.
"Good morning, princess," Alex said.
"Good morning," the princess said. "What are you doing here? I thought you would be by your clinic by now."
"I can go there any time I want. There's not much pressure anymore," Alex said.
"Well, you do look quite free," the princess said.
Alex looked towards the old man who kept limping as he walked around the flowers. "Who's he?" Alex asked. "He doesn't seem like a disciple or a member of the family."
"Who? Ruoran? He's a disciple. He just doesn't bother with it, that's all," the princess said.
"I'm surprised he gets to touch the flowers," Alex said. "I thought you said the gardener was quite strict about people messing with his flowers."
The princess chuckled a bit. "Yes, aside from him, no one else is allowed to mess with the flower," the princess said.
"Then— wait, is he the gardener?" Alex asked.
The princess nodded.
"Woah!" Alex thought. He had been planning to learn about taking care of plants for a while now, but he just didn't have the time.
"Do you think he would teach me about gardening if I asked?" he asked the princess.
"Is that what you came to ask of me today?" the princess asked with a smile.
"Oh right, I nearly forgot," Alex said. "I came to ask you if you would be willing to teach me the poison arts."
"The poison arts?" the princess' voice got serious. "You do know that it is the royal family's secret right?"
"I know," Alex said hurriedly. "And I don't expect you to teach me everything. I'm just asking for a few lessons to get started, that's all."
"I see, I will think about it," the princess said.
"And at the same time, can you get him to teach me about gardening too? As an Alchemist, I really need to know more about these things," Alex said.
"Why don't you talk to him yourself?" the princess asked.
Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "You're right, I should."
He stood up and walked towards the gardener. "Greetings senior," Alex bowed a little to him.
The man was checking some of the flowers when Alex arrived, so he didn't speak for a while. Only after he was done looking through them did he finally turn around.
"Who are you?" the man asked.
"My name is Yu Ming. I am the Royal family's Alchemist," Alex said. "I was hoping to ask a favor of you."
"What is it?" the man asked in a grumpy voice.
"Would you mind teaching me about gardening?" Alex asked. "I would really appreciate it if you taught it to me."
"What use do I have for your appreciation? Go away, don't bother me," the gardener said.
"Please, senior Ruoran, I really need someone to teach me about growing plants, and who better than the royal gardener?" Alex said.
"Go away kid, I don't have the time," the man said and tried to move to the next plant.
"Ruoran, you would do good not to call his majesty's guest a 'kid'," the princes spoke as she too had walked there.
"What? His majesty's guest? Seriously?" the gardener looked to the princess in shock.
The princess nodded.
The gardener mulled for a moment and shook his head. "No, I still won't teach you," he said.
"What can I do to make you teach me?" Alex asked.
"What can you do?" the man asked.
"I'm an Alchemist so I can make pills," Alex said and the princess nodded behind him.
"I'm also a True Heaven rank Formation master, and Talisman maker," Alex said, which surprised the Princess.
"You are?" the princess asked with a look of surprise.
"Of course, did you not know?" Alex asked.
The princess shook her head.
"I thought you would have every piece of information on my background before I came here," Alex said.
"You are the Emperor's guest. I wouldn't dare do anything that would bring your ire," the princess said.
"You're an Alchemist?" the gardener asked.
"Yes," Alex said, seeing that he might be going somewhere after all.
"I am an Alchemist too," the man said. "Or… at least I was, until…"
"Until?" Alex waited for him to speak.
"He doesn't like talking about whatever happened," the princess said.
"Leave me alone," the gardener said as his mood was suddenly ruined and he walked away.
Seeing his face, Alex didn't want to talk about it anymore and let him go.
"What's wrong with him? Is he injured or something? He keeps limping," Alex said.
"He was injured because of a stupid decision," the princess said. "Sigh, if only he didn't do that."
"What did he do?" Alex asked.
The princess then started telling him about the gardener.
Wei Ruoran was born to a distant cousin of the emperor and had thus lost his royalty. However, that didn't stop him from being one of the most talented individuals in the whole empire.
A century ago, he was one of the most talented youth in the empire. In fact, most would say he was the most talented.
Ever since young, his talent for cultivation was high, but his love was for the plants. His mother, the princess, was an alchemist and as such had started a little garden in her own backyard.
Ruoran used to help his mother take care of the plants in the garden and as such, he gained his love for plantation and gardening.
Even when he grew, he became an Alchemist and spent most of the time just growing ingredients.
Most who heard that would consider him to be wasting his time with the plants, but the royal family knew different.
They could see that he had a talent for it. Any plant he was given would grow without a doubt. Any plant would blossom its flowers to him.
It was like the plants loved him and always grew whenever he took care of them.
They suspected it had something to do with his constitution, but there was no hint of it at all.
Even when he did spend his time in the garden, his cultivation speed did not drop. In just a few dozen years, he went on to reach the peak of the True Realm.
Then, one day, on a stormy night, he decided to break through.
Ruoran made his way up the mountain of the disciple's area and decided to break through in the middle of the storm.
At the peak, he was in the middle of breaking through when the lightning struck him and he went through Qi deviation.
The cultivation base he had worked so hard for was ruined, and he fell down to the True King's realm.
His leg where the lightning hit was also injured, and no matter what he did, it never healed itself.
The people only found out about it all after the incident, but everyone who cared about him was furious at his stupidity to try and break through in the middle of the storm.
Ruoran didn't speak any longer of what happened or why he went stupid. Since that day, he never broke through again.
He decided to become a gardener for the royal family and live out the rest of his life like that.
Alex heard it all and a curious expression appeared on his face. "I will go and talk to him again," he said.
"I don't think he will want to," The princess said. "He isn't the easiest person to talk to."
"I will still try," Alex said.
"What about the poison training?" the princess asked.
"Next time," Alex said as he ran away. "This one is more important."
He quickly returned back to the garden, but he found that Ruoran was on his way toward the giant mountain.
He was making his way to behind the mountain where the royal disciples stayed in.
"Senior Ruoran, stop," Alex shouted as he made his way halfway up the mountain where Ruoran was at.
He was walking up slowly so he hadn't made it very far up by the time Alex got there.
Ruoran turned around and his grumpy face turned even grumpier. "What is it now? I thought I made my intentions clear?" the man said.
"I know," Alex said. "But I just heard about your story from the princess."
"My story? So what? Did you come here to call me stupid too? Go ahead, everyone else does," the man said.
"No, I'm not going to call you stupid," Alex said with bright wide eyes.
"You still think it on the inside," Ruoran said.
"No," Alex said. "You're not stupid. There never was a storm when you went to break through, was there?"
Ruoran's face changed. "How do you know?" he asked.
"I know because you are good with plants," Alex said.
Ruoran's face changed to confusion. "What does that have to do with anything?" he asked.
"It has everything to do with the plants," Alex said. "Since young, you learned about the plants and were deeply interested in them. As you got older, you learned more and more."
"Then… one day you learned about them so much, that you learned a Dao about the plants," Alex said.
"Dao?" Ruoran's face changed.
"Yes, a Dao," Alex said. "Which is why I know that there was no storm when you went to break through to the Saint realm."
"No, instead you created one," Alex said. "The lightning that struck you was your Tribulation lightning, wasn't it?"
