"22 Thousand True Spirit stones, going once."
"22 Thousand True Spirit stones, going twice."
"22 Thousand True Spirit stones, going thrice."
"Sold!"
The auctioneer lady stuck the gavel and announced the product sold.
"Thank you everyone for coming. That was the last item on our auction today. There will be another auction in a month's time. Please come by again," the auctioneer lady said and waited until everyone left.
Alex left out of the auction house with a disappointed look.
His Yang body was getting worse by the day and his hopes of finding any sort of Yin treasure were getting worse and worse.
He walked by the streets of the capital and saw the influx of people that had arrived here to see the competition that was held for Spirit Foods.
'It's already been a year since the Formations competition huh?' Alex thought. 'Time really does go by quickly when one cultivates.'
In the last 7 months, Alex had broken through twice and had reached True King 3rd realm. In the next two or three months, he should be able to break through once more.
Pearl on the other hand had broken through twice too, but there was nearly 6 months gap in between each of his breakthroughs.
Part of the problem was obviously Pearl's slow cultivation speed, but part of the problem was also the fact that he hadn't managed to find any beast cores to consume, which had slowed him down.
'If only we could go to the mountains to fight and grow again,' Alex thought. However, he shook his head.
He had a job here in the capital. He was assigned to the royal family to make pills and he wouldn't return until he was done here.
'Just one more year,' he thought to himself.
He ignored the crowd of people talking about Spirit foods and made his way to the Alchemy guild.
There was a long list of lines and Alex found the shortest one to queue in.
As he waited for the line to move, a hand suddenly fell on his shoulders. Alex turned around to see who it was and saw Zhou Ren.
"Brother Ren," Alex said. "It's good to see you again."
"Brother Yu, It's been a while, hasn't it?" Zhou Ren said. "When was it I saw you last time? Oh, that's right, back when you gave away all the pastes recipes for free."
'Does he hold a grudge against me for that?' Alex wondered. Alex thought he hadn't done anything directly to the father and son, but who knew how the elites took to even the slightest damage to their pride.
"What are you doing here? Are you looking for a pill? Tell me what it is, and I will make it for you," Zhou Ren said.
"It's fine, brother Ren. I'm not looking for any pill. I'm just here to talk to the receptionist about some ingredients," Alex said.
"What ingredients?" Zhou Ren inquired.
"It's something only the staff can help me with," Alex said.
"Do you want to come with me to the back? There are people there that can do similar things too. The line in here is so long," Zhou Ren said.
Alex's eyes narrowed a bit in thought. He was friendly with the staff back in the Dawnspring city, so he could ask the ones in the back about anything.
But in the capital, where everything was so strict, he wasn't sure if he should do something out of line here.
"That's not the staff's task though," Alex said.
"They will bend a rule or two from time to time," Zhou Ren said. "Especially if I show them my True Heaven rank badge."
"Hmm… " Alex thought for a moment. "Well, if they will do that then I should do just that."
Alex walked out of the queue and started walking towards the back of the Alchemy Guild.
"Hey, not so fast. I need to show my badge to get you—" Zhou Ren's words stuck in his mouth when Alex brought out his own badge to wear.
His eyes went wide as he couldn't possibly correlate a True Heaven rank badge with someone like Alex.
"Where did you get that badge?" Zhou Ren asked. "Do you know how much trouble you could cause to the person whose badge this is?"
"Problem? This is my own badge, Brother Zhou," Alex said.
"No way," Zhou Ren said. "You're not an Alchemist."
"The badge says so," Alex said and continued walking.
"Is that really not a stolen badge?" Zhou Ren asked.
"Of course not," Alex said.
Alex walked up to the staff members that were in charge of handing the mission's ending.
"Greetings, Brother Yu," one of the staff members that recognized him greeted him quickly.
"Hello," Alex put on an amicable smile. "I needed to buy something but the line outside is very long. Would it be alright if I had you guys look something up for me?"
"Sure, Brother Yu. What would you like for us to search?" the staff member asked.
"Is there any treasure in the guild with a lot of Yin?" he asked.
The staff checked through the records and came up with a few names.
Alex mulled over the list and chose the ones that would actually affect him somewhat.
"This, this, and this," he quickly chose the ingredients. "As for the money, please take it from my account."
"Yes, brother Yu," the staff said and quickly finished the transaction.
"Thank you," Alex said and turned away.
Zhou Ren watched the whole thing with a shocked expression as he finally realized that Alex truly was a True Heaven-ranked alchemist.
"I don't understand," he said. "Why would a True Heaven alchemist ever bother with the common folks and stoop so low to treat them himself?"
"It kind of felt like it was my responsibility," Alex said. "After I got the recipes from the Demon Realm, I realized that it could treat so many people with such little resources."
"So, I started practicing and got good at it. However, since I was the only one who knew how to make it, I didn't think anyone else could do it," Alex said.
"Well, that went in a different direction very quickly, didn't it? If you and your father had asked just 20 minutes earlier that day, you would've likely gotten all the recipes," Alex said.
Zhou Ren slowly got angry as he heard Alex talk. To him, Alex's words sounded like mockery. He felt like Alex was telling him they failed.
As a member of the Zhou family, he couldn't bear being a failure.
"What's the highest Harmony pill you have ever made?" Zhou Ren asked.
"Sorry?" Alex was confused at the sudden question. "Highest harmony? Let's see. It was a 63% Body Relaxing pill." He wasn't stupid enough to answer truthfully just because he was asked.
"63% huh? That's not bad. If you take part in the Alchemy competition, you should be able to get top 5 if you reach that high," Zhou Ren said.
"I, myself, can reach 65% consistently. I even reached 67% on a pill not so long ago. Of course, the Alchemy competition is more than just making the best pill. There is so much more that goes into it," Zhou Ren said.
Alex nodded as he heard it, but there wasn't any need to hear about it at all. After all…
"I don't plan on joining the Alchemy competition," Alex said.
"What?" Zhou Ren's face sank with displeasure. "Are you getting scared? If you are a man you need to fight adversity with courage, not fear. So what if you won't come first? Or even second. It's all about standing up and taking a stance."
Alex didn't say anything. He was afraid after all. Not of the competition or coming last.
He was afraid that if whatever was going on with his body went on forever, then he wouldn't be able to make pills for a long time and would have to start all over again, just like his master did.
He would have to change his entire 8 year's worth of experience in Alchemy just so he could make a decent Common Rank pill again.
He didn't want that. So, the moment his job in the Royal family was done, he was planning on leaving the capital.
He wasn't sure where he would go, but what he was sure of was that he would do anything to get it fixed.
Even if that meant going directly to the Beast realm to see if they had any clue about what was going on.
"I'm sorry, brother Ren, but I really don't have any interest in the Alchemy competition," Alex said. "But I will wish you good luck right now."
"You still have 1 year to make your choice. Don't be too hasty," Zhou Ren said.
Alex nodded just to appease him. "I will think about it carefully then," he said.
"Good, that is the least you can do as a True Heaven rank alchemist," Zhou Ren said. "Now, if you will excuse me, I came here to find out information about the competition next year."
Alex let him be but stuck around long enough to hear about the date the competition was taking place in.
'It will be just around the time I am supposed to leave. Maybe I can spare a week?' Alex thought but quickly shook his head.
'I can't waste any time,' he thought. He looked at the 3 Yin ingredients he had been lucky enough to find and decided to go back to the palace and cultivate with them to temporarily fix his body.
