“The Sunless lands, that’s… in the east right?” Alex asked.

“Yes, it’s a group of small islands southeast,” the man said.

“Oh, why is it called Sunless?” Alex asked.

“It’s mostly cloudy there, and it rains a lot. So most people call it the Sunless lands,” the man said

“I see.”

Alex wondered if there was any merit in trying to mine some more metal here as well. Not that he needed any immediately, he still wanted to get some to make some more swords.

Now that he had lost all the swords he had made before, he had to start anew from somewhere. ‘I’ll worry about that later,’ he thought. ‘It’s not like those swords were that rare. I can make some after I find a way to return to the Northern Continent,’ he thought.

“Here we are,” the man said as they arrived in front of a small building. Another man walked out from inside, the same man doing errands for the family head.

“Are the formations inside working?” the family head asked.

“Yes, senior. It is all ready for our guest,” the other man said.

“Let’s go inside,” the man said and brought Alex along with him.

Alex walked inside and saw a rather large room with a fire burning in the center. “This is quite good,” he said. His spiritual sense moved around the room looking at everything.

“These are formations to help you keep your fire under control. These should aid you with heat manipulation. That formation over there is useful to keep your mind cool at all times, and that is a formation for testing your pill’s quality. I’m not sure how they do it in the Eastern Continent, but that’s how we do it here,” The man said. “There are other formations around the room, mostly defensive. But it’s unlikely you will ever need any defensive formations here.”

Alex looked around the room and there were indeed formation flags dug into all of it. He even noticed something peculiar about one of those flags.

“You have really put a show of just how rich one of the 10 families of the Council members can be,” Alex said as he looked around.

“Of course not,” the man said, a little offended too. “Being a family that brought forth the 10 Council members gives you no direct financial support.”

“Oh, not even a little?” Alex asked. That was akin to saying that the prince of a royal family wasn’t rich even though their father was the Emperor.

“I won’t lie, there is some help. But it’s not direct. It’s more of an opportunity than anything. When you try to trade with someone, they won’t outright reject our family because of the connection, but in the end, it still depends on how well we perform for those connections to remain,” the man said.

“There are many other sects and families out there that are richer than us. Hell, even the Mayor of this city is nearly as rich as our family, and he’s just one man. In the end, the connection isn’t everything. If you want to succeed in life, you need true power,” he said. “Fortunately, you will now help me gain it so much faster.”

“Yes, my pill should help you a lot,” Alex said. “Now, I should get to cooking. I want to try out my new cauldron too.”

“Okay,” the man said and brought out a storage bag. “Here are the ingredients.”

Alex took the bag and started formulating a timeline in his mind of exactly how long it would take him to make 70 different pills.

After all, not only did he need to make the pills, but he also had to do it slowly enough that they didn’t realize just how good he was. Aside from that, he couldn’t think of anything else that he needed to be careful about overall.

“I should be able to finish it all in a week or so,” Alex said as he looked into the storage bag. “Hmm? Why are there only 3 sets here?”

“Oh, right. I wanted to test you a little. These ingredients cost quite a lot so I don’t really want to just let you make it all without knowing what sort of quality I’m going to receive,” the man said. “After all, I have never seen a Saint pill made by you.”

“That makes sense, I suppose,” Alex said and sat down before the fire. “Please leave me alone for a while. I will let you know of the pill’s situation once it’s done.”

“Yes, of course. I will return in half an hour,” the man said and left.

Alex pulled out the ingredients and looked at them one by one. ‘This is a little annoying,’ he thought. He needed to improve the ingredients before every pill-making session, and they took a while.

They were obviously faster than the first time he had done it, but it still took 10 to 15 minutes per set of ingredients. If he wanted pills of quality, they were necessary.

‘Whatever, I’ll just make a single one for him,’ Alex thought and started the process.

Just as he had expected, it did indeed take 15 minutes to fully add the missing energy from the ingredient. After doing so, he lost a significant portion of his Qi, leaving him with less than half his original Qi.

‘Saint-rank ingredients require too much,’ he thought to himself and went to work.

One by one, he put in the ingredients and started making the pill. The pill-making process was the second best thing he could do without making pill veins themselves.

It lacked the usage of teleportation and Pill-Splitting Qi, but other than that, it was perfect.

The pill finished forming a few minutes later and he pulled it out. ‘92%,’ he thought. For a pill that he hadn’t tried his hardest, these were anything but bad.

“I’ve finished the first pill,” Alex said to the servant that was standing outside. The girl quickly walked away to pass along the information.

Not long after the family had returned to the alchemy room and Alex passed along the pill to him. “These are the sorts of pills that will be made,” he said.

The family head placed the pill on the testing formation and saw the number 92% pop up on it.

“Amazing,” he said with a look of awe in his eyes. “I cannot believe that there actually exists someone that can make pills with over 90% Harmony. If the entire Continent were to learn of this, you can only imagine how much insanity we would witness just so they could get you to make some pills for them.”

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” Alex said.

The man quickly put the pill into a bottle and stored it in a storage bag. “Although, I have to ask,” the man said. “How much of this incredible result?”

“Hmm,” Alex thought for a moment. “It’s hard to quantify in numbers. You can give a bad alchemist the best of recipes and ingredients, and he will still make bad pills. “

“But, if you give a good alchemist some mediocre recipe, he would still struggle to make anything good. So, I would say they are sort of half-and-half. It’s the mix of two that makes it possible to make such a pill,” Alex said.

“I see,” the man said.  “So I was right.”

“Right? About what?” Alex asked.

The man looked towards him. “I am right in that I don’t necessarily need an exclusive Alchemist. I just need a few to make pills following a perfect recipe. They will all make the same quality of pills as you,” he said.

“You’re not wrong,” Alex said. “Although, finding perfect recipes are harder than just asking for it.”

“You have one,” the man said. “I just need that recipe.”

“I’m afraid mine is not for sale,” Alex said.

“Who said anything about selling?” the man asked. “We are going to trade it.”

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“Oh,” the man turned towards Alex. “Not even freedom?”

Suddenly, a barrier arose from all around the alchemy room, which the family head barely managed to walk out of.

“Let us begin our discussion on how long you want to stay inside that room,” the man said. “Don’t worry, I’ve got days to waste here.”

Alex looked around the room at the perfectly formed barrier. It was a strong barrier that anyone that wasn’t in the upper realms of the Saint Core realm would be trapped inside.

The purple barrier originated from the many formation flags that were part of the Alchemy room, the same formation flags that Alex had thought were peculiar early on.

“That’s not the expression I was hoping to see,” the family head said. “You don’t seem worried.”

“I’m the last thing that should be worried in this transaction,” he said. “As long as you don’t have the recipe, I will be safe, isn’t that right?”

Besides, Alex had already noticed that there were formation flags there that were specifically worked to trap someone. He had stayed there knowing that.

“You’re not wrong,” the man said. “I do need to keep you safe until I get the recipe, but I can still make you work for me until you are ready to give me the recipe.”

“You think that just because you can use some recipes you are a good alchemist,” the man said. “No, that makes you a mediocre alchemist with a good recipe. Once I get my hands on it, you will be nothing.”

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