Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

A young woman appeared outside of a room and waited. She didn't know how long she would have to wait, but she did so regardless.

After a few hours, the door finally opened and an old man with a face full of white hair and a head full of nothing walked out.

"Master!" she bowed the moment the old man walked out.

"Shu'er, you've been waiting for me?" the old man asked.

"Yes master, something has happened," she said immediately.

"Bad news?" the old man asked with a frown on his face.

"Probably not, but it is quite detrimental news to all the alchemists," she said before bringing out a talisman. "This just appeared a few hours ago."

The old man frowned the moment he read the information. "Who else knows of it?" he asked.

"Given that it was broadcasted outside the purchase area, I would say everyone," the girl said. "The news has most likely spread through the entire city."

"That's… What about the Alchemists?" the old man asked.

"I… assume they know too," the girl said.

"That's… bad. I hope they're not demotivated all of a sudden," the old man said as he read the talisman again. "Alex… that's not a normal name, is it?"

"That's definitely one of those players," the girl said. "I have confirmed it with a few other players and they say it's a common name where they come from."

"I will go to my office, bring me Yuan Tailin. He's the one that tested this person," the old man said.

"Yes, master," the girl said and left.

The old man walked towards his office while frowning a little. In a place where one could barely make 60% pill even when they did their best, someone coming and making 94% pill all of a sudden would make them feel horrible about themselves.

As the head of the Alchemy Association, he needed to do something about it.

He walked into his office, and not long after a man named Yuan Tailin appeared in his room.

"Yuan, is this report true?" he asked.

"About the new Alchemist, leader? That's absolutely true," he said. "I watched him do it with my own eyes, and even had a witness with me."

Tell me everything you saw.

Tailin explained everything that happened to the old man.

"An hour of preparation for a single pill?" the old man asked with a surprised look on his face. "Did he give a reasoning why so long?"

"I did not ask, leader. I only waited for him to do it because he said he could do it beforehand," Tailin said.

"So it was not a fluke either," the leader thought. "Has he made another pill?"

"No," Tailin said. "I sent him to his room and told him he could start tomorrow."

"I would have loved to see him make some more pills. What about the pill he made? Where is it?" the old man asked.

"I'm afraid I already sold it, master. The moment I put it up, the crowd went crazy and started bidding on it as if it were an auction," Tailin said.

"So, someone bought it?" the old man asked.

"Yes, someone bought it for 90 thousand True Spirit stones," Tailin said.

"Someone paid 90 thousand for a single pill?" the old man gave a surprised look. "That's… so much."

"It is a pill with 94% harmony, leader. It will barely cause any problems for you and it will heal you from the most extreme of injuries too," Tailin said.

"It is, but still…" the old man found it hard to agree with the price. He wasn't trying to undermine the work needed to reach such a high harmony. He simply felt that there wasn't much difference between a pill at the 80% harmony and the 94% harmony level.

Even a 70% harmony pill wouldn't be that much worse than what it did. As such, the value of the pill seemed almost negligible to his eyes. But then, he had never seen a 94% before, so he may have been wrong.

"Thank you, Tailin. You may leave," the old man said and let Tailin go. After Tailin left, the old man started looking up the different statistics for the past few hours to see what sort of changes had come to the association.

As he had worried, there was a significant decrease in people trying to buy pills today, and it had happened right after Alex's information was made public.

Not only that, many of the alchemists had called it quits for the day to make sense of what had happened today. He just hoped that they weren't feeling bad about themselves. It would be bad for the association if their morale took a hit.

Still, he couldn't help but be a little happy that his association had recruited such a priceless treasure. Even if the Fairy's touch was the only pill Alex could make, as long as he made it to be over 90% each time, his name would spread far and wide throughout the continent, making more and more people come for him to make pills.

Because of that, more customers would come to the association, which could never go wrong.

"Shu'er, can you try and find any information on this new alchemist? Where he came from and why I do not know about him at all," the old man asked.

"I will try my best to bring it to you quickly, master," the girl who was by the door, left once she heard the command.

"I should try asking him directly too," the old man thought and walked out. He left the building and walked towards the residential building inside the compound where the Alchemists usually lived.

He arrived on the floor where Alex was staying and saw a massive line of people that included many students and working alchemists. Not only that, even other top members of the association were there.

"You guys are already here, huh?" he asked as he walked through the crowd. The crowd split up the moment they saw him and greeted him.

The old man nodded toward the rest and walked up to the 3 elders that were outside the door. "What's wrong? Is he not inside?" he asked.

"He is, but he's not opening," one of the other elders said.

"Well, he might be scared with you all hounding outside his door all day," the old man said with a chuckle in his voice.

"Now he will be more scared with you to hound on him too then," one of the female elders said with a mocking look on her face.

All 4 of them suddenly started laughing.

"Alright, everyone, please go back to your rooms or get back to work. You will see the new Alchemist tomorrow anyway," the leader said.

The crowd had to leave unwillingly as they couldn't defy their leader's order. Only the 3 elders and the leader remained outside.

The leader knocked on the door again.

"Don't bother. I don't think he's coming out," one of the elders said. "We're just waiting for the sake of waiting at this po—"

The door opened and Alex walked out. He looked at the four older people and bowed a little. "Greetings, seniors. Was there something you needed from this junior?"

The four of them showed quite a bit of shock when they saw him.

"So young…" the female elder couldn't help but say.

"Ahem, I am the leader of the Association, Ru Jiuxen and these are my colleagues and member of the association's board. We would like to talk with you a little if you don't mind," the leader said.

"Oh, of course. Please come on in, senior," Alex said and walked in. The leaders walked into the room that was mostly plain with a bed to the side, a closet on the other side, and another room for cultivation or making pills in one's free time.

"I'm sorry, I recently broke into the Foundation realm so I had to cultivate a bit to stabilize my foundation. I must have made you all wait for quite a while," he said.

"It's fine," the leader said. "We shouldn't have come without notifying you first anyway. But, because of what you did, we just couldn't stop ourselves."

"So, what did you want to talk about, senior?" Alex asked.

"You should know what we really want to talk about, shouldn't you?" one of the elders asked.

Alex smiled. "If it is about how I managed to make the pill, then I must say that is a secret that I can't just give away," he said.

"Of course," the leader said. "We weren't expecting to learn anything regarding that today. We just want to learn more about you. For instance, where are you from? I don't think I've ever heard of an alchemist like you. I would have definitely tried to lure you away if you were famous."

Alex smiled. "I don't have much fame before this. I came from another continent, so it is understandable that you won't know about me," he said.

"Oh, another continent? You flew in here with someone?" the leader asked.

"No, I was a victim of a teleportation malfunction and was sent to the wasteland. I had to find my way here. I have tried to go back, but I just can't seem to find a way," Alex said.

"Of course," the leader said while nodding his head. "It will be hard to travel in between continents unless you use the intercontinental formation or some expensive ships with concealment and defensive functionalities."