Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Once the girls started tearing up the bark using metal tools, making sure to not touch it at all, Alex also joined in and tore up some barks on his own.

"Wait, where are your tools?" Han Daiyu asked.

"Oh, I can touch this," Alex said. "I ate an immunity pill earlier that stops all poison from affecting my body. Didn't you see?"

"Oh, okay," Han Daiyu said and continued.

Finally, they managed to turn the tree naked by taking out the entire outer cover from its trunk.

Alex wanted to take more than just the bark, but given how rare this tree was for them, he decided to leave it be and let it grow and spread.

While the bark may not grow back, he hoped more willows could be found here instead.

'If only I had some botany knowledge,' Alex thought to himself. That was another thing that was to be added to the list of information he needed to learn.

The ship lowered from the sky and everyone got on it to leave the poison swamp.

Alex looked back in a bit of disappointment. He wanted to train harder and more, but with so many people it was hard.

Also, he found maybe 2 Yin plants that could help him. Other than that, he would have to find yin plants and artifacts through the guild or some auctions that apparently took place every month in the Dawnspring city.

Those monthly auctions wouldn't have such important treasures, but he would still have to go so as to not miss them.

Once they all boarded the ship, Han Hongqi immediately moved to the hell out of that toxic place.

"You guys get all you needed?" Shangguan Quan asked as he turned around.

"Yes, master," Liang Qiu said.

The group silently returned back to the city and stopped in front of the Flowing Brush sect.

"Thank you for helping us find the plant, Alchemist Yu," Liang Qiu said.

"Yes, truly thank you," Han Daiyu said.

"It was no problem for me," Alex said. "So… what now? Do I get to make the pill or do you still want to go to senior Xue?"

Liang Qiu chuckled a bit. "We chose you the moment we decided to show you the recipe," Liang Qiu said.

"Oh, thank you for trusting in me," Alex said.

"I hope you won't break that trust," Han Daiyu said.

"I promise you, I won't," Alex said.

Liang Qiu brought out a small storage bag and gave it to Alex. "I hope I can get to see the pill very soon," she said.

Alex took the storage bag and looked at it once before shaking his head. "This won't do," Alex said.

"Huh? What's wrong?" she asked.

"The ingredients are too few. I will need a lot more," Alex said.

"Eh? That's 6 sets of ingredients. Isn't that enough for 2 people?" she asked.

"It would be if I were to only follow that recipe," Alex said. "But I won't. I will have to see if the recipe is good or not first, and if it isn't, I will have to recreate it."

"Recreate it? With different ingredients?" Shangguan Quan asked curiously.

"Oh no, just used the same ingredients a little differently," Alex said. "I try to find what is wrong with the recipe and try to fix those parts. In doing so, the recipe subtly changes."

"Okay, then I will send Qiu'er tomorrow to the Alchemy guild. Tell her if you require more ingredients or not then," Shangguan Quan said.

"Well, I guess Daiyu will have to go too then," Hongqi said.

"I'll be there," Han Daiyu said.

"Alright, go take some rest, for now, junior Yu. You deserve it," Han Hongqi said.

"Yes, senior," Alex said and left the boat. Just as he did, someone flew out of the sect and looked in surprise at the people in front of him.

"Senior Quan, Senior Hongqi, what are you doing here?" Sect Master Qin asked when he saw the two. He turned to Alex and back towards the two and asked, "Did little Yu cause some trouble?"

"Haha, sect master Qin, you have nothing to worry about. Junior Yu helped us with some task and now we've come to return him, that's all," Hongqi replied.

"It's good seeing you, sect master Qin," Shangguan Quan said and nodded. The girls greeted him as well and after a short talk, the boat left.

Qin Shan looked dumbfounded, same as all the other guards and guests that were outside the sect gates.

"What's happening?" he asked Alex.

Alex looked around and said, "Let's go inside first."

Once they entered the sect, Alex explained everything as best he could. When Qin Shan realized that Alex was going to make some important pills for Han Daiyu and Liang Qiu, he started breathing heavily in fear.

"You must make sure the pills are good. Pay extra attention to not mess up their ingredients. Also, make it as soon as you can. You can't keep people like that waiting," Qin Shan said.

"I understand, sect master," Alex said and went to his mother.

"Brother!" Pearl shouted and ran up to him, jumping directly into his embrace.

"Hey Pearl, did you look after mother?" he asked.

"Yes, I did," Pearl said proudly.

"You're back," Helen came up to him and suddenly took out a talisman. She threw it at him and suddenly, the air touching him and around him burned with brilliant light.

When the light disappeared, he looked confused. "What was that?" he asked.

"It's a talisman to get rid of the poison in the air. Since you came back from the poison swamp, I had to make sure you didn't bring back any poison of your own," Helen said.

"Oh, you didn't have to worry about that, mother. I can do that on my own," Alex said as he flexed Yang Qi.

"Whatever," Helen said. "So, how was the trip? You were with girls, right? Come tell me."

Alex chuckled a bit and started telling his mother about his visit to the poison swamp.