The Dragon Soul was steadily getting more and more surprised with Alex with each trial he put forth. Finally, on the 7th trial where the few remaining participants had to make a pill as well as they could, he was surprised to see pill clouds forming in the sky.

Even being from the Azure Clan, it wasn’t every day that one got to see pill clouds forming when someone made a pill. For such a thing to be commonplace, one would have to be in the Medicine realm.

So, when he saw Alex, a Saint Core realm cultivator making 5-veined pills, he couldn’t stop his curiosity any further.

“Who are you?” he asked Alex directly, appearing inside the now blue walls. The red walls had changed to various shades of violet before slowly becoming blue over the course of the trials. That was a way for the Immortal soul to keep track of who was at what trial.

Alex looked up after having just finished making the healing pill. He hadn’t even pulled the pill out of Memory when the Dragon’s soul had arrived in front of him. Finally.

“Greetings, senior,” Alex said respectfully. “My name is Alex Benton. I am the King of one of the continents of this world under the Vermillion Bird.”

The Dragon soul said nothing immediately, but his spiritual sense did land on Alex. The soul was either not very strong, or it didn’t mean to harm Alex since his senses on Alex were rather gentle.

The other possibility didn’t even come across Alex’s mind until the Dragon’s soul asked a question. “Are you a reincarnation of an Alchemy master?” he asked. “Or did you perhaps take over the body of a young man as an old soul?”

Alex was surprised. Did the Dragon think he was someone important hiding in a nobody’s body?

“Neither,” he answered. “I haven’t even formed my nascent soul yet. That’s… coming up soon.”

“Is that so?” the Dragon asked with a surprised look on his face. “Then… are you just a random person from this realm?”

“More or less, yes,” Alex said.

“More or less?” the Dragon asked. “Why more or less?”

“I’ve had opportunities that a normal person wouldn’t,” Alex said. “As I’ve mentioned, I’m a King directly under a Vermillion bird after all.”

“Is that so?” the Dragon looked at Alex curiously. “Then the skills you have… You learned them all on your own?”

Alex didn’t know how to answer that as he didn’t want to explain it all exactly. “More or less,” he said once again.

“More or less,” the Dragon soul repeated with a thoughtful look. “One moment.”

He moved away from Alex, appeared back outside, and started saying something that Alex couldn’t hear at all. He had gone back to address the trial as it was held.

After a few minutes, he returned.

“So, how did you learn to make pill clouds?” the Dragon asked as soon as he was back.

Alex was taken aback at the sudden questioning, but he showed little surprise in his expression. He hadn’t expected the beast to ask such a question directly after returning.

“Uhh…” he couldn’t come up with an answer immediately as he hadn’t expected an Immortal soul to ask him such a question. “It’s a couple of things working together,” he explained.

“What sort of things?” the soul asked.

“Um, Daos, techniques, and perfect recipes, to say the least,” Alex said.

The Dragon’s soul touched his illusory chin as if thinking a little. He spent a few seconds in contemplation before speaking once more. “What sort of Daos?” he asked. “What Dao do you have?”

“Dao of Heat and Dao of Five Elemental Interaction, to begin with,” Alex said. “Other fire-related Dao can be of help too… but that’s about it.”

“Hmm,” the soul thought to himself. “Getting perfect recipes isn’t that hard for me once I go back. What about techniques? What sort of techniques do you use?”

Alex hesitated a little. “Just some pill formation techniques,” he said. “Surely an Immortal like you has some good ones, right?”

“I do,” the soul said. “But what makes yours so different that you can make form pill clouds?”

Alex didn’t know what to say. He was aware that making pill clouds was an incredibly difficult task that most alchemists could never do in their lives. The good ones only did so a few times in their life and only the most incredible ones could do it so often.

There were a few things working together to help him achieve that, of which he could not tell the soul about the Supreme Elemental Accord and the Vortex of Perfection technique that he had derived from the Pill Splitting Qi.

He couldn’t keep the soul waiting, so he answered what he could. “I simply got lucky and got a few techniques that helped me get good pills. Once I used my Dao and trained a lot, I could make pills that could make pill clouds.”

“Just that?” the Soul asked. “I can do that too. But my pills rarely go higher than 95%. I can never seem to go higher than that.”

Alex was a tiny bit surprised that the soul could make such a good pill.

“What is the main issue for the last few percentages?” Alex asked. “Ingredients? Techniques? Recipe?”

“I doubt my problem is with the recipe,” the soul said. “The recipe is rarely the problem in the higher realm. Everyone is talented enough to improve it to the best of its capability.”

“As for techniques, I do have good techniques,” the soul said, thinking to itself. “Maybe I could use some better ones. My Ingredients are surely not the problem though. I can guarantee that.”

“And Dao?” Alex asked.

“Well… I don’t have any good Dao suitable for making pills,” the Dragon said. “But I shouldn’t need it. I have my own pill fire, so it’s not necessary.”

“Pill Fire?” Alex asked curiously.

“Yes,” the Soul said, not really paying the question much attention.

“What’s… Pill Fire?” Alex asked again.

The Dragon was about to answer when he realized something. “Oh, right. The lesser worlds rarely have different types of flames, don’t they?” he asked. “Have you never seen a fire that’s not really… fire?”

Alex thought for a moment and asked. “Do Phoenix fire count?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” the Dragon said. “It absolutely counts. Although, I wouldn’t know how you would cultivate phoenix fire. It’s not something that you can easily take.”

‘Take?’ Alex thought. Was that possible? Could he take phoenix fire? Regardless of how strong it was?

Alex was reminded of the Zhou family at the moment. The family from the Luminance Empire in the Western continent could use a white fire that burned multiple times hotter than normal fire.

‘They were born with white fire. It was in their bloodline,’ Alex remembered. ‘Just like Scarlet’s bloodline gives her Phoenix fire.’

“I can get new fire easily?” Alex asked the soul.

“I wouldn’t call it easily, but it’s not very difficult either,” the soul said. “Especially when you’re rich.”

Alex nodded. He had another thing he wanted to do when he reached the immortal realm. ‘I should ask Scarlet about her fire first. Surely Phoneix Fire would be the best one to get.’

He quickly shook his head, realizing he was getting distracted, and looked a the soul in front of him. “So there isn’t much I can help you with then,” he said to the dragon soul.

“You can help me with the techniques,” the Dragon said. “What techniques do you have?”

Alex frowned a little. “I have one for pill forming,” he said. “Do you want it?”

“Is it really good?” the Dragon asked expectantly. “It’s… decent.”

“Can it help me form Pill Clouds?” the Dragon soul asked.

“I’m not sure, senior,” Alex said. “You are much older than me, senior. Surely you know much more about it than me.”

The soul got curious. “How old are you?” he asked.

“About 70 years old,” Alex answered.

“SEVENTY YEARS OLD?!?!” the soul shouted. “You… you’re so young. How are you so young? How can someone so young man pill clouds?” The dragon was certainly surprised.

“As I mentioned, I’ve had some opportunities come along my way,” Alex said.

“This… this is incredible,” the dragon said. “Give me the technique you used. I want to see if it’s as good as you say.”

Alex nodded and was about to bring out a talisman to give to the soul when he paused. “I can give it to you, senior,” he said. “But what do I get in return?”

The dragon soul paused. “You want something in return? Being able to help me should be an honor to you,” he said.

“Honor is good, but it’s not what got me this far in life, senior,” Alex said. “I will require something something of value in exchange. Surely an Azure Dragon such as yourself will have something of value with you that you can part with.”

The Dragon paused for a second. “What did you say?” he asked. Before Alex could say anything, he spoke again. “Did you call me an Azure Dragon?” .𝘯𝘵

Alex frowned a little, confused as to what was happening. Had he offended the Dragon somehow?

“Are you not one?” he asked.

“Why did you think I was?” the Dragon asked.

“Your name,” Alex answered. “Qing. That is the surname of the Azure Dragons right?”

“It is,” the Dragon said, suddenly bursting out into laughter. “But that doesn’t mean everyone that has it is an Azure Dragon.”

“If I were an Azure Dragon, why would I ever be in a lower world in the first place?”