?Alex arrived at Liao Xumei’s house the very next day and walked to the back to find a very nervous Liao Xumei waiting for him.

“You’re finally here!”

Liao Xumei sighed and walked toward Alex. “I want to take it back. I can’t stand the thought of those ingredients being wasted. Please, I’ll get you some other ingredients if you want to practice Alchemy, but I need those ingredients from yesterday back.”

Alex paused, looked her in the eyes, and shrugged. “I’m sorry, I already used those. You agreed yesterday that you would give it to me.”

Liao Xumei was devastated. “You… used it already?” she asked.

Alex nodded. “That was our agreement,” he said.

Liao Xumei felt all her hard work and motivation slip right out of her physical body. There was nothing she wanted more than to just drop to the ground and lie there like a dead person.

“No!” she shouted softly, a low growl escaping her throat. Just like a beast.

Alex was a little surprised. ‘Wait a second,’ he thought. ‘Is she really a descendant of a demon? Or is she a descendant of a beast?’

The small budding horns gave little indication, but the growl made Alex think she was more a beast than a demon. 𝐟re𝘄o𝚟el.c𝐨𝚖

“Fine,” she said in the end. “Just give me the ring. I’ll see if I can sell it and get enough—”

Liao Xumei stopped midsentence to quickly catch the pill bottle that was thrown toward her. She looked at it and then up at Alex. “What is this?” she asked.

“Your pills,” Alex answered. “I never said I failed.”

“You… you passed?”

Liao Xumei opened the pill bottle and saw 3 light blue pills inside, all giving off a very pleasant aroma. “This… this is the pill I wanted.” She took one out to look at it closely. She wanted to make sure she wasn’t being lied to.

A pill tester appeared from her Soul Space, one that looked very different than what Alex was used to, but essentially followed the same mechanic as all pill testers he was used to.

He watched the woman put the pill into the tester and wait as the result was shown on top of it.

76%.

“Impossible!” She was in complete disbelief. She pulled out the other two pills and tested them both when she got the chance. They registered as having 76% and 77% Harmony in the two of them.

“This can’t be real,” she murmured while making sure her pill tester wasn’t broken. She took out some other pills and tested them, and in the end, had to accept the fact that the pills she received were just as good as they appeared to be.

“How did you make such good pills?” she asked him.

“I told you, senior sister. I’m a good alchemist,” Alex answered and moved past her. He left the woman with her many thoughts while he began checking the plants behind her.

“Wait, there are 3 pills here,” she said a few moments later. “You made 3 pills?”

“That was our agreement, wasn’t it?” Alex asked. “You give me 5 sets, I take 3 pills in return.”

“It was… but did you really make 3 pills out of the 5 sets? I thought you said that you had never made Immortal pills before. Was that a lie?”

Alex turned around to look at her. “Why would I lie about that?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe to show off? How am I supposed to know?” she asked.

“No, this was my first time making the pills,” Alex replied. “You should go eat that poison now that you’ve got the pills for it.”

“Later. I’m not looking to die just yet,” the woman said. “So youreallyare good at making pills. That is good to know. I’ll ask you to make one if I have some ingredients.”

“Of course. And I would appreciate it if you let your friends know that I can make pills. I’ll do it for cheap too. No more than 10 Immortal spirit stones for a pill.”

“That’s cheap, I suppose,” the woman said. “You are new, are you not?”

“Yes, I joined the sect a year ago.” Alex went back to working on the plants again, giving not much focus to what was happening in the conversation.

“Why didn’t you go for some alchemy sect? Why choose this one?” she asked.

“I thought of doing that,” Alex said. “But I didn’t get any invitation from an Alchemy sect. A guild did invite me, but they were very low-ranking, so I decided to join this one. They give out 20 Immortal Spirit Stones each year.”

Alex turned around. “More if I reach Inner Sect, I hear.”

“It’s 50 a year for the Inner sect. I hear Top 10 get even higher, but no one has bothered confirming the truth for me yet,” the woman said.

“That 50 spirit stones would help me a lot,” Alex said and turned back around to work on the plants.

“I appreciate what you’ve done for me,” the woman said. “I’ll help you out too. I’ll tell the others that you can make pills for them if they need to. Given how much an outside Alchemist costs, they will be more than happy to ask you for the job.”

“Fantastic!” Alex said.

He continued working for some time before leaving the house to go to the valley. He had given Liao Xumei 3 of the pills he had made, but he had made 4 in total.

So, he needed to sell the 4th one.

Alex arrived at a small pill shop in the valley, run by some Elder he had seen here before, but never bothered to learn the name. He stayed in a line for a while before he was at the front.

“I would like to sell a pill, Elder,” Alex said. “A Silver Snake Vine poison antidote pill.”

The Elder nodded. “Sure, show me the pill.”

Alex handed over a pill bottle and the Elder pulled it out. His eyebrows raised a little when he saw the pill, and then put it into a pill tester in front of him.

It showed a Harmony of 79%.

“I can give you 380 Contribution points for this pill,” the Elder said after a moment of thought.

It was a shame that Alex could not sell the pill for Spirit stones, but there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn’t leave the sect to sell it just yet, and the sect liked circulating itsowncurrency instead of actual Spirit Stones.

“Can I request for ingredients instead?” Alex asked.

“Yes, you can do that,” the Elder said.

Alex quickly named a few ingredients from a recipe he had already begun collecting the ingredients of and the elder pulled it out one by one. By the time he had collected all the ingredients, Alex still had about 100 Contribution points remaining.

He chose to take the remaining points instead and use them later when he needed them.

“Thank you, Elder.”

Once he had everything he wanted, he left.

Alex arrived back at his courtyard sometime later and immediately went to make another pill once again.