?It had been 6 months since Alex started making pills and selling them to the sect. With each pill sold, he bought another set of ingredients for different a pill and got just enough Contribution points in return so that in a month, he could get another set of ingredients.

He also continued doing his missions for some time before learning that the points he earned from his pills did in fact count toward his yearly contribution.

After learning that, he stopped.

His cultivation went as expected for the 6 months with some improvements but not a lot. It was truly going to take him ages just to break through at this rate. He needed to find a way to close cultivate for some time, but he wanted good pills before he did that.

At the very least, he wanted a few 2-veined cultivation pills. As he had yet to make the Ritual Oath, he could get 2-veined pills with his current cultivation base.

As long as he could find a secluded location to do that, he could immediately begin making them.

The Poison Assembly came around once again, and Alex went to the assembly along with Tai Guidao. They stayed to the side as Elders came to the sky once more and began calling out names.

Since both Alex and Tai Guidao had ranked higher during their last Poison Assembly, they had to wait for a while before it was their turn to fly up there.

Tai Guidao went up first, drank his poison, and returned.

Alex went up to the Elder when his name was called and drank the poison that he requested. After some research, he had come to find out which poison could put him in the top 4000 ranks.

Alex drank the sweet poison, surviving it after some show of difficulty. He had ranked up again.

Tai Guidao congratulated Alex. “At this rate, I’ll never catch up to you, brother.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine, brother Tai.”

The two were only talking for a while when they looked up in surprise, noticing a man who screamed as the poison began hurting him. The entire sect watched as the man screamed and quickly pulled out a pill from his Soul Space and ate it.

It was only after this that the man stopped screaming as the pain vanished and the poison was gone from his body. A look of pure terror remained on his face the entire time as he returned down to the ground, having understood that he was just a moment away from death.

The Elders acted as though nothing of interest had happened and began calling out the next names.

Alex couldn’t help but feel disgusted about the whole thing. ‘I hate this sect,’ he thought. ‘I’ll need to find a way to leave this place as soon as possible.’

Another one of the Outer Sect disciples died sometime later. This one ate an antidote pill too, but the pill failed to do anything for her. She fell from the sky and crashed onto the ground dead. f𝚛ee𝐰n𝐨v𝗹.com

Her body was dragged away by a few Elders before the rest continued the Assembly. No other deaths occurred afterward, and once the assembly was over, everyone was dismissed.

“Brother Dawnblade, I think you should slow down the speed at which you’re jumping through the list of poisons you are consuming,” Tai Guidao said. “Only eat one drink once you are comfortable you can survive.”

Alex nodded. “I’ll make sure to not overextend,” he said.

“I’ll have to test out that way too,” Tai Guidao said. “I should make sure which poison I’m taking and prepare an antidote beforehand.”

“Once you are certain of that, bring the ingredients for the antidote to me. I’ll make a pill for you with them,” Alex said.

“You can make pills?” the man asked.

“I’m an Alchemist. I’ve recently started making pills. I’ll make you a few for free, brother Tai,” Alex said.

Tai Guidao gave a small smile. “That would be really helpful, brother Dawnblade. I wouldn’t be able to afford one otherwise.”

“I’m sure you can,” Alex said. “Anyway, I have something to do for now. I’ll see you later, brother Tai.”

Tai Guidao gave a warm smile and waved him away.

Alex made his way to the pill shop once again, getting in line to sell another one of his pills. This was a 78% harmony pill, that was meant for healing weaker poisons in general.

Stronger poisons required more specific antidotes, and Alex didn’t have those recipes just yet. He did plan to understand the stronger poisons to come up with antidotes on his own, but he hadn’t gained access to those poisons yet, so it would take some time.

Alex arrived in front of the Elder he had come to recognize by now. “Elder Lan, I’m here to sell this healing pill,” he said.

Elder Lan was a younger-looked Elder, appearing to be no older than in his late 40s. He still had plenty of black hair on his head, with only a few specks of white within it. His beard was thin, going along with his overall lean body.

Elder Lan took his pill and checked it on the tester, seeing the result.

“Consistent as always, young Dawnblade,” he said. “Have you truly not reached above 80% yet?”

“I’m trying, Elder Lan,” Alex said.

Elder Lan quickly calculated how many points he should give Alex. “355 Contribution points. What do you want instead?” he asked.

“The ingredients for the same pill will do,” Alex said.

The Elder nodded and started bringing out the ingredients. “Where did you learn your Alchemy from?” he asked.

“My sect,” Alex said. “Back in my Spirit realm, I mean.”

The Elder paused. “You’re not from this realm?” he asked.

“No, I ascended from a lower realm,” Alex answered.

“You alone, or did you bring some family?” he asked.

“Alone,” Alex answered.

The Elder seemed to think about something, completely stopping to do everything else. “Would you like to be my assistant?” he asked.

“Your… assistant?” Alex asked.

Elder Lan nodded.

“What responsibilities would I acquire by becoming your Assistant?” Alex asked.

“You’ll have to make a lot of pills on time, each above a certain quality. You’ll also have to work in this shop sometimes.Actually,let’s talk about this later,” Elder Lan said as he looked at the impatient disciples behind Alex.

“Come find me in the Elder’s Hall in… 5 hours,” Elder Lan said.

Alex nodded. He took his ingredients and got his contribution points before leaving the area. He decided not to returnbackto his courtyard right away and instead went over to the Liao Xumei where he helped look over the plants.

The plants were in a much healthier state now, and Liao Xumei hadn’t been punished very harshly for letting her Fire-veined Nettle die.

She was forced to grow another one, and Alex had been taking care of it quite nicely.

Alex was looking through the plants when Liao Xumei arrived at her garden and said, “I found you a customer, junior brother. I have someone who wants to meet you right away.”

Alex turned around, quite surprised. “Someone wants my help with a pill?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, “and it’s someone big, so you do not want to disappoint them.”