Alex looked at the young woman who had arrived. She wore the white robe with green and gold patterns on it, but they were duller and fewer than the ones he had seen on senior Nurei.

She looked no older than Alex herself, with her long hair tied in a bun, decorated with a single hairpin. The woman’s eyes were a deep shade of green that made them quite unique. The thing that stood out the most, however, was the fact that the woman’s face had fur growing on them. A person who didn’t know any better would say she had a condition, but Alex understood better.

The eyes and the fur told him very quickly that the woman had a beast bloodline in her. And if he was not wrong, then the woman was certainly a child of a beast and a human. He couldn’t tell what beast it was from just looking at her, but there was no doubt that one of her parents was a beast.

“Little Shi, you were the one Nurei sent?” Silvermist asked.

“Yes, Court master. Senior Nurei said it was important, so she said I would be the best for this task,” the lady spoke.

“That was a wise decision on her end,” Silvermist said. “Come on in. I need you to meet someone.”

The woman walked in and saw Alex. Her eyes were full of curiosity, but she said nothing.

“This is my disciple,” Silvermist explained.

“Greetings, I am Dawnblade.”

“Greetings, I am… disciple?” her eyes widened suddenly, turning to look at Silvermist for an answer.

“Nurei made you swear an oath?” Silvermist asked.

“She did,” the woman answered.

“This is why,” Silvermist explained. “This is my disciple who will be taking part in the upcoming tournament. Since I cannot let others know about him just yet, you will need to see what he needs from outside. Cauldrons, ingredients, everything. You will need to see that he doesn’t lack anything. Similarly, you will also have to decide if what he is asking can be given or not. Don’t just do what he says.”

Silvermist turned toward Alex and explained, “This is Shi Quanli. She is… how do I explain this? She is a sort of manager here too, but on a much lower scale than what Nurei does. She is one of the many arms of Nurei in the court, and she is learning to be just like her. This will be a great learning period for her with you.”

“Ah, I am looking forward to working with you, sister Quanli.”

“I look forward to working with you too, uh… young master,” she said.

“Little shi, he is my disciple, not my heir. You don’t have to call him young master. Just call him young brother or something. He calls you sister already.”

“Oh… I didn’t know where he stood in the court. My apologies for guessing on my own, court master.”

“No worries,” Silvermist said. “For now, can you do a little task for me?”

“Of course, Court master. What do you need?” she asked.

“Bring me as many True rank and Saint rank sets of ingredients as you can for at least 10 different pills,” Silvermist said.

The woman frowned a little. “True rank and Sant rank?” she asked. “Not Immortal?”

“No, just True and Saint,” Silvermist said.

“Okay. I will be back in a bit.”

The woman left.

Alex looked at his master, confused. “Am I going to be making True pills, master?” he asked.

“Yes. I need to check something,” Silvermist said. “I need to test how many pills you can make at once.”

“Oh! In the same cauldron?” he asked, before realizing what he had been asked just before the woman came in. “Ah! You mean to check how many pills I can make in different cauldrons at once.”

“Yes,” Silvermist said. “Since you don’t need any actual lessons in alchemy, I will directly start training you for the tournament. Have you had experiences with making pills in multiple cauldrons?”

“I have,” Alex answered. “I’ve done 4 cauldrons at most thought.”

“Only four? You will most likely have to increase that number. There is no doubt going to be a contest to see how many pills you can make in a short time. If you’re not making at least 10 at the same time, you will not come out on top.”

“10?” Alex asked, a little surprised. “I will most definitely struggle with that, master. My cultivation base isn’t strong enough for that.”

“Yeah, I can’t give any consolation on that matter. It will be difficult. You will have to do the best you can with what you’ve got,” Silvermist said. “Don’t worry, even if you fail that one, there will be many more contests anyway. You can make it up in the other places.”

Alex nodded. If there was a pill such as a Heavensent Invincibility pill that he had to make, then he could only make one at a time. But if there were weaker pills, no doubt he could make 3 or 4 at the same time. And yet, Silvermist wanted him to make 10 at once.

‘It’s not the strength of 10 pills at once. They will be separate, so I can handle them separately,’ Alex thought. It wasn’t a matter of how strong his Qi was in this case, but rather how much he could use at once. Of course, he would have to train his ability to focus on all of them at once, which meant training his Intent on the matter.

Quanli returned sometime later and brought a storage bag full of ingredients of all sorts. She handed it over to Silvermist, who looked through it and handed it over to Alex.

“Any ingredients there you haven’t used before?” Silvermist asked.

“Quite a few actually,” Alex said. “I do know what they are, but they weren’t available back in my lower realm, so I don’t have the best experience with them.”

Silvermist nodded and brought out an empty talisman to write down the recipes for the ingredients Alex may not know. “These are the recipes. Learn them, and start making the pills. Start with a cauldron, and then add another cauldron and then another, until you can get to 10 cauldrons.”

Alex nodded and looked through the recipe, preparing. “How good do the pills need to be?” he asked.

“Decent enough,” Silvermist said. “We will focus on getting the quality up later on.”

“Okay,” Alex said, bringing out Memory and the other four cauldrons he had. He also had another cauldron, technically, but since Whisker used it more than him, it was his now.

Alex wasted no time and immediately jumped to making the pills in all 5 cauldrons. He had practice, so he didn’t need to start with just one.

The ingredients disappeared into the cauldron in a flash, somewhat surprising Silvermist. He had assumed Alex would use formation for that, but now he realized that Alex was doing it by himself.

He still mistook it for a technique as Alex didn’t bother using the Dao for this one.

Alex finished easily, making 5 separate True pills at once, each with over 90% harmony.

Silvermist smiled at the sight of the pills. “Little Shi, you might have to go out once more and bring us some more cauldrons.”