Alchemies

Chapter 20: Assistance Assistance

Alex clenched his hands and was surprised at how much power he felt in his hands. The pain he had just felt, his normal Qi transformation into Yang Qi, in some ways had also changed his physical body.

As he was still at the 7th Tempering Muscle realm, he knew that he was a little stronger. He wanted to check what changes his new qi shape brought to his technique.

But alas, there was no fire around to see if anything had changed.

Grrrrr

His stomach was screaming hungry. The inner transformation made him feel a little hungry.

“In retrospect, I was surprised I had not been hungry or thirsty for so long. Does being a cultivator make you no longer need to eat?” he thought .

He looked at the clock and realized that it was only 4 p.m. There's still 3 hours before dinner. There was no homework, so he was free to do whatever he wanted today.

He decided to go eat something in the valley of the sect but stopped.

Wait, isn't the contribution of food costs also points? he immediately checked the rule book and he actually could not eat anything without contribution points.

Even the cheapest items cost around 2 contribution points. Moreover, he could not leave the sect without the permission of the elders, so there was no way of going to the city to forage.

'hufh.... I think it's time to go to work now.' He's out of his cabin. He walked back into the valley. However this time, he had to go to the Alchemy Hall.

He immediately checked the map and found it. He thought he would be exhausted now, looking at all the different large halls, but, he was still shocked when he saw the Alchemy Hall. Perhaps more than anything he had ever seen in the valley of the sect.

The Alchemy Hall was not just a simple building. It was located in the corner of the most worshiped sect.

He looked at the entrance of the hall and saw a group of young green-robed disciples standing side by side.

Occasionally, an inner sect disciple would come, and pick one of the outer sect disciples and bring them in.

'Are the outer sect disciples standing here to be chosen as alchemist assistants?' he thinks

He walked to a small station outside the hall where an elder lived.

"Good afternoon, Elder. I want to work as an Alchemist assistant. Can you tell me what to do?" he asked politely.

"Hmmm…." The elder looked towards Alex and asked, “Is this your first time here?”

Alex surprised. 'How did he know?' there shouldn't be any clues, but the elder knew it right away.

“Yes, Elders. This is my first time.” He said honestly.

“How good are you at recognizing materials?” the old man asked him.

Alex surprised. That was not what he expected of the old man

“I think it's really good,” Alex said, not knowing if it felt like he was boasting or just being honest.

The old man's eyes sparkled hearing his answer. He reached into his storage bag and took out 3 items.

One of them is a small yellow fruit. The other was a strange purple-colored leaf. The last one is the brown tree bark.

"What's this?" the older ones simply asked him to mention their names.

Alex focused a little on the ingredients and their name appeared on it.

“They are Cat Eyed Berry, Purple Bane, and Forest Scale.” He answered with confidence.

the elder kept the items again and said, "Right, stand up among the fellow disciples. If an inner sect disciple needs you, they will call you.

“Thank you, Elder,” Alex went and stood in the open beside a female disciple.

She looked beside him and saw the female disciple was agitated, almost until she looked trembling.

"Are you okay, brother?" the girl asked.

The girl turned towards him. She wasn't the prettiest woman he'd ever seen, but she didn't look that bad. He had long black hair, and a small face with big eyes. And in those eyes was a little fear.

"I'm fine, It's just that I haven't earned enough contribution points during the week, and if I don't get another 5 points in the next 10 hours, I will be punished. I'm just nervous because no one voted for me."

"Ah, I'm sure someone will choose you, brother" the girl comforted him. They made small talk before an inner sect disciple chose him as his help, and left.

His eyes became very bright when he was chosen. He thought he should wait here alone for now, when suddenly someone spoke in front of him.

“Eh, little brother. Aren't you the same little brother who completed my mission?” A voice came from in front of Alex.

Ah.that's you, Brother Kong.It's nice to see you here.I barely recognize you because I only see you in the dark of the night.

Yes, the man before him right now was Kong Yuhan, an inner sect disciple. The same person to whom he sold his Dwarf Berry last night.

“What's your name, junior sister? Is Yu Ming?” Kong Yuhan asked.

Alex surprised. He doesn't remember ever mentioning his name. He replied with a surprised expression, "Right, brother Kong."

Kong Yuhan looked at his surprised expression, and asked, “why do you look surprised, junior sister, Do you think I won't recognize you because I only saw you once. You brought me very important materials. You are a benefactor to me, and this Kong always remembers his benefactors."

"Ah, no, Brother Kong. I'm just surprised you somehow found out my name. I don't remember you asking for my name." He answered honestly.

"Hm. You didn't do it? Then I must have read it on your sign. Anyway, it doesn't matter now. Are you working as a favor now, junior sister Yu?" She asked.

'Oh! Nameplate. Sure have.' Alex felt stupid for not realizing it.

"Yes. I was waiting for someone to choose me as a favor."

"Do you want to come with me?" Kong Yuhan asked.

Alex's eyes sparkled. 'Finally' thought.

"Yes, brother Kong. I'm glad to do it."

Kong Yuhan walked into the hall and took Alex with her. The inside of the Alchemy Hall was not what he expected.

The inside of the hall looked like a ground-carrying room. It had relatively narrow lanes that were straight for dozens of meters or so before it split into 3 lanes. Each street has several rooms on each side of the road. The door itself was made of stone, similar to a wall.

Lanterns were hung on the walls to light the way. At the entrance of the hall, there was a large white stone embedded in the wall. There are many small boxes that light up with a red light or a green light.

Alex looked towards the carving and immediately realized that this was the internal map of the Alchemy hall. Similar to all the other stones and boards he had seen around the sect, this stone also constantly changed shape, from red to green, or green to red.

Kong Yuhan looked at the map once and saw a wisp of green light in an area. Come on, junior sister Yu. Let's find an open space.

Kong Yuhan knew his way very well, so he walked straight through the labyrinth-like passageway and reached the open room. He went into the room and waited for Alex to come in.

Alex walked in and was surprised to see the room. The room was larger than his hut and had a giant hole in the middle. The fire continued to burn inside the hole, and on it was a black cauldron, ready to use.

Kong Yuhan took out his signboard and placed it in a carving on the wall next to the open door. Suddenly, a large hunk of stone descended from the open door and blocked the whole.

He took the cauldron over the fire, and placed it in the corner. He then took out his own quality and put it on the fire. His cauldron seemed to be made of a brown color like the ground, but it was smoother than a black cauldron. Undoubtedly, the cauldron was better than any other cauldron.

He waited for the cauldron to heat up and took out his storage bag. He then handed the storage bag to Alex.

Alex is confused now. What should he do with that storage bag? He looked inside and saw many alchemy ingredients, including dwarf berries. He decided to ask.

“Brother Kong, what should I do with this?”

“Hah, why are you asking? You should have known this as help.” Kong Yuhan was also surprised by the question, too,

“This is my first time working as a help brother. I just joined the sect yesterday.” Alex said with a wry laugh.

Kong Yuhan frowned. "It's bad, Brother. You should have told me that this was your first time. If you screw something up, I'll get in big trouble."

Alex is a little worried. 'I should have tried to figure out what the help function was before coming here as well.'

“What's the point of help, Brother Kong?” She asked.

Kong sighed, "His own job is very simple, junior sister. You only need to give me the ingredients when I ask for them. The problem was that Alchemy required an almost perfect amount of time. If I can find the ingredients in time, I'll fail to make the pills."

“And this pill is very important to me. I only have a set of ingredients, so if I mess up here, I won't be able to break through to the Tempering Meridian realm. I'm just worried you can't recognize what material I'm asking for, and slow in delivering it, it will fail.

Alex's eyes sparkled when he heard this. “If you just recognize the ingredients, then I am sure you can do it, brother Kong.”

This room has already taken my points, so there is no turning back. Familiarize yourself with the pill ingredients and recipes in the bag, Kong Yuhan said as she closed her eyes and began meditating. .

Alex looked into the storage bag and found there were 13 different items inside. 12 of them were the ingredients, while the last one was the notes.

Alex took out the note and started reading it.

"Oh wow." She's surprised. He did not expect to learn the recipe once he read it.

'This must be because of the feature of the [Knowledge of Alchemy Gods] that said I could learn all the recipes instantly.' He thinks