After working as a waitress at the Alchemists' Association for several years, Lu Yao had not only met a lot of people in the upper classes, but had also trained herself a pair of discerning eyes. She immediately gave Li Yunxiao a high appraisal, but was still surprised by the help he needed next.
"I'm looking for Yang Di. Is he here?" Yunxiao asked faintly, his eyes still wandering about the hall.
"Yang...Lord Yang Di?!"
Lu Yao almost bit her tongue. She stared at the young man for a moment. Although she felt ridiculous, Yunxiao's indifference made her feel that he was indeed sincere.
It made her a little confused. "You mean the former president, Lord Yang Di?" she asked carefully.
Yunxiao frowned slightly and said disappointingly, "Former president? So, he's gone?"
A flash of reverence instantly rose into Lu Yao's eyes. She put her palms in front of her chest, her cheeks flushed as she said with a look of longing, "Lord Yang Di had made a breakthrough and become a fourth-tier Alchemist twenty years ago, so he was transferred to the headquarters of the Alchemists' Association."
"Twenty years ago?"
Yunxiao did some counting in his mind. That should have happened five years before his accident, and Yang Di should be long gone from here. Without Yang Di's help, it would be more difficult for him to open up the dried-up invisible meridians. His present body was fifteen years old, and had missed the best time for cultivation, so he could not afford to delay any longer. Otherwise, even if he did catch up later, it would be impossible for him to regain Gu Feiyang's peak strength, let alone take it one step further.
His previous life, Gu Feiyang, was revered as the genius of both the martial arts and alchemy on the Heavenly Martial Continent! He was not only a ninth-tier sovereign-grade alchemist, one of the seven elders of the Alchemists' Association, his achievements in martial arts also stood at the pinnacle of the Nine Heavens Realm. Because of that, he was conferred the title of 'Vanquisher Martial Sovereign' by the Holy City, and ranked among the top ten experts in the Heavenly Martial Realm.
"I have a list of herbs here. Can you help me find them? I need ten batches of all the herbs."
Yunxiao quickly took a pen and paper and wrote down a list of herbs. Now that Yang Di was gone, he would have to find a way to heal his internal injury. He could not afford to delay practicing martial arts even for a moment!
Lu Yao took the list and went over it, then suddenly burst into laughter. "Little sir, you can't have made a mistake on this list, can you? I've been in the Alchemists' Association for three or four years, but have never heard of anything you've written here."
Her words immediately worried Yunxiao. He was to concoct a potion to cleanse his meridians. Considering that this place was only a small branch after all and many materials might not be available, he had written down alternate materials instead of some rare herbs. But, he was still disappointed.
"Lu Yao, what are you doing?"
At that very moment, a man in a black robe came over. His robe was typical of an alchemist's, and he had a curved badge hung over his shoulder, with a bright, glaring blood-red mark streaked across its surface. Everyone who saw him stopped and saluted him with respect on their faces. His expression was calm as he walked over leisurely. If one looked closely, one would find that people's glances were rested on the badge on his shoulder, full of admiration and envy. As for the man, no one was interested in him.
Yunxiao narrowed his eyes and smiled. It was the badge of a first-tier alchemist, a symbol of status. With this badge, the wearer would be highly regarded wherever he went throughout the Heavenly Martial Continent. The hierarchy of alchemists was the same as that of warriors—they were also divided into nine tiers and shared the same titles. Clearly, the man was a first-tier alchemist.
Li Yunxiao's previous life, Gu Feiyang, was the almighty expert of all time who had stepped into the Sovereign Realm in both martial arts and alchemy!
Lu Yao turned around and glanced over the red alchemist's badge. Then, she said respectfully after a moment of awe, "Lord Jia Rong, this little sir has made a list and asked me to help him collect the materials."
Jia Rong took the list and glanced at it. A moment later, he frowned slightly, then crumpled it up like a scrap of paper and threw it away. Next, he said to Lu Yao, "What nonsense is this! Lord Liang is looking for you."
Lu Yao was startled when she heard that Liang Wenyu was looking for her. Not daring to delay, she said hastily, "I'll go now!"
She hurried away without saying another word, and suddenly was relieved. 'Even Lord Jia Rong doesn't know those things on the list. It looks like this kid is just fooling around. It's ridiculous that I wasted so much time on him!'
Yunxiao's face darkened. In his previous life, the prescriptions he wrote were priceless, and any one of them could be sold for a high price. And yet, it was thrown away like a scrap of paper now. He immediately said in a chilly voice, "You are Jia Rong?"
Jia Rong paused slightly, and an angry look flashed across his face. 'How dare a brat call me by my name! Even the dignitaries of the capital would call me 'my lord' when they see me!'
"It hasn't been seven days since you were promoted to a first-tier alchemist, right?" Yunxiao held his left hand to his chest and touched the bridge of his nose with his right.
'Hmph, whose boy is this?' Jia Rong looked down at him and said proudly, "I just got promoted to a first-tier alchemist five days ago. That's what everybody knows."
"Are you sure you really got promoted to a first-tier alchemist?" Yunxiao said meaningfully.
Jia Rong's body trembled slightly as a hint of shock flickered in his eyes. "What do you mean?" he asked in a deep voice.
Yunxiao glanced at his right hand, which was out of his black robe, and began to explain with a smile in his eyes.
"Your fingers have taken on a dark gray hue and are showing signs of peeling, apparently because you've been exposed to Hell Wind Stone recently. Moreover, you emit a faint smell of Blood Flame Orchid, which I reckon you've used to offset the aftereffect of the stone. Although the Hell Wind Stone has a very strong fusion property, its side effects cannot be ignored. It's something common alchemists wouldn't dare to use."
"Judging from the degree of damage to your fingers and the smell of Blood Flame Orchid, it must have happened in the last seven days. And, you also have a faint odor, which is the unique smell of Tiger Sulfur Stone. That tells me you've been exposed to a lot of it lately. It is clear, then, that your alchemist examination was to forge a weapon with Tiger Sulfur Stone as the main material."
Jia Rong was completely struck dumb as beads of cold sweat trickled down his forehead. Suddenly, he burst into a rage and shouted, "What nonsense!" When he had finished, he turned and left.
Yunxiao smiled and sighed, "Well, if Hell Wind Stone is so useful, then anyone can be an alchemist. Besides, the side effects of Blood Flame Orchid are no less severe than those of the Hell Wind Stone. I'm sure you feel extremely uncomfortable at the acupoints near your forehead, the back of your neck, and your back at noon every day, right?"
Jia Rong's body twitched as if he was electrocuted, and he could no longer take another step as if his feet were filled with a million tons of cement.
Yunxiao shook his head with a sad look on his face. "What a pity for a talented alchemist! If you want to save your life, you'll have to chop off your right hand and destroy your dantian."
"You...Stop scaremongering!" Jia Rong began to shake violently.
"Forget it then. I was going to teach you a solution." Yunxiao threw up his hands helplessly and turned to leave.
"You have a solution!"
Jia Rong sprung to his feet as if he had been electrocuted, then lunged at Yunxiao and stopped him from leaving as he cried out, "Tell me now!"
In the last few days, he had been suffering from the very kind of pain Yunxiao described. That day, he had used the Hell Wind Stone, which was explicitly prohibited, in order to be promoted to an alchemist. But, he did not expect the side effects to come to him that night. He began to lose feeling in his right hand, which scared him out of his wits. He could not find a way to solve it even after reading through a large number of classic texts, and only found the method of neutralizing the toxin with the Blood Flame Orchid in an ancient book.
But, the Blood Flame Orchid had only slightly alleviated the toxicity of the stone, and his right hand was still gradually losing its vitality. Worst of all, the toxin of the Blood Flame Orchid began to break out; every day at noon, his three acupoints burned like fire, washing him with excruciating pain!
If this situation continued, he was about to face the consequence of having his dantian destroyed and all his cultivation base gone! He could still accept the fact of having his dantian destroyed, because that only meant he could no longer practice martial arts. However, if his right hand was crippled, so was his path of an alchemist! It was unacceptable to him in any case, especially so after he was promoted to a first-tier alchemist.
He had enjoyed the honor of the status, as well as the awe and envy of others, which made him cling to his present status of an alchemist even more!
"Please tell me how to solve it! I beg you!" Jia Rong grabbed Yunxiao by the shoulder with his left hand, shivering and almost crying.
There were still a lot of people coming and going in the hall, and they all looked at them in amazement. Although they could not hear their conversation in the distance, Jia Rong's exaggerated behavior and his crying face still managed to attract many glances, causing the crowd to speculate about the young man's identity.
Yunxiao spread his hands and said in a feign surprise, "Hey, where's my list of materials? Where's it? Have you seen it?"
Jia Rong was stunned for a moment and immediately turned his head to the scrap of paper he had crumpled up. Of course, he understood what Yunxiao meant, so he hurriedly said, "There it is! Please wait a moment, I'll get it for you!"
Ignoring the startled glances, he trotted over and bent down to pick up the paper. All kinds of astonishing remarks came drifting into his ears. Jia Rong blushed with shame at once, wishing there was a hole in the ground that he could hide in.
'Let me get the solution first, and then I'll surely pay him back for this humiliation!'
He gritted his teeth with hatred and his eyes flashed with resentment. But, he still pretended to be calm on the surface. He unfolded the paper carefully and handed it to Yunxiao.
Yunxiao took the paper carelessly and blew his nose on it a few times, then crumpled it into a ball and threw it away. "I want ten batches of every item on the list, and when you've gotten them all, come to see me at Jialan Academy. My name is Li Yunxiao."
"You!" Jia Rong felt a cramp in his stomach and a shiver of anger as he looked at the crumpled list on the ground in the distance, with slimy snot on it.
Yunxiao stared at him with a sneer. "Respect is not given by others, you have to earn it yourself. And, you had lost my respect right from the beginning!"