Yasenia walked into the shop and looked at the cabinets full of pill jars with different tags. A magic-level pill ranged between one and ten Trail points. An earth-level one sold between 20 and 50 trial points. Finally, heaven-ranked pills ranged between 100 to 1000 trial points.
Yasenia doubted her eyes. How could a single pill cost so much? Although she didn't know how many points could be gained from the trials, these numbers seemed exaggerated. Thankfully, they had a thirty percent discount on everything they bought.
Yasenia observed the three most costly pills. The first one was a [Fire Lightning Burst Pill], an attack pill that exploded with powerful fire and lightning. The tag below the decorated pill jars had their names on it. The description said that even Nascent Soul realm cultivators would be damaged if they were not careful. Yasenia remembered that the Nascent soul was the ancient way of calling the Unification realm, so her face was solemn. 'What if someone buys it and uses it against me? I will have to be on guard.'
Attack pills were a concept very obsolete in the Sky Continent since talismans were better in every way possible. Fabrication cost and speed, strength, casting speed, effects, and the materials needed to create them, no matter which area you compared them, talismans were better than their pill counterpart. Therefore, the practice and recipes to make attack pills were mostly lost with the passage of time. Nowadays, only a handful of unknown and low-level alchemy families taught their descendants this kind of knowledge.
The other two 1000 Trial point pills were named [Soul bewitching pill], an extremely potent aphrodisiac that could make the person affected by it unable to live without the person that relieved them from it. Even after the pill's effects disappeared, and the victim received more pleasure from other people, an unbearable itch would still remain in their soul, and only the Yang or Yin energy the victim tasted when this pill was in effect would be able to calm it. Yasenia's face was ugly reading the description. 'This pill is too dangerous. I don't know to what extent this description is accurate, but if there exist similar pills...'
Yasenia said to the others, "We won't eat anything in this town unless we make 100% sure that it is safe to eat it." They were confused, but after reading the pill description, they all nodded seriously.
The other was simple but very powerful. Its name was [Nascent Soul Advancement Pill], a pill that aided energy gathering for the breakthrough into the Unification realm.
Yasenia continued looking around and was very impressed. The quality of the pills ranged between eighty and eighty-five percent. Yasenia wanted to ask who made these pills since the town residents were mortals, but she held the question for the moment. She wanted to see if the other shops in the city had this quality of pills or if they had been lucky enough to find the best alchemy shop in town.
Yasenia didn't find anything she needed urgently or lacked after looking around for a while. The variety and amount of pills she received on her birthday were enough to last for a long time. Still, there were a lot of rare pills she had never seen before. The effects varied from what she had, but they weren't much better than what she knew. Therefore, she asked. "We aren't in need of pills for the moment, but we are interested in pill recipes. Can we buy any?"
Yasenia thought that, even if the effects were similar, maybe the production methods, ingredients, or time needed to create them were better from what she knew. Moreover, Yasenia was sure that senior alchemists could become stronger after seeing how the pills were made in ancient times. Yasenia smiled expectantly. 'I hope they can help mom when I return with them.'
The shopkeeper laughed, "You are a sharp girl. That is the extra merchandise only for Heaven Gate cultivators! You can buy any recipe as long as you have the resources."
Yasenia told Kali to take a look with her. Kali came to her side eagerly and began consulting with the man. Kali became more impressed the longer they spoke and turned around happily. "Yasenia! He has a lot of lost recipes! If we take these back to the academy, it will make our lead in alchemy soar!"
Yasenia was happy that Kali thought the same as her. She looked at the man and asked, "How much for each recipe?"
The shopkeeper said generously, "I can see that you are good seedlings. Hence I will ask for 400 Trial Points for Magic Ranked recipes, 1000 trial points for Earth Ranked recipes, and 5000 Trial Points for each Heaven Ranked recipe, no matter the rarity."
Yasenia didn't argue with that price, she would go to other alchemy stores first, and then, when she had a general idea of the prices in the city, her bargaining would begin.
Yasenia and the rest asked for directions to the nearest monolith. The shopkeeper told them where to go. They bowed and said, "We will be back! Thanks for everything, senior." The man laughed happily and waved, looking at them leave.
Yasenia's group walked around the streets in the direction of the monolith. After those initial four lightning strikes, there were another five, but they weren't worried. They now understood its nature, and how many advantages they had for crossing the Heaven Gate, so they were rather relaxed.
They observed the different shops, people, and buildings as they walked. There were only humans in the streets beside the beast-human cultivators walking around. Yasenia observed that the number of cultivators had exponentially grown after they entered. They had been almost an hour in the shop, so they were rather impressed at the increased number of cultivators.
After walking for five minutes, they arrived at the place with the monolith. This monolith was not too tall at five meters tall and was engraved with complex formations. Yasenia thought it was not too tall because she could see monoliths that went over the buildings in the distance. Compared with them, this one was small.
Before the monolith, there was a queue. Cultivators lined up to challenge it. Yasenia monitored closely for ten minutes and saw that the rate at this monolith accepted challengers was five at a time. The challenge lasted from three to five minutes. Sometimes, from the five people that entered, only three returned with severe wounds. Thankfully, the monolith healed the cultivators when they reappeared in front of it quite swiftly. But that wouldn't take back the companions some people lost.
Sarah said with trepidation, "Yasenia, isn't it too dangerous? Some people didn't return. Doesn't that mean..."
Yasenia said bluntly, "They most likely died or didn't complete something and will be trapped there for longer."
Sarah flinched slightly. Death was a concept that was alien and uncommon for her. However, here, when people died, it was as if that person was insignificant. Nonetheless, what chilled her heart the most was that there wasn't a sense of empathy or pity in the other people's eyes. What Sarah mostly saw was disdain or contempt, as if saying, "How could that person die at something so stupid?"
Yasenia saw Sarah's nervous appearance and sighed. 'So naive and pure. If she didn't have that thing possessing her, I would be able to be more gentle with her, but I have to keep watch for any mishaps.'
Yasenia just patted Sarah's head softly and said. "Don't worry about it. You are very strong, so you will be able to survive."
Sarah felt Yasenia's hand stroking her hair gently and couldn't help but feel her freezing heart warming up as if a gentle fire burned beside it. Sarah looked at Yasenia's beautiful golden eyes and blushed, "En."
Yasenia then used her privilege and directly walked toward the monolith with the other three behind. She didn't want to wait for hours to challenge a single monolith.
While walking toward the monolith, one man tried to stop them, "Where do you think you are going? Get in the line like the rest of us!"
Yasenia ignored him and continued walking. The man was so angry that he directly got in their way and said, "Take one more step, and I will break your legs! Can't you see that we are all waiting in line obediently? Who do you think you are to walk ahead!?"
Yasenia was half a head taller than the man. She looked down at him with an indifferent gaze. Her voice carried actual weight, and her reptilian eyes felt like they could pierce his soul. "I have passed through the Heaven Gate. Thus, I can skip the queue. Make way."
The man was at first scared. Yasenia's voice was devoid of her usual seductiveness and only carried an authority that was hard to go against. Still, looking at the number of cultivators at the side and his own group, he got encouraged. He straightened himself and used his aura to escape from Yasenia's influence. His tone was derisive and provocative. "I don't care if you have passed through Heaven or the Immortal gate! Go to the queue like all the people!"
Yasenia looked at him for two seconds, and then she continued walking, ignoring his demands. She was slowly walking around him, as if he was just a rock in the way. The man was so surprised at this level of disregard that he didn't react instantly. Still, when Yasenia was about to move around him, the man's eyes flashed evilly, 'How does she dare to look down on me so much!?"
Enraged beyond his senses, he wrapped himself in a blue energy coat and screamed, "Since you insist, don't blame me for being ruthless!"
His aura exploded, making people know that he was on the ninth level, and he swept his legs toward Yasenia's legs without holding back. He had the intention of breaking them. Kali's and Angel's expressions darkened after feeling his intention to damage Yasenia. Their eyes emitted thick, killing intent and disdain. Does such a weak person think he can challenge their dearest? Not before their guard.
Before the leg smashed onto Yasenia, thick vines shot from the ground, wrapping around the man's whole body. The vines were as durable as steel, and his movements came to an instant stop. The counter momentum hurt him, making him grunt. However, he was still more angered than confused and shouted, "What do you think you are doing-?"
Before he finished complaining, an emerald green shield smashed on his head, exploding it into fleshy bits. Everyone shut up and looked with wide-open eyes at the petite and cute girl holding the big oval shield.
Angel looked around with icy blue eyes and said, "Any more people who want to stop her?"
Even if her silvery voice was cute, her current tone, actions, and face made people have chills going up their spines. Sarah was pale and asked, terrified. 'System, are you sure they aren't a Yandere?'
[Host. I'm 100% sure]
Angel saw that no one was speaking, so she returned to Yasenia's side and smiled sweetly, the ambient around her changing like a coin flip. "Let's go!"
Yasenia grabbed her little hand and nodded gently. "En."
Kali's vines dragged the cultivator's body underground and delivered his spatial ring to Kali. Kali said, "Nothing interesting. He was quite poor and even his most powerful treasure is in the earth rank."
Yasenia was about to nod and save everything in her ring to sell later, but five people flashed behind them and attacked with everything they had. "Bastards! How dare you kill our senior brother!"
"Do you think that you own this place!?"
"Die!"