Page: The Hu Household

The whole city was dark the entire day with thick clouds with few thunderstorms. The streets were gloomy while business was worst. Most people stayed inside their homes fearing that a strong storm would come and endanger them. Although there were still the chill ones, it did not look lively as the usual. If its to be compared to something, the best scenario is being stricken by a viral epidemic which lead the people to maintain social distancing.

Of course this was for most people who sees the turbulent skies above them but not Long Bai. Being inside his abode while concocting batches of pills which he planned to use as lures in exchange of a grade 3 pill recipe, he doesn't have any idea at all. All day, Long Bai was focused on making pills that he went straight to exhaustion after finishing them. Even though he used essence replenishing pills, the mental toll it took for the process was more stressful than the manual labor.

That day, Bai was able to make eight mystic grade of berserk pills, fifteen essence gathering pill at the mystic grade and 10 high grade of the heart calming pill. Five each of these pills, he plans to auction them but rather in shards, he opted to further increase his pill efficiency on a higher grade and try to create a grade 3 pill. Bai believes that making the grade 3 pill will change his capacity as an alchemist. The more things he can make, the more resources he can get. Similar to a trade and sell business that requires a certain amount of investment to gain a better profit. And in this case, Bai sees no losses but a win-win situation.

That was three days ago. Right now he was back at the auction house with his usual mysterious outfit. He just received two grade 3 pill recipes, the downgraded version of life extending pill which can extend life until five years while the other was the fire essence pill which is often used to cure yin- related diseases. To Long Bai, the last pill recipe was more than that as the system recognizes it also a source of an elemental essence source. This mean that he can use the pill to cultivate a fire- based essence which he never had before since there were no other sources. The thing that made him more curious was the difference of absorbing such elemental essence compared to the world essence. According to what he read from certain texts, elemental cultivators like the Yang extreme body or the Yin perfect body were phenomenal cultivators who carved their names in stones. Their aptitude was so high that they became ahead of their peers and was able to ascend to immortality. Since the immortal plane was out of reach for ordinary cultivators, there were no factual records of where such place exists but only theories and wild guesses from the peak mortal cultivators.

In the same place where he was receiving the last yellow shards aside from the pill recipes, the manager came in with three people whom Bai suspected to be from the Hu family. One was a female which he remembered seeing during the awakening while the other two females which looked older must be the accompanying elders. Looking at the manager who seems to be behaving as if he did something wrong.

"Mr manager, who are these people and why are they with you?" Long Bai immediately tried to intercede in the awkward situation the manager and the three were in.

"Sir, I would like to apologize first for not asking your permission. These people with me have strongly requested to be in audience with sir who seemed to be knowledgeable about pills. They seem to have a request. sir, will you please listen to what they say?"

The manager was anxious and Long Bai can see this. Maybe there's something Bai can gain from this, so without so much thinking, he asked them to speak.

"Thank sir, allow us to introduce ourselves. I'm the head of the Hu household, Hu Ling and the two behind me are my advisors. We came here to ask if sir can help us in making a certain pill."

Everyone was quiet. In their eyes, Long Bai can see the sorrow casted in it as if they were expecting someone's death. On the other note, there was a stronger expression of hope.

"Hmm. Why do you say that I can make pills?" Long Bai asked to probe the situation.

"Sir, we did not try to investigate you further than knowing who sent the pills to be auctioned. We don't want to make enemies of someone who could help us after all. Whether you are the ones making the pill or you know someone of that caliber, we would like to ask your help to create a certain type of grade 4 pill."

Hu Ling bowed her head to express her genuine intentions. As Long Bai sees it, this can be a real deal.

"I have a question, there are grade 4 alchemists in the city and the neighboring cities, can't they be asked?"

Hu Ling seemed to have hesitated for a moment but then decided to disclose some info about their family.

"Sir, we did have few but the pill they were able to make was only a low grade pill. What we require is at least a high grade quality of the pill to benefit from its effects. To the second question's reply, its just that we can't allow other families to know our situation."

"I see. If you want to believe in me, I will do my best to help but if you doubt, then we can stop here. In return, I would require a week to prepare. If you'll agree to my conditions, I won't have any problems."

The thee looked at each other and made a decision. The person in front of them can make a mystic grade so they have high hopes that there is a chance for them to be successful this time.

"Sir, please state your conditions." Hu Ling stared intently at Long Bai hoping that the condition is not absurd.

"I only have three conditions, first provide four times the materials for the needed pills, second a secured place where I can work at your residence, and third give me three days to prepare. For the compensation, you may think about it when the pill you desire will be handed to you. "

Hu Ling and the other two showed a shocked expressions. They looked at each other with disbelief on their expressions. Long Bai who saw this reacted a bit with aggression.

"Were my demands to much?"

The three immediately fixed their expressions and gave an apology.

"No sir, your demands were quite the opposite of what we expected. The previous alchemists whom we hired demanded almost twice of what you've asked. We never thought sir would be this benevolent."

Long Bai assessed that he might have demanded too little than he expected but since the benefits are good, he did not made any changes.

"Since its like this, when do we start?"

After the conversation, Hu Ling and the two company requested Long Bai to stay at their residence for the time being. Alchemist Mo on the other hand was tasked by Long Bai to proceed to his residence and make some cover for him in case there will be people who would ask for him.

---------------

Long Bai's alchemy update

[STATUS

Alchemy level: Student

~grade 1 pills (100%)

~grade 2 pills (100%)

~grade 3 pills

-low (72%)

-mid (63%)

-high (51%)

-mystic (39%)

~grade 4 pills (no data)