The old man 

"wake up"

"wake up"

Frank heard an enchanting voice rouse him from his deep slumber. He was in a state of confusion. His eyes were blurry, but they soon became clear, he was laying on a wooden bed in a dark cave.

When he looked around, he saw a figure seated in the corner of the room. The figure seemed to be fully focused on the book in his hand, so where was the voice coming from?

"Oh, you're finally awake." A voice echoed in the room, but it still didn't seem like it was the elderly man that was seated at the edge of the room.

"Don't confuse yourself, young one. I'm the old guy over there, but I'm busy right now, so talk to my voice. Don't disturb my physical body," said the voice.

Frank was stunned. Might this man be a strong cultivator? There was no other explanation for such an incredible thing frank really couldn't make heads way of it.

"Who are you?" asked Frank.

"Just an old man that has refused to die," said the voice.

"What am I doing here?" asked Frank.

"What? No thank you, I saved your life. You'd have been mentally crippled if I didn't treat you immediately. "Said the voice

"Thank you, senior. I am forever indebted to you." said Frank. He had a look of glum in his eyes.

"It's not a big deal so rest up. As you can see, I'm very busy," the voice echoed before vanishing.

Frank looked up with a worried expression on his face. He had been hoping that cadet Wang would be back by now with news of his mother,

But he didn't seem too worried about his father though, because he knew that his father was strong, he just didn't know how strong.

However, he had started suspecting that his father was a cultivator. His father was a very mysterious man.

Frank himself doesn't know a lot about his father other than he was in the military and was now a worker at the mines, but that was his father and that was all he needed to know.

His train of thought was soon cut off by the sound of a book closing. He turned around and saw the old man looking at him with a heavy smile on his face. He seemed to have found what he was looking for in the book.

"Come with me, young man I want to show you something amazing," said the old man.

Frank nodded and stood up. When he stood up, he felt very light and refreshed. He smiled.

The old man looked back at him and nodded in approval. He thought, "Who would have thought that such a young man would be able to absorb all that medical essence?"

We walked for like five minutes before we descended into an underground garden. I have no idea how this was done. There were so many plants and vegetation down here that only grow in the presence of extreme sunlight like that of the desert, but they all grew right here in this cave.

Although there was a glowing orb hanging above the room, I doubted that it could be a substitute for the sun. Although I didn't have a lot of formal education, my father had always made it a point to educate me on the fundamentals of the world.

There was a door on the opposite side of the underground garden. It was labeled

"ALCHEMY ROOM."

The old man looked very excited when he opened the door.

The whole place was filled with medicinal air. It was quite thick. On the left was some charcoal, but it seemed to be of different grades as it was in different cases and had different colors.

The old man soon sat in front of the huge cauldron in the middle of the room. He gestured for Frank to take a seat next to him Frank didn't hesitate and went ahead to sit next to the old man.

The old man then pulled out a bag of herbs from his robe. He placed them on the floor in an orderly fashion.

Soon, a mysterious fire sparked under the cauldron and it lit up. The man closed his eyes and performed some hand gestures. Then he threw in the first herb. A few minutes went by, then he threw in another. He continued with the gestures and kept on throwing herbs into the cauldron.

He soon started getting serious as the expression on his face stiffened. "Oh no, the coal isn't enough and I can't stand up from here." The old man seemed to have made a mistake.

But then Frank didn't understand what the big deal was. He then had a sudden flash of inspiration. The old man was asking him to get some coal for him, but didn't want to be straight forward about it.

Frank then stood up and went to the pile of coal and then looked through the grades. It looked like the type they normally used was the lowest of grades The old man had.

So, he picked the highest grade from the coals. It was light red. He took them and headed for the cauldron fire. As he passed, the old man seemed to wake up from his meditative state.

He suddenly had a look of panic in his eyes as he saw Frank moving toward the cauldron. He thought, "Does this kid have a death wish?"

He was about to stand up and save Frank when he noticed that the cauldron had no effect on him.

Frank was doing it with ease. The old man had a look of shock in his eyes. "A normal person would have had his soul extinguished if they got so close to this cauldron."

The old man could only smile in satisfaction at his sense of judgment. This kid was definitely something special, he thought.

The old man closed his eyes again and resumed making hand signs. He was manipulating the fire. Sometimes it would burn ferociously, sometimes it would be gentle like a morning breeze.

Time went by and the intensity increased by a lot. He was now sweating profusely; the cauldron became red hot and filled the room with extreme heat. Frank didn't even dare go close to it anymore.

The old man made a couple of gestures and the room began to cool, and the old man breathed a sigh of relief.

"Success," said the old man delightfully.

"You young man, come here and congratulate this old man on concocting this new pill," said the old man to Frank.

"Congratulations, elder. May you see more successes in pill concocting in the future," said Frank with a large smile on his face.

"hahahahahahahahha Of course I couldn't have done it without your help, young lad," said the old man. He then added, "Come here and let me inspect your body."

Frank didn't hesitate because he knew that if the old man wanted to harm him, he wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Of course, that wasn't the only reason; the old man reminded him of someone but he just couldn't figure out who, so Frank's instinct was relaxed.

"Interesting that there's so much spiritual essence in you for a young lad who hasn't even started cultivation," The old man said

"When I gave you that medicine, I didn't expect you to absorb all of its essences. A normal human would have burst apart," the old man added.

Frank looked stunned. "The medicine the old man gave him could have killed him? Why did he give it to him in the first place?"

"Don't think about it too much, young man I would have, of course, helped if you didn't manage to absorb them all." said the old man. He looked very proud in his sense of judgment.

"You really should be happy. It will be very beneficial to you in the future."

Frank nodded with a bit of hesitation.

Frank said "senior,"

but hesitantly.

"Hymn?" The old man frowns his brows. Frank had disturbed his train of thought.

"Please forgive me for being presumptuous but..."

But before Frank could speak, he was cut off by the old man.

"What? do you want to take advantage of this old man and ask for a reward because you helped me concoct some pills?" said the old man loudly. He seemed angry.

"No, no senior, it's not like that," said Frank hurriedly.

"Oh, so you don't need any pills from this old man? Good young men your age should be more like you. " The old man's facial expression suddenly changed, and a huge smile appeared on his face.

Frank was a bit stunned. Did the old man do that just to get away with not giving him any reward for his hard work?

"No, senior, I just would like to ask you for a favor," said Frank solemnly.

The old man frowned for a little bit, then said, "What do you want?"