"Patriarch, the core disciples have returned." Says an Elder, bowing to the old man sitting on the throne chair. 

The patriarch smiles. "Let them in." 

"Uhm..."

"What's wrong?"

The elder gulps and nods to the servant. The servant opens the door to the room, Xiang Hou and the hot-tempered disciple walks in.

?

"Where is that mortal?" The patriarch asks.

...

"Speak! Where is the mortal?!"

"He refused to follow us back and there were some complications..." The hot-tempered disciple says.

"What?! What could be so difficult about asking a mere mortal to come?! All of you are cultivators! They are bugs compared to us and yet you left without saying anything-"

"Please quell your anger, Patriarch! They have a reasonable explanation." Says the elder.

...

A wave of pressure unleashes onto everyone in the room. A dark smoke aura starts to emit from the patriarch. 

"Dei Lo and I went to the Inn where that mortal rented and asked him politely... He refused but what forced us to leave was the events that followed." Says Xiang Hou. It is revealed that the hot-tempered disciple's name is Dei Lo.

"First of all, He...slap himself." 

"What? Are you-"

"Please listen to them!" The elder says.

...

"But the slap wasn't ordinary... It was powerful and loud, something only a cultivator can exert." Says Dei Lo.

!!!!

"I was even framed for attacking him since my hand was extended... The jump that he executed isn't something an ordinary mortal can do either. I suspect he might be an expert hiding his true strength." 

The patriarch rubs his chin. "I see. If so, it was a good choice to retreat but you could have dug a little bit more about him since he is hiding his strength, he wouldn't want to expose it to the public and he can't do anything to you." 

Xiang Hou and Dei Lo look at one another before Xiang Hou speaks up. "It was Xie Mo, he appeared afterwards to take advantage of the situation."

!!!!!

"That useless brat again! He should have died when we broke his meridians and throw him down the mountain, why is a dead man constantly causing trouble?!!!!" 

...

"Call Li Xing here, Now!" 

A Servant bows and exit the room. A few minutes later, a beautiful woman with silky white hair and blue eyes walks into the room and bows. She is wearing a blue robe with a white outer lining and part of her hair behind her head is tied up by a flower clip. 

"Li Xing greets the patriarch." 

"Li Xing, I have a task for you. Find out whatever you can about this man, seduce him, threaten him, I don't care."

A servant passed to Li Xing a picture of Wang Ji. Behind the paper are words describing Wang Ji's usual routines and what he usually wears.

Li Xing glares at the Patriarch and refuses to answer him.  

The Patriarch clicks his tongue. "Everyone except Li Xing leaves."

!!

The Elder quickly pushes everyone out of the room after reading the atmosphere.

...

"Li Xing..."

Li Xing's head is still down. She can be seen trembling but is bearing hostility against the patriarch. 

"This is all for the sect, my daughter-"

"Don't call me your daughter." Li Xing says.

...

The patriarch sighs. "You... Still love that trash Xie Mo?"

...

"How about this, you find out more about that man and if you deem him to be powerful, seduce him and make him join our sect. Otherwise, just report back to me. If it is done, I will let Xie Mo leave the sect and will never bother him, he can go live his own life."

!!!

Li Xing's eyes widen. She grits her teeth before nodding her head. "U-Understood..."

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

3 days after the event with the sect disciples, the amount of infected increased to 21,891 and the death count increased to 108. My total evolution points add up to 18,644.

I look at the pouch, I am running out of money. I don't think I should rent an inn any further, I need to look for a cheaper room to rent and a source of income...

I've walked around the town and realised four things usually sold at a high price:

-Pills

-Ingredients for Alchemy

-Artifacts

-Martial Art Techniques

Hmm... Ingredients, Artifacts, Martial Art Techniques... All of these three require luck to acquire...

I can try and become a blacksmith but crafting an artifact is practically impossible for a blacksmith of the Qi Condensation. At this rate, I will starve to death unless I resort to stealing. 

Seeing how I cannot rely on that golden tower artifact, I can not resort to stealing, I will die because of how weak I am.

In addition, that tower artifact has a limited range and I will be affected very badly by the backlash of cultivation going into my broken dantian.

I sold the vigour-increasing artifact for about 90 silver but that will last for only a month. 

I sigh...

Pills. Should I try becoming an Alchemist? 

System, how many Alchemists have I infected?

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

Alchemist infected: 109

S Grade Alchemist infected: 1

-Choi Inyoung. 

B Grade Alchemist infected: 21

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

Choi Inyoung? It doesn't sound like a Chinese name, a foreigner? More specifically, Korean?

Extract his knowledge.

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

-10,000 points for the extraction

Remaining points: 8,644

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

!!!!!!!

...

This...

To think an S-rank Alchemist knows even more about the world than the Merchant, what luck. Not only about the world, but even my knowledge of herbs or rare ingredients for Alchemy is also enlightened. 

Of course, Alchemy wise, it felt like I had been studying Alchemy ever since I was young. The different steps, from controlling the fire to merging the herbs into a pill... 

I take a deep breath. 

Let's go to the Alchemist Association. 

According to Choi Inyoung, the Alchemist Association exist in every part of the world. As long as it is an area with a moderate population, there will be a branch of the Alchemist Association. 

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

The second tall tower in Nielong is the Alchemist Association. 

Now that I am directly in front, it seems to be a lot grander and bigger than the brothel tower.  I am greeted by two statues of figures beside the entrance. The first one is a man with a long beard covering his mouth to his chin and bald head. He is wearing some sort of robe and has a necklace of beads around his neck. The second statue is a tall man with long messy hair, he seems to be smirking and holding some orb thing in his hand, compared to the first one, he looks rather young and has a much more elegant posture. 

I walk past the statues into the Alchemist Association. I waited until this day for the entrance exam. 

There's a long line in the queue. 

However, amidst the frustrating line of sighs and impatience, a man was skipping all the queues and walking to the front desk. It is Xie Mo.

"Hey, you! All of us are waiting, get behind the line!" A man shouts. He is holding a book of notes scribbled with Alchemy tips. 

Xie Mo smirks at the man and ignores him.

"Sorry, but you will have to go to the back of the line." The lady behind the front desk glares at Xie Mo. 

"Pass this message to your elder, Xie Mo is here."

"What? I said-"

Xie Mo sighs. He takes a deep breath and shouts "ELDER RUO XING LI! YOUR FATHER IS HERE!!!" 

!!!!!!!

His powerful voice echoes throughout the tower. Everyone grasps their ears in pain as the sound rings in their head. 

However, I am unaffected. 

Xie Mo...used some qi to amplify his voice. I didn't know one can circulate qi into his mouth and do that, I learnt something new. 

"Insolence!! Who dares to create trouble in the Alchemist Association."

An elder jumps down from the top tower and land in front of the counter. The tower is built in a circular way such that there is a huge hole in the middle with stairs at the side going all the way up to the top.  

He is wearing a long green coat with a white robe inside, on his head is some sort of rectangular black hat I've never seen before. In addition, he has a white long beard that goes down to his chest and a brown bead necklace around his neck.

However, the elder becomes stunned when he sees Xie Mo and rubs his head as he smiles. "Ah, it's you! Master!"

"HUH?!!!"

Everyone's jaws dropped. I saw that coming so I stay unfazed.

"This insolent lady said that I am not worthy to skip the queue." Says Xie Mo.

"O-Of course you are worthy to skip the queue, follow me, you will be registered for the upcoming Alchemist examination." The Elder says.

"Damn it. If he is the master of the elder, won't we have any chance of admission at all?"

Most people in the queue sigh and leave when they heard that. 

Only a few stayed behind. I look around, among the few, I am last in line. They are all wearing luxurious robes with jewellery hair clips and are standing straight up with their chest puffed out. They look very prideful.

When it is my turn, I can visibly tell the lady behind the counter was shaking. Both in anger and embarrassment because of Xie Mo.

I place one gold coin on the counter and that lights her eyes up.

She looks up to see me and is confused by my appearance, I look like a ragged commoner.

"You want to take revenge?" I whisper.

!!

The lady looks around, no one is looking. She gulps and looks away but she takes the gold coin.

"How about this, mind letting me view the ingredients for the Alchemist Examination?" I smile. "Do not worry, I will not tamper with anything, just a simple peek."