Chapter 418 - Lost Skill (1/2)

Ma Rong flew through the air, and Alex maintained his distance. Along the way back, she did not speak a single word and kept to herself.

Only when they reached the sect did she speak and say, ”Come to my place.” Alex nodded and followed behind her quietly.

Once they were inside, Alex felt a rush of spiritual sense go past him as Ma Rong checked the surrounding. Alex did the same and noticed that the girls that were looking after his master were all gone.

He then noticed Ma Rong's serious face and asked, ”What's wrong, master? You seem worried.”

”That's because I am,” Ma Rong said. ”They are already suspecting malpractice against their uncle. What did you do with the body? Did you destroy it?”

”Uh… no. I buried it underground, inside the formation,” Alex said. He started getting worried too now. ”Can they find the dead body?”

”I don't know. There are beasts with a sense of smell so good that they can smell the other person's aura on you. Hmm…” Ma Rong thought and quickly pulled out a pill.

”Here, eat this now,” she said.

Alex quickly ate the pill without hesitation and felt his entire body suddenly convulse. It then released back to normal as an inordinate amount of Qi from his body was forced out from every single pore in his body.

This was a painful experience to most people, but thanks to the Mortal Cleansing that Alex went through, there was no filth to stop the sudden release of Qi and they all went out in record time.

”That was faster than I had expected,” she said with a face full of surprise.

”Aura Removal pill…” Alex said mindlessly.

”You've seen this pill before?” Ma Rong asked.

”Uh… no. I just remember the recipe,” Alex hastily made up an answer.

”I see. Well, that pill should have removed whatever aura Zexi left on you,” Ma Rong said. ”Thankfully, the princess was too busy making herself hidden to search for you. Or maybe they don't expect him to have truly gone missing yet.”

”However, once they realize a High Prince is missing, they will truly try to find him. Hopefully, his body decomposes by then,” Ma Rong said.

”It should be fine master; It has already been over a month. His body should be at least halfway decomposed,” Alex said.

Ma Rong shook her head. ”No, Cultivator's bodies take much longer to decompose. Sigh, we can only hope the beast invasion keeps everyone on constant alert and not enough time to go search for him,” Ma Rong said.

”Alright, we should get to making the pills now. You need to improve on it as well,” Ma Rong said. She then took out her nameplate and notified the elders that she would be busy for a few hours.

She then walked into the alchemy room and sat down to make the pill. Alex sat down opposite her and waited.

”Show me all the pills that you did make,” Ma Rong asked. ”Maybe there are some useful ones.”

”Okay,” Alex said and gave her all the different recipes that he had.

”Hmm… this is useless, this does nothing basically,… you said this one increases heartbeat?” Ma Rong asked.

”Yes,” Alex replied.

”That might be useful somewhere, especially for mass-producing given how low cost the materials are,” Ma Rong said. She continued looking through the other pills and found nothing useful.

”I guess the 4 of these are the only good ones,” Ma Rong said. ”Still, it's not a bad idea to have those other 4 work as cheap alternatives to most pills that the outer sect disciples will use.”

”We can end up using less expensive materials to train them,” Ma Rong said.

”Ah, I didn't even think about that. Of course! Using these pill recipes as training pills is a great idea,” Alex said.

”Okay, I will show you the method to improve pill recipes. Do you have any questions before we start?” Ma Rong asked.

”Uh, yeah. I have quite a lot actually,” Alex said.

Ma Rong's eyes perked a bit. ”A lot? Ok then, ask,” she said.

”What exactly are Composition and Structure?” he asked. ”I tried understanding on my own, but I got nowhere.”

Ma Rong's face got a little shock on it. ”Where did you learn about it?” she asked.

”Um, in the library back in the capital, and also the Royal Alchemist said something about my pill's composition and structure needing work,” Alex said.

”I understood a little, but I feel like I got nowhere close to what is required to understand it all,” Alex said.

”Sigh, the truth is, I too don't know anything about it at all. The only one who knows about it, as far as I know, is senior Lai,” Ma Rong said.

”The Royal Alchemist? He is the only one?” Alex said in surprise. He was hoping that his master would know about it. ”So, am I not going to understand it at all?”

”I have asked senior Lai myself too. All he says is that it has something to do with the shapes of the pill and powders and how they are mixed together.”

”I see, I guess I will learn it myself once I learn more,” Alex said.

Alex asked a few more questions that he had come across while making pills back in the formation. One of the most common questions he kept asking himself was how people practiced with ingredients that were rare.

”Well, there are 2 assumptions you're making that a normal alchemist just wouldn't make with rare ingredients,” Ma Rong said.

”First of all, you assume someone else hasn't used the ingredient before. Most of the time, you can find recipes that already have the ingredients in use. You can just read that recipe and understand the rate at which the energy is released through that.”

”You can also understand what energy is released through it most of the time.”