“It’s your fortune to meet me in this life since I have need of your alchemists,” Mika began, leaning back into his chair, getting more comfortable as the negotiations began.

“What are you saying?” Elder Yan asked, still reeling from the situation. Mika had barraged him one after the other with so much nonsense that he wasn’t sure if he was having the most mild nightmare or not.

“What am I talking about?” Mika’s eyes changed, no longer holding the look of a sweet, innocent boy. “I’m talking about the fact that my family is being bullied right in front of me. So, you better start listening to me from now on if you want to make money.”

Elder Yan was no slouch when it came to his cultivation and martial arts, but the verbal attacks from the young boy continued to penetrate in deeply. ‘This boy dares to act so arrogant in front of me?’ “Young sir, have you forgotten I am an alchemist? I have riches most could only dream of. Even now, if I want to, I could bathe among the golden talons within my ring.”

‘Doesn’t he understand what’s going on?’ Mika thought, assessing the Elder harshly. “I’ll improve your recipes and you’ll pay me a fee for each pill that you sell. I want ten percent of the profits, and one in ten of all the pills made using my recipes, including new recipes which were derived from mine.”

“Audacious!” Elder Yan spat, finally managing to gather his wits about him. “What are you even saying, boy?”

“Boy?” Mika’s eyes shone with a dark gleam. “If I call myself an alchemist, you couldn’t even call yourself a dog.”

“You da-,” the alchemist began, only to remember that he was older than the boy by quite a lot, and he was also a crippled young sir of the Black Hand family. “Who brought you here? Flowers, wasn’t it? That damn woman! Just she wait until-,”

“Why are you bringing her up?”

Elder Yan’s throat clogged up, a deep chill running through his body. He hadn’t felt such an intense aura before, which caused him, even with his great cultivation, to almost buckle before it.

Mika’s eyes remained focused on the alchemist, the gaze within his eyes like that of a predator. As the moments passed, Mika calmed his gaze. “My recipes will increase the effectiveness of your pills by ten percent.”

Elder Yan was too busy thinking about how no one had reacted to such killing intent, before his ears twitched. ‘Ten percent?’ The typical increase for a pill recipe was one, two, or three percent, but the boy talked about a ten percent increase with such confidence, even the alchemist almost believed it.

“Ten percent? Who do you take me for?” Elder Yan replied, and though his words were suspicious, he dared not change his tone of voice before this young boy. How could this boy know how to increase the effectiveness of the pills by such a huge amount? Yet, the way he put such pressure against him, and the fact that no one had come to assist him, didn’t that mean the boy was able to localise his killing intent?

“I take you for an old man who is crippled,” Mika said, confident that the Elder Alchemist would be unable to strike him down for speaking out of turn. Even if Mika continued to show him such disrespect, what could he really do? “Speaking of which, I might cure you too.”

“You can do that?”

“If I say I can do it, I can do it,” Mika replied, shrugging his shoulders.

“You’re… just a boy.”

“A boy who can figure out what’s wrong with you with a single glance with the ability to cure you,” Mika stated, simply.

Elder Yan thought carefully about the situation. There were so many things he had seen from the boy, back from when he was smaller years ago, but also today. The fact that he had gathered that the older alchemist was crippled was a testament to his abilities.

“Write up a contract to my specifications and I’ll assist you, Elder Yan.”

Elder Yan was still trying to understand the situation, suspicious of the child whose tongue put even demons to shame. ‘Could he really do it? Is this a miraculous encounter for me?’ Elder Yan reached up to his heart, feeling how cool it had become.

“I have a request,” the older alchemist said, feeling something sting within him. ‘What am I doing right now? How could I believe in a boy’s tales?’

“Healing you is a simple request.”

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Elder Yan remained silent, stunned by the response. “That isn’t my request.”

“Then, it must be that you want me to take the other tests to become an Alchemist,” Mika said, certain the request had to be either of those.

“The practical test needs to be dealt with,” Elder Yan said, cautiously. It was one thing for the boy to know theory, but another thing for him to know how to refine ingredients to form a pill. This was the only way to confirm his suspicions.

‘Ah, I see,’ Mika thought, smiling at the elder, nodding his head.

The elder retreated away, taking the time to try and deal with his thoughts. ‘If he really can cure me, does that mean he’s some kind of demon? Or is he something else? Could he be a master who changed his physique? No, his cultivation is still basic, unless he’s hiding it? Does that mean he can kill me with a single thought?’

Elder Yan returned back with a handful of ingredients for the pill. He placed them down in a bowl, before calling out the furnace. “If you are as good as you claim to be, then I don’t need to…” Elder Yan paused, before turning to face the boy.

Within Mika’s hand was a freshly formed pill. The Elder Alchemist has sworn that he had felt the alchemist fire for a moment, and glancing around, he was unable to spot the ingredients.

‘Did he just…’ Elder Yan closed his eyes for a long moment before he opened them to stare down at the pill in Mika’s hand. ‘Did he just form a pill without a furnace?’

‘How bothersome,’ Mika thought, yawning. He had just finished with the test for the Expert Alchemist, which had taken a sum total of a half hour, slightly more than the test for the Senior Alchemist test.

“I’m too annoyed to take the exam for the Master rank,” Mika said, blankly.

“Please, young sir! This junior begs you!” Elder Yan asked, clasping his hands together, on his knees before Mika.

‘This feels too good,’ Mika thought, before waving his hand. “Stop being so cringe. I don’t want to do it and that’s that.”

The doors blasted open as a young man appeared. He wore a similar outfit to the Elder Alchemist, though his talisman states he was an Expert Alchemist. He looked like a younger version of Yan, though he wore a small, scruffy beard, and long hair which was draped around his shoulder. His cheeks were flush from alcohol.

“You old geezer, how could you…” The young man stopped, realising the boy who was nearby. ‘A guest?’

“This fool is my son, please don’t mind him,” Elder Yan said, respectfully.

“You old geezer, who-,” Jon began, only to pause. ‘Something is wrong with this situation…’ He glanced around, before his eyes fell down to Mika. ‘Did the old man just call me a fool in front of this kid?’ Jon knew his father well, and as much as they fought constantly, it was always in private.

Mika folded up the contract, placing it within his robes. He would need to hand it over to the government so they could keep it safe, in case the elder would pull any shenanigans. Of course, it didn’t mean that the government would keep it safe if an Elder Alchemist asked otherwise, but it would give him justification to let loose hell.

“What is going on?” Jon asked, glancing between the pair.

“Elder, I will give you the recipe for the pill which will cure you,” Mika said.

Jon shook his head, trying to sober himself up. “What? You…” He continued to glance between the pair. ‘I’m too drunk for this.’ “I have figured out a recipe to help you.”

Mika glanced to Jon, finally eyeing him up. ‘An Expert Alchemist that young?’ Then he looked to Yan. ‘They both are from the Starr family, aren’t they? No wonder they both hold such high ranks. What are they doing in the middle of nowhere?’

“If you have made a recipe to help your father, you should tell us,” Mika said, calmly.

Jon furrowed his brows. “Would you even understand?”

“Just say it you damn brat!” Elder Yan shouted.

“You should create a pill using a fifty year old moonlight herb and cultivate under the full moon,” Jon said. “Within a year you’ll be able to cure your illness.”

“Ho,” Mika said, smiling. “Your son isn’t so bad after all.”

Jon shook his head, staring at the boy curiously. ‘What is going on?’

“It’s not a bad way of removing your condition,” Mika admitted, calmly. “It seems you didn’t need me after all.”

“Is it the best way?” Elder Yan asked, politely.

“No, but how could I take away your son’s chance to be so filial? Do as he has states, and I will supplement what you need to recover your strength.”

“Of course, young master.” Elder Yan bowed his head. He had wanted to call Mika his senior, but Mika had denied him vehemently, so he settled on young master in private.

‘Young master? Am I too drunk?’

“Bring me some scrolls and a quill, no, a brush,” Mika said, rolling up his sleeves. “I’ll get to work.”

Mika began to write up the recipes he had made for the guild, each of which would be a secret they would guard with great passion, since each of these recipes were worth more than their weight in gold. They could pile the entire floor with golden talons for just a single one of these scrolls.

“I’ll need to know the inventory of the business, as well as the data for what you sell, the time it takes to make a pill, to the rank of the alchemists, to the profit margin, both the flat margin and the percentage, preferably for the last year, but the last quarter is fine.”

Jon hiccuped. ‘What is going on?’

“What do you need that for, young master?”

“To make you filthy rich, of course.”

“We’re already rich,” Jon said. “Being too rich is bad for us alchemists. We’ll grow rich, and fat.”

“Your son really is a fool, elder. You probably don’t make as much as the city guild, do you?”

“No, but we’re much better than them,” Jon replied. ‘Did he just call me a fool?’

“If you are much better than them then you should make more money. How else will you procure the best quality of ingredients to create a better quality of pill?”

Jon snorted. “Only a bad alchemist blames his ingredients. I can create hollow spots on my pills even if they are of terrible quality.”

“Hmph,” Mika scoffed. “A low grade pill with hollow spots is still outshone by a middle grade pill.”

“Yes, but…”

Mika waved his hand to dismiss the boy. “Just bring me the documents. I’ll figure out a time to reveal my rank to the world as an alchemist, but for now we’ll keep it a secret.”

‘Wait, why did I humour this kid?’ Jon thought, before looking to his father, who was doting on the boy. ‘Ah! I must be lucid dreaming!’