"Good morning, Darma."
Darma heard a voice he got familiar with recently. He groaned in pain and looked to the source of the voice, seeing a beautiful teen with phoenix-shaped red eyes, and flowing black hair.
"You look better without the mask, Young Master," Darma said in a sarcastic voice. He tried to channel his Qi but found out he couldn't. As a sixth-rank alchemist, the reason was simple to deduct.
"Thank you, but I just like wearing a mask when I kill someone," Ken explained with a kind smile.
"But you didn't kill me."
"I never planned to."
"The girls… They thought they are protecting you, but you've betrayed them," Darma sighed when he understood Ken's words.
"They tried to abduct me first, they can't complain. Anyway, not them specifically, but retroactively, they were the best choice to kill," Ken shrugged. He did plan to get some of them killed, but he didn't know how the battle would play out, so he didn't aim at anyone specific.
"Is this Qi Disturbance Pill? It feels much more potent than the one I know, I can barely move the Qi inside my body," Darma asked in intrigued tone. He was still thirsty for new knowledge about Alchemy under these circumstances.
"It is. I have developed a better recipe for it," Ken bragged. His starting point was probably better since he gained the recipe in the Library of Eternal Wisdom which belonged to a ninth-rank alchemist, but he still improved it, nonetheless.
"You really are a sixth-rank alchemist. I was half hoping you were lying, but you were unaffected by my poison which led me to believe it. The formations that suppressed me were also good testimony to your Formation Mastery. So, why did you keep me alive?"
Unlike Tiffany and her group, he didn't delude himself that Ken was a sweet and innocent child who couldn't bear the thought of killing others. Ken made sure he won't do it by telling him he had planned the death of those standing by his side.
"I have an offer for you. I hope you are already aware that you truly aren't worthy of being my teacher."
"I am, I never thought I was," Darma said with a downcast voice. Even before losing, he knew he wasn't worthy, he only wanted to gain control over Ken and use him for his own research. A mere sixth-rank alchemist would never be good enough to teach a genius of Ken's caliber, even before knowing his real rank.
"Good. My offer is that you work under me. Your job will be to manufacture many pills for me to sell, and in exchange, I will give you 10% of the profit for your own research," Ken explained his deal.
"So, you want me to be a slave?" Darma was ready to refuse even at the cost of his life. If he couldn't truly improve his Alchemy skills, he'd rather be dead.
"No, I offer to help you. Doing it will boost your research speed by multiple times," Ken declared confidently.
"How?"
"Many ways. First, the pills will be all made according to my improved formulas, which means you'd have access to formulas created by new approaches to Alchemy. They will be between the fourth to the sixth rank."
"It is tempting, let me think about it," Darma's face turned contemplative. It was a tough choice, selling himself to slavery for some quick knowledge.
"Will I get all the formulas right away?"
"No, I will give you 3 new formulas every 9 months. You can analyze them as much as you want when you're done with the quota of pills for sale. Overall, I believe you'd need between 8-12 hours a day to hit the monthly goals, depending on how good you are at concocting."
"I have been practicing Alchemy my whole life. Even if you're a genius that can theorize new doctrines in Alchemy, I would not lose in concocting methods."
"Sure," Ken said indifferently before crushing the man's delusions.
"I will also gift you concocting techniques, one every 9 months. They are all far more advanced than what you possibly have. I will add one theory in Alchemy every 9 months. With those materials, you have nothing to complain about. You gain much more than you'd be able to learn in 8-12 hours of daily research by yourself."
With this, Ken pretty much sealed the deal. If he understood Darma's personality correctly, the man only cared about his Alchemy skills, and maybe about his cultivation, and that's just to facilitate his Alchemy skills further. Only someone that passionate would dare kidnap a talented youth of an elite family of a top sect in their very territory.
"I agree, I agree! You cannot renege on your word now!" His enthusiasm was almost childish despite being nearly 300 years old.
"Good. Cooperate with me when we talk to the others to make me seem kind and angelic. And keep an eye on Maria to make sure she doesn't betray me again."
"I don't care about that. I only need to make the pills and I have the rest of the time for my research, I won't stick my nose into your business." The old man wore a stubborn expression. In his opinion, he already sold and degraded himself to a mere apprentice doing odd jobs for knowledge.
"Fine… have it your way." Ken sighed and gave up. He needed an alchemist under him for easy money, and it'd be hard to find another sixth-rank alchemist as cooperative as the man in the bed in front of him. He didn't want to spend hours every day on concocting pills to cover his expenses, so he had to hire an employee.
"You might have to apologize for killing their friends though," Ken issued one last demand and left to meet with the others before returning to the sect.
"Hmph."
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"Hey you two, I have something to discuss with you, are you free?"
"Of course, Young Master."
Yuri and Odette looked at him curiously.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel