Chapter 35    

"One hundred taels. Esteemed guest, please wait here until I inform the matriarch."

"Alright then…" He said and waited for the so-called matriarch to come, which did not happen. Instead, the woman returned alone, panting.

"Esteemed guest, matriarch would like to treat you to some delicious breakfast."

"Alright then, lead the way."

He followed the woman as she led him into a grand looking palace. The paintings and calligraphy scrolls that were hanging on the walls kind of made everything look foreign to his eyes.

He was a guest so he would stay silent and keep his opinions for himself. After all, he knew nothing about both of the art forms.

The matriarch was extremely beautiful and treated him to some really good breakfast as she had promised.

When he was done with eating everything, he looked at the matriarch and said, "Matriarch, would you be willing to sell your pill making methods? I promise to never disclose it to anyone else."

The woman nodded her head calmly, "I can agree to it but only if you agree to a few of my conditions."

Alex nodded in response and the matriarch continued, "If you wish to learn our methods, you will have to marry my daughter."

"….. that doesn't make sense…"

"It does. If you marry my daughter, I can let you learn our sect's secret arts without getting into trouble."

"What trouble?"

"Umm… my husband… the current sect master of Azure Dragon. We have some unwritten rules that are quite hard to explain."

"I'm only eleven years old though."

"That does not matter, child. My daughter is thirteen."

"No no, what I mean is that we don't do child marriages from where I come from."

"That's fine. Get engaged now and marry when you come of age."

Alex felt his head hurt due to the woman's stubbornness.

"Is there no other way?"

"No."

"Oh well… nevermind then, I'll get going. Thank you for the hospitality."

"Huh? Didn't you say that you wanted my sect's secret art?"

"Yes, but I do not wish to marry some child. You guys have weird rules which will undoubtedly tie me down at some point."

"You're only eleven and you call a thirteen-year old girl, a child?"

"Whatever, I'm going. I don't want to waste my time here."

"Alright then, this matriarch won't be seeing you off." She said, clearly upset about the rejection.

Alex walked out and quickly left the sect before he went into an inn and rented a place to rest for a day.

He forced himself to fall asleep and woke up at night before he took a nice warm bath and set off towards the Scarlet Phoenix sect after he used all kinds of concealment charms on himself.

He flew until he was close to the entrance and then sent the rope back into the bracelet. He walked without making any sound and he didn't have to even make an effort as the spells were in effect.

He quickly found the main palace and went inside where he spotted a lot of women having their dinner like they did in Hogwarts' great hall. While they were happily eating, he sneakily searched every room he could find. He cleared every single room and found a stairway that lead him downwards.

'Hopefully, I can find the stuff I need in here….'

The area was dark and silent which make him wonder.

'If there was someone here, they would be used to this darkness and since there is no sound yet… most probably I'll be safe. If something unexpected happens, I should be able to escape after all.'

He used Lumos and found the whole place empty except for a huge metal door which he examined for a few minutes.

'The hell… it's just a normal heavy door. Not even enchanted… maybe there is nothing inside? I'll probably find out only when I open this thing. Alohomora.'

The door creaked open but Alex was extremely fast to cast a silencing charm surrounding the door which made sure that the sound wouldn't go too far.

He looked inside with the help of Lumos and all he could see was gold bricks neatly piled up in one corner and a large bookshelf in the other. The rest of the room was filled with many swords and cauldrons.

Alex hurriedly duplicated every single book and took a few cauldrons before putting them all into his bracelet

'I do not lack gold right now… I'll let them keep it I guess…'

He turned around and returned after closing the doors. The journey back was smooth and nothing unexpected happened.

On the way, he talked to his guide and gave him all the duplicated books he had.

"I used the duplication charm on these. Turn the contents into jade tokens yourself. I don't want others to know about the contents of the book, lest I get into trouble."

"Understood. What would you like to do next, young master Tom?"

"Maybe visit one of the so-called demonic sects of yours? I really want to learn blood magic."

"Young master Tom, I don't think there is any need for you to go there since we have every single book of the demonic sects with us."

"That's convenient…. I guess I'll just spend my time lazing around for a week then… oh you can just give me all the jade tokens you have stock piled until now. This way, I won't have to waste my time when I get back to my room."

"Understood. Please wait a minute, I'll go bring all the tokens he refined today."

Alex spent every single day screaming his heart out as he enjoyed the wonders of pain and practiced all the new kinds of magic that he recently learnt from the jade tokens.

He finished everything for the day and glanced at the calendar, 'Two more days to go… I still have half of the money I converted… hmmm I guess I'll have to go on a spending spree.'