Chapter 31    

"HUH?" Alex exclaimed as he never expected something to be able to help someone understand different languages without effort.

"I guess you can. Take this bottle of pills too. The one that you ate just now is the language comprehending pill and works for four hours while this bottle is the body transformation pill.

This old man here will be your guide. If you want anything, you can ask him"

"Alright, thanks…"

"If you plan on buying things, you will have to convert your galleons to silver taels."

"What is the conversion rate?"

"One Galleon will give you sixty taels."

Alex thought for a while before he made ten thousand Galleons appear on the counter.

The eyes of both the old man and the lady widened in surprise before the lady pushed all the coins into a basket and went in through the same old door. Alex wanted to know how she could carry so much weight but decided against it as even he could do it with the weightlessness charm.

He then turned to the old man, "Tell me about the Chinese magical community and the specialities about the way you do things."

"Young master, this old man will humbly do as you wish."

Alex stared at the old man trying to keep a straight face as the way the old man spoke was extremely new and made him feel weird.

"Yea… tell me."

"We specialise in alchemy. Specifically, plant alchemy which is also called spagyric. While the whole world studies potions and alchemy separately, the students here learn them together.

We don't usually use potions because we have masters who can make pills that are way more effective than potions and the effects last so much longer.

While your Britain has Hogwarts and some other countries have their own schools, we Chinese have sects and honestly, I consider it to be a very backward way of schooling."

"Oh, why?"

The old man shook his head, "In schools, you can learn many subjects but sects here specialise in only one or two subjects.

Sects that specialise in dark magic, blood magic and place importance in duels are classified into Demonic sects because the other sects feel inferior about losing in duels all the time.

The so-called good sects mostly specialise in runes, alchemy and soul magic."

"Ooooh understood. Do these two factions fight a lot?"

"Well…. Yes. Honestly, I find them all dumb. If they got together and lived in harmony, our country wouldn't be so looked down upon."

"You seem to not like the system here…"

"Well, that's the main reason why my services cost so much. Everyone here at my job are arrogant pricks who think that China is the best among all even though they haven't travelled to other places. Once, a very important person was sent here and someone else took it upon himself to be the guide.

In the end our guest stormed off calling us prideful monkeys. You might not know it right now but you will how irritating it can be when someone keeps boasting about their country when you're here to simply sight see."

"Hahaha… understood. Can you tell me about how much and what I can buy with all the money I have?"

"Almost everything. The herbs and other plant-based materials are extremely cheap here and sometimes, if you buy a lot of stuff, the shopkeepers will happily give you extra stuff for free."

"What about books?"

"Hmm… knowledge is highly guarded by the sects here but… if you are willing to pay the price, I should be able to get it for you."

"I'll leave it in your hands then."

"Thank you for your trust, young master."

"You can call me Tom."

"I would prefer calling you young master… at least until we leave this place."

"Alright then, have it your way."

The lady was back and gave Alex a small golden ring that had a round black stone lodged in the middle.

"Esteemed sir, this ring contains six hundred thousand taels."

Alex nodded and put it on before leaving the place with his guide.

"Old man, what should I call you?"

"You can call me old man Ling."

"Alright then, old man Ling it is. Anyways, can you tell me why you guys use rings? The people in the hunters den use bracelets."

"About that … we cut up a meteor that is native to our country. We call it the space stone and it is quite rare. This ring and the bracelet both work differently.

While the bracelets are made by using space magic and expansion charms, this stone can naturally store things inside of it. One gram of this stone can store upto a hundred tonnes."

"Wow…"

"Hahahaha don't be so amused. It is rare here but in India, especially the southern part, it is quite common. It is actually so common that even muggles have them although they can't use them. In the Indian ocean, it's even more common as huge space rocks are settled at the ocean bed.

We tried many times to get those rocks but there is a tribe that oversees that area and they use weird methods to push us away. We stopped after a whole sect was wiped out."

"Mhmm, do you know what kind of magic India has?"

"Well… their magical community is very separated and backward. But… they have access to the ancient ritual magic. You just have to find the right person to teach it to you. Some of the tribes are extremely strong and mysterious while the others can be extremely weak and useless.

We have arrived. This place sells all kinds of books and jade tokens. If you go inside, it will be hard to buy things but if you trust me, I can get everything you need."

"First tell me what a jade token is…"

"Oh yes, they are expensive compared to books but they will save you time as all you have to do is place it right at the centre of your forehead and put some magic into it.

After that, you will probably have a bit of a headache but every single thing that you would have read from a book will be stored in your mind for eternity."