Chapter 1042: White Ash Pill

As one would expect, Alex underwent the training to unleash the full ability of his Holy Emblem.

It only took one month for Alex to get used to the Holy Emblem. Alicia then changed her plan and asked Alex for sparrings so that they could use it normally when fighting against their opponent. Of course, the fight was only filled with Arrays.

After that training, Alicia brought him back to Firia and did the last stage of their training, which was the joint practice of Alchemy and Array.

They trained inside the Simulation Room. Alicia and Firia agreed to give him a demonstration first, and Alex sat down in front of them, who were getting prepared for the refining.

Firia then summoned her flame again before tossing all the ingredients into the fire. As soon as they were warm enough, Firia quickly turned the flame into a carp with all the ingredients in its belly.

"I am ready. The Dragon Breathing Refining Technique is ready." Firia nodded, telling Alicia to proceed to the next step.

"Sure." Alicia snapped her finger as an array slowly appeared in the air. "Dragon Gate Refining Array."

Alex narrowed his eyes and found that the array had twelve slots with one center that should be filled with the Divine Monster Core.

As he expected, the carp turned into a full-fledged dragon and circled on top of the array. Its head was stretching toward the center as the Divine Monster Core flew to its brain as the dragon rested its head on the center.

As for the other ingredients, they went inside each slot.

Alicia quickly activated the array and sealed every single ingredient inside the slot.

"I am done. You can proceed to the next step." Alicia nodded with a smile.

Firia acknowledged it and changed the temperature of the dragon according to what they needed. It was more precise than the one Firia showed him during the training.

For the first time in his life, he could see the harmony between the three big jobs. It turned out they were connected with each other. The Array Master used the array while the Forging Master built the Alchemy Furnace. They helped Alchemist to refine a pill.

Of course, if the Array Master was on the focus, the Forging Master could build the structure for the array while the Alchemy created the harmony from all ingredients needed.

This concept applied to the Forging Master as well.

It turned out that despite them being separated, they could form a symbiosis.

Alex was impressed by the sight before him and continued watching them in silence.

After a while, Firia signaled Alicia to get ready.

"The refining is done. No need to expel the impurities. We will proceed to create the pill," said Firia while awakening the dragon.

"Understood." Alicia nodded and infused her Divine Energy to the array."I can open the seal at your notice."

"Good. I will be done in 5…4…3…2…1…GO!" Firia shouted.

Alicia nodded and removed all the barriers that sealed them so the ingredients were connected again with each other.

Previously, all ingredients were only connected to the Divine Monster Core to harmonize the effect, but this time, they created a synergy with the other ingredients.

Firia's fire flared up, gradually turning the ingredients into droplets of liquid. The dragon then turned into a vortex with the Divine Monster Core as the center. The ingredients were absorbed into the array.

When she saw that it began to fuse, Firia quickly tossed the merged liquid into the furnace and sealed the lid. Alicia lowered the array and helped the refining process.

It took them ten minutes before the pill popped out.

Firia caught it and showed it to Alex. "This is the White Ash Pill. Pure Quality of course."

Alex checked it with his Spirit Eyes and nodded his head. "Well, we should have enough ingredients to make five pills. It will be for me, you, Evelyn, and Sherry. The last one…I am still not sure."

Firia furrowed her eyebrows. "Well, this is only the first harvest. We can harvest the ingredients again in the future, so we can save that one until you meet someone worthy of that pill. We have Stina, Kyle, and Ellen as the candidate. If you want to add Ragi to the selection, I don't really mind. However, I still can't trust him one hundred percent."

"I know what you mean…" Alex nodded. "Besides, I can give it to Fabio to increase his strength. Although killing is not possible to level him up, we can use Medicinal Ingredients and Pills to speed things up."

"Fair enough." Firia nodded. "The choice is yours."

"I will probably follow your idea and keep it for the time being. Maybe we can give the others later."

Firia shrugged and let him choose.

"Still, I believe you can reach Rank 7 God with the help of this pill. How about taking another one?" She smirked.

"You should know that I can't eat it for the second time…" Alex narrowed his eyes.

"It's only for ten years though. You can eat it later." Firia pouted.

"Well, I will think about it ten years later." Alex shrugged before summoning the ingredients. "Actually, I would like to consult something."

"What is it?"

Alex smiled and summoned his Fox Avatar. The fox glared at the two menacingly before lowering its head.

"This is the Fire Authority. I wonder if I can use it when refining. I mean, the earlier array makes me think something like this… If I turn the dragon into a fox, won't it be possible for me to use the universe's strongest fire technique to refine a pill?" Alex smirked.

"In a concept, it looks like we only need to change it, but there are more complex things you need to consider." Alicia shook her head and reprimanded him.

"Is that a no?" Alex sighed.

"I didn't say it is impossible. Maybe you can give it to Lilda and have her change something in the array. With her expertise, it should be possible." Alicia offered a solution. "And you just gave her ten billion Spirit Crystals, so I believed she would be pretty eager to help you."

"Now that you mention it, my personal wealth was a few hundred billion. I wonder how much Eulja's annual income…"

"Hmm?" Alicia furrowed her eyebrows, not knowing the answer. The same applied to Firia as she looked away.

Lin Xingzhi was the one who answered him.

[Don't ask those two. They always escaped when learning about this. Our gross income is about one hundred billion annually. Considering we need to give some for our developments, our net income is around one billion annually. Unless we have a new policy or something, we usually save it in our treasury.]

"I see. One hundred billion to one billion…One percent, huh." Alex fell into deep thought. "Well, we have a huge amount of soldiers along with the Six Elemental Gods, Five Guardians, and Ten Commandants. If we calculate the needs of the Military to keep improving… It should cost around fifty billion annually…Just a wild guess.

"Then there is Lilda. If we calculate all research and the cost for maintaining the castle, I guess it's a reasonable number." Alex nodded.

[Yep. You can use the income to cultivate. In fact, it's for all of us, including Alicia and Firia. It's not like we can use one billion in a year, right? Probably half of that and it gives us quite good progress.]

"Yep. I agree with you." Alex nodded. "For now, I will be giving the concept to Lilda. Maybe visit her again to show my Fire Authority."

Firia nodded. "In the meantime, we will be teaching you how to combine Array with Alchemy. You will be able to refine one by yourself since you are adept with both."

"Yes. Don't let me catch you slacking." Alicia repeatedly nodded.

"Okay, two madams. What are we going to do?" Alex smiled helplessly.

"We are…"

Alex began his training again.

…

A few months later, Alex stood in front of Alicia and Firia. This wasn't a Simulation Room anymore, but the real world.

He summoned his Godly Pure Fire and tossed all the ingredients inside his flame.

Since he would be the one doing all the refining process, he quickly summoned the Dragon Gate Array above his head while warming all the ingredients and turning his flame into a carp.

The moment the carp hit the array, it turned into a dragon. Alex repeated what Firia and Alicia did when demonstrating their skill in front of him.

Alicia and Firia observed his every movement to make sure nothing went wrong. Even though Alex had managed to increase his success chance to one hundred percent, they still needed to prepare for the worst.

Fortunately, the refining was done without any mishap.

"Done…" Alex let out a breath of relief, looking at the greyish white pill in his hand. "This is the White Ash Pill. It's a Perfect Quality one."

"That's good." Firia nodded. "Since it's done this way, how about we split the remaining four sets of ingredients for both of us? Alicia and I will refine two while you refine the other two."

"I am up for it. It will finish faster anyway." Alex nodded.

With that agreement, they began refining all the ingredients.

It took them a few hours, but the result was satisfactory. All pills produced were Perfect Quality Pills. 

"We have finished our jobs. What are you planning after this?" Firia asked while handing the pills to him.

Alex received them and answered. "I am going to leave again after reaching Rank 7 God, but I don't know where I should go…"

[I have one place for you. It's a quite unique world where you will die if you speak.]

"What?" Alex widened his eyes. "You will die when you speak?"

[That world is filled with monsters sensitive to sound. When they speak, they will get noticed and killed. So, they don't speak.]

"Then, they can't speak?"

[No, no. It happened recently after a meteoroid struck that world. I will send you the information after this.]

"So, what do you expect me to learn from that world?" Alex asked.

[Not learn, but grab one thing.]

"Oh?" Alex's eyes brightened because he got one thing in his mind. "Undying Fire Body?"

[Yes. From what I know, they have a queen there that is attracted to Undying Blaze Root. Unfortunately, I don't know their exact location, so you might want to ask the locals there.]

"I understand. Anyone want to go together?" Alex smiled.

Alicia and Firia exchanged looks and shook their heads. "We will pass. Have something to do."

[I also can't do it this time.]

"Anna and Anya?"

[I asked them just now. They will pass as well.]

"Hmm…" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Letizia, Sherry, Rose, and Evelyn are not here. In that case… Should I go alone?"

[How about Silvia? It's been three years and a few months…But if you eat the pill first, it will be four years. I think it's better to solve it now, since the longer you wait, the harder it is for you to go to her.]

"Fair enough." Alex looked at the sky and nodded. "I will visit her now. After this world, I will go to another world with her…The one that I have promised to bring her."

[Yes. I will leave it to you.]

"Then, can you give Sherry the pill? And pass a message to her to take care of herself. I am waiting for our reunion."

[Will do.]

Alex then nodded and gave Firia the pill. "Now?"

Alicia saw that and smiled. "Do it in your room, alright? I will do my job now."

Alex and Firia agreed. Alicia then flew to the Ice Phoenix Tribe while Alex and Firia went to Firia's Room to cultivate together.

Meanwhile, in the Beast World, Sherry smiled when she received the message. She fixed her fancy purple dress and walked to the window, looking at the world from her room.

"It's been a while, Master. I also miss you. However, wait for me…I have reached Rank 8 God now. I will go back to you once I reach Rank 5 God. I love you…" Sherry smiled while looking at the pill in her hand.