“Aren’t we going back?”
Anna pulled back the window curtain and glanced outside, realizing this wasn’t the way they had come.
Shu Yue nodded and explained casually.
“I plan to visit the Alchemists Guild.”
“What are you going there for?”
Anna’s pupils constricted.
The last time they had impersonated a deceased Alchemist, the disguise had earned them a fortune.
They could have gained even more, but someone had reported them to the Alchemists Guild.
Lacking the proper identification tools to verify their identities, they were exposed.
They were hunted for a long time afterward, fleeing across a vast distance and wandering the Outlands for one year.
They only dared to show their faces once the heat died down, but even now, they hadn’t dared to return to where it happened.
Because of that, they didn’t have a good impression of the guild…
The Alchemists Guild itself didn’t give off a good vibe; it represented a monopoly on alchemical potions.
It was a massive organization led by several major alchemy schools and joined by various factions, large and small.
It established unified standards for the alchemy system and regulated the production of alchemical potions while cooperating with various races, nations, and powers.
The Alchemists Guild spread across the entire world, either absorbing or destroying independent Alchemists.
In the end, they achieved a total monopoly on Alchemy and reaped massive profits from alchemical potions.
For Adventurers in the Outlands, a Healing Potion was a very common alchemical draught.
Just as its name suggested, it could heal most injuries, and its effects were gentle — only slightly inferior to the healing of a priest from the Holy Radiance Sect.
Since average Adventurers didn’t travel with priests, this type of alchemical potion became an essential consumable.
The Alchemists Guild set the price of a single Mercury-grade Healing Potion at ten gold coins.
This was an exorbitant price.
Furthermore, they did everything in their power to suppress any Healing Potions on the market that weren’t circulated through the guild.
The guild forced Adventurers to spend ten gold coins just to buy a single-serving alchemical potion.
In reality, the production costs weren’t worth ten gold coins at all; the true value was less than one gold coin.
The purchasing power of a gold coin was actually quite high.
Shu Yue had learned how to refine Healing Potions from her cheap master and had sold them before, but she had been approached and warned by people from the Alchemists Guild.
Shu Yue naturally didn’t resist them directly.
She simply shifted to the underground market, selling small batches of potions to earn money.
The reason she wanted a recommendation letter now was primarily to become a registered member of the Alchemists Guild.
Even if she was an Alchemist herself, she lacked a clear faction.
If she wanted to become a guild-registered Alchemist and gain the right to sell potions legally, she needed a recommendation letter.
She could still sell potions on the black market, though she would occasionally run into trouble.
Her true goal was to gain purchasing credentials.
The Alchemists Guild was a major customer for Adventurers; the guild required a vast amount of Magic Beast materials, resulting in a large number of orders for hunting Magic Beasts.
Selling materials to the guild was easy and didn’t require credentials, but buying materials required meeting certain thresholds.
One was being a registered member, and the other was having an internal recommendation or a recommendation letter from a Noble.
“Mr. Liya, we have arrived at the Alchemists Guild.”
The driver’s voice came from outside the carriage.
Shu Yue responded, then turned back to Anna.
“Let’s go.”
“…”
Anna remained silent for a moment before nodding.
The two of them stepped off the carriage, and the driver drove away to a designated parking area.
Anna looked at the grand, massive building, feeling a sense of suffocation.
The Alchemists Guild was incredibly powerful — powerful beyond her imagination.
When they fled back then, it had been a narrow escape from death.
Looking back now, she was still filled with lingering fear.
Shu Yue wasn’t like Anna.
Since the time she followed that scabby-headed master to learn Alchemy, she had seen plenty of death.
She had even been used as a test subject for medicine and experienced a great deal of pain.
This had indirectly tempered her character, making the shell of Shu Yue’s soul resilient.
One after the other, they walked into the carpeted hall.
As soon as they entered, a beautiful woman dressed in elegant, dignified attire approached them, asking Shu Yue what she was there for.
Shu Yue pulled out the recommendation letter, handed it to the woman, and said, “This is a recommendation letter from Baron Leicester. I believe you know who to give it to.”
“…”
The woman was briefly stunned.
She took the letter, bowed, and then quickly went to deliver it.
Shu Yue led Anna to a seating area in the hall and told her to wait there.
The woman returned shortly, her professional smile transforming into a sincere and respectful one.
“Mr. Liya, please follow me upstairs.”
“Okay.”
Shu Yue nodded and slowly followed the woman.
They entered a reception room.
It wasn’t particularly large, and the interior decor was primarily grayish-white.
After bringing them there, the receptionist quietly withdrew.
An elegant and beautiful woman sitting in a chair looked Shu Yue up and down before slowly rising to approach her.
“Hello, Mr. Liya.”
“Hello…”
The woman wore a form-fitting purple dress that showcased her impressive figure.
She exuded a rich fragrance.
A hot-blooded young man would likely explode at just one glance, especially given the way she walked over with her fragrant scent, her chest swaying like undulating peaks and her hips swinging from side to side.
Combined with her bright and charming face, she was even more soul-stirring.
Unfortunately, Shu Yue’s expression remained calm, her eyes as still as an ancient well.
Of course, she noticed the other woman’s large “treasure chest.”
But in Shu Yue’s heart, there was only the amazed thought, ‘Wow, those are huge,’ without a single trace of lust.
Her reaction piqued the beautiful woman’s interest.
She leaned in closer and whispered softly to Shu Yue, “Mr. Liya, what brings you to the Alchemists Guild headquarters?”
“I want to register as an Alchemist,” Shu Yue stated her purpose concisely.
“I also need to buy a few things. I assume there won’t be any problems?”
“Hehe, of course not—”
The elegant woman raised an eyebrow, covering her red lips with a pale, slender hand as she began to circle Shu Yue.
“Mr. Liya is quite a mysterious person. Very interesting.”
“…”
Shu Yue didn’t know what the other woman had discovered.
Her bloodline wasn’t obtained through alchemical potions; rather, she had used the Star Tempering Art to refine Dragon Blood essence and then directly absorbed it.
There shouldn’t be any traces of Alchemy.
As for her Disguise Art, it was achieved using a special tool.
After completing a full circle, the elegant woman returned to face her.
“Tell me, are you an Alchemist?”
“Yes.”
“Oh? Then your alchemy faction is…”
“My master doesn’t allow me to mention him to outsiders.”
Shu Yue certainly couldn’t make one up on the spot, so she simply implied her master was a reclusive expert.
“Oh, that’s a pity. I’m quite curious about you, Mr. Liya.”
The elegant woman didn’t press the matter.
She didn’t even ask Shu Yue to perform a demonstration before agreeing.
“Mr. Liya, in that case, I can only grant you the status of a Mercury-grade Alchemist.”
“That’s fine.”
Shu Yue didn’t obsess over the rank.
The levels given by the Alchemists Guild corresponded to the grade of potions one could refine.
From lowest to highest, they were Mercury, Gold, Ether, Antimony, and Philosopher’s Stone.
It was said that there was also a Grandmaster rating, but those were all for Alchemists at the Philosopher’s Stone level, and every Grandmaster essentially represented a major alchemy faction.