"I'm afraid that may not be the case." Xia Qi'er shook her head. She naturally knew Lu Xiaotian; she was also a female attendant at the Treasure Pavilion. She and Jin Yan didn't get along, often competing with each other in private. But some time ago, Jin Yan seemed to have landed a major client and won the steward's favor, leaving Xia Qi'er far behind. Naturally, Xia Qi'er was unhappy about it. Later, she used an image-recording pearl to look over the customers Jin Yan had served recently. The one who had visited just before her was the silver-haired man standing before her now—a man of obscure reputation and mysterious identity, yet exceptionally generous.
She had worked as an attendant at the Treasure Pavilion for decades, so she had a good eye. Alchemy furnaces were a relatively niche item, after all; alchemists made up only a small portion of the many cultivators. This Alchemist Lu's furnace was worth at least nearly a hundred spirit crystals. But why would someone like him open an unknown alchemy shop in such a desolate place? Either he was crazy, or he had some other purpose.
Could he be trying to use this opportunity to break through and become an Alchemy King? The thought suddenly occurred to Xia Qi'er. It seemed the only explanation that made sense. The pills displayed at the entrance were all extremely difficult even for grandmasters to refine. Two of them had already reached the threshold of an Alchemy King's skill.
"An Alchemy King!" Xia Qi'er's heart thumped wildly. A Nascent Soul Realm cultivator like her would probably never have caught Pan Yi's attention if she hadn't been beautiful; he was only at her side because they were competing for her favor. Even a grandmaster of alchemy was beyond her reach,