Jiang Mingxue has been chasing the top spot her whole life. The black-haired girl was born to the sect’s leader. Yet, her talent was not the best. Not that it stopped her from chasing the position of Young Mistress.
Yet no amount of hard work will help her cross the gap when it comes to raw talent. She needs resources, pills, and other items that would help her catch up to her cousin Jiang Longtian—the greatest Cloud Sword Talent in this generation.
Then, as if her prayers had been answered, an alchemist appeared in her Sect.
She moved without hesitation; it was time to meet him and persuade him to help her!
~~~
"Umm, yes, that would be me." Ye Ming slowly nodded as he looked at the line-up of beautiful girls. While Jiang Mengxue was a Core Disciple, her followers were from the Inner Sect.
"Wonderful. I am Jiang Mengxue." The girl smiled a bit as she introduced herself.
"Is it true that you are an alchemist?" She asked him while brushing her hair behind her ear. The other girls looked curiously at him, waiting for his reply.
"Yes, that is true." He nodded as he walked over to them.
"...I see..." She smiled a bit more. Making the girls around her start whispering among themselves, they all looked at him as if he were one of the rarest things in the world.
"Is there something you want? Because I have pills to sell." Ye Ming asked her, as he was a bit busy and was enjoying watching beautiful girls, not at this moment.
"...I require your assistance." She finally spoke, and it was obvious to him she wasn’t used to asking for things like that.
"..."
He waited for her to expand.
"I desire to win the Young Master’s Selection Tournament that will happen in a few weeks’ time. If you assist me, I would be extremely grateful; you would have a Young Mistress’s favour." The girl said, expecting him to accept such a proposal. Her Grand Uncle told her he had recently learned he was gifted as an Alchemist.
Surely she could get his assistance before the Alchemist Association learned about him.
But he didn’t look intrigued or curious, which made her worried internally.
"I am not sure about it." He replied, before walking and thinking to walk past her. But Jiang Mengxue ended up hugging his arm and stopping him in his tracks.
Her actions caused him to stop from sheer shock; he didn’t expect the Sect Master’s daughter to act like that!
Her well-proportioned breasts ended up catching his hand, engulfing it.
"Then what do you suggest? Ye Ming?" She ended up whispering. The girl was bold and very serious; she was not pulling back.
"...Then how about... I want you. If you want me to assist in your quest." He whispered back as he looked into her eyes with deep intensity. If she wants him to assist her in her ambitions, then she will have to pay more than simple favours.
But this is what Jiang Mengxue was thinking in the first place. She wanted to see if she could seduce him, and since it worked, she had another card to play.
"Wonderful, but I am busy with my cultivation, so why not sweeten the deal, Ye Ming?" She smirked as she watched his expression change; he looked surprised that she was considering his wild suggestion.
"You can have my girls and me." She dropped the bombshell.
At that moment, Ye Ming looked around. He could see that all of them had expressions similar to Jiang Mengxue’s; they had all decided on this before coming here.
They were basically dropping bodies upon bodies to make him accept.
The scariest part was that these girls were gorgeous.
Ye Ming could see a cold beauty, a well-developed one, a bubbly one, a friendly one, and even a haughty one.
This was not a ’random’ selection... at that moment, he realised the ladies most likely followed Jiang Mengxue for power, as they had their own goals too!
Though the Alchemist didn’t notice, there was one girl who panicked when this whole thing happened. This girl was Bai Lingxi, and her childhood sweetheart was Jian Long, the descendant of the founder of the Sword Cloud Sect.
He had recently undergone a complete 180-degree change in personality and became extremely talented.
Not that Ye Ming will learn any of this any time soon. Bai Lingxi joined Jiang Mengxue because the Sect Master’s daughter is good to her friends. She used these girls to solidify her power base, a favour for favour; having a circle of allies is important.
Besides, there was a certain amount of clout from being Jiang Mengxue’s follower. Bai Lingxi tried to use that to protect Jian Long, who was a waste.
But now this is biting her back. The Sect Master’s daughter became desperate because of her lack of progress in cultivation.
She has been stuck in Stage Eight of Qi Gathering for months now, and her closest Rival, Jiang Longtian, has already been in Stage Nine of Qi Gathering for a considerable amount of time.
If this continues, the gap will only grow. Bai Lingxi realised that, but she had no other allies to speak of; her family in the Cloud Sword Sect was small.
’This is not good!’
Bai Lingxi looked at how other Jiang Mengxue’s followers got closer to Ye Ming.
"Is that so?" The alchemist got a bit nervous with the number of females around him.
"Indeed, so what is going to be? Do you accept my proposal?" The black-haired girl pushed her assets even more into his hand.
"Hmm, I guess I will, though I do expect you to assist in resource gathering. I can make pills, but the materials have to come from somewhere." He looked down and watched how her mountains ’moved’ around his hand. It was very distracting.
The girls smiled when they heard that he would accept the proposal.
"Do not worry. That is all we want." Jiang Mengxue is not shameless enough to have someone collect materials for her.
She is a sword practitioner and has killed her share of enemies and completed more than a few tasks for the sect.
Paying her part is something she is not afraid to do. The only issue so far for her was the lack of an alchemist to assist her in her ambitions.
Alchemy Association would extort her if she were to ask for something like a personal alchemist. They do offer such contracts, but it would strip her Sect of resources before she could even ascend as Sect Master.
So this is a far, far better choice. Can she sink her claws in before someone talented and with a fancier background appears before him?
"Good, then we are in agreement." He smiled, and she smiled back.
"Fantastic, then what do you want me to do?" Jiang Mengxue asked him; she was ready.
"We can discuss things after I finish with my tasks."
"What is it you desire from the sect?" She asked him, ready to assist.
"A storage ring. Carrying valuable pills like this is dangerous." He explained to him.
"I see. Then Liu Li, get him a storage ring." Jiang Mengxue ordered one of the girls to set a ring for him.
"Understood, Mistress."
"Get the blue one." Ye Ming recalled that he wanted a specific one.
"As you wish, Master Ming." The haughty-looking girl nodded, then used her movement technique to disappear.
"As you can see, I have collected a promising group of girls. They will assist you with collecting raw materials, and I will help as well if you wish. Though I do need to achieve my desired cultivation realm and win the tournament." Jiang Mengxue said with a sigh.
The girl was still around his hands and not letting him go. It was still sinking in to her that she had acquired an Alchemist for her cause.
"I see." Ye Ming nodded as he looked at the gathered girls. This was the biggest group he had seen so far.
Five in total, six if he is to add Jiang Mengxue.
"Tell me about this tournament, and who is the competition? I assume it’s a relative of yours?"
She smiled when he started to speak in the direction that she wanted.
"Can we talk about this in an appropriate place?" She replied while looking around. Her cousin’s people could be around. Especially with Alchemist news spreading through the Sect grounds like a wildfire.
He nodded and started to walk back to his house.
"Let’s talk there."
"Yes."
Ye Ming and Jiang Mengxue walked into their house. The girls spread around the perimeter of his house like bodyguards.
Except for one girl who took several steps back before swiftly leaving this area. This was Bai Lingxi; she knew where this would lead, so she left immediately.
Though part of her, a very large part of her, is worried for the future. Once Jiang Mengxue learns about this...
The girl doesn’t even want to think about the consequences!
But there is no way she will give herself to the Alchemist, regardless of whether he has special talent or abilities!
~~~
The Sect Master’s daughter smelled the herbs in the small house. She swiftly spotted an old-looking bronze cauldron on the table.
"...You made your pills with that old thing? Do you require me to get a new one for you?" The black-haired beauty asked him as she looked at his cauldron.
"No need. Maybe at a later date, but so far it was working perfectly." He declined, not now. There is no need, as it’s working perfectly for the pills he is making at the moment.
"I understand." She nodded before returning to the matter at hand. "My main competition is Jiang Longtian. He is my cousin and has superior talent. At the moment, he is a realm above me and is most likely getting closer and closer to breaking through to Foundation Realm, that is, if my uncle got him the Foundation Pill from the Alchemist Association." Jiang Mengxue said with a frown.
"Foundation Pill. If I recall correctly, that pill costs a fortune."
"Hmph. Yes, because the Alchemist Association is ripping us off.
They control all of the Alchemists by doing so; they set the prices throughout the land." She huffed in annoyance. She then let go of his hand and moved back a bit.
"That is why I require your help. My father spends double the amount on pills because of my talent. I simply can’t keep up with Jiang Longtian.
Though Father has a suspicion that the Alchemist Association might be helping Jiang Longtian to ascend as the next Sect Master, compromising the Sect in the process."
’This sounds like politics and conspiracies.’ Ye Ming grimaced when he heard that. He had only ’awakened’ his talent days ago, and he was already getting plunged into this.
"These are our suspicions, though. Don’t tell anyone, please." The girl gave him a pleading look.
"I see... it appears you are putting me in a faction as well." Ye Ming sighed; he was a bit annoyed.
"My apologies, I promise to pay you back somehow!" She apologised in a hurried tone.
"Hmm, well, I do have means to assist you in catching up to your cousin."
Jiang Mengxue perked up when she heard that.
"I pill that I made myself a couple of days ago." He commented while pondering on alternatives.
"You see, I might not be an expert in the whole cultivation thing. But I do know that if your meridians are purified, then your cultivation speed will pick up."
The girl’s eyes widened when she heard that! If he can do that...
"I-If you can do that... then my cultivation speed won’t fall behind his!" The girl suddenly got emotional. This is what she was looking for!
"Indeed. I can make that pill, but..." He took a step forward, and his hand went to her chin; his thumb brushed around her lip.
"But you will spend the whole night with me." Ye Ming whispered into her ear when he leaned forward.
Jiang Mengxue’s cheeks erupted in a deep blush.
"Y-Yes..."