Tiny waves crashed alongside the shore of the lake as pulses of energy flowed out from the center of the lake.
Alex and many others stood by the shoreline, looking at the flower petals and leaves being pushed toward them.
It had been 2 months since he had been a target of assassination. Since then, no one had come to assassinate him, but Alex still stayed in the Alchemy Association the entire time in fear.
He mostly stayed in his room, working on the spiritual root or dao pills, but just as before he was still stuck on a wall, unable to move forward.
Hopefully, that was going to change in the next week.
Today was the day the Forbidden Orchard was going to open, and he was ready to enter.
He was standing by the shore of the Floral lake in the Flowerhall sect.
Next to him were about 24 different people. All of them either belonged to the Flowerhall sect or did at one point in time. If they weren’t in the Flowerhall sect, then they were in the Alchemy Association for sure.
About 6 of those 25 were from the Alchemy association and surprisingly, or maybe not that surprisingly, Harry was going to be entering too.
“I swear, Alex, if not for you, I wouldn’t have been able to come here at all,” he said softly while standing next to him.
Alex smiled and didn’t say anything.
After his lessons, Harry practiced for the last year to continuously improve his pill-making skills. As such, he had become one of the fastest up-and-coming alchemists in the association.
Harry was always good as an alchemist, and the only thing he was missing was a fundamental concept of pill-making. Once he got that from Alex, his growth was unstoppable.
Aside from the two, the others weren’t as good an alchemist. Instead, they were gardeners that were adept at raising plants as well as recognizing them.
If Alex didn’t have the knowledge base in him planted by the Alchemy god’s book, these would have been the most exceptional people to enter the orchard today.
On the Flowerhall Sect’s side, there were many of their own disciples and a few elders going in. From what Alex could see, all of them were in the True realm, aside from the elders.
’15 and 4,’ Alex thought. ‘I suppose that’s enough elders for a group of disciples.’
From what he had heard, there were a few species of insects inside the Orchard, most of which were butterflies and bees.
They were left alone due to how helpful they were to the ecosystem inside the Orchard.
pAnDa (nov)e1 Aside from them, there were no animals that could threaten any of them at all. All they had to be careful of then were the plants.
Just earlier, the sect leader had given a speech talking about how they had to stay away from the carnivorous plants, plants with lots of vines, and poisonous plants.
“By the way, are you taking part in the competition?” Harry asked. “I feel like I should test myself.”
“I don’t think I will,” Alex said. “Especially against juniors.”
It was the first time Alex didn’t feel weird calling True realm cultivators juniors. After all, most of these disciples were about 40 years of age, while he was already hitting 50.
“I remember being in their place long ago when the orchard opened. I did get to enter at that time, but I wasn’t that interested in learning about ingredients so I could never win the competition,” Harry said. “However, now that I have learned a bit, I want to do it.”
“You want to compete against these juniors?” Alex asked.
“No, that’s why I’m asking you,” Harry said. “I want to compete with you.”
Alex chuckled a bit. “As long as you won’t cry after losing,” he said.
“Haha! You’ve spent so much time learning how to make pills, I doubt you are that good with ingredients,” Harry said.
The competition was simple. Once inside, the disciples had to find as many species of plants and identify them and an ingredient that came from them. After identifying, you had to bring back the ingredient as well for proof.
Whoever could record the most and bring back evidence won.
Since the Forbidden Orchard was different from other secret realms, the Flowerhall sect had created a small competition to make the task of gathering ingredients more fun for the disciples.
At the same time, they would be careful about what they were finding and how they would acquire them by having to either look up the information in their books or ask their elders what was assigned to them.
That way, they wouldn’t accidentally touch or remove something they weren’t supposed to.
The orchard suddenly blasted another round of pollen, sending it flying all around it. The wave of pollen hit Alex and the others as well, but it was blocked by an illusory barrier right before it could touch them.
“Just a few more minutes, and then I can open it,” Qiu Hanyu said from the front and turned around.
“So, I assume you all know what you should do and what you shouldn’t do, right?” she asked.
Everyone nodded in understanding.
She turned to Alex and said, “I know you have been given full freedom to do whatever you want inside, but please try to leave the plants and trees alone if they are the only species inside. We wouldn’t want to lose something that’s rare.”
“Of course,” Alex said. “I will try to be careful about what I take and what I don’t.”
“No, please take as much as you want. My Granduncle will scold me if I put any more restrictions on you other than that,” she said.
After saying that, she reiterated the rules again to the rest of them just in case.
The orchard pulsed for one last time before it started buzzing unnaturally. “It’s ready,” Harry said softly from next to Alex.
“Let’s go, we can open it now,” the sect leader said.
Alex flew along with the other 25 people and flew up to the platform at the center of the lake. The platform looked small from afar, but up close, it could fit about 50 people on it without enough room for everyone to do jumping jacks.
The sect leader brought out a sort of medallion and raised it towards the small, silver slit in space that continued to buzz.
Then, the medallion shined and the formation below them activated amplifying the slit in the space, opening it fully.
“Go,” the sect leader said. “I will close it after you enter. Be sure to be here in the next 7 days when I will open it again. Don’t get lost inside, it will just cost us resources to open it out of time if we have to go in and find you.”
The group nodded and one by one, everyone started walking in. Alex’s group was the last to walk in.
As soon as he entered, Alex was hit by a wave of fragrance that he would not be able to find anywhere but here. The sweet smell of flowers and fruits was something that threatened to overwhelm his senses.
It was only a moment later that he could focus and ignore the smells.
The slit in space behind him closed, but Alex could feel it still behind him. Not only that, he could feel air slowly being pulled out of the portal as well.
Pollen flew in with the wind, but they were too large to enter the slit that was basically nonexistent at this point.
Slowly, the pollen would gather there for a long time before so much was gathered that it burst through a weakened slit and spread around the lake and city outside.
Alex ignored the slit behind him and looked ahead at the massive hill that was completely filled with flowers, herbs, and shrubs.
He could see a few trees here and there, but mostly the plants didn’t grow higher than his waist in height in this location at least.
“Well, good luck to you. I will go work on my list,” Harry said and left his side to immediately go further away from the group of juniors that had started gathering and recording ingredients right from in front of them.
Alex looked further away and thought of where to go.
“Brother Alex, do you need some help?” one of the four gardeners asked him.
Alex turned around to look at the gardener and shook his head. “It’s alright, I am fine on my own. Please don’t let my presence disturb you,” he said.
“There is no disturbance here,” another one said. “Please just let us know and we will help you in finding what you want. We have been here many times before after all.”
“Oh, right,” Alex said. He needed to take into account that most of these were from the Flowerhall sect after all.
Alex thought for a second and asked the gardeners, “Then, do you happen to know where the poisonous plants are?”
“Uhh, it should be in that direction beyond a mountain,” one of them said.
“Why don’t I take you there?” another one of them said.
“No, it’s alright. Please focus on your work, I can go there myself,” Alex said and left. He didn’t want anyone by his side to see how good he was with the plants.
After reaching a little further away, Alex brought out Whisker and had him pick the ingredients for him.
This was a perfect time to teach Whisker, so he wasn’t going to miss it.
