Helen had gone along with Qin Shan and the jaguar to the palace, while Alex decided to stay back in the hotel.
Not only were the Hong Wu sect's people there, but even the Tiger Sect's folks were also there as well.
He wanted to talk with his master a bit, so that entire night he stayed there.
He told Wen Cheng almost everything regarding what he had gone through. Hearing that his disciple had gone through over two years of training as soon as he left them had surprised Wen Cheng.
Not to mention learning that his disciple basically skipped 3 years was that much more shocking.
The next day was the final competition, so they all went to watch. Unfortunately for the tiger sect, their number 1 disciple, Dong Duxin reached the top 8, but lost to the person that later came second.
Still, that was a great achievement for them so everyone was more or less happy.
The Hong Wu sect had also done quite well during the production competitions, so they were happy too.
Wen Cheng was starting to look better in just a day. He no longer seemed weak and fragile, but was now starting to gain the confidence and impact he had 10 years ago.
Now that he had received the various pills from Alex, he was sure to get back on track with his cultivation.
"I will see you guys tomorrow," Alex said as he waved goodbye to both the sect and went to the palace.
The moment he arrived, the guards welcomed him without a single delay and took him to the guest rooms where his mother and Qin Shan were staying at.
"I thought I was going to meet them today," Helen said.
"Sorry, its hard when there's so much security," Alex said. "But worry not, you will meet them tomorrow."
"Fine," Helen said.
There was a knock on the door and Alex was invited to the Emperor's study room.
"I will see you guys later," Alex said and left.
When he arrived at the Emperor's study room, he found the princes and the princess waiting for them as well.
"Greetings, your highnesses," Alex said.
"Young man, you've improved quite a lot in the years I haven't seen you. You are a whole different person now," the Emperor said.
"Thank you for the compliment, your majesty," Alex said.
"I had a few questions, I was hoping you would answer," the Emperor said.
"Sure, I can do that," Alex said.
Alex was expecting questions about the empire, how it ran, and other things, but surprisingly the emperor wanted to know about his brother and sister-in-law that had left for the other empire.
"I'm sorry, your highness. I haven't met them," Alex said. "However, given that they helped bring back one of the current strongest young generation members, their status in the clan shouldn't be low."
"I see," the Emperor said. "Also, I remember you lost your arm before, and I heard you helped bring back your master's arm recently. Are you capable of making those pills?"
"Yes, I am," Alex said. "It's a True pill so anyone below the Saint realm can get back their limps if they've lost it."
"Are you willing to sell the recipe? We can pay a hefty sum for it," the Emperor said.
Alex shook his head. "It's a special recipe so I don't want it to fall in the hands of just about anybody. I will pass it along to my sect and the elders can decide what to do with it themselves."
"Oh, okay, that works too. As long as the pill is available in the empire, I'm fine with that," the Emperor said.
"I do have something else I want to inform everyone about, so after tomorrow's ceremony, can you help gather some alchemists or doctors somewhere?" Alex asked.
"Sure," The Emperor said.
He then asked about various things relating to the beast realm and Alex's experience in the other empire.
Alex told them what he thought was okay and kept the rest for himself.
Once they were done, the Emperor left with the princess, while the princess remained behind to speak with him.
"I will be 36 this year. If you think I haven't changed, then you should get some special eyes skills and look again," she said jokingly.
Alex simply scratched his head, not knowing what to say.
"Anyway, welcome back," she said. "Are you returning for good?"
Alex shook his head. "Just a few months. I will need to be back before long," he said.
"I see," the princess said. "I hope you enjoy what little time you have here."
Alex went back to his room and early the next morning, the there of them went to the award ceremony for the competition.
There Alex introduced his mother to his master, elders, and friends.
"Thank you all for taking care of my son while he was all alone. He didn't really have much knowledge outside of his house, so it must have been quite hard for you all," Helen said.
"No… well, yes. It was hard to take care of him as common sense didn't apply to him, but he's a quick learned," Wen Cheng said.
"Master!" Pearl spoke up, surprising everyone in the surroundings as he jumped onto Wen Cheng.
"Pearl? You can speak?" Wen Cheng was surprised. "You've grown so much."
"Uh-huh," Pearl said.
Alex ignored them and looked towards the stage as the Emperor arrived and made a special announcement now that the ceremony for the award had ended.
"We have a special guest that had something to say to you all," the Emperor said as he looked toward Alex.
Alex nodded and jumped onto the stage, surprising his mother as he hadn't told her what he was doing.
Alex looked at the crowd and didn't know how to address them exactly, so he ignored the number and started explaining what he was going to talk about as if there were a single person in front of him.
"What I am going to talk to you, and subsequently show you is known as a medicinal paste. Medicinal pastes are…" Alex started explaining everything about medicinal pastes to them.
The Emperor wasn't sure what was going to be announced but when he did hear what medicinal pastes were and how cheap they were compared to pills, and sometimes even more effective, he was flabbergasted.
Pills that regenerated one's arm were useful, but not many people needed them. Normal pills that cured minor injuries, however, were necessary every single day and would destroy so many ingredients because of the shoddy work.
Now that the medicinal pastes were a thing, the Emperor could only imagine how much improvement there would be in the health sector for his empire.
What was even more impressive was that just about anyone could make this. He could only imagine the impact this would have once it spread throughout the empire.
Alex explained in detail and promised to spread talisman with this exact information soon enough.
When he was off, he gave the talisman with the information about the pastes from how they worked to what the recipes were to the Emperor.
"I'm sorry about the pills, but I can give you this. I hope you are alright with that," Alex said.
"Alright? I'm more than happy," the Emperor said. "You could've asked me for something in return for this, but you just gave it to me for free."
"Thank you, young man," the Emperor said.
"It's fine, your majesty," Alex said. He did think of asking some sort of payment for this, but he couldn't think of anything the emperor could have that he would want.
Spirit stones weren't very useful to him and there wouldn't be many treasures here he could want.
He did have the hope of obtaining the secret technique that could read someone else's mind, but that would mean revealing the fact that he did know about that technique.
Also, the technique stemmed from the Fu clan of the luminance empire, so getting the technique from there was a much better choice.
After everything was said and done, there wasn't anything Alex needed, so he didn't ask for anything.
Once the ceremony was done, the sects started to leave one by one.
The Tiger sect and the Hong Wu sect left as well, and along with them left Alex and Helen.