Leon spent the remainder of his time in the Capital chatting with his parents regarding matters related to the empire and its issues.
"Duna, Darlene, it's about time for us to leave now," Leon eventually notified the two before informing his parents, "Father, Mother, your son will be going now. I'll come back to visit you two after I resolve matters on the other side."
"Un, just go do what you need to do, son. You have done enough here. These cultivation techniques will aid the empire's growth greatly," Heinrich said.
"I know you don't need Mother to remind you, but be careful on your journey, son. The Wildlands is riddled with danger, especially in these tumultuous times."
After Elizabeth spoke, Leon nodded with a warm smile, "I understand, Mother."
Shortly after, Leon pulled Duna and Darlene to leave the Inner Courtyard—but after taking a few steps, he suddenly recalled a few unfinished matters.
"Oh, right. About my adoptive father, Brian, and the other Illusory Butterfly Sect Disciples, have they been…" Leon began inquiring into the matter from when he left off to explore the Dark Continent for his adoptive mother, Mia, and the others.
Thankfully, his mother and father had not mistreated Brian, Baron Grant, and the other ex-disciples—at least, their lives were still kept and executed.
Nevertheless, they had been under house arrest and had not been able to leave the guest courtyard. Still, it was better than dirty cells under the palace, or of course, death.
Once Leon recounted his experience in the Dark Continent, filling in the blanks that Darlene did not cover during the time she spent with his mother, he explained the circumstances and story regarding his adoptive father and the ex-disciples.
"I see. I have nearly forgotten about this matter if you have not brought it up, son. Brian and Baron Grant have also told me as such, but I could not confirm the truth from their mouths and could only keep them under house arrest until now…"
"Since it's been cleared up now, I won't pursue this matter further. Let bygones be bygones. I'll send someone to inform them of their lifted house arrest," Elizabeth said with a soft sigh before asking Leon, "Do you want to see them before you go, son?"
"Hmm…" Leon thought for a moment before shaking his head, "It's fine, Mother. I will visit again within two days. At that time, I will meet them and also see if Father Brian and the others want to follow me to the Dark Continent."
"Fair enough." Elizabeth nodded before she suddenly frowned.
"Since the Cataclysm happened, the Dark Continent must have been affected in some way as well. When you are heading for that place again, you must be extra prudent and careful, son."
"I know, I know." Leon smiled.
Shortly after, Elizabeth and Heinrich ended up deciding to follow Leon to the newly deployed teleportation array in the palace—wanting to witness its operation.
Nevertheless, Leon suddenly paused his steps once again. There was still one last matter for him to take care of in the Capital before returning to the other side.
Since he had provided divine cultivation techniques up to the Void Realm, it is only right to provide accompanying cultivation pills to aid cultivators in reaching such a level.
However, he only had Tier 3 Spirit Herbs, allowing him to refine cultivation pills for Divine Practitioners of the Revolving Core Realm.
Refining cultivation pills for Divine Practitioners of the Heaven Ascension Realm and Void Realm was out of the question.
'Even with the aid of cultivation pills, it will still take time for people to reach the peak of Revolving Core Realm. There's no need to teach Reginald the pill formula for the Heaven Ascending Pill and Shattering Void Pill for now…'
Leon began thinking about his alchemy disciple—who was really just slav—ahem, worker refining pills for him and the empire.
'I don't have Tier 4 Spirit Herbs, but even if I do, Reginald will not be able to refine the Tier 4 Heaven Ascending Pill, let alone the Tier 5 Shattering Void Pill. He has only been practicing alchemy under for a few weeks…'
It will take years of practice to reach Tier 4 in alchemy, even if someone is endowed in alchemy in knowledge.
'Right, Reginald still needs lots of spirit herbs to continue practicing alchemy. I am definitely not making him refine cultivation pills for free. This is all for the sake of advancing his alchemy skills,' Leon thought.
He had already imparted the knowledge of refining Spirit Enhancing Pills, Spirit Condensation Pills, and Core Strengthening Pills to Reginald.
The person only needed to continue refining these pills for now.
"Is there still something else, son?" Elizabeth inquired, seeing Leon had suddenly paused his steps.
"Yes, Mother."
Leon nodded to his mother before making some simple inquiries regarding Reginald.
Shortly after, he soon learned that his alchemy disciple had been working day and night tirelessly in the pill refining room ever since he left the batch of herbs for Reginald to practice pill refinement on.
"Quite the number of pills have been accumulated over the past few weeks or so. There aren't many spirit herbs left, and they are mostly the most valuable ones," Heinrich stated.
Leon did not expect Reginald to succeed in refining Tier 3 Core Strengthening Pills and becoming an Alchemy Grandmaster so soon.
"Father, can I trouble you to get someone to deliver these spirit herbs to my alchemy disciple?"
After saying this, Leon waved his hand and poured out several sets of spirit herbs ranging from Tier 1 to Tier 3 Spirit Herbs.
"Of course." Heinrich nodded.
After seeing Heinrich stored everything into his interspatial ring, Leon began rubbing his chin in musing, "Maybe it's time to reopen that pill store of mine."
"That would definitely bring in immense profit once the pills hit the market, but you won't be around to manage it, would you? Do you need my help?"
"Then, I will trouble father with the task of finding suitable people in managing the pill store," Leon accepted his father's offer.
Shortly after, he added, "However, the cultivation pills shouldn't be solely monopolized by the rich. We need to circulating pills well to give the commoners an equal chance of obtaining them. Perhaps a contribution system will do? Of course, I will leave it to you to sort out the finer details, Father."
"You brat… Giving me more work… Haiz, alright. Just leave it to me," Heinrich sighed with a bit of helplessness.
Leon smiled wryly.
"Then… I'll be going now."
"Un, save travels, my son."
Eventually, they bid farewell to each other before Leon activated the teleportation array and stepped inside with Duna and Darlene.