Adrian went back inside after chatting with the two kids for a few more minutes. He then started concocting pills for them. This cycle continued for the rest of the week.
He would spend his days training and playing with the kids and giving them pointers.
It was fortunate that they all used swords; it made it quite easy for him to train them. After tiring them out, he would then start his pill refinement. His continuous practice has made him get the hang of alchemy.
Since the recipe for Bronze rank pills wasn't difficult, it was relatively easy for him to continue his practice.
Now he could safely guarantee the success of all his pill refinements. Though he still wasn't able to make pill veins appear.
Though now, he wasn't too worried about it. After going around to various stores, he had a clue as to just how monstrous his alchemy was.
Most of the stores only sold low-grade pills, with medium-grade being the highest grade they had. Even so, the ridiculous prices he saw made him want to puke blood.
Only now did he truly realize the worth of an alchemist and how much money he could make from this profession. This discovery made him happy, and he put even more effort into concocting pills.
When it was time for him to leave, both Jayson and Olivia hugged him goodbye. He had already left most of his remaining Qi stones with Jayson, so they'll be fine for quite a while.
He has also given them the pills he had concocted at this time. Olivia was sad to see him go, but she kept herself from crying. Even though she was still young, she was smart enough to know that this trip was a necessary one.
Only by getting stronger could they even have a sliver of hope of rebuilding the Thorne family.
Adrian finally left after assuring the young girl that he would be back soon. He quickly made his way to the city gates. The familiar sight of the crowded gates filled his vision as he joined the queue that was leaving the city.
It was finally his turn after about 15 minutes, and he swiftly left the city.
After running for about 30 minutes, he finally separated from the crowd and was in the forest around the city.
Because of their proximity to the Misty Mountains, there weren't any dangerous beasts in the forest. Any powerful beast would choose to live in the Misty Mountains, as there was much more prey for them there.
Travelling through the forest, he made it to the foot of the mountains after a week. He could see several tents around the base of the mountains as several cultivators were coming and going. The area was like a mini market with people buying, selling, and exchanging various items.
People who didn't want to wait until they returned to Stonehold City preferred to trade here.
A few of them glanced at Adrian but quickly diverted their gazes from him when they saw his hooded figure. People in disguises were not uncommon in that area, so there was nothing really special about him.
Adrian quickly entered the mountain range and soon vanished from their sights. A light fog soon surrounded him as he made his way up one of the mountains. Aside from training, he also wanted to find resources.
It was common knowledge that the misty mountains were full of rare resources.
That was why there were so many people willing to risk their lives on a daily basis.
Who knows, one could get lucky and find an extremely rare herb that could increase one's cultivation drastically. Or unearth a ruin of an ancient sect filled with resources that could set one up for life.
Of course, these situations were highly unlikely, especially since he was still in the outer regions of the misty mountains.
The misty mountains were divided into three regions. The outer regions where beasts up to the third rank could be found, the inner region where beasts up to the sixth rank could be found, and the core region.
There were very few records about what was in the core regions. At least to someone at Adrian's level, the core regions were still far away. But it could be inferred that beasts above the sixth rank would be in the core region.
Beasts were given ranks according to their strengths. A first rank beast was equivalent to a Qi Condensation realm cultivator. A second rank beast was the same as a Foundation Establishment realm cultivator and so on.
Above the sixth rank meant that the beasts there could match someone in the Earth Immortal realms.
Adrian shook his head and stopped thinking about that. They were too far from him anyway. Plus, he needed to pay attention to his surroundings.
He brought out a piece of beast skin that looked quite old. It was the map that he had gotten from the bandits on their way to Roser City. He wanted to see if he could find anything of use to him there.
He was a bit skeptical since he wasn't confident in the authenticity of the map, but he decided to search for it anyway. As long as it wasn't in the inner regions, searching for the supposed 'treasure' was still feasible.
Adrian stored the map and continued moving deeper into the mountains, where he encountered his first obstacle.
A pack of grey wolves filled Adrian's vision. He had been exploring the mountains for two days before accidentally stumbling upon the wolves' den.
There were 11 grey wolves in the pack. The weakest among them was in the middle tier of the first rank. After observing them for a few moments, he noticed one of them that was slightly larger than the rest of them.
It was clearly the alpha.
Adrian could make out a few details from the wolf. It stood at roughly one meter tall, with its fur a deeper shade of grey than the rest of the pack.
Its sharp claws and fangs were already visible. It was also radiating an aura at the middle tier of the second rank. It was clear that there would definitely be an altercation.