Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Chapter 728 Overwhelmed

　　"Brother? What are you saying?" Guyang asked hurriedly. He had thought that his brother was here to help him take revenge, but instead, Zhou Ren had said that he needed that lesson.

　　"No," Zhou Ren said. "I'm just here to apologize for my brother's behavior."

　　Zhou Ren looked to the side to see Guyang's surprised look and suddenly hit him on the back of his head.

　　"Ow!" Guyang cried in pain. "Why did you hit me?"

　　"Was I the one that did the wrong thing or was it you?" Zhou Ren asked.

　　"I… it was me," Guyang said.

　　"Then why aren't you apologizing yet?" Zhou Ren shouted at his brother. 

　　Guyang got scared and apologized to Alex for fear of being reprimanded by his brother. Alex looked at the two, unsure what he was to say.

　　"It's fine," Alex said. "He was already punished yesterday."

　　"No, he is not nearly punished," Zhou Ren said in response to Alex as a hateful look appeared on his face.

　　"This bastard has been using our family name all the time to force his way through places or to bully the weak. As his older brother, I can't watch him ruin himself," Zhou Ren said.

　　"As such, I hope to punish him even more." Zhou Ren then turned to Alex and asked, "Would you be willing to have him work in the clinic? You won't have to pay him at all and he will be like your servant."

　　"Brother!" Guyang tried to speak.

　　"Shut up! You've embarrassed us enough. You will accept this punishment," Zhou Ren said.

　　"I don't think that's necessary, brother Zhou," Alex said. " I don't think there is any more punishment I can give him."

　　"No, I insist," Zhou Ren said. "Since he dared do something so unbecoming of someone from our family, he deserves this punishment."

　　Alex was about to refuse as he didn't like the thought of having someone unknown working in his clinic, but he did need a worker. 

　　So, he decided to accept the offer. "Very well, he can work as a guard in my clinic," Alex said.

　　"Thank you, brother Yu," Zhou Ren said. He then turned around to his brother and said, "remember, act well."

　　After that, Zhou Ren left the clinic, leaving his brother back with Alex.

　　"Shurin, I think your job will be changing from tomorrow on," Alex said. "Teach him how to do what you are doing."

　　Alex went on to treat the rest of the patients there while Shurin made Guyang look after the people so that they didn't cut in line as he did.

　　That day, the incident that took place in the clinic reached the entire capital and even more as people learned that a young elite talent like Zhou Ren had visited the clinic and even bowed his head to Alex.

　　That only made Alex's clinic even more popular and even more, eyes fell on him.

　　The next morning, as Alex and Shurin reached the clinic, they found the people in an orderly line, with Guyang making sure no one went out of line.

　　"Oh, he's here already," Alex said with a bit of surprise. 

　　"Hello, brother. What do you need me to do?" Guyang asked respectfully.

　　"Uh… nothing really. Do what you've been doing," Alex said. He then brought out a storage bag and handed it to Shurin. "You're in charge of selling these. Do what I told you."

　　"Yes, brother Yu," Shurin nodded.

　　Alex turned around to the group of people that were lined up and shouted, "Who is here to buy the medicinal paste and want nothing to do with being treated?" 

　　A bunch of voices rung out and hands were raised.

　　"Please step to your right," Alex said. Most of the people stepped away from the line, but a few of them were suspicious that they were going to be turned away, so they sat in their line.

　　"Please line up here in a different file. You will be buying your pastes from her and I will only be treating patients from now on," Alex said.

　　The people who had left the original line immediately got onto a new queue. While the one that remained regretfully went to the back of the new line.

　　Alex started treating the patients soon while Shurin helped sell the pastes. After that, the day went smoothly.

　　Guyang, despite being punished to be here, didn't shy away from the work he did and did it as well as he could. Being from a big family, he was a proud man and would masterfully do what he was made to do.

　　A few days passed and the clinic got more popular. Fortunately for Alex, once the people who had been walking around with their wounds for ages were healed, there were not many new patients despite the vastness of the capital.

　　Even if there were a good number of injured or sick that appeared every day, they would simply buy the paste instead of going to get treatment.

　　As such, Alex got a bit more free time during the day. During such free time, he started making more and more pastes to reach the demand of the customers.

　　Spirit stones gushed in like water from an open dam, but so did the stress. Every day, Alex focused his time on either treating the wounded or creating pastes.

　　At night, he once again used his free time to make more pastes. Soon, that became his daily routine.

　　His only relief came when the weekend arrived and he was finally free to do whatever he wanted. 

　　During those days, Alex simply went to libraries and read up on new things, or stayed in his room and cultivated.

　　Perhaps it was because of the stress, or perhaps he was simply not getting enough time to deal with it, Alex's yang body flared once more and was getting hotter and hotter.

　　He needed some yin treasures to deal with it, but he had none right now. Since Yin treasures were quite rare, to begin with, he would need to send someone to an auction.

　　Fortunately, the Royal palace always had people go in place of others to buy items from the auction house, so Alex had the princess buy something for him too.

　　The next week went fine for Alex, but the stress one increasing on him.

　　One of these days, Shen Jing showed up for training, but Alex had no time at all. 

　　"You became a healer, huh? Suits you quite a bit," Shen Jing said.

　　"Brother Shen, can we move our schedule to the week's end? I don't have the time to train at all," Alex said.

　　"I'm afraid I can't do that," Shen Jing said. "I'm on quite a tight schedule too. I only have today as a free day to train you for the next few weeks."

　　"But I can't…" Alex was a little saddened.

　　"No worries, I will just take Pearl. Besides, you won't make any real progress until you break through," Shen Jing said.

　　"Right," Alex said. "He needed to do that too."

　　"Well, don't kill yourself trying to take care of others. You need to take care of yourself too," Shen Jing said.

　　After that, he left with Pearl to train and didn't return until it was late evening.

　　The next few weeks went by the same, but slowly Alex started to feel more and more overwhelmed with all the work.

　　On one of the free days, he sat down to relax in the garden when Princess Xumei arrived by his side and sat down.

　　"You're a busy man, little brother," she said. "It is getting hard to get a hold of you."

　　"I'm sorry, I've been really busy," Alex said. "Did you want something?"

　　"Actually, yes," the princess said. "Have you kept any track of time at all? How long you've been here?" 

　　Alex thought for a moment and he shook his head. The days were bleeding into each other.

　　"It's been over 3 months," the princess said. "You know what that means right?"

　　Alex thought for a second and lost the color on his face again. "You are running out of the pills and pastes, aren't you?"