Rise of the Alchemy God

Chapter 215: Unexpected Surprise

.

Currently in the Peng family residence.

Ethan and Da Shu were sitting at a table in the garden, sipping tea while talking.

After returning to the sect, it had taken Ethan some time to find his friend since he was not at his residence.

Unsure of where to look, Ethan assumed Da Shu might be out and decided to wait, thinking they would meet later.

That was when he ran into Lin Huo Li.

Curious, Ethan asked her about Da Shu's whereabouts, only to learn that he was staying at his family's residence to take care of some matters.

Ethan thought this might be for the best since he had revealed more of his alchemical prowess recently.

It was a good opportunity for him to plan the sale of more potent pills for the future.

Ethan personally no longer cared much about the pill business.

Initially, he had pursued it purely for financial reasons, but now that money was no longer an issue, nor were resources thanks to his minor dimension, his priorities had shifted.

He continued to run the business to ensure that the Peng family would be able to defend themselves from future enemies, should he ever have to leave.

With that in mind, he decided to discuss some of his plans with Da Shu, or at least, that had been his original intention.

***

"What?! You got married?!"

"When did this happen? I'm sure you weren't married when I left!" Ethan exclaimed, nearly choking on his tea.

The news hit him so hard he couldn't process it calmly.

He had already noticed some peculiar signs earlier, such as Lin Huo Li hesitating when asked about Da Shu.

Seeing her blush out of nowhere, Ethan had thought the situation was strange, but who would have guessed that the two had progressed this far?

He couldn't understand how all this had happened in less than a month.

Da Shu, already prepared for Ethan's shock, took a sip of his tea calmly before replying,

"Well, believe it or not, it all happened so suddenly for me too." His expression seemed to drift as if lost in distant memories.

Ethan, hearing this, couldn't help but ask for details, and what he learned was beyond anything he could have imagined.

After Da Shu confessed his feelings, Lin Huo Li took him to meet her family the very next day.

Initially opposed to the union, her family eventually agreed after some heated arguments.

The day after that, the wedding was prepared.

For some reason, Da Shu's family also approved of the match as if it were no big deal.

By the fifth day, the two were already husband and wife, having visited both families to pay respects as tradition demanded.

They agreed to live together once they reached a certain cultivation level, given their relatively young age.

What astonished Ethan wasn't the speed of events but the fact that Da Shu had gone along with it all without resistance, watching the sequence of events unfold.

He hadn't convinced Lin Huo Li's family himself; she had done it.

According to Da Shu, Lin Huo Li had a fiery argument with her family that nearly ended with severed ties.

However, she ultimately declared that Da Shu was the wealthy owner of a successful pill business. Upon learning this, her family's attitude shifted dramatically.

A similar situation occurred with Da Shu's family, who, as he later discovered, had accepted the match so quickly because his parents feared he would die a bachelor without ever finding love.

Grateful to have someone like Lin Huo Li as his partner, his parents wasted no time and wholeheartedly approved of the marriage.

This was just the beginning of the whirlwind week of events.

Ethan felt that this sequence of events rivaled the plot twists of dramas from his previous world.

As he tried to process everything, Bai Yu, in his mind, erupted into laughter.

In the end, Ethan could only offer his friend some sympathy, telling him,

"At least you secured the woman you like."

After discussing Da Shu's peculiar marriage, Ethan shifted the conversation to business.

He explained how the tournament and subsequent auction had gone, leaving Da Shu momentarily speechless.

"Wait, are you telling me you won? Not in the beginner category, but in the expert one?" Da Shu asked, astonished.

He had always known Ethan was a talented alchemist and expected him to rank highly, but taking first place was something even Da Shu hadn't anticipated.

'I guess I underestimated him again,' he thought, shaking his head.

After a moment, something else occurred to him.

"Well, that would explain the behavior of all those families," Da Shu murmured to himself.

"Hm? What behavior?"

"Oh, right, you wouldn't know since you've just returned.

In the past few days, many of our biggest competitors have stopped putting pressure on our business.

Some of the larger families have even approached us with offers for collaboration," Da Shu explained, going into detail about recent business developments.

Ethan wasn't too surprised by this since he had partly expected it to happen, though perhaps not so quickly. Continue your adventure with M-V-L

"Everything seems to be moving a bit too fast these days," Ethan thought, amused by the irony.

Shaking his head, he pushed those thoughts aside and got to the point.

"How long do you plan to be away?" Da Shu asked, hearing that Ethan intended to enter seclusion again.

It wasn't unusual for a cultivator to do so, if anything, it was unusual for Ethan to have only stayed in seclusion for a month last time.

However, what worried Da Shu was that Ethan had hinted that this period might be longer.

"Probably no more than a year, but that's not the issue.

In the future, I may need to leave for extended periods, possibly years or even decades, depending on circumstances.

I can't produce enough pills to sustain you for that long, so I thought of an alternative," Ethan explained, outlining his plan to train some of the Peng family's alchemists.

Hearing this, Da Shu didn't complain.

As a cultivator himself, he understood how important Ethan's cultivation journey was.

He was already grateful for all the help Ethan had provided his family, and the offer to train their alchemists to a higher level was more than he could have asked for, so he thanked him sincerely.