The flower was called Angel's light.This flower is dark purple in color and has twelve petals in the shape of a common wild flower. This flower has a very special property if mixed with Devil's cure a very rare flower that is midnight blue in color and it's petals are thin and look like spider legs.
When eaten together they force out all poisons and impurities from the body. It's just that the people in this world do not know of their existence as they appear very randomly in places and there is one of it's kind that appears at a time.
Ryse did not know about it's common looking appearance. He had felt an aura from the flower that was very faint. Even Ryse would not have felt it if he did have the instincts formed from thousands of similar worlds over thousands of years.
Ryse plucked the flower and kept it inside the jade bottle. Maybe he can cure the old man's unknown illness with this and the devil's cure. The entire operation had only taken thirty seconds.
Ryse walked behind the old man keeping an eye out for anything that might seem like devil's cure. After all there are hundreds of flowers that have petals like spider legs and have mid night blue color in this world.
Unfortunately he did not find it all the way. Arriving at the cliff side the old man first checked around for any danger before he started picking the herbs. Ryse followed his memory and picked the herbs carefully.
Suddenly he heard the sound of the something moving on the grass and immediately stood up alert. "master there seems to be something here" He whispered backing away to the old man's side. The old man heard him and took out a long dagger holding it steady as he observed the surroundings.
The appearance of the snake was sudden it appeared from behind the long grass headed straight for Ryse. The old man was already alert and immediately slashed the dagger towards the snake. The snake hid in the grass again and attacked from the other side.
Fortunately the snake was not spiritual and the old man took care of it in a few minutes. They quickly picked up the basket full of herbs and headed back home.
Ryse stored away the Angels's light and went back to creating pills. A year passed by slowly living in the forest. One day the old man called him over,
"The immortal altar will be opening again after ten years....We can take this chance to head to the city. There will be a lot of cultivators arriving in the city for a chance to enter immortal altar....We will sell our pills and earn some money maybe we can even talk to the auction house head to sell pills there"
And so, The old man and Ryse packed up their things needed for the one month stay in the city took their big batch of pills and headed outside the forest. After going out they went to village and bought a carriage it cost them more than half of their savings.
With the carriage they hit the road to Dalan city the estimated time to reach there was three days, Because they were taking the long road so as to not run in the bandits. The journey was fortunately smooth with no troubles along the way.
Three days later they arrived at the city gates. Paying the entrance money they went inside. The market road was very crowded because it was evening. They headed to the hotel with their things and booked a room for the night.
Early the next morning They went out to set up their stall. The street only had a few people around mostly shop keepers. Ryse made a circle around the area observing every alley and road that opened up at the market road then he returned to the stall. A few hours passed and people started appearing little by little until it was crowded again. Ryse also noticed some white clothed people who had a strong spiritual auras around them.
'Cultivators seem to be arriving early.' He thought. He was right cultivators did start arriving very early just to be the first to enter the immortal altar. This made him wonder what was inside the immortal altar anyways that all of these people were clamoring to get in first.
By nightfall the old man had sold one batch of normal pills and earned some silver. They closed the stall and headed to the auction house. The old man negotiated while Ryse was feeling restless.
Just on the way here he felt his soul fluctuate. His soul shard was nearby he really wanted to go grab it now but if he left just like this the old man will worry unnecessarily. Two hours passed and the restlessness was strong enough to make him tremble. In the end he could not stand still and just told the old man that he was going out to get something and will be back soon.
Before the old man could say anything he ran out full speed even receiving a warning from the AI "Master your heart rate has increased to a dangerous level please be calm"
"That thing can't calm down quickly anyways it is not like I will die" He whispered as he ran following the fluctuation.
He skidded to a stop a few meters away from the large gates of the immortal altar. Gasping for breath urgently he stared fixedly at the gates That were shut tightly.
"It is not open yet?" He muttered in annoyance.
"No it will open two days later"
Startled he whirled around coming face to face with the boy he had already forgot he met when he first arrived here. The boy was looking at him quietly with hetero chrome eyes the same color as his own and with pursed lips and lowered eyes. In his hands was a beautiful silver box with delicate designs that he held tightly.
"Would you join me for a snack?" The boy asked bowing his head a little.
The moonlight cast a light halo from his back making him seem almost ethereal. There was something about him that seemed he did not belong to this world but Ryse was unable to focus on that the others eyes had him pinned to his spot. All kinds of strange feeling that he could not capture passed his heart and made his soul tremble.