However, she bit her lip and thought nothing of it, finding out late is better than not finding out at all. Thus, she gave Leonardo a bow to conceal the emotions in her eyes.
Leonardo could understand her feelings, but there was nothing he could do about it as he wasn't omnipotent. With a faint smile, he said, "How about you go ahead and explore the Runic Inscriptions building for now? Look for shops in dire need of investors, don't bother about the funds. As for me, I'll take a spin around the Martial Script Pavilion's other shops."
Merlin thought that Leonardo was being considerate and giving her enough alone time to readjust her mental state, so she didn't say much and nodded before entering the massive building.
As for Leonardo, he turned his head and looked up at another building in the distance.
That building had a massive logo of herbs and medicine cauldrons surrounded by flames. Although he wasn't that confident in finding something that could improve Merlin's constitution, asking around wouldn't hurt.
…
The medicine building was split into seven floors.
The first floor was an exhibition floor displaying a variety of pills and medicinal ingredients, as well as a number of medicinal cauldrons and alchemy flames.
As for the remaining six floors, they were respectfully designated to host renowned alchemists and physicians from the second, third, fourth, and fifth tiers respectively.
Second-tier pills equate to saint grade, third-tier pills equate to divine grade, fourth-tier pills equate to immortal grade, while the fifth-tier pills equate to the rebirth grade.
That totals up the floors from the second to the fifth floor, leaving the sixth and seventh floors for the esteemed guests with personal requests of a great value. However, not many people visit those floors as the peak of the population's cultivation in secular dynasties grinds to a stop upon achieving divinity, let alone rebirth experts or stronger cultivators.
Estimating that he needed at most a fourth-tier immortal pill to grant Merlin an immortal physique, Leonardo made his way directly to the fourth floor.
Leonardo crossed a teleportation formation directly to the fourth floor, as each floor from the second and above was its own independent sub-dimension.
When Leonardo didn't expect this floor to be an open green plain with an assortment of houses like a small village. The arrangement was quite disorderly as the humble structures each with an exotic herbal garden filled the space.
There were old and fairly young men as well as women each tending to their own herbs, cultivating the land, or simply meditating while making weird hand gestures.
Leonardo didn't know if there was anyone who would attend to him for assistance, but even after waiting for a few minutes, no one reacted to his presence. Eventually, Leonardo went directly to the first house in the open plains, feeling as though he went through an invisible curtain the moment he stepped onto the clear pavement.
"Mhm?" The old man who was meticulously arranging the herbs seemed to have finally noticed Leonardo's presence, lifting his head to check out this handsome young man.
"Young man, how can I help you?" The old man stood up, his plain white robes swaying gently. Leonardo felt as though his every move and action were under this old man's watch, feeling a bit alarmed.
"Senior, is this your domain?" Leonardo thought back to the feeling of walking through something earlier, suddenly having this weird thought.
The old man laughed gently and began to stroke his long beard, "Haha, indeed it is. This is how we alchemists grow our herbs by converting the vital energy of our star cores into the world, allowing us to hasten the growth cycle of herbs that would otherwise require thousands upon thousands of nurturing to grow."
The old man had a proud expression on his face as he reveled in Leonardo's astonishment. Then, he remembered that this young man must have come here with a purpose, inquiring, "Did you come here looking for someone to refine a pill? My skills are so-so, but this old man's fee is considered extremely good."
Leonardo nodded his head with a faint smile, "I was wondering if there is any medicine for upgrading someone's innate talent? Anything to remodel a mortal constitution into an immortal one…"
The old man nodded his head as he listened, his brows furrowed. However, when he heard the last part, his slender fingers trembled as he let out a sigh.
He then looked at the herbs on the ground, shaking his head.
"Young man, do you see these planted herbs? With their innate potential, this kind of growth and vitality should have been an impossibility," he then began to stroke his beard lightly while muttering softly, "The same thing applies to those with an innate mortal talent."
"With the suitable soil, fertilizer, and conditions, boosting these herbs to make up for their deficiency is possible. However, to make them grow at such a rapid pace, we alchemists ultimately need to…" The old man didn't finish his sentence.
Leonardo's eyes flashed as he muttered, "You need to pay the price with your own vital energy…"
"Exactly," the old man looked at Leonardo, "The same principle applies to cultivators. I can give you medicine and pills to improve a mortal's talent into that of a saint, it would be risky however possible to reach the third cycle, you'd be pushing it to reach High Saint, and asking for death if you think about divine talent, let alone immortal."
He sighed, "However, other than finding miraculous medicines like the Dew of Life, Angel's Tears, and Flower of Rebirth, the only way to fundamentally transform someone's talking is for a rebirth realm cultivator or higher to compensate for their deficiencies by investing their own energy, essence, and spirit…"
"Only rebirth cultivators with no path forward would cut off their cultivation to nurture a disciple with this method, no riches or fortune would convince a mentally healthy rebirth cultivator to go through that process."
Leonardo frowned deeply. He took a deep breath to calm himself. "Where can I find those miraculous medicines? What tier are they?"
The old man gave Leonardo a weird look, "Those are at least fifth tier, the mature ones are sixth tier that appears once every ten thousand years, and the conditions of their natural birth are extremely harsh. However, to the Great Sects and the Great Dynasties, a fifth or sixth tier medicine isn't that rare, but a medicine's value isn't fixed to its tier but its purpose." The old man kneaded his temples with a bitter sigh, "You can submit a request to the Alchemy Association on the sixth floor, they will notify you if they catch wind of these medicines or if they were to appear in an auction house. Other than that, young man, no one can really help you."