Chapter 57 – Life 59, Age 16, Martial Disciple 1
After I died in the attack on the Twin Mountains Sect, I woke up in my tiny house inside the Su Clan with no desire to jump right back into the meat grinders that were my lives. My last life was the first one that felt like a real, full lifetime. I had lived to a similar age in the past, but those lives were like shadow plays where every day blended into the next. This past life had been a complete experience.
I needed to take some time to breathe and assess everything that happened. I made extraordinary gains, both in knowledge and credits, and it would take time to work out how I wanted to move forward.
I only had a few hours until someone from the clan came to take me to be tested, and I needed to prepare before that happened. How did I want to play this? Everything the clan did after the testing was based on my affinities. I had a mid eight-star fire affinity, low eight-star affinities in the other four basic elements, and a million points to play with.
I just wanted to be left alone for a short while to figure things out, and a good way to get that time was to appear to have no affinities. I could do what I had done in the past and pay for the system to hide them, but now that I had a little more understanding of the testing apparatus, I had another option.
"System, permanently raise all my basic affinities to mid eight-star."
Permanent mid eight-star Water, Earth, Wood, and Metal Affinities. Confirmed. Cost 10,000 credits. 990,290 credits remaining.
Now I should appear completely worthless to the clan which meant I would be thrown right back in here for a week without interruptions.
I knew I would be summoned for testing soon, so I didn't bother diving too deeply into research. Instead, I spent the few hours I had organizing my thoughts. There were a few things I wanted to try now that I once again had a clean slate to work from.
"What is your name?" asked the elderly man who always tested affinities.
"Su Fang."
"Place your hand on the orb and channel your qi into it."
I channeled my qi into the orb, but only a flicker of chaotic lines appeared. I pushed harder, showing that I was trying, but nothing more happened.
"Zero elemental affinity," the elderly man said.
"What can you tell us about the blessing you have received?"
"I don't know. My body feels a little stronger, but that's all."
The old man gave me a look, and I could feel energy from him lightly probe my body. After that, he nodded to the scribe.
"He will be given the Earth Heart Mantra and returned to his original quarters."
Returning to my house, I sat down and got to work.
I had obtained a myriad of cultivation techniques in my last life, and I wanted to see what I could do with them. Most important to me were the two dual-element techniques I had obtained.
I had studied the wood-fire cultivation technique a bit in the past, and it had given me a few ideas. Put simply, a single-element Rank 1 technique floods all the muscles in a part of the body with qi of
that element. This dual-element technique sections off muscle groups, flooding some with fire qi and some with wood qi.
There were two main things I wanted to look into. First, this technique was only Mid-Profound, and that seemed to be because it only provided limited qi purity. Could I adapt the filtering systems from a Peak-Yellow technique and implant them into this one to make a Peak-Profound technique? Second, this dual-element technique divided the muscles into two groups. Could I divide them into five groups, creating a five-element cultivation technique?
While I believed a five-element Rank 1 technique should be possible for me to create, I was extremely doubtful I could make the Rank 2 version. The Rank 2 dual-element techniques created separate meridians for both elements, so a five-element technique would need separate channels for each element. That would be extremely complex to design. Still, the fact that I wasn't ready to begin with the Rank 2 version wouldn't stop me from attempting a Rank 1 version.
First, I wanted to check on the pricing.
"System, how much to change this Rank 1 Mid-Profound technique into a Peak-Profound one?
11,000 credits.
That was ten times more than upgrading a Mid-Yellow to Peak-Yellow.
"System, how much to change this Rank 2 Mid-Profound technique into a Peak-Profound one?
1,100,000 credits.
Those two prices gave me the answer to my next question, but I wanted to ask it anyway. I took out the copy of the Rank 3 dual-element technique from my storage space.
"System, how much to change this Rank 3 Mid-Profound technique into a Peak-Profound one?
110,000,000 credits.
I was somewhat confident I could alter the Rank 1 technique to become Peak-Profound on my own, and I believed it should be possible to do the same for the Rank 2 version, but I had no confidence at all in changing the Rank 3 technique. I had several lifetimes of experience to draw on when working with Rank 1 and 2 techniques, but only a single experience with Rank 3, which made it much trickier.
Upgrading Rank 1 wouldn't do too much good unless I could upgrade all of them, but I didn't lose anything by trying. I wasn't willing to spend credits on this, however. Unless I could upgrade all three ranks, any upgrades could be more detrimental than helpful.
By the end of the week, my experiments had hit a brick wall, and my cultivation base was a complete mess.
I had quickly reached Martial Disciple 2 by practicing the basic wood-fire dual-element cultivation technique on my upper right arm. This was mainly to get a general feel for how the technique should work and try to see how I could go about changing it. Then, on my upper left arm, I switched to the fire-earth dual-element technique to see how that one worked. Having two completely different techniques for different element combinations in my body caused a bit of havoc with my energy, and I sustained a few internal injuries.
These techniques used very different qi filtering principles. The fire-earth one was a lower tier, and that may have been the reason for the differences, but it felt like they were built from two completely different perspectives on how a dual-element technique should work. Knowing only that the wood-fire technique had a higher rank, I chose to focus on it.
To avoid the chaos of energies that was my chest, I began cultivating in my lower right leg. The dual-element technique had a single qi filter that separated wood and fire qi into two separate streams and directed them to different muscle groups. After reviewing the Peak-Yellow techniques I had for the two elements, I began working to modify that filter. It went poorly and collapsed, flooding my muscles with impurities. Switching to my lower left leg, I tried again, but the results were no different.
As the end of the week approached, I sighed and decided to give up. I needed far more experience with dual-element cultivation to make this work, and there were other things I wanted to get done. I would spend some time cultivating this technique normally instead. Then, I would have a much better starting point for modifying it.
These difficulties also meant that my dream of creating a five-element cultivation technique wouldn't be coming true any time soon. Upgrading the dual-element technique would become a long-term goal, but creating a five-element technique would need to be completely shelved until I had a wider knowledge base to work from.
At this point, my cultivation base was in tatters, and I had been marked as having no affinities by the Su Clan. I was about to be targeted, and I wasn't going to let the instructor take out his aggression on me during the end-of-week training session, so I popped a poison pill into my mouth.
You have died. Calculating…
You died as a Martial Disciple 1. 10 credits awarded.
Total Credits: 990,300
The assessment of Martial Disciple 1 was a little surprising since I should have technically been a Martial Disciple 3. I had completed cultivating both my upper arms, after all. Possibly, it was the unresolved wood and earth clash that caused me to have a reduced evaluation.
I didn't want to spend too much time stuck on the problem of cultivation, so I put that aside to think about later. Having mid-quality techniques would mainly affect my qi purity, but that could be handled through qi purifying pills. The only problem was that after taking too many of those pills, the toxins would begin to build up. That just meant I needed to be able to make Perfect pills so that wouldn't be a problem.
I could already make Perfect Rank 1 pills, but to make Perfect Rank 2 pills I needed at least a peak eight-star affinity in all elements, and for Rank 3 I needed at least peak seven-star.
"System, what is the cost to permanently raise all my basic affinities to peak seven-star?"
Permanent Peak 7-star Fire, Water, Earth, Wood, and Metal Affinities. Cost 862,500 credits.
That was a serious chunk of my profit from the last life, and I didn't think it would be wise to spend everything on this one area. Better to spread the wealth out a little more. I could still buy temporary affinities at 10% of the cost of permanent ones. Over time, permanent would be a better value, but I had seen the effectiveness of temporarily raising one beyond normal bounds.
"System, after I raise my fire affinity to peak seven-star, what is the additional cost to raise it temporarily to low six-star?" I asked just to be sure.
Temporary Low 6-star Fire Affinities. Additional cost 100,000 credits.
"That doesn't seem right. The cost of affinities only increased by ten times for each star level. Shouldn't it be 10,000?"
9, 8, and 7-star are considered lower affinities, so the costs increase by ten times. 6, 5, and 4-star are middle affinities with a cost increase of one hundred times. 3, 2, and 1-star are upper affinities which increase the cost by one thousand for each star increase.
Upgrading my affinities was going to be a huge black hole. I could use the spring in the Twin Mountains Sect to improve my fire affinity, but it was limited in how much it could help. It would only help with fire, and it couldn't push an affinity past peak seven-star. Also, I didn't like the idea of needing to sneak into the sect after every restart just to boost an affinity. I needed a better solution.
I put a pin in that topic since I needed to move on. I wasn't ready to commit so many credits just yet.
Thinking back to my goals from my previous life, the only thing I wanted that I didn't accomplish was acquiring a spatial spirit fire seed. I hadn't even heard mention of a fire seed other than the Cold Mountain Fire. The sect was not a place where I would find such opportunities. I could venture out and explore, trying to find something, but I had no idea how long that would take.
"System, how much to purchase the cheapest spirit fire seed capable of helping me expand my storage space?"
Space-attributed spirit fire seed. Cost 500 billion credits.
So, not going to happen.
"System, how much to learn information about the location of a spatial spirit fire I could acquire myself along with the time and circumstances under which I could get it?"
Cost 350,000 credits.
It was expensive, and it would eat into what I needed to raise my affinities, but getting that seed was my most important goal by far. Every moment without it was a moment my storage space wasn't growing.
So, upgrading cultivation techniques was put on hold, but I needed to purchase affinities and this information. Was there anything else I needed immediately?
I was going to use the wood-fire dual-element technique, but I needed to rework the mental effects to be more suitable for what I wanted to accomplish. I had dozens of cultivation techniques with a variety of mental effects now, so I had a little more freedom to choose how I wanted to modify them.
I carefully considered my options. What did I want in this life? I wanted to head outside the Wastes this life, and I knew who I would work with to do that. What would help me there?
The Rank 3 cultivation technique I was going to use would only make the effects of the Rank 1 and 2 techniques more intense, so as long as I was happy with the Rank 1 and 2 effects, I didn't need to worry about Rank 3, which would make things cheaper.
I would need to deal with many different people. The techniques I had been using increased my friendliness, which I had begun to not like. The friendliness made it so I capitulated very easily to the demands of others. This wasn't a horrible problem for me, I still got what I needed in the end, but I wanted to go in a different direction. Instead of being friendly, I just wanted to be personable. I wanted to feel free to say 'no', but I didn't want to be constantly starting fights.
I wanted to find novel solutions to problems, so something tending toward inventiveness? I didn't have any techniques to help me there though.
I would need to spend long stretches of time simply improving my alchemy. My Rank 1 skills were solid, but I could still see room for improvement in Rank 2, and my Rank 3 skills had massive gaps. That doesn't even begin to consider the higher ranks I hoped to reach.
Most importantly, I needed the techniques to only affect my behavior and not my perceptions or memories. That way, when I cut off the mental effects from the techniques, there should be minimal lingering effects.
"System, how much to change the mental effects of the Rank 1 and 2 fire-wood dual element cultivation techniques so that they improve personability while also making one more dedicated and focused?"
Cost 101,000 credits.
Did I need anything else?
"System, how much to upgrade my mental technique library so it can hold Rank 3 and 4 techniques?"
Upgrade to Rank 3. Cost 90,000 credits. Upgrade to Rank 4, an additional 900,000 credits.
"Alright System, purchase the Rank 3 mental bookshelf."
Confirmed. Cost 90,000 credits. 900,300 credits remaining.
"System, purchase requested information about a spatial seed."
Confirmed. Cost 350,000 credits. 550,300 credits remaining.
Formation Emperor Du XiongMing is currently in possession of a spatial spirit fire seed that meets your requirements. In 127 years, he will die in the Brilliant Sun Empire, located in the southern part of the continent. Upon his death, a war will erupt with many sides fighting to claim his fire seed. If you are present in the capital of the Brilliant Sun Empire at the time of his death, and you have a connection with its ruling dynasty, it may be possible for you to claim this seed as your own upon his death.
Credits expended, transaction complete.
Formation Emperor. Alchemists were divided into Disciple Alchemists, Master Alchemists, and Grandmaster Alchemists for Ranks 1 through 3. Above that, Rank 4 would be Pill Lord, Rank 5 was Pill King, and Rank 6 was called Pill Emperor. Formation Emperor Du XiongMing was a Rank 6 formation master, and to get a spatial spirit fire seed, it sounded like I would need to rob his corpse. To even have a prayer of pulling that off, I would need to be close to him when he died, which meant I needed to be his peer. A peer to a Formation Emperor had to be at least a Pill King, if not a Pill Emperor. I wasn't sure it was something I could accomplish in a single lifetime, but I would give it my best effort.
Truthfully, this mission might be easier if I approached it as a formation master, but that would mean learning an entirely new set of skills all the way up to Rank 6, and I had no idea how many lives that would take me. It would mean starting from nothing again. No, I would first try approaching it as an alchemist. If this path didn't seem likely to succeed, I would at least be able to parlay my alchemic skills later in life into some basic knowledge of formations to establish a firm starting point.
I still needed to raise my affinities and fix my cultivation manuals, but I didn't want to rush that. WuJing had a Profound level cultivation technique he had promised me in a past life, and I was ready to claim it.
"System, teleport me to Dragon Gate City."
Confirmed. Cost 30 credits. 550,270 credits remaining.
Chapter 58 – Life 60, Age 16, Martial Disciple 1
I appeared in the poor district of Dragon Gate City and began to make my way towards the Blue Wind Pavilion.
How did I want to approach this? Mei should be at the front door of the Pavilion, and it shouldn't be too much of a problem to simply recreate my first visit, but was that what I wanted? Did it matter? Mei and WuJing both had powerful social blessings, so nothing I did would have too much of an effect on them, but I wasn't sure about the others in the Pavilion.
WuJing was the floor manager of this branch of the Blue Wind Pavilion, so he wasn't the top brass, and I had no information about the people above him. Placing him in a managerial role, showed some level of trust, but how much would those people believe in me?
Unless I was willing to be WuJing's pet alchemist, like I had been for Elder Mu, I needed to put on a show for the higher-ups to make myself appear valuable. At the same time, I needed to make sure it was me that appeared valuable, not one of my possessions, such as the fire seed. Even if the Pavilion was trustworthy, owning a treasure was a crime everywhere, so it needed to be clear that I was the treasure, not my possessions.
"System," I said after ducking into a side alley, "I want to purchase robes that would be worn by a respectable Disciple Alchemist, a young prodigy who is considered to have a bright future."
Cost 1,000 credits.
That seemed outrageously expensive for a few pieces of clothing, but I had to put my trust in the System here. Was it including a price on information about what young prodigies wear? I had only lived in the Su Clan and the Twin Mountains Sect, so I didn't know much about local fashions.
"Purchase it," I quickly decided.
Confirmed. Cost 1,000 credits. 549,270 credits remaining
The robes appeared in my system storage, but I didn't rush to put them on. Just by looking at them, I could tell they were something no one in this part of town would be wearing, so I held off until I reached a nicer part of town.
The Blue Wind Pavilion was a massive eight-story pagoda that stood on a large marble foundation. The exterior walls were painted a bright red. Azure tiled eaves stuck out at every floor, and brightly decorated blue beams at the top of the walls, under the eaves, tied everything together. At the corners of the roof, small ridge beast adornments had been placed as auspicious totems.
To someone standing on the street in front of it, the Blue Wind Pavilion's presence was supreme. It towered over the small two- or three-story wooden buildings surrounding it.
I walked down the street towards the Pavilion dressed in my new hanfu robes. They were made of deep black silk. The torso of the robes was pitch black, but below the waistband was a light gray which darkened back to the same black at the hem. Strands of flames had been embroidered in gold and red thread, and as the fabric sifted, the flames almost seemed to dance as sunlight sparkled off them. And, more than just looking impressive, I found that formations have been sewn into them to keep them clean and control the temperature.
I was the epitome of a young master. I looked like the master of all young masters. I walked down the street with complete confidence, knowing that no one would even think of stopping me, and I felt like a complete fraud.
I would never have even considered wearing such an ostentatious outfit on my own, and even though this is what the System had implied would be the normal dress for someone with my abilities, I still wasn't very comfortable in it. The only thing that kept me walking forward was knowing that no matter what I was wearing, Mei would know how to handle it. In all my time in this world, she was the only person I had ever felt completely comfortable around.
I entered the Pavilion and was greeted by the noise of countless customers browsing and shopping for goods. The entire place was brightly lit by large windows on every wall and small glowing orbs in dozens of chandeliers.
I looked around to see if I could find Mei, but as I was turning, a young woman dressed in the blue and silver qipao dress of a Pavilion attendant approached me.
"Hello, sir. My name is Ye SuYin. How can I help you today?" she said, clasping her hands and giving a bow.
SuYin was young and pretty, and her smile revealed dimpled cheeks. She was a little shorter than the other attendants, but since everyone was wearing the same qipao, and everyone's hair was fixed in the same elaborate bun with a jade hairpin and golden comb, it was hard to tell one attendant from the next.
I had wanted to speak with Mei first, but as a budding, young, magnanimous alchemist, it would be wrong to simply turn this girl away. While I hadn't cultivated the technique to force myself to be more personable yet, that was still the persona I wanted to embody.
"Hello," I said, nodding my head to SuYin, "I would like to see your alchemic pills. Please show me what Rank 1 pills you offer and let me know their prices."
"Right this way, sir," she said, guiding me to the right side of the Pavilion.
She led me to rows of glass counters that held a wide variety of jade pill bottles.
"We have a variety of Rank 1 and Rank 2 pills for sale. We also have contracts with Grandmasters Alchemists who can help us procure most Rank 3 pills. All our pills are High-Purity with an efficacy of over 90%, and for a small premium, we can guarantee pills above 95% efficacy."
"And what types of pills do you sell?"
"We maintain a stock of all commonly requested pills, including Qi Gathering Pills, Purifying Pills for every qi type, Healing Pills, Antidote Pills, Qi Empowerment Pills, and even Explosive Pills." As she talked, she gestured to various counters. "For less common pill types, we have alchemists that can prepare most pills you could request. If the request is exceeding rare, as long as you provide a pill formula, if we have the herbs in stock, we guarantee a High-Purity 90% effective pill within a day for any Rank 1 pill. We cannot guarantee a timeframe for higher-rank pills, but we can procure them. If the recipe uses especially rare ingredients that we do not stock, further negotiations may be required."
"All of your pills are High-Purity?"
"Yes," she said confidently. "And not just passible. Our Rank 1 pills are among the best High-Purity pills available."
"Do you sell Perfect Pills?"
For the first time, SuYin became hesitant. "Perfect pills are exceedingly rare, and they are unavailable at this branch. If that is what you require, they are possible to procure, but they will need to be ordered from another branch. If you are willing to wait, they can be added to a standard delivery, but if you need them soon, the extra fee would be substantial."
"What are the costs?" I decided to ask. "Let's say for a Basic Qi Gathering Pill."
"The basic price is twenty silver. If you want one with guaranteed higher efficacy, it is twenty-five."
"And for a Perfect one?"
"The base price would be fifty silver, with a guaranteed efficacy of at least 99%. However, again, we do not carry them in stock. Ordering them from another branch would require time and money, and most customers would consider the exchange unacceptable."
"What if I do not lack money and am willing to wait?" I asked.
"We can accommodate you, but I would recommend a higher-level pill. We can guarantee the same efficacy on a Perfect Superior Qi Gathering Pill for two gold. Since you would be delayed anyway, the extra time could be used to prepare to absorb the more powerful pill."
I nodded at her explanation. While she was trying to up-sell me, it did make sense in this situation, as long as I wasn't concerned about the price.
"What are the prices for purifying pills?"
"The base price is one gold each, with a 10% additional cost for higher guaranteed efficacy."
"What if I sold you a High-Purity Water Qi Purifying pill at 95% efficacy? How much would you pay?"
SuYin seemed to have expected that question and quickly responded. "Our general price for buying pills is 35% of the profit plus the cost of ingredients. Such a pill would sell for one gold, and the cost of ingredients is forty silver, so the standard purchase price is 61 silver, but that can fluctuate with availability and demand."
It was interesting that she freely shared a solid calculation with me. In the past, I was just given a purchase price. I doubted she had a blessing like Mei's, so was this just the effect of presenting myself as a respectable person?
"Can you take me to see your herbs?" I asked.
"This way, sir."
She guided me to a nearby collection of shelves. The moment I passed an invisible threshold, my nose was assaulted by the fragrance of the various herbs. Many of them were sitting openly in bins where customers could pick up and examine them. Some had been placed in sealed boxes, and a few were locked under a glass display case.
As expected, the Rank 1 herbs were all pretty standard. Since mortal farmers could easily harvest high-quality Rank 1 herbs, they held little value, and I had never seen examples that had been improved by an herbalist.
The Rank 2 herbs were surprisingly high quality, though. Those displayed openly were nearly the same quality as the Rank 1 herbs, and those held under lock and key had an immense amount of medicinal energy stored within. It would be a joy to work with them.
I considered my situation. I didn't have much money. While I could buy some from the System, that would be a ludicrous waste of credits. Hopefully what I had would be enough to get started, but I could sell some of the pills from my storage space to gather more if needed.
Still, this entire encounter wasn't going the way I had initially hoped. I had planned to quickly get into contact with WuJing in a way that he would treat me as a friend. I guess it didn't matter too much. It was all an act anyway, and he would only be behaving as directed, but I longed for a feeling of camaraderie. Even if he was just trying to get something from me, he would at least know how to act like that wasn't the case.
I sighed and pondered my options as I continued to peruse the herbs. After a few moments, I walked back over to SuYin.
"Could you please show me around a little more? What else do you offer?"
"Of course, sir. I can give you a tour."
As she began to guide me away from the herbs, another woman dressed in the same blue and silver qipao approached us.
"SuYin," she said with a smile, "let me take it from here."
"M…Mei," SuYin stuttered. "But…"
"Don't worry," said Mei, "you'll receive proper credit and compensation, but I need to handle this."
Then, Mei turned to me and smiled. "Welcome back to the Blue Wind Pavilion. Our manager, Chen WuJing, is eager to meet with you. Please, follow me."
I smiled at Mei and nodded. "Sure. Let's go."
Chapter 59 – Life 60, Age 16, Martial Disciple 1
"Welcome, come on in!" said WuJing in a happy voice as Mei and I entered his office.
He walked up to me and held out his hand for a firm handshake. "I'm Chen WuJing, floor manager of this branch of the Blue Wind Pavilion. I'm glad you came to visit."
"Thank you," I said, returning his handshake. "My name is Su Fang."
WuJing led me to the armchairs at the side of his office, and we sat down for a conversation.
Even though I knew this was an act, and he was just following Mei's instructions, it felt genuine. I had to wonder how long the two of them had been working together to have such a fluid working relationship.
"How can I help you today?" asked WuJing. "I heard you were looking at pills and herbs. Are you an alchemist?"
"Yes," I said, "and I am hoping to explore cooperation with the Pavilion if you are interested."
"Wonderful, what type of cooperation are you looking for?"
I paused for a moment. I had thought about what to say, but I still wasn't completely sure. The fact was, the people in this building had incredibly powerful social blessings, and I almost certainly couldn't bluff my way through things. Also, I was presenting myself as a young master this time. I should be direct and honest with my goals and allow the chips to fall where they may.
I looked WuJing directly in the eyes as I spoke. "I am an alchemist, and I need to improve to the level of Pill King, possibly even Pill Emperor, as soon as possible. To do that, I have to make a true ascension to at least Martial King. I want to partner with you to achieve this goal."
WuJing looked at me in shock. "Do you know what that involves?"
"Yes."
"Do you have a place to do it?"
"Not yet, but it will need to be in the Brilliant Sun Empire in the south."
WuJing looked at me and considered for a long while. He looked at Mei, and she only nodded her head. Any other place, I, a Martial Disciple in the Wastes who hadn't even begun cultivating, would have been laughed out of the room for proclaiming I would ascend to Martial King. These two were different though.
"Alright," WuJing finally said, "what's your plan?"
I laughed a bit sardonically, "I don't have one yet. I don't know how to get the empire to give me a city, let alone a kingdom, but I know it is possible, and I know it needs to be done."
WuJing tapped his fingers on his armrest as he thought. "Does it have to be an imperial kingdom? There are ways for the Pavilion to help you ascend."
"No," I said, "I just need to form a close relationship with their ruling family. I was thinking becoming an honored court alchemist may accomplish that while also allowing me to claim a kingdom."
"It's possible," said WuJing, "but there are other ways. A Pill King is unheard of in the south. The best alchemists down there are usually just experienced Pill Lords. If you can become a Pill King the imperial family will be falling over themselves to win your favor, so you don't need to worry about that, but that's assuming you're already a Pill King."
WuJing poured himself a glass of amber-colored liquid before beginning again. "When you reach Grandmaster Alchemist you will need to be in a position to ascend to Martial Lord, and as a Pill Lord, you need to be able to ascend to Martial King. That will be extremely difficult to accomplish in Brilliant Sun. I don't know much about that specific empire, but every empire is notoriously tightfisted with its lands, so you would have to be both exceptional and viewed as extremely loyal to get a city from them, and I don't see that happening in a short timeframe, no matter how good you are."
"So, I can't go ascend through the empire," I said. "Any suggestions?"
"Of course," WuJing smiled. "You're already here, so why not work directly with us? As long as you are a member of the Pavilion, and your contributions have been great enough, you can purchase an ascension all the way to Emperor if you want."
"The Blue Wind Pavilion sells empires for contribution points?" I asked. "That's absurd."
"No," laughed WuJing, "not at all. First, we don't use contribution points here. This isn't a sect. It's a business. Everything is handled in cash. Money isn't the problem here though. To purchase a chance at ascension, you need the approval of the higher-ups, and they will look closely at what you contributed to decide if they want to sell you that chance. And second, you aren't buying the empire, just the chance to ascend.
The Pavilion's leader also controls a peripheral empire. After the purchase, you will be crowned emperor for a year. During that year, the karmic energy of the empire will flow to you, and you can use it to ascend, but you will have no actual authority."
"Can… Can you actually do that? You can just rent an empire for a bit and it's enough to ascend?" I sat there dumbfounded that such a thing would be possible.
"Yes," said WuJing with a smile, "and you never even have to step foot inside its borders. Whatever forces control the world don't care. It's just a matter of where the energy is directed. Instead of going to the true ruler, you become the nominal ruler for a period of time, and it gets sent to you."
By the 'the forces that control the world,' I knew who he was talking about. I could understand that from that being's point of view, the details weren't important. An empire improved, a cultivator advanced. It didn't care who.
"Let's do that, then," I decided. "I'll plan to advance to Martial King through the Pavilion. How do we get started?"
"Excellent!" WuJing smiled. "First, we need to get you set up as a full member of the Pavilion. This will involve disclosing your blessing and, if at all possible, providing proof that your claims are true. Since you are looking to become a Pill King, I will assume you currently have some alchemy ability. Once you are accepted, you can start making pills for the Pavilion, earning money and contribution."
"How will I get to Brilliant Sun?" I asked.
"Getting there is easy, just earn enough money for a ride in our carriages. You don't want to just go there, though. You need to get promoted there. Otherwise, it will be much more difficult to establish a firm foothold in an imperial capital."
"So, how do I get promoted there?"
"For me, as a manager, earning contribution to get promoted out of the Wastes is difficult, but for you, as an alchemist, it's simple. Just make good enough pills that they can't be sold locally. Then, instead of constantly shipping them out of here, you'll get promoted up."
"So, just make excellent pills and I can get sent to Brilliant Sun?"
"Eh, maybe, but you'll probably get sent to a smaller kingdom somewhere, possibly even just a city. We just need to make it so we are sent somewhere down south, then, when you become too good for that place, we can aim to be sent to Brilliant Sun."
"We? You're going with me?"
"Your contribution is alchemy," laughed WuJing, "but my contribution is you. I'm going to take shade under your tall tree for as long as possible. As long as you become an incredible enough Grandmaster Alchemist, I should be able to use it to get promoted to branch manager of a kingdom and take you with me. That will allow me to advance to Martial Lord. Then, the farther you go, the farther I go. If you get me promoted to branch manager of Brilliant Sun, I will be able to advance to Martial King."
I smiled and nodded. A harmonious exchange of opportunities was what I needed. Pies didn't fall from the sky, and I wasn't going to get a chance to ascend without giving something back in return. I hoped this relationship would bear fruit because the only other real idea I had for advancing to Martial King was spending a long time learning martial arts and carving out a kingdom for myself through blood. I much preferred the mercantile route.
"On a related topic," I said, "will the Pavilion provide cultivation techniques?"
WuJing gave me a scrutinizing look. "You haven't cultivated at all yet, right? Is it because you don't have a proper technique?"
"No," I said honestly, "I have a technique I plan to use. It has its drawbacks, but it's sufficient. I just wanted to see if the Pavilion could provide me something better."
WuJing swirled the liquid in his glass as he thought. "We can certainly look at that. What rank is your current technique?"
"Mid-Profound."
He sucked in a breath through his teeth. "That's difficult. Very difficult. If we were at the main branch, it wouldn't be a problem, but there's nothing better here. The best I can authorize is a Low-Profound technique, and the Pavilion Master can only get you a Mid-Profound one. To do better, we would need to request it be delivered here from the main branch. The Pavilion Master has the clout to do that, but it would put you deep in her debt, and I wouldn't recommend it if you want to keep a firm control of your future."
He could be playing me a bit here. His words stunk of internal politics, keeping me to himself instead of sharing with the Pavilion Master. His reasoning may be skewed, but I was certain there was also truth behind what he said. I didn't want to put myself into someone's debt this early in life, so I accepted his recommendation.
"I'll use the technique I have, then," I said. "But I will be able to purchase access to any of the techniques here eventually, including that Mid-Profound one, right?"
"Yes," he responded, "though Profound techniques require requisite contributions."
"Understood. Before I can do much alchemy, I need to cultivate for a while. Should I do that now, or do we need to deal with membership first?"
"Let's handle the membership first," decided WuJing, "If we get that taken care of, you can stay in the Pavilion to cultivate, which will be much easier."
WuJing and Mei brought me up to the eighth floor of the pagoda, the top floor.
At the top of the stairs was an expertly carved dark wooden double door that had been inlaid with silver and gold. In the design, golden snow-peaked mountains stood proudly as silver streamers of wind blew around them. WuJing opened the door, and we walked inside.
This room was simple, yet elegant. There were no paintings or artwork, but the walls themselves served as decoration. Wood slats had been arranged in geometric patterns encircling the entire room. Large windows were deftly worked into the pattern along two walls. A lone man was working behind a desk that was set to the side of another door with the same design as the first.
"Secretary Jiang," said WuJing, "This is Su Fang, he wishes to become a member of the Pavilion. I came to arrange everything."
"A Martial Disciple 1?" said the man behind the desk. "Interesting that he caught your eye. Very well."
The man pulled out a large book from a drawer and opened it to somewhere near the middle.
"Your name is Su Fang, correct? What is your age?"
"Sixteen," I said.
The man nodded. It would be expected since I hadn't cultivated.
"Affinities?" he asked.
This was trickier, and I hadn't completely decided how to proceed, but I felt I needed to be able to make Perfect Rank 3 pills. That would only be possible by pushing to peak seven-star in everything. I wouldn't be able to push everything to six-star, but I could do it for a couple of affinities if needed. Still, this wasn't the time to make the big plans.
"Peak seven-star in all five basic elements," I said confidently.
Everyone looked at me in shock. It seemed even WuJing hadn't expected that answer. However, it could also be that he expected me to have something better in store. Should a future Martial King have five-star affinities?
"Multiple affinities are difficult to test," said Secretary Jiang, "Manager Chen, are you willing to vouch for the truth of this?"
After a short hesitation, WuJing responded, "Yes, I will."
"Acceptable. Blessing?" Jiang asked.
"It is a somewhat comprehensive blessing that has benefited my alchemy. I have gained significant knowledge up to the level of Grandmaster Alchemist, a spirit fire, and various improvements to qi control. I also suspect my affinities are a result of this blessing."
"What are the herbs needed to concoct a Rank 3 Fire Qi Expulsion Pill?"
I quickly recited them from memory.
"What is needed for a Rank 2 Creeping Death Pill?"
Again, I answered quickly.
"I will accept that as tentative proof, however practical demonstrations over time will be necessary. Su Fang," he said as he wrote, "you are now an official member of the Pavilion under the recommendation of Manager Chen WuJing." After writing down a bit more in the book he closed it and looked up at WuJing. "Manager Chen, he is your recruit so you can get him settled." Then he looked at me. "Welcome to the Blue Wind Pavilion."