Chapter 64 - 3 26 - 4 3

Story 3 - Spiritual Vines and a Smokey Pill Cauldron (Part 26)

Violet nodded sagely. "Happy Pulse Auspicious Dan is the most classic aphrodisiac medicine designed to help a paired couple 'produce cute babies.' Not only does it allow a cultivator to experience an... internal heat that is the hallmark of those types of pills but it also activates organs that normally lay dormant in cultivators with more advanced realms. I'm sure everyone here is aware how difficult it is for those in a higher realm to have children." 

It was very difficult. By the time I became a Nascent Soul, I already had several friends of the same realm who regretted not having children when they were a golden core. Even with the improved version of the Happy Pulse Auspicious Dan, only a few of them managed to have children. Others settled for raising a disciple. Still, it gave them better odds by a large margin than the old version.

Violet then listed out the ingredients. The manager helpfully wrote them for everyone to see.

"And your recommendation?"

"While I honestly haven't thought about this all that much I have considered that the Red Burning Resplendent Vine could be replaced with the Splendid Glittering Chimera Root. This would lessen the intensity of the medicine and the subsequent effects."

"And, judges? What is your opinion? Would the solution work?"

"There is no need to test it. It works, though there are definitely still side effects," Pill Master Burning Eyes said while once again staring warmly at Violet... now that he was no longer Burning Bowels.

Violet appeared to not notice his regard. 

"Then, Apprentice Lin. What is your suggestion?"

"I would instead leave the Red Burning Resplendent Vine, but replace the Orange Viscous Shroom, with Opalescent Yang Root. Then add in a Charcoal Incandescent Yin Peony. Then you need to ensure that the Brown Crowning Spider Lily has its roots cut off just before you place it inside the cauldron. You must also trim off the gills and smash the Golden Oak Mushroom Vine...."

I went on with the preparation changes for a good minute more.

"That should be it." I didn't worry that these cultivators didn't memorize what I'd said since memory improved exponentially with an improvement in realm.

Pill Master Burning practically vibrated with excitement. "I'll test these changes." He hopped down from his seat and landed gracefully by the earth flame. A swift employee brought boxes with the requested herbs.

From there I watched Pill Master Burning take out his cauldron and follow my instructions to the letter.

Well, I could say what I wanted about his private life and bad habits but I could not deny that he deserved his title of Pill Master for someone of this era. A good twenty minutes after he started, he slapped his palm against the side of his cauldron and collected the dozen pills that flew out. They were all of a Pinnacle or High quality.

He held the bowl up and stared at them as if he'd found his saving grace. Yeah, he should switch to these before ascending became a pipe dream for him.

"Do you need to test them in order to see how they're improved?" I asked.

He looked like he wanted to ask for a couple of hours to do just that, but Pill Master White Lily said, "No need. I can tell that these are superior with far fewer impurities."

Pill Otaku looked like he wanted to snatch the bowl to study them and the only reason he didn't was his iron self-control.

They should find it fascinating since decades of other people's hard work went into creating the revised recipe. Ah, now that I thought about it... maybe I overdid it? But I really wasn't interested in a pill like this and only learned this recipe in passing during an Alchemists' Guild convention sometime in my youth, when I was a mere hundred years or so old.

"I believe that we're in agreement that, Alchemist Lin's proposal for a change in recipe to remove the harmful side effects has been accepted."

"Yes."

"Since this is just a major change, as per guild regulations, for the next fifty years, Alchemist Lin will receive 15% of all profits off pills using this revised recipe with an additional 5% going to the guild."

Oh shit. Well, profit is nice but earning spirit stones off a pill like that... Whatever. Best not to think about it. Best to really not think about it and just, enjoy random money falling out of the sky.

Fuck. I really should have thought this through.

Then again... It wouldn't be a bad thing if more cultivators who wanted them had children. And these pills did focus more on the pregnancy than on the... other aspects. Then again, I wouldn't know what to do if ten years from now some 9-year-old kid came up to me and told me that they existed because of my 'contribution' to alchemy. Yep. I would stop thinking about it here.

"Apprentice Violet Pill," The guild manager began, "What is your topic?"

For the first time, I saw her look nervous. Then she squared her shoulders. "I propose the theory that it is possible to stabilize the Crushing Imminent Tribulation Lightning Dan so it has a better success rate."

Interesting! That was similar to a Golden Core's Lightning Tribulation Transcending Dan. It might also be the precursor to it. 

"Do you accept this proposal, Apprentice Lin?"

"Can you please place the recipe on the board?"

Once he did I took a few minutes to think about what this ancient recipe would turn out like and then nodded. "I'm fine with this proposal."

Violet grinned.

"Then how would you stabilize this pill, Apprentice Lin?"

"Give me a moment." This time, I slowly analyzed each spiritual plant in my mind and made a plan for how I would create this pill perfectly. When I finished, its recipe still had impurities in it but the proposal was stabilization, not purification. 

Once I was satisfied with my stabilization methods, I listed in detail how to concoct the pill. This included the most important part, "The Ice Containing Vine needs to be thrown in first and then two breaths after, put in the Burning Yang Illustrious Grass..."

Once I finished the list White Lily said, "I suppose it's my turn to test this out. I've always had trouble making this pill." She gently flew to the testing area and took out her cauldron. An employee brought her the necessary jade boxes. Then she started to prepare based on my instructions.

I watched as she perfectly followed every last piece of advice. Then she slapped the side of the cauldron. Six beautiful pills popped out.

Fuck. Why were there only six? There should be a dozen at least.

Did I make a mistake?

I quickly ran over my methods in my mind. No, they were perfect. Then the problem must exist with the alchemist's cauldron, body, or spiritual energy. 

I ran through the various things it could be then barely stopped myself from jumping to my feet in shock. Pill Master White Lily must have a Pure Yin Body! If that's the case then the instructions I gave her were wrong. I turned to look at Violet. 

The bitch had a smug-ass look on her face. She fucking knew!

And I couldn't reveal that I knew about Lily's bodily constitution because that would put this lovely little Nascent Soul Cultivator in danger from some unscrupulous person looking to turn her into their cultivation furnace.

Seriously. The people in this Xianxia were the worst.

Of course, I also couldn't tell anyone because she could crush me like a twig, but that was beside the point.

"I admit that this pill did come out easier than normal, but it didn't stabilize enough."

"Then we'll attempt Apprentice Violet Pill's instructions."

"If you please?" White Lily said.

The bitch said, "Of course. While Fellow Apprentice's instructions were spot on for the most part. I propose that it would work better if you started with the Burning Yang Illustrious Grass and didn't add in the Ice Containing Vine until the end."

Of course. Because White Lily's Yin nature would balance out the low yang content of the Illustrious Grass. Ice Containing Vine had too much Yin, and adding on Lily's constitution they would overwhelm the poor herb, causing an imbalance that would only get worse as the concoction went on. While it would still create good quality pills, the number of them would decrease.

Story 3 - Spiritual Vines and a Smokey Pill Cauldron (Part 27)

As I watched the Pill Master create this pill using the adjusted method, I contemplated how Violet managed to discover White Lily's constitution. I mean, if it were easy to figure out she wouldn't have made it to Nascent Soul.

Special constitutions only affected alchemy in very rare cases. I myself had run into this issue with my own constitution only a handful of times, and those weren't always obvious. And then it often took a bit of trial and error to figure out how to improve those pills while taking my constitution into account.

The only thing I could think of was that Violet either had a Pure Yin Body as well or was very close to someone who had one. 

If she were familiar with the habits of someone with that constitution, and she researched the judges before the competition like she usually did, then she could have made a hypothesis on this and used it to her advantage.

But this would expose herself to White Lily. But then, those who had Pure Yin or other types of Yin-based constitutions tended to protect each other (even in this shitty society). So this was all calculated risk on Violet's part.

The only reason I was able to figure it out so fast was because I was familiar with this issue and had researched special constitutions back when I was developing my personalized cultivation technique.

But just because it was a rare issue, didn't mean that other well-educated alchemists couldn't figure it out. And some of them, if they tried this revised version, would likely realize that Lily had a special physique of some kind. It was, however, doubtful that they'd deduce exactly what it was... unless they were a genius like me.

I studied the other two judges. 

Ah, from his coldly furious expression, Pill Otaku had realized the issue. It was also possible that he already knew about her physique beforehand. And since he wasn't saying anything then he didn't want to expose her. Were... were these two actually super close friends? It seemed likely.

And of course, Burning Crotch over there was too interested in watching Lily's ass to consider anything else. Seriously, how the fuck had he survived this long?

I briefly glanced at the faces in the crowd. If anyone else managed to discover it then they weren't showing it on their face.

White Lily slapped the side of the cauldron and twelve near-perfect pills popped out. Once I saw them I hung my head.

"This method is indeed better, " she showed the blue and yellow pills in the bowl to the crowd. "Congratulations, Apprentice Violet Pill for winning this round. While the guild won't update its methodology to make yours standard, I know that I personally will switch to using this method."

"Thank you, Pill Master."

Lily, keeping her face neutral seemed to stare at Violet for a long time before letting out a brief longsuffering sigh. She returned to her seat and perfectly pretended to be completely relaxed. 

"Since you have both won the topics you proposed," the manager said, "we'll now have Pill Master Ruthless Divine Medicine propose a topic for you."

Pill Otaku's black eyes calmly stared at me. He knew I should have won already. Ugh, he probably also knew I figured it out but kept quiet to protect Lily, costing me the last round. Then he peered with narrowed eyes at Violet Pill Fairy. The corners of his lips turned up. His eyes were not smiling.

"The Raging Yang Fire Dan is used when entering yin saturated environments to protect the body. It is also a pill used to help cultivators with the pure yang physique when they're trying to unlock it. Unfortunately, creating it requires an alchemist with a Pure Yin Body or other types of Yin-based special constitutions. Those alchemists, for obvious reasons, prefer to stay hidden. I would like you to propose theories for normal cultivators to create such a pill."

How did he realize that I would definitely know such a thing? 

Ah. He really was a pill otaku. He must have seen Immortal Zhenren Sword Within the Light of Virtue's notes before. Or, since it had only been 300 years since he ascended, he may have even met him. Either way, somehow Ruthless recognized my methods as originating from Immortal Zhenren Sword because in his notes it mentioned a similar proposal. 

They listed a theory that it could be possible for cultivators without a Pure Yin Body to create the few pills that usually required one... It took me several years of research, but eventually, I discovered a method. And this really was my own technique. It helped a lot of Pure Yin Body Alchemists hide in plain sight.

"Apprentices. Do you accept this proposal?"

Fuck. If I said yes, right away, this tricky bitch would know that something was up. 

"Um. We just need to propose a theory, right? It doesn't need to actually work?" I said nervously. Look at my badass acting. I was so brilliant.

"That's right." The manager said with a smile. "Though, if it does, then you'll really be hailed as the Alchemy Guild's little genius."

"Then I accept."

Violet Pill Fairy stared at me suspiciously but then shook her head. 

Yes. That's right. Believe that there is no way a little nine-year-old would have anything to do with such an advanced method! Muahahaha!

"Fine, I accept."

"Since Apprentice Lin went first last time, Apprentice Violet should submit a proposal for this topic."

"I will, thank you." She calmly thought for several minutes and then a gentle smile appeared on her jade-like face. "I propose a theory that if a regular alchemist takes the Superior Yin Blood Dan, that they will then temporarily have a body filled with yin energy and be able to create pills like the Raging Yang Fire Dan."

Pill Master Ruthless nodded. "That is indeed an excellent theory. Others have proposed it in the past but the issue they've found with it is that the Superior Yin Blood Dan, and the other similar Yin pills all left harmful energies that greatly damaged the body in those who've tried it for this purpose. While it technically could work, the fact that it injures the body so severely is alarming. This method cannot be used."

The bitch looked sour even with the fake neutral expression she wore.

"But, since this method still technically works, if Apprentice Lin doesn't propose something better then you will win."

The other two judges nodded to this.

"Apprentice Lin. Please tell us your proposal."

I grinned. "You can create pills like Raging Yang Fire Dan without a Pure Yin body by simply taking Frozen Yin Ice Grass, Cold Durability Ghost Flower..." I listed the other six inexpensive herbs of the recipe's spiritual plants, then continued. "You need to dry those, then crush them into a fine powder. Dust that mixture onto your hands, though I suggest using Mountain Goshorn Silk Gloves. Then you must use your hands to move the plants and cannot contaminate them with your spiritual energy." I nodded. "Of course, this won't work for an alchemist with a Pure Yang Body."

The pill otaku's eyes glittered with ardency further for the process I just listed. He turned to the guild's manager. "I request that you collect those ingredients as well as the ingredients for the Raging Yang Fire Dan. I am willing to test this method right here."

The poor manager nodded. "The guild agrees to your request. Please wait."

By the time they returned with everything, I was almost falling asleep. It had been a long day, and while the pill debate solved my lack of cauldron problem, it made this tournament over twice as long as it should have been. But, surprisingly, instead of fewer people in the stands, there were actually more.

Then it clicked. Ah, to everyone here, if this worked then this would basically be a historic moment...

I grabbed Little Spring's hand on instinct. This kid had stayed standing here without saying anything for the entire time.

"When this works," I whispered. "An entire group of people will have a little more protection. Sure they had a niche product that only they could sell but at the cost of possibly exposing themselves. Not everyone will be happy about this. But if they're good enough alchemists to make those niche products then they'll be good enough to make other products as well."

Then I watched as Pill Master Ruthless Divine Medicine methodically set up his workstation. He ground the pre-dried ingredients and mixed them together in the order I said them. Smart that. While it wasn't necessary, the order I used was the most effective one. 

Once complete, he put on blue gloves. My eyes widened. No way. The Alchemists' Guild actually found a pair of those during this time period? 

He then poured a dollop of the glittery white powder onto the gloves and rubbed them together as a surgeon might soap up his hands. He thoroughly covered every part of the gloves in that powder then began choosing his plants and prepping them. He sliced a root off a flower here and cut a stem in half there.

Soon, everything that could be prepared had been. 

Ruthless increased the temperature of the cauldron. And began the careful process of concocting a new pill for the first time. He threw in ingredient after ingredient, all while using his glove-covered hands.

Everything seemed fine at first, but toward the end, the cauldron started to rumble.

He glanced at me and I rubbed my hands together like I was washing them. He followed my suggestion and reapplied the powder. I nodded. That was right. It may need reapplying.

The next plant he threw in calmed the solution down immediately. From there it didn't take long for the last of the plants to follow.

He slapped his gloved hand against the side of the cauldron and nine pills flew out. He caught them in a bowl.

He was probably the first alchemist in this life to, without injuring himself, concoct a pill that normally was only produced by someone with that special constitution.

I really wanted to clap but instead, I grinned and said, "Congratulations on your successful concocting, Pill Master!"

Story 3 - Spiritual Vines and a Smokey Pill Cauldron (Part 28)

Pill Otaku had a stunned look on his face. It must have hit him that he'd become the first person to create a pill like this in public without having a Pure Yin Body. 

He placed the bowl in front of White Lily. She really held it together well. The only sign that her emotions overwhelmed her were two unnecessary blinks.

"And, how do you feel, fellow Pill Master?"

"I'm in perfect condition. There was a little situation in the middle but it just required a reapplication of the powder."

She nodded. "Then we have to congratulate Apprentice Lin for winning this youth contest."

I stood up and bowed to the Pill Masters and Violet who did not look happy.

"Did you come up with this theory yourself?"

I grinned. "My master came up with the initial idea, but I worked on it until it was viable."

"In that case, according to the guild rules, for coming up with an original recipe, for the next 150 years, you will receive 20% of the profits from any powder that is sold. And during that same time period, if an alchemist uses your powder to create a pill, you will receive 1% of those profits."

That was new. When I came up with this in my last life the guild wasn't that generous, but since this was White Lily handling this I imagined that she considered it a gift for helping Pure Yin Body cultivators hide better. Of course, they could also choose to not pay and let people suspect, but that was their freedom.

In general, the fact that the guild even had something like copyright for things like this was what helped rocket the level of pills and pill making in the future. 

But I imagine the author merely used this to let Bloodsword earn more money in the original novel. Well, it benefited me so I wouldn't complain.

I happily smiled at the judges. 

"Apprentice Violet Pill," White Lily said while a guild employee ran up to her and handed her a storage bag. "You did well in this tournament, you helped others and contributed to the guild. You may have lost in the end, but you still won second place. I present you with a beginner's cauldron and 1000 spirit stones. It's not much compared to the top prize but it is still something."

Violet Pill Fairy accepted the bag with her prize inside it with grace and confidence. She bowed to the judges, then to me.

"Thank you, Pill Masters. Congratulations, Fellow Apprentice Lin." She then elegantly walked out of the hall with her head held high.

Damn, but her acting was good. Knowing her she would wait until she got into a private place then break the shit out of everything not valuable. But leaving this way allowed her to save face and possibly caused some cultivators to have more respect for her.

A guild employee ran up to White Lily then handed her another storage bag. She nodded and smiled gently at me.

"Apprentice Lin. Congratulations on winning today's youth tournament! Please come up and collect your prize."

I cautiously walked to the judges' table. White Lily, after some swift hand movements I couldn't see with my current realm, placed a small storage ring in front of me.

"The ring is yours too," she said. "It's my donation to first place and it will resize to fit your finger. It holds the Spiritual Cauldron as well as a little gift from Pill Master Ruthless."

I took it and imprinted my own signature onto it then took a look at the contents. It had a very impressive and familiar cauldron in it, space for almost a cubic li, three jade slips that would prove my guild copyrights and a protective talisman that could defend against an attack from a Nascent Soul cultivator once, or thirty attacks from a peak Golden Core. 

That talisman could also defend against cauldron explosions allowing me to stop hurting myself by using techniques above my realm. Pill Otaku was seriously the best.

"Hey, don't leave me out of this." Pill Master Burning Tyrannical Stallion tossed me a cheap storage bag. "I recently purchased some prep tools but found that I don't like the looks of them. Since they'd just go to waste, I'm donating them to be part of the first-place prize."

Did... did this guy just turn into a tsundere? Well, I did need new tools so I wouldn't reject them.

"Thank you, Pill Masters!" With a bow, I gratefully accepted my prizes.

When I turned around I stilled in shock at the crowd. It had somehow become even larger since I last noticed it. And there were various people in the peak of Foundation Establishment or in Golden Core who looked like they wanted to eat me up. This amount of attention was not good. Why had I joined this tournament again? A spiritual cauldron... And it was just supposed to be a simple youth tournament. 

I jerked back to the judges in panic. I mean, I'd been powerful in my past life and given lectures to crowds larger than this, but as I was now, these people could crush my body like a bug. And I didn't know what they wanted from me. Did I need to escape or something?

White Lily smiled gently at me. "The appropriate response here is to thank the crowd for coming to watch you win. It's not every day a young child beats out the city's famous Golden Core alchemist. I believe everyone here is interested in hearing more about our Alchemists' Guild's new young genius."

What? They were here just for that? As the forever second place, I usually ended up leaving like Violet during these things.

Heh. Now that I thought about it, after one thousand years of being in second place, I finally fucking won.

I bowed to the crowd. "Thank you, seniors, for coming to watch me win. Though I've only joined the guild recently, please look forward to seeing more of me in the future."

***

Thanks to a little help from Pill Master White Lily and Pill Otaku, Little Spring and I managed to escape the guild without getting involved with the crowd that wanted to converse with me. Since it had been such a long day, I really did not want to explain how I spent years coming up with a solution for that powder. 

I was also too damn tired to come up with a plausible lie.

Eventually, I found a nice hotel in the city and paid to spend a week there. 

That was right. Now that we finally reached a city, it was time to make some spirit stones. But first, I needed sleep so I could concoct my medicine the next day.

After I had laid down on the bed and covered myself with the blanket my little brother came in and crossed his arms over his chest. He looked like he had something serious to say that he'd been holding in for a while. "Fairy Lin!" he yelled loudly, with a face more furious than I had imagined.

I jerked and stared at him with wide eyes. "What?!"

"You are not allowed to risk your life anymore!"

I blinked. This little cutie. Slowly, and painfully, I sat up. I couldn't let myself be in a disadvantaged position for this conversation. "Hey. Listen. It wasn't supposed to be dangerous. I was even more surprised than you were."

"You noticed that it was about to explode. You could have run away and saved yourself. Then you wouldn't have gotten injured! Tell her, Senior Ghosty McGhostface."

The middle-aged gentleman floated right outside our bedroom door, peered inside the room. He nodded seriously. "Your life is too important to risk for a simple spiritual cauldron."

Et tu, Ghosty?

But... it wasn't a simple cauldron. It was a spiritual cauldron that made history in my past life. Granted, given enough time, materials, and my original cultivation realm, I could make something much better, but it wouldn't replace the history of a thing...

But that history hadn't happened yet.

I sighed. And also, I'd participated to finally defeat my rival in alchemy. But considering how she was just a young apprentice, even that win felt a little hollow... Only a smidge though. The rest of me still felt pretty good about it.

Humph. The only reason that bitch managed to come so close to defeating me was because of the unscrupulous tricks she (probably) played.

Back to the point, Little Spring had already lost everyone close to him at this point in his life. I was his very last family member, though I was technically just his elder martial sister. But seeing me get hurt over and over again had probably caused him to have a bit of a complex... maybe?

I sighed. "In dangerous situations, I will always act before I think, so I can't promise I'll run away when it's possible to. While, it's only recently I've remembered everything from my past life, those memories of being powerful affect how I think when dealing with situations. But I will try to avoid meaningless dangers. Are you satisfied with that?" I still hadn't told anyone that my past life was technically the future. Nor did I ever plan to.

Little Spring hugged me. His weight was a bit too much for my injured self so I fell back onto the bed. He buried his head into my shoulder and nodded. "As long as you're safe." 

I awkwardly smoothed his hair. This poor kid.

I thought he was going to head to his bed but instead, while still hugging me he quickly passed out. Well, whatever. Everyone needed comfort sometimes, and this kid had already been through too much in his life. Stupid fuckin' author of this dumbass harem Xianxia making his young protagonist go through unnecessary hell during his youth. Like, fuck, if you wanted your reader to sympathize with him, I understood but isn't this a little fucking much? Leave him at least one or two friends or family members for him to care about. After all, why would someone strive to live longer when their life was shit? Revenge could only take a person so far.

And giving a character a harem wasn't a fucking replacement for family! It was a damn collection. Especially in Bloodsword's case since he seemed to just marry them and leave them in the sect so he could go on his next adventure and collect more. As if he married them but couldn't stand actually getting close to any of them because of losing too many people in the past. I don't know. Maybe I had it all wrong and he really did love each of his wives but also decided to live a life of constant adventure and improvement?

I gently stroked the kid's hair. Was I Little Spring's last chance to have a normal life... well, for a cultivator? If that was the case I'd kind of been fucking that up. 

That was it. From here on out, I would focus on our safety. There would be plenty of time for adventure once he was older.

We also still needed to reach the damn sect sooner rather than later. But I was certain that we could avoid dangerous adventures while traveling there. Probably.

Story 3 - Spiritual Vines and a Smokey Pill Cauldron (Part 29)

As soon as we both woke up we ran towards our home's alchemy room... Well, it wasn't exactly right away, we did the normal morning stuff like getting dressed, washing up, and collecting the spiritual plants we needed from our nicely growing garden, but that was beside the point.

It was finally time to make Lin's Super Awesome Repair Dan!

While I'd looked in this room before, this was the first time I'd actually entered. 

A long and beautiful stone prep table ran along one wall. While the room didn't have tools, it did have various nooks in the wall where I could store mine. There were no windows but, because the space had diffuse lighting, its lack thereof didn't affect visibility. Most importantly, it had several useful formations for isolation and explosion containment that just needed a few spirit stones to power. 

From my awesome new ring, I pulled out and then set up my tools. If I remembered correctly, they weren't bad quality for the time period. There was a jade knife, perfect for slicing spiritual plants in two that couldn't touch metal. There was a Star Crushing Flame Metal Knife, for plants that needed to be cut with metal or flame. The set even had an Evergreen Seven-Star Bamboo Knife for those that needed to be cut with something of the wood attribute. There were also several other tools, but none quite so impressive as these.

"Today, we have one chance to make my Repair Dan. If we fail, then I'll have to make quick money to buy up a few flowers from a Vine of Stellar Rebirth." Unfortunately, during this time period, I couldn't borrow from the Alchemists' guild using my copyrights as collateral... And I doubted that Violet would even sell me them after I thoroughly thrashed her in the tournament. 

I focused every ounce of my attention on Little Spring. "I need your help to make it. Can I count on you?"

I wasn't telling him this, but frankly, we couldn't afford to wait more than two days. I could feel my health slowly deteriorating even as I stood there.

He froze. "Just let me know what you need me to do."

I grinned and patted his head. "Good. I want you to be my spare battery."

He tilted his head at the unfamiliar English word. 

Right... "You're going to help me control the flames so I don't run low on spiritual energy during the refining process. So, for now, I want you to practice these hand seals."

I went over the few low-level seals that were created in the future, the ones that researchers discovered had the best effect when controlling fire.

"...But the most important thing about these hand seals is how you move your spiritual energy through your body during them. So even if you fuck up and point your pinkie when it should be curled, you'll be mostly fine as long as your energy is right."

He nodded very seriously.

I watched him practice with the alchemy room's earthen flame for a good ten minutes. While I needed to get the pill done soon, it didn't need to be done in the next hour or two. If we had to, we could even wait a whole day for him to learn these to a significant enough mastery to help me. I was good enough that I could make up for his mistakes, so they didn't have to be perfect. 

But we still needed to finish this soon. I didn't like how fast my body's health deteriorated. Even now, I fought off the deceptive urge to lay my ass back in bed and not come out for a week. Due to the nature of my injuries, that wouldn't help.

Once I was satisfied that Little Spring had the basics down. I left him to practice on his own. 

First I left the alchemy room and traveled through the spatially warping corridor to the spiritual weapon forging room. I took out the remains of good Old Smokey and placed it on one of the built-in shelves. 

When I had the realm, the materials, and a remove-curse talisman, I'd rebuild it. Make it harder, better, stiller, stronger. And then I'd pass Old Smokey on to Little Spring so he could work it.

I patted it for good measure then returned to the alchemy room. 

Little Spring continued to practice on the earthen flame. When I saw how he had already perfected them, I practically face-planted from where I stood.

Fuck. That's some hardcore protagonist energy there. 

I left for like, five minutes. 

It took me a week of hard work to learn these hand seals to that level... and I had a high realm!

I shoved my fingers through my hair. 

Calm down. There was no point in comparing oneself to the universe's favorite. That was how arrogant young masters began their downfall.

Once collected, I waved my hand and rested my shiny new and very large cauldron on the spotless stone floor. 

I'd seen it before in my past life because it was one of That-Bitch-Violet's favorites. Being new, it obviously looked different. The wear and tear from overuse had gone, replaced with a shiny new metallic surface the color of highest-quality jade. The designs on the side were of a dragon and a phoenix. I narrowed my eyes at that.

I mean, they were certainly common motifs in Chinese culture and thus very common in Xianxia, but it still sent a chill down my spine, like the original author of this dumbass world had put this cauldron here for the main character and my body's original owner to use together. Especially considering the suspicions I had about Little Spring's unique bloodline.

I clenched my hands into fists and sent a glare at said imaginary author.

"Um.. Fairy Lin. Do you not like your new cauldron?"

I coughed. "This is an excellent furnace." I took out a knife, scratched the back of my arm, and placed it against the side, claiming this massive cauldron for myself. I eased my spiritual energy into it and had it shrink in size until it was perfect for my use.

Oh yeah. That felt good. Granted, I could make a better one (once I increased my realm significantly). But having not touched a spiritual cauldron in months, and after using Old Smokey...

I sent it to rest over the flames next to Little Spring. He lowered them skillfully. The new cauldron hummed with joy as if being in a space with both of our energies made it happy. 

At least it didn't smoke. That was a cool feature.

Still, I had this horrible feeling that if Little Spring and I worked on a lot of pills together, then its personality would grow worse. Thankfully, it wasn't at a high enough rank to actually have a real spirit, just a pseudo one, that could turn into a real one given a hundred years or so...

"Fairy Lin. I'm ready to help you!"

"Drink your lake water and refill your energy first."

I started taking out the spiritual herbs and lining them up on my spotless prep table. When I took out the jade box with the flower from the Vine of Stellar Rebirth, I had the space teleport a cup of spring water into it and let it sit.

"Since you're ready, we'll start now." It was time to teach the kid the methods of concocting a pill. "The first step in alchemy is to make sure your cauldron is in good repair. If it's not, then there is no point in starting the process. But since I already inspected it, let's move on to the second step. 

"Always, even when you know the recipe like the back of your hand, review it. So what spiritual plants are in my Lin's Super Awesome Repair Dan?"

"Vine of Stellar Rebirth Flower, Verdant King Spiritual Grass, Monkey's Palm Rose, Vine of Resplendent Ocean Seeds, Dying Ice Lemongrass, Yang Heart Burning Weed, Ghost Horse Bone Flower..." He continued to list the various spiritual plants and gestured to each one he listed. When he finished, I nodded in approval.

"Perfect! And you listed them in the order I told you. This is excellent because I gave you them in the order they should usually go into the cauldron. Normally, when doing a new recipe, you'll have to go through each plant and switch them up as necessary since a lot of recipes are created by unorganized idiots who think having a weird sequence will protect their intellectual property." 

I smiled then picked up the jade knife. "Anyway, set each plant in front of you, then you need to inspect them. That is because, unless you raise them in a protected space, they're never-ever perfect. This means that you may have to adjust the order or how you trim each to compensate."

I stared at the spiritual plants that we had brought into our protected space and used essentially magic water to make perfect. Even the damn Vine flower Violet gave us now looked spotless and brand new while floating in that cheat-water. 

I coughed. 

Little Spring gently patted my back, his face filled with concern.

"Moving on!"

Story 3 - Spiritual Vines and a Smokey Pill Cauldron (Part 30 out of 30)

"Now we have to trim the unnecessary portions of the plants off those we can. Some of these need to be done right before they enter the cauldron so you need to really know your plants. In this instance..." 

I went ahead and sliced the unneeded roots of Yang Heart Burning Weed, and the tips of the petals on the weirdly shaped Ghost Horse Bone flower. The others, I'd all already cut properly when I took them from where we'd planted them. I also did the other extra prep work explaining each step as I went along.

Finally, it was time to start the concocting process.

"Go ahead and use the hand seal to lift the flames so they're at a medium height."

He did so easily and I nodded. "And remember that these hand seals stay between us. They're not for outsiders to see. I'll teach you the more traditional hand seals later."

"I understand."

I grinned and resisted the urge to pat his head. 

Now I had to explain about timing.

"When you cultivate, you breathe in and out in a specific rhythm. When you concoct a pill, you also must breathe in a specific rhythm. A breath is a unit of time, and if you don't get it right, you'll fuck up your pill. Now, practice breathing with me, like this..." I breathed like an alchemist and with each breath, I held up a new finger to show the count. After 60 breaths, one minute, I stopped. "Don't worry about being perfect right now since I'll count for us, but eventually you'll need to learn."

He nodded, seriously, but continued to breathe in the rhythm I gave him.

"Now, for alchemists above Qi Condensation, they have divine sense, limited though it is, that they can use to sense the inside while the lid is closed. Since you don't have that, you'll have to rely on your perception of spiritual energy to guess what the energies inside are doing.

"Now. I'm going to start the pill. But before I do, when I do this..." I made the stop hand gesture. "I need you to back off and let me take over. During that time, drink some water and replenish your energy so you can take over later. And when I do this..." I made the thumbs-up gesture. "I need you to take over."

He nodded. And since I wasn't too sure I practiced with him for a bit. He caught on quickly.

I teleported the Vine of Stellar Rebirth's flower over to me to automatically dry it. Then I lifted the lid and threw it into the cauldron. And I counted. 

125 breaths. 

Next Verdant King Spiritual Grass. This one I had to cut in half lengthwise before throwing it in. 

208 breaths. 

I raised the fire higher and waited another three breaths before adding the Monkey's Palm Rose. I was still okay, but my side ached, so after 23 breaths I gave the sign for Little Spring to take over for me. 

He deftly used the hand seals I taught him to keep the fire steady. 

I brought out a cup of the spring water, downed it then cultivated for 100 breaths. When done, I noticed that the concoction appeared even more stable than usual. Was that Little Spring or the perfect plants? Whatever. 

I grabbed the small vine that had mini brown coconut-looking pods. This was the Vine of Resplendent Ocean Seeds. I poked a hole in each of the mini-coconuts and threw the whole thing into the furnace by the 56th breath. Using my divine sense I watched it melt into the concoction. 

Once again, I took over for Little Spring.

I continued to throw plant after plant into the cauldron and we continued the back and forth where one of us rested while the other manned the flames. This felt more and more natural as the concocting process went on. The dumb cauldron even started to hum in my head expressing its happiness.

Then I threw the last plant in, waited 42 breaths for it to melt fully, and then made the improved hand seal for creating pills. 

Once done, I lifted the lid, made the new non-hand-burning pill collection seal, and caught a dozen fleeing little pills into a beautiful jade bottle.

Worryingly, that was one of the smoothest pill concoctions I'd ever been a part of. But why? Was it just Little Spring and his protagonist's energy making things go smooth? Was it because of our similar but reversed energies? This new cauldron? Was it special or something? The fact that we were working with perfect plants?

"Fairy Lin? Did we succeed?"

I poured out a single pill into my palm. Since I was about to take it anyway, it didn't matter if it touched my skin. Then I stoppered the rest and threw them into my storage ring.

Pinching the pill between two fingers, I held it up so both he and I could see it.

"It looks good?" He asked nervously.

I nodded. "It looks beyond good. This is near Unparalleled Perfection in quality, which is a quality that is impossible to get so no one ever mentions it."

"It's very clear... and blue. Are pills supposed to be that clear and blue?"

"This one is..." though I've never seen it be so perfect. To soothe his nervousness I grinned and he relaxed. "You did well. Did you enjoy your time performing alchemy?"

He nodded happily. I smoothed his hair. "Good. We'll do this again then. But for now. I need to heal myself. Can you take care of the excess?" I pointed to the messy work table that had plant remains strewn all over it. 

He nodded and I teleported directly into the spiritual lake... that I remembered still didn't have a name. Once I sat in the lotus position near the shallow end, I popped the pill.

Healing energy bubbled forth from it. It spread from my center through my body. Each area the energy touched, renewed, grew stronger, and became purer. The damage I'd taken through my overuse of techniques beyond my level, the wounds and harmful energy I'd sustained from that fight, and even the slight malnourishment my body had from nine years of inconsistent meals, all of that had healed completely. And whatever minimal amount of bad residue this pill would have left was immediately cleared away by the spiritual spring.

I released a turbid breath.

The extra impurities that the spring water hadn't been able to touch before this pill, slowly cleared away, turning my already good skin beautiful and perfect. Inhumanly so. 

I was looking forward to seeing what my body would look like once I reached Foundation Establishment. Hehehe. Muahahaha! I would be the most adorable child immortal cultivator in the world! Everyone would bow before my cuteness!

Seriously, I loved this healing pill. It was so fucking badass!

Grinning like a damn fox cultivator, I stood up from the lake. I turned to see Little Spring shuffling his feet and looking down.

"Are you feeling better now, Fairy Lin?"

"I'm all better!" Well, I still had a troublesome headache and a time limit of four months before I died, but that would be resolved soon as well. It just required spirit stones. Lots of spirit stones.

He sighed, the relief on his little face palpable.

"By the way. Have you thought of a name for this lake yet?"

He turned bright red and nodded. "I think we should call it..." He mumbled the rest.

"Speak up!"

"I said, 'Fairy Lake!'"

I laughed and sent him a thumbs up. "Good job."

Let's see. I won new alchemy supplies, gained connections in the guild, taught my adorable junior brother many things he needed to know to be a good alchemist, and healed my physical wounds. All in all, it had been a good couple of days. 

The only thing left was to go make some cash while staying safe. Really, things were looking up.

Story 4 - What Happens in a Slaughter Formation, Stays in a Slaughter Formation (Part 1)

ON FAIRY LIN'S TIMELINE: AROUND 400 YEARS EARLIER... 

While grinning, I poured Sect Leader Peerless Resolve another portion of the Fragrant Resplendent Plum Wine I'd purchased for him. Several bowls and hours in and his old cheeks had a healthy red glow.

"So what is this really all about, Sect Leader?"

"So impatient."

What?! Really? Did he want to drink for a whole day before getting to the point?

"Fine. I know that look... I'm going to retire soon."

"Congratulations!"

"Hush. Let me finish."

I poured myself another bowl and took a sip. I had a feeling I'd need it.

"I'm considering having you take over as sect leader."

I managed to swallow my drink just before I could accidentally do a spit take. Instead, I coughed. He patted my back but I waved him away.

"Me? Have you met me?"

"It took you around four hundred years to reach the Immortal Bone Creation realm. And the only reason you haven't reached Immortal Ascension yet is because you spend too much time researching when you could be cultivating. You are the second most brilliant cultivator of your generation."

I glared at him for the 'Second most' comment. Just because Bloodsword was always a half step ahead of me...

"You're a genius."

That was better. Unfortunately, I couldn't accept this position. "A sect leader needs to be good with people. And genius doesn't necessarily mean anything close to that. In fact, it's often quite the opposite." It also didn't mean, 'always right.'

He sighed deeply and took another sip of his wine. "Trust me, I know, " he mumbled. "You just need more practice at it."

"What? And being the sect leader will force the issue?" I'd rather continue my research. Handling the day-to-day operations of the sect sounded beyond boring.

"Yes. It would."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "This is why you've given me all those tasks lately! I thought you'd just been giving poor Daoist Li a break. You know, he thinks you're going to give him the sect leader position."

"The leader of this sect needs to be above Nascent Soul."

And Daoist Longest Li was not.

"Frankly, he should take a break to spend more time cultivating before it's too late... Like it is for me."

I stilled. "What do you mean, too late?"

"I have a few years to train my successor then I need to go into emergency closed-door cultivation. If I can't reach the Immortal Ascension Stage..."

He would die.

My hand shook a minuscule amount, but it was enough to show how out of sorts I was.

I took another gulp of wine. It was hard to believe that I'd lose another friend to time... No. He would breakthrough. This was the Sect Leader here!

"Anyway. I think this position will be good for you."

"How?"

"Because you have a tendency to want to be alone. And I worry that with me gone, you'll hole yourself up in your cave and never come out until you ascend. As it is, you're well on your way to becoming an awkward hermit."

"You're one to talk, old man."

"Hey!"

"Sorry, sorry. But, you have to admit that outside of your position you're just as much of a loner as I am."

"Humph. I wasn't always like this."

"What happened?"

He sighed. "It must have been a year or two before you even joined the sect; after I was poisoned by that idiot from the Demonic Blood Eye cult. I fell into a coma and the only cure required several specific spiritual plants that we didn't have on hand."

I took a sip while I deduced the poison and replied almost automatically with the names of the flowers he was most likely speaking of, "The Resplendent Ochre Narcissus of at least fifty years, the Five Petaled Windy Spider Orchid at three hundred years or greater, and one of the harder flowers to find, the Blood-Soaked Resonant Rhododendron."

"The way that mind of yours works...." He shook his head. "You're correct."

His hand swirled the liquor inside the bowl then he finished it. "At the time of that incident, the peak elders all thought it was a good idea to send out several teams to find these spiritual flowers. And one of them consisted of Unyielding Firestorm, my inheriting disciple; my nephew; as well as a few others, including my disciple's girlfriend at the time."

He sighed. 

I poured him another cup.

"The girlfriend and my nephew came back, but my disciple and two others didn't. And frankly, the whole thing reeked of something unpleasant."

"Oh?"

He glanced at me sideways. "Keep in mind that this is all according to my late nephew."

Right! His nephew, Glittering Iron Omniscience, died in a secret realm. Poor dude was unlucky enough to get sent to one of those with Bloodsword and his first wife. 

I was there too but that was a really horrible memory that I tried not to think about. 

Anyway, the guy never came back. 

"So, what did he say about it?"

"He was a brilliant diviner and managed to have good fortune in finding a place with all three needed plants. It was called something like Three Kings Mystical Forest." He grimaced. "But even if he did divine the right location, he couldn't see the tragedy that eventually occurred." He sighed and stared into the distance as if recalling the past. 

"Don't leave me in suspense like that. What happened?" This was one of the forbidden topics in the sect that everyone refused to speak of. After hundreds of years, I was only now finding out.

"Everything went well up until they reached the last flower."

"Ah. The Blood-Soaked Resonant Rhododendron." I nodded. It was a flower that could only exist with the help of a naturally formed slaughter formation. And the only way to collect it was by passing through the formation without dying and reaching the center of that hurricane-like array. But as long as someone knew where to safely enter and had the path memorized, it was fairly easy to traverse.

"He divined the right place to enter the array from but the formation master they brought with them — I believe her name was Third Peach Sapling, one of Persistent Red Bone's kids — Anyway, she said that it should be from a different location.

"They argued and eventually, Unyielding Firestorm decided to follow her advice over my nephew's. When he didn't return, his friend went after him. He also..."

He sighed deeply as if the heavy weight of years rested on his chest.

"Eventually, my nephew trusted his own divination despite not being trained in how to go through the array. He used his divination to find a safe path through, reached the flower, and returned with it. 

"And on the way back, that incompetent formation master who got my disciple killed — the disciple who I loved like my own child — died when they set up camp.

"There were some Star Snake Poisonous Killing Vines in the area that attacked her in her sleep."

I frowned. "Leaving your nephew and the girlfriend... I see what you mean." That was fucking suspicious.

He briefly smiled but then it seemed like he remembered what we were talking about and delved deep into depression. "According to rumors, Third Peach Sapling was very-very close to my disciple's girlfriend. With an unhealthy obsession for her. And she did not like Unyielding Firestorm at all."

I narrowed my slightly blurry eyes at him. "You think she gave him the incorrect information on purpose?"

"And then, once they were leaving, my nephew avenged him by letting her sleep on top of a grove of those vines."

Daaaamn! I tried to recall what I could about Glimmering Iron Omniscience but there wasn't much. He kinda seemed like a very confident person and he always had that weird chicken-like spirit beast he tamed perched on his shoulder. Which was why I didn't go near him. 

Ugh, even after living in this world for near 600 years, low leveled spirit beasts still didn't get along with me. It was as if they could sense that I came from a different world and they wanted to kill me for it. Or run away from me in terror... I mean, I actually liked animals. But it was hard to deal with spirit beasts when they kept attacking me for no reason.

"Thanks to my nephew, I did manage to wake from my coma... but the cost wasn't worth it."

I could have tried to comfort him in some way. Told him the truth, that I was glad he was still around. But, I didn't think that would help. I also wasn't exactly a social expert so I decided to change the topic instead. 

"You haven't really inspired me to take over for you here." Besides, with my luck, if I was named Sect Leader, the universe would make Bloodsword my martial ancestor.

The old cultivator scowled at me.

"How about you give me Virtue Peak and let me become a Sect Elder instead?" 

"Again with Immortal Zhenren's Peak? You know that it was purposefully abandoned after he ascended. I don't even think it's livable right now. And my whole purpose for inviting you here was to have you stop being such a hermit."

"I'm just... tired of living with—"

"I know. But if you didn't live with them, you'd run off to be somewhere all alone and then spiral into depression."

"Hey! No, I wouldn't. I adore myself! What's the point of striving for immortality otherwise? And I am perfectly happy alone! I live for myself and do what I love. Which is better than trying to rely on someone else to make me happy." Like certain ridiculous harem members.

And if I'm alone then I don't have to miss the friends who leave me behind.

I poured another glass for the Sect Leader and waited for him to lift it to his lips. "Those ladies are lucky that I'm not willing to take in a harem of male concubines just to spite them."

It was his turn to nearly do a spit take. He coughed and I patted his back with a grin.

It was a thought experiment I called Spite Harem. Hehehe... But while interesting in theory, I wasn't so depraved that I'd demean myself and others just to spite people I loathed.

"I can't believe you said that."

"And I told you that I wasn't Sect Leader material."

But even as I smiled and took another sip of wine, my mind couldn't help going back to that story. 

I was still curious about what happened back then. Had the late junior sect leader really died by accident from an incompetent Formation Master? Or had that Third Peach Blossom purposefully given him the wrong information?

FAIRY LIN'S PRESENT

I grinned up at an employee of the Formation Masters' Guild as he, with a heavy sigh, placed a small bag of spirit stones, flagsticks, and flag silk in front of me. Without seeming eager, I grabbed it, emptied the contents into my ring, and gave the bag back to him.

"Will that be all, Fairy Lin?" He asked, obviously wanting me gone. But I was too excited to give a shit about leaving immediately. 

This was the last bit of spirit stones I needed to reach the 12th layer of Qi Condensation. And for Little Spring to reach the 8th... But what was important was that the 12th layer was my path's peak of Qi Condensation!

Each path was, of course, different. Some peaked at the 8th layer, others the 16th. But more layers did not necessarily make a better path. What mattered, was what was right for the person. And 12 happened to be right for me.

This also meant that I would finally be out of danger of dying from the dichotomy between my massive soul and tiny body... Probably. For the most part.

I was also hoping that this would end my headaches and completely clear my head... but having a soul like mine in my current body, to put it in terms from my past-past life, was like running a Windows 10 program on hardware that could run Windows XP at most. 

The program wouldn't work, but if you managed to get it to work there would be some massive issues. 

Considering that, I think I'd been doing quite well for myself.

Take, for instance, my newfound cleanliness obsession. Once I was finally fucking able to use that cleaning technique, I found myself constantly casting it on myself, the area I stood in, and those around me. 

Mostly Little Spring. 

I couldn't seem to remember if I had this habit back when I was at Immortal Ascension stage but I think I did, I just didn't notice it. After all, who would complain to someone at the peak of the world, that they kept cleaning everything around them?

But this was also one of the reasons this employee gave me the stink eye. I sheepishly bowed to the super clean guy. "That is all, thank you."

He appeared relieved and hurried away.

I turned to Little Spring who, in the past three months since the pill tournament, had shot up several inches and gained some much-needed weight and muscle. 

I think he may have had a birthday in there somewhere making him eight years old. I was almost ten. 

All this meant that it was about time we continued on our journey to the Indomitable Will Sect. In fact...

"The Sect Leader of the Indomitable Will Sect lost to the head of the Demonic Blood Eye cult?!"

My ears twitched. I turned to see two old men, one an employee of the guild and the other a customer. The customer leaned in.

"That's right. Last I heard. He's in a coma. The sect put out all kinds of requests searching for specific plants to cure him."

Before I knew it, I had walked up to the man. I clasped my hands behind my back so I wouldn't grab him by his collar and demand the information. Instead, I forced myself to smile like a cute child.

"Excuse me, senior. I don't mean to be impolite, but did you say the Sect Leader is in a coma right now?"

The man turned to me and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "I did."

"Do you happen to know how long it's been?"

"Around five days."

I bowed. "Thank you, senior."

My mind started running through that old conversation I had with the Sect Leader a few years before he went into closed-door cultivation and never returned.

I grabbed Little Spring's hand and very calmly walked all the way back to our current residence, a small traditional-style courtyard I rented after the first week here. 

I bolted the door shut and immediately activated the privacy, obfuscation, and defensive formations I'd installed in our courtyard. I let out a long sigh.

"Fairy Lin, that poisoned person..."

"He'll be our sect leader in the future so address him as Sect Leader."

He nodded in agreement. "Will he be okay?"

"Absolutely. Because we're going to help." I grinned.

Story 4 - What Happens in a Slaughter Formation, Stays in a Slaughter Formation (Part 2)

Little Spring eyed me suspiciously. "By helping, will we be put in danger?"

Oh shit. I had promised that I'd stop getting us into unnecessary trouble.

"Hey! I've been extra careful these past few months. I've even taken care of my health and eaten everything you told me to."

He sighed. "So that's a yes?"

"I've saved many healing pills. Some cultivation pills — actually, we sold most of those. But I created tasty and nutritious Grain Liberation Dan! And! And! I even progressed in making all the general antidotes I know... including some for more specialized poisons."

He crossed his arms in front of his chest and raised a brow.

I grimaced, why was this kid so sharp at only eight? 

"Okay. Yes. There will be danger, but I will do everything in my power to make sure it doesn't affect us."

"What do you have in mind?"

I sat down at the table in the main courtyard, loosely crossed my legs, and stared out at the quaint garden... Well, it used to be more quaint but I had moved some of the boulders and benches. Also, a few of the droopy-looking plants... So they didn't interfere with my formations. 

They were awkwardly piled in a messy corner of the courtyard judging me for my poor aesthetics. Whatever.

Little Spring sat down across from me. By now, this kid had already stopped judging me. Probably. Or at least he'd given up hope that my aesthetics could improve.

"I know the poison the Sect Leader is inflicted with. And I know the specialized plants they'll need to create the antidote."

I pulled out the updated map I had purchased a few weeks back in preparation for our ongoing journey. A clump of sketched pines had the characters for Three Kings Verdant Mystical Forest scrawled above it. 

"This forest right here has the perfect environment for all three of the needed ingredients to grow. And it has dangerous enough plant life and spiritual beasts that low-level plant strippers would avoid it. 

"I'm likely not the only sect member to realize this, so if we go to Three Kings Sanctuary." I gestured to the little cluster of painted buildings next to the gate representing the forest's entrance. "Then we're likely to run into some sect members. If we help them with their task to collect the spiritual plants, then they'll owe us. We can hitch a ride with them back to the sect. And we can use their favor to get us a meeting with the Sect Leader so we don't have to wait for the official entrance test."

See how amazing I was?! With this plan, we'd be able to take care of two things! Getting into the sect and saving someone. And likely more than just one person.

"Are you sure we need to help them?"

And he didn't realize... 

"The thing is, at our current cultivation levels, the sect won't accept us without a backdoor of some kind. And absolutely no one there would create one for strangers like us. 

"If we don't do something special, then we'd need to tell some random sect member about our master. But the chances that they'd believe us and get us in front of someone who could actually recognize our skills..."

"I understand that we'd need to do this to enter the sect but when I see how well we've been living here..." He bit his lip. "Why can't we just stay? Why do we even need to join?"

The kid stared at me with big adorable eyes.

I sighed and briefly patted his head. Doing so was a bit awkward, as I had to lean over the table (which dug into my side) but I managed. 

After plopping back down into my seat, I tilted back so it balanced on two legs. I considered how to answer his question. 

I could just put my foot down, but Little Spring was a good kid. We'd been living what must have seemed like a charmed life to him here. And I was disrupting our peace once again for something that might look unnecessary. 

At the very least, this kid deserved some explanation.

I placed all four legs on the floor. "There are a few good reasons. One is that the sect is our home. At least I hope it will be." This time around as well. "Another is that we need protection."

"Right now, we're small Qi Condensation Cultivators. I've been noticed by others due to my awesomeness. And while most of that notice is good, there will eventually be people who want to kill us, just for being outstanding."

Like Violet Pill Fairy, who had let us get away with the top prize. There had yet to be any retaliation from her. At least, none that I knew about. 

"Danger lurks everywhere. And while the sect isn't completely safe, it is more so than anywhere else in the cultivation world."

Or, more accurately, anywhere else in this stupid harem Xianxia that was filled with evil pumpkin-headed shits.

There was also Little Spring's past to consider. Some kind of powerful entity had chased after him. I didn't know if it was an immortal or a massive faction of some kind — but whatever it was — it had orphaned him. If it discovered his existence, I was positive it would come after him again. 

Frankly, the reason why — in Bloodsword's past life — the dick for brains reached adulthood at all was because merely being a disciple of the sect protected his ass.

When Little Spring reached sixteen, I'd explain his actual situation. But right now the kid needed a mostly happy childhood. The best one I, as his martial sister, could provide.

"And the last reason why we need to go to the sect, is that they'll be able to give us better opportunities for advancement than any other place. Especially since we're currently considered loose or rogue cultivators. Loose cultivators have no protection or anyone advocating for them. It is a very difficult path. I refuse to do that to us."

Little Spring stared into my eyes for a long time before he nodded. "Okay. Let's go then."

While grinning, I raised my hand for a classic high-five, something I kinda missed from my original world and thought kids liked to do.

After rolling his eyes, Little Spring completed the high-five. Just like I taught him.

I jumped to my feet. We had a lot to do today to prepare to leave this place tomorrow. And it wasn't just things like packing and putting the yard back in place either. 

"Alright! Let's cultivate the next layer!"

***

It started as a whim. Like, oh, hey, we are basically cultivating the same technique only reversed, so why don't we sit back to back and see if that improves our cultivation somehow?

I mean, the worst thing that could happen was looking dumb, right? Frankly, I had long since given up on being beautiful one hundred percent of the time. If something could improve my cultivation without touching my moral bottom line, I'd do it. Even if it looked dumb. Like sitting back to back.

After trying it, as if the damn author of the original story was laughing at me, it fucking worked. 

With the same amount of spirit stones it would take just me to increase by half a layer, we were not only able to cultivate much faster (my technique already being insanely quick) but it improved both of our levels by a full layer! A. Full. Fucking. Layer.

When I learned this, it did not make me happy. It felt like the damn original author had his grubby little words in my body's makeup. But I needed to increase my realm quickly and cheaply. Or die. So why the fuck not?

There shouldn't be any weird side effects later... probably. Fuck it. I'd figure it out when the time came.

So, I once again turned to the spirit gathering formation I'd already set up. This one was a more advanced version with proper flags and everything. It required me to dump the exact amount of spirit stones in the precise location and sit with my junior martial brother. Then we cultivated. 

Breathing in the good, cycling it, and breathing out the bad. Taking in the energy of the heavens and the earth, and gathering it bit by bit to form another layer of Qi Fractals.

As I pieced together the very last strands of this layer, my mind, soul, and body stabilized and synchronized... a little. It was enough. 

Maybe it was just that I'd finally reached this point but this finished final layer appeared absolutely gorgeous. It glittered in my dantian like a cut diamond of not dying.

These twelve layers were also important for another reason. They would be my very solid base. The cornerstone to my Unlimited path. And with just a little bit of effort and time (and a lot of money), I had finished them!

Little Spring also completed his 8th Layer. Which was fine. But I wasn't going to die anymore. Which was better!

I kinda felt like I needed to repeat the fact that I wasn't dying anymore.

Of course, since we were cultivating in the house instead of the spring water our bodies had become covered with the impurities that we'd expended. I mean, there wasn't much, but it was enough to make me feel gross. 

With a wave of my hand, while forming the proper seal, I cast my new favorite technique. The grossness and dirt left my body. It also left the area around me spotlessly clean. This included the kid. 

Feeling better, I stood and stretched.

Little Spring eyed me as if I'd done something weird again. "Fairy Lin... Is your overuse of that technique the reason you're so bad at cleaning?"

I narrowed my eyes. Was this brat actually getting cheeky with me?

"I believe it's time for you to practice the sword. If you aren't able to create a blade of Sword Qi by the end of the day then you should prepare to suffer."

His eyes widened and he started to run away.

I yelled, "If you don't seek death—"

"—You won't die!" He cut me off before I could finish then turned a corner.

I grinned. This kid. I'd never actually punished his ass but for some reason, he was terrified of whatever I'd come up with.

Actually, I had a purpose for sending him to train before we left. He needed it to consolidate his base and get used to his body's increase in realm. While Dantian cultivators like us weren't body cultivators, cultivating still strengthened and changed the body. If we ran into trouble on the road, he'd need to be used to his new realm so he could protect himself.

I, on the other hand, had different things I needed to prepare before we left tomorrow.

With a plop, I returned to sitting in the lotus position. 

There was always a chance that we'd run into a random Nascent Soul who could discover my secret. If that person was a dickhead with no morals then they'd turn me into a nutritious snack. And, for obvious reasons, that was the last thing I wanted. So, I had to hide my soul's appearance from curious eyes.

What was fun about Xianxia settings was that there was no one set way to do a thing. This setting, in particular, was a bit odd. It was as if the original dumbass author grabbed all the things he found cool and just shoved them together haphazardly. And amazingly, it somehow fucking worked (and it probably shouldn't). Take for instance just a few of the weird-ass paths to reach ascension. 

The majority cultivated by taking in the energy of heaven and earth and storing it in their dantian. They slowly built upon this foundation, in a variety of ways, purifying their body to create the perfect vessel to ascend.

A few righteous and insanely talented people could cultivate by practicing the sword. Eventually, this would create sword Qi. By internalizing it in various ways, their body and soul would become one with the immortal concept of the sword (and the main reason why this path required energy blessed epiphanies). At that point, they would ascend naturally, but it was very difficult to get to that point. Those brilliant people who walked this path were terribly strong for their realms.

There was also the Medicinal Qi cultivator. By concocting pills, a strand of medicinal Qi would enter their body. They stored these strands inside their hands as twin cores. Aside from the placement and number of cores, this path was actually pretty close to normal dantian cultivators.

Then there were those crazy people who broke down each cell and bone to repair it with spiritual energy. This, for some fucking reason, continuously strengthened those absolutely insane body cultivators. This path was one of the hardest ones, and very few people in history had reached immortality using it. But it was still possible.

Each Dao was different but had advantages in its own way.

That said, there was no pure soul cultivator. Because the soul was the domain of those in Nascent Soul or higher. All paths, when they reached that level, worked on improving their soul. Yes, even those crazy-ass body cultivators.

A powerful soul was necessary for ascension. Especially, if one accidentally failed but wanted to keep living. Like me.

I shook a fist at Bloodsword for fucking up my plans. For once, Little Spring did not catch me.

So, what happened when a dantian cultivator reached Nascent Soul? They would first analyze their own soul. Then they would use their golden core to birth a copy (well, several copies the higher in small-realm a person reached). This copy meant that if their original soul was about to die, then their duplicate could take over and die for them. And in the worst-case scenario, take over for a dead original soul. 

Nascent Soul in this world was like having a second chance at life. Well, as long as they had a copy alive and a new body. But body construction was best started before a person died in the first place.

Ghosty McGhostFace could probably speak of his own horror story, of how he hadn't had a body prepared, and was then caught by the original owner of Little Spring's space. At least he could if he wasn't under a geas.

So, what if one's soul was larger than their body's cultivation level? Like myself for instance. 

This could be resolved in a variety of ways. 

Like using a Nascent Soul Four Arts Cultivator to damage the soul until it had lost some of its cultivation (not recommended). 

Having someone at an equal cultivation level to the soul cast a high-level enchantment to hide or suppress the soul (doable if I knew someone at the peak of Immortal Ascension stage that I could trust, which I did not). 

And lastly, and the only one I could manage myself, a seal.

I had to seal my soul's appearance so it looked like the soul of someone near or at Foundation Establishment. 

This seal would also limit my divine sense to the top of Golden Core. Not because I wouldn't be able to use it at higher levels, as the seal would merely disguise the appearance of my soul, but because using that much divine sense would break this weak-ass seal. This would bring unnecessary attention to me. Which I couldn't afford.

This particular seal required a set of treasures. Fortunately, I'd gone shopping with Little Spring a week ago. His protagonist's luck helped me find a poor merchant who didn't know what he'd had. The guy still made a ton of spirit stones off me, as I wasn't completely heartless, but it was still nowhere near what the treasures were worth.

From my ring, I pulled the Midnight Spectre Bone Brush, the precious Divine Pine Wood Ink Stick, a jar of Graveyard Well Water, and a Coldfire Inkstone. 

After setting them on the floor in front of me, I grabbed the well water first. I poured a single drop onto the cool black surface of the inkstone. When the black ink stick touched the water and I started grinding it in little circles I might have expected it to appear just as dark as normal ink. It did not. It came out bluish green. And it glowed. Significantly.

I worried for a second that it was radioactive. I mean, it wasn't, but even if it had been, this had to get done.

And this was how I began the horribly mind-numbing process of slowly grinding up ink. So. Fucking. Mind-numbing!

It took a whole superbly boring hour for me to finish grinding up just some of the ink I'd use for this seal. Even as a cultivator my arms ached a little at the end of it and I had to cycle my cultivation.

When ready, I dipped my brush in the ink then lifted it to a comfortable spot in front of me. At this point, I probably looked as if I were about to write on an imaginary signboard. 

The sealing technique came to my mind as I poured spiritual energy into my arm and then my brush. 

With a deft stroke, I left a mark in mid-air. Then another. And another. I kept building on each character until I wrote the first line of symbols for my seal. The line wrapped around me in a full glowing circle. 

Now I just needed five more lines.

And I had already run out of ink. Fuck! I wanted to cry.

Story 4 - What Happens in a Slaughter Formation, Stays in a Slaughter Formation (Part 3)

Several hours later, I finished the last stroke of my seal. Six circles of glowing text surrounded me like a ball. I even sat on a whole section of writing. But that was fine. By the time the ink dried, it wasn't corporeal.

But there was an issue. I only had this one shot. If I messed this up, then I might not know until some evil cultivator started munching on my soul.

So, I meticulously reviewed each part to ensure the perfection of every stroke. I even moved out of the seal so I could check from the outside. 

While I had confidence in myself and my ability, I wasn't stupid enough to not review every inch of it in a situation like this. Not when I couldn't even see it working. Stupid low cultivation. Stupid Bloodsword!

My eyes traveled down the last bit of the final line. Perfect! Down to the last stroke. Now it just needed power and a drop of blood. 

I returned to my seat in the center of the ball and took out one hundred spirit stones — I'd been saving them for living expenses but this seemed like a good place to use them. With a gesture, I grabbed their energy and saturated the seal with it. The glow intensified, becoming nearly blinding. I scratched the back of my arm and threw several crimson drops onto the text.

"Seal!" I yelled.

The lines of glyphs grew closer to me, shrinking. Something in my mind tightened almost painfully. My eyes watered. A hurricane inhabited my cultivation room. The flags I'd so carefully placed, scattered even as they became drenched. A loud screeching sounded as if the laws of the world bent and broke.

My cloud-patterned robes blew in every direction. One blue-trimmed sleeve smacked me in the face. And stuck there. But that didn't matter. What mattered was finishing this damn seal! 

And the indignity of having my own fucking robes attack me then plaster itself to my nose, eyelids, and cheeks... Well, that merely had to be endured.

Then the text vanished inside of me and everything stopped. 

This seal had very strange side effects, but I'd seen weirder.

Little Spring burst into the room — his hair disheveled and his eyes terrified. When he saw me he came to a screeching halt. 

"Um. Fairy Lin. Are you okay?"

I peeled my sleeve from my face. "I'm fine. Why?"

"Um. You might want to adjust your clothes... And hair."

I looked exactly how you'd expect a child with flowy clothes to appear after riding a bike in a fucking storm. There really wasn't a need to point that out.

I glared at Little Spring. "Did you learn how to create sword Qi?!"

He beamed. "Just before I came in here!"

"Then hurry up and show me!" 

"Yes!"

He stood in the perfect stance I'd taught him and swiftly moved the sword while stepping forward. A single, beautiful and pure blade of sword Qi flew from the attack. It looked nothing like the bloody, disgusting Qi that saturated Bloodsword's every slash in our past life. But, unfortunately, while it looked beautiful it did not stop mere inches from the wall. Instead, it bore into it, causing a large crack. And these walls were made of expensive ironwood!

I breathed out a sigh of frustration. "You realize that we're leaving tomorrow, right?"

"Ah, yes."

"And that we have to pack up the yard and house tonight and tomorrow so we can leave."

He nodded.

"Then why did you add more work onto our plates by ruining the wall?"

"Um. You told me to show you?"

"I thought we would move outside, first!" Or that he'd stop it before it went too far at the very least!

"You're the one who told me to do it," he mumbled under his breath.

This kid. Was he already showing the classic Protagonist's trait of destroying things he really shouldn't?

"Come on. If we hurry, we might make it to a lumber shop... before everything closes."

***

The next day — after spending a sleepless night repairing a damn needlessly broken wall and packing our belongings — we began putting the yard back in order. Just as I threw a boulder into my space ring(to later place in its original spot), I received a sound transmission from White Lily. Apparently, she and Ruthless (Pill Otaku) waited outside my courtyard. 

I'd sent them a message earlier informing them that I was leaving today so this was not entirely unexpected. 

As the older and more respected sister, I sat my ass down at the outside table and had Little Spring go fetch them. I didn't think that this was the proper etiquette for this era or area, but the two higher realm cultivators didn't seem to mind it so, whatever.

They arrived in front of me. I stood and bowed to them since they were technically my Nascent Soul seniors. A week ago, I'd learned from Ruthless's little assistant that the Pill Master had finally increased his realm. Of course, that was all thanks to a comment I had made in passing. 

Even my accidental wisdom was that good! Mwahahahaha! 

But, New Nascent Souls found it hard to resist peering at others. Something I knew from experience... The first time I'd done it out of curiosity was when I'd peered at the blinding mass of oddness that was Bloodsword's soul. Needless to say, I quickly learned that some things were better left unseen. Harem protagonists did not tend to have beautifully pure souls. (And if they did, it was likely from a soul cultivation of some kind, or the author 'Gary Stuing' it up.)

So, for the duration, I'd had to avoid Pill Otaku. 

By now, he likely suspected something was up with me and wanted to take a good look at my soul. I planned to use his curiosity as an opportunity to test out my seal.

I stared at Pill Otaku, a polite smile fixed to my face.

Now, the question was, would this particular Nascent Soul resist the urge, or would he succumb?

And when he inevitably succumbed, would my preparations be good enough to hide my massive soul?

"Greetings Pill Masters. What brings you to my humble home?" I grinned and resisted the urge to use the cleaning technique on these two. I had already used it twice on myself while I waited for them to walk up to me.

"Apprentice Lin!" Lily said with a beautiful pout. "You're leaving so suddenly and you have the guts to ask us why we're here?"

I scratched my head and sheepishly smiled. "Oh. That."

"Oh, that." She raised a brow.

"Hehehe. Well, Little Spring and I are planning to meet up with some sect members soon and then we'll travel to the sect together."

"And where are these sect members meeting you?"

Ugh. So nosy. "That's a sect secret," I said proudly, pretending that I was just a kid keeping an important secret for the first time.

She looked like she was about to fake cry. "At least tell us what direction you're going."

I crossed my arms and shook my head. I was getting better at this acting-like-a-child thing. "It's not safe for non-sect members to know."

She rolled her eyes. "I was just planning on sending someone to guard you. And if you were willing, to escort you there by immortal boat. You two are a bit too young to travel by yourselves. And your realms are still too low."

Well, she had a point.

"And as a genius of the Alchemists' Guild," Pill Otaku said, "we need to do our part to protect you." And that was when I caught it, the slight narrowing of the eyes. Baby Nascent Soul Cultivators did that when peering at souls.

And his reaction? He looked disappointed. Then impressed. Was that disappointment because I wasn't an immortal inhabiting a child's body? And perhaps he was impressed that I was so intelligent while still being so young and adorable? I'd have to assume so.

The only correct reaction to seeing an Immortal Ascension stage cultivator's soul for the first time was to shiver in fear. And possibly fall on one's ass. I'd seen it happen one too many times.

Thank you for being my tester, Ruthless. Once I become a higher realm I'll definitely send you a gift or two.

I bit my lip, considering their offer. Honestly, I couldn't afford to say no to an escort. Especially one that came with a free ride on an immortal boat.

Doing the calculations, from where we currently were, it would take Little Spring and I six to seven days with little to no breaks to reach the forest. And this was going at our normal slow-ass speed. Meanwhile, it would take the Junior Sect Leader and his group a good twelve to fifteen days to get from the sect to the forest. It had already been six days. And I doubted that they were taking their time.

This meant that there was a chance that we might miss them. And that was unacceptable.

This also meant that we had no extra time to spend being chased down by any of the enemies I've made.

"In that case," I said with all due respect, "I would appreciate your offered escort."

White Lily beamed at me. "I'll have them waiting out here in an hour then."

I bowed deeply. "Thank you, Pill Master!"

She ruffled my hair and I scowled a bit. I was an adult on the inside, damn it!

"And here, take this." She handed me a cheap storage bag. I briefly peered into it and my hands shook. Why was there so much money? She'd placed a variety of copper, silver, gold, and a few hundred spirit stones in there for me. I emptied it into my ring and bowed once again and handed her the empty bag back.

She was such a sweetheart. Then again, this might be her way of repaying me for the recipe I created that would help give those who shared her constitution a little more protection.

Pill Otaku handed me a bag as well. "Here. It will be a long journey to your sect, and you might get bored."

When I peered into it I was flabbergasted... Was he seriously giving me a small library?! There were books on alchemy! That whole section consisted of treatises on basic cultivation! Wait, is this a fucking crate of herbs off to the side?

"Pill Master. This..."

"Take it. This is quite literally the least I owe you for your advice. And if you feel like it's too much, then just remember to write to me when you come up with any new advancements in alchemy."

Aww. Pill Otaku. You're making me want to give you some secrets.

"You'll be the first one outside my sect that I inform." I bowed once again. And I took out two stacks of jade boxes. Each set was beautifully engraved. Pill Otaku's set had a lovely cauldron design that matched the one on his clothes and Lily's had her favorite orchid carved into the top. I'd created these myself from some raw jade that had recently made my wallet bleed.

"Seniors, these are a small thank you for all that you've done for us while we've been here. Please don't hate them. I carved them myself."

I was pretty sure the reason why I hadn't been harassed by Violet's underlings while in the city was because I was under the protection of these two. So this gift was also the very least I could give them.

Lily looked touched but quickly hid her reaction and put the boxes away.

Ruthless immediately put them in his ring and nodded. Eh, he'd be excited later once he figured out how good those were. Hehehe.

We chatted for a little longer before saying our goodbyes. 

The life of immortal cultivators was long, and the cultivation world was small. There was a large chance that we'd meet again in the future. 

I did find it a little odd that I'd never heard of those two in my past life, but it was always possible that we'd just run in different circles. 

Or, maybe something terrible happened to them. 

If that were the case, then I hoped that my brief intrusion into their lives flapped enough butterfly wings to change that outcome.

***

Two Golden Core cultivators arrived at our front door named Red Three and Red Seven. I double-checked with my divine sense to make sure they were who they said they were. I mean, if I hadn't and they were actually assassins sent by Violet, we'd be dead before we left the courtyard. 

The gold cauldron embroidered on the hem of their uniforms marked these two as guards for the Alchemists' Guild. Their names also signified that they were once loose cultivators who had sold themselves and their allegiance as warriors to the guild in exchange for the continuous supply of pills to help raise their cultivation. 

Red Three had broad shoulders and a dark mole on his left wrist, while Red Seven had a white crescent scar under his right eye. He carried a bow slung over his shoulder and a sword at his belt.

Just how important of an asset was I? Or maybe, those in the know were terrified of my fake master and didn't want to risk the ire of an actual immortal. 

Well, whatever. I'd accept them as my temporary guards if it made my life easier and did no harm. The two brought a small immortal boat with them in the shape of a leaf and a permission token to leave via the nearby docks to save time.

With their help, Little Spring and I quickly finished returning the courtyard to normal before we all walked to the docks. I sent sound transmissions informing a few key people of our departure. Like our landlord. The tutors I hired for Little Spring. That one guy I had a standing order with.

As we pushed off from the docks and into the water, I found out that these guys didn't have a problem with me randomly using the cleaning technique on them and their boat. Yay!

They didn't even give me the side-eye. I think they may have been warned.

Our boat sped down the river until we crossed a translucent blue wall signifying that we passed the city's flight ban. We rose high in the air and almost immediately bolted towards the opposite direction we needed to go. 

For one last time, Little Spring and I admired the city that we had briefly made our home. It looked just as beautiful now as it did then.

"Ah, sorry about this," I called easily since the properties of the immortal boat diverted the wind. "But we actually need to go down the south road." 

They merely shared a look then smoothly obeyed my directions.

After traveling a few minutes I realized that at least one of the two watched us at any given moment. Were these two not only our guards and escort but also spies for the Guild? Had I been too amazing, again?!

Well, as long as they didn't get in my way, I could handle spies.

I took out a few of the books Pill Otaku gave me on general cultivation practices and handed one to Little Spring. Then I painstakingly went over each part and each character. Little Spring sent me that familiar look — like he thought I was crazy — then he went along with it.

I would have to explain to him later that one of the best ways to deal with spies was to bore the shit out of them.