The next few months, my finances took a hit. My primary motivation was to improve my control of fire qi. From what I had seen, advanced alchemy was beyond me until that happened. Oh, could I try to make a more advanced pill? Sure, but producing anything that wasn’t High-Purity was just giving money away. If I was going to burn money anyway, I might as well burn what was supposed to burn, those damn index cards.


    Honestly, some days I wished I could just burn that whole store down.


    Even following Bao’s advice, progress was slow. Getting fire qi right up to the edge without going past it was crazy. Bao had said to think of the qi like a needle or dagger. The problem was, qi wasn’t solid. At first, trying to form it into a dagger led to me making something that might resemble a dagger that had been sitting in salt water for a few hundred years. A rough, patchy, worthless mess.


    I thought I might be going down the wrong path, but Bao assured me, that’s just how it was at first. It was all a matter of practice. So that’s what I did. I practiced. I burned through cards at a truly manic pace. When my funds started to get low, I made pills. Everything was to push my skills in qi control.


    Eventually, I decided to start cultivating to gather extra energy. I needed it. Waiting around for it to restore naturally was too big of a time sink. I even opened up the acupoint on my upper left arm, advancing to Martial Disciple 3.


    Cultivating like this would hurt my purity, but it would ONLY hurt the purity of the qi in my upper arms. After hitting Martial Master, qi becomes mobile, so impurities in one place are the same as impurities everywhere, but as a Martial Disciple, the problems would remain stuck in my upper arms, so I felt it was worth it.


    After reaching and constantly cultivating to recharge, my progress was significantly swifter.


    It took me around five months, but I was finally able to complete the first set of cards successfully.


    <hr>


    After completing the first row accuracy cards, I had to decide what to do next. As I saw it, I had three options.


    First, work on getting a higher cultivation technique. Second, begin work on a new set of practice cards. Third, learn to make Mid-Purity Qi Gathering Pills to make credits more efficiently.


    “Wait, wait…” I said suddenly, “the plan was to get the highest-grade cultivation technique first, then cultivate, then use that extra power to learn alchemy more quickly. I can’t forget that. Getting the cultivation technique needs to come first. I don’t need to be working on these skills right now.”


    I had been using the Low-Yellow technique. Polluting my qi. I shouldn’t have done that. I didn’t need to rush. I needed to advance smartly.


    What was done was done though. I had advanced. At least it gave me more energy to work with.


    <hr>


    For the next period of time, my sole focus was on making and selling pills. I was making eight pills a day, and with the improved accuracy of my qi, seven of them were High-Purity. I was making a profit of 35 points a day. It only took a little over a month to get enough money for the High-Yellow technique.


    After gathering the points, I made my way to the Technique Hall.


    “You want the High-Yellow cultivation one?” the receptionist asked, surprised. “Not many come in here for that. Expensive.”


    “Yes, but, I wanted to ask, is High-Yellow the best I can get? Before, there was mention of better if I had ‘special permission’.”


    “Oh, sure, no way to get a Profound one I’m afraid, but it is possible to get your hands on a Peak-Yellow technique. Hard though.”


    “How do I get it?”


    “You’ve seen the small competitions around town, haven’t you? Those can sometimes reward the Peak-Yellow technique. Even then, it’s both about whether you are willing to spend your prize on it and if the elder in charge at that time thinks you’re suitable for it. Mostly, people who win those competitions get a Rank 2 skill.”


    I hadn’t, in fact, seen those competitions. “What do they test? Pill refining? Do we need to make a high-level pill?”


    “Nah, most of them are about your basic control skills. Just work on your qi skills.”


    I grabbed the High-Yellow technique and headed out. The conversation made me eager to study and improve my qi skills, but I could only do one thing at a time. Cultivation had to come first.


    <hr>


    It took me a long time to successfully learn the High-Yellow cultivation technique. I had to work on it for nearly a year.


    During that time, Bao encouraged me, but he confessed that he would never be willing to try it. The technique was so difficult, and the benefits weren’t that great. I was starting to agree with him. Many times, I considered giving it up and going with one of the simpler techniques. The only thing that stopped me was the knowledge that this experience would help me in every future life. That was the difference between me and Bao.


    I looked for teachers to help me with the technique. Cao had only used the Mid-Yellow and couldn’t do much for me. There were supposedly teachers who could, but the cost for a single lesson was more than the scroll itself. So, I just buckled down and pushed myself.


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    What saved me, as it turned out, was my practice in qi accuracy. That was what finally helped me form the proper High-Yellow filter. This in turn also showed me that the qi skills were valuable for more than just alchemy. Those skills were what I needed.


    I struggled to lock the new filter in place and began cultivating. As I started to draw in qi, the filter began to buckle. As I approached the speed of cultivation I had with the Low-Yellow technique before, the qi filter suddenly shattered.


    That was okay. I was making progress.


    The practice with accuracy had significantly helped me earlier. I realized the next step to improving my skill cultivating was to improve my qi skills.


    I thought through the four available skills: accuracy, insulation, speed, and power. Which one did I need here?


    Insulation didn’t sound like something that would help me in this case. The other three seemed like they could all help though. Accuracy to draw the filter better, speed to do it faster, power to make it stronger.


    I could already do the first pack of accuracy, so I didn’t worry about that for now. Speed was not vital, since taking longer didn’t matter. Therefore, I went with power.


    <hr>


    The power cards were a lot more expensive than the accuracy ones had been, but it turned out they were a much better deal.


    The power cards were all white with a single solid red circle. The goal of the card was to focus enough energy into the circle to set the red ink on fire. The card would then be completely blank, and you were successful. The qi did not have to be focused. If it hit the white area, that was fine. All you needed to do was to pump in enough to burn the circle. However, if you used too much power, the card would also catch on fire and vanish into ash.


    The goal was to use sufficient, but controlled, power.


    The reason these cards were a much better deal was because I would only actually lose a card if I put in too much energy. Mostly, the problem was not putting in enough. On the other hand, they consumed way more energy. The accuracy cards only needed a trickle. Some of these needed a fire hose.


    I fell into a cycle. Train my power, cultivate back my energy, train power, cultivate back my energy.


    As I trained, my qi filter became stronger, allowing me to gather energy faster which allowed me to train more. It was a virtuous cycle.


    <hr>


    Years began to pass in this manner.


    After the first year, Bao was no longer getting the discounted rate for living with me. I thought he would move out at that point, but he stayed. I was always working, trying to advance my skills and knowledge, so I didn’t spend too much time with him, but I was thankful to just have someone to talk to when I struggled moving forward.


    Cao didn’t have the High-Yellow technique, so it was hard for her to teach me much about it specifically, but I did have several more lessons with her. She was a Martial Master. Her insights on potential problems I would have in the future were invaluable to me.


    Eventually, I turned 21. I had been in the sect for nearly five years. From what I knew, I was a rarity. There were very few people who lived here that long and never once tried to make an Improved pill, but that wasn’t my focus.


    Through those years, I began to master all four qi control skills.


    Accuracy, to better control where the qi goes.


    Insulation, to heat one area while keeping an adjacent spot cool.


    Speed, to quickly redirect the flow of qi.


    Power, to use exactly as much energy as required.


    I was able to do all the packs from the second row without making a mistake. Two of five might not sound like much, but I felt amazing about it.


    Also during that time, my cultivation improved quickly. Once I had a good handle on the High-Yellow cultivation technique, I didn’t hold back. I quickly raised my level all the way to Martial Disciple 6 before I faced any problems.


    At that point, I started consuming pills. I could only make Basic pills, which were not very effective at level 6. They would help, but not much, and the sect didn’t sell any pills themselves. They only purchased them. So, I had to turn to other disciples for my needs. The sect bought High-Purity Improved pills for 30 contribution points, which I would have been willing to pay too, but there was no trading of contribution points between disciples.


    I tried paying people in pills. There was no explicit rule against it. A High-Purity Basic pill was 10 points, so if I gave you five for your pill that would just be me paying 50 points for it, right? No one I talked to was willing to even consider it though, and I could understand them. That did feel like we would be undercutting the sect, almost stealing from it.


    If I wanted someone’s pills, I needed gold.


    I had three gold left from when I entered the sect. I hadn’t used or gotten any since. Outside, High-Purity Improved pills were 40 silver. Inside the sect, they cost 80. I had no reason to hold back, so I spent all my money and bought four, getting a slight discount.


    With the improvements to my qi skills, even cultivating with an Improved pill wasn’t a problem. After using all four pills, along with a few more I made myself, I reached Martial Disciple 8. I was only 23 years old. I had been in the sect for seven years.


    <hr>


    After I finished seclusion from breaking through to level 8, the first thing I did was go and try concocting a Basic pill. I wanted to see how my advancements changed things.


    Doing so was a breeze. I quickly removed every bit of toxins I could see. My speed and accuracy were better than I had believed possible seven years ago. After completely eradicating the pill toxins, I examined the result. High-Purity Basic, medicinal efficacy 98%. I was very pleased with the efficacy, almost perfect. The purity surprised me a little. I was confident I had removed all the toxins. Shouldn’t it be a perfect pill? I needed to look into this, but later. There was something else I had been putting off for far too long.


    I gathered a blue peony and an astragalus root. Time to make an Improved Qi Gathering Pill.


    The first step was tricky. I had to correctly balance the medicinal power of the two ingredients, two parts peony to one part root. I did my best to measure this visually, but it was hard. I would need to look for a technique to help later. Imbalance wasn’t a critical problem, but it would hurt the efficacy.


    Next, I had to remove the toxins from both ingredients at the same time. It was difficult to balance this, but my skills helped tremendously. By the time most of the toxins were removed, I had harmed the medicine a bit, but hopefully not too much.


    Third, I needed to blend the two powers together. This was difficult. I could only manipulate fire qi. I couldn’t directly manipulate medicinal energy. Eventually, I was able to use insulated fire qi and a kind of stirring rod, but this wasn’t ideal. I added this to the list of techniques I needed.


    Finally, compress the energy, form a pill. This worked just like Basic pills, so nothing new here. There was more energy to compress, and it tried to get out of control a bit more, but it was fine…


    A small pill dropped to the bottom of the cauldron. I picked it up and inspected it.


    Medium-Purity Improved, medicinal efficacy 12%.


    It was complete trash. However, I had experienced the process and gained a basis for future learning. It was time to find a teacher and grab a few helpful techniques. I may have wasted some points, but the experience would be helpful as I moved forward.