Earning my keep meant producing pills.


    I spent a year doing nothing but constantly concocting as many pills as I could. Every day I would do my best to create at least a dozen pills. Deacon Liu’s rules were simple. I needed to make a profit. As long as my alchemy was profitable, I would be provided an endless stream of ingredients to work with.


    My path was far different from normal disciples for a few different reasons. The most significant being that it was slow.


    Many disciples would move on after being able to concoct a pill at High-Purity. By experimenting with many different kinds of pills, they would learn enough to raise their alchemy to the next tier and begin working on Grandmaster pills. This was the path of quick advancement, and it was vital to many.


    Elder Mu had made it clear that one would need to ascend to Grandmaster before forty to even be considered by a sect outside the Wastes, and even then, the odds would be low. The best prospects would require Grandmaster before thirty, which didn’t leave time to slowly master every pill. People needed to focus on advancing.


    I wasn’t too concerned myself. Advancing to a more powerful sect would be nice, but I didn’t need to rush it. I could follow the normal path to reach Grandmaster within the thirty-year time frame, but Elder Mu’s situation suggested that ascending to Lord wasn’t a simple process. I didn’t know the details, but I knew that a stronger foundation in the Master realm would be necessary in the long run. Besides, I had all the time I needed. Failing to advance in this life wouldn’t be terrible as long as I learned what I needed to along the way.


    Aside from it taking longer, another reason my path was less common was the amount of energy it required. I was able to make over a dozen pills a day, but a normal Martial Master 3 would only be able to make two or three. This was because their spirit fire consumed a significant amount of qi. By using a fire seed, my energy use was several times more efficient.


    Lastly, many simply considered a strong mastery of any one pill type to be meaningless. After being able to create a High-Purity version of a pill, how much more could it really be improved? Let’s say that with a given set of herbs, a normal alchemist can create a pill with 86% standard effectiveness. If I made the pill a hundred times, I may be able to improve that to 87%. If I made it a thousand times, I might be able to make it at 88%. It may take the experience gained from making it a million times to improve the pill to 90%.


    So, was it worth spending the time to make one pill thousands of times to improve the efficacy by 1%? How much does an extra 1% improve the value of a pill? Not much. If someone needed a pill of higher efficacy, they could also just use higher-quality herbs to begin with. There was little economic incentive to encourage such focused improvements.


    If they were able to concoct Perfect pills, that calculus might change, but Perfect pills were considered more rumor than fact by most disciples.


    I should add that while some of this practice is helpful to alchemy in general and will improve one’s overall ability, most of the time needed to improve a pill comes from having to learn the distinct characteristics of each type of herb. While, again, this did provide some boost to general alchemy, it was generally seen as more efficient to work with a broader selection of herbs than focus so much on one pill.


    With that being said, I didn’t personally choose my path forward. Deacon Liu decided which pills to give me the ingredients for, and I just made what he wanted me to. While I could have challenged his decisions, I didn’t have enough experience to know how to set up a training regime. The deacon was acting as my teacher, so I let him do his job. My alchemy was improving, so I was happy with his decisions.


    At first, I made Meridian Builder Pills almost exclusively. After each set of pills, he would give me a slightly higher set of ingredients for the next batch. A few weeks into this process, he switched ingredients to a new pill. Three or four different pill types later, he switched back to Meridian Builders. By doing this, I was able to apply what I learned from the other pills and improve them further.


    A year of this schedule ended with me being able to create many Rank 2 pills at High-Purity. I wasn’t sure how my efficacy compared to others, but I felt it was pretty good.


    <hr>


    “Little Fang,” said Deacon Liu when I entered the elder’s pill hall, “is the new batch already done?”


    “Yes, deacon. I came to get the next set of ingredients.”


    “Good, good,” he said, “before that, let’s talk. You have been an outer sect disciple for six years now, but you haven’t competed with your fellow disciples yet. You have made great progress on your own, but competition is a necessity if you want to achieve greatness.”


    “I understand, deacon. What do you recommend?”


    “Elder Mu has very few disciples, and there are none around your level, so any competition here would be meaningless. You need to go down the mountain. Go to the sect’s pill hall in the village and spend some time looking at the various bounties they offer. I would suggest trying some of the competitive missions, but you don’t have to focus on that too much. Any kind of mission could help.”


    “Is that okay? You and the elder have helped me a lot. I don’t mind just making more pills here if it helps you. I am still learning.”


    Stolen story; please report.


    “When you make pills here you turn inexpensive ingredients into expensive pills. When you make pills out there, you bring resources into our little group and deny them to the other elders. We profit either way, so don’t feel guilty. You need to go and experience something new.”


    “Yes, deacon,” I said with a slight bow.


    <hr>


    The streets of the sect village were veritably bustling compared to what I had become used to. I encountered six people on the streets while walking from the village entrance to the pill hall. That was six more than the zero I had encountered on the mountain paths in the last few years.


    The pill hall did not stand out amongst the other buildings. It was made of the same gray brick and also had a yellow tiled roof. The only distinguishing feature was a wooden sign above the entrance with the characters 丹堂, meaning Pill Hall.


    The inside of the pill hall was far more chaotic than I expected. The walls were lined with several bulletin boards which held numerous paper notices. At each board, several disciples were examining the pieces of paper.


    Unsure of what to do, I approached an open receptionist at the counter. She was an older woman dressed in the robes of a servant disciple.


    “Hello,” I said, “this is my first time here. Can you help me out?”


    “Of course,” she said with a nod, “you just need to go to a board, choose a mission you want to accept, and bring it back here. If only one person is allowed to take the mission, bring me the entire notice. If the mission allows for multiple parties to accept it, there will be tabs on the bottom with numbers. Tear one off and bring it over.”


    “Are there any rules about what missions I am allowed to accept?”


    “You need to pay contribution points to accept a mission. As long as you pay the cost, you can accept anything. However, missions that involve rare ingredients may also have a large failure penalty, and you will need to have enough credits to cover it before you are allowed to accept. The easiest missions are there,” she said pointing to the right side of the room, “and they get harder as you move around the room.


    “Thank you,” I said, “but I don’t know how many points I have. Is there a way to check?”


    “Give me your identity jade,” she said. I handed it over and she placed it on a stone block. “You have one thousand points.”


    “Thanks,” I said, leaving the counter.


    I went to look at the easiest missions first but quickly lost interest. They were all for extremely high-purity versions of various Rank 1 pills. I could easily make points completing them, but I wouldn’t learn anything in the process. I wanted to find something that would stretch my abilities.


    After a bit of searching, I finally found a notice that looked interesting.


    Requestor: TianHuo, Martial Peak Outer Sect Disciple


    Request: Meridian Builder Pills of the highest quality. Pills must be fire-aligned.


    Specifics: Upon acceptance, each alchemist will be given five sets of ingredients. After all pills have been submitted by all alchemists who accept this mission, the Pill Hall will select the five highest quality pills for delivery.


    Cost to Accept: 500 contribution points.


    Mission Time: 3 days.


    Compensation: 1,000 contribution points for each selected pill. Submitted pills that are not selected will be purchased by the Pill Hall at 60% of their normal value.


    This mission was to make Meridian Builder Pills, which I had done many times already. Creating them wouldn’t stretch my abilities like I wanted, but this notice interested me because Deacon Liu said I needed competition, and this would provide it. I had no idea what the normal value of a Meridian Builder Pill was, and I wasn’t too concerned about it. In any event, mass producing them and selling them at normal value would likely be more profitable than accepting this mission, but the point was to compete.


    If I was going to compete, I decided I should start with something I knew I was good at.


    I reached up and tore off one of the tabs for this mission when a piercing voice interrupted me.


    “What do you think you are doing!”


    I looked over to see a young man and woman standing next to each other. Both were dressed in the robes of outer sect disciples. The man’s face was expressionless, but the woman was staring at me with a face filled with fury.


    “How dare you accept a mission Senior Brother Wen Hao has already claimed!” she screeched. “Who do you think you are?!”


    “What?” I asked confused. “I just picked a mission that looked interesting. Is something wrong?”


    “Is something wrong?! You are challenging Senior Brother Wen Hao! How dare you do such a thing! Who do you think you are?”


    The woman’s yelling attracted the attention of everyone in the Pill Hall. They were all staring at us. The commotion prompted a deacon to walk over and intervene.


    “What is the problem here?” she asked.


    “This… This bastard is causing trouble!” yelled the young woman. “He came in here just to insult Senior Brother Wen Hao. Deacon, I seek justice. Throw him out of here.”


    “Oh?” she asked, glaring at me. “Is that true? Are you here to cause trouble?”


    “No. No, deacon,” I said stammering. “I am just here to accept a mission. I just pulled one down when that woman started yelling at me.”


    “How dare you!” the woman shouted. “You tore off that mission just to insult Senior Brother Wen Hao. If that isn’t causing trouble, what do you call it?”


    “Deacon,” I said, trying to get a hold of the situation, “I just wanted to accept this mission. If it is a problem, then I will choose something else.”


    “You want to just change your mind after already tearing off a mission slip?” the deacon asked. “It looks like this young woman is right about you. If you want to change the mission, then change it. But first, you need to pay the 500-point acceptance fee.”


    The young woman began laughing at my misfortune.


    “Deacon, if you are saying I have to pay the acceptance fee anyway, can I just accept the mission and complete it?” I asked.


    “You dare!” screamed the female disciple. “You are just wasting the sect’s herbs. Deacon, kick him out of here!”


    The deacon gave me a death stare. “By the rules, I must allow you to accept the mission, but I will not allow anyone to come here to cause trouble. If you waste the sect’s herbs you will be held accountable.”


    “I understand, Deacon. I will do my best.”


    The young woman snorted at me derisively. “Do you want to make a bet? I doubt you can even make a single acceptable pill. If all your pills fail, I want you to kneel on the ground and bark like a dog!”


    I looked at her with a confused expression. “Why would I bet? And, what if I win that bet?”


    “You won’t win!”


    “But what if I do?”


    “You won’t,” she said confidently.


    “So, if I win, then nothing? I will decline then.”


    “What are you, afraid?” she jeered.


    At this point, I decided to just ignore her. The conversation was going nowhere.


    I walked up to the counter, submitted the ticket for acceptance, paid my points, and collected the ingredients. After that, I walked out of the pill hall calmly. While I did this, the young woman continued her tirade against me.


    During the entire exchange, the young man who was with her never said a word.