As I was preparing to return to my apartment, a voice echoed through the room.


    “SuYin, there you are.”


    I turned to see two people entering from the stairwell. In the lead was a middle-aged-looking man with a young man around my age following behind. Both were wearing dark yellow hanfus. The younger man’s was plain and unadorned, but the older man’s was embroidered with bright green flames.


    SuYin’s face fell the moment she heard the boy’s voice.


    “What are you doing here?” he asked in a harsh voice, “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”


    SuYin scooted closer to me at his words. This caused the boy to give me an appraising look.


    “Who are you?” he asked in a flat voice.


    What should I do here? Normally, I would just brush off someone like this as I always did in the sect. I generally felt there was little to gain from such an encounter, so why play the game? This time, though, I was Young Master Su, and this kid was trying to knock me down on the pecking order. That was something Young Master Su would not abide.


    “Su Fang,” I said with as cold a tone as I could muster.


    “Well, Su Fang, stay away from my woman,” he said with a snort. Looking back at SuYin, he continued, “You know I don’t like you talking with the rabble. You shouldn’t entertain them.”


    I looked over to SuYin to see how she wanted to handle this situation.


    “Alchemist Gou, please be polite. I am introducing a new alchemist to the Pavilion,” she said. Her voice was quavering, but she remained firm.


    “I told you, you don’t need to work anymore. You are my woman, so I will take care of you.”


    “Alchemist Gou, I am not your woman. Please allow me to continue my work.”


    “We both know what you are,” he smirked. Then he gave me a nasty look. “You’re a new alchemist? Why don’t you get the hell out of the Pavilion before you embarrass yourself.”


    “I can’t do that,” I said with a wide smile. “I just ordered a batch of ingredients, and it would be terrible to leave before I’ve made any pills.”


    He laughed uproariously at that. “Bought a few peonies, did you? Fine, I’ll give you ten silver to fuck off.”


    “Hmm, I believe it was twelve peonies, twelve astragalus roots, and twelve schisandra berries. I don’t actually know what the price would be, but it’s certainly more than ten silver.”


    He didn’t respond for a moment. He just looked at me. He was using his own qi vision to gauge my cultivation level. Finally, he burst into laughter once more. “You aren’t even a cultivator, and you think you can make Superior Qi Gathering Pills? You’re just making a fool out of yourself. Come on, SuYin, let’s leave this loser.”


    “Alchemist Gou,” she began to look worried. “I have to guide Alchemist Su. If you need assistance, another attendant can help you.”


    “He isn’t an alchemist!” Gou shouted. “I bet this time next week he will be coming back here having wasted all his money and begging for free herbs. Enough of him.”


    SuYin appeared to become more frantic as the conversation continued, so I decided to step in.


    “Fine,” I said, “I’ll take the bet, what is your wager?”


    “What?” Gou laughed.


    “You wanted to make a bet. I’ll bet. What’s the wager?”


    He gave me a sinister look. “If you don’t bring back a single pill, get the hell out of the Pavilion and never come back.”


    “Oh?” I asked surprised. “Alright, I can accept that. In one week, we will meet back here, and if I don’t have a single pill I will leave and never enter any Blue Wind Pavilion location again in my life. If I do bring one, then you leave and never enter another Pavilion in your life. Sounds like a good bet to me.”


    “What?” Gou asked shocked. “How dare you say that!”


    “Sorry,” I said, putting on a concerned expression, “isn’t that the bet you wanted?”


    “Hmpf, I’m not going to be banished just because you go out on the street and buy some third-rate junk pill.”


    “Ah, yes,” I said nodding my head, “I understand. So, what bet do you propose.”


    Amazingly, Gou stopped to think about his answer. He must have considered that I could have at least some level of skill if I was willing to bet with him. “Fine,” he said, “you bought twelve sets, I will buy twelve too. Whoever makes the better pill wins, and you fuck off.”


    “So, to be clear,” I asked with a calm voice, “we both buy twelve sets. In one week we return and hand over all the pills we have made from those ingredients. Whoever’s pills have the greatest value wins, and the loser is banished from all Blue Wind Pavilion locations for the rest of their life. Is this correct?”


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    “Yes,” he said through gritted teeth.


    “SuYin,” I said, turning to her, “will the Pavilion serve as guarantor for this bet?”


    “The Blue Wind Pavilion does not provide any such service concerning non-members,” she said, regaining a bit of poise.


    “That’s a shame,” I shook my head. “Very well,” I looked at the middle-aged man who had been standing there stoically observing. “You are his master, right? Will you serve as guarantor for our little bet?”


    “How dare you speak to Master Zhong like that!” Gou shouted.


    “My apologies, Master Zhong,” I said with a solemn smile. “Gougou, Master Zhong is your master, right?”


    “What did you call me?” he snarled.


    “Huh? What?” I asked confused. “You’re Master Zhong’s disciple, right? He is a Grandmaster Alchemist?”


    At this Master Zhong snorted, but it was Gou that replied. “Do you think Grandmasters are cabbages you pick up by the side of the road? Master Zhong is an honored Master Alchemist, and you should show proper respect.”


    “Of course,” I bowed to Master Zhong. “As an honored Master Alchemist, Master Zhong can be trusted to be the guarantor of our bet. Agreed?”


    Gou looked to Zhong, and Zhong just nodded. “Fine!” he said, “this time next week. I’m looking forward to whatever trash pills you bring back!”


    “See you then,” I said with a smile. “SuYin, please show me around a bit more.”


    I gave her a small shove to get her moving and guided her to the stairwell. Gou was staring daggers at me the entire time, but inside the Pavilion, he didn’t dare make a move.


    <hr>


    While Gougou was a twerp, and, giving him the benefit of the doubt, could have been strongly influenced by his cultivation technique, putting him down would help me establish myself in the Pavilion. When I was searching for a way to do just that, Gougou came and delivered me coal in winter. I needed to thank him in the future.


    Before I could push him down, I needed to prepare, so I left SuYin and returned to my apartment.


    I wanted to deliver pills with greater than 100% efficacy, but the ingredients of Qi Gathering Pills all contained wood energy, which I couldn’t enhance at the moment. Instead, I would just have to deliver twelve Perfect pills with 100% efficacy. I left open the possibility of Gougou cheating with the help of his master, and I wasn’t sure what he would be able to produce, but based on their reverence for Grandmaster Alchemists, I doubted it would be anything special.


    Before I got started, I needed to advance my cultivation. I could make some pills as a Martial Disciple 1, but achieving the quality and quantity needed would be difficult.


    My first target was my lower right arm. I began to fill the muscles of my thumb, index finger, and middle finger with fire qi, and I filled my ring and pinky fingers with wood qi. Continuing up my hand and into my forearm, the muscles on the left received fire qi while those on the right received wood qi. This division wasn’t completely balanced, and I ended up with more fire qi than wood qi, but that would be balanced out by flipping the muscle groups when I worked on my left arm.


    As I pulled in qi, my arm began to feel dirtier and dirtier, like I had submerged it in pond scum. This was because of the buildup of impurities from using a Mid-Yellow level qi filter. Once I reached my limit, I popped both fire and wood qi purifying pills into my mouth to begin cleansing my qi. As the impurities left, I pulled in new qi to fill the voids. The impurities in the new qi were then expelled and I continued the cycle of cultivating and purifying.


    Even with this new technique, cultivating to Martial Disciple 2 was simple, but I still took the process slowly and observed every step of the process. I needed to gain a true understanding of how cultivation affected my body. In total, it took me four days to break through. For most people, that might have resulted in a rushed and shoddy advancement, but I made sure to reach the pinnacle of what was possible with this Mid-Profound technique.


    I had four years until qi stagnation began. I could run up to Martial Master in less than one, and I would have very few side effects, but I wanted to take it slow instead. I would give myself three years to advance to Master. That would allow me sufficient time to understand the changes in my body at a deeper level. I needed to reach Martial King, but I had 120 years. I could afford to spend three here to prepare.


    Having reached Martial Disciple 2, I left my cultivation room and returned to the sitting room.


    With qi to support me, concocting a dozen Rank 1 pills was no longer a concern, so I put that to the back of my mind. Instead, having access to wood qi for the first time, I wanted to see what I could do.


    I had a few martial arts that involved using wood qi, but they would be difficult to practice inside my apartment. They almost all involved using plants in the environment as tools to attack or defend. The ones that didn’t use environmental plants used seeds or other plant life carried by the cultivator. Such techniques seemed limiting, but techniques with more stringent requirements should produce superior results.


    I went to my bedroom and picked up a few of the flowers there. Channeling wood qi, I began practicing twisting and shaping them. Whenever my qi ran low, I cultivated to restore it.


    <hr>


    “So, where do you want it?” a burly, well-tanned man asked.


    After practicing all I could with the flowers, I needed something more, so I went out shopping and purchased a long flowerbed for my room. I didn’t have a balcony, but I had ample windows, so I could only hope it would be enough.


    “Over there,” I said, pointing to the sitting room wall.


    “You sure?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, “This is a nice room, and even if you’re careful, it’ll get dirty in here.”


    “Yeah, I’ll take care of it, don’t worry.” The floors were all hardwood, so a broom and dustpan could take care of a little dirt.


    “Your call,” he said, waving to a couple of guys in the hallway.


    They worked together to bring in a long flowerbed made of thick wood. Looking at it, I was impressed at their ability to maneuver it around tight corners. Then, after putting it in place, they made several trips to bring up bags of potting soil for it.


    All of this was done through the warehouse entrance on the bottom level, so on each trip, they were climbing up and down four sets of stairs, but they never complained, at least not in front of me.


    “Thanks for your work,” I said, giving each many a hearty handshake. Tipping wasn’t a custom here, but they did an excellent job, so I slipped them each a few extra silver.


    The leader grinned at me happily. “Let us know if you got any more work for us. Always happy to help.”


    “Will do!”


    I led the men out of the Pavilion and waved goodbye. After that, I grabbed some seeds and got to planting.


    The herbalism techniques I had studied in my last life were all very basic, but they included ways to encourage plant growth. Since I was only working with mortal plants, not spiritual herbs, I needed to be sparing in qi usage because they couldn’t handle much. I planted both seeds and a few young shoots and spent an entire day playing with them.


    On the evening of my sixth day in the Pavilion, SuYin came to see me.


    “How is it? Are you ready?” she asked with a face of nervous concern.


    “Sorry, what?” I was confused.


    “The bet? How did your pills turn out?”


    “Ah, the pills,” I said, suddenly remembering Gougou. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that. I’ll have them ready tomorrow.”


    “What!? You… you haven’t started?” She looked panicked.


    “No worries, I got this.” I was trying to be reassuring, but I don’t think it helped.