My new cultivation technique and knowledge guided me on where to place my meridians. I believed that if I followed its guidance precisely, I would be able to rush through the Martial Master levels without needing to worry about mental deviations. However, I didn’t. I took my time. I was still exploring the limits of this new technique.


    After several months of examining the interactions between the cultivation technique and my qi flows, I decided to advance. I carefully constructed the wood and fire meridian pair to pull energy from my chest and guide it down my right arm. The placement of this pair in the cultivation technique matched the location of my energy flows precisely, and after several days of hard work, I stepped into Martial Master 2.


    I allowed a month for my qi flows to settle, but they didn’t. It might not have been apparent to anyone else, but I was able to see constant perturbations everywhere in my body. Also, the qi flows in my right arm had significantly shifted, especially the ones that flowed from my right fingers back to my torso.


    I waited another two months, but it didn’t help. My qi remained in this state of constant agitation.


    With no other idea, I constructed the second pair of arm meridians to pull energy away from my right arm and into my chest. This was trickier because none of the qi flows were where they were supposed to be, and nothing matched what my cultivation technique told me to do. I trusted the technique, though, and built the pair where it instructed.


    The moment the meridians were complete, the qi in my body snapped into place, and a subtle tension I had been feeling the last months completely vanished. This was a new pitfall, I realized. The advice to let your body stabilize between every meridian was wrong. Both meridians in a given part of the body should be built at the same time. Likely, the practice of splitting meridians developed from people who were unable to maintain the necessary focus and energy for prolonged periods.


    Deciding to give myself plenty of time to let my qi settle, I resolved to only advance every other year, but at each advancement, I would advance two levels by completing an entire limb. That would place me at Grandmaster by 28, which was far earlier than most could hope for. If everything worked as well as I hoped, then next time, I would consider rushing up to Peak Master before the age of 20 to see if it was possible.


    <hr>


    While my time in the Pavilion had been good so far, I didn’t like that I had become trapped here since near the beginning of this life. If I ever left, I was at risk of being attacked by Zhong, one of his flunkies, or his Grandmaster uncle. At Master 3, I could finally resolve this little problem.


    What I needed was a Grandmaster protector who was skilled in combat. While Grandmasters were uncommon, they could still be hired for protection details if the price was high enough. I just needed to be able to afford their price.


    “YuLin,” I said, arriving on the workshop floor. “I need ingredients for Rank 3 Qi Gathering Pills. Can you send me a couple of sets? I’ll be in room 3.”


    “Rank 3?” she gasped. “How? You can’t have advanced to Grandmaster…”


    “I just want to give it a try,” I smiled, “maybe it’ll be a waste, but I want to see what happens.”


    “Alright,” she said with a touch of worry in her voice.


    I left the busy reception area and went to the alchemy workshop to begin centering myself. Rank 3 pills took a lot of energy, so I needed to be as conservative as possible.


    Once the ingredients were delivered, I studied them. The quality was incredibly good compared to what I had been working with in the sect. I wasn’t sure how much that would eat into my profits since cheaper herbs would be better for making money, but these were perfect for my first attempts.


    Working mainly with my qi was a complete non-starter. I needed to rely on my spirit fire for all the heavy lifting, but even with mastery over it, using an intense flame next to and within the medicinal energy would destroy an herb, so I needed to attack it in very precise ways.


    I used my affinities to pull away as many toxins as possible so they could be eradicated by blasting them with high-intensity flames without worry, leaving a gossamer-thin membrane around the medicinal energy. Then, I used the most effective tool at my disposal to carefully remove that membrane. Fire or wood qi for metal or earth toxins, isolated earth or water energy from my spirit fire for water or fire toxins.


    I had no access to any form of metal energy, so wood toxins were the most problematic, but a combination of fire and earth was able to take care of it. I just needed to be more careful.


    Also, I was beginning to realize how lucky I was that the toxins were mainly from the five basic elements. If other types of energies were more dominant, I might have been at a complete loss. This was all the more reason to branch out into new energies, but I could only take one step at a time.


    It was strenuous work, but I was able to cleanse everything to the standard I had reached in my previous life. That wasn’t good enough.


    My qi vision wasn’t at a level where I could easily see through the Rank 3 energies, but it was enough to sense where traces of toxins existed within them. Carefully, oh so carefully, I began opening up the herbs to attack those hidden dangers. As I did, the structure of the medicinal energy began to tear. It was significantly more brittle than lower ranks had been. After eliminating a speck of toxin, I tried to massage the energy back into shape, but I was only partly successful.


    After I completely eradicated any sign of toxic energy, the herbs were in pretty rough shape, but they were still viable. I then used all the skills at my disposal to increase the efficacy as far as I could.


    When the pill finally dropped to the bottom of the cauldron, I was completely spent. I had zero qi left in my body, and it might be more than a day before I was ready to concoct a second one, but when I examined the pill, I smiled. It was a Perfect Rank 3 Qi Gathering Pill with around 74% efficacy.


    The final efficacy was horrible, but being a Perfect pill far outweighed that loss.


    <hr>


    Two days after having requisitioned ingredients, I walked into WuJing’s office.


    “Fang,” he said with fidgety fingers and a worried expression on his face. “Did you buy Rank 3 herbs?”


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    “Yes,” I answered with a calm voice.


    “Yeah… we have a small problem,” he grimaced.


    “Oh? What’s going on?” I was a little surprised. Buying ingredients had never been a problem before.


    “Procuring Rank 3 herbs is trickier than lower ranks. We can get a small supply from the Verdant Fields Sect, but most of them are shipped in from outside the Wastes. As with everything, buying them should not be a problem, but it opened up a way for people to attack you for using resources better reserved for others. Deputy Manager Liu has reported this to Secretary Jiang, along with other ‘indiscretions,’ and is asking for you to be punished.”


    I couldn’t help but laugh. I placed a pill bottle on WuJing’s desk and spread my arms wide. “Take a look.”


    <hr>


    WuJing and I arrived on the eighth floor where a wonderful show was taking place. Deputy Manager Liu and two others were speaking to Secretary Jiang in loud voices.


    “He needs to be driven out,” said Liu, slamming the desk. “Su Fang has been nothing but a disruption to normal order. Both Fan BingQing and Ye YiLiu have testified to the problems he’s caused. He is pulling attendants into his room for escapades in the middle of the day! This has to be stopped!”


    Secretary Jiang responded quietly, and I couldn’t hear him, but Liu’s face revealed his displeasure at whatever was said.


    “Ah, you’re talking about us,” said WuJing, as we approached. “Excellent. What seems to be the problem?”


    “The problem,” began Liu, “is the menace you’ve recruited. He’s driving away talented alchemists, fooling around with the staff, and now he’s wasting precious ingredients. It’s time for Manager Cai to put an end to it!”


    “I see, that sounds like an important problem,” nodded WuJing. As he spoke, he handed a pill bottle to Secretary Jiang. “And you want Manager Cai to… what? Determine if my recommendation for his membership was in error? Expel him from the Pavilion?”


    “Not just him,” growled Liu, “you brought him in. Without you, he wouldn’t have a place here. You need to take responsibility.”


    “Without me, he wouldn’t have even been considered for membership. That’s what you’re saying, right? So, he’s entirely my responsibility?”


    “Yes.” Liu’s tone was sharp and clipped.


    “Secretary Jiang,” said WuJing, “I think you need to report all this to Manager Cai now, right?”


    During the exchange between the two, Jiang had been studying the pill WuJing had passed him.


    “Yes… yes I do,” said a flustered Jiang.


    He stood and quickly made his way to the back office, but once he was gone, Liu snorted. “You think a petty bribe will help you? Have you forgotten everything about how the Pavilion works?”


    I ignored him and spoke to WuJing. “Why is this guy so confident? He seems convinced we are done for?”


    WuJing shook his head. “A lot of it has to do with the system here. The Pavilion cares about order and structure, and he is correct that your actions have been disruptive. You’ve interfered with the regular work of both SuYin and Mei, and you have caused what could be considered a great deal of turbulence in our alchemy operations.”


    “Is it really that bad? Why hasn’t anyone told me it was a problem?” I asked, somewhat alarmed by his characterization.


    “Because I’ve been blocking it for you. You’ve interfered with two shop attendants, but as the floor manager, I have the authority to let it slide. You caused the loss of a Master Alchemist, but I was able to smooth it over with your work for the Su Clan,” he said, trying to explain, “but you haven’t done anything else. You haven’t completed any other urgent commissions or special requests, so your contribution can be considered minimal.”


    “I haven’t been informed of any commissions or requests…” I said, dragging out the words.


    “No, you haven’t,” he replied. “No one has requested your services, and none of the urgent commissions have been directed toward you, so you haven’t completed any.”


    This was their plan? Block me from completing ‘high contribution’ requests so they could say I was worthless? What surprised me the most was that, from what Liu had said earlier, this didn’t seem to be directed at me. He was using me as an excuse to attack WuJing, and partnership with Master Zhong would have been an alliance of convenience.


    At the same time, Manager Liu seemed somewhat unaware of what I had done. If he knew about the quality of pills I sent the Su Clan, would he be so aggressive? By blocking his access to key information, this situation might have been designed as a trap for Liu.


    As WuJing and I spoke casually between ourselves, Manager Liu, Fan BingQing, and Ye YiLiu stared daggers at us, gloating internally at our fate.


    Secretary Jiang opened the back door and gestured toward me and WuJing. “Come in,” he said. “Manager Cai needs to talk with you.”


    The other three began to walk forward as well, but Jiang stopped them. “Only them,” he said. “You can return to work. Manager Cai will handle things from here.”


    Liu put on a big smile, cupped his hands, and gave a short bow. “Please thank Manager Cai for dealing with this problem.” After that, he chuckled and walked away.


    WuJing and I entered the back office. It was massive. Several tables were lined up together and maps were stretched out across them, and dozens of bookshelves containing an array of reference materials and records filled all corners of the space. Behind a large desk on the far side of the room sat a steel-haired woman examining a pill.


    After WuJing and I were seated, she looked at me. “Do you have any more?”


    I passed her another bottle which she quickly opened.


    “How many can you make?” she asked.


    “Right now, one a day. That will improve with my cultivation, but it will take time.”


    “Remarkable. Jiang said you had a blessing for alchemy knowledge, but this…” she said shaking her head at the pills, “this is far more than basic knowledge. Perfect Rank 3 pills as a low-level Martial Master.”


    After a moment of contemplation, she began again. “The higher-ups know about you,” she said. “They have to. Because of the restrictions in the Wastes, we fall under the authority of the branch manager for the Rising Sun Empire. There can be no question that he knows about you, but it might even reach the level of the Pavilion head.”


    “What? How?” I ask with a hint of worry.


    “Karma,” she replied simply. “Your ability, if it’s a sign of your future potential... It’s too much. I’m only guessing, but they should have gotten a huge surge of energy when you joined the Pavilion. If you can do this… It will have a noticeable impact on their cultivation. They won’t know why, but they will know something changed.”


    “So… what now? You report me? Let them decide what to do with me?” I was more curious than worried about what she would say. Those big shots couldn’t do anything to me directly if I remained in the Wastes, and it seemed like I was only providing benefits, so why would it be a problem?


    “No,” she said with conviction. “The Pavilion has hard rules for this situation. It’s your choice. We are not willing to drive away talents needlessly, so it’s your choice. If I report this, I am confident you will be subtly pressured to move to Rising Sun. The headquarters may want you too, but Rising Sun is our direct superior, and their manager won’t want to lose you. The other choice is to ship out these pills without explanation. I will still record your contribution appropriately, and you will receive the requisite benefits, but no one will know exactly what’s going on unless they start digging, which shouldn’t happen. What do you want to do?”


    I looked at WuJing for guidance, and he spoke up. “Don’t report it. He needs to go south, nearer to Brilliant Sun.”


    “WuJing, I know you want to use him yourself, but—,” began Manager Cai before I cut her off.


    “He’s right. I need to reach Martial King in the Brilliant Sun Empire. If I’m coerced into joining Rising Sun, it would prevent me from doing something I need to do.”


    Manager Cai gave me a resigned look but nodded. “Very well. I might be able to help you. I assume you want to take Manager Chen with you?”


    “Yes,” I affirmed.


    “Give me time, and enough pills, and I can get both of you assigned to the Eight Flower Kingdom. It’s on the border with Brilliant Sun, and I have some connections that could help you.”


    “Thank you, Manager Cai.”


    She looked at me for a long time before speaking again. “I am old. My chances at advancement have long passed. I was posted here because they needed a firm hand to guide this branch but not someone worried about their personal advancement.”


    I nodded and gave her a small smile. “I understand, Manager Cai. Thank you for your support.”


    Debts and obligations. I tried to avoid them, but a person who walks along a river cannot avoid getting their shoes wet.