After saying my goodbyes with Mei, I found myself in an interesting position. I was alone in an unfamiliar city with no one I could lean on for support. The Blue Wind Pavilion was there, of course, and I could lean on the institution, but I didn’t know anyone in the local branch. I was alone, left to my own devices.


    This, I realized, was the position I should be in when I use a temporary reset point. This was a new beginning. My mistake before was using a reset point in the middle of a journey.


    I had created my temporary reset point to serve as a safety net, but after I didn’t need it, it felt like an extremely awkward position to pick up from. Many of the major decisions that would affect my life had already been made, and I began to somewhat drift through my life, following Mei aimlessly.


    I needed to keep this feeling in mind for the future. It would be best if there was some way to set a kind of permanent temporary reset point at a place like this and use a temporary temporary reset point that I could delete if it wasn’t needed when I just wanted a safety net.


    I noted this down in my journal, but since I didn’t have any credits at the moment, it would be something to look into later. At the moment, I had a city to explore.


    Where should I go? What should I do?


    There was work to be done in the Pavilion. I had begun establishing myself, but I didn’t have a true foundation there yet. An attendant had said something about handing over samples. I needed to take care of that, but it wasn’t a priority for me.


    Instead, I wanted to explore the Mountain District.


    The Mountain District was located in the northeast section of the city, and the buildings were all decorated with shades of light blue. Where the Water District focused on catering to craftsmen, the Mountain District focused on education.


    As I walked through the district, I saw countless schools and training centers. These were not places where children learned. Their schools were in the Marsh District. The education here was focused on adults.


    There were the kinds of institutions Mei talked about, where one could go for specific training to compete for the positions of Flower, Groom, or Seed. There were also several small, specialized libraries with an array of different fields of knowledge available, including mortal disciplines such as horticulture, animal husbandry, and smithing. Most of the buildings, though, were focused on teaching professional skills to cultivators.


    Buildings were marked with the qi type generally associated with that profession. There were buildings marked with flames where one could learn alchemy and buildings marked with wavy lines where they taught beast tamers. A sun and moon motif marked the buildings for illusionists, and a lightning bolt marked where talisman masters were trained.


    I searched the entire district, but there were two notable absences. There were no training halls dedicated to wind qi cultivators. I didn’t know what trade would be connected to a wind affinity, and I’d never heard anyone talk about one, but there had to be one, and the lack of a building for it was telling.


    More important, though, was that there was not a single place that trained refiners. Artifact refining was supposed to be the skill connected to metal qi. It was one of the five basic elements. Why did no one teach it? Even if it wasn’t popular, there should still be someone, right?


    I remembered back to a comment SuYin made when I first joined the Blue Wind Pavilion. She was proud that the Pavilion possessed a workshop for artifact refining, but she said it had never been used. Before, I could have attributed it to the Wastes simply not having a sect focused on refining, but maybe there was something deeper at play.


    After making a note of this in my journal, I continued exploring.


    As I saw it, I just upgraded four aspects of myself, and I wanted training in each of them. First, I wanted to find as many Rank 3 cultivation techniques as I could to both fill out my library and begin learning how to create another novel technique. For alchemy, orders from the Pavilion would hopefully provide enough new information for the time being, so I didn’t worry too much about it. I needed to find basic classes for formations and nurturing talent, though. The second should be handled by the Water Groom classes, and it shouldn’t be a problem for me to sign up for those, but without earth qi, signing up for formations classes might raise some eyebrows.


    I set my jaw and headed to a building marked with a large rock where they taught formation specialists. I might be laughed out of the building, but I would do my best to learn, and I wouldn’t let the mockery of self-important people stop me from moving forward on my path.


    <hr>


    As it turned out, the receptionists at the two training institutes I chose cared nothing about my qi or affinities. They simply thanked me for my interest in their classes, wrote down my name, and took a deposit for the courses. If I couldn’t learn the skills they taught, it would be on me, and they would keep the deposit either way, so they wouldn’t let any potential customers escape.


    It would be another month before my classes began, so I put them aside and began tackling alchemy.


    When I returned to the Blue Wind Workshops in the Water District, the same attendant as last time greeted me. I wasn’t sure what blessing she had, but it seemed like the kind I would be better off avoiding.


    “Hello, Grandmaster Su, how may I help you today?”


    “I need to register with the alchemy desk. Something about providing samples?”


    “Of course, sir. You can visit the Alchemy Office on the fourth floor. The manager there will take care of you,” she said, gesturing to the stairs.


    “Thank you,” I said with a nod, grateful that she didn’t insist on walking me up.


    I had been on the fourth floor of the Workshops before, but I didn’t take much time to look around. The landing of the stairwell emptied into an open lobby area where a receptionist was waiting behind a counter.


    “Where is the Alchemy Office,” I asked, approaching the receptionist.


    “Welcome, Grandmaster Su, the Alchemy Offices are right here,” she said, walking out from behind the counter and approaching one of the rooms lining the lobby.


    Looking closer, I saw that each room was marked with the trade skills it managed. The receptionist directly opened the Alchemy Office’s door and gestured for me to enter. After I passed the office’s threshold, she quietly closed the door behind me. When she did, I caught a look of pity in her eye.


    Inside, three attendants sat behind a long counter shuffling through stacks of paperwork. Behind them, a middle-aged woman sat at a large desk managing her own reams of paper.


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    I wasn’t sure which attendant to approach, so I hoped one of them would call me over. I stood there for over a minute and began fidgeting to try to attract their attention, but they simply continued reviewing their paperwork.


    I cleared my throat. None of them looked up.


    Giving up, I decided to just walk forward to the girl seated in the middle. When I did, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the other two girls turn their heads slightly toward the one in the middle with a look of schadenfreude.


    “Hello,” I said, trying to grab her attention. “I need to register?”


    “Yes, sir,” she said slightly panicky, “please, wait one moment. I just need to finish this.”


    Her speed visibly increased. She raced to finish the paperwork so she could help me, but I wasn’t sure how long it would take. I stepped back from the counter. After several moments, she was still working, and neither of the other two attendants volunteered their assistance.


    “Excuse me,” I said in a loud voice, drawing the direct attention of everyone in the room. “I need to register. Can someone please help me?”


    For a long moment, there was absolute silence in the room. Then, the middle-aged woman at the back of the room shot to her feet, and her eyes locked onto me. “You! This is your fault!” She gestured at the stacks of paper around the room. “Who the hell causes a huge commotion then fucks off for a week? Get me your samples, now!”


    “What?” I asked stunned.


    “Samples. Now.” She slammed her index finger on the desk, pointing right where she expected my samples to appear.


    “Yes, of course,” I said reflexively. “But… what do you need? That’s why I came. I wasn’t sure what you needed me to provide you with.”


    The woman took a deep breath to regain control. “Give us whatever you think will best display your skills. If a customer requests you by name, we can use the samples to show the work you are capable of. If a customer isn’t sure who they want to hire, we can use the samples to help them decide.”


    “So… anything will be okay?”


    “Yes,” she growled.


    I stood there, hesitant to ask another question.


    “What?” she spat.


    “Where do I get ingredients?”


    “You…” she began before taking another deep breath. “LiPin, give him the list.”


    The attendant I approached earlier scrambled to find a paper. When she did, she shoved it at me.


    “That is the list of basic herbs you can requisition here,” the woman continued when I had the paper in hand. The paper listed several pills, and below each pill was a list of ingredients. “If you need something else, that is your responsibility. Go to the Wind District and buy it, or go downstairs and hire someone to grow it for you. Hell, go to an auction house if you have to, I don’t care. We only deal in the herbs on the list.”


    I hesitated for another moment, then asked another question. “Where can I get new recipes?”


    “This kid…” The woman raised both hands to massage her temples. “How are you a Grandmaster if you don’t know how to find recipes? Wind District, buy them. Mountain District, go to a library. Fire District, compete for them. Find a teacher, find a master, find a bloody hole where one was buried. If you’re smart enough, go and throw some herbs together and create your own damn recipes. The only thing you shouldn’t do is come to me for them!”


    “I''m sorry,” I said, giving her a deep bow.


    She shook her head in defeat. “It’s fine. Next time, though, if you cause a commotion, be here for the aftermath. Having dozens of wealthy clients asking for the new three-star Grandmaster and not being able to tell them anything is a bit much.”


    “Sorry,” I said again. I looked at the attendant who had passed me the ingredient list. “Can I please get five sets of herbs for Rank 3 Qi Gathering Pills?”


    “Yes, sir,” she said softly so as to not agitate the older woman. “They will be delivered to room eight. You may wait for them there.”


    “Thank you,” I said with a short bow.


    I exited quickly to avoid the women’s gazes.


    <hr>


    I settled into alchemy room eight, and after my ingredients were delivered, I looked at them, thinking about how I would proceed.


    I couldn’t be average here. It seemed like Alchemist Li had already scuttled any plans to remain under the radar at the Pavilion, and I would need to rise to his challenge.


    Additionally, I didn’t want to be average. Standing out too much had caused me problems in the Wastes, and I needed to be able to manage them better, but I didn’t want to be someone who did the minimum amount of work to get by. I wanted the things I made to be exceptional.


    So that is what I would do. If it caused problems, it would cause problems. No matter whether an army came, or the waters rose, I would block it. Or I would die. Either way, I would continue to advance.


    I began concocting. My goal was to make a complete sequence of Qi Gathering Pills for the basic elements.


    I started with the pills for wood and fire qi. I could use my own qi to enhance them through techniques, and I had done so many times, so I quickly made two Perfect pills with 120% efficacy. While making them, I saw areas of the medicinal energy I might be able to enhance through manipulating it with my affinities, but I hadn’t even mastered that skill with Rank 1 herbs, so I held off.


    Then, I began work on the earth and water pills. When I started, I was going to use the rough technique I had before which capped out at around 115% efficacy for earth and 105% for water, but I suddenly realized my mistake. There was no reason the same technique I was using with qi couldn’t work with energy from the spirit fire. I just needed to adjust it slightly.


    It was a risk to do this on my sample pills, but if everything blew up in my face, I would just need to hang my head, drop my pride, and ask for replacements.


    Working with the earth energy, I used the pattern from the qi technique but subtly changed a few lines to make it better integrate with the medicinal energy. When I did, aside from boosting power, the earth energy almost seemed to begin repairing the herb. As soon as I noticed it, I wanted to look into the phenomenon more.


    The final result was another Perfect pill with 120% efficacy, but my mind began latching onto ideas for how I could begin pushing that further. This wasn’t the time, though, so I just noted it down in my journal.


    Following the earth pill, I made the water pill. This was more difficult since my spirit fire only contained a marginal amount of water energy. If I had access to metal qi, I believed I could have stimulated the water energy from the spirit fire further, but I didn’t. The final result was a pill with 110% efficacy.


    That left only the metal qi pill which I had no means to enhance. I quickly threw everything together and produced a simple pill with 100% efficacy.


    The list the attendant had provided me had no herbs for the secondary elements on it, and I didn’t have any such herbs either, so I was unable to provide samples for pills of those elements. Aside from just ingredients, I also needed recipes for those pills, so delivering any such samples would have to wait for another day. I picked up my five pill bottles and headed to the Alchemy Office.


    <hr>


    I placed the bottles on the counter and addressed the attendant. “I’m sorry for the trouble. Here are my samples. Do I need to do anything else while I’m here?”


    “Yes,” she said placing the pill bottles off to the side. “We need a list of pills you are willing to take orders for at a standard rate without negotiation, and we need to know what kinds of orders should be automatically rejected.”


    I thought through the list she handed me earlier. “For now, just say anything on the list you provided me can be handled without negotiation unless the buyer is placing a large order.”


    “What is a large order?” she asked, writing down my words.


    “Let’s say more than ten, though that may need to change in the future based on circumstances.”


    She nodded as she wrote. “Pills to reject?”


    “If they provide ingredients and a recipe, none. However, my quality for pills involving secondary elements will be lower. I will procure samples for such pills in the coming days.”


    “Very well,” she said while writing. “How can we get ahold of you if an order comes in?”


    “I’m staying in the Blue Wind Residence. You should be able to contact me through the staff there.”


    She wrote, but then paused, waiting for me to continue. I didn’t. “And?” she asked.


    “And what?” I asked confused.


    She shook her head. At this point, she must have remembered that I was from some backwater. She reached down to grab something and then placed a small stone disk on the counter. “This is a formation plate. If we need to contact you directly, it will begin vibrating. If it does, please come here as soon as you are able.”


    I took the disk and stored it. The idea was familiar enough, so I wasn’t shocked, but I hadn’t seen something like that in this world before.


    “Anything else?” I asked.


    “No, you are free to go. If you wish to produce any of our standard pills on the list, we will handle purchasing your ingredients and selling your pills. If you make something not on the list, you may bring it here to be appraised, but the Pavilion makes no guarantees about purchasing it directly.”


    “Understood.”


    “Good day, sir,” she said, returning to her paperwork.