I looked at the two men in my shop warily. Something felt wrong about the situation.


    “Senior Brother Pang.” I bowed my head slightly. “How may I help you today?”


    He smiled ingratiatingly.


    “Please, we are entering into a business relationship. Sect matters can be put to the side for now. Just call me Manager Pang.”


    “Alright, Manager Pang, how may I help you?”


    His assertion that we were entering into a relationship bothered me, but I was willing to refer to him however he pleased.


    “Alchemist Su, Brother Mao here has brought us a sample of your pills. They are fantastic. We are only upset we didn’t hear about you sooner. We have scouts looking for promising disciples on the Fire Peak, but who would have thought to look for such a skilled alchemist on the Earth Peak?”


    He gave a hearty laugh at this, but my eyes narrowed on Mao. He took my pills to this PangBo Association? Why?


    “Manager Pang, I appreciate your compliment, but maybe you could explain your offer?”


    “Of course, of course.” He spoke quickly and maintained a cheerful tone. “Our appraisers were impressed by your excellent work. When Brother Mao brought us samples, we were ashamed that you had been left to languish in this remote area of the city. From now on, you just need to pass your pills to us. We’ll sell them for you at a premium location right next to the Gateway Plaza.”


    I tapped my fingers together in thought. This wasn’t a terrible idea. Running my own store was working, but if they wanted to handle all the grunt work for me and take a cut of the profits, I could agree to that.


    However, there was something I needed to know before we took this discussion any further.


    “Brother Mao, Manager Pang says you took samples to them? Please, tell me, why?”


    Mao chuckled. “Brother Su, don’t look so serious. Running this store is a lot of effort, right? We need to focus on ascending to Yellow City. If Manager Pang and his associates handle distributing our pills, then we can focus on more important things.”


    His words bothered me. ‘Our pills.’ ‘We can focus.’ Before, he said that Manager Pang had an excellent offer for ‘us.’ Brother Mao had helped me run the shop for a couple of years now, and I was grateful for his help, but this seemed to be taking things too far. Beyond just the words he said, I felt the greed in his voice.


    I looked at Manager Pang. “What is your offer?”


    “90-10. Work with us, give us your pills, and when we sell them, you will get 90% of the purchase price. We will only keep 10.”


    That… was not what I was expecting. I had to reevaluate the situation. I had been feeling like that was a hostile takeover, but those margins were better than I could get anywhere else. Looking at Mao, I began to think they were suspiciously high.


    “Manager Pang, that is a very generous offer. If I work with you, though, what work will there be for Brother Mao? He spends his days tending the shop. Will he be receiving any compensation from this deal?”


    Mao waved his hands. “Brother Su, please, don’t worry about me. I only care about taking care of you.”


    I didn’t respond to him and just looked at Manager Pang. I could tell that the manager knew what I was thinking, but he wasn’t willing to address it directly.


    “Do not worry, Alchemist Su, we will take good care of Junior Brother Mao. He has brought the two of us together, so he deserves to be rewarded for that. We plan to train him as a guard for our stores in Yellow City.”


    Something was off about what he said. Something was off about all of this, but I didn’t have enough context to understand what was happening. This was a trap of some kind. I was certain of it. I just needed to decide how I wanted to react.


    The only loophole I found in his words was that my compensation would be based on the ‘purchase price,’ so he could theoretically sell them to allies at below market value. As long as there wasn’t an oath between us, though, I could just back out of the deal later if he tried to pull something like that. What would be the point?


    If I turned Manager Pang down, he couldn’t do much to me here, but he could easily send someone to attack me when I left to ascend the mountain. If I agreed to his offer, I would be placing my neck in a noose. I was certain I’d be in an unpleasant situation of some kind, but I would gain knowledge about this potential danger for future lives.


    I bow slightly. “Very well, Manager Pang, I accept your proposal. I will conduct my business through your association in the future. I look forward to our mutual success.”


    He cupped his fists in a martial salute. “Happy cooperation.”


    <hr>


    Arranging things through the PangBo Merchant Association was incredibly swift and easy. Manager Pang gave me a location to deliver my pills and assured me that as long as they were Perfect Rank 3 pills of at least 100% efficacy, the association would directly pay me 90% of their market value. If they were able to sell the pills at a premium, I would receive additional compensation during my next drop-off.


    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    While he said that I could deliver as many pills of any type I desired, I made sure to enquire about which ones would be the most desirable or if they had any particular requests for the type of pills they received. I was going to take advantage of this situation to run up my contribution point total as high as possible, and there was no reason to offend my benefactors by giving them pills that wouldn’t sell.


    Selling pills in this manner, my contribution point count climbed quickly. I used these funds to take a few lessons from Rank 4 formation specialists and combat instructors, but my need for contribution points was limited.


    I couldn’t buy karmic energy in Mortal City, and while contribution points could purchase a slot in the Earth Peak Trial, only contribution points directly earned from completing missions were valid for such a purchase. Unable to permanently increase my affinities and lacking Grandmaster-level combat experience, I didn’t bother wasting my time traveling to random towns to complete missions.


    After a few months of this routine, I felt that my foundation as a Grandmaster was firming up, so I began planning my ascent to Yellow City. While I couldn’t get much information about what the journey involved, it was clear that the trek was dangerous in some way.


    The sect had set up a variety of challenges for anyone wishing to ascend. With my limited Grandmaster-level combat training, I wasn’t in the best position to fight someone in a fair duel, so I stocked up on plenty of formations and pills that could help me pull off a sneak attack.


    Everything was going smoothly, but that was when I received an unexpected visitor.


    <hr>


    After leaving Earth Peak, I was returning to my workshop when someone walked in front of me and blocked my path. This was unusual in Mortal City. The rules were very strict, and no one would easily break them by starting an unprovoked fight.


    I looked at the face of the person who stopped me, and it took me several moments to process it.


    “Yan? Is that you?”


    The Zhuge Yan before me looked haggard and weary. In the past, there was a sharpness about his appearance that made me think he was always calculating something. Now, all I saw was an air of sorrow and grief. His clothing was crumpled and stained. The ponytail that held his long hair in place was frayed and hairs were sticking out at odd angles. His once meticulous appearance had degraded to the point that he looked like a vagabond who had been wandering the woods for weeks without rest.


    “Su Fang.” He snorted and gave me a look bordering on disgust. “So, you do remember us after all this time.”


    “What? Yan, of course I do. What’s going on? What’s wrong?”


    These questions only seemed to anger him. “What’s going on? So, you remember us, but you haven’t thought to take even a moment to collect the letters we’ve sent you over the years. It was your idea to keep in touch in the first place, but have you ever considered doing so?”


    That… was fair. Once I separated from the group, I became focused on only my own improvement again. What happened during this false timeline didn’t matter much to me. The letters were just a way to see if I could help them the next time around. I didn’t think about actually staying in contact. Mentally, I no longer considered these versions of my classmates to be ‘real.’


    “Sorry.” I dropped my eyes in shame. “I should have stayed in touch. What’s… what’s been going on with everyone?”


    Yan gave me a long stare before breaking it with a sigh of despair. He seemed to want to collapse to the ground. Realizing that the middle of the street wasn’t the best place for this conversation, I led him to a small tea house for a private discussion.


    After the attendant poured our tea and left, we just sat there, staring at our glasses. Eventually, Yan broke the silence.


    “It’s probably a good thing that you ignored us. I… I’m just mad. Not at you. Just at… everything. I wanted you to help, but there was nothing you could have done.”


    “Yan, please, tell me what happened.”


    He picked up his cup and took a long sip.


    “LiTing is dead. Officially, she died tragically in an accident during a duel at the Academy, but it was an assassination. YuLong’s family has been slaughtered, and those few that remain alive have been exiled from their empire. Instead of killing JiaQi directly, they''re hunting her for sport. She’s been on the run in the wilderness for years now. Her deer LuLu was killed.”


    I sat stunned. LiTing dying… I had been prepared for that after the last time. The others though? What had gone so wrong?


    “It was my family. Once the others left the protection of the Academy, my family crushed them. I can’t be sure about LiTing, but I think they were also responsible for that. If they found out she was a talented refiner, they would have done everything they could to prevent her from being able to support me. You might have been spared because you were holed up here, but you could have just been overlooked since we didn’t contact each other.”


    “Why?” It was the only word I could manage.


    “They wanted to force me to leave the Academy and return home. Becoming a Sovereign through the sect would…” He trailed off not wanting to say more.


    “Yan, please, help me understand. I might be able to help, but only if I know.”


    He looked at his now empty cup as he calculated the worth of my words.


    “There are rules about what people outside the clans can know. If I break my oath and tell you more than what is allowed, I will be punished by the Heavens, but I will tell you what I can. The Zhuge Clan is a minor branch of the Zhu Clan on the Central Continent. The most talented disciples from the Zhuge are raised up and brought into the Zhu Clan as low-level subordinates. We lack any freedom to control our future.”


    His voice was tinged with bitterness.


    “I wanted to break that cycle of subservience. By becoming a Sovereign through the sect instead of the Zhu Clan, I might be allowed to forge an independent force under the protection of the Saint. I was doing this for the Zhuge Clan as a whole, but our patriarch is beholden to the Zhu Clan. He will not attack me directly, but he will do everything he can to force me to return. Only the protection of the Academy, the sect, and the Ning Clan can hold him back.”


    “That…” I tried to respond, but what could I say? “That is difficult. I don’t know if I can help with something on that level.”


    He chuckled mirthlessly. Then, he took a thick book out of a storage bag. “Here. This is what you wanted. I don’t know what good it will do you, but I knew it was important.”


    He slid the book to me. I took a quick look and saw it was a record of notable events for the past several years.


    Yan stood up and walked toward the exit.


    “Don’t try to contact me again. I’m returning to the Zhuge Clan. Don’t do anything that will alert them.”


    “Yan…”


    He didn’t look back at me as he vanished into the crowded street.


    <hr>


    The meeting with Yan lit a fire in me. I needed to bring this timeline to a close. That meant I needed to hurry faster.


    I contacted the PangBo Merchant Association and told them of my plans to ascend to Yellow City. When I arrived at the city’s northern gate, Mao and a man I didn’t recognize were waiting for me.


    “Brother Su!” Mao hugged my shoulder and spoke with a bright tone. “This is Brother Wen. He is a powerful fighter from the Association. Senior Brother Pang personally chose him to escort us up the mountain.”


    I nodded toward the unknown man, but he paid me little attention.


    “Well then, let’s go.”