My demotion to the inner sect was a slight problem, but it was one that was easy to solve. After a couple of months, I would be able to take the sect’s Exam, and a quick purchase of Rank 4 talisman knowledge would be enough to ensure my return to core disciple status. For the moment, I just needed to continue on as normal.


    After reaching Profound City, JiaQi and I immediately turned around, teleported out of the sect, traveled through the portal network, and returned to NanLu City.


    When we arrived, I was shocked by the change. We had only been gone for a few weeks, but the town was already pulling itself together. On every street, I saw dozens of people cleaning the cobblestones, tearing down dilapidated buildings, and planting fresh flowers.


    The walls surrounding the city remained in their same crumbling, broken-down state, so outside observers hopefully hadn’t noticed any changes. However, the city inside the walls had completely transformed.


    When I arrived at the city lord’s manor, I found the three people responsible for this change.


    LiTing, in her position as Minister of Public Works, had laid out careful plans of what needed to be done and how to do it. For the most part, this involved making a list of the buildings that needed to be torn down and the materials that needed to be purchased to construct something new in their place.


    Jin ZiHan, in her role as Minister of Revenue, had been in a more difficult position, but she had excelled. She was not yet a Grandmaster, so she couldn’t personally visit the sect to sell pills or buy supplies. Instead, she had to relay everything through a team of servant disciples. Even with that limitation, she had still been able to take the pills I had left her and transform them into everything LiTing and the others required.


    However, none of this would have been possible without Meng LuYao. As Minister of Personnel, not only had she recruited Jin ZiHan’s servants, but she had also recruited numerous other low-level sect disciples to do odd jobs around the city.


    When I called a meeting and gathered everyone together, I wanted to thank the women for their hard work, but Jin ZiHan didn’t want to hear it. She was all business and only wanted to focus on what she considered to be the most important problem.


    “You didn’t leave us enough resources to fund the purchase of the ziethanite, but we’ve found a source for the kyanrolite. The suppliers are ready to begin delivery, but we wanted to wait until you got back. No one here understands your plans for it.”


    Thrown off by this immediate shift to business, I had to pause and think.


    “Building a wall and installing the defensive formations will be a lot of work and take up too much time. I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to handle it personally.” I drummed my fingers on the table. “Send a special request to the Earth Peak. Ask for Tie Yang. He’s a skilled Formation Lord and has a team that should be able to handle something like this. I’ll draw up some plans, and they can execute them. I’ll only need to step in once it’s time to infuse the walls with the ziethanite.”


    Jin ZiHan’s cheek twitched slightly in irritation. “I can do that, but that brings us back to the problem of money. We don’t have enough for all the stone we need, and paying Formation Lords to do all that work for us is even more of a problem.”


    I nodded and grabbed a blank scroll from my storage bag. After scribbling down the names of several Rank 4 herbs, I took a moment to think through a few options and then added a few basic Rank 5 earth-aligned herbs to the list.


    “Use whatever funds we have remaining to buy as many of these herbs as possible, and I’ll transform them into pills. That will solve the money issue.” I pointed out the Rank 5 herbs. “These might be a bit outside the budget, but buy one or two if you can. I can make a simple Rank 5 pill with them, and we won’t have to worry about contribution points at all if we can sell a few of those.”


    She gave me a false smile and accepted the list.


    We ran through a few more important issues, but for the most part, my friends had everything in hand. With the issue of the city’s defenses handed off to Tie Yang’s crew, I had time to implement what I hoped would catapult NanLu City to the next level.


    I was going to build a pill factory.


    <hr>


    While I still had the original pill factory diagrams from my time in Eight Flower Kingdom, there were problems with them. The concept behind the design was to use dozens of individual formations to create an assembly line that would automatically concoct pills. This worked, but it was messy. The numerous separate formations interfered with each other and caused the environmental qi to become turbulent.


    Aside from that, the quality of the pills produced by the factory wasn’t very high. They were Perfect pills, so their efficacy wasn’t overly important, but with my current knowledge and formation skills, I knew I could do better.


    Ultimately, the crux of the issue was that our original way of thinking about the factory was flawed. We didn’t need a complex chain of separate formations. What we needed was a single properly designed grand formation.


    This grand formation would be powered and controlled by a single main node in the center of the factory. This main node would then supply energy to a chain of child nodes in a controlled and organized manner.


    Fully redesigning the pill factory so that it followed the principles of a grand formation would require years of effort. Not only that, but I was also sure that by the time I was able to complete such a redesign, I would have improved my knowledge of formations and would want to start all over and redesign it from scratch once more.


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    So, while I could take the time to try and design a ‘perfect’ factory, I had to hold myself back. Perfection was the enemy of good enough, and good enough was all I needed.


    I made a few notes on my ideas for a grand factory formation, but eventually chose to stick with the tried and tested formation designs that I already had. It wasn’t perfect, but it would work.


    After a quick discussion with LiTing, I appropriated an abandoned warehouse near the center of the city and installed production lines for Nutrition Pills and a couple of other valuable Rank 0 pills. For the initial run, I made swift work of the formations and didn’t spend time worrying about maximizing their power or efficiency.


    Once the first production line was ready to go, I visited Jin ZiHan.


    “I need a supply line for low-level herbs. They’re all only Rank 0 or 1, and some of them are usually just considered weeds. It would be best if we could set up a farm near the city to grow them ourselves, but importing them would be fine for now.”


    Jin ZiHan pulled out a thick book and wrote a few notes.


    “Importing them will be difficult. No one in sect lands grows anything at that level, so we would have to purchase them from outlying kingdoms. That will add cost, but more importantly, it will create delays which I’m assuming you don’t want.”


    She looked at me, and I nodded in confirmation.


    “As you know, I trained in herbalism at the Academy. I haven’t learned much since leaving, but I know the basics, and I know what we need to do to make this happen. I can give you a list of the formations we will need, and I will get in contact with an Herb Lord who can speed things along. After that, while we could hire a servant disciple to take care of things, if they are only Rank 0 herbs, you should talk to LuYao about hiring someone from the city. True herbalism skills won’t be required, and she should be able to find someone with a talent for gardening.”


    <hr>


    With the help of my friends, the pill factory was up and operational after only a month. It wasn’t operating at full capacity yet, but the city’s populace was already starting to reap the benefits of taking Nutrition Pills.


    As the first shipment of pills was handed out, I kept careful track of my contribution point total, expecting it to surge to new heights. However, the results were disappointing. My point total increased slightly, but it was only a gain of around 10 to 20%.


    I might just need to give the factory more time to see its true effects, but when I was in Eight Flower, I had received a flood of energy the moment the first pills left the factory. I couldn’t help but feel something was different.


    Needing advice, I sought out Yan. After I explained the problem to him, he shook his head at me.


    “I was worried about this, and what you said confirms my suspicions.”


    I raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to continue.


    “You gave the mortals pills, healed their bodies, and made them more productive, but how much did you truly change their fates? Are their lives really going to be any different now than they were before? Ultimately, there is one key difference between the people in NanLu City and those in an outlying kingdom.”


    It didn’t take me long to catch his meaning. “Essence.”


    Yan nodded. “Healing mortals outside the sect, especially youths, will grant them incalculable new opportunities, including the chance to become cultivators, ascend to at least Grandmaster, and live for hundreds of years. A child who would have died at six could live to be six hundred because of a single pill. But here, that isn’t going to happen. These people will never cultivate, and they will never be more than what they are right now. Healing them will make them a bit more productive, and it might make them happier, but it won’t change their lives.”


    I lowered my head and ran my fingers through my hair in defeat. Was there nothing I could do? Was it impossible for the people of NanLu City to become anything more? Was this all caused by a lack of essence?


    That last thought made me freeze, and then a moment later, I let out a hearty chuckle.


    I looked up and patted Yan on the shoulder. “Thanks, I know what to do.”


    <hr>


    Having advanced to Lord, I could now improve my affinities once more, so I traveled through the portal network and made my way to the Metal Peak. When I arrived, I found Jin waiting for me, and we went directly to her conference room where she immediately returned ZiHan’s and Shen’s memory orbs to me.


    Once we were seated, I had important questions that needed to be answered.


    “Both you and Shen have indicated there are rules binding your actions. I wanted to know, can the Master of the Lightning Peak strike at me if I make him upset? Is there anything he can do to me directly?”


    Jin had to give the question a bit of consideration.


    “He wouldn’t be allowed to do much to target you specifically. The biggest threat you have to worry about from him is the challenge he sets for you on the path to Heaven City. Since you’ll be the group’s leader, and you’re a member of his peak, there won’t be much Shen or I can do to stop him from making things as difficult as possible. Of course, if you make him exceptionally angry, he might order others to attack you.”


    “Is he allowed to send Kings and Emperors after me?”


    “That’s a bit of a gray area. I don’t know if there are rules barring it since the cost of sending an Emperor after a Lord would rarely make sense. But if you make him mad enough….”


    I bowed slightly to her. “Thank you.”


    That answer was a bit disappointing.


    Using up ten times as much essence as a normal disciple might upset the Master of the Lightning Peak, but he shouldn’t resent it enough to send high-level assassins after me. However, if I started stealing extra essence for the people of NanLu City, he might not be so kind. It was an unfortunate development, but there were other ways to accomplish my goals.


    After a moment’s thought, I returned my focus to Jin.


    “Can you please send a message to Shen for me? I need a way to collect essence from the environment, store it, and then transfer it to my citizens.”


    Jin snorted in amusement. “I can let him know, but I can already tell you his answer. He won’t be allowed to share such information.”


    She reached into a bag, pulled out a small white bar, and handed it to me. “This is an interesting substance, have you ever talked with LiTing about it? Also, you should have learned to transform martial techniques into formations by now, right? Why haven’t I seen you do that recently? Oh, and your actions are a bit too loud. You should take a vacation and let things cool off. Why not visit your friend JiaQi’s hometown?”


    I stared at Jin as she rambled off this list of random incoherent questions. I couldn’t help but laugh.


    “Thank you, Jin. I’ll keep that in mind.”


    I gave her a deep bow. Then, I took my leave and headed to the Metal Peak Trial.


    As a Lord, this version of the Trial was far more difficult than the Grandmaster version, but using LiTing’s Rank 5 refined gear and a Profound-Rank spirit fire seed, none of its challenges were able to hold up for even a moment under my onslaught. Once again, on my first attempt, I reached far enough to max out my metal affinity, improving it to mid four-star.


    With that task complete, I headed back to NanLu City to have a chat with my friends.