As I was preparing to return to my apartment, a voice echoed through the fifth-floor lobby.

“SuYin, there you are.”

I turned to see two people entering from the stairwell. A middle-aged-looking man was in the lead, and a young man who looked to be around my age was following behind him. While both wore similar 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.

Walking up to her, he gave her a smile that did not reach his eyes. “What are you doing here? I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

In response, SuYin scooted closer to me. This caused the boy to give me an angry, appraising look.

“Who are you?”

What should I do here? Normally, I would just brush off someone like this. 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 step on my head. That was something that Young Master Su could not abide.

I transformed my face into a stony mask and spoke with a cold voice. “Su Fang.”

The young man just snorted. “Well, Su Fang, stay away from my woman.”

He looked back at SuYin. “You know I don’t like you talking with the rabble. You shouldn’t entertain them.”

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

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

The young man’s upper lip twitched. “I told you, you don’t need to work anymore. You are my woman. I will take care of you.”

SuYin’s fists clenched. “Alchemist Gou, I am not your woman. Please allow me to continue my work.”

“We both know what you are.” He smirked and then 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 smiled widely at him and spoke apologetically. “I can’t do that. I just ordered a batch of ingredients, and it would be terrible to leave before I’ve made any pills.”

He laughed. “Bought a few peonies, did you? Fine, I’ll give you 10 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. Was he using qi vision to gauge my cultivation level? If so, he was either much older, or much more skilled, than I had originally thought.

After staring at me for far too long, 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.”

She looked at me worriedly before turning back to the young man. “Alchemist Gou, I have to serve as Alchemist Su’s guide. If you need assistance, then please contact another attendant.”

“He isn’t an alchemist! I bet that, this time next week, he’ll be back here with nothing, begging for just a few more herbs. Enough of him.”

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

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

Gou laughed. “What?”

“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, then get the hell out of the Pavilion and never come back.”

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

Gou’s eyes widened in shock. “What? How dare you say that!”

“I’m sorry.” I put 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 pill.”

“Ah, yes.” I nodded my head in understanding. “That could indeed be an issue. How do you propose we solve this little problem?”

Amazingly, Gou stopped to think about his answer. He must have finally realized that I had to have at least some level of skill if I was willing to make a bet with him.

“Fine, you bought twelve sets of ingredients. I will buy twelve sets as well. Whoever makes the better pills wins, and once I do, you fuck off.”

I nodded calmly. “So, to be clear, we both buy twelve sets of ingredients for Superior Qi Gathering Pills. In one week, we will return here and hand over all of the pills we made from those ingredients and only those ingredients. Whoever’s pills have the greatest total value wins, and the loser is banished from all Blue Wind Pavilion locations for the rest of their life. Is this correct?”

Gou gritted his teeth. “Yes”

I turned to SuYin. “Will the Pavilion serve as guarantor for this bet?”

She shook her head as she tried to regain a bit of poise. “No. The Blue Wind Pavilion does not provide any such service concerning non-members.”

“That’s a shame.” I sighed and looked at the middle-aged man who had been standing to the side, stoically observing our conversation. “You are his master, right? Will you serve as the guarantor for our little bet?”

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Gou’s nostrils flared. “How dare you speak to Master Zhong like that!”

I gave the man a slight bow. “My apologies, Master Zhong.”

Then, I turned back to the young man. “Gougou, Master Zhong is your ‘master,’ right?”

Gou let out a faint snarl. “What did you call me?”

“Huh? What?” I blinked in confusion and then returned to my question. “You’re Master Zhong’s disciple, right? He is a Grandmaster Alchemist?”

At this, Master Zhong snorted, but it was Gou who answered. “Do you think Grandmasters are cabbages that you can pick up by the side of the road? Master Zhong is an honored Master Alchemist, and you should show him 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 at Zhong, who just nodded. Then, he looked back at me. “Fine! This time next week. I look forward to seeing the trash pills that you bring back!”

I smiled and bowed my head. “See you then.”

Then, I turned to SuYin. “Miss Ye, can we please continue our tour now?”

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

While Gougou was a twerp and, giving him the benefit of the doubt, could have been strongly influenced by his cultivation technique, using this opportunity to put him down would help me establish my prestige. I had needed to prove myself, and before I could even begin looking for an opportunity to do so, Gougou came and delivered me coal in winter. I would need to thank him in the future.

However, if I truly wanted to show off my strength, I first needed to raise my cultivation base. So, I left SuYin and returned to my apartment to prepare.

Ideally, in this competition, I would deliver twelve Perfect Superior Qi Gathering Pills that all had an efficacy of over 100%. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen. Rank 1 Qi gathering pills only used wood-based herbs, and I only knew how to enhance earth-based herbs. So, instead, I would have to settle with twelve Perfect pills with only 100% efficacy.

When I had made that bet with Gougou, I had accepted the possibility of his master helping him cheat. His master might even personally step in and make the pills himself. However, while I didn’t know how good Master Zhong’s pills might be, based on the pair’s reverence for Grandmaster Alchemists, I doubted that they would be anything too special.

Still, even if I was confident in my abilities, I had to take things one step at a time. Before worrying about performing alchemy, I needed to cultivate.

Sitting in my cultivation room, I reviewed the improved cultivation technique that I had purchased from the System. Then, I got to work.

I began by filling the muscles of the thumb, index finger, and middle finger on my right hand with fire qi. Then, I filled my ring and pinky fingers with wood qi. This separation continued up my hand and into my forearm. The muscles on the ‘inside’ of my arm received fire qi, while those on the ‘outside’ received wood qi. This division wasn’t completely balanced, and I ended up with a bit more fire qi than wood qi, but that could be evened out by flipping the muscle groups when I cultivated my left arm.

As I pulled in qi, my arm began to feel dirty, like it was being submerged in pond scum. While the technique, as a whole, was considered Mid-Profound, its qi filters were only equivalent to those of a Mid-Yellow technique, so a steady build-up of impurities was unavoidable.

Once I felt that these impurities were becoming too much, I popped Purifying Pills for both fire and wood qi into my mouth. This forced the impurities out of my body, and as they left, I pulled in more energy to fill the voids they left behind. Eventually, the impurities in this new qi became too much as well, so I took more pills to expel them.

For the next several days, I continued the cycle of cultivation and purification.

Even though I was using a technique that was entirely new to me, and even though this was the most advanced technique I had ever used, the process of advancing to Martial Disciple 2 was simple enough. Still, I took my time and observed every step of this process closely. I wanted to gain a better understanding of how cultivation affected my body.

In the end, it took me four days to advance. For most people, that might have resulted in a rushed and shoddy foundation, but I was confident that I had reached the pinnacle of what was possible with this Mid-Profound technique.

After reaching Martial Disciple 2, I calmed my mind and thought through my plans.

My qi would begin to stagnate in four years, and if I wanted to, I could probably rush up to Martial Master in less than one. This would almost certainly cause a few mental side effects, but as long as I cultivated my technique properly, they should be minimal.

I could do that, but instead, I wanted to take things a bit more slowly. I would give myself three years to advance to Master. That would give me sufficient time to adapt to any changes in my body, and hopefully, it would also be time to understand them on a deeper level. I needed to reach Martial King, but I had 120 years to do that, and spending a few years now would likely save dozens in the future.

Confident in my path forward, I left my cultivation room and returned to my sitting room.

With qi to support me, concocting a dozen Rank 1 pills was no longer a concern, so I put my competition with Gougou to the back of my mind. Instead, I focused on the new type of qi that was available to me. This was the first time I had ever had access to wood qi, and I wanted to see what it could do.

I had a few martial arts that involved using wood qi, but they would be difficult to practice inside my apartment, since nearly all of them were focused on manipulating plant life in some way.

While I didn’t have access to any trees, there were a few potted plants in my apartment. So, I went to my bedroom and picked up a few flowers.

Channeling my wood qi, I began to practice ways of twisting and shaping them.

In this manner, time quickly passed me by. Whenever my qi ran low, I cultivated to restore it, but my focus remained on learning to manipulate plants.

A couple of days later, I heard a knock at my door, and when I opened it, I found a large, burly man standing on the other side.

“You Su Fang?”

I nodded.

“Great, we’ve got your delivery. Where do you want it?”

After only a couple of days, I was beginning to feel that practicing my wood qi techniques on nothing but potted flowers was a bit too limiting. I needed something more. So, I went out shopping and purchased a long flowerbed. My room didn’t have a balcony, but it had ample windows. I could only hope that would be enough.

I pointed to the far wall of the sitting room. “Over there.”

The burly man raised an eyebrow. “You sure? This is a nice place, and even if you’re careful, it’ll get dirty in here.”

“Yeah, I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry. A broom and dustpan are all I need, right?”

He shook his head and snorted. “Your call.”

Then, he waved to his partner, who had been waiting in the hallway, and they got to work.

They worked together to lift a long flower bed made of thick wood planks. Once it was in place, they then made several trips downstairs to bring up several bags of potting soil.

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

When they were done, I walked over and smiled at them.

“Thanks for your work.”

I reached out, grabbed their hands, and gave both men a hearty handshake.

This action seemed to confuse them, but when they saw what I had left behind in their palms, they just grinned. Tipping wasn’t a custom here, but they had done an excellent job, so I slipped them each a few extra silver.

After pocketing my gift, the leader gave me a salute. “Let us know if you’ve got any more work for us in the future. We’re always happy to help.”

“Will do!”

I led the men out of the Pavilion and waved goodbye. After that, I went to the shop floor and purchased a few seeds. Then, I got to planting.

The herbalism techniques in my mental library were all rather basic, but they included ways to encourage plant growth. However, since I was only working with mortal plants, not spiritual herbs, I needed to be sparing in qi usage. While supplying plants with qi could help them grow, too much qi was deadly.

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

Her face was filled with nervous concern. “How is it? Are you ready?”

I blinked, confused. “Sorry, what?

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

“Ah, the pills.” I suddenly remembered my meeting with Gougou. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that. I’ll have them ready tomorrow.”

“What!? You… you haven’t started?”

“No worries, I got this.”

SuYin had started to panic, so I was trying to be reassuring, but it didn’t seem to help.