The next day, I met Mei for a private lunch to discuss her plans to become the Water Flower.

“It’s more difficult than I thought. There are five stages in the selection process. First, they will check that I am astrologically suitable for the position, but since I can’t change this, I can only assume that it won’t be a problem. Then, they will check my cultivation base and personal charm, but I don’t expect any problems with these,” she said, winking at me.

“What’s the problem then?”

“The fourth factor is my skill in a profession. Most of the competitors will have spent years learning how to tame beasts, but I don’t even know the basics.”

I tapped the table as I thought about this. “Does it have to be a cultivator profession? Being a beast tamer might be nice, but how will that help your city? Your experience as a Pavilion attendant has taught you a lot about managing and helping others. Leverage that to your advantage.”

“It’s not great… It might be the best I can do, but it will hurt my chances.”

I didn’t necessarily agree with this assessment, but she might be right about how the competition’s judges would view things.

“The final factor is even worse for me. It’s an evaluation of my ability to raise and nurture young talents, with a focus on training people in the various professions. What could I possibly do to help train beast tamers or formation specialists?”

I cocked my head to the side. “Isn’t this something that your blessing can take care of? Shouldn’t it tell you exactly what to do to train someone in the best way possible?”

Mei shook her head. “No, it doesn’t work like that. My blessing only tells me how to act for the best possible outcome. If it wants me to train someone poorly because it believes that’s best for me, that is what it will make me do. More importantly, though, it only nudges my actions. It can’t give me the theoretical knowledge I will need to give detailed answers to questions during the competition.”

I nodded in understanding. “I see. How do others learn this kind of thing?”

“They study. The Seeds learn from their Flower. For everyone else, there are schools in the Metal District that teach aspiring Flowers everything they need to know, but this takes time. I have less than two weeks until the selection. Others have been studying for years.”

When she finished speaking, my eyes widened as certain thoughts clicked into place. We should have been able to travel from Dragon Gate City to Hundred Flower City in only a couple of months. Instead, we were on the road for years. Why? Had such a long trip been necessary to avoid unknown dangers, or had we just been procrastinating?

I gave Mei a brief look of disgust, and my lip began to curl in a snarl. I could accept that Mei hadn’t chosen to waste our time. I could accept that she didn’t personally orchestrate any of this. However, her blessing was pushing my limits.

Abruptly, I stood from my chair. “I need to go. We’ll talk later.”

I didn’t look at her again as I stood and left the restaurant.

Mei didn’t have enough time to learn what she needed to learn. She only had two weeks. Why? Why did she only have two weeks? Why hadn’t she studied for this test earlier?

“System, how many credits do I have, and how much would it cost for me to grant Mei enough knowledge about nurturing professional talents for her to become the Water Flower?”

You have 1,025,806 credits.

Sufficient knowledge will cost 24,806 credits.

My anger flared. There was no way that number was random. Mei’s blessing was practically ordering me to buy it for her. It had encouraged her to prepare just enough so that the cost of the remaining knowledge was an almost exact match to the number of credits I had available.

The only thing that kept my anger in check was that the situation was too blatant. If she had studied just a little bit more, the cost would have been 24,200 credits, and I might not have noticed anything. Her blessing wanted me to know what it had done. This wasn’t a hidden plot. It was an open demand.

So, did I want to follow its orders?

Instinctively, my answer was a hard no. I didn’t like having my strings pulled by Mei’s blessing, but more importantly, it didn’t match my plans. I wanted to use my discount to upgrade my affinities, and there was no reason to do this until my next life. But if I wanted to buy this knowledge for Mei, I would need to use up my discount before I did so.

I tried to calm down and think through the situation logically.

Why would Mei’s blessing ever think that pushing me like this was a good idea?

Mei’s blessing only cared about helping her. It didn’t want to help me

. It would only help me insofar as helping me helped Mei. My working assumption was that it kept my interests in mind since I was in a uniquely powerful position to help Mei, but I had to be careful not to become complacent.

This kind of demand… If I refused it, it would drive a wedge between us, and I would become even more reluctant to trust her. I couldn’t see how this could possibly benefit Mei.

If I accepted, and things turned sour, that would be even worse. It would prove I shouldn’t trust her blessing at all. Again, I couldn’t see the benefit to Mei here.

The answer seemed to be that her blessing was telling me that it was important for me to spend my credits now, instead of holding off for later. It thought that I needed to buy something right now. And it must have thought that this purchase was so important that revealing its hand by forcing me in this way was an acceptable cost.

Could her blessing even make such complex calculations? Was there an all-powerful puppeteer controlling her through her blessing? I didn’t know. So, instead of thinking about questions that I couldn’t answer, I focused on the one that I needed to answer.

Was I willing to take a leap of faith here?

I sighed with resignation. What would it hurt? Even if I died immediately after this purchase, I would still gain enough credits from my death to smoothly reach this point again. I could take a risk and see where it would lead me.

So, what did I want to buy? With my discount, I effectively had two million credits to play with.

If my train of logic was correct, Mei’s blessing was signaling that there was something important I needed to buy, and I should already have enough information to determine what that was. Purchasing permanent affinities was out since they wouldn’t be able to provide me with any significant benefit in this life. Purchasing temporary affinities was possible, though. Jumping up to temporary five-star fire affinity, maybe?

I had just met a skilled alchemist who showed me many places where I lacked knowledge. Was that a clue?

“System, how much to raise my fire affinity to temporary low five-star?”

Cost 11.5 million credits.

That couldn’t be it, then. I could just raise my affinity to peak six-star, but that didn’t feel like it would be enough of a game-changer to warrant this situation.

I could buy knowledge, but buying knowledge directly always came with exorbitant price tags. Buying even a modicum of Lord-level alchemy knowledge would break the bank, I would have little to show for it.

With all of this taken into account, my only idea was to enhance my comprehensions. I wasn’t sure how great of an effect the previous boosts had on me, but after paying 20k to boost my comprehension of cultivation techniques, I had made huge leaps forward.

Stolen from NovelBin, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

This had to be the play, but how should I divide up my credits? What about…

“System, how much to raise my fire affinity to temporary peak six-star?”

Cost 1.5 million credits. Discounted cost 750,000 credits.

“System, I want to raise my fire affinity to temporary peak six-star and increase my alchemy comprehension with 500,000 credits.”

Temporary Peak 6-star Fire Affinity. Cost 1.5 million credits. Discounted cost 750,000 credits.

Increased alchemy comprehension. Cost 500,000 credits. Discounted cost 250,000 credits.

“No, I want those to be a single purchase.”

There was no response. So…

“How much to raise my alchemy comprehension with a million credits and increase the speed of my soul growth with a million credits?”

Increased alchemy comprehension. Cost 1 million—

“Stop. How much to raise my comprehension of both alchemy and cultivation by a million credits each?”

Increased alchemy and cultivation comprehension. Cost 2 million—

“Stop.”

So, the discount on the ‘next purchase’ had strict limitations. Should I spend all 2 million on alchemy comprehension? It seemed wasteful. Dividing the credits into four areas might allow for synergies that were far more effective than focusing solely on one area.

What did I need? Alchemy and cultivation seemed obvious.

Herbalism wasn’t working out for me without teachers or a large place to grow plants. Even if that were available here, I still didn’t see many ways to immediately benefit from herbalism, so I set it aside.

I had wanted to begin understanding the basics of formations, and I might have an opportunity to do so. The entire kingdom was built around a complex formation, so there had to be powerful formation specialists in the area. I didn’t have earth qi, which was supposedly a requirement for formation specialists. However, I had come to learn that fire qi wasn’t strictly required for one to become a skilled enough alchemist, so the same might be true about formations.

I considered Mei’s situation and the requirements she needed to meet to become a Flower–she needed to learn to nurture young talents.

If I were to become a true city lord, then knowing how to enhance the prosperity of my domain would be an essential skill for generating as much karmic energy as possible. In Eight Flower, I could only be a city lord for nine years, and to reach Peak Lord in that short timeframe, I would need to make significant contributions to my city. Knowing how best to nurture talented people could help me do that.

I made my decision.

“System, I want to purchase a 500,000-credit boost to my comprehension in each of the following areas: alchemy, cultivation, formations, and nurturing talents.”

Increased alchemy, cultivation, formations, and nurturing comprehension. Cost 2,000,000 credits. Discounted cost 1,000,000 credits.

I still wasn’t sure if this was the best option, but I would roll the dice. “Purchase.”

Purchase Confirmed. 25,806 credits remaining.

Mentally, I set aside the money needed for Mei’s knowledge and thought. I still had a thousand credits left. What, oh sagacious blessing of Mei, was I supposed to spend them on? I realized there was one huge possibility, but there was no way that it would only cost a thousand credits, right?

“System, how much would it cost to make it so that Mei’s blessing no longer works on me?”

Removing host as a valid target of Pei LiMei’s blessing. The cost of this is not possible to calculate… External assistance provided. Recalibrating… Calculating… Cost 900 credits.

Note: This change will only remove host as a valid direct target of Pei LiMei’s blessing. Her blessing will still consider host’s reactions when determining her best course of action when dealing with others.

Note: A change has been made to make this effect permanent.

There it was. I was absolutely certain that the ‘external assistance’ was provided by her gods-be-damned blessing. It was willingly ceasing its actions regarding me. If it could do this… Mei’s blessing had me constantly reevaluating its power. Her blessing had to be nearly as powerful as my own, possibly more.

Either extremely strong blessings were far more common than I had believed, or we had been intentionally placed next to each other. I wasn’t sure which was more likely, but my gut said it was the latter.

Did I want to buy it? I didn’t feel coerced here. It felt more like her blessing was simply giving me the option.

Buying it would allow me to know that her reactions were her own when we were alone. They still might not be genuine—everyone wore masks—but they would at least be hers, not her blessing’s. Even if this made her more likely to betray me, since her blessing wouldn’t be able to stop her, I would still prefer that situation over the current one.

The risk was that this would give me a false sense of security. Sure, the blessing wouldn’t guide her when we were alone in a private dining room, but the moment a waiter walked in, she would get exactly the information she needed to manipulate me.

Was this even a choice that I should make? It was her blessing. I wanted to do this as a defensive measure, but it would still be altering a friend’s blessing without her consent.

Her blessing was leaving me with 100 extra credits. I already knew what those 100 credits were for.

Once again, Mei and I sat across from each other in a private dining room.

She was cool and composed. She showed no signs of nervousness regarding either the Flower Blossoming or the conversation ahead of us. At that moment, I felt pity for her. Her world was about to be shaken, and the rock that steadied her would disappear.

“Mei,” I began with a delicate tone. “I want to discuss something with you, but it might be difficult. I want to do something that will have a significant impact on you, but it will only be temporary. I want your consent first, though.”

Mei smiled and nodded. “Of course, Fang.” Her voice was steady and confident.

Not telling her what I intended was a questionable decision on my part, but I felt that it was the right one to make if I wanted our conversation to be as real as possible.

“System,” I subvocalized, “Make it so that I’m not a valid target of Mei’s blessing for the duration of this conversation.”

Purchase Confirmed. External assistance provided. Cost 100 credits. 25,706 credits remaining.

Mei's eyes instantly shot open in panic. “What, what did you do!?”

She jumped up, and her chair crashed to the floor. She backed away from the table, putting as much distance between us as possible.

The screaming and loud noises alerted the waitress who was standing outside. She threw open the door of the room in alarm.

When Mei looked at the woman who had just entered, she visibly calmed down. The panic was still there, but a soothing influence was pushing down on her.

“Miss, what’s wrong?” asked the waitress.

“Nothing… Nothing… sorry for worrying you. I apologize.”

“Miss…”

“It’s alright,” said Mei, regaining her composure. “Everything is fine.”

The waitress had a worried look on her face, but she slowly exited and closed the door of the room.

After she left, Mei looked back at me, and the panic came back in full force, but she didn’t yell out.

I sat there calmly, allowing her to take as much time as she needed to adjust.

“What did you do?” Her tone was pleading, and there was a faint glimmer of wetness in her eyes.

“It’s only for this conversation. Your blessing will give you no information about how to respond to me.”

“How?”

“It’s something my blessing can do. I haven’t been able to use it before, but there was a… change. The details aren’t important. But don’t worry. Right now, it will only last for this one conversation.”

Mei was still breathing heavily, but her panic was slowly starting to ebb. “What do you mean by right now?”

“That’s what I wanted to discuss with you.” I looked her in the eyes. “I can make this change permanent. Your blessing will still work normally with everyone else, but it won’t work on me ever again. This is your blessing, though. I don’t want to choose for you. I want you to decide.”

Her breathing started to speed up again, and her hands began to shake. She had been living under the constant pressure of her blessing for years, and she had forgotten how to live without it.

“I… I need to think…” she stammered. “Tomorrow, can I tell you tomorrow?”

I shook my head sadly. “I’m sorry. It’s… I don’t trust your blessing. When you leave this room, you will be back under its influence. I want to hear what you think, not what it tells you to think.”

“W… Why?”

I breathed out. “My blessing is far more powerful than I’ve told anyone. I can disable your blessing, so… Anyway, I can’t share the details, I’m sorry. It’s too dangerous for both you and me. In my situation, I can’t trust your blessing, and if you’re always under its influence around me, that might cause problems. I don’t know if this is a real solution, but it was what was provided, so I want to give you the choice.”

Mei collapsed to the floor with her head hanging down. I didn’t push her to make a decision. We had as much time as we needed.

Tears began falling down her cheeks. “Do it. If this is the only way… Maybe it’s for the best.”

She looked up at me, and her face was a mask of grim resolve. “Just… do it.”

She looked heartbroken at my admission that I had never truly trusted her. I felt a pang of sorrow when I saw this, but it also firmed my resolve. I didn’t want to hurt her, but at the same time, knowing these emotions were genuine allowed me to drop the stone I had been holding in my heart.

“System, permanently remove me as a valid target for Mei’s blessing.”

Purchase Confirmed. External assistance provided. Cost 900 credits. 24,806 credits remaining.

I spoke openly, not lowering my voice to hide it from her. She had given me her trust. I wasn’t willing to tell her everything, but this was a measure of trust that I could extend in return.

“System, give Mei the knowledge she needs for the Flower Blossoming competition.”

Purchase Confirmed. Cost 24,806 credits. 0 credits remaining.

After that meal, I didn’t see Mei much over the next couple of weeks. She was busy preparing for the competition, but she was also avoiding me. I didn’t push. We both needed time to understand what would happen next.

I didn’t attend the Flower Blossoming. The result had been decided the moment Mei and I finished our last meal together. There was no need to witness it. Part of me wanted to go to support her, but she didn’t need my support, and I couldn’t help but feel that my presence would do more harm than good.

After Mei was selected as the Water Flower, she was taken away to learn the nuances of her new role, and I didn’t know if I would ever see her again in this life. Becoming the Water Groom appeared to be my best option for advancing to Martial Lord, but I wasn’t willing to commit to that path too early.

My goal was to become a Pill King, travel to the Brilliant Sun Empire, and make contact with its royal family. Becoming the Water Groom might help me with this, but I could take my time and learn more before making a final decision.

For now, Mei and I would go our separate ways, and we would see where life took us.