The Hu Clan eagerly took over the task of researching and improving upon my designs for an automated pill factory. Our agreement was simple. They would provide the formation expertise, and I would support them with my alchemy knowledge. At the end of the project, a comprehensive manual would be produced to explain everything we created, and we would each get a copy to use as we pleased.

While I had only showcased the formations for Nutrition Pills in our first meeting, I had also prepared initial diagrams for three other Rank 0 pills that were in high demand among the lower classes. The key traits they had in common were that they all only needed a single herb and that each of those herbs contained robust medicinal energy. I mentioned that we needed to develop a formation that could combine energies from multiple herbs, but everyone agreed that we should develop working assembly lines for these four pills first.

The hardest part of the process was the purification assembly. With Nutrition Pills, this hadn’t been too bad, since the toxins would evaporate at even the slightest hint of qi. Other herbs, however, required the use of more complicated techniques, and that needed to be replicated in our formations.

I had several lengthy discussions with specialists from the Hu Clan, and they seemed to understand what we needed to do for our target pills, but it would take them time to refine my original designs. I offered to stay and help them with this research, but they made it clear that I would only be in the way. I didn’t have the knowledge of formations that would be necessary to assist them.

I wanted to argue about this, but after a bit of self-reflection, I realized that it was true. I should let the professionals handle things and not get in their way. There was a risk that they would try to cheat me, but our agreement–sworn on the Oath Stone–was sound enough that I didn’t need to worry. The most that they could do was develop the technology in a novel direction and not share the additional information with me, but that didn’t cross my bottom line.

The Hu Clan’s involvement meant that I no longer had to focus all my attention on this project, and while Minister Tang was hard at work building my factory, he would still need weeks or months to complete it. Therefore, I could finally set aside my obsession with automation, at least for a time.

I wanted to advance to Martial Lord so that I could begin learning Rank 4 alchemy, but with my current rate of karmic energy production, I estimated that it would still be several more months before I had enough for my breakthrough. I considered forcing the issue by randomly choosing people from my city and stuffing their bellies full of cultivation pills, but this would likely just create a bunch of cultivation-mad powerhouses.

So, with all my active projects put on hold for the moment, I had a bit of freedom to explore other pursuits.

Learning more about general governance would be helpful, and it would have many applications for future lives, either here or elsewhere. I already had ideas for certain economic reforms, and based on my experiences in the Su Clan, I could only guess that any justice system in this world would need a large overhaul to come anywhere close to being what I would consider ‘just.’ In Eight Flower, though, this wasn’t a Lord’s responsibility. My ministers would have a fit if I started meddling in such things.

I also considered spending some time focusing on training my fighting skills… but no. I didn’t see the point. The Blue Wind Pavilion and Eight Flower Kingdom were tall trees shading me from most storms, and I had prepared defensive formations and poisons to defend against any sneak attacks from people who chose to ignore these powers. If those protections fell, then no amount of three-legged kung fu would save me.

After reviewing the options open to me, I decided to visit the Water Library. The thought of reading hundreds of books just to store them away in my mental library wasn’t exactly thrilling, but it was something that needed to be done.

The Water Library was divided into seven sections, one for cultivation and martial techniques and six for the different profession skills.

There wasn’t much to say about the cultivation and martial technique section. It was extremely lackluster, and there were only a few manuals inside that I didn’t already have a copy of.

Moving to the profession sections, I decided to start with the two smallest ones, those for talisman artists and illusionists. There weren’t many books available here, and I could only barely understand the ones that were. I spent a couple of days carefully reading through all of the books, but I didn’t have the necessary background to grasp what they were trying to tell me, and most of the information slipped from my mind only a moment after I read it. In the end, all I was left with was a vague impression that both professions were heavily focused around combat.

After I was finished with those two, I visited the alchemy section. As Minister Jin had said, the information here was basic. There were a few books with very slight variations of skills and recipes that I already knew, but reading through this section of the library provided me with almost nothing.

The formation section was where things started to get interesting. Among the many books, there were three subsections with specific information that caught my eye: using formations in alchemy, using formations in herbalism, and using formations in beast taming. Each of these subsections had formations that were of particular use for the three other professions.

I also found several designs for formations that required reagents. These included alchemy concoctions, herbalist-produced plants, and parts of beasts. This made me realize that formations had a deeper connection to the other professions than I had previously considered.

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The herbalism section had several techniques for assisting in the growth of plants, but only three of them captured my full attention. The first detailed how to properly grow plants that were intended for use as reagents in formations. The second focused on plants used as feed for demon beasts. The third described the use of manure from demon beasts to boost the productivity of fields. Again, this showed me how herbalism was connected to the other three basic professions.

Seeing a pattern here, I took out a piece of paper and wrote down these four basic professions at the corners of a square. I had already established the connection between formation specialists and the other professions, so I drew a two-way arrow between it and the other three. With herbalism, I had already found information for how it was connected to beast taming, so I drew a two-way arrow there. I also already knew that herbs were used in alchemy, so I drew a one-way arrow from herbalism to alchemy.

One of the Rank 0 ‘pills’ I was working on producing with the Hu Clan was a powder that acted as a type of fertilizer. While this particular pill was only useful with mortal crops, there had to be variations for higher-Rank plants.

I opened up my mental library and flipped through various recipe books. Sure enough, I found powders for assisting in the growth of Rank 1 and 2 herbs. So, I completed the two-way arrow between alchemy and herbalism.

Looking at my chart, I found that there was only one connection missing. There were two-way arrows connecting each of the four basic professions. All of them except for alchemy and beast taming. Did such a connection exist? Yes, it had to.

I rushed over to the beast taming section and began reading to find out how alchemists interacted with tamers. The obvious answer was that there were pills that could be used to help beasts gain power. However, after reading through dozens of books, I still hadn’t found any references to alchemical pills or powders designed specifically for beasts.

Neither the beast tamer section nor the alchemist section referenced any method of the two professions interacting. Was it possible that every other profession would be interconnected except for alchemy and taming?

I immediately rejected this notion. There had to be a connection. Beasts could use pills, and alchemists must somehow be able to use parts of beasts in their concoctions. I had never heard anyone talk about this before, and the area of the Pavilion that sold alchemy ingredients didn’t have any animal parts for sale, but I could feel that it had to be possible.

Two important questions suddenly appeared in my mind.

“System, how much would it cost to complete my mastery of Rank 1 alchemy?”

Cost 9 million credits.

Why was it so expensive?

I might learn countless new herbs and recipes, but I doubted that doing so would have much meaning. At this point, I had an extremely well-developed innate sense of how to use low-level herbs. Even if there were hypothetical herbs of rare elements that I had never seen before, it didn’t make sense to me that learning to use herbs I may never see in a hundred lifetimes would be so expensive. Also, if the herbs were that rare and powerful, could they really be considered part of Rank 1 alchemy?

This purchase might teach me some new way to boost the efficacy of my pills, but again, that idea felt underwhelming. I had already spent time learning to boost most herbs, and doing so rarely justified the time and energy it required. There might have been a crazy trick technique to make herbs infinitely better, but again, even if that trick existed, how could that be considered Rank 1 alchemy?

There had to be something else, and now I had the lead I needed. I didn’t need to ask. I already knew what the answer would be. Even if the system told me I had to pay to learn the price, it wouldn’t change my conviction. Even if the price it gave me was different, I was already convinced of the truth of my answer. Still, I asked anyway.

“System, how much to learn everything possible about the connection between beast taming and Rank 1 alchemy?”

Cost 9 million credits.

I smiled but decided to ask one more question, just to be sure.

“System, how much for a complete mastery of Rank 1 alchemy, excluding its connection to beast taming?”

Cost 21,562 credits.

So, a few bits of knowledge in the margins, but everything else was tied up with beast taming.

9 million credits was a high asking price, but I would be able to afford it after just a single death as a Martial Lord. I didn’t plan to make any such purchase, however. Learning and experimenting with alchemy was… fun. Why would I want to ruin that fun by directly purchasing such knowledge from the System? Instead, I wanted to figure this out on my own.

Where should I start?

Beast taming had to have some way to supplement alchemy, that was clear to me. How? The obvious answer was that parts of demon beasts could be used as ‘herbs.’ However, I had already scoured the Metal District’s libraries, and nothing like this was mentioned in any of their books.

This wasn’t common knowledge that people would just leave out in the open. The Pavilion might be able to provide me with some leads, but even that was questionable. Aside from grabbing a beast and studying it myself, I only had one other idea where I might find information about this.

I opened the book that Pill Emperor Li had given me and started reading. I didn’t focus on any details or explanations of Rank 4 alchemy, since most of it just slipped from my mind anyway. Instead, I only searched for information about using parts from demon beasts.

I flipped through the entire book twice, just to be sure. There was nothing. None of the recipes used any type of beast material, and nothing even hinted at the possibility.

After returning the book to my storage bag, I leaned back in my chair.

No one seemed to have any idea that demon beasts could be used to make pills. Was it possible that no one had ever considered such a possibility? Maybe I was just a frog in a well, and outside this small corner of the world, such alchemy was as common as dirt, but that didn’t seem right.

Knowledge of how to use beast materials in alchemy had a cost of millions of credits. Could that mean no one in the world–or at least, no one on this continent–knew how to do such a thing? They had to have thought of the possibility. I wouldn’t allow myself to be so arrogant as to believe I was the first to have such an idea. So, if no one knew how to use beasts in alchemy, then there had to be complicating factors that I wasn’t aware of.

North Lake City was the perfect place for what I needed. I didn’t need to learn beast taming, but I did need to research and study the beasts themselves, and there were a multitude of tamers in the area.

As a water cultivator, Mei had likely been studying taming, so I sent a messenger to ask for advice on where I could go to study a variety of beasts. Shortly thereafter, I received a response.

Mei had suggested that I visit the Ouyang Clan.