Sweat beaded down my forehead as I stared unblinkingly at the ball of medicinal energy in my pill furnace. Over the past two hours, I had meticulously combed through the energy of all three herbs and fused them together as best my skills in herbalism and alchemy would allow. It was time for the next step.

Exerting my will, I pulled the strands of medicinal energy tighter, forcing the ball to contract while also adding definition to its shape. Almost immediately, it exploded in a torrent of energy, and I had to activate the furnace’s formations to keep everything from unraveling. Then, using my soul, I started investigating the ball, looking for clues.

Where was this additional energy coming from?

It wasn’t coming from the herbs themselves. That much I could be certain of. I had been told that the additional energy in patterned pills came from their toxins, but I was now confident that this was incorrect.

I hadn’t spent much time studying Central Continent herbalism, but I had taken a trip to one of the Hall’s herb farms. Both my own senses and those of the herbalists on staff had confirmed that there was no way pill toxins contained enough excess energy to empower two- and three-patterned pills. Somehow, this excess energy was being generated during the process of concocting the pill itself.

So, where was it coming from? If I could figure that out, then I could unlock the secret to forming pills with additional patterns.

As I stared into the heart of my pill furnace, the energy storm it contained began to contract and die down. So, reaching out with my wood and alchemy affinities, I began manipulating the structure of the medicinal energy once again. I pulled the energies tighter and blended them together as seamlessly as I could.

The shape of the medicinal energy came into focus. It was now a mass of tangled vines, with each vine being a coil of small threads, and each small thread being a crystalline helix.

A second wave of energy erupted, one that was 10 times more powerful than the first, and I shifted my attention back to trying to find where it was coming from.

With this second wave, I was able to confirm that the energy was emanating from the center of each coiling vine. It wasn't coming from the threads of energy themselves. It was appearing as if from nowhere, from the space between the threads.

I spent several long moments examining each coil of medicinal energy, but eventually, the excess energy started to die down. So, reaching out with my affinities, soul, and pill fire qi, I attempted something that I had only succeeded at once before.

The medicinal energy was now a perfectly defined bundle of vines. There was no way to improve it any further. For several months, I had been stumped at how to proceed from here, but a week earlier, I had figured out what I needed to do.

Reaching out with my wood affinity, I slowly untangled the mass of vines. Then, I uncoiled their threads and untwisted their helical strands.

I didn’t stop this untwisting motion when the threads were straight, however. I continued until each strand returned to a helical shape, one that was going in the opposite direction. Then, I coiled the individual threads into vines that were a mirror image of their previous selves. Finally, I forced the vines together and reformed them into a tangled mass of energy.

The instant this was complete, a third wave of energy, 10 times more powerful than the second, erupted from my furnace.

Somehow, simply reshaping the medicinal energy had called this energy forth. I tried to understand how this was happening, but no matter how long I looked, I couldn’t make any sense of it.

This seemed to confirm one of my wild theories.

Maintaining my grip on the roiling energies, I pulled my focus away from my furnace and began muttering through gritted teeth. “System, give me a permanent peak four-star formation affinity.”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 1.6 trillion credits.

As this affinity burrowed into my body, I lost control of the ball of energy in my pill furnace, and it almost exploded. Thankfully, though, I had thought to add suppression formations for just such an eventuality.

Once I regained my focus, I turned my attention back to the ball of energy and tried to analyze it with my new affinity. Surprisingly, though, it didn’t help.

“Not a formation?” I had been certain…

The third explosion of energy had been intense, but it was already starting to fade. I didn’t have much more time. I had to make a snap decision.

“System, give me a permanent peak four-star affinity for talismans.”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 1.6 trillion credits.

I saw it. The medicinal energy wasn’t creating some strange type of formation. It was creating an even stranger form of writing. It wasn’t that the energy of patterns was born from pill toxins. It was that pill toxins were being used to form an integral part of the proper script. This opened up the possibility of using some other source of energy to replace the toxins. Unfortunately, though, even with this new affinity, I lacked the knowledge I needed to understand exactly what this ‘talisman’ was doing or how it was doing it.

Before the third wave of energy could fade entirely, I flexed my will and condensed the medicinal energy down into a pill.

High-Purity Rank 1 Qi Gathering Pill, 18% Medicinal Efficacy, 3 Patterns. Value: 2 gold 40 silver.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

Normal three-patterned Qi Gathering Pills were worth nearly 3,000 gold and were highly valued by both Peak Masters and low-level Grandmasters. Though not as powerful as Rank 3 pills, three-patterned Rank 1 pills were more powerful than any normal Rank 2 pill while still maintaining the gentler nature of Rank 1 pills.

Because of all the time that I had wasted studying this pill’s structure, however, most of its excess energy had been allowed to escape, so it was now little more than a curiosity piece.

Shaking my head, I crushed the pill and sent its powder to nurture the plants on my Plane of Wood. Then, I dusted myself off and began sorting through my stockpile of pills. After several months spent squirreled away in my workshop, it was finally time for me to go back to the Assignment Hall.

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

I needed greater access to the library. I needed books on both herbalism and talismans.

The moment I stepped out of my workshop, something felt… off. A few Disciples were hanging around in the hallway, and they kept shooting me subtle glances.

As I passed, one of them shouted at me, “Young Master Su! Good luck!”

Confused, I just dropped my head in acknowledgment and kept walking.

A few steps away from the Assignment Hall, a young woman ran up to me and gave me a martial salute. “Good luck in the competition, Young Master Su.”

Again, I nodded my head, feigning understanding. “Thank you.”

Passing her by, I opened the door to the Assignment Hall and stepped inside. The moment I did so, all of the waiting servants and assistants broke out into hushed whispers.

“Is that him? Pill Lord Yong’s genius disciple?”

“Yes! He’s only a Martial Disciple, but he’s already been able to make a patterned pill!”

“That’s just a rumor.”

“No! My cousin was serving tea for Pill Lord Gansukh’s fourth disciple. According to her, Disciple Alchemist Ankhbayar’s furnace exploded, and Lord Gansukh spent over 10 minutes yelling at him about how worthless he was compared to Lord Yong’s disciple.”

Hearing this made me clench my fists in annoyance.

As I reached the counter for Disciple Alchemists, I had a decision to make. I had only planned on handing over enough High-Purity pills to become a Grade 3 Disciple Alchemist, but Jon and Lord Yong were forcing my hand.

Slowing my pace, I flexed my will and created a soul avatar in my inner world. “System, if I sell patterned pills to the Hall of the Herb Lord, proving that I can make them, what effect will this have on Jon’s mission?”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 15 million credits. 234,722,770,648,000 credits remaining

Estimated impact is negligible. Host proving that he can concoct Rank 1 patterned pills is unlikely to affect the success or rewards of Yong JinZhan’s mission.

Then what the hell were they playing at? I knew for damn certain that they had no idea whether I had created patterned pills or not. I had examined every nook and cranny of my workshop, with both energy vision and my affinities. Unless they were working with a Martial Spirit, there was no way they could have seen what I was doing.

One of them might have been using an information blessing on me, but that seemed unlikely. If they knew what I was doing, why would they only say I had made a ‘patterned pill’? Why not tell everyone that I had made a three-patterned pill? This felt more like they were just guessing.

I sighed. If what I did wasn’t going to affect Jon’s mission, then I might as well continue to play along.

Reaching into my storage bag, I pulled out every single High Purity pill that I had concocted over the past several months. Then, I added two dozen one-patterned pills to the mix.

After tallying everything up, the attendant was shaking in anxiety. “Your total comes to… 5,889 gold. 4,230 of which came from a single batch of training herbs. Con… Congratulations, Disciple Alchemist Su. You have been promoted to Grade 3.”

I waved dismissively and turned to leave.

Before I could, the attendant stopped me. “Disciple Su… Lord… Lord Yong has requested your presence. He is currently in the sixth floor's second workshop.”

I cupped my fists to the man. “Thank you.”

Not knowing what was awaiting me, I didn’t immediately head to the sixth floor. Instead, I ducked into the library and purchased every book available to me.

The Hall had only paid a little over 1,000 gold for my pills, but Rank 1 books were cheap. 1,000 gold was more than enough to buy everything that the Hall of the Herb Lord had on offer, especially since their selection of books for professions other than herbalism and alchemy was rather lacking.

After stuffing my purchases into my storage bag, I left a grumpy librarian behind and climbed up to the sixth floor.

As I entered his workshop, Lord Yong gave me a wide smile. “Disciple Fang, it is lovely to see you again.”

I cupped my fists in greeting. “Lord Yong.”

My lack of overt respect annoyed the man, but he kept this well hidden. “Disciple Fang, as I’m sure you’ve heard, the Hall of the Herb Lord’s end-of-year competition is fast approaching. While I would hate to lose you so soon, this is your best opportunity to join the Palace of the Herb Sovereign. With your talents, I am confident that you will have no difficulty in securing victory and stepping onto a far grander stage than this small kingdom.”

“I see… What are the rules of this competition?”

Lord Yong rubbed his hands together, clearly excited that I had taken an interest. “There are three tiers. One for Grandmasters under the age of 40, one for Masters under the age of 30, and one for Disciples under the age of 20. As this is only a Lord-level Hall, only the champions of each tier will be allowed to join the Palace, so you must do your best. Anyone

who enters the Palace as a Disciple will have the chance to ascend to Emperor one day, but if you can enter after being in the Hall for only a single year, you might be able to go even further.”

I nodded and gestured for him to continue.

“During the competition, you will be able to use any tools or blessings available to you to concoct any pill you wish, but you may only use herbs provided by the Hall. And, until the competition begins, only the Hall Master knows which herbs those will be. The winner will be the person who concocts the most valuable pill.”

“I see.” I took a deep breath and let it out. As I did, I reconnected to the avatar in my inner world.

“System, if Jon and I both enter this upcoming alchemy competition, will his blessing consider it a challenge? Will my participation give him a boost to his abilities, even if I don’t challenge him directly?”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 2 million credits. 234,722,768,648,000 credits remaining

Yes.

I looked Lord Yong directly in the eye. “Alright, call your Young Master over here. It’s time for us to have a little chat.”

Lord Yong’s smile instantly vanished. “What?”

“Call Jon over. I need to speak with him.”

The Pill Lord’s eyes darted frantically around my body, and it was obvious that he wasn’t sure what to do. Eventually, however, he pulled out a formation stone and activated it. Less than a minute later, Jon stepped into the workshop.

I nodded at the man. “Okay, you want to face me in this alchemy competition, right? You want me to challenge you?”

Jon looked at Lord Yong, and I could sense that he was agitated, but he did his best to hide it. “Of course. You’re the best alchemist in the Hall. It would be an honor to compete against you.”

I let out a light snort. “Let’s make a bet. If I beat you in the upcoming competition, then you will hand over the Rank 2 and 3 manuals for the Writ of Pill Fire.”

Jon’s eyes widened in excitement. “And if you lose?”

I waved this question away. “Whatever you wish.”

“Deal!” Jon’s decision was immediate, not wanting to give me a chance to back out.

“Make sure to bring the technique manuals to the competition. If you don’t, then I’ll consider it your forfeit.” I wasn’t sure if Jon’s blessing would agree with this assessment, but it was worth a shot.

Either way, it didn't matter since Jon eagerly accepted this condition. “Of course. No problem at all.”

Without another word, I cupped my fists, gave the man a slight bow, and left.

Had this been the right move? Maybe not, but this competition was clearly the endpoint of Jon’s mission. The System refused to give me any details, but that mission was likely something akin to “Defeat the Hall’s best Disciple Alchemist during its end-of-year competition.”

If I ran away and chose not to compete, then Jon would score an automatic victory. But if I did compete, his blessing would consider it a ‘challenge’ and give him a temporary boost to his abilities. Jon’s blessing—the Earthly Dao—had trapped me. All I could do was push forward. Thankfully, by confronting the man, I had at least found a way to get my hands on those technique manuals.

Was this a risk? Yes, but it was a calculated one. If I attacked Jon with my soul, I could easily see a hidden treasure blocking my strike or his blessing suddenly boosting his soul power beyond all reason. Alchemy, on the other hand, was a bit more complicated. Jon’s blessing might be able to boost his affinities, but would it really be able to provide him with millennia of knowledge, give him extensive information about three separate professions, endow him with the necessary muscle memory, and boost his affinities?

I highly doubted his blessing had that level of power, and I could only hope this assessment was accurate. After all, if it did have that much power, then I never stood a chance from the very beginning.

Of course, there was one final gambit I could try… I could die. Jon’s blessing would almost certainly give him the win for this, and he might be awarded some form of time loop power, so there was no reason to even consider this unless my loss was inevitable. However, if worse came to worst, I needed to be prepared.