Thanks to the customers who had frequented my teahouse, I had been able to gain a relatively solid understanding of the area surrounding the Yellow Flower Borough. Most of what I heard was just gossip, but it had been enough for me to draw a decent map of nearby areas, know which boroughs were dangerous, and chart a safe route from Yellow Flower back to the Palace Borough.

In truth, the City of Selfless Courage wasn’t actually that dangerous. Yes, the place was riddled with bandits, and yes, there was the occasional small warlord to watch out for, but since these were just Returnees playing around, there wasn’t too much straight-out murder.There were only two real dangers that I needed to be careful of, and both were easily avoided.

The first was ‘The Butcher,’ a madman who had settled down in the area between the Palace Borough and the Stone Borough. The second was a new ‘hero’ who had popped up in the region to the south of the Stone Borough. While not as crazed as The Butcher, this hero was said to wantonly kill anyone she found distasteful.

Therefore, to play it safe, I took a wide detour around the Stone Borough and approached the Palace from the north. This added a couple of extra days to my journey, but it also ensured that I didn’t run into any surprises.

Upon returning to the Palace, my first instinct was to head to my workshop and start cultivating. However, the first stage of the competition to join the Temple of the Herb Saint was only a few months away, and I still didn’t know what it would involve. So, I instead chose to visit Emperor Chan to gather more information.

After we greeted each other, Emperor Chan looked at me with expectant eyes. “How was it? Were you able to take your basic combat skills to the next level?”

How should I answer that? I did spend a little time practicing the moon spade, and I didn’t want to disappoint him too much.

I gave a hesitant nod. “I believe I learned what I needed to.”

Chan gave me a pleased smile, and I could see that he wanted to ask about what I had gone through, so I jumped in with a question of my own to change the subject.

“The Palace is going to hold an internal alchemy competition soon, right? You said that, in order to gain access to better herbs, I need to place in the top five, but you didn’t give me any details. Is the competition just going to be like the one at the Hall of the Herb King? Do I need to do anything special to prepare?”

Thrown from his previous train of thought, Chan shook his head as he considered my question. “N… No. It’s not the same. Not at all.”

Chan guided me to the room’s sitting area as he explained. “This competition isn’t just about being the best alchemist possible. The is a competition to select the next generation of the Temple’s leadership, including the next Saint. So, what the Temple really wants are talented alchemists who know how to work with others. Alchemists who will be willing to pass along their knowledge to the generation that comes after them.”

I nodded in understanding. “And, what does this mean in practice?”

“During the competition to join the Temple, which will be held in fifteen years, you won’t be competing on your own—you’ll be competing as a team. Each of the Palaces on the Western Island will form a team of its five best alchemists, and these three teams will compete against each other for an opportunity to join the Temple. The Palace that places first will be allowed to send all five people to the Temple, second place will be allowed to send three, and third place will only be allowed to send one. In this competition, while having the best alchemist on your team is nice, it’s far more important not to have the worst.”

“I see. So, this upcoming internal competition. It’s to decide the members of our team?”

Chan shook his head. “No, that won’t be decided for another ten years yet. This is just to let everyone get to know more about their future teammates. Those who do well will receive rewards to help them advance further, and if anyone catches your eye, the two of you can begin working together.”

I tapped on my armrest in thought.

I had to assume that Jon had joined the Palace in the Nine Rivers Domain. He would almost certainly be waiting for me at that final competition. Based on his personality, and the fact that he intentionally offended everyone he met, I had a hard time believing that Jon would make a good leader for a team of talented alchemists, but I couldn’t be too sure. It was all too possible that he had copied some powerful blessing that would allow him to empower his teammates beyond all reason.

I had already beaten Jon once, and if I had to, I was confident that I could do it again, but I needed to be careful. I might even need to take an active interest in the Hall’s other alchemists.

“So, what is internal competition going to be? Is it some kind of team challenge?”

“No, like I said, it's just to let you get to know each other. One week before the competition begins, you will need to provide the Palace with the name of the pill you intend to concoct, along with a list of all the herbs that you plan to use. This information will then be shared among your competitors. On the day of the competition, everyone will concoct their pills one at a time, and after each person is done, you’ll have an opportunity to suggest ways they could improve.”

I nodded. “I should be able to handle that. I haven’t spent much time critiquing other people’s alchemy skills, specifically, but I doubt I’ll have much trouble giving my peers a few pointers.”

Emperor Chan half-grinned at me, but only for a second. “What makes this competition difficult is the way you’ll be graded. Aside from just the value of your pill and the incisiveness of the insights you share, you’ll also be graded on the uniqueness of your pill. If you concoct a standard Qi Gathering Pill, then you’ll receive a low score, even if your pill has both a high Rank and several patterns.”

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The meaning of this was obvious. “They want us to share our secret recipes?”

Chan nodded. “Yes, according to the urgamal, this is a way to promote the growth of the Palace as a whole—an important task for anyone who wishes to become one of its leaders.”

When Chan said this, there was a touch of anger and skepticism in his voice, but he didn’t voice his thoughts openly. After all, neither of us knew who might be using the mountain’s plant life to listen in on our conversation. Instead, he just grudgingly pulled a sheet of paper from his storage bag.

“This is a secret recipe developed by the Chan Clan. It’s for a six-patterned Rank 3 Saber Aura Pill. After taking it, your body will be covered in a powerful saber energy that will cut anything you touch. This effect only lasts five minutes, and it takes a lot of practice to get used to walking when every step you take causes saber energy to cut the ground below you, so this pill isn’t considered especially valuable. However, this is also what makes the pill unique—no one else has bothered to research it. You might not be able to master a saber-based pill before the start of the competition, but if you can, this might be your best shot at getting a high ranking.”

As I accepted Chan’s recipe, I bowed my head. I had no idea what a new, unknown Rank 3 recipe might be worth, but how many clans out there would be willing to give away an item that might allow a person to join the Temple—an item that might allow a person to become the next Saint. Was this a personal gift from Emperor Chan, or was this a gift from his entire clan?

“Thank you.” Even if I didn’t end up using this recipe in the competition, offering it to me was a gesture that demanded respect. “If I master this recipe to the point that I can concoct pills with all six patterns, how do you think I’ll fare in the upcoming competition? Will it be enough for first place?”

Chan let out a sigh. “Unfortunately, while you were gone, one of the Palace’s younger Lords was able to gain the insights he needed to breakthrough to Martial King. As a reward, he was given access to a variety of high-level resources and techniques, including one of the three-star workshops.”

Emperor Chan’s expression turned serious. “Even if you can beat him, don’t. Mandakh is highly favored right now, and if you, a relative unknown, were to suddenly upstage him, it could cause… problems. Instead, just aim for third or fourth place. This will help you build your reputation, and in ten years, when the Palace is selecting its final team, fewer people will be surprised if you come in first—especially if you work more on your reputation before then.”

I froze. The Palace had a new golden child named Mandakh? And he just recently gained new insights that allowed him to advance to King? That couldn't be a coincidence, could it?

Not wanting to explain everything that happened in the City of Selfless Courage, I stood and gave Emperor Chan a partial bow. “Again, thank you.”

After leaving Emperor Chan’s workshop, I headed directly to my own. If I wanted to be able to concoct a high-quality Saber Aura Pill during the upcoming competition, then I had a lot of work ahead of me.

Honestly, after having some time to think about it, I was a little unhappy that Chan had even given me that recipe. Not only did it use a type of energy that I had never worked with before, but Chan had specifically told me not to jump ahead and study pills beyond Rank 1. Now, he was asking me to skip all the way to Rank 3.

This had to be some kind of test, either from Chan or from his clan. Were they trying to use this recipe to measure my talent? To see if I had enough talent to concoct those Rank 6 Ascension Pills that they were after? I couldn’t help but be annoyed by this, but I could understand their reasoning. And, no matter what, I was still grateful that they had given me a valuable secret recipe.

Before I could begin my studies in earnest, however, I first needed to advance. So, after entering my cultivation chamber and taking an Energy Explosion Pill to eliminate any remnants of Chan’s Cicada Pill, I set up a Rank 3 Qi Gathering Formation, pulled out my crescent moon spade, and got to cultivating.

I doubted that anyone would be bored enough to watch me cultivate as a Martial Disciple, but since it was possible, I didn’t want to use a spirit fire to create moon spade qi. So, I was instead forced to rely on the help of Moon Spade Attunement Pills. This wasn’t quite as nice as using my spirit fire had been, but with the help of three-patterned pills, I was still able to quickly advance.

Ascending to Martial Master was… interesting. I still had the toxic pill qi meridians in my body, so I only needed to reconstruct the moon spade meridians. The problem was that I had to gradually pass pill qi through the toxic meridians as I built out the moon spade meridians, while also not letting it get out of control. If pill qi started circulating through my entire meridian network before the moon spade meridians were in place, my cultivation base would become unbalanced, causing any number of issues, both physical and mental.

This was tricky, and it practically forced me to advance all the way to Peak Master in a single sitting, but overall, it wasn’t too bad.

My Rank 3 cultivation technique, however, was a new problem altogether.

First, I needed to create an upper dantian out of toxic energy. Then, I needed to create a lower dantian out of moon spade qi. These were both straightforward, but the central dantian, the place where I would eventually create my karmic core, needed to be constructed from pill spade qi.

After constructing my first two dantians, I had to blend my pill qi and moon spade qi together, then weave the mixture into a dantian, all while being careful not to let it infect the rest of my energy body. I was able to make this work, but the process made me doubt the wisdom of using this dual-element technique. Unfortunately, though, with my toxic meridians locked in place, there was little that I could do to change it.

When all three dantians were finally complete, it was time for me to ascend to Martial Grandmaster. However, this was when I ran into yet another issue. There wasn’t enough ambient energy for me to ascend. Not enough moon spade qi, and not enough pill qi.

The lack of moon spade qi could be solved with a better Attunement Pill or, if necessary, a spirit fire, but what was I supposed to do about the lack of pill qi? I might be able to buy a pill-based fire seed from the System, but if a moon spade spirit fire was dangerous to show off, how much worse would a pill-based fire be?

This lack of energy would become a serious problem as I continued to advance, but for the moment, it could be solved by just using a better Qi Gathering Formation.

I didn’t have a Rank 4 formation with a built-in pill qi filter, and I didn’t want to risk making one while being spied on in the Palace. So, I instead pulled out a generic Rank 5 formation.

Of course, using such a powerful formation deep within the Palace’s mountain would cause issues of its own, but thankfully, those were problems that other people would have to deal with, not me.

Surrounded by the power of a Rank 5 formation, I was able to push through to Martial Grandmaster 1 after only a few hours of cultivation. I wanted to continue, advancing all the way to Peak Grandmaster, but before I could, one of the Palace’s attendants knocked on my door, interrupting me.

For some reason, I was being moved to a workshop on the outer edge of the mountain.