Stuck in a crowd with two guards on either side left Fairy Xu in a state she was rarely in, she felt stressed. Her contact with an elder succeeded, but unfortunately, it went nowhere when they found out the Huang Clan had interest in her. Huang Yun became a nuisance, and she was regretting ever walking down that road where he picked her up.
While she watched him beat up on a weaker opponent, she slowly concluded her failure to connect with a sect elder was her good fortune. Sect politics were difficult to navigate, and climbing the ranks took time. However, if the old man’s offer was real, she would potentially have an opportunity to learn techniques far outside the limits of normal alchemy.
When she went back to her room after leaving the restaurant, she drew the shades and poured through the first experiment’s notes. The manual logged a series of failures in the first experiment, detailing the possible reasons and solutions, and after four corrections, there was a successful pill creation. It was a simple qi condensation pill, but it was a pill formed outside the methods of alchemy known to her.
Although she was unable to understand the symbolic writing, most of the notes were in common language, and after a few hours of practice, she was able to draw the arrays on paper. The silver solution needed was thick, and dried quickly, but eventually she perfected a technique creating thin lines that matched the detailed notes.
The first experiment was the creation of qi condensation pills, which were normally the first pills an alchemist learned because of their simplicity. With nearly 30 known pill formulas, sects often forced large monthly quotas on low-level alchemists to boost the strength of our court disciples. It required a massive supply, but most formulas used low value spirit herbs that were easy to grow.
The pill in the manual was quite common, using Green Star Grass, Red Turf Root, and Purple Witch Weed, which allowed for an extraction of 40% efficiency; however, the manual claimed the array’s extracted 100% of the plant’s essence. It was said that a grandmaster alchemist could extract 90% of the essence from high quality spirit plants, but 100% was unheard of.
Taking a deep breath, she placed her palm on the circle and injected it with qi until a bright flash occurred, blinding her briefly. When she opened her eyes again, she was ecstatic to find the Green Star Grass fused with the Purple Witch Weed. However, the paper turned to dust and the Red Turf root remained.
Although the manual did not say anything about the paper turning to dust, she quickly surmised that the materials were poor, and the qi input exceeded the amount the paper could handle. Grabbing the next piece of paper in order, she placed the herbs in the center and repeated the previous steps, after which, all three herbs had fused.
The results were shocking. She never thought it was possible to fuse herbs using arrays; however, when she attempted to create the pellet using the third array, the herbs turned to dust along with the paper. It was a complete failure, and she did not know why.
Throughout the night, she created arrays and attempted the pill formation dozens of times, but in the end, no matter what she tried, none worked. Trial and error was common in alchemy, but after writing out every combination in her own notes and failing each time, she felt exhausted.
Deciding to give up for the night and restart the next day, she stacked the paper arrays left over on top of each other, and prepared to sleep when it struck her. Stacked together the arrays connected and formed a far more complicated build. The manual did not make note of this, but it was impossible to miss how perfectly they lined up.
After placing the three arrays on top of each other and beginning with a new set of herbs, she infused the arrays with her qi, and once again, a bright light flashed and the papers disintegrated. However, in the center of the desk where the herbs once were, sat three perfectly round pills that were pure white.
Reaching for one of the pills with trembling hands, Fairy Xu checked for impurities and the results shocked her. The pure white pills had none. She placed one of them in her mouth to test its quality, but to her surprise when it touched her tongue, it dissolved immediately, filling her body with a warming sensation. The pills were of little use to her, but when she judged the amount of essence each pill had, she could tell what the manual said was true. There was a 100% extraction of essence from the plants with no impurities.
The pellets before her were not supposed to exist. In the tomes she read, and according to her master, there were no records of pills exceeding 95% efficiency. If the manual was correct, it was even possible to infuse one’s own qi into a pill. The idea was absurd. If that was true, using arrays alone a person could create pills that stored qi for future use.
The possibility of such a pill shook everything she knew, and if it true, had endless uses. Through the rest of the night and into the morning, she copied the contents of the manual into her own notebook, afraid she would need to give it back before learning everything within. In total, there were five complete array systems. Qi condensation, medicinal, and bottleneck pill arrays to help breakthrough to the Foundation stage.
Each was revolutionary, but the arrays became increasingly complex, and the bottleneck array even incorporated the strange symbolic language. It was too confusing, and she did not have enough time to decipher the meaning of the symbols, so she put it out of her mind for the time being.
Just before midday, her guardians knocked on her door, and she left the Huang Clan hotel where she was staying. Huang Yun requested her presence for the tournament, and she had no choice but to watch him defeat his opponents. Displaying his strength over weak fighters was hardly worth celebrating, but the crowd enjoyed it almost as much as he did.
Nobody in his group was particularly impressive, but his final match came against someone slightly more difficult. A young man with a purple heavy sword, challenged him for his position as one of the top three, and was able to last for a few dozen exchanges.
The sheer weight of the sword forced Huang Yun to defend several times, but eventually, he activated his staff weapon and released an enormous blast of qi infused wind. The pressure knocked his opponent back 30 meters, and left him unconscious for quite a long time.
After the announcer confirmed his advancement, he walked back triumphantly towards Fairy Xu, who praised his strength while maintaining the fake smile she often used on Wang Zi. The tournament was precious time wasted flattering Huang Yun’s ego instead of experimenting further, but she had to play the part.
Once they left the arena, they went to a restaurant, which the Huang family owned as well to eat. He described his thought process for each fight, and occasionally, she asked questions to pretend she cared. It was a boring lunch in her opinion, and the more time she spent around Huang Yun, the lower her opinion of his ambitions became.
Spending nearly two hours listening to him drone on was tiring, but just as they were about to leave, one of his guards brought up the black market between sects. Huang Yun did not appear very interested, but Fairy Xu’s eyes lit up immediately. There were a few uncommon materials in the manual, and black markets often carried interesting items.
Using a bit of charm and flattering words, she convinced Huang Yun to go to the black market instead of a dinner party held at his mansion. If she found some of the materials she needed, it would be a great gain, and there was the possibility of finding something to help her escape.
***
When Liang opened his eyes, the sun was setting and the old man was stacking dozens of talismans together into separate piles. Alongside the talismans were eight metal rings, and an old, tattered cloak, which looked like it came from the trash. He placed a strip of cheap leather through each of the talismans, turning them into necklaces, and stuffed the rings into a wooden box before nodding in approval.
Seeing Liang had woke up, he turned towards him and excitedly said, “Good timing boy. I just finished our merchandise. These fools will pay anything for this crap and I’ll be teaching you how to sell them. Oh black markets, I haven’t been to one in hundreds of years. Get ready to make thousands of stones off this trash.”
Liang walked over to the desk and looked at the old man’s work, but he was unable to understand any of the designs on the talismans. Although the old man did not teach him about arrays, he was able to recognize several of the more common characters, which none of the talismans had.
When he asked what they were, and why they were trash, the old man answered, “With few exceptions like the one the city lord’s daughter is using, talismans are garbage. Nothing more than disposable items of cheap value. These fall apart after three uses, and they’re nothing more than defense, illusion, performance, and distortion arrays. Block a strike from a Nascent cultivator if you’re a core cultivator, bend light so your enemies can’t see you, make yourself quicker, or distort space and travel a few dozen Li away.”
“They’re nothing like your shield or your illusion ring. Speaking of rings, I made four storage rings of four cubic meters and four illusion rings that can change a person’s appearance. That three cubic meter ring of yours seems rare, so we’ll see how these sell. Illusion rings always make a lot, I’m telling you boy, there’s nothing like selling trash to people.”
Taking in his words, Liang reminded himself that the old man had a different view of reality than everyone else. Blocking the strikes of powerful foes, enhancing your strength, turning invisible, and even traveling through space, these were all top quality items. There was no question wealthy elders or young masters would pay a fortune for them.
However, the old man was especially proud of the cloak he made, proclaiming, “This was a piece of garbage I passed by when walking here. Look at this boy, just a simple array and a person’s presence disappears completely in the shadows. Probably pretty valuable to assassins. The tattered edges give it an ancient feel, makes idiots think it’s authentic.”
The fact that they were selling items to assassins bothered Liang, but when he thought about it, an assassin could purchase any item they sold. It was also true that many cultivators killed just as many people as assassins, so he put the thoughts of morality away.
Once the old man placed the items in his ring and explained his plan to Liang, they left the inn and went towards the location of the black market. The old man wanted to set up a stall as soon as possible in hopes of catching people with heavy pockets, so there was no time to lose.
Their disguises left Liang feeling quite uncomfortable, and the old man’s tips on how to sell the products only made it worse. He had a strange feeling, but the old man was happy, so he ignored the growing pain in his stomach; instead, he convinced himself most likely, nothing would go wrong.
