I stood beside Captain Kang, watching the impassive face of City Lord Teng Shi. To his side, Councillor Gao was containing his emotions far better than our previous encounters.

  However, he was not skilled enough to hide from my senses entirely. I felt the broiling rage beneath the surface.

  “Lord Teng! I assure you, there is a reasonable explanation for my actions,” Wang Bao begged on his knees.

  Captain Kang spat on the ground, slamming his boot against his former Vice Captain’s back. “Silence, black-bellied bastard!” he roared.

  The city lord raised a hand and the captain stepped back. “Enough, Captain. Let the man speak. I wonder what rambling nonsense he will come up with to excuse his actions.”

  “Thank you, Lord Teng!” he spluttered, raising his head to face the throne. “This bastard, Zhao Dan, was plotting against you. My men found evidence of a treasonous plot and we moved to end it before it could take hold. Somehow, he has raised his cultivation to an absurd level in such a short time. The only explanation is nefarious techniques!”

  The city lord sighed deeply, while Captain Kang looked at his former brother with a forlorn expression. “Former guard Wang, do you think this lord a bumbling imbecile?” Teng Shi asked, cocking his head to one side.

  “N-no, Lord Teng! You are a dragon amongst men, the mightiest cultivator for a thousand li,” he exclaimed, arms waving madly.

  “And yet you dared to take the life of a man I declared free, spitting on my face in the process? Give this bastard a dog’s death, Captain. First, ensure you squeeze every drop of information from him. Any methods are fine,” he ordered with a flick of his sleeve.

  “Yes, my lord,” the captain replied, hauling Wang Bao to his feet and dragging him out.

  I was left alone in the throne room with the city lord and the councillor. “Honestly, if he’d managed to kill you without causing such a mess, I might have even been grateful. Bumbling idiot,” Teng Shi chuckled while staring at me.

  I frowned. I knew the city lord hadn’t let me off the hook entirely, but to declare it so freely made me suspicious of his intentions.

  He suddenly turned to Councillor Gao. “Councillor, you’re getting sloppy. I don’t mind you throwing your weight around, as long as you keep it to the slums. This is your only warning. Do not test me again or you will find yourself seeking more modest employment.”

  Councillor Gao’s eyes widened as the city lord spoke, but he remained restrained. Coughing once, he replied, “Of course, Lord Teng.”

  I was confused at the interaction and more perplexed about why the city lord had allowed me to witness it. However, I remained silent.

  “Zhao Dan, it seems I owe you an apology. It is a little demeaning to be apologising to a criminal, but I am not the kind of ignorant bastard who overlooks the folly of his subordinates. Wang Bao will be dealt with. Thank you for helping to clean up my house,” Teng Shi said, gripping the edge of his throne.

  “We would be having a different conversation if Xiao Cui came to harm. However, I am glad to see that the city lord is magnanimous and upright,” I replied with a bow. “I shall take my leave.”

  “Indeed. Don’t get into any more trouble, Zhao Dan. I am growing tired of your face.”

  I didn’t reply further. Turning around, my face twisted into a snarling frown. As I marched out of the palace I allowed my cultivation to expand outwards.

  Suppressing my five-star Qi Gathering cultivation down to two-star was a necessary expenditure while facing the city lord and the councillor. I only needed to show I was stronger than Wang Bao, while still concealing the fact I was a threat to both of them.

  On the plus side, this incident had allowed me to sow the seeds of discontent between the two ruling forces in the city, while blunting one of the councillor’s swords. I had no doubt that Councillor Gao was not done with me, but I could rest easy for now.

  I wanted nothing more than to beat the annoying councillor senseless, but I would restrain myself until the time was right. If I wanted to ensure the Cloudy Falls Sect stayed off my back, I had to keep City Lord Teng in power while removing the tumour that was Councillor Gao.

  ****

  Xiao Cui was busy when I returned. Despite the events of the previous night, she seemed unshaken and was happily serving the long line of customers leading out the door of the clinic.

  She greeted me with a smile and a wave. I noticed that as well as women, there were even a few men in the queue now. I guessed they’d heard of the miraculous effects of my disciple’s medicine and wanted to try it for themselves.

  As for me, I planned to seclude myself in my room once more in order to finally begin working on my healing pill recipe. I hoped there would not be any further incidents that required my attention for a while.

  Refining a low cost, high efficacy healing pill was only the first step towards achieving my goal of raising the healing arts of this world to a new level, but managing to accomplish it would be a magnificent feeling. I opened my door, preparing myself for the long session of alchemy ahead.

  However, when I went into my room I found Yu Chun sitting on my bed. I frowned. I’d expected her to leave while I was handling Wang Bao and the city lord, but she seemed to have taken it upon herself to stay.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “Shouldn’t I be the one asking that question? Why the hell are you in my room? Wang Bao won’t be a problem anymore,” I replied.

  “I can’t return to the blossom parlour. My life is in danger,” she said with a shudder.

  “Your employer? Councillor Gao, I assume?”

  She shivered again. “You shouldn’t speak so freely. The walls have eyes and ears everywhere in this city. Let me stay with you for a while. I can make myself useful,” she implored, opening her eyes and pressing her palms together.

  I rubbed my temple while sighing. This situation kept getting more irritating. However, I wasn’t a callous bastard. Even though she’d been part of the plot to keep me distracted, I knew it was difficult for a mortal to ignore the pressure of a cultivator’s orders.

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  Especially a man as sinister as Councillor Gao. Even I got the creeps from him and I was strong enough to kill him in a few blows.

  “Fine. However, I am about to enter a period of seclusion. I will need to be left alone for a few weeks at the very least. You can ask Head Wei what you can do to help. Maybe give Xiao Cui a hand with her customers. You know how to convince people to do what you say,” I told her.

  She nodded. “Thank you, Zhao Dan. I am in your debt. That little girl is quite the specimen. I will see what I can do to teach her,” Yu Chun replied.

  I snorted, placing a hand on her arm as she walked past me. “My disciple is an innocent young flower. Don’t lead her astray,” I warned.

  “Ha! If you truly believe that then you are a fool, Zhao Dan,” she giggled, closing the door behind her.

  I waited for her retreating footsteps to fade before sitting on the floor of my bedroom. I took out a portion of the ingredients I’d prepared, laying them out on the ground before me.

  While my physique allowed me to analyse the composition of the various remedies and pills I’d tried, it didn’t tell me much about the actual process of refining them. I would need to experiment and practice my alchemy skills in order to figure that out.

  First, I wanted to figure out how to refine each ingredient in order to extract the most beneficial energy from them. My physique would guide the process, but in order to produce the most effective pill possible I would need to take more control over the entire procedure.

  I started with the Rejuvenating Spirit Grass as it was the simplest of the ingredients. Even when my stomach went through the process automatically there were very few toxins extracted, though that was also dependent on the quality of the herb. The different sources which we’d acquired the ingredients from all had varying degrees of skill and the quality of the ingredients would be vastly different.

  I picked up a stalk at random and put it in my mouth. Unexpectedly, it was like chewing grass. I wasn’t sure why I’d expected anything else given that I was… well, chewing grass.

  Swallowing the chewed up spirit grass, I observed the process without interfering. It dissolved in my stomach and a small stream of herbal energy was extracted, with two individual drops of impurities getting sucked into the void in my dantian.

  That must’ve been a decent quality stalk of grass, to produce so few impurities. I imagined most of the herbs we’d gathered wouldn’t be so pure. However, as long as I continued to improve my technique it wouldn’t matter too much.

  The next few days passed by in a blur as I continued to improve my technique. I tested each of the ingredients, except for the valuable ten year ash bark. By the time four days had passed, I was able to refine all of the base ingredients without a single drop of impurities forming.

  The only exception was when the quality of the ingredient was so low that it was impossible for there not to be any impurities left behind. That was the case even when I squeezed all of the spiritual energy possible out of the herb in question.

  Satisfied with my progress, I let out a breath stained with black mist, before inhaling clean air. I snapped off the smallest possible portion of the ten year ash bark and swallowed it, ready to begin the last step of improving my technique. After this, it would be time to dive into alchemy for real.

  ****

  Captain Kang held Councillor Gao’s arms behind his back, his grip like an iron vice. The councillor struggled against him but it was futile. There was no escape.

  They were at the base of the stone dais which held City Lord Teng Shi’s throne. The lord himself wasn’t in the throne, but instead descending the stone steps with cold fury in his eyes.

  His anger was bubbling out into the room, the full weight of his presence as a four-star Qi Gathering cultivator pressing down on Gao Deng Luo. “Treacherous snake! You dare smile in my face while preparing to thrust a dagger in my back?” he snarled.

  “Hmph! You are a fool, Teng Shi. Your actions have continued to allow Three River City to fall further and further into the mud. I was hopeful when I first took this position. A powerful City Lord with ambitions of rising to the heavens. Yet you constantly abandoned your duties to seek increasingly ridiculous cures for that mewling brat of yours. My only regret is not trying to kill you sooner,” the councillor hissed.

  “As the water recedes, so the rocks appear. Rather than the fortress of a dragon, my palace seems to be a nest of snakes. At least you remain loyal, Captain Kang,” Teng Shi sighed.

  It was phrased as a statement, but he gazed pointedly at the man in question as he spoke. Captain Kang felt a shiver run down his spine. Teng Shi may have grown soft in recent years, but there was a time he was feared as the Iron Fist of Three River City.

  “Of course, Lord Teng. This lowly servant is yours to command until the day I draw my last breath,” he replied, stamping his foot in place of a salute.

  “The only question that remains then, is what to do with you, Councillor?” the city lord mused, now face to face with the treacherous Gao. “I believe a slow, agonising death seems appropriate.”

  “Yes, my lord,” replied Captain Kang.

  “First though, I will lower myself to your level, Gao Deng Luo, and extract a little personal satisfaction,” the city lord chuckled, before slapping the councillor across the face with the back of his hand.

  A sharp crack rang out across the throne room as the man’s head snapped to the side. He spat blood while staring daggers at the city lord.

  “What a beautiful expression. I hope you continue to look that way until the moment of your death, old friend,” the city lord said, before turning with a flick of his sleeve and taking a step towards his throne.

  He froze as his foot touched the step. Captain Kang opened his mouth to ask what happened when he found himself unable to move.

  Taking advantage of the moment, Councillor Gao struggled to free himself. However, the moment he slipped from Captain Kang’s grasp, he felt a burning pain explode across his chest as he was smashed across the throne room.

  A stone pillar cracked as his back wrapped around it. He coughed blood and collapsed to the ground. “Who dares!?” he weakly cried.

  Shadows swirled from the edges of the room, condensing into the figure of a man. He stood in front of the former councillor, leaning over until he was staring directly into his eyes.

  “I dare, little cousin. Do you have a problem with my actions?” the man said, slapping the councillor’s cheek twice with a sadistic grin on his face.

  “Gao Shan! Why are you here?” the councillor exclaimed, fear crawling from the deepest recesses of his soul as he stared into his elder cousin’s eyes.

  “Ahh, that’s better. This is how people should react to my presence,” he said, stretching his arms wide as he stood up. He snapped his fingers. “Seal the palace. Don’t let anyone escape. Control or death,” he ordered as five shadowy figures darted in different directions.

  Councillor Gao watched this all unfold, clutching at his burning chest. Blood ran down his chin and he grimaced as he pulled himself to his feet.

  “Cousin, why are you here? I had the situation under control,” he asked hesitantly.

  “Clearly. You seemed to have everything in the palm of your hand, little Luo. The patriarch sent me to fix your mess. He detected the strand of his will that he sent with you had disappeared. Explain.”

  The councillor kissed his teeth. “That bastard, Zhao Dan. He uses an esoteric healing technique; one I’ve never heard of before. It expelled the puppet poison from the city lord’s son. I sent someone to assassinate him but somehow he managed to raise his cultivation three stages in a matter of weeks! If you find him, you will find the answers the patriarch seeks.”

  “An unfamiliar healing technique, you say? No matter. Whatever happened, I am here to fix it. There will be no more mistakes. You were given an opportunity to prove yourself to the clan, little Luo. Three River City is essential to the patriarch’s plans. You failed. Your fate is no longer yours to decide,” the shadowy man declared.

  “Gao Shan! Give me one last chance. I will handle the bastard myself.”

  Gao Shan waved his arm. City Lord Teng suddenly moved, racing from where he was frozen to appear in front of Gao Deng Luo. He grabbed the former councillor by the neck and slammed him into the stone pillar once more.

  “You disappoint me, little cousin. I used to have high hopes for you. Now, you will be more useful as a puppet,” Gao Shan sighed as he flicked a small worm into the councillor’s mouth.

  Turning to the throne, he casually strolled up the steps and then reclined in it as though he was the emperor himself. “The reign of the Cloudy Falls Sect is drawing to an end. The era of the Gao Clan approaches. Eventually the patriarch will be under my thumb. As the heavens will it,” he cackled, the full force of his cultivation descending on Captain Kang, who was crushed to the floor as his legs exploded.