It was not a necessity to cultivate in order to practice alchemy, but in order to achieve true mastery one needed both. To one side of the room, the golden robed youth was sprawled against a broken table.
It hadn’t been me who delivered the blow, but the elder now facing me. Upon finishing my cup of tea I realised it contained poison. Not just any poison, but the very same Mortal grade iceflower poison that was being spread through Three River City under my name.
Of course it was not harmful to me. In fact it would aid in further refining my heart, but I wanted more information about the group of alchemists who had summoned me. That was why I’d played along and pretended the poison had taken hold.
The moment my head hit the table the elder had erupted in fury, turning on the golden robed youngster. Listening to the discussion between them, he had recently had a surge in his skills which he’d told the elder—his grandfather—was down to a sudden enlightenment from the heavens.
The woman had her suspicions, as did the elder, but they never gave them voice and chose to trust the young man’s words. However, the moment I was poisoned they realised it had to have been one of them at the table. The youngster was the obvious culprit.
That had been all I needed to hear. I wiped away the froth from my mouth and stood up, prepared to confront the youngster and squeeze him for information. However, before I could make a move the elder roared in despair and fury and struck his grandson square in the chest.
That led to this moment where the boy was knocked out on a broken table while I faced the elder, the woman, and the other alchemist who’d remained silent the entire time. I couldn’t fault the grandpa for doling out discipline the way he saw fit, but I did wish he’d allowed me to ask the boy some questions first.
Regardless I had learned a lot from this brief encounter. There seemed to be two main factions among the herbalists and alchemists of Three River City.
Those who were under the control of the Gao Clan via the councillor and those who aimed to control the trade through business and alchemy expertise. There were plenty who were not a part of any faction, such as Grandma Yu and of course myself.
Usually these two factions were in a delicate balance. The quality of the products produced by the Gao Clan’s alchemists was much lower, while they were able to hook customers by using addictive ingredients.
On the contrary, the alliance of the other alchemists used higher quality ingredients to produce better pills and related products, but they weren’t able to match the rate of production of the Gao Clan.
This meant there was a tentative understanding between the two groups. It was the richer citizens who tended to purchase from the alliance of alchemists while the poor went with whatever they could afford. That meant they usually relied on the products from the Gao Clan.
Truly it was insidious. After learning that they not only sought to control the pill trade of the entire region, but poison their customers with poor quality, addictive ingredients, what little respect I had for them vanished.
Until now I’d been operating under the assumption that Councillor Gao was just one bad apple in the orchard, while his clan remained upright. Apparently the Cloudy Falls Sect needed to gain a firmer grip on the factions in their territory.
“How can I ever trust the alchemists of this city to have the interests of the people in mind when you can’t even keep your own ranks free from corruption?” I demanded of the wrinkled elder.
To his credit, he remained firm in the face of my barrage, caressing his long, wispy beard while meeting my gaze with fire in his eyes. He was a Middle stage Body Tempering practitioner, unlike the other alchemists I’d met.
“Young man, you dare speak to me of trust while pills being sold in your name are poisoning the people of this city? It seems to me that you have this situation backwards,” he said while still stroking his beard.
I scrunched up my face. I had nothing to prove to these people, but in the long term it might be beneficial to make a connection with them. When I left the city I would need alchemists to help produce my pills. Ones not associated with the councillor and his clan.
“You are right. These poisoned pills are not my doing, but as they are using my name to distribute them it is my responsibility to clean up the mess and restore my reputation,” I replied, sighing and taking my seat once more.
I lifted the pot of poisoned tea and poured myself another cup. The elder raised an eyebrow at me while the woman rushed to stop me from downing the cup in a single gulp.
Iceflower poison had a minty aftertaste. I was growing quite fond of it. When I dealt with Councillor Gao I would need to ask him for the recipe. Even though it was too weak to aid much in refining my heart, a little progress was better than no progress. Delicious tea was hard to come by, even in a world where tea was a ritual and not just a drink.
“You are an interesting man, Zhao Dan,” the grandpa chuckled. “Too clever for the fools in this city. I know that you could squash us like ants if you wished, but I will wait to see what kind of man you are.”
“Just watch, grandpa. I’ll cut the infection out of this city at the core,” I replied with a smile as I left the room.
In the end I hadn’t had a chance to taste the food here. Supposedly they made dishes with spiritual beast meat that were beneficial to Body Tempering practitioners. Not that that was of any use to me, but I enjoyed food for the taste and to keep myself grounded. Spirit beast meat was sure to be more delicious than regular meat. Another time.
****
“Where did you get the ingredients for these damn pills?” I snarled, lifting the terrified alchemist off the ground and slamming him against the wall.
The room was filled with smoke from two large cauldrons in the centre of the tiled floor. He had been in the middle of refining a batch of pills when I smashed the door down to confront him.
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All the colour had drained from his face the moment I let a sliver of my cultivation slip out and press against him. He had attempted to kill himself the same way that the alchemist who had been following me did: crushing a pill between his teeth.
Having experienced it I recognised what he was attempting the moment his jaw began to close. I grabbed hold of it and ripped it open, seizing the poisoned pill for myself and swallowing it instead.
That had made him smirk, his delight rapidly fading when he realised the poison wasn’t affecting me. He shook in my grasp, but wasn’t answering my question.
“Let me ask you something, bastard,” I said coldly, tightening my grip. “Are you more scared of that rat Gao hiding away in the palace, or the man holding your life and death in his hands?”
He glanced down at my arm then back to my cold eyes. He hesitated for a breath’s time and then finally snapped.
“It was him! That terrifying bastard Gao,” he exclaimed, breaking down into tears.
I grimaced at the sight of a grown man crying. There was nothing wrong with showing emotion but to cry about that rat Gao was simply disgraceful.
“Always the fucking councillor. Is he the heavens for everyone in this city to fear him this much?” I sighed, dropping the man to the ground where he crumpled in a heap and didn’t get back up.
“The councillor? No, he’s nothing compared to…” the man muttered.
“What do you mean, not the councillor? Who-”
Suddenly the man scrambled away from me, grabbing a tiny knife from the ground nearby and jamming it into his neck. He ripped it out in a fountain of crimson blood.
His face was frozen in a twisted expression of fear as he bled out. I rushed towards him, intent on saving his life, but he had cut right into his jugular.
I stared down at the latest in a line of corpses left in the wake of the Gao Clan. Not the councillor…? Was another member of his clan here in the city?
Having gained confirmation that it was definitely the councillor behind the poisoned pills, I had nothing stopping me from storming the palace. Captain Kang wouldn’t be able to keep me out now.
****
As I was marching through the streets of Three River City towards the palace, I heard a commotion ahead. The citizens parted as a cohort of marching guards stormed through the streets.
I noticed that they all had the same expression as the captain when I’d spoken to him at the palace gates. It was extremely strange but I didn’t know what to make of it.
I could cling to the naive hope that they were headed to some incident in the city, but knowing my luck I had no doubt that they were here for me. As expected, the guard at the head of the group stopped a few metres away from me and stared at me with dull eyes.
“Zhao Dan! By order of City Lord Teng you are to be apprehended and brought to justice for disseminating poisoned pills to the citizens of Three River City,” he shouted out.
The eyes of every person in the busy street turned to me the moment he said that and I winced. Not only were they trying to pin this on me but they were intent on destroying my reputation among the citizens.
I had to give the councillor credit. It was a devious plan that made full use of the tools at his disposal. However, I wasn’t going to play along this time. Being a prisoner once was enough for me.
“Enough of this nonsense,” I retorted. “Everyone knows the real culprit behind these fake pills. You can tell Councillor Gao I’m coming for him.”
The commoners nearby erupted into gossip at my remark, whispering amongst themselves. Some of the bolder ones even started shouting at me and the city guards.
The guards barely reacted to my insult. Surely not…?
“Zhao Dan, if you do not come peacefully we will be forced to exert our strength. It is not the city lord’s desire to cause a commotion,” the guard continued without moving.
I ignored him and rushed around the guards. There was no longer a need to hold myself back. Not only had the city lord failed to deliver justice but he was perverting it, coming after me once more and allowing the councillor to act as he wished.
The streets blurred as I raced across the rooftops. As a five-star Qi Gathering cultivator my speed was ridiculous. I would make prime Usain Bolt look like a dithering grandpa.
My endurance was also far greater. I could keep up this pace for days without sleep or food, sustaining myself on spiritual energy alone. The only limit was my qi.
The city lord’s palace came into view less than a minute later. The gaudy towers and towering walls stood out against the rest of Three River City. If nothing else, he knew how to make a statement.
The building was beautiful, but just like a monkshood flower it was poisonous within. I didn’t stop at the gates, leaping over them in a single step and continuing directly to the throne room.
I knew the layout of the palace well after being a prisoner as long as I had been. Oddly, the guards at the gate made no commotion. They only began rushing after me, but stopped as soon as they realised I was too fast for them.
There was no alarm raised either. I was certain something had happened in the palace. The behaviour of everyone I’d met in the city guard had been far too strange recently. The culprit was obvious: Councillor Gao.
I didn’t bother taking care with the doors to the throne room. I gathered qi in my fists and blasted a hole in the thick stone, large enough for me to stride through without stopping.
As soon as I broke the door I sensed movement on the other side. Five cultivators, between one and four-star Qi Gathering rushed towards me, but stopped before engaging.
The dust cleared, the tiled ground covered in debris from the broken doors. Five shadowy figures formed a circle surrounding me and on the throne was the council-
I frowned. Councillor Gao was nowhere to be seen. I cast my senses across the entire throne room but other than the five cultivators surrounding me and the strange man lounging on the throne, there was no one else with us.
“Who are you?” I asked, cocking my head to one side.
“I was going to ask you the very same question, but I can make an educated guess,” the man replied with a smirk. “Unlike my little cousin, I don’t possess the intelligence of a spirit beast.”
Little cousin? Ah. The man was hiding his cultivation and I couldn’t get a grasp of his strength. However, even that was enough to tell me that his cultivation was higher than mine.
To be able to completely suppress his cultivation required superior foundations or perhaps a potent stealth technique. Looking at the shadowy figures surrounding me, it could be the latter, but I doubted it.
Someone who referred to Councillor Gao as little cousin so derisively was likely a member of the Gao Clan and stronger than me. I had to step carefully.
In fact, I was already in serious danger. Instead of delivering swift justice and making my way back to the clinic I found myself in the tiger’s mouth.
“So, Zhao Dan. You are the man who has been causing little Deng so much frustration. I can see why he would struggle to deal with a man with your cultivation,” he said, standing from the throne and making his way down the steps. “And a physique I have never seen before. You are an interesting specimen,” he finished, standing face to face with me.
How had he seen through all of my secrets in a single glance? Was he a Foundation Building expert? If that was the case then my life and death was now in his hands.
Although, he seemed to be far more rational than the councillor. Perhaps there was a way out of this situation that didn’t end with me greeting King Yama?
