When Booker returned to his room, he saw a quest had completed.

Quest: Sponsorship

Goal: Impress and befriend a ranking member of the Mantis Sect

Reward: 1 Hour Practice Token.

I guess Greenmoon thinks he’s got me in his pocket.

But another practice token…

That’s worth an incredible amount. I’ll have to be carefully thinking of how to spend it.

And by the time he lay down, resting his weary body, two new ones had appeared in his journal, replacing Sponsorship and the quest to cure Wild Swan.

Quest: Conquer the Stone

Goal: Break 1 (0/1) of the practice stones used by the cultivators to test their strength.

Reward: Karmic Pill

Quest: Recover the Hospital Deed

The hospital’s land rights have been lost on a wager at the Pearl Gambling House. Recover them.

Reward: Master Page

In addition, there were the remaining quests in his ledger he’d yet to complete. The time was ticking on so many of them…

Quest: Repairing Your Life

Goal: Create a Seven-Times Purified Charcoal Pill and use it to repair your poisoned body.

Reward: Materials Box

Quest: Break the Thread

Goal: End Zheng Bai’s Influence Over You

Reward: Materials Box.

Quest: A Birthright Recovered

Goal: Reclaim Rain’s heritage amulet at the auction in 6 days.

Reward: Materials Box.

Quest: Right the Wrong

Goal: Hunt the Murderer Behind the Boy in the Wall.

Reward: Materials Box.

Quest: Wondrous Healing

Goal: Create a pill with a potency above 25%, a toxicity below 5%, and the Moderate or Great Healing property.

Reward: Materials Box.

Quest: Purification of the Body.

Goal: Eat nothing but spiritual food for 7 (5/7) days.

Reward: 10-Hour Practice Token.

Tomorrow… He promised himself… I’ll work on you all tomorrow…

— — —

The next day, Booker was given a workshop of his own.

It was a clean room, all the furniture made of polished cedar, the scent of pine thick in the air. There was a single stone cauldron shaped like a bowl with a brass lid and a scowling mouth where the fire was stoked, sitting on three legs.

There were workbenches, all manner of tools, and shelves loaded high with basic alchemical materials.

It was heaven.

Greenmoon smiled as he presented it, noting the small details in the implements. “See here? The alembics are made from the clearest glass. You could use one as a lens. And the detail work on the crucibles– you truly cannot fault our craftsmen here in the Sect.”

“I’ve often admired their work.” Booker admitted, picking up a knife and running his finger feather-light over the edge. It was sharp.

And those materials on the shelves.

Imagine what I can do with them.

“Well, no sense giving you this whole workshop and nobody to work in it.” Greenmoon clapped his hands. The door swung open and Sprout filed in, looking like he was walking into a lion’s den.

Sprout bowed to Booker without meeting his eye. “Junior brother Wei Qi greets elder brother.”

Hmm. It’s going to be hard working with him after Hu Bao’s death…

To Greenmoon’s other apprentices, it doesn’t matter that Hu Bao tried to kill me first – they knew him, and that’s what counts.

“Thank you, Wei Qi.” Was all he said.

“Now, of course, this is a gift that comes with expectations.” Greenmoon explained. “Chiefly the completion of this refinement technique.”

And Wei Qi is no doubt here to spy on me in addition to being my assistant. Making sure I’m really working towards that goal.

“Naturally.” Booker agreed. “None of my earlier experiments passed muster, but I’m sure with this laboratory I’ll be able to manage.” If anything, I should be worried. What will this refinement technique do to the Mantis Sect? It’s a league beyond anything they have. Perhaps leagues beyond anything our neighbors have.

“In that case…” Greenmoon said. “I’d like to see a demonstration. Perhaps even offer a little direction.”

“I’ll have to set up the equipment.” Booker quickly deflected. “By tomorrow I can show you what I was doing.”

“Tomorrow? Excellent. I’ll leave you to it.” Greenmoon swept out of the room, pausing in the doorway to add, “Great expectations are riding on this. Your career in the Sect could be decided by this moment.”

And then the door shut behind him.

Booker glanced to Wei Qi, who had moved to a workbench and begun checking the tools, sharpening knives and setting things in order. His movements were purely mechanical.

Yeah…

I’ve got a long way to go making friends with him.

“Have you heard the rumors about Wild Swan?” Booker tried casually.

“I heard he was out of hospital. Something about a masked man.” Wei Qi’s voice was sullen, only lifting at the end, when he turned to face Booker. “Why?”

“Just curious.” Booker replied, noting the frosty reception. “What kind of weirdo runs around wearing a mask?”

“Hmph.” Wei Qi snorted. “Anyone who wants to do good around here better be wearing a mask.”

He’s not wrong.

But Booker moved on, reaching to take a jar down from the shelf. “What did Instructor Greenmoon tell you about what we were doing?”

“That you’d stolen a technique from your previous master, and we’re deciphering it.”

Ouch. Okay, note to self – this lie doesn’t paint me in a good light to anyone who isn’t as self-serving as Greenmoon. Especially because my old master, rightly, has the reputation of a saint.

“Mhm.” Booker replied, tight-lipped. “We’ll be setting up the equipment today, and trying our first tests tomorrow. I’ll be giving you some free time while I work on parts I don’t want to reveal just yet.”

“Instructor Greenmoon told me to stick close to you.” Wei Qi replied, emphasizing the name, as if he wanted to establish who exactly he worked for.

“I see.” Fuck, well, serves me right – now I’m under constant watch. How do I navigate this…

If they’re watching me every waking hour, I’ve got to make some unwaking hours available.

Nine-Leaf Foxglove, Dried Seahorse Tail, Scorpion Poison Gland… I have all the ingredients here for a sleep replacement pill, and since they think I need to use their furnace to make pills, they won’t suspect I’ve secretly made these.

That should give me six or seven hours every night where I’m not being watched.

He stood for a moment, looking over the shelves with a finger on his chin. They hadn’t given him anything truly valuable, but a well-stocked kitchen with basic ingredients. That was enough. There were literally hundreds of pills he could make.

Of course, they can’t notice I’ve taken any. That’s easy enough to fix. I’ll just make sure all the ingredients I need are scheduled to be used in refinement testing, and since they’ll all be turned to ash, it’ll be impossible to say how much really went into the furnace.

Yeah. Now I’m thinking like a cultivator.

I was too cavalier before. But there are old dragons in this Sect who have survived dozens of ambitious young snakes like me. I should probably…

I should probably actually start stealing herbs and medicines I don’t need, and cutting Greenmoon in for a share. That way I’m the normal amount of corrupt and not drawing attention like I would if I was squeaky clean.

Steal to conceal your stealing. The cultivator way.

“Wei Qi, you’ll be keeping logs of all the ingredients we use, right?”

“Yes.”

“They didn’t bring us any sticky lotus thread.” Booker said, taking the bottle of sticky lotus thread off the shelf and putting it into his pocket. “Make sure to write that down.”

“... Yes sir.” Wei Qi said, turning away.

Shame. I finally meet someone with solid morals, and I have to act like a dirtbag in front of them. I don’t think there’s any way I can stay on his good side and Greenmoon’s. But I guess he got along with Greenmoon, so it’s not like he isn’t able to make his peace with a dirty situation.

“Here, take this.” Booker produced a coin pouch of fifty liang and put it on the workbench. “I’ll need you to buy some herbs for me now and then. This should cover it.”

Wei Qi stayed mute, but Booker heard the coins scrape across the counter through the thin velvet as he picked up the payment.

Internally, Booker sighed…

The sooner he fought his way out of this corner the sooner he could… try to find his way back to the straight and narrow.

Book. I need a solution here.

Usually you give me the best possible techniques. Now I need a terrible technique, but one that fulfills three criteria. It can be used by a non-cultivator, without a furnace, to refine earth-element ingredients.

The book’s pages flipped open.

Someday, I’d like some quiet time to really explore these pages. To discover the history and true nature of alchemy. For now, I’m using it like a caveman taking a work of art and using it to wipe his ass.

I hope it isn’t sapient enough to mind…

Whether or not the book minded, its pages landed on a solution.

Salt-Lye Purification Rituals

A refinement ritual of laborious difficulty that can be performed on Earth-aligned ingredients by non-cultivators. Best understood as a primitive antecedent of modern techniques.

1. Bind rock salt in a bamboo tube and cook at high temperatures.

2. When the bamboo is completely reduced to ash and the salt has become solid, take the tube of ashen salt and lay it on a bed of pine wood.

3. Light the pinewood and let it burn down to embers and ash.

4. Begin a steady drumbeat. When the drum sounds its tenth beat, strike the salt with a rock hammer. Strike again every ten beats, continuing until no part of the salt is larger than a fine grain. This should take roughly one thousand strikes and ten thousand drumbeats.

5. Mix the salt with the ash and bind together by pouring in a mixture of molten fat and butter.

6. While the caustic soap formed by this mixture is cooling, place the refinemental materials in a bowl, and pour the cooling mixture over the refinement materials.

7. Place the bowl upside down and pour cold water over it to cool it.

8. When it is solid, chip away the soap carefully, as it will absorb moisture from anything it touches.

9. The ingredients should be refined.

If done correctly, material will be refined with a 0-30% success rate. The success rate depends on how well the beat is kept, the purity of the wood, and the spiritual density of the fat and butter. For best results use human fat and butter.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Booker grimaced. I’m keeping that last part to myself.

“We’ll need salt, butter, bamboo, and lard from the kitchen. Pine wood too. A drum, and a rock hammer. You’ll have to get those last three from the craftsmen. Before, I used a kiln I made myself. Today, we’ll use the furnace.”

“I heard you could do this technique without cultivation or a furnace.” Wei Qi said, slowly “Is that true?”

“Yes, it was… designed so even a cripple could use it.”

“Cripples? Huh. Nevermind just the cripples. Anyone could use this.” He jotted down the ingredients with a feather quill. “You could have half the city refining by the end of the week.”

“Would you?” Booker asked. “The Sect seems to keep this stuff close and leashed. I imagine they have some reason.”

“Hah.” Wei Qi said, hollow-voiced. “They just enjoy lording it over the common people, don’t they? C’mon. You’ve noticed how they treat cripples, at least. That’s not how you treat people you see as your duty to care for…” He looked up at Booker, some emotion coming into his voice at last.

But Booker’s face was cold.

Is he really reaching out, is the thing… Or is this part of his duties, spying for Greenmoon?

Greenmoon takes students who are like him. Manipulators. Profiteers.

I don’t want to say for sure Sprout is one of them… but he’s smart, at the very least, if Greenmoon took him for talent.

Too smart to show a rebellious streak like this so easily.

“The life of a cripple has plenty of privileges.” Booker noted airily, keeping himself distinctly aloft and above companionable chatter about their shared elders. But he tried to soften it a little, adding, “You must have family in the city, I’m betting. It’s genuinely impressive to make it through the entrance exams from that background.”

“It was… yeah, it was hard.” Wei Qi smiled slightly. “My father used to slosh ice cold water over me if I was a second late out of bed. He’d set a pin in a candlestick, and if I wasn’t awake by the time that pin dropped, WHAM–” He slapped his hands together. “– he’d have me up and shivering. But that meant he was always awake an hour before the pin dropped.”

Booker smiled at the description. No wonder Wei Qi had an attitude towards him – Rain’s position had been bought while Wei Qi’s father pushed him his entire life to reach this one goal. It must be infuriating, to watch people be born to the finish line.

“I see. You can be sure that if we finish this together, we’ll enjoy the rewards together.” He promised. Its a simple persona: wealth-focused, but generous. You can like a person like that, even if they’re not particularly honest otherwise. That’s my best shot at balancing between pleasing Wei Qi and Greenmoon.

“Thank you. What amounts do we need, for the ingredients?” Wei Qi asked. Judging by a softening in his sullen tone, Booker felt like he’d threaded the needle on his lie.

And how natural lying has become…

“As much as you can get. We’ll be refining all day today and tomorrow, then studying the results, and then refining more.” Booker answered. “Just get as much as we can store.”

“Alright.” Wei Qi headed out the door.

As it swung shut, Booker turned back to the alchemy supplies. He left before doing a full inventory, or reading the one the workers who stocked this place made. He took the slip of carefully-etched bamboo and thought, Furnace.

It burned to nothing.

Then he went to the jars and siphoned off as much as he could from the three he needed for his sleep replacement remedy. Enough to make six or seven pills. Emptying it all into the same jar of sticky lotus string he’d already palmed.

I’m becoming a scumbag… not because I want to, but because I have to, to keep up this lie… but all the same that’s not much different from anyone else’s excuse.

Maybe it’s time to think about escaping for real.

The problem is… with this latest development, if I run away now, they’ll think I’m running away with the completed technique to try and sell it to another Sect.

That’s a hundred times more important than a cripple simply leaving…

He went over to the workstation, quickly grinding out the dried seahorse and the scorpion glands with a rolling mortar and pestle, then cutting, mashing, and sieving the juice from the nine-leaf foxtail. His hands worked incredibly fast. It’s so good to just…

Focus on alchemy.

Forget everything else.

My life would be simple and pure if it was enough to be good at alchemy.

The thought of becoming a cultivator makes my heart fill with pride, makes me feel like a god. But alchemy is simple and tranquil. I don’t have to worry about climbing any mountains. Where I am is good enough.

He disposed of the evidence with a flash of Furnace, then molded the finished paste into seven small orbs. Clasping them between his hands – “Furnace.”

Blue fire flexed between his fingers, pouring out between his knuckles and curling tongues through the air, before shattering into a blur of distorted air and a drift of blue cinders.

The pills had formed.

He tucked them, still warm, into his pocket. Eight hours a day…

I’ll have to wear my mask again whenever I’m outside the Sect. But there’s no way to conceal myself well while inside the Sect, so violating the order is safer in the long term.

He moved over to the workbenches.

At the same time…

Even though I’ve limited my ability to escape from the Sect, I’ve also made a stable position inside it. I finally have my own workshop. I can test using an actual furnace and see how the results differ from my own magical furnace. It’s not impossible that even the kind of cauldrons the Sect has, which the books would probably call shoddy, are better than my magical Furnace.

After all, I don’t know the true intent of the technique…

Maybe it was only ever meant to be a backup.

… Book. Tell me about the power I call Furnace.

The pages turned, and he saw an illustration. While the book had illustrations on nearly every page, those were made with a charcoal sketching pencil and only had color when it was necessary to distinguish a specimen, in which case it would be carefully filled into the lines of the sketches with a watercolor brush.

This painting was far more striking and robust. It was a translucent gray imprint of a man holding a watercolor flame of vivid ashen-red, the color of a sunset. The outline of this round flame was detailed in gold leaf with smaller cerulean runes etched on top of the gold. The way the man’s shadow seemed to be spreading outwards from the flame, it almost seemed like he was being vaporized or blasted apart by the fire in his hand.

Sacred Technique: Phoenix-Heart Furnace

One must have a reversed soul to use this technique, with a fiery Yin and watery Yang. This technique expresses the Yin of fire, which can mend, bring together, and combine all things.

The phoenix-heart furnace is an alchemist heartfire technique, which grows stronger as it is continuously used to refine a great number of medicines, harvesting their sacred aromas to refine itself while contributing the medley of those aromas to the finished pill. The quantity, quality, and diversity of aromas all contribute exponentially to the final refinement stage of the flame. Thus very small amounts of power from each medicine can multiply to equal a very strong flame. The refinement stage of an alchemist heartfire is the number of distinct colored threads within the flame.

The flame’s power can be multiplied by being used through a furnace, but when the technique reaches the ninth stage, it begins to generate a Mirage Furnace that allows it to function totally on its own. As such the ninth-stage is considered the peak stage of this technique, after which it is better to begin working on new techniques.

As a soul technique, the gathered scent that the flame will display after it has been characterized by many uses, is an expression of the bearer’s own soul. Particular powers may manifest out of the alchemist heartflame that are unique to the soul that bears it.

One of two sacred techniques contained within this book.

Booker flexed his hand conjured a tiny tongue of the Furnace-flame, sniffing and examining it carefully. There was a faint odor like beeswax…

And no sign at all of additional colors threaded through the flame. It was pure blue.

So I haven’t done anywhere near enough alchemy. Actually, no surprise there. This is a top-level technique and is supposed to be supported by access to top-level ingredients. Even with my quests providing me ingredient boxes, to the eyes of whoever created this technique, I’m wallowing in an incredible level of poverty.

But woe is me… I’ve got the book, and the book is priceless…

I bet if there was a way to force them to pay a fair price, the Sect couldn’t buy the book.

I truly can only thank my luck again and again.

“Book, how about Dialyze?”

Sacred Technique: Kirin-Tear Dialyze

One must have a reversed soul to use this technique, with a fiery Yin and watery Yang. This technique expresses the Yang of water, which dissolves, disperses, and purifies all it touches.

The kirin-tear dialyze is an alchemist sourcewater technique, a rare counterpart to heartflame technique. It is used to prepare ingredients to the highest quality, cutting them apart with more delicacy than any knife could hope to match, while scouring away any impurities.

Sourcewater techniques are less common and less researched than heartflame techniques, and Yang sourcewater almost unheard of, but appear to gather strength from exposure to pure water and ice substances, absorbing their natures. Sourcewater, no matter how strong, will never directly harm living matter, but can be used to purify it. Purifying living beings can damage their meridians, and once a Yang sourcewater has absorbed other Yang waters, it becomes possible to cripple an enemy’s cultivation with this technique.

One of two sacred techniques contained within this book.

Yang sourcewater, almost unheard of… and this is the book that knows everything…

Purify…

He let a swirling disc of Dialyze form in his hand, rotating, a shining spot moving through its heart as it made drowsy spirals.

I probably shouldn’t try to purify myself haphazardly. It sounds possible, but also dangerous. Like I could worsen my situation and further my crippling with a wrong move.

But if I were to absorb some pure Yang water I could have a safe way to disable my opponents, instead of killing them. I know for a fact it’s a cruel world to be a cripple in – but I can’t see myself killing anyone else. If this much kindness becomes a cruelty… so be it.

He let the water fade.

Maybe there’s some way to research the proper way to purify things. Even if it takes a while, I could help other cripples that way…

He went back to the shelves.

One of my quests wants a pill of potency 25% or more, a Toxicity of 5% or less, and a Greater or Moderate Healing quality.

I have… sacred miso paste, mountain-glacier thawed goji berry, emperor lingzhi mushroom. That’s a basic body cultivation medicine when you put those together.

Six-flavored fruit. Iron-belly chestnut. That will toughen the entire body.

Flawless peony root. Cloud-touched flying fish roe. Dried mermaid’s hair seaweed. These will make the basis of a fine healing pill. But to get it to the required levels, I’ll need to add red ginseng.

Flawless Peony Root

Intact // Dull Quality

An herb known to ease and soothe the body. Collected from only the most perfectly white flowers, from petal to roots.

Painkilling 10% (-)

Mental Relief 5% (-)

Toxicity and Potency 10% (-)

Moderate Healing 10% (+)

Cloud-Touched Flying Fish Roe

Intact // Dull Quality

The eggs of an elusive fish that dives above the surface in a flash of opalescent fins. Cannot be caught while below the water, only while above.

Toxicity and Potency 5% (-)

Potency 10% (-)

Swiftness 5% (+)

Potency 5% (-)

Dried Mermaid’s Hair Seaweed

Intact // Dull Quality

A long thin seaweed strand, which is known to move of its own accord to drown harvesters. Has secret barbs along each strand which must be carefully removed.

Moderate Healing 10% (-)

Water Breathing (Water)

Potency 5% (-)

Toxicity 10% (-)

Red Ginseng

Intact // Dull Quality

Aged ginseng of a rare medicinal caliber. An all-purpose powerhouse of medicine.

Longevity 0.1% (+)

Potency 5% (-)

Cultivation Boost 10% (+)

Qi Recovery 10% (-)

Each percentage meant, essentially, that the given percent of the pill’s total energy would go towards that purpose. So pill of Minor Healing 100% would devote all of its energy, without waste, to healing minor wounds. It could even exceed 100% or have multiple different effects add up past 100%. But even a pill with poor ingredients that might have a high efficiency, 100% or more, that pill would still be limited by how much energy there was to distribute.

Pills with higher ingredients, or more ingredients, naturally have more energy. 5% of a seven-ingredient pill was generally worth more than 15% of a two-ingredient pill.

Potency was simply added to the percentage of all effects. So a Minor Healing 5% and Qi Recovery 10% pill with 10% potency would be 15 and 20% effective.

Toxicity is likewise the portion of the pills energy that’s negative. It’s harder to calculate, because everyone has different capacities….

But the book seems to be able to handle an objective measurement just fine.

He slid his knife along the seaweed, debarbing it off small, hair-thin spines. It came away with a significant amount of slippery organic slime. That removed the 10% Toxicity.

Next was steeping the flawless peony root to bring its Toxicity and Potency quality down to 5%, so it would cancel out.

Normally this process would take at least an hour, but Booker now knew he had a secret weapon: “Dialyze.” A shimmering disc of cool water spun into existence around the flawless peony root, washing away the tiny amounts of dirt left on the root, then cleaning deeper, drawing away dark stains that seemed to materialize on the skin of the root then get pulled out into shreds of black material that slowly dissolved away in the water.

It was over in the blink of an eye, and examination proved it had decreased the Toxicity and Potency by the exact amount he needed.

The final step was a double negative. Two (-)s canceled out, but three flipped back into active.

Three Potency 5% properties, and one 10% boost, without a trace of Toxicity.

Chopping up the peony root and ginseng into translucently-thin slivers and grinding them down quickly with the base of his knife, Booker added the seaweed, dicing it to nothing but a pulp of slimy-wet black. He kept the whole thing on a cloth, which he could quickly wad up and burn once the task was done, leaving the cutting boards below shiny clean.

As he formed the wet pill in his hand, he crossed to the pill furnace and put it inside. Reaching into the mouth of the carved stone face on the furnace, he held his hand where the flame should go and whispered, “Furnace.”

Instantly the furnace lit up, glowering with blue flame. The pills began to solidify slowly in the heat, although it was thousands of times faster than any furnace could do alone. Even though the flame was completely apart from the pill itself, heating the pill from below a stone basin, like a flame underneath a cauldron– even so, there was a thin and luminous orb of fire forming around the pill, as raw heat concentrated in around the point of interest. That translucent, electric blue orb shivered and began to stretch upwards and upwards, becoming a comet trail of blue.

It then shrank slowly down and vanished, as the flame below the furnace basin collapsed. Booker felt a sudden wave of ice-cold exhaustion sweep over him. He had pushed the flame farther than ever before – and while his body was running on empty, hungry in a way that made him feel dizzy, hollow, and exhausted.

He reached for the pill and scorched his hand against the still-hot stone, snatching his fingers back with a hiss.

The pain was a blessing. It gave him a moment of adrenaline to push through the mind-numbing level of exhaustion rocking in waves through him. He reached out again and grabbed the pill, letting it scorch his hand as he dropped it into his pocket. He splashed cold water over it in the basin, pressed one of the sleep-replacement pills through his lips and swallowed with a gulp of tooth-chilling spring water. It did nothing.

He slumped into a chair. This is… past exhaustion… some kind of backlash…

The moment he stopped fighting it, he was asleep.

— — —

“Elder Brother! EL-DER BROTHER!”

… some kind of backlash for overusing Furnace!

The thought he’d been sleepily putting together completed suddenly as Booker was jolted out of a deep, dreamless slumber, feeling like he’d closed his eyes and snapped from one moment to the next. Wei Qi was shaking him awake.

“Huh?” Booker slurred out.

“Elder Brother!” Wei Qi stepped back. “Apologies for laying hands on you. When I got back you were unconscious, and barely seemed to be breathing!”

“Huh…” Booker repeated, reaching up and dragging a slimy thread of semi-solid drool off his chin. He wiped it on his robes and said. “Thanks.”

Wei Qi gave him a skeptical look. Booker could only imagine what was running through his mind. At best I’m a dead sleeper who takes naps when they’re supposed to be working… at worst I’m going to revive Rain’s reputation as a drug addict.

He stood up. It was dim through the windows and out the door. “It’s… night already?”

“I was away most of the day talking to people to get all we needed.” Outside, visible through the open door, there were piled crates of butter in wooden tubs, fat in paper-covered jars, bamboo by the pole, and a huge barrel of salt.

“You got all that?” Booker said, before realizing he was just asking obvious questions. “I mean… Good job on that, Junior Brother. I hope you had someone helping you carry all of it.”

“I uh, did most of it on my own.”

“Ah…” Briefly feeling guilty, Booker said, “After tomorrow’s tests, let’s drink together. I’m stuck indoors but I have a few friends here and we could all get to know each other.”

Wei Qi dutifully bowed his head. “Of course.” But Booker didn’t get much sense of enthusiasm.

I’ll have to try and charm him when we drink. Or find a way to show him I’m more than self-serving. Hmmm…

For now, he just nodded clumsily and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

As they walked different ways down the alley he sighed. Sometimes there are bigger priorities than making yourself liked…

He reached into his pocket and closed his burnt hand around the healing pill. Now that the deep exhaustion he’d felt had faded away, the sleep-replacement pill was working rapidly, and he soon felt alert and sharp-eyed with a fresh mind, as if he’d just slept the perfect sleep.

This can be an ace in the hole. For now…

His stomach grumbled.

Yeah, it’s time to get myself back out of starvation, before I collapse again. Time to put on the mask, break out of the Sect, and get that spiritual rice.