12:

“Tea?” Senior Alchemist Lianhua blurted out, the carefully crafted composure she always maintained in public shattering in one particularly unexpected blow that completely snaked past her guard. “Like the mortal drink?”

“Correct,” War Hero Xiao Feng replied with an earnest expression. “Though if I wanted to make regular tea, I could’ve learned that art at any regular mortal village. You see, Senior Alchemist Lianhua, I wish to brew medicinal tea.”

“Medical Tea,” Senior Alchemist Lianhua repeated, sounding dazed. “So, like a concoction?” She managed to ask, her experience on the subject matter kicking in reflexively.

“Yes,” Xiao Feng enthusiastically nodded. “I wish to learn about concoctions first, for without it I cannot start researching tea blends.”

“And, erm,” Senior Alchemist Lianhua coughed, trying to reign in the emotion that sought to overwhelm her. “What do you intend to do with the medicinal tea you make?”

“Sell it, naturally. I have a shop in the Martial Division for that purpose,” Xiao Feng explained.

Senior Alchemist Lianhua could no longer keep the emotions warring inside her at bay. First, a chuckle escaped her. Then, a delicate laughter illuminated the thankfully vacant passageway, as the mask Senior Alchemist Lianhua had been reinforcing for the years and decades since her mother had passed, cracked.

“I’m sorry…” Senior Alchemist Lianhua managed to explain in between bouts of laughter. “I’m not laughing at you… I just really haven’t met… someone so interesting in years,” She explained, finally managing to reign it in.

Then a blush colored her cheeks, as she realized just how far she had overstepped.

Xiao Feng smiled, finding the situation quite amusing himself, “I’ll admit that as far as ideas go, it is pretty out there.”

“Can I ask why?” Senior Alchemist Lianhua shyly asked, already having embarrassed herself too much before Xiao Feng to claim any semblance of pride in her tone.

“Senior Alchemist Lianhua, I am sure you are well aware of this, but let me ask anyway— Are you aware of the greatest drawback of alchemist made pills?” Xiao Feng asked, delighted to having gotten the opportunity to steer the conversation.

“They are expensive,” Senior Alchemist Lianhua replied, her interest piqued by the conversation.

“Indeed,” Xiao Feng replied. “Correct me if I am wrong, but it is not uncommon for an ordinary alchemist to lose ten tries of materials to make a single pill. This requires the pills to be priced at increasingly higher tasks, while more talented alchemists are drawn to refine higher quality pills for more powerful cultivators.”

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“Your understanding is rough, but mostly correct,” Senior Alchemist Lianhua replied, not requiring long to think it through.

Xiao Feng nodded, before continuing, “I do not know how well you know the Martial Division, Senior Alchemist Lianhua?”

“I am not too familiar with its inner workings,” She admitted after a pause.

“Well,” Xiao Feng sighed. “It is quite the dull, dreary place if I am being honest,” Xiao Feng bluntly admitted.

“That is… an interesting perspective,” Senior Alchemist Lianhua replied, not having expected the Martial Divsion’s Hero to say such disparaging words.

“Do not misunderstand me, Senior Alchemist Lianhua,” Xiao Feng shook his head. “The Martial Division made me who I am, gave me the strength I needed to protect what I wanted. However, the cultivators there constantly train, push themselves to their limits and obsess over getting stronger because they know, because I know that the demons will destroy us if we get complacent. However, the reward for all that training is to fight in a life and death battle that a third will not survive.”

Taking in Xiao Feng’s melancholic tone, Senior Alchemist Lianhua thought it best not to interrupt.

“My goal here is to learn how to give them some joy,” Xiao Feng continued, his tone brightening. “Pills are expensive. Concoctions are cheap. A single spiritual plant can make more than ten doses at times. When pills run out in battle, and they almost certainly do run out, concoctions are used and they save lives. They saved my life. That is why my first goal is to research how to create a concoction that can rejuvenate the body after a long training session.”

“That is a noble goal,” Senior Alchemist Lianhua said, a hint of approval in her tone.

“And then make it taste good,” Xiao Feng added. “That part is crucial.”

“I do not understand,” Senior Alchemist Lianhua replied, this time managing to hold her composure. “If it is the equivalent of a lesser restoration pill you wish to make, what has taste got to do with it?”

“Why?” Xiao Feng rhetorically asked, chuckling. “Because I need my customers to come back, of course. It is not medicine I wish to sell here, Senior Alchemist Lianhua, you can do that much better than me. I wish to sell tea. A cup of tea to share victories and jubilations over. A cup of tea to accompany as you vent sorrows and grief. A cup of tea together to make a friend. A final cup of tea together before you say farewell to your Dao Partner. I wish to entertain and be entertained, that is all.”

Senior Alchemist Lianhua could not understand what it was Xiao Feng exactly wished to accomplish, but his words… his odd and eccentric words somehow managed to move her heart.

“I have a proposal then,” Senior Alchemist Lianhua said.

“By all means, go ahead.”

“To save the face of the Alchemy Division in how the matter of your admission was handled, let me be your teacher for the next six months”.

Six months? Xiao Feng thought, finding himself staggered by the proposal. It’s a great offer. It’s not really an offer I can afford to refuse, if she means one on one tutoring. But six months, isn’t that too long- Oh. Ohhh, Xiao Feng snapped back into the moment, as he remembered that six months wasn’t really all that long for a Foundation establishment Cultivator considering they could live for two hundred years.

“I would be delighted to accept,” Xiao Feng replied with a smile.