As I come back to the area, the women are all still bowed, but many appear shocked and puzzled, from the little I can see of their faces. Even the boss lady appears to be confused.

“I’m sorry Senior, did you still need something from us?”

I give a sigh.

“I… um…”

I can’t help, but rub the back of my neck awkwardly.

“I… I’ve seen the pain that this disease causes. I don’t think any of you deserve that.” I give a quick look at the alchemist.

“If you have a sheet of paper, something to write with, and some ingredients, I’d like to show you all how to make the cure for yourselves.”

Dead silence.

“BWHAHAHAHAHAHAH”

And then suddenly barking laughter erupts far to the opposite side of the group. My eyes look to there, where the crowd has essentially parted, revealing an average looking woman practically rolling on the ground in laughter.

Everyone’s eyes look fearfully to her, partly in fear of what she is doing and also of what might happen to her.

“Hahaha. I’-hahahaha. I’m sorry, ahaha. Plea- please go ahead.” The woman has a huge refreshing smile on.

The boss lady is looking at her with an enormous glare, but then turns her attention back to me.

“I’m so very sorry about that, I’ll make sure to discipline her later regarding this.” The woman freezes up and tries to slink back into the crowd. The boss lady catches her, like a mother cat to her kitten.

Okay, this lady is clearly someone special if she can get away with that.

Or maybe… this was all part of some test? I don’t even know anymore.

I should probably IGNORE that.

Focusing back on the issue at hand, let me try to show them how to make it.

…Strange, my mind seemed to get away from me for a moment. I can’t seem to remember exactly how.

From this point, I call over the alchemist and begin writing each step with her. As some other people look interested, I call them over and begin teaching them as well.

As I go through the distinct steps of how things should react and combine, many of the people, other than the alchemist look confused. Not wanting them to be confused, I help to explain why you perform certain actions, using the low tier intuition scanning.

I zero into how different chemicals interact and the nature of certain plants. There are a variety of different plants, many of which share similar qualities with the ones from earth. However, all have qi in varying amounts. Things like the similarly named plant called sage, still have same characteristics. When mixed with an extremely common plant called spirit grass, its natural characteristics are wildly enhanced. If mixed with other ingredients, such as salt, it could possibly flip the characteristics on its head.

Within the alchemy system, it is a combination of Qi and chemistry. Different enough that you can’t rely on chemistry knowledge, but close enough to make sense.

Like with the salt example. Only for those ingredients will it flip. And that is only if you grind them up together. It doesn’t even include if you add heat, put it under pressure, or other variables. The less qi in the ingredients, the more likely it will follow the laws of chemistry and/or logic. Even with that though, there is something about the nature of qi that has randomness baked into it.

Alchemy is about reducing the randomness through iteration, even if it can’t be eliminated. Sounds familiar.

After my explanation, there seem to be much fewer confused faces. Which, based on the content and my desperate high school chemistry teacher’s effort, is a tough feat.

Surprisingly, even the alchemist seems to have gotten some insight from this.

I finish with, “As a general rule, with many exceptions, you want to pay attention to the Qi density, distribution, and reactivity of the ingredients you use. Remember, DDR. Otherwise, you’ll be the one dancing around.”

I have a quick chuckle at my own inside joke.

Some of them look lost at that comment, but just brush it off.

It is at this point, one of the women comes running back with ingredients.

They seemed to have come back much quicker last time, but maybe that was just a coincidence… Probably not.

My eyes search out the woman who was laughing earlier, though I can’t seem to find her. On a whim, I search for the boss lady to see if she found her. Almost immediately, as I find her, I can see her yelling at a different looking woman.

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That’s probably her.

The new woman’s face starts turning towards me, but I get a bad feeling and immediately go back to teaching the group using the ingredients for hands on. I can still feel her eyes on the back of my head.

As I continue working with them, I found out how bad this disease really was for them.

They’ve been keeping it under wraps, but a good five percent of them had caught it… with the number only growing. Their organization is extremely large as well, though spread out.

So, mainly the number of women affected were localized to this area, but still in the thousands. There are rumors among their group that the disease wasn’t a ‘natural’ occurrence.

Well.

Once again, I may have gotten in too deep with something crazy. Now they definitely won’t let me go. Hmm… actually, I may have saved our team.

If I hadn’t have given this away, they may have hunted me down to get more information. Which reiterates how bad it was to even do this.

I really need to make more distance between my heals.

At least, now I’m in a respected position. I hope.

Actually, now that I think of it… aren’t I just digging myself a deeper hole?

After about an hour or so of this, I can see a spider crawl up to me.

Connecting to it and it to her, I let Gong know I spent much more time with the yellow sashes than I thought I would and will head back soon. It will get dark soon. I sense through the connection that she is sending a large number of spiders my way.

Time to wrap this up before Gong frightens everyone with absurdly large spiders.

As I wrap up the lesson, it is clear that the alchemist definitely understands how to make and use the elixir. The other learners have a decent idea, but will be able to work with the alchemist to help with the creation. They should be all set.

The alchemist is thanking me profusely and keeps looking at me strangely, so I separate from her.

I can sense someone approaching at a run, from the rooftops. It appears to be the young demi-human boy I sent to Gong earlier. He takes a glance and waves at me, before running for the boss lady. Finding her, he turns to the woman she is talking to.

Looks like I’m not the only one that used that trick. Also, that tells me this is a regular occurrence.

She listens to him for a good few minutes, alternating between questions and listening. After a period of silence, she then does a glance at me, nodding.

At the same time, I can feel the spiders coming closer and closer. The big ones.

Okay, time to go. Something’s going on.

As I make a motion to leave, the average-looking woman I saw last talking with the boss lady, somehow naturally appears in front of me.

I pause.

Everyone stops and starts paying attention to her.

My guess is that she has some kind of ability that disguises her and draws people’s attention away or toward her.

While I think this, she looks me directly in the eyes and speaks to me.

“Sir, my name is Wu Qing, the leader of this group. May I have the honor of your name?”

She pauses, waiting for a response.

I notice many people are waiting with bated breath.

I don’t know the power of names here, better keep it safe with just my first name. Since something is obviously important about this.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Wu Qing. You may call me James.” She gives a slight smile at this, which quickly disappears. She surprises me with a deep bow. Immediately after, everyone else bows as well. This is surprising, because from what I’ve heard, this is an immense and somewhat powerful group. One that has enough cultivation members to qualify as a minor sect.

Considering that she is the leader of this group, she can’t be simple.

She continues, uninterrupted, “I am immensely grateful for the work you’ve done for our group. With this treatment, we can now help many of our girls in this area and potentially others. Quite of few them could no longer work and were expecting a life of pain…” She gives a glance up at me, one revealing a hint of her feelings.

“I was extremely frustrated by my incompetency regarding this situation. Especially, since we were having quite some trouble finding the solution to this.”

Not even a cricket could be heard after that statement. The impression I get from her is someone who truly cares about her group. Obviously, I can’t tell since I don’t truly know her… but she definitely seems to truly care.

“However, you managed to solve this issue, with almost no problem. Not only that, but with ingredients that are easily found for this area. Very easily found, in fact.

“If you weren’t with Gong’s group and allied to Sister Crane’s organization, I would be curious to know more.”

Her eyes lock onto mine with a fiery passion.

“Very curious.”

Ah, so that’s what the kid was probably telling her. Thank goodness for Gong. And Big Sister Crane, apparently.

She stands straight up, confidently.

“It seems your group is currently in a bit of a… tight spot, right now. Especially after displaying such a strong show of force against the Vermillion Stripes.”

I stay silent. It’s better for me to hear her out and her intentions.

She continues, after a pause. “We already had discussed giving our support, in some fashion to her group. But now with this…”

Raising her voice, she continues, “I declare that the Yellow Sashes are in a full alliance with Gong’s gang, the Maroon Spiders!”

Oh shit. Maroon Spiders?

What did Gong do? Hell, what have I done?

The young demi-human sprints away, I assume to share the news. As loud conversations and even some cheering erupt all around us, Wu Qing has a cocky smile on her face, but leans in quietly.

“It seems you don’t know what had happened earlier today. I promise, this will be good for you personally as well. I’ll make sure you are rewarded regarding this.”

She licks her lips and for the slightest of moments, I can see someone far, far, far more gorgeous than the average façade that is being shown to me now. My body begins to shake, but then immediately calm down… almost against my will.

I can’t help, but gulp at this series of reactions from myself. A snicker comes from her. “Heh. Didn’t think you were so innocent. I’ll make sure you get a good recommendation, as well. I truly do appreciate what you’ve done here today… I wish I could do more, but we are in a pretty tight spot, because of many factors.”

She bites her lip in thought, almost as if she isn’t sure if she should say something.

Her eyes flash at something in the distance. Before I can look, her eyes catch mine.

Almost like an illusion, I can see a shadow of her move in even closer, her eyes locked onto mine. They are sharp and holds a strength that I barely fathom hidden beneath.

“Know, that I won’t forget what you’ve done here. I’ll make you ours someday. At any cost.”

The illusion dissipates, and she gives me an innocent smile. No one else has seemed to see this happen.

Or if they have… they have distinctly ignored it.

Ah shit. I get the feeling that if I don’t stay away, I could become slav…

I can see a glint and can’t help, but blink.

It is at this point; I can sense that three Gong-sized spiders crawling over the top of the nearby rooftops. With a tiny flood of regular sized spiders, flowing around them. The arachnids are here.

Wait. What was I thinking about again..?

Huh.

Must not have been important.