I knocked on the door of the room, but there was no answer. I smiled as I knocked again, this time using a rhythm we agreed on previously. This time, the door cracked open, and Pearyin looked. "Who are you?" she asked.

I chuckled. "Don't tell me that you don't recognize your poor student," I said.

She did a double-take. "Y-young master. Is this you?"

"It's just a disguise," I explained. After all, I was still dressed as the servant of a mysterious lord who visited the city to arrange some stuff.

"Everything is okay, right?" she said.

"Yes. I managed to rent a better house, so we're going there," I explained. I expected more questions, but she just went inside and packed her personal items, which took only seconds. A few minutes of travel, and we were in the new rental.

"Now, we still need to stay under the radar. Our enemies are still looking for me," I said. Luckily, she was obedient — excessively so — and she didn't need any further explanation.

"What do you need me to do, young master," she said.

"You're going to stay inside and practice martial arts. And, if there are any insistent visitors, send them away," I said. "Now, show me your stance."

She once again took the modified Aikido stance I had created. "Let's make a few changes," I said as I put my arm on her shoulder. "Loosen the muscle I'm touching. Shift your weight more toward your left leg, and tense your back muscles more," I repeated, directly correcting her stance.

Compared to the previous training session, I had two advantages. First, I learned four new fighting arts. While the version I had learned was inferior to the Tiger Fist, it still gave me a better idea of how the martial arts actually worked.

I could have taught any one of them to Pearyin, and it would have been easier than my so-called Forest Dance Martial Arts, but that would mean she couldn't explain the origin. Not to mention, there was a low-key civil war going on between the Martial Arts schools, and I didn't want to complicate it further.

The other advantage was the essence massage technique I had learned. Combined with my increased medicinal knowledge, I was able to manipulate her essence with shocking efficiency.

Half an hour of practice, and she suddenly froze. "I … I think I just had a breakthrough," she whispered as she started sweating even more as her body started to dispel the impurities.

"Wait here," I said as I went to the kitchen, and put a small plate of stew. Not because I was suddenly stingy, but because it was too intense for her to handle directly. "Eat," I said as I put my hand on her stomach, using Volcano Essence to help her break down her food once more.

This time, it wasn't as wasteful as the previous time. One benefit of my breakthrough, I was able to channel my essence out with higher efficiency. Also, I treated the meat with some Volcano Essence before to make it easier to digest as well. With my help, the small bowl of stew wasn't any worse than a low-grade essence pill.

The essence spread into her body, and the depletion of the breakthrough was resolved.

"I … I'm a martial artist. I can't believe it," she whispered repeatedly.

"Don't get excited, it's just a start," I said. "Now, go take a bath."

She looked at me shyly. "Do … Do you want to help me?" she asked shyly.

"Tempting, but I need to work on some other things first," I said. The disappointed blush on her face was beautiful enough to make me regret that decision. Unfortunately, that regret didn't make me change my mind.

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I wasn't exaggerating when I said I needed to work on other things.

While she was busy taking a bath, I went to the inner room where I set the cauldron, and started processing the herbs and the savage beast parts. My room wasn't filled with Snow Essence, but that was not necessary for the essence pill I was trying to refine.

It was a weak pill, merely an essence recovery pill that was appropriate for the Initiate stage martial artists. I could have purchased a bunch for a few gold coins, but instead, I decided to practice my refinement skills.

I wanted to see how easily I could put the acquired abilities into play. It was better to know about it first.

The principles of the essence recovery pill were simple. Extract and purify the essence that was locked in the beast parts, mix it with various herbs that would control the release of the essence once swallowed, and a shell to maintain the locked essence.

Therefore, even the Initiate-level book I had received from the library had four variants of the recipe. The recipe I received from the System didn't have the variants, but also it was better, meaning I could make several changes based on my relatively limited knowledge and the result would still be acceptable.

First, I tried to refine one based on the booklet from the library. I prepared a portion of savage beast liver, and mixed it with four types of herbs, blasting certain parts with cold essence while the flame continued to dance underneath, allowing the various elements to mix.

Then, I added another batch of plants as I pulled the cauldron from the flame to lock down the medicinal properties, and blasted it with another burst of Snow Essence, to shorten the process that would have lasted an hour into seconds.

"Mortal Medium-Grade. Not bad," I said as I examined the product. Seven, roughly round pills, each giving out a pleasing smell.

Technically, it was better than not bad. Far better. According to what I learned, an ordinary apothecary apprentice worked for years before they could successfully form even the lowest rank Mortal Low-Grade pills, and their success rate was worse than twenty percent.

But, I was cheating, so it was hardly something to be proud of.

I refined three more sets based on the same recipe, two of them actually resulting in Mortal High-Grade pills. The Medium-Grade ones allowed me to profit at least a gold each, and the High-Grade ones at least tripled it. Maybe more if I could actually find the right customer.

The greatest difference between the Medium and High-Grade pills was not the total energy, but the purity. The purer they were, the less consequences there were for consuming several in quick succession. For Initiate Stage Martial Artists, High-Grade pills could easily double their practice time, making them valuable.

Of course, most martial artists didn't have the luxury of consuming Essence Pills for training, and kept them for emergencies, relying on food to replenish their energies, which slowed down their breakthroughs even more.

Ultimately, while talent was important for the further stages, the lack of resources was the real challenge that kept Martial Artists back.

I wanted to see just how quickly Pearyin improve with unlimited resources, endless essence massage, and constant training.

I quickly ate the High-Grade ones, using Volcano essence to break them down even more quickly and destroy the excess, replenishing the essence I lost during the earlier breakthrough, though the refinement process burned a decent amount as well.

The Medium-Grade ones, I just threw into a fancy box, like they were important resources. If a thief broke in, it would make a convincing decoy.

Then, I started refining another set of pills, this time using the recipe I received from the System, though half of the materials, I replaced with inferior ones. Some herbs were rare enough that purchasing them would have been suspicious, while the others were simply not available in Markas. Therefore, the superiority of the System-Recipe was degraded significantly.

Therefore, I expected the result to be Mortal Peak-Grade, and Mortal High-Grade wouldn't be too disappointing either.

So, when I looked at the results, I couldn't help but gasp.

Profound Low-Grade.

"Damn, the System is not playing around," I gasped as I popped one into my mouth, testing its smoothness. Even without the help of the Volcano essence, it melted in my mouth, spreading like a whisper. "I wonder how much they could be sold for."

Probably at least twenty gold coins, maybe more … assuming I could find the right customer, of course. Its advantages were significant, but ultimately, no Initiate could pay for it by working. It was a true luxury product. They had to come from a rich family, and for them, reaching Muscle Reinforcement was not a challenge for anyone but the laziest and the least skilled.

Any apothecary skilled enough to refine basic essence pills to the Profound Grade would refine better pills. It was a better use of their time.

It was different for me. A few extra gold coins I could get from other medicines didn't mean as much as improving Pearyin. The value of someone I could trust — within reasonable limits — was far more important.

With a determined expression, I threw another set of herbs into the cauldron, preparing to refine another set of Profound Low-Grade pills. After today's encounter, I didn't know when I would be able to leave the estate, and I wanted to leave enough resources for Pearyin to allow her to cultivate without a problem.