Visiting Janassa had been relatively straightforward. I just needed to ask her a couple of questions, and she was more than happy to turn that into a long, detailed lesson, more than happy to go even deeper about the practical aspects of the technique.

However, even with that, it took three days for detailed, repeated work for me to get the next reward I had been working for, one that had been only possible thanks to her breakthrough in the process. Not just her cultivation, but also my understanding.

Thanks to my growing understanding of the more advanced parts of her technique, I not only asked some 'accidental' questions to lead her to better understand her own problems relating to the more advanced parts of the technique, but I also added some insights about the technique on the merit purchase system I created for her.

[Cultivation Difference Bonus - 40; Pity Bonus - 50 (Capped)]

[90x Return - Kartpa Alchemy Technique Lesson - Beginner, Minor Familiarity]

"Thank you for your kindness, mistress," I said as another lesson ended. "Now, I have disturbed your cultivation enough…"

"Nonsense," she replied with a kind smile. "You can visit me anytime. I like teaching alchemy."

I bowed before I left, leaving her to study the latest set of alchemy insights she had purchased from the System. While I wanted to increase my proficiency even more, even the most optimistic estimation told me that increasing to Major Familiarity alone would require something around a month.

Or, I could just let her study her alchemy for a while I can start searching for a Foundation Establishment pill recipe, and focus on boosting her cultivation. Increasing both the multiplier and her cultivation would make the same improvement process much faster.

Once I left her behind, I triggered the latest reward, and my mind was filled with another flood of alchemy information, which luckily included quite a lot of medical information. Including, how to completely cleanse the essence of a martial artist.

I wanted to use that on myself, as my improving apothecary knowledge included quite a bit of information about how repeated usage of martial arts slowly transformed the body. Of course, that information was mostly geared toward how to hasten the transformation, which would make the martial artist even stronger.

Luckily, there was some information about how to reverse that and cleanse the martial basis completely. It was there as a counter, as these techniques were more geared toward healing enemy attacks. Apparently,, some martial essences acted like a disease, infecting and ruining the enemy through essence attacks.

The information included was to remove that infection on the surface level, but my combined alchemy and apothecary knowledge allowed me to reverse engineer to completely remove that. However, it was a painful, invasive process that risked damaging the martial arts foundation of the target, which was why I had gone to the newest garden I had for ginseng plants.

I first uprooted one of the smaller plants that had been growing, which, under the forced growth of the formation and spiritual fertilizer, had already reached a maturity that it would take a hundred years outside.

However, it would barely count as a Medium Black Rank. Incredible considering the time I had spent, but not exactly impossibly rare.

A rule of thumb for alchemy was that the quality of the materials created an upper bound for the pills that could be created. However, those rules were for people who didn't have proficiency in of techniques three major ranks.

Minor Familiarity with the Kartpa alchemy technique was like being a solid-C college student trying to solve an elementary school question. While lacking the corresponding Nascent Soul technique meant that I had no idea how to use a complicated concept like Providence to refine pills, those advanced techniques were still applicable for a relatively basic pill like a martial aptitude pill.

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Particularly since I could use the spiritual vein to supply a wasteful amount of Qi from to smooth out any problem.

The refining process took one hour, and, as the flames around the cauldron were removed, I was looking at a beautiful round pill with an excellent smell.

Earth Low-Grade, three minor steps higher than the material I had used.

"Beautiful," I muttered, but I didn't decide to consume it immediately. Or, decided to use the Heaven-ranked ginseng plant to refine another pill. Why should I, when I already had a helpful assistant that could help me improve it.

I noticed Janassa had already made her choice about the reward. Insights about the Kartpa technique, which she still didn't know the true name of.

I spent twenty minutes filling out several pages, my calligraphy allowing me to embed the insights I had learned from the latest reward, including some entry points to the Foundation Establishment stage. Then, I sent that through the delivery formation … along with a small gift bundle of rewards that included an Earth-grade martial aptitude pill.

I then spent an hour working on the garden, selecting a great number of mature plants that generated the most spirit energy, placing them in pots, and filling the deck of my spiritual boat.

Those plants weren't enough to support the consumption of the boat, but in preparation for my visit to the mist. Once that was complete, I visited Janassa again, carrying a freshly brewed pot of tea with me. A little idle chatter and a few wistful glances were all that I needed for her to give me a gift.

An Earth Grade martial aptitude pill that I could use to study.

[Cultivation Difference Bonus - 40; Pity Bonus - 50 (Capped)]

[90x Return - Martial Aptitude Pill - Heaven High-Grade]

"The story is really important," I decided even as I left Janassa alone for her studies, and went to the center of the formation. If I tried to give me a sword or something similar, I probably would have to work hard to convince her to gift me it out of pity.

However, my story as a captive of the inheritance land trying to learn alchemy to get my freedom did the job for me.

"Let's see what Heaven ranked pill looks like," I said to myself even as I pulled it out of my inventory … and the world around me shifted.

It was a subtle change, one that I could have ignored easily if I wasn't in a location where every little detail had been controlled by me.

Providence around me had shifted.

It wasn't just my fate that changed, that much I could feel. It wasn't even the karma between me and Janassa that changed, but the Heavenly Providence around me.

It weakened.

That weakening was very slight, and I might have not noticed it if it wasn't related to alchemy, as my understanding of Providence was very spotty. I didn't know what happened.

Not even to have an educated guess.

As much as I wanted to start experimenting, I couldn't do so. Any experiment would take a lot of time, and getting anything reliable before I could improve my understanding of Providence would have been a waste.

I had more urgent missions to deal with.

First, I used Qi to completely cleanse my body of any hint of the essence, completely destroying my martial cultivation in the process, using three hundred and sixty acupuncture needles as a medium. It was an invasive, destructive process that had ruined my martial talent completely, but with the Heaven Ranked pill in hand, it wasn't exactly a problem.

Instead, I swallowed the Heaven Ranked pill.

If I didn't have a lot of concentrated essence pills to consume, and Qi to quickly process it, the pill might have actually killed me. Instead, it had reshaped my body to the smallest detail, turning my body into a finely tuned wonder designed for martial arts.

A painful process, but it was worth it. I could feel that a subtle weight over me had disappeared, as I had just left a job that I hated. It was subtle but distinct.

Too bad I couldn't simply practice a new set of martial arts immediately.

Instead, I went back to the base and kidnapped multiple martial artists, both Everdawn and Tiger Fist — a process that wasn't particularly difficult thanks to the secret entrance I had integrated — and on the way, I had also kidnapped a few itinerant cultivators that were exploring the mountain.

All of them, I kept at the outskirts of the misty mountains, and started experimenting on formations around them, trying to block the effect of the mist. I had long discovered how the mist supported Everdawn while forcing some kind of subtle transformation, while it attacked Tiger fist disciples.

I tried to come up with a formation that could block the effect. I didn't want the same mist invading my body. The Qi cultivators were there as a control group.

Luckily, while I didn't understand how mist worked, blocking its effects didn't seem to be too complicated. It was more tedious. A combined system of purification and cleansing talismans, integrated into a formation that controlled air inflow and outflow like a complicated air conditioner seemed to be enough.

I was ready to explore the Misty Mountains.