In a corner of an abandoned city rife with crime, countless gruesome sights could be seen. Murder and thefts occurred on every street but some of the worst crimes remained hidden unless you had a keen eye.

At exactly 10 PM every night in a dim alleyway next to one of the only banks still around, you will see a man standing in the dark, wearing a black trenchcoat, porkpie hat, and sunglasses. The clothing seemed to absorb whatever color the night failed to claim, the wearer of the clothes had an impeccable fashion sense. With every step you could sense his presence, truly he was the epitome of masculinity with a chiseled chin and abs that could cut glass, all the women flocked to him and - "Hey kid, you shouldn't walk around alone this late, where is your mother?" a man called as he approached me

Alright, maybe I'm not exactly what people considered a manly man, barely reaching 5 ft and all. I wasn't particularly buff either having spent most of my days in a basement making my wares. Still, I made up for it in my agreeable demeanor and friendly nature

"6 feet under like you'll be if you keep asking unneccesary questions" I snarled back, feeling particularly friendly tonight

He grimaced back "Its been a while, Lucas. It was pretty easy to recognize you"

"What gave it away, the trenchcoat? Guess I won't need to go around ringing a bell" He felt familiar to me though I couldn't remember him. The insignia on his chest showed his to be a member of an old syndicate I worked for, though that was several years in the past.

He kept a hand tucked into his pocket as he slowly shuffled forward like a predator stalking their prey, I kept a firm hand on the gun tucked at my waist. I doubt he had orders to kill me or I would already have a bullet hole in my head.

I saw the movements of his hand as he pulled out his gun, the metallic color reflecting off the moonlight. I responded in kind, leading to a classic standoff.

The man stared back calmly "I just need you to come back to the syndicate with me, if you hand over the recipe we can let you go" he murmured as if he thought I would believe him.

I created a drug that would flood the brain with monoamine oxidase to instill despair before replacing it with serotonin and dopamine, essentially making every hit of the drug feel like a first high. The syndicate grew rich and believed they owned the recipe I made since they provided the materials. I ended up running off having never written proportions needed, and considering that the drug was made from highly toxic substances, they were desperate to get the recipe or kill me off so I couldn't spread it.

"Is this how you pay me back for all the times I bailed you out? those years together meant nothing to you?" I murmured, though I wasn't sure if I had ever helped him before

"That's why I'm giving you the option of coming along peacefully, they already promised to let you leave if you come with me" He growled back

"Yeah they'll let me leave this plane of existence, but that would be a mercy, so here" I lowered my gun and took out a slip of paper with my life's work, holding it out.

He took it with a nod and promptly shot me in the stomach as I expected, my body lost strength as I collapsed. Growing heat and dampness was forming on my stomach, surprisingly my wound didn't hurt but I could feel my consciousness flickering.

"Sorry Lucas, it was either you or my family" He whispered as he walked away,

"No, i'm the one who's sorry" I laughed painfully to myself, the paper had the formula to my drug, but the proportions were a few grams off.

The final substance would be near identical to the intended product, but would slowly release poisonous gas until the victim drops dead from the accumulated chemicals. It was like lead poisoning in that it would take months but just a small amount would be enough to cause a significant memory decline. Being the one to create it, I had already gotten a large dosage and could feel pieces of memory slip away from my grasp.

I laid on my back as people walked past me without so much as a glance in my direction, I'd have been disgusted by them ignoring a victim near death but I would have done the same if the situation was reversed.

I could feel my heartbeat slow as my blood turns cold. I breathed the musky air of the city one final time and shut my weary eyes. When I opened them again, it was completely dark as the constant sound of water dripping distrubed the silence. With no other options, I walked towards the sound of the dripping.

Eventually, a lake appeared before me glowing a faint blue. Sitting at a desk behind it was a skeleton with yellow flames in its eyes and gold flecks covering its body, I knew the being in front of me was Death, as written on the name card on his shirt.

"Greeting mortal, you have perished and I shall escort you to the appropriate afterlife, do not resist" Death called as my body moved towards him on its own. I stared in awe, then immediately lost that awe seeing him wearing a flannel shirt and square-rimmed glasses like some half-baked hipster, wearing socks with crocs like an ungodly heathen. It was truly a pity not everybody shared my perfect fashion sense.

He seemed more dead than expected, ignoring him being a skeleton and all, he gave off the feeling of a grad student having stayed up multiple nights to finish an assignment and was remaining awake by caffeine alone.

Death reached towards my soul but fear gripped my heart, I wasn't about to let some unknown entity take me. Exerting every bit of willpower I had, I desperately rummaged through my ethereal pockets, pulling out a bag of my wares, and threw it at Death.

He pulled back in shock as white mist covered him. The fire in his eye sockets grew wider, turning into deep pits of flame as his breath grew strained and ragged- odd considering the lack of lungs- eternity grew silent, as I held my breath. The stillness was broken by Death's laughter, a high-pitched wail like a storm siren, he got up and walked towards me but collapsed into a heap after a few steps.

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He turned towards me from his position on the inky abyssal floor

"Oy, newbie. Yer late, suppose to have come a century ago" Death slurred, I stared in silence. Had I managed to drug Death?

I quickly responded with a salute

"Is good you're here. Them immortals won't die, been tryan forevar. M'boss 'll fiah me but mahbe you cun do smthn" death laughed to himself "lemme get ya the door, gud luck son"

"Wait I don't -" I started but he threw me into the lake

"Oh and this is all unpaid" Death called after me as I vaporized into mist and vanished

I woke up with my head hammering like the day after a night of drinking, I took a moment regretting my life decisions before getting up and surveying my surroundings. I was behind a counter with various plants and liquids behind me while in front of me was a small, very rundown store interior that was barren of any furniture, similar to a walk-in pharmacy.

Then the memories came, starting as a small trickle building up to raging torrents. I was Feng Chen, an alchemist chased out of my sect because I slipped the equivalent of extra strength viagra to the 5 rising alchemical prodigies instead of an appearance enhancer right before meeting the sect master...They stood up twice much to the shock of all present. Anyways, I was chased out of my sect with only the clothes on my back, and here I am running an alchemy shop, desperately trying to repay the debt I received in exchange for my life.

I could feel my rage bubble to the surface, how was I supposed to defeat the immortals when even Death could do nothing? Where was my heaven-defying powers and harem of women? I took deep breaths and considered everything I knew.

I was one of the most talented drug creators before I died and I had reincarnated as an alchemist, meaning Death is expecting me to create some alchemical substance that could prevent immortality, even if I killed the immortals more would just appear after a few hundred years. I need to find a way to prevent people from cultivating, the easiest way would be to have them focused on something other than immortality...like getting their next fix

I couldn't help but be suspicious, everything was going too well. I had a distinct impression that Death had faked having been drugged as an excuse to get somebody else to finish his work. The lazy bastard wasn't even paying me.

I pulled myself together and got to my feet, the debt collectors will be here in a few months or so, according to the various noted spread on the counter. It seems reading and writing won't be a problem for me, but I didn't have even close to the amount needed to pay it back. Since there wasn't a time limit for when to kill the immortals, my first course of action was to earn money though most of the ingredients on the shelves were unknown to me. While I gained most of Feng's memories, I lacked any knowledge of alchemy, how to brew an elixir of instant death? Nope, here's a memory of that time Feng tripped on a random rock and broke his arm.

Judging by the memories I did have, Qi is the lynchpin for this world that is naturally created and is circulated throughout the body alongside the blood, it typically resembles blue strings of light though there is no definitive appearance. The Qi that enters the body and passes through the heart is the easiest to cycle while those outside the body need to be forcefully controlled.

I closed the shop and went to see the conditions of the city, the poorer and more rundown everything was, the easier it would be to peddle my wares. I made my way to the central marketplace where the general populace lived, my store was near the outskirts away. The streets were dirty with filth and excrement with empty bottles tossed haphazardly, the stench from the waste was atrocious that only masochists could take a deep breath with a straight face. The people were far worse with tattered rags covering their thin frames, it was rare to see an unmaimed man, the majority were missing a limb and many opt not to cover their open wounds with bandages. Prostitutes lined every corner alongside children begging for scraps while weapons were openly carried to deter potential threats.

There was a strange absence of trenchcoats carrying their wares that would be expected in an area like this, likely because creating cultivation materials was far more profitable and the temptation of eternity was greater than a few moments of bliss.

I continued wandering until I chanced on an old man pushing a wagon filled with leaves, they seemed familiar to me like an old friend. It was only after the man had left that I realized the origin of the leaves: they were from the coca plant used in the making of cocaine.

I felt nostalgic reminiscing of when I was a child making cocaine in my grandfather's basement and selling them for scraps of food. Looking around more closely, I realized most of the ingredients I needed to create cocaine were already available, it seems Death had mercy when he chose the town I would spawn in.

First up was the coca leaves, considering an old man managed to bring back several bags worth of them, they shouldn't be too rare. I was right in my assumption. But while they were a common sight in the nearby forests, I had never harvested them before and the process took longer than expected

Next up was cement powder I created by burning powdered limestone and clay, both of which could be found at the riverbed near the mountains with broken peaks.

Sulfuric acid was surprisingly easy to get, a person's qi could change properties depending on various conditions such as cultivating in a spot with a certain element. Those that cultivate in poisonous places or injected toxins into their body became able to withstand poison and the damages it caused, meaning harvesting sulfuric acid was laughably easy for them.

I managed to get crude oil after speaking with local miners who were complaining about a dark liquid that had flooded their mines, paying for the oil they brought up. After heating it to the appropriate temperatures with fractional distillation I got gasoline

Caustic soda aka lye was obtained by boiling the ashes from a hardwood fire in rainwater and skimming the lye off the top after the ashes settled

Sodium permanganate was the most difficult material to get. Manganese dioxide from the riverbeds was mixed with lye while an air talisman generated the appropriate temperature for the two substances to combine. chlorine gas was created by mixing manganese dioxide with sulfuric acid in a vacuum filter flask that I added to the solution.

The most unpleasant process was making ammonia by boiling urine repeatedly until it becomes concentrated then mixing in lye while being heated. We use a tube to connect the beaker with the urine solution to an empty beaker as the heating urine becomes ammonia gas. When it reaches the other beaker we will have pure ammonia that can be used

I went into the back room where the cauldron was, a truly skilled alchemist would be able to create pills by mixing the ingredients with their Qi but I still had ways to go. I minced the coca leaves and lightly dusted them with the concrete powder, I mixed in a solution of ammonia and lime into the leaves before adding a slight amount of gasoline. All the while I'm making sure to stir the mixture, after a bit, I add even more gasoline and leave it to rest. After a few hours, I drain the solution and toss out the leaves, adding ammonia to the mixture, even more gasoline is added all the while I'm stirring. Then the sulfuric acid is mixed in along with more ammonia to turn the mixture into a paste. I strain everything to separate the paste from the gasoline and that's where the Sodium permanganate and caustic soda are mixed into the paste to purify it. The entire time I was working I could feel my qi seep into the components at every step of the procedure.

Eventually, the process was finished, I looked at the pure white bar in my hands. I couldn't help but be proud of myself for successfully making cocaine in an entirely new world though in all honesty I was unsure about the instructions and rushed the process. The purity was abysmal, it was highly likely that what I had was just a block of poison. Whatever the case, the easy part was out of the way. Now I had to actually sell my creation