“Sana.” Evin greeted her as Sana walked to the main hall.

“Oh. Hello, Evin.” Sana thought she should refer to Evin as Lady Emmaria, but Evin ignored the formalities. The lady looked frankly annoyed to see her, as if she had expectations for her peer. “How did your hunt go?”

“It went well. I have 150 merit points.”

Sana nodded. “Good job. I have 30.” It wasn’t a race, but 10,000 merit points was about consistent effort.

“Because you did that stupid mission instead of coming with us.”

Sana shook her head. “If I went, you’d have to share with me, and that’ll reduce the reward to 110-120 merit. How did the two young masters treat you?”

Evin shrugged. “We went to the place, killed the monsters, and came back. That’s all that happened. What did you think happened?”

“They- they didn’t try anything?” Sana was a little surprised, as the two men looked at Evin like she was some meat.

“Why would they? I’m not the beauty that they coveted.” Evin laughed. “I am but a tool, a stepping stone.”

“Then who?”

“You didn’t notice them during the briefing? Aria Silvan, the descendent of the Silvan House, beautiful young lady with silver hair. Or Vanessa Skydra, another beauty with white hair. They are outer disciples, the same group as us, but they were not there for the drinks.” Evin looked at Sana with eyes that clearly showed she downgraded her assessment of Sana.

“I’m afraid I didn’t.” Sana wasn’t particularly observant, especially other cultivators.

Around that time, their chat was interrupted by a loud shout.

“Know your place, commoner!” Sana and Evin’s eyes darted to the side, and noticed Jahan Ladar in battle with another cultivator.

There was a boy in the same Outer Disciple clothes, but he had an air around him that crackled with flames. Sana felt the energy in the air around them bristle, eager to be lit and turned into living flames.

Evin frowned. “Oh dear. One of the commoners must have provoked Jahan.”

The commoner-disciple had dark brown hair, a clean, handsome face with bright brown eyes. He looked at Jahan in anger. “You should know better than to simply touch a woman’s body.”

Jahan laughed. “I touched a commoner’s body. What of it? I am a noble, of a powerful family. She should feel delighted that I even show interest in her.”

Evin rolled her eyes and cheered for their fellow invited disciple. “Beat him up, Jahan!”

The commoner shrugged, and the flames lit up. “The difference between you and me is just your station in birth. In every other sense, you are just mediocre.”

“Don’t get cocky, commoner.” Jahan pulled out a hammer and his body became heavy. Jahan used the [Earth Dragon Form], as a sheen of earth appeared around his body. His Qi took on a spiritual form.

Yet, Sana felt a strange gut feeling in her body, the flames within her were compelled to come out. She resisted.

The flames in the entire room obeyed the commoner, as his fists ignited in a green flame. Sana hadn’t seen a green flame, even her father couldn’t use it!

Jahan charged, his entire body’s Qi coated his hammer like a mountain would fall on the commoner. In any other fight, the commoner would be the one dead on the floor. In any other fight with a normal commoner, the hammer would flatten the earth beneath and create a small crater.

But Jahan’s foe was no ordinary one.

An explosion of green flame pushed Jahan back, and would have severely injured him but it didn’t. “Did you think that was all it took to kill me?” Jahan shouted, feigning arrogance. A special talisman on Jahan’s body that protected him from utmost harm. The commoner’s fists glowed with that same green flame, undisturbed.

“That commoner’s flames are good. I wonder what those are.” Evin said. “But Jahan should still be able to win.”

Jahan took out another talisman from his spatial pouch, and attached it to his body. Temporarily, Jahan’s strength increased to that of the peak 3rd-realmer. “You’re done for now, Commoner.”

The commoner mocked him in return. “You use borrowed power just to match me. Come. Show me what you’ve got.”

With enhanced strength, they traded punches, and Jahan’s talisman glowed as it absorbed hit after hit from the commoner’s green flames.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Strong words, commoner. Where is it now?” Jahan taunted as he took out another set of talismans.

“Tch.” The commoner spat out some blood. “Borrowed power is nothing.”

Yet, Sana had a bad feeling. She had only known Jahan for a day or two, but the fact that they already made enemies worried her. What kind of people these cultivators from elite families attracted?

Before Jahan and the commoner could continue the fight, an Elder appeared. “Enough of this nonsense, and this isn’t the right place to fight.”

They were really close to the mission halls.

Jahan stood and clasped his hand together. “It is not this one’s intention to cause trouble, Elder. This disciple claims I have done something wrong and tries to address his grievances by attacking me.”

The commoner, on the other hand, didn’t say a word. He just looked at the elder, his body ready to fight.

The elder glanced at both belligerents then shook his head. “You two are new. Leave, and I’ll forget this happened.”

“The Elder’s wisdom is most appreciated.”

The commoner merely sighed, and then just walked away. But he looked at Jahan, and told him this was not over. Sana just sighed. Her father told her that there is an inherent conflict between the invited disciples, and those who came via the trials.

“I hope that little commotion didn’t bother you, Evin.” Jahan said as he walked over as if nothing happened. He was injured, but still faked bravado.

“Not at all.” Evin smiled. “So, where’s your cousin?”

“Serhan’s busy with some affairs, helping an elder with some tasks.”

“Ooh. A powerful one?”

“Not really. But we can go hunt more monsters. The more monsters we hunt, the more merit we get anyway.”

“Sana, wanna join us this time?”

She thought for a while. “Only if it’s a day trip.”

Jahan nodded as he took out a pill from his spatial pouch. He ate it and Sana felt his strength recover. “It’s not far. We can get there and back within an hour.”

Since she didn’t need to have dinner together, that meant she did have more time to get back. “Alright.”

***

"3 merit points for 1 pill?" The curious outer disciple looked at Zahar. Zahar looked like any other merchant, he wore plain clothes, comfortable ones, and he had a practiced look of utmost boredom.

"Yup." Zahar said. "They normally sell it for 3 merit points upstreet. So I'm putting it on the market for the same price."

If they could find it. The reality was, any alchemist able to brew these Qi Gathering pills would swiftly work on more advanced and powerful stuff to make more money. So, the number of suppliers for such low tier pills were limited in the first place. Those that do make them, would primarily have deals with the large families to supply them with large quantities of these mundane pills. It was also not worth it to have them shipped from other places, because that would make them more expensive and most disciples would just go for more powerful pills.

So, in a quirk of market efficiency, its actually quite hard to find these cheap pills, but a lot easier to get more powerful pills.

Yet, for high 1st realm and low 2nd realm pills, this is the exact pill they need.

"Are they real?"

Zahar looked insulted. "If you have to ask, I am not selling to you."

The outer disciple was immediately horrified, "that's not what I meant, good sir! I- its just so rare to see these simple pills here after all."

Zahar waited.

The man then prostated on the floor. "I sincerely mean no offense. Please sell them to me."

"Alright. Since you apologized, I will allow you to buy 10."

"Yes." The exchange was completed, and Zahar sat. That man apparently soon went on to tell more of his friends, and a group of other outer disciples came to see him. They were all admitted via the trials, their Outer Disciple robes were of a lower quality than his, and they were in the late 1st realm and early 2nd realm. They didn’t ask many questions, and just bought as many as Zahar would allow them to.

By the end of it, he had 270 merit points. He could technically get more profits and merit points if he planted some of these herbs himself-

“I should plant them myself.” It's been a long time since he actually planted some herbs, and that sounds exactly like a thing he should be doing. It wasn’t even hard, so he walked to the general store, bought some pots and some regular soil, some regular plant seeds, and went back home.

The difference between a herb and a cultivation herb is essentially Qi. He was fairly sure the people of the world had an inkling of it, but it is possible for any type of plant to be ‘transformed’ into a cultivation herb.

All one needed was the right type of energy. The energy within a body can be used to reengineer a plant such that it becomes a cultivation herb. Of course, if you do it wrong, the plant dies.

But Zahar was an Emperor. He knew exactly what he needed to do.

It was just a small pot, with a little seed in it. In most cases, it’ll grow into a regular grassy flower.

He watered it, and then sat down and meditated with it. He was still just in the 4th stage of the 2nd realm.

The seed changed. In a practice since time immemorial, man has experimented on plants. In the Immortal Realms, the process of reengineering plants was called Agri-cultivation. The Zenith Emperors would often invent and mix plants to create new types of cultivation herbs, and occasionally create living, sentient beings in the process.

The seed swirled, and sprouted just a little. The first step of creating a small, private herbal garden, was to create what the masters called a ‘setting herb’.

Each herbal plant was affected by it’s surroundings, and unique, special plants survived in such special environments that they could not exist outside normally, or if they did, were exceptionally.

The way around this was to create plants that helped recreate those settings. The very first step, therefore, was a plant that improved the ambient Qi in the soil in it’s immediate vicinity. From this first plant, Zahar could then grow more powerful plants that transformed the higher ambient Qi and created specific environments. Then from what, he could grow something unique. One of those plants was known as the Temporal Growth Plant. It was a small plant that distorted the sense of time in the plants around it, and allowed plants to grow at exceptional speeds.

Then, through the Temporal Growth Plant, he could then cultivate a small farm of unique materials, which he could then use to sell for merit points. The Temporal Growth Plant’s unique Time-alteration ability would need some work, but Zahar but it wouldn’t be too hard.