I sat behind a wooden counter, dark tree rings ran through the wood, indicating its immense age. Of course, the wood was actually about five hours old. I’d added the rings just to make it look better. Light came in from two windows in front of the room.

Hui Ming stood by my side. Her short black dress brushed against the sword and dagger at her waist. My eyes drooped. Time pushed against us like a river of mustard, grinding against us as we waited.

“Hey Xiao Li, haven’t you been kinda bored lately?” I asked.

“Not particularly,” she said.

“I certainly have. It’s fun to create pills, but just creating them isn’t fun, if that makes sense.”

“What do you mean?”

“How should I put this? Some people really love cooking, but half the joy of cooking is sharing it with others, don’t you think? I don’t think very many people would cook just for the sake of it. There’s something deeply dissatisfying about not having anybody to take my medicine.”

“Is that why you made this shop?” she asked.

The sparse room held nothing but me, Hui Ming, and the wooden counter. A sign was hung outside, reading “Jin’s Medicine House.”

“Partially. I’m trying to get some influence in this city, I gotta get some of that networking done. I guess I also want to be able to stretch out a bit, buy the land next to us and make my garden bigger.”

“May I make a suggestion?” she asked.

“Go ahead.”

“It would be faster to directly conquer the neighboring lands. It would also build some prestige for you,” she said.

“Maybe I would do that if I had no other choice, but if I can buy it fair and square, I’ll opt to do that instead,” I grinned, “but if they’re unreasonable, I suppose I’d have to take personal action.”

The same principle that drove me to make this shop also affected my other plants. I loved designing cool new plants like the Colossus, but what was the point if I was the only one who could see it? I think I was waiting for an excuse to take it out.

This shop that was made where my front gate used to be. I had Hui Ming destroy the gate, and I planted this shop in its place.

The door creaked open. I held my breath and put on a bright smile. My eyes turned into little crescents like freshly baked croissants. A cat peaked its head through the door.  My smiled flipped upside down. “Shoo! Stupid cat! Shoo!”

The yellow and brown cat sniffed the air and tilted its head towards me.

“Shoo!”

“Yoooo~” it yawned, its whiskers trembled.

I shooed at it again. It was not very effective…

Well that’s embarrassing. I glanced at Hui Ming just in time to see her give the cat a death glare. “Yiii!” I heard the cat screech. It jumped into the air and dashed out of my shop.

I put my head on the counter, “Why isn’t there anybody coming?”

“Master… this is a new shop. All you have is a sign. You need to add shelves of medicine and build a reputation before this shop gets more customers.”

“I’m a custom job guy, though…”

“Sorry master, but you won’t get any customers if you keep going like this. Should I set up the shelves?” she suggested.

My door opened again. “See? Customers!” Nearly twenty people filed into the shop. Dull scars covered their bodies. They wore their scars like badges, cutting their clothing to make their scars more obvious. The smell of sweat entered my nostrils.  

“Hey boss, did we go to the wrong shop?”

“No way, look. There’s a cashier sitting right there, and I’m sure there was a  sign was hung up outside.”

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“But there’s nothing in here…”

“Oh, shut up, let me check.” A tall man turned towards me, tilting his head to look down on me. This was probably the boss that the others were referring to. “Is this Jin’s Medicine House?”

“That’s right, and I’m Jin!” I gave him a wide grin. “Welcome!”

“Is this some kind of joke?” he slammed his hand against the counter, shaking it. “Don’t think us Kitty Brothers are easily insulted. Where’s the damn medicine!”

I raised a finger. “Hey now, no need for violence. My medicine house works differently. You need to request medicine first, then I’ll find something that matches what you want.”

He frowned at me, silently judging whether I was lying or not. “Alright… we’d like ten kilograms of Five Year Old Spirit Grass.”

“Yeah… I don’t sell that stuff.” Everybody looked at me in surprise, including Hui Ming. “I’m only taking orders of medicine and herbs worth more than ten thousand spirit sh- Hey!”

He had reached out to grab my throat, but stopped.

A blade rested at his throat. He gulped.

Hui Ming stood behind me with her sword outstretched.  “Back away. None of you may leave,” she said. I began to feel a tingling sensation on my back. The men shivered, one of them put a hand on their jaw to stop it from chattering. Their boss backed away from me. He got on his knees and kowtowed to Hui Ming.

“I’m sorry, young miss, I didn’t mean to behave so vulgarly in front of you. We sincerely apologize for offending you.” I knew about our ability to adapt and change in every scenario, but this guy changed a bit too fast. Appropriate, I suppose, for the leader of the Kitty Brothers.

“Don’t bow to me, apologize to the master,” she ordered. Hui Ming didn’t hold back, the poor guy’s neck was bleeding. Hui Ming flicked the sword at him, the blood on the sword splattered across his subservient form.

“My apologies to the master, Jin!” he chanted.

“Xiao Li,” I said sternly, “What are you doing?”

She could sense my displeasure. “I’m punishing them?”

I sighed. I couldn’t refute that. “You guys may stand…”

Hui Ming changed the power dynamic in the room with a slice and a couple words. A shuffling noise as eighteen people stood back up. “I’m guessing this tingle on my back is from you?” I asked Hui Ming, “Turn it off.”

“Yes master.” The aura vanished. The Kittys’ relaxed their tensed muscles,  their bodies breathed a sigh of relief.

This was quite the headache. “Is there anything else you would like? I have a decent stockpile of high tier medicine. If you need a rare pill, I might have it.”

One of them spoke up from the back, voice shaking like a scared kitty’s fur. “Do you-.” Hui Ming and his brothers glared at him.

Hui Ming’s aura started to creep back. I put a hand on her shoulder. “None of that now.” She trembled and retracted her aura. “Sorry, go on,” I said to the man who had spoken up.

“Do you have a Moon Basilisk Potion, sir?” he said as quickly as possible. He refused to look at his companions. “It needs to be at least the third cycle,” he added hastily.  

“Xiao Li, don’t we have one of those?” I pushed her away lightly, “go to the section with all the third rank pills. I think they’re in alphabetical order, although some of them might be in the wrong place.”

She ran off. “Whew,” I said, “She acts like that, but she’s really a nice person. She only treated you like that because of how you were behaving. I hope you don’t act like that in front of your mothers.”

They chuckled awkwardly.

“Well, what do you need the Potion for?” I asked, trying to make some conversation.

“One of our brothers was hit by an extreme yang poison,” their boss said, “his life is slowly draining away.”

“Oh?” my brows creased, “why didn’t you buy one for him earlier?”

Silence. None of them spoke, their leader’s eyes darted across the room.

“Why didn’t you buy one for him earlier?” I repeated.

“We… couldn’t find one.”

I leaned my head on my right hand. Silent shuffling and uncomfortable movement filled the room. Everybody knew he was lying. Third cycle pills were rare, but not to the point of being impossible to find. As long as they looked, they should be able to find one.

A couple people couldn’t hold back from gulping. “If you’re not comfortable talking about it, we can talk about something else.”

“We couldn’t afford it.” he grunted, almost violently.

Rare medicine didn’t have set prices. Most fourth cycle medicines had an enormous price ranges. One could sell for five thousand one day, and fifty thousand the next. Their prices largely depended on the desperation of the customers. Having sufficiently rare medicine was like having a monopoly. I could jack up the prices however I wanted.

But I didn’t need money. This shop was made with a different purpose in mind. I had quite a lot of ridiculously rare medicine. I was sure there were many powerful people looking for these medicine.

To the people of this world, medicine was as important as fire. I had medicine that could brute force ten years onto somebody's lifespan, anybody would be desperate for that.

People who bought my medicine would remember the Jin’s Alchemy House that provided them with medicine that they’d been searching for, for years. They would remember the Alchemy Grandmaster Jin who sold them the medicine that saved their wife from the deathbed. They would remember the Alchemy Grandmaster Jin who let them live long enough to see their grandchildren grow up.

Hui Ming walked back into the room with a small bottle in her hands. Her eyebrows twitched at the tense atmosphere. “The vial of Moon Basilisk Potion,” she lowered her head and presented it to me. I had made ten bottles of this in one go, so I still had quite a stockpile. I could spare one or two.

“Thanks,” I turned to the men, “you can’t pay for this?”  

“We’ll do everything we can to pay you back,” said their leader.

I put the vial on the table. “Go ahead,” I coaxed, “take it.”

He paused, then stepped up and took it. “Thank you,” he sobbed.

“Mhm. Good luck healing your brother. You may leave.” they funneled out my shop, far less brazen than before.

“Master Jin… aren't you worried my old sect might find you?” Hui Ming asked after they left. “Don’t you think your actions are a bit to… public? I can still hunt those people down if you tell me fast.”

“It’ll be fine. I can’t restrict myself forever. If they want to come, they can come. I’m prepared,” I said, “Although… if they come, I’ll go easy on them, for your sake.”

“Uh, well. You don’t- um.”

“It’s fine, you don’t need to say anything. I understand,” I said, and created a chair for her, “Why don’t you sit down?”

“Um-”

“Just sit….”

Less than thirty minutes later, somebody else popped their head into my shop. “Welcome to Jin’s Alchemy House, I’m Jin! How may I help you?”