Benton was both dreading and looking forward to the trip to the alchemy shop. The former emotion was because a single mistake could have grave consequences, not just for himself but for the twins and all the orphans back in the village and the two boys he’d made promises to in the city.

He certainly had picked up a lot of responsibilities in a short time, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. Most of his adult life had been spent as a husband and father and grandfather and accomplisher of honey-do lists and provider and a million other titles great and small.

The biggest lesson he’d learned in those sixty years was to find joy and laughter and happiness where he could. Which brought him to the second of those emotions, looking forward to the trip.

In his past life, he’d always laughed easily, but honestly, he’d mostly been kind of boring. Staid. Solid. Dependable. Average.

With the System, he had a chance to stand out, to embrace playing a role he created for himself. Being … theatrical. Yes. Theatrical.

He was going to walk into that shop and put on a show. Before leaving the warehouse, he gave himself a little reminder of the character he was about to play.

“You are a Nihility realm cultivator who has lived thousands of years. You have seen everything, so nothing stresses you out. You are unshakeable. Unflappable. You don’t know everything, but you do know an awful lot. For a while, you lost your way, considering yourself better than everyone else and thinking your cultivation was the only important thing in the universe. Then, you lost your family, and you realized that you better appreciate what you have when you have it because you might find it gone tomorrow. Live in the moment. Enjoy yourself.”

Benton grinned. He had this.

And bonus, the character he was playing would be a lot more casual with Kang Ya-Ting now that the two were acquainted. So long ridiculous speaking in third person nonsense.

Benton walked to Poison Claw Sect with the twins and Zou Tian. The latter was going to stick with him for the morning while the twins used a cultivation room they’d arranged the previous day. They’d all meet up at the arena later for the twins’ spars.

Kang Ya-Ting met Benton and Zou Tian at the alchemy shop.

“Showtime,” Benton thought.

He entered a room filled wall to wall with narrow shelves holding small bottles, each containing one to five pills. A wood counter built over a glass display case and more bottles of pills behind it blocked off the back part of the room. An apparently middle-aged woman stood behind it.

First step, examine the wares. The first pill he looked at was for minor healing, Qi Establishment realm. Its purity was only sixty-three percent, though. He wouldn’t give one of those to someone unless they were dying, and it was their only shot. The bottle next to it held two pills of the same type. Seventy-two percent.

While Zou Tian stood quietly in the corner, trying, and almost succeeding, at blending into the woodwork, Benton picked up one bottle after another. It felt like he examined the shelves for an hour, spot checking. He found all kinds of pills—Qi Condensing, Meridian Cleansing, Major and Minor Healing, Poison, Explosive, Barrier Breaking for Qi Gathering to Foundation Establishment and from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core, Detoxification, Beautification, Fasting, Spiritual Concealment, various resistances, etc.—but all save one had purities between sixty and eighty-nine percent.

He brought the sole exception up to the counter. “How much for this one?”

The woman picked up the bottle and looked at a symbol on the bottom. “Ten taels, so eight with the Esteemed Master Cultivator’s discount.”

“Ten? For this? Are you sure?”

“This lowly one apologizes, Esteemed Master Cultivator, but even failed pills require effort and resources to make. Ten is the lowest the shop can go, especially with your discount. Since the shop has a preservation array, its efficacy will remain constant without ever degrading, and this lowly one guarantees that someone will eventually buy it at that price.”

Benton was becoming more than a little perplexed. “What exactly do you think this is?”

“A Black Fire Adder Poison Pill with only fifty-one percent purity. As the Esteemed Master Cultivator surely knows, purity matters less when dealing with poisons.”

Benton wondered if the pill was a set up to test his knowledge and discernment, but if so, she was an even more amazing actor than he was.

“The only reason I’m interested in this pill is because it’s the only one with high purity I found,” he said. “Ninety-eight percent. It’s a Black Fire Qi Concentrating Pill.”

Usable by someone with a qi aspect related to fire, it would help a cultivator in the Foundation Establishment realm slightly increase the density of his qi.

“I mean, it’s not super expensive or rare or anything,” he continued, “but I’d put a value of a hundred taels on it at least.”

The woman frowned and looked at Kang Ya-Ting.

“You don’t believe me, do you?” Benton said.

Kang Ya-Ting grinned. “Perhaps a test is in order.”

“Sure. We betting?”

“This one has learned his lesson about wagering with the Esteemed Master Cultivator.”

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Benton laughed. “So, the Esteemed Elder would bet on me succeeding? The honorable attendant certainly seems ready to take some of that action.”

“This one could never take money from his subordinates.”

Benton laughed again. “Fine. What’s the test?”

The woman disappeared into the back and returned with a bottle holding a single deep purple colored pill.

“What can the Esteemed Master Cultivator tell this one about that pill?” Kang Ya-Ting said.

Yeah, they totally hadn’t prearranged that at all. Benton was really glad he’d prepared himself by taking the two techniques even if he lamented having to spend four of his precious Sect Points.

A quick scan told him all he needed to know.

“It’s a pill that grants resistance to mucus.” Mucus? Really? Should he be worried about being attacked by mucus? “Good purity for the difficulty involved in creating it. Ninety-three percent. Thirty-five hundred taels. Kind of expensive, but I guess that, if ya gotta fight a mucus monster, you probably should pony up the cash for one.”

“That is amazing,” Kang Ya-Ting said. “Are you a master alchemist?”

“No! Not at all. In fact, I am truly terrible at alchemy.” That part was true enough. Benton hadn’t ever tried, and Su never could get the hang of it. “A long time ago, one of my fellow outer sect members—a really long time ago—was a junior in the alchemy pavilion. He convinced me to try it. Let’s just say that things didn’t go well. I’m not sure if they were able to save the furnace or not.”

Kang Ya-Ting smiled politely at the anecdote. “This one is curious about the Esteemed Master Cultivator’s sensing abilities, then. What the Esteemed Master Cultivator just did is not simple.”

Benton feigned a wince. “That guy from the previous story? He wasn’t quite as talented as the rest of the cohort and felt pressure to keep up. And he was an alchemist.”

“So he…”

“Yeah. Way more pills than were good for him. Burned his meridians and pathways irrevocably.” Benton paused, feigning reflection. “Man, I haven’t thought about him in … centuries.” He shook his head like trying to dislodge a memory. “Anyway, I didn’t consume a single pill for years afterward, vowing not to do so until I completely understood the effect of everything put into my body. It took a long time, and I fell behind my cohort. In the end, though, here I am, and they … aren’t.”

“This one sees.”

“So, the Black Fire pill,” Benton said to the woman. “Will you take a hundred?”

“It’s priced at ten,” Kang Ya-Ting said. “The Poison Claw Sect will honor that price.”

“I feel like I’m cheating the alchemist.” Benton stroked his chin. “How about this—if the alchemist can craft a similar pill that’s ice aspected in the next five days, I will pay two hundred taels. In fact, I’ll pay the money now and will return after that time to pick up either the pill or the money.”

The woman looked at Kang Ya-Ting, who nodded. “That is acceptable, Esteemed Master Cultivator. Should this lowly one start a tally of purchases so the Esteemed Master Cultivator can pay all at once?”

“Uh, no offense or anything, but I’m kind of disappointed by the offerings. I’m not willing to have my disciples use any pill of such low purity. I more than anyone knows what pill toxins can do to cultivators trying to build their basic foundations.”

The woman looked at Kang Ya-Ting again, and again, he nodded. “This lowly one will be right back.”

She was going to go get the good stuff. Finally.

“This one has a question,” Kang Ya-Ting said.

“Sure. Go ahead.”

“Why is the Esteemed Master Cultivator buying the Black Fire Pill and paying a premium to commission one for ice?”

“Well, Yang Ru can use the fire one, but I don’t want to buy him a pill and not one for his sister. You know how kids can be if you appear to favor one over the other.”

“This one meant to inquire as to why the Esteemed Master Cultivator would give his disciples such a pill,” Kang Ya-Ting said.

“Oh. You don’t know.”

“Know what?”

“What that pill can do when combined with two other pills.”

Kang Ya-Ting frowned.

“Honestly,” Benton said. “I kind of just wants to tell the Esteemed Elder. It’s fun playing the wise old man who knows all sorts of ancient wisdom. On the other hand, this kind of feels like information that should be traded instead of given.”

“The Poison Claw Sect would never pressure a valued friend to reveal his secrets.”

“Now the Esteemed Elder is just playing hardball.” Benton chuckled. “Fine. You got me. I’ll at least tell the Esteemed Elder what the combination does.”

Kang Ya-Ting leaned forward.

“If the twins take the correctly aspected pill along with the other two right after—and I mean immediately after—advancing to Foundation Establishment, the combination will increase their qi pool permanently by ten to twelve percent.”

“Truly?”

“Truly.”

The woman returned to the counter with a case and began taking pills from it. Benton immediately picked one up and scanned it. Qi Condensing pill, ninety-two percent purity. Better, but still not what he wanted.

In the end, he found six Qi Condensing pills at ninety-seven percent purity and above, three Meridian Cleansing pills in the same range, a Foundation Establishment Breakthrough pill at ninety-five percent, five minor healing pills all at ninety-eight percent, a major healing pill at ninety-seven percent, and after a bit of deliberation, selected ten more minor healing pills in the ninety to ninety-three percent range. He figured that, if one were desperate for healing, a little bit of pill toxicity was a small price to pay.

There were, of course, other high purity pills in the case but none he had an immediate use for. There was a Fasting Pill that was so, so close to one hundred percent that he almost bought it, but he had literally thousands of hot meals in his ring. Food wasn’t a problem.

The total cost was fifteen thousand silver taels, twelve thousand after his discount which was much less than he’d budgeted, but then again, he’d figured on buying a lot more. He would have bought a lot more had he not taken the Basic Pills technique. Learning what low purity pills did to a cultivator’s body turned him off using all but the finest ones.

Was he being overly cautious? Probably. Using a single pill in the eighties most likely wouldn’t have much impact, especially if the disciple in question was of low talent who would probably advance no higher than Foundation Establishment. But even traces of toxicity built up over time and were difficult to completely get rid of before reaching Nascent Soul.

Benton wondered how many cultivators failed to make it to that vaunted realm due to just that issue.

The good news was that he had extra money, nearly forty-eight thousand taels, and nothing pressing he needed to spend it on.

One thing he wanted to start preparing for was that blessed day when his disciples started hitting Foundation Establishment. There were two things each of them would require—a weapon and a storage ring. At least, he considered the later a necessity. Most probably would place it into the category of a luxury.

How cool would it be if he could present each of his disciples with one of each when they broke through?

He already had the weapons, bows or spears depending on the cultivator’s focus, so he only needed the rings.

“Does the Esteemed Elder happen to know of any shops that sell spatial rings?”

Kang Ya-Ting did, but he gave directions instead of accompanying the guests. “This one apologizes, but there are duties of an elder which need attending. Surely the Esteemed Master Cultivator is accustomed to such matters.”

“Of course. Think nothing of it.”

“Thank the Esteemed Master Cultivator for his gracefulness. We will meet again at the arena later.”

The directions turned out to be excellent, and Benton and Zou Tian had no problem finding it. Thirty minutes and forty thousand taels after the discount later, Benton walked out with ten rings on a leather cord around his neck.