With a steady supply of herbs arranged, I returned to the life of a recluse. Technically, as city lord, I did have official duties to attend to, but from what I could tell, everything seemed to function well without my input. I was sure my ministers were more than happy with me leaving them alone and not doing anything that would create more work.
As a kingdom of cultivators, Rulers delegating away all of the ruling so they could seclude themselves for years was the norm, so my absence didn’t cause any major problems. At least, it didn’t cause any that I was aware of.
I spent my days slowly working through the book left to me by Emperor Li. The sequence of pills it outlined for training one’s alchemy ability was robust, with many options at every stage of advancement. This was important because the Situ clan had problems producing large numbers of any given herb. Without time to spin up large-scale production on a specific herb type, they could only provide haphazard assortments of herbs, so I had to constantly reference the book’s information to know what pills to work on with whatever herbs they had on hand.
The rate at which my alchemy skills increased during this time might not have impressed anyone, but I was making progress. After a few months of work, I was able to start breaking even with the cost of herbs, and after nine or ten months, I was beginning to make a small amount of profit. Since that profit was from Rank 4 pills, a fraction of it was even in spirit stones.
The agreement with the Situ Herb Lord was that I would help him raise his herbalism skills. In practice, that turned out to mean buying whatever excess herbs he had that were on the list I had given him at somewhat exorbitant prices. At first, the cost of herbs was simply deferred, but after I began making pills of sufficient quality, I would be paying him with the majority of the pills made from his herbs.
In the slow process of advancing my alchemy, there was one important event that pushed me forward more than anything else. Eleven months after entering seclusion, my store of karmic energy reached the point where I could break through to the next stage.
For the past year, while my focus was on alchemy, I still found time to add small amounts of qi to my core every day. It took me half a year to reach the point where my core was saturated and I was at the peak of Martial Lord 1. I could have tried to make a breakthrough at that point, but using pure qi was a last resort.
With enough karmic energy on hand, I enclosed myself in my cultivation room and began the process of breaking through. I braided my qi and karmic energy together in the pattern from my cultivation technique and forced it into my core.
The combined energies shot through my core and slammed into the wall that blocked me from ascending. I formed the energy into battering rams and slammed them against that wall one after another.
When half of my stored karmic energy was used up, small cracks had started to appear, but I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough energy stored to complete the breakthrough. This was a problem. If I stopped the process, the cracks would begin to heal and all my efforts, and the karmic energy I had used to that point, would all be wasted.
I rushed to empty my storage bag of the few spirit stones it contained. I hadn’t been able to save many, but I could only hope it was enough.
In preparing for this breakthrough, I had studied how to use them. I mentally attacked the stones, ripped the energy from them, and forced it into my central dantian.
While the energy in spirit stones was far more potent than qi, it lacked the true might of karmic energy. It was like a middle point between the two. I began using the energy from the spirit stones to dilute the karmic energy I had remaining so that I could throw as many battering rams against that wall as possible.
When I only had about five percent of my karmic energy stores remaining, the wall blasted inward and the energy in my core pierced through reality. The world shattered. Another chain forged from the laws of Heaven and Earth which had bound my body crumbled to dust. I was a Martial Lord 2.
The main perk of advancing was that it significantly strengthened the will I could exert on the world. Herbs that were a challenge before became simple to control. Of course, that meant I had to start working on new herbs that were even more challenging, but that was okay. I was advancing.
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After a year of seclusion, I decided I needed to understand how my domain was prospering while I was away. I was an absentee city lord, but I still had to play the part sometimes. To gain a quick overview of the situation, I called for a full council session.
I again entered the main hall to see Mei, her Seeds, and my ministers waiting for me. After I took my seat, I started the session directly.
“I have been secluded for an entire year. Since no one has requested my presence, I hope that everything is progressing smoothly. Flower Mei, are there any urgent issues we need to address?”
Her gaze stayed fixed across the room, but she seemed to flinch when I addressed her.
“No, Lord Su. North Lake City is prospering, and no major matters require your involvement.”
I nodded at this. “Thank you, Flower Mei. Ministers, is there anything the council needs to address?”
The first to step forward was Minister Tang. “Lord Su, I am happy to announce that the island expansion project has been completed. The land and roads are all in place, and we have started constructing workshops for artisans who wish to move to the new area.”
“Has the factory also been completed?”
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“With Flower Mei’s assistance, our tasks have been completed ahead of schedule. It has been fully furnished and decorated. The Nutrition Pill lines are all fully operational, but installation of the other production lines has not yet begun.”
The Seed who acted as my intermediary with the Hu Clan stepped forward.
“Lord, the Hu Clan has completed formation designs for two more pill types and is awaiting your approval before moving forward with full-scale deployment.”
“Understood,” I said, nodding to both the minister and Seed. “I will discuss this further with the clan.”
With no more issues to bring before me, Minister Tang stepped back, and a man I barely recognized stepped forward. Quickly flipping through my mental notebook, I remembered he was Minister Mo, my Minister of Justice.
“Lord Su,” he said bowing, “there are no immediate issues that require your involvement. However, a couple of young scions of two minor clans recently got into an argument. This is well within our abilities to manage, but both clans have Lords. If the Lords become involved, we will need you to step in to help mediate the situation.”
“Understood, Minister Mo. Inform me if things take a turn for the worse.”
He seemed to hesitate, but he glanced at Mei who nodded at him. He stepped back into line without further comment.
Next, Minister Jin stepped forward. “Lord Su,” she said in a concerned voice. “We have a problem. While it is normal for Rulers in Eight Flower to enter seclusion for long periods and miss important events, during your seclusion, a new queen was selected, and you did not participate in the ceremony.”
I raised my eyebrow. “If this was an issue, why was I not informed at the time?”
Mei stepped forward and looked at the minister. “I instructed her not to interrupt you. While it is considered proper for current city lords to attend, I deemed it unnecessary to disturb your work, so I handled the situation personally.”
I looked at Mei in surprise before turning back to the minister. “I will accept Flower Mei’s judgment on this matter. This is a past issue, though. Why have you brought it up during this meeting?”
“Lord Su,” she said, trying to maintain a proper demeanor. “Missing the Queen Selection is a serious issue, but as you said, it is in the past. I bring it up now to ask you to ensure you visit the upcoming Thunder Groom Selection. Missing two such events in a row… would not be good.”
“Understood, minister. I will make an effort to attend.”
“Thank you, Lord,” she said, bowing and stepping back into line.
Next, it was Minister Lu. “Lord Su, I do not have any issues to report at this time. I wish only to tell you that your factory has benefited our city in numerous ways. While we lose money when selling the pills locally, the increased production from a healthy citizenry has more than made up for that cost. Through following the Flower’s guidance, the profits from selling pills abroad have been exceptionally beneficial, allowing us to move forward with many projects that would have otherwise been impossible.”
“Understood,” I acknowledged.
Minister Lu stepped back, and the final minister, Minister Bei, my Minister of Personnel, stepped forward.
“Lord Su, I regret to say that I must report an issue similar to Minister Lu. As the Water Groom, it is your duty to assist in nurturing the people of the kingdom. We are capable of handling the training of most regular craftsmen, and Flower Mei has done an admirable job of nurturing new talents in your stead, but as Lord, I must request that you train a group of cultivators personally. The number of people and type of training is at your discretion, but it is improper for the Lord of North Lake City to not have any students.”
I nodded. “I will begin such lessons once my current work is complete. Please prepare a list of those you think would be suitable.”
The minister looked unhappy, but he still bowed and stepped back.
No one else stepped forward, so I decided to end the meeting.
“That will be all for today. I thank you all for your efforts in ensuring the city runs smoothly.” I turned to Mei. “Flower Mei, I would like to have a private discussion about certain matters. Please come with me.”
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Mei and I sat down at a conference table while a maid stayed in the room to serve tea.
“Mei, you’re studying beast taming with the Ouyang clan, correct?”
I noticed that her eyes were fixed on a point over my right shoulder.
“Yes, Lord Su,” she affirmed.
A genuine smile crossed my face. “Excellent. How far have your studies advanced?”
“I have only reached the level of a high Master Tamer. While I have worked to study the craft, I have not been able to devote sufficient time and energy to take it further.”
“Right, right,” I muttered. “How much can you tell me about low-level beast taming? How do you take control of them?”
Her eyes drifted toward mine, but with a sudden jerk, she once again focused on that point over my shoulder.
“It isn’t taking control, Lord. Tamers use a series of techniques to connect with beasts on an instinctual level and influence them to behave as desired. At low levels, this means only giving very basic commands, like ‘attack.’ However, the more powerful a tamer grows, the deeper connection they can form with beasts.”
I bobbed my head up and down as I thought. “My water affinities are decent, and I have access to a spirit flame with water energy. Do you think you could teach me some of the basics?”
“Sorry, Lord, but if that is possible, it is beyond me. I only know how to interact with beasts through water qi. Water is important because it acts upon the blood of the beast when sending commands. I do not know if becoming a tamer is possible without cultivating water qi.”
“Alright,” I said, setting the issue aside. “Can you tell me anything about using herbs or pills to help beasts grow? I talked with Ouyang MengYao some time ago, and he seemed to suggest using normal pills was impossible.”
“We have been instructed to never give a demon beast any alchemic concoctions,” she confirmed. “They can have severe deleterious effects. The Ouyang clan uses several formations to improve cultivation rate, healing rate, growing speed, and various other factors. Where cultivators can consume pills, beasts must make do with only formations. This causes their progress to be slower than may otherwise be, but it also means we do not need to worry about the buildup of pill toxins.”
“And herbs?” I asked.
“There are a variety of herbs we feed our beasts, but we have to be careful. Too many too quickly can cause the same buildup of toxins that we avoided by not using pills. As it was explained to me, since the herbs retain their natural form, the vast majority of the toxic energies will be expelled through the normal digestive process. Toxins from herbs are only an issue if too many are fed to a beast too quickly.”
I hadn’t heard of this before, but I never looked into consuming herbs directly. Was there a trick here that I could use?
Mei continued, “While feeding herbs to beasts is expensive, herbalists will offset a portion of the cost if we provide them with the beast's manure.”
“Manure?” I interrupted her.
“It is supposed to help them to grow their crops.”
“Manure…” I muttered.
I looked down at the table in thought. Mei seemed to slightly shift her glance when I was no longer looking at her.
“Fan—”
I suddenly stood up and raced out of the conference room.
The beasts were eating herbs, and a large portion of the physical herb, along with some part of the energy body, was being excreted. If manure could be used in herbalism, that meant it contained some form of energy. I didn’t know if it was demonic energy from the beast or medicinal energy from the herbs. It could potentially be a mix of both.
I needed to get my hands on some manure.
I got in my carriage as quickly as I could and raced to the Ouyang clan.