Avyr was counting on her for this, and she would not let him down. So, she set to work. At first, slowly, sketching out each line and carefully drawing the inscriptions into the stone, but then only ever faster— flowing with the ebb and tide of the formation, slicing lines into the stone with ease. After all, it was just a big flat disk she had to write a bunch of runes onto— and she was good at writing runes. The hours drained by and almost before she knew it the sun was beginning to set, and the disk was complete, a massive nine-point formation inscribed in a circle around Suli’s cauldron.

She stepped back, suddenly nervous. “I… uh, I hope that’s good enough…” for a long moment Suli stared at her silently, blankly, and she shied back… until she realized that it wasn’t a judging stare. It was a shocked stare.

In some ways, that was worse.

Suli breathed in, and when he breathed out, the lake-scent was replaced with a subtle tang of blood. Then, he smiled. “It’s perfect

. Not as good as my own room back in the sect, but… good timing, good timing, and with the outdoors…” he laughed. “We have to move quickly! Sunset on the eve of the spring festival— auspicious indeed! Alright, here’s the deal. If you make… let’s say one preservation and one cooling formation— I’ll give you the materials, don’t worry about sourcing them yourself— then I’ll make your pill. Alright? Alright!” He didn’t even wait for her to finish nodding before waving his hand, floating over the dragonfruit to the small table he’d set up beside his cauldron. “This is exciting. It’s been a while since I’ve made such an interesting pill…”

He spoke a strange word and made a handseal, and with a roar a strange spectral fire burst alight under his cauldron, burning with a harsh vermillion light. Another handseal, and a pair of jade knives floated up out of a box, the energy about them visible as it shimmered in the afternoon air. Then Suli set into the real work of preparation, grabbing ingredients with his hands and qi, slicing and dicing and carefully preparing, mashing some in a mortar and pestle and searing others with a fire technique and— the sheer precision of it all astounded her.

Also, it smelled really good. Medicinal, but really good… her stomach grumbled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten anything the entire day long. She dared not look away though— everything was so fascinating, and she couldn’t even see the qi behind it. Still… that was true artistry. This sort of perfect grace, such grand creation… that was what she aspired to in formations.

One by one, the ingredients went into the cauldron, bursts of fire and stranger phenomena still swirling around inside the yawning void as Suli slowly further and further focused in on a few final ingredients. These last ones— some strange root and several vials of blood— he focused on with almost surgical care, peeling every tiny little thing and making not a single deviation from an unseen plan. Then, as the sun began to touch the horizon, he chanted something and poured in the vials one by one, all seven of them, the color of the cauldron changing until it had become a deep, ominous red.

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A moment passed in silence, a force seeming to press upon the whole world as, gently, Suli picked up the Eightfold Yang Golden Dragonfruit. With a whispered prayer or something, he centered it on the chopping block and— a blur, the jade knives cutting so fast they seemed to fall four times in a second, the strange wire-frame fruit splitting into eight even parts. With a shout, the qi pressure around them rose exponentially, Suli visibly sweating as he maneuvered each slice into the cauldron, all the while doing something with his qi that split off the undesirable parts of the fruit. Second, by torturous second, inching, burning, each one added only causing the fire to blaze hotter and the sense of foreboding to increase

—

The last slice disappeared into the cauldron the second the sun disappeared beneath the horizon, and the world came alive with light. “Release!” Lily was still rubbing her eyes when Suli slapped the side of the cauldron, and she was just barely able to see as he split the golden mists with a palm and caught the glittering pill as it flew out of the cauldron. Grinning, he strode over to where the two of them were standing— sweaty but looking very smug. “See? Told you I could do it.”

Zhihu huffed and crossed her arms— but even she looked impressed. “I suppose it’s a decently good quality pill—”

“Decently? Decently? This is one of the strongest pills I’ve ever made! I swear on seventy percent or more efficacy, may the heavens strike me down if I lie!” It looked like a heaven defying pill— like a drop of pure molten gold condensed into a fingernail sized little orb, all but perfectly spherical, surface subtly glittering as it suffused the air around them with a heady medicinal scent. A faint mist wafted off it, as golden nebulous as the still-dissipating fog from the cauldron. “Use it within three days, or the efficacy will decrease. And if your friend actually manages to break through with it, I’m going to hold this over Zhihu forever.”

“Hey! Shouldn’t you be grateful to your Junior Martial Sister for arranging this all for you?”

“I don’t want to hear it. Get off my island.”

“This isn’t your island!”

Suli just rolled his eyes. “Of course it is. It has my alchemy pavilion on it, doesn’t it?” With a quick motion, he summoned a jade box and deposited the pill inside— then passed it to Lily. “Keep this safe. I look forward to seeing you as my Junior Martial Sister sometime in the future.” For whatever reason, that made her feel all but ecstatic. Holding Avyr’s pill, standing on the stone of her grand work, as Suli grabbed all his stuff and took to the skies…

It felt like validation.