After the competition, the three of us who had earned spots in the Palace of the Herb Sovereign were guided back to the Hall of the Herb King under the guard of five Pill Lords. Then, once there, one of these Lords guided us directly to the fourth-floor workshops.

“With the festival going on, the situation outside the city is volatile. When it becomes clear that certain sects are destined to lose in their bids to advance, one of them may decide to take measures to ensure their sect’s future. Kidnapping talented alchemists, even those from the Hall, is not out of the question. So, for the next month, remain within these suites. Do not leave the Hall for any reason. Understood?”

The three of us saluted and bowed our heads. “Yes.”

“Good. This gives you one month before you will need to depart for the Palace of the Herb Sovereign, and you have each proven that you are ready to advance. So, the Hall’s Rank 2 cultivation techniques are now open to you. If you wish to successfully join the Palace, then you should take this month to break through to Martial Master and become accustomed to the new strength that this grants you.”

Without another word, the Pill Lord turned and walked away. I could see that he wanted to say more, to possibly try and curry favor with future powerhouses, but he was compelled to leave by the dictates of the Hall.

“As a member of the Hall of the Herb King, you are entitled to a single Low-Yellow Rank 2 cultivation technique. If you would like something more powerful, then you may purchase it at the standard price.”

I looked at the old man who served as the Hall’s librarian. “How much for every Rank 2 cultivation technique available?”

The librarian flinched and quickly shook his head. “No… No. You are only allowed to access the Rank 2 techniques of your primary weapon type.”

“Then, does that mean that I can access the Rank 1 techniques of other weapons?”

The librarian gritted his teeth and spoke through a tight smile. “Yes.”

“Fine. Then, I will take a copy of every available Rank 1 technique—both cultivation techniques and martial techniques. I would also like to purchase every Rank 2 technique that I can—again, both cultivation and martial.”

The muscles of the man’s face twitched. “Copying so many manuals will take an inordinate amount of time.”

I gave him an apologetic smile. “I understand. You may have them delivered to my workshop whenever they are ready.”

The librarian wanted to complain, but when I happily handed over several dozen spirit stones in payment, there was little he could say. After all, while he might not have liked handing over so many different books and scrolls, I was now the Hall’s golden child, and this had earned me a few unspoken privileges.

When the technique manuals were delivered to my workshop, the first thing I did was sort them out based on the types of qi they used.

The majority of these techniques concerned the nine major weapons of the Heroes’ Domain: bow, guandao, fist, ji, crescent moon spade, saber, sword breaker, chain, and spear.

There were also a few techniques for each of the other nine weapons: axe, great axe, sickle, pick, sword, shield, mace, meteor hammer, and hook sword.

All the remaining books focused on elemental qi of some type. Most of these were for the nine elements used on the Nine Rivers Continent, but two of the books were different. Instead of being connected to any of the elements that I was familiar with, these were Profound Rank 1 martial techniques for ice qi and poison qi.

In a sense, purchasing these two books could be seen as a waste. Without an appropriate cultivation technique, they were worthless. They had just been a way for the librarian to get back at me for making him copy out his entire library. However, I was extremely thankful that he had opened my eyes and shown me that there was even more to learn about this continent than I had thought.

But, where had these techniques come from?

From the distribution of the Hall’s techniques, and from the information in History and Politics of the Western Island, I was certain that the people in the Nine Rivers Domain cultivated the nine elements that I was familiar with, the people in the Heroes Domain cultivated one set of nine weapons, and the people in the True Martial Domain cultivated the other set of nine weapons.

So, who was cultivating these two new elements? They had to have come from a different island. I had to hope that I could learn more after entering the Palace of the Herb Sovereign.

While new types of weapons and elements were interesting, I didn’t have much time to spend on them. I only had a month until we would set off for the Palace, and I needed to both create a brand-new technique and use it to break through to Martial Master before our departure.

To create my technique, I drew inspiration from four distinct sources:

The Rank 2 version of the Writ of Pill Fire showed me what proper meridians would look like for someone who cultivated pill fire qi. However, since I wasn’t using pill fire qi, I couldn’t use them. I had to compare them against a more basic fire qi technique and pick out the differences to figure out what ‘pill meridians’ might look like.

Thankfully, finding a design for moon spade meridians was much easier. I only need to choose one of the many Peak-Yellow techniques that I had bought from the library.

Finally, I used the Focused Hearth Fire Mantra as my framework for combining these techniques.

At Rank 2, all I needed to do was construct two independent sets of meridians that didn’t interfere with each other in any way. The way my reference techniques had their meridians snake through every part of the body made this rather complicated, but I was able to cobble together something that at least had a small chance of functioning correctly.

If I had more time to work with, I could have done a much better job, but considering how quickly I had thrown it together, I was lucky that my creation functioned at all.

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Alchemic Crescent Mantra, Low-Profound Rank 2 Cultivation Technique (Broken), Pill Qi / Moon Spade Qi, Effects: Makes one focus more on alchemy. Makes one focus more on studying the crescent moon spade. Makes one less violent.

It was pathetic.

Without having a basic pill qi technique to reference, the meridian designs that I had come up with were pathetic. They were designed similarly to those of a normal Peak-Profound technique, but they weren’t designed for pill qi, so they were both inefficient and ineffective.

Again, if I had time, I might have been able to fix these flaws on my own, but I didn’t. So, I could only ask for help.

“System, please create a version of the Alchemic Crescent Mantra with all of its unintended flaws fixed. I want it to be upgraded to a Peak-Profound technique. I also want a matching Rank 3 technique based on the three-dantian design of the Hearth Fire Mantra.”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 5 credits. 1,305 credits remaining.

Two new technique manuals suddenly appeared in my mental library. Picking up the first of these books, I activated my analysis ability.

Toxic Crescent Mantra, Peak-Profound Rank 2 Cultivation Technique, Pill Qi / Moon Spade Qi, Effects: Makes one focus more on alchemy.

Upon reading the contents of this book, I became extremely worried. Creating true pill meridians wasn’t anything like I had expected, and there was absolutely no room for error. If I messed up, my foundation would be permanently ruined.

Additionally, after I cultivated this technique, there would be no going back. I wouldn’t be able to just take an Energy Expulsion Pill to reset my cultivation base. Once it was set, I wouldn’t be able to change it.

The issue was this: How does one contain pill qi?

Sure, fire qi could be contained with meridians made from fire qi, and moon spade qi could be contained by meridians made from moon spade qi. Unfortunately, however, according to the technique that I was given, ‘esoteric qi’ wasn’t so easy to contain.

For my 5 credits, the System had helpfully added a foreward to the technique manual that stated just how hard creating meridians for esoteric qi truly was. This was why people used things like pill fire qi. It simplified the process by allowing a cultivator to use standard meridians.

There was only one known way to create meridians for pure esoteric qi: forging them from pill toxins.

The technique manual included a method that would allow me to both sense and manipulate toxins as they entered my body, but once I released my grip on them, they would become locked in place. If I made a mistake, there wouldn’t be any way to fix it. If I took an Energy Expulsion Pill, my cultivation base would still be erased, but the toxic meridians would remain exactly where they were.

Because of the dangers of permanently locking oneself into a ruined foundation, the book suggested practicing on others by feeding Low-Quality pills to weak Disciples and creating practice meridians in their bodies. Even for those inclined to engage in such behavior, this form of practice was far from ideal, but for most people, it was the only option available.

Thankfully, I wasn’t most people.

“System, move my next 10 temporary reset points forward, to this moment.”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 1 credit. 1,304 credits remaining.

Then, pulling herbs from my inner world, I did something unthinkable. I intentionally both concocted and consumed Low-Purity Meridian Builder Pills.

For my first attempt, I wanted to cultivate the Toxic Crescent Mantra as intended, to see what I was working with.

Moving pill toxins around was… odd. I had to keep them wrapped in pill qi at all times lest they spread uncontrolled throughout my body. Then, when I formed my meridians, I couldn’t manipulate the toxins directly. Instead, I had to use pill qi to shape them like clay. Also, to make things even more difficult, I couldn’t just focus on creating toxic meridians. I had to construct my moon spade meridians at the same time, to keep things balanced.

This first attempt was a mess, but I learned what I needed. So, satisfied, I took a poison pill and started over.

On my next three attempts, I didn’t bother with the moon spade meridians at all. I only worked to build the best toxic meridians that I could. This wreaked havoc on my cultivation base, but that wasn’t important. I just needed to gain more practice with shaping toxic energy.

Then, I spent some time practicing just the moon spade meridians. There was nothing too special about these, and I was able to remove them without a full reset, but constructing only the moon spade meridians still did a number on my cultivation base. So, once I was satisfied with my results, I took a poison pill to clean everything up.

Five lives down, five to go.

I spent these five remaining lives learning to simultaneously create perfect toxic meridians and perfect moon spade meridians. On my third attempt, I was satisfied with my results, but I didn’t particularly want to return to this point in time, and there was no reason to waste the remaining reset points, so I continued my practice.

Before my tenth and final death, I took a couple of weeks off to rest and gather my thoughts. Only once I felt fully refreshed did I take a poison pill and return to the start.

My ten practice runs were complete. It was time to go all out.

I focused my entire will on making sure that everything went perfectly.

One of the difficulties I had discovered was that, unlike qi, pill toxins were not uniform, so when forming them into meridians, I had to constantly be on the lookout for irregularities.

Even on this final attempt, these irregularities caused me to fumble a couple of times, but I was able to ensure that my toxic meridians remained perfect. Any time my mind became overwhelmed and I was in danger of making a mistake, I directed all my mental faculties towards the toxic meridians, allowing my moon spade meridians to suffer. Then, after both meridians were complete, I went back, picked apart the ruined sections of the moon spade meridian, and reformed them properly.

To complete my breakthrough, I needed to construct two pairs of meridians in my torso. I didn’t allow even a drop of qi to pass through these meridians until all four were as perfect as I could make them, but once they were, I opened the floodgates and barreled into Martial Master 1.

This had been my most excruciating advancement since my early days in this world, but I was more than satisfied with the results.

One month after the end-of-year competition, I was called to a meeting in a conference room on the eighth floor of the Hall of the Herb King.

It took quite some time for everyone to arrive, but when the meeting finally got started, the room was filled with six Grandmasters and twelve Masters, six of these being those of us who were Disciples one month earlier. This was everyone who had placed in the top three of each Rank in both the alchemy competition and the herbalism competition.

Once everyone was seated, a green-skinned man with a powerful aura entered and walked to the front of the room.

“Congratulations to all of you for earning the chance to join the Palace of the Herb Sovereign. I am Pill Emperor Chan. I am the one who will be responsible for getting you to the Palace safe and sound.”

Emperor Chan waved a hand, and an illusory map appeared on the wall behind him. “The Palace is located at the edge of the City of Selfless Courage, the capital of the Heroes Domain. Because of the distances involved, the Palace Master will not be able to provide us a portal until we reach the Realm of the Endless Chain Sovereign, and to get there, we will need to travel through the territories of three other Sovereigns.”

At a second gesture, a line snaked its way across the map. “The Sovereigns won’t dare to attack us. They are too afraid of the Palace supporting their rivals or abandoning their realms entirely. Some of the lands within these territories, however, might not be so peaceful. This route will only take us past sects that did well in the recent tournament, so they shouldn’t have any reason to attack us. But we may run into forces from sects that failed, and they might be desperate enough to try kidnapping a promising young alchemist or two.”

Emperor Chan folded his arms and gave us a stern look. “Right now, even the desperate sects will be occupied with their blessing ceremonies. They should be too focused on looking for new talents to look for trouble with us. But, do not let your guard down, and do not run off on your own. I will be able to protect you from anyone who might try to threaten you, but only if you don’t go and get yourselves killed. Understand?”

We all answered with one voice. “Yes!”