The next day, while I was studying in my alchemy workshop, LiPin came to see me. Steward Mao had returned, and he was ready to make a deal.

He bowed to me as I entered the conference room. “Alchemist Su, good to see you again. “

“Steward Mao, I hear you have a deal ready for me.”

“Yes… The Mao Clan elders have decided to accept your proposal regarding Rank 0 pills. We are ready to hand over any mortal information you request in return for the equivalent value in pills.”

“Only Rank 0?”

“Yes.” A worried expression crossed his face. “For now, that is all the elders have authorized.”

I wasn’t sure what the elders were playing at. They knew the relative value of the information they were offering, and by specifying that only mortal information would be traded, it could be seen as slapping my face.

They might be testing me to see what my reaction was, or they might just want to know if I will hold to my word. What I believed, however, was that they were doing their best to take advantage of me. I made a note to check if the information they paid me with was available in the public libraries.

I had to wonder if they realized that, while they were testing me, I was also testing them. It seemed to be a common belief that only old foxes could play such games and that younger people were just there to be taken advantage of. I may have frequently allowed myself to be taken advantage of, but I always remembered who was earnest and who wasn’t.

Steward Mao appeared genuinely contrite. He had played these games from the front lines enough that he had a decent understanding of my motives. The elders behind him were just too arrogant.

“Wonderful.” I smiled and turned to LiPin. “Can I entrust the Pavilion to handle these matters? Just let me know what pills they need and in what quantities. If possible, you can have the books delivered to my apartment. If not, I can pick them up from the office. Take any necessary fees from my account.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, writing down my instructions.

Across from us, Steward Mao started sweating. “Alchemist Su, what information would you like us to provide? We have a wide range of texts available for you to choose from.”

“I will trust the judgment of the Mao Clan. Any information you provide is appreciated, and you would know best what information you possess that will make this an equal exchange.”

“Of… of course, it would be my privilege to assist you in this.”

Before he left, Steward Mao gave me a bow and a martial salute. As he lowered his head, I saw a pained expression flash across his face.

The main reason I didn’t care about getting a poor deal from the Mao Clan was that I had already decided to make a large number of the Rank 0 pills for my own purposes. The ingredients to make them were far cheaper than regular pills, and I wouldn’t be stepping on anyone’s toes by purchasing them in bulk. If the Mao clan wanted to provide me with compensation for something that I was planning to do anyway, then I would accept it.

My first target was the Nutrition Pill. I had been told that, for only a few coppers' worth of ingredients, an alchemist could make a pill that would solve any lingering problems caused by malnourishment.

I didn’t have a great understanding of malnourishment, but I knew that it was far more complicated than just being hungry. If a person was malnourished as a child, then, even if they eventually became fat and healthy, their bones would still tell the story of their childhood long after they grew old and died. A pill that could repair this kind of structural damage, even if it only worked on mortals, felt far more magical to me than simple cultivation pills.

The Nutrition Pill only had a single ingredient. It was a large herb that looked similar to an ear of wheat. Looking at it in qi vision, I found that its structure was different from what I was used to.

Using the ear of wheat analogy, the seeds were toxins, and the husk was the medicinal energy. The toxic energy was segmented into small pods, and each pod was completely surrounded by medicinal energy. To cleanse the herb, an alchemist would need to pierce the medicinal energy husk in multiple places to reach all the toxins.

After placing this first herb in a pill furnace, I chose not to use my affinities to move the medicinal energy out of the way. Instead, I used a thin needle of qi to pierce each pod and reach the toxins inside.

I had gotten used to working with Rank 3 herbs, where medicinal energy was incredibly fragile and toxic energy was nearly impossible to destroy. This Rank 0 herb was the exact opposite. It took far more pressure to pierce the medicinal energy than I had expected, and when I did, it only caused minor damage. Then, the moment my qi met the toxic energy, it instantly destroyed it.

It took me only seconds to quickly produce dozens of qi needles and completely cleanse the herb. After that, I compressed the energy and formed the pill.

After performing a few more tests, I had a good understanding of why concocting this pill might be problematic. An alchemist would need to damage the herb’s medicinal energy in several places to reach all the toxins. If too much damage was caused in this process, then the herb would collapse. Most Disciples just didn’t have the necessary control to make this happen.

Wondering about my limits, I placed ten copies of the herb into my furnace and manipulated them simultaneously. Sadly, I found I had only had sufficient focus to correctly direct needles at seven herbs at a time. After roughly a minute of work, seven herbs transformed into seven pills. The efficacy of the other three had already been destroyed by the furnace’s heat, so I sent out a wave of fire to turn them into ash.

I tapped on the workbench in thought.

If I did nothing but make Nutrition Pills, I could probably concoct enough for the entire kingdom in only a few days. However, that seemed… suboptimal. If I were a Lord, I could probably spend one day a year stocking a warehouse with sufficient pills for my entire domain, but what if I ascended to King or Emperor?

If it took me one day a year to concoct all the pills needed for a single city, then that would translate to 10 days as a King, or 100 days as an Emperor. I could hire other alchemists to do this work, but then I would just run into the same problems the Mao Clan was facing. No one wanted to make such pills without charging excessive fees.

There had to be a better way.

In my old world, how would people have handled this situation? I had a job that needed doing, but no one wanted to do it. There were a few options. Immigrant or slave labor could both be discarded. The first because skilled immigrant alchemists wouldn’t be any easier to find than local ones. The second because it was morally reprehensible.

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There was another way that came to mind, though. When there was a job that people didn’t or couldn’t do, one could always try to automate it.

Could I find a way to automate pill production? Creating mechanical alchemy robots seemed like a nonstarter, but what about formations? Was it possible to create formations that could concoct pills?

The Nutrition Pill was incredibly simple to make. Melt the herb, target the toxins, touch the toxins with qi, compress, and it's done. Automating this should be feasible, but if doing so were a simple task, then people would have already done it. Still, even if it was difficult, there should be a way to make it happen.

I pulled out my journal and made a note to focus on formations that could automate pill production.

Then, I turned my attention to the other pills that Steward Mao had requested. The Energizing Pill, which would give mortals boundless energy for several hours, was simple enough to make. If I could automate Nutrition Pills, then I could easily automate it as well.

The Beauty Pills he wanted were far more difficult, though. Beauty Pills were available at every Rank, and a person had to take the Rank of pill that matched their level of cultivation. So, Rank 0 Beauty Pills would only work on mortals. Their effect was to return a person’s appearance to its ‘flawless state.’ This meant healing any damage, fixing any dental problems, and removing any unsightly blemishes. Anyone who took such a pill would be restored to the youthful appearance of someone in their early twenties.

The combined effects of Beauty Pills were incredibly complex, and to make them properly, an alchemist needed an equally complex list of ingredients. Beyond the number of ingredients they required, however, Beauty Pills were unique in that they only used a portion of the medicinal energy in each herb. The various energies had to be balanced against each other for the best effect, and that balance was different for different people. Elderly people would need stronger youth-enhancing effects, while a burn victim might need better healing properties.

Truthfully, I saw no benefit in making such a pill. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand the societal pressure to be attractive, nor did I look down on people who needed such a pill. No, my problem was that it seemed crazy to put all these effects into a single pill when making five different pills would significantly simplify the process.

Still, I set my doubts aside and made several of them to better understand the process of creating them. Automating such a complex array of ingredients would be difficult, but if it could be done, it would be incredibly beneficial. As far as I was concerned, to concoct this pill properly, one would need to be a Grandmaster Alchemist, and no mortal that I had ever heard of had the wealth necessary to pay for the services of a Grandmaster.

After noting down my observations, I returned my thoughts to the Nutrition Pill. This was the simplest and cheapest to make, so it was where I wanted to start my experiments.

I picked up an herb, placed it into my furnace, used my affinities to open holes in its medicinal energy, and eradicated any traces of toxic energy. That done, I studied what remained.

The condition of this herb was far worse than most Rank 1 herbs that I had seen before. The extremely low cost meant that farmers had little incentive to care for it properly, so its energy structure showed countless signs of damage.

I tried to massage the energy into a uniform pattern, but this didn’t do much. The medicinal energy of this herb was far more robust than I was used to, and it resisted changes to its shape. This being the case, I became significantly more forceful and began dragging various pieces back into their proper positions. Sometimes this worked, but most of the time, it failed.

I didn’t give up, though. This first experiment proved to me that this was the perfect herb to practice on. Its robust nature made it far easier to try different methods of repairing medicinal energy so that I could better understand where they were lacking without the herb instantly collapsing.

I didn’t leave my workshop for even a moment until after a full two weeks had passed. This caused me to miss my formation classes, but that didn’t worry me, since Instructor Hu seemed interested in teaching me privately anyway.

The progress I made on mending herbs was small, but it was very real. I had tried dozens of different ways to maneuver energy back into proper alignment, and several of them showed promise. I was beginning to realize that I wouldn’t be able to just rely on a single method here. Instead, I would need to develop a complex toolkit with multiple processes that were specialized for specific structural abnormalities.

However, even though I focused on learning, I still had time to concoct a mountain of pills.

When preparing for this stint in seclusion, I had placed a couple of dozen jade boxes into my storage bag, with each one being large enough to hold more than a hundred pills. I had thought that this would give me enough room to store a full month’s worth of pills. However, I hadn’t anticipated the rate at which I was concocting these Rank 0 pills to increase as much as it did.

Even with my concentration centered around mending herbs, I still made over a thousand pills a week. So, after only two weeks of work, I had to leave my workshop to offload everything I had created.

When I entered the Alchemy Office, LiPin was about to speak when I started placing box after box on the counter. “Please have these sent to Steward Mao.”

“Right… Of course…”

I turned away, but before I could leave, she spoke up to stop me. “No one new has contacted us, but several of the other groups you met with previously have stated their intention to purchase Rank 0 pills.”

“Only Rank 0?”

“Y… Yes.”

“I understand.” Someone must have been orchestrating tricks behind the scenes, but I would let things play out. “Tell them to go through the Mao Clan. I'll only provide Rank 0 pills to them. They can distribute them to anyone else who needs them.”

“That isn’t a good idea,” interrupted Manager Bai from the back of the room.

I raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”

“I’m not certain who the troublemaker is, but they are definitely a Grandmaster Alchemist, and they might be a member of the Mao Clan. If they are, this strategy will play right into their hands. If they aren’t, then this could cause things to escalate unnecessarily.”

I thought about what she was saying. Allowing things to escalate would give me useful information for the future, but learning to play kingdom politics correctly could also be beneficial.

“Any idea why they are doing it?”

Manager Bai chuckled. “Of course. They are fighting for the position of King. Contribution to the kingdom is a major factor in that decision, and they are trying to prevent you from accruing merit. Providing an endless supply of Rank 0 pills to the populace would be a boon, but if all the pills pass through the hands of the Mao Clan, then the clan will receive the credit, not you. You will only be seen as a merchant who engaged in a fair exchange.”

“Wait… what? How does becoming the King have anything to do with this?”

“The King selection happens in three years. All contenders must cultivate fire qi, and they need to have made substantial contributions to the kingdom. Blocking you from important deals is a way to block you from the position of King.”

Grabbing such a position would be great for my cultivation, but I wasn’t ready for it. Not yet. I needed to expand my abilities and gain a firm understanding of the kingdom before I played at that level.

“I have no interest in being King right now. How do you suggest I handle it?”

“Back out of the deals,” she stated flatly. “At this point, you will gain nothing from them. None of the clans will provide you with any useful information. Those behind the scenes will mock you for breaking your word, and things will return to normal.”

“Won’t this hurt future opportunities?”

“Only temporarily. In a few years, after the new King takes over, they will come back. More importantly, there will also be clans that approve of you handling things this way, and those are the ones you will want to work with in the future.”

“Is the Mao Clan involved, or is someone just using my agreement with them as leverage?”

Bai shook her head. “I don’t know. Both options are possible.”

“Alright, then. Sell these to the Mao Clan at the agreed-upon price, but regretfully inform them that this will be the only batch. Tell any parties interested in purchasing my pills that I have decided to enter seclusion to improve my abilities, so I will not engage in any further negotiations for the time being."

"Even if they ask for Rank 3 pills?”

“Yes. I actually will be studying, and these orders are a nuisance. If those clans are making offers in bad faith, then I won’t play with them any longer. You can explain my reasoning to them as you see fit, but go ahead and turn everything down. Unless they directly offer something substantial in return, of course.”

Bai gestured to LiPin, who made a note of the conversation, and I left to return to my workshop.

Making Rank 0 pills was a good way to improve my mending abilities, but that wasn’t the only skill I needed to improve. No reason I couldn’t mix my mending practice with learning more about herbs of the secondary elements.