Walking through the path leading out of the Glass Cloud Sect, Jun Li lightly stretched her limbs, feeling out the limits of her soreness.

  Pushing forward despite the radiating pain, Jun Li used her Movement Technique to glide softly down the path, hoping to reduce the strain on her legs.

  Over the course of the few months Jun Li had spent at the Sect, the Glass Cloud Art she had learned from the Glass Cloud Manual had become second nature to her, though she still lacked the ability to use it in its proper form, and she still required either a slope to push her forward, or to use her improvised ‘Cloudburst’ technique to jolt forward.

  Neither solution was particularly graceful, but Jun Li lacked the finesse required to use the technique as intended and manipulate the Qi beneath her feet into spinning forward like a cloudy wheel.

  Despite those shortcomings, activating and maintaining the technique had become as easy as breathing, a process she had naturally mastered as a result of necessity.

  With her 'Cloudburst' technique requiring the Movement Technique to be 'destroyed,' streamlining the process of reactivating the technique was vitally important.

  Trailing down the mountainside, Jun Li thought of the princess’s words when they parted ways at the end of the last Outer Sect Trial.

  ‘The Inner Sect, huh…?’ Jun Li felt off when thinking about the Princess; it felt strange to even consider that she was on speaking terms with something as vague and lofty as royalty.

  It would have been unimaginable just a few short years ago. 'I guess for Cultivators, the difference between royalty and peasantry is circumstantial at best.'

  Jun Li couldn't help but feel uneasy at the thought; even if her inherited memories held no reverence or esteem for privileged mortals, she could not so easily forget a lifetime of envy.

  'I need to stop thinking about this stuff… if I lose that stupid duel, then it won't even matter anyway…'' According to Yang Chen’s terms, if Jun Li were to lose their duel, she wouldn’t be able to talk to the princess again anyway.

  Letting the future make Jun Li’s decisions for her gave her a measure of comfort, and she felt able to breathe easier as the capital city at the base of the mountain came into view.

  To her left, the towering pagodas, colorful walls, and lush gardens of the Royal Palace drew her gaze.

  Thinking of the conversations she had with the princess during the Outer Sect Trial, Jun Li now looked at the palace with new eyes. ‘Enough rooms to get lost in for days, enough guards that a falling feather couldn’t escape their detection in a rainstorm, enough wealth to buy my life a thousand times over and still have more…’

  Jun Li sighed, almost wistfully. ‘And yet… how much comfort could one find within those walls…?’

  For a moment, Jun Li felt homesick, thinking back to her old life.

  Talking with her auntie about the future over the laundry, stitching together the cuju ball when Duan Shu’s overuse would wear it out, and relaxing under the shade of the forest trees while the younger children would play in the yard.

  Living a childhood under a roof where hate could not be found.

  Jun Li felt truly grateful, in a way that purged the unease from her mind. ‘I need to repay them, for all those years of peace.’

  Jun Li’s eyes easily left the Royal Palace as she sped up. ‘All the more reason to win tomorrow’s duel…’

  Even if Yang Chen’s claim as to the gold’s worth was exaggerated, it would still allow Jun Li to support her family in a phenomenal way, something she couldn’t ignore.

  Unable to leave the results of the duel up to chance, Jun Li wracked her brain for whatever advantage she could find.

  As she glided through the city streets, drawing the gaze of those who recognized the robes of the Outer Sect, Jun Li eventually concluded that whatever advantage she could possibly garner in such a short time would be found in the library of the Alchemist’s Association.

  Before long, Jun Li found herself looking up towards the enormous pagoda that housed the kingdom’s branch of the Alchemist’s Association, the sun rising quickly behind it, a reminder of how short the single day she afforded herself truly was.

  Quickly opening the doors, Jun Li hurriedly made her way past the few in the waiting room and called out to the receptionist.

  “Excuse me, is the Director, or uh…” Jun Li quickly corrected her term of address. “Is Master Zhu here today?”

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  Raising his head, the receptionist let out a slightly incredulous sound, as though the words Jun Li said were nonsense.

  Upon seeing who it was, however, his expression turned stiff, and he quickly forced a smile. “Oh! Alchemist Jun, I didn’t notice you… Oh, uh, yes! The Director should be in his office on the top floor.”

  Barely registering the receptionist’s turmoil, Jun Li lightly smiled and turned to the stairway. “Thank you! Have a good day.”

  As Jun Li walked away, the receptionist’s mask slightly wavered, and when she left his sight, he let out a deep sigh.

  Though Jun Li didn’t remember it very vividly, when she had first come to the Alchemist’s Association, the receptionist had attempted to turn her away, considering her a hapless beggar, too ignorant to know the first thing about alchemy.

  Though he didn’t know it, he was in a way correct about his assumption.

  Nevertheless, shortly after she left the building, word came down from the Director that she had been made his personal disciple and a formal Alchemist of the Association.

  Knowing that all it would take for him to lose his job was a single word from any formal Alchemist, the receptionist felt exhausted from any interaction with Jun Li, paranoid that she might hold a grudge for her initial treatment.

  Ignorant as always of the receptionist’s plight, Jun Li continued the ascent through the pagoda, slowly becoming more and more irked by the need for so many stairs, battered as her legs felt.

  After an exhausting minute, Jun Li exited the stairway on the top floor of the building and found herself in a compact waiting room.

  Not wasting any time, she opened the door to the Director’s office and invited herself in.

  As Jun Li stepped inside, a wall of scents hit her all at once, forcing her to feel both nauseated and energized.

  At the back of the somewhat hazy office, the Branch Director Zhu Enlai stood over a small mountain of medicinal herbs piled onto his table, haphazardly sorting through them by the bundle.

  “Master Zhu?” The Director seemingly hadn’t even noticed Jun Li enter the room, even after she called him by name.

  Jun Li was somewhat unsure if she should interrupt him, despite how urgent she felt her own objectives were, but before she could consider it further, the Director’s gaze quickly snapped to her. “Hmm? What do you have there? I can smell something interesting.”

  Taking a moment to realize what he meant, Jun Li pulled a small box out of her robe, the one she had received at the end of the Outer Sect Trial.

  Though Jun Li had no idea how he could distinguish any smells in this room, she handed the box over to the Director. “Ahh, a Stoneshell Ginger… quite high quality too. Just where did you stumble across this article?”

  “It was the reward for yesterday’s Outer Sect Trial, uh, for first place.” Hearing Jun Li’s explanation, the Director thought for a moment.

  “Trial…? Oh, right, the local Sect. I don’t pay much heed to that sort of thing, but it’s good to hear that you’ve been performing well there. As an Alchemist, your Cultivation is absolutely paramount, more so than even your alchemical talents.”

  The Director smiled widely as he reminisced. “After all, without the strength to slaughter and pillage, where would one get experience working with truly valuable materials?”

  He shook his head and laughed. “You can only do so much with the scraps and leftovers people trade in open spaces. If you want to get anywhere of note as an Alchemist, you have to be able to take whatever you need, whenever you need it.”

  The Director put a hand to his chin in thought. “Though… I suppose that’s true of all Cultivators, really.”

  Curious as to where the Director’s brutal philosophy came from, she couldn’t help but ask. “Where are you from, anyway, Master Zhu?”

  The Director fell into thought for a long moment before replying. “I can’t even remember the name, but it was a fairly small city in the Jianghu. I grew up in a family of Cultivators. It's not as uncommon as you might think. Even out in those tumultuous places, people can't help but try and make a family.”

  “Then… I left when I was about twenty-something, made a few too many enemies there.“ The Director laughed.

  “Some time during my stay there, I picked a manual on alchemy off of some poor bastard and took rather well to it, so when I left, I sought out the nearest branch of the Alchemist’s Association and tried my luck there.”

  He stroked his chin and smirked to himself. “It’s been a bit over a century since then, and well… I suppose I never did stop making enemies, even after becoming an Alchemist.”

  Quite taken in by his story, Jun Li eagerly continued questioning the Director. “You said that the ‘Jianghu’ is supposed to be the ‘wider martial world,’ right? What’s it like? How different is it from the rest of the world?” Amused by Jun Li’s interest, the Director continued.

  “The Jianghu is… a world of the free, in some ways. Laws and their enforcement are much vaguer. What few great nations that exist in the Jianghu barely extend their jurisdiction to the myriad city-states, and the truly strong can change the world around them with personal power alone.” The Director looked almost wistful, remembering it.

  “It’s a world where the true nature of humanity is bared for all to see, and I believe it is a truly beautiful thing.”

  The Director looked straight at Jun Li and spoke with complete sincerity. “When you reach the middle, or maybe the late level of the Crimson Palace stage, I highly recommend departing from this Mortal Kingdom. There’s simply too much to see out in the real world, away from all this posturing and pretending.”

  The proposition was almost startling to Jun Li. “Leaving the kingdom…?”

  As fascinating as Jun Li found the notion of traveling and seeing where the path of Cultivation could lead her, there was simply too much here for her. “I don’t think I’ll be able to do that… not for a long while at least…”

  Looking Jun Li over with a mild expression, the Director raised an eyebrow. “Hmm, well, at the very least, I still have use of your inheritance, so I don’t mind if you linger around for a while. I certainly can’t leave so soon myself.” He shut his eyes and idly felt the box he was handed.

  “Still… you should keep it in mind. I believe there’s such a thing as fate, and with that inheritance you received, you can only hold out for a matter of time before it comes to force your hand.”