Sitting over an ornate furnace in an unadorned room of discolored grey stone, Jun Li was looking down to her hands with bloodshot eyes. After hours upon hours of work, Jun Li’s pill furnace radiated such heat that it became painful to hold.

  Even so, Jun Li pushed through the discomfort, refusing to allow her first proper foray into alchemy to end in failure, especially when she needed the end product as urgently as she did.

  Slowly closing her eyes, Jun Li focused sharply on the contents of the furnace. ‘Everything should be properly integrated now, and the impurities should be gone…’

  Jun Li had been working for so long that she had become skeptical of her own judgment and second-guessed each and every action she took, but by this point, her exhaustion demanded that she finish her work quickly.

  Withdrawing her Qi and removing her fingers from the surface of the furnace, Jun Li took a deep breath and opened the furnace.

  Inside was a large, slightly uneven pill. Despite looking as plain and grey as slate, the freshly made pill radiated an invigorating scent that assured Jun Li of her success.

  Reaching into the furnace with a small implement, Jun Li set the pill into a small box to her side, alongside another two others she had previously finished earlier in the night.

  Reclining back onto the stone floor, Jun Li relaxed, finally able to allow her focus to slip away. Despite how hard the floor was, to the exhausted Jun Li, it may as well have been a plush bed.

  Barely pulling herself away from the desire to sleep, Jun Li sealed the box of pills and tied up her pill furnace with rope and slung it over her back.

  Stepping out of the secluded alchemy room and into the Director’s office, Jun Li saw that he was continuing his own research, studying the small snake Jun Li had picked up earlier in the week.

  “Master Zhu?” Jun Li leaned over in an attempt to meet the Director’s gaze. He was, however, far too engrossed in his observations to pay her any heed.

  “Is Little Yun that interesting?” Calling the snake by name, Jun Li raised an eyebrow at her master’s interest.

  “Absolutely, in fact…” The Director set his quill down. “…This little thing might just have more potential than you. Well… in theory.”

  The Director smiled with genuine interest. “Though it might seem unassuming, this little thing has a true fragment of draconic blood in it.”

  Looking down at the snake, which had made its way to the side of the table closest to Jun Li, the Director continued. “It's faint, of course. Just a minuscule, transparent remnant of a distant ancestor.”

  Gently picking Little Yun off the table, Jun Li spoke. “If it’s that faint, does it actually mean anything for them?”

  “Nothing right now, but…” The Director looked to one of the bookshelves that lined the wall of his office. “…I’ve read in the past about certain Beasts strengthening their bloodlines in an attempt to reclaim some past glory… I’ll see what information I can dredge up about it. Maybe your memories could help fill in some gaps as well…”

  As though suddenly remembering something, the Director raised an eyebrow at Jun Li. “…What were you here for, again?”

  No longer surprised by how easily distracted her master could be, Jun Li simply placed the box of pills onto his desk. “Ah, this would be…”

  The Director slid the box over to himself and opened it, quickly analyzing the presence the pills gave off. “Yes… Perhaps a bit crude, but it’s certainly on another level compared to the ‘alchemists’ in this backwater.”

  The Director gave Jun Li a wry sneer. “Though I must say… You’ve not exactly followed my instructions to the letter.”

  Knowing what he was referring to, Jun Li felt a bit embarrassed. “Ah, you caught onto that, huh?”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Jun Li rustled her own hair while trying to find an explanation. “It’s just… I thought that the pills would lose quite a bit of potency if I followed your instructions without any adjustments… so I used a few of the parts of the Medicinal Herb you recommended discarding, and a little less water.”

  Listening to Jun Li’s adjustments, the Director burst out laughing. “I see! Well, that would indeed make them more potent!”

  Taking a closer look at the pills, the Director cupped his chin in thought. “It seems that teaching someone with preconceived notions of a craft is… more difficult than I expected.”

  “These pills you’ve made are certainly potent, but… by implementing the alchemical knowledge you’ve inherited while lacking an intimate, first-hand understanding of the effects…”

  The Director furrowed his eyebrows at the pills. “Well… let’s just say you’ve made something quite unpleasant.”

  Concern spreading across her face, Jun Li quickly spoke. “But… nothing about my adjustments should have altered the basic function of the pill; it should still be effective, right?”

  The Director couldn’t help but laugh at Jun Li’s phrasing. “Oh, it will certainly be effective, but…” He looked Jun Li over for a moment. “As you are now, safely consuming one of those pills isn’t going to be easy.”

  The Director clarified. “At your current Cultivation, the energy within those pills is more than sufficient to cause a Qi Deviation and potentially cripple you if you fail to refine it properly.”

  For a moment, Jun Li sank into thought regarding the Director’s warning.

  “…No, it doesn’t matter.” She quickly shrugged off his comments. “Even if it’s more dangerous, the extra potency is worth it. I need to hurry up and get stronger so I can enter the Inner Sect and support my family.”

  Jun Li’s expression turned severe. “If progressing faster means more danger, that’s fine… I have enough faith in my skill by now that I’m willing to try.”

  “Wonderful!” The Director gave a single clap. “Ambition and excess are foremost virtues for a Cultivator!”

  He quickly stood and walked to a nearby cabinet.

  Rummaging through his belongings, the Director quickly found what he was looking for. “Ahh, perfect.”

  Turning to Jun Li, the director offered a bundle of incense. “Light these the moment you ingest a pill.”

  Taking the incense into her hands, Jun Li raised an eyebrow. “Will these help me refine the pills somehow?”

  “Well, not quite, no.” The Director scratched his head and laughed. “Consider them a timer of sorts, a deadline. You will need to make a Breakthrough before that incense is done burning. If you fail to do so, the continued internal pressure from the medicinal essence will cause your Meridians to rupture, crippling you in the best-case scenario.”

  Contrary to the severity of his description, the Director’s expression was completely carefree, as though there was no risk involved. “Feel free to head back into my seclusion room to cultivate.”

  Seeing how casual her master was being about the matter, Jun Li felt her own anxieties ease off.

  “Then,” Jun Li clasped her hands and bowed. “I will do just that. Thank you for your guidance, Master Zhu. Please take care of Little Yun while I’m preoccupied.”

  Gently placing her companion down on the Director’s table, Jun Li picked up the box of pills and walked back to the room she had entered the office from.

  Closing the door behind her, Jun Li felt the complete silence of the secluded room sink into her.

  Slowly steadying her breath, Jun Li stepped up to a small incense burner embedded into the wall and readied her incense.

  Though the room had no windows to see the sky from, Jun Li estimated that midnight was approaching and lifted a pill from the box.

  ‘I doubt I’ll need to sleep after eating this… No time to waste then.’ Without overthinking things, Jun Li lit the incense and, with a bit of discomfort, dryly swallowed one of the Stoneshell Ginger Pills.

  After swallowing the pill, Jun Li attempted to take a deep breath, only to find that near-instantly, it felt as if the air itself had begun to burn her throat.

  Coughing, Jun Li lurched over as she attempted to regain her bearings.

  Within only a few seconds, Jun Li was brought to her knees by the dry heat that painfully suffused her body.

  Turning her gaze inward, Jun Li felt the foreign Medicinal Essence rapidly pervade her Meridians, flooding through like a deluge of burning sand.

  Seeing how quickly the pill began its work, Jun Li quickly focused her attention and set about matching its pace.

  Sitting as comfortably as she could, Jun Li quickly drew a plentiful stream of Qi from her Dantian and slowly began to circulate it through her Meridians.

  With each cycle, more and more grains of that Medicinal Essence were swept up in the tide and slowly melded into her Dantian.

  Yet as steadily as she continued her effort, it was akin to the lapping tides attempting to shear the sand from a beach, with each cycle, any progress seemed transient and vague.

  After what felt like half an hour, Jun Li slowly opened her eyes to check the incense without losing focus on her Qi Circulation.

  To her dismay, it looked as though the sticks hadn’t burnt for so much as a minute after being lit.

  Though she already felt a degree of mental fatigue, Jun Li had no choice but to swallow her dismay and redouble her efforts to continue shearing sand from the beach, one cycle after the next.