For a long second, the sound of it hung in the air, reverberating out into the far silence. Then, just when she’d started to suspect nobody home, the door creaked open and revealed a well-dressed man standing just inside. “Hello, hello… hm. Who are you? Perhaps one of the new hires for the clan compounds? No, you lack that certain grace to you…” he shook his head, squinting at her then shrugging. “I take it you’re here to see the Master’s alchemical expertise?” She nodded. “Come in, then— it’s dreadfully cold outside. The Master will see you shortly.”
“Um… thanks?” The servant didn’t respond, so— a little awkwardly— she stepped into the foyer, not quite daring to sit on any of the furniture. It looked so pristine… there was probably more wealth in that one room than there was in her entire orphanage, if the ornate weapons and strange paintings hung on the wall were any indication.
Contrary to her expectations, the Master did not see her shortly. It was almost thirty uncomfortable minutes spent being watched intently by the servant later until a smaller, slightly less… fit, to say it kindly, man walked into the room with an expression of distaste on his face. “Well. You’re the girl. Who sent you? I don’t appreciate my time being wasted.”
She frowned. “Nobody. I came here on my own.”
“Hm…” his expression seemed to lighten a little at that. “Good, I guess. If the Jiang family had tried to pull another bit of obstruction, then I’d have to send Leo here to have words with them, and neither of us want that to happen, right?” She just stared dumbly at him, not knowing at all what he was getting at. It took her almost embarrassingly long to realize that Leo was the servant who’d greeted her… “Nevermind. Follow me. Touch nothing, or else… they tell you what happens to street rats back in whatever hole you crawled out of, no?”
She bristled at the insinuation— she was not a street rat— but followed him nonetheless. It wasn’t like she had options to be picky with… further into the building, the ostentacity of the foyer faded a little bit. It didn’t fully disappear, just instead of one room having more wealth than her entire orphanage, it was spread out around two, maybe three rooms if the man was feeling particularly austere.
Finally, after descending a flight of steps into the basement— or at least she presumed it was a basment and not some horrible torture dungeon, with all the cruel-looking iron implements and tools and chains and stuff hung up on the walls— they came to a… calling it a workshop would be, if anything, underselling it. It had all the traditional tools of alchemy, alongside several whole tables filled to the brim with glassware and burners. In the center, a massive cauldron sat still and empty, a brazier unlit beneath it. The spiritual pressure it exuded was strong enough for her to feel.
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“Don’t touch,” the alchemist repeated, again, before leading her to a small table and sitting down in the sole chair. He quickly collected up a bunch of the notes scattered across the table, packing them up into a neat little stack and flipping face down. “Alright. What do you need, and what can you offer? A quick rundown… love potions don’t exist, you can’t pay me enough to make a lust potion, see a gynecologist if you have fertility issues, and if you ask for a pill to turn you into a cultivator, I’m going to laugh you out of the room.”
“Um.” Well that was not exactly what she wanted to hear, given what she’d asked for. “Funny you mention that…” the man’s gaze settled on her, not quite a glare but close. It felt like Xinshi’s cultivation pressure, except far less of a bludgeon. Clearly, he was quite practiced at it. “I need a pill to take help a cultivator break through from Shedding to Opening.”
The man boggled at her, composure momentarily forgotten as he coughed in surprise. “What? Do you have any idea of what you’re asking for, girl? The pills the Sect uses to elevate cultivators to Opening are crafted by Inner Elders. That’s mid-Sundering. Do you know how much one of them sells for on the open market? I’ll tell you— enough to outfit this lab over a hundred times over and still have enough to spare to buy a skyscraper.”
Lily blanched. Did they really put that much resources into their disciples? It sounded unbelievable… but then again, she’d grown up always hearing stories about the prodigious wealth of the Bloody Saffron Sect. She supposed it only made sense that they’d do something so… lavish.
Still. To think that one day she’d be consuming a pill made by an Elder of the Bloody Saffron Sect. She’d had no idea… “I have six spirit stones? Low grade, I think.” Before the man could kick her out, she quickly continued— “and I have the ingredient for the advancement! It perfectly matches his cultivation— and he’s already pinnacle Shedding! It shouldn’t take that much for him to advance, right?”
“Pinnacle Shedding? Who’s this friend of yours…” he shook his head, a flash of something flicking through his gaze. Excitement, maybe? “It depends on what sort of spiritual treasure you’ve managed to scrounge up for yourself. If it’s good enough, then maybe— but most of them aren’t good enough. Most spirit grass sold on the open market isn’t even good enough to use in general cultivation aids, much less a pill of such rank, and the less said about the so called ‘immortal peaches’ they sell, the better—” he froze as Lily flicked pulled out Mingtian’s box, flicking open the lid to reveal the glow of the fruit settled within.
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