Chapter 396 – Life 109, Age 24, Martial Grandmaster 7

Not everyone was sold on the idea of working with me to create new recipes, but this didn’t stop a couple of people from stepping forward to assist me—including the young woman who had placed second and had a talent for the spear, who I finally learned was named Lau CoiHung. Once our group of three met with its first real success, however, things changed.

After only a few months of work, we were able to create the entirely unique Rank 5 Spear Vortex Pill, which combined spear-based herbs with chain-based herbs. When crushed, this pill created a powerful whirlwind of energy that sucked in anything nearby and shredded it with spear energy.

Considering that this pill used expensive Rank 5 herbs, its effects weren’t overly impressive, since its spear energy was only truly deadly to Martial Grandmasters and below. Adding patterns to the pill increased the suction force of its vortex, but it didn’t do much to increase the violence of the spear energy. So, even as a three-patterned pill, it was barely capable of incapacitating Martial Lords.

To anyone solely concerned about the monetary value of our pill, this first success might have looked like an abject failure. However, the rewards for creating this pill went far beyond a few spirit stones.

As the person who took the lead in assembling the world’s very first Rank 5 Spear Vortex Pill, Lau CoiHung was awarded with an enlightenment from the Dao itself, boosting her alchemy abilities far beyond what was normal for someone of her age.

Upon seeing this, I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of regret. If I had taken the lead in concocting that first pill, then I could have been the one to receive that enlightenment. This regret didn’t last long, however. I could only receive a single enlightenment for each Rank of pill, and spending my Rank 5 enlightenment on some random weapon pill would have been far too wasteful. I would much rather save it for a pill related to beast alchemy.

When others heard about this enlightenment, however, they weren’t quite so sanguine.

While the Palace’s alchemists were constantly working to develop new recipes, none of the pills they created were truly novel. They were simply new six- and nine-patterned versions of pills that had existed for centuries. Lau CoiHung’s enlightenment marked the first time in over a thousand years that anyone from this Palace had received a reward for concocting an entirely unique pill.

As news of this achievement spread, I was bombarded with requests to join my research group, with the alchemists who contacted me ranging from low-level Lords to Peak Emperors. Honestly… it was a bit much. So, I talked to Emperor Chan and had him take over the negotiations. I didn’t mind having a bit of extra help around, but ultimately, I had to remember what was important. In a little more than a decade, I would be facing off against an exceptionally dangerous opponent, and I needed to be ready.

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With a nearly unprecedented level of support from the Palace’s high-level alchemists, I was able to develop a new pill recipe nearly every single month. Over the course of a single year, I was not only able to assist nearly all of the Palace’s best young alchemists in acquiring a Rank 5 enlightenment, but I was also able to assist several Emperors in acquiring a Rank 6 enlightenment.

There was one small black spot on my resume, however.

My focus had been on creating new pills using unusual combinations of different weapon energies. So, every pill that I had designed was centered around energies connected to the nine weapons commonly found in the Heroes Domain. So, the alchemists who took the lead in concocting these pills—the person who would receive the enlightenment—had to be someone with a high affinity for one of these weapons.

For most of the Palace’s alchemists, this wasn’t a problem. After all, nearly everyone in the Heroes Domain was proficient with its weapons. For the Palace’s golden child, however, this was an issue.

Mandakh didn’t cultivate weapon qi. He was a dual-element water-wood cultivator who also happened to have a high affinity for fire. This meant that he couldn’t take the lead on any of the recipes that I had come up with and was, therefore, not able to earn any enlightenments.

At the request of one of the Palace’s elders, I spent some time working on a few recipes centered around wood-based herbs, honestly hoping to find something that might give Mandakh the edge he needed to defeat Jon, but nothing I came up with was considered ‘novel.’

This lack of an enlightenment caused Mandakh’s alchemy skills to progress much more slowly than everyone else’s, but he was still able to maintain his position as our group’s leader. This was because, with only a year to go until the upcoming exhibition match, Mandakh was a mid-level King, while I was only a Peak Grandmaster. My alchemy skills might have been highly respected by this point, but no one believed that I would be able to advance quickly enough to lead our team in the upcoming competition.

A couple of the other young alchemists did try to unseat Mandakh, but I exerted my influence to put a stop to this. If Jon was going to steal anyone’s blessing, I wanted it to be Mandakh’s. The ability to create synthetic sympathetic bonds was just too useful to pass up.

So, I helped out Mandakh where I could, and he, in turn, became something like my project manager. He took care of my herb supplies and oversaw the low-level servants who brewed endless pots of tea, while all I had to do was use my ‘blessing’ to analyze these teas and make suggestions on how they might be improved.

When Lau CoiHung received that first enlightenment, I was worried that the frenzy it caused would result in me being either kidnapped or killed. However, when the effects of my ‘blessing’ proved to be both universal and severely limited, this worry was alleviated. Yes, I could potentially help all of the Palace’s alchemists gain an enlightenment, but each person could only receive one enlightenment per Rank. So, there was no reason for anyone to kidnap me and force me to pump out an endless stream of recipes. It simply wouldn’t do them any good.

Instead, the elders acted for the good of the Palace as a whole. They helped me get the herbs I needed, and I used them to create as many recipes as I could, granting enlightenments to as many of the Palace’s alchemists as possible.

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With roughly a year to go before the exhibition match, Emperor Chan called me up to his workshop. After a few polite words of greeting, he got straight to the point.

“Su Fang, you’ve been a Peak Grandmaster for several months now, so you should start looking toward your next advancement. However…”

The look of worry in Chan’s eyes made me afraid that assisting the Palace in designing so many new pills might have been a mistake. Had someone decided that I shouldn’t be allowed to advance any further?

“Is someone trying to block my access to karmic energy?”

“No, nothing like that. You’ve likely helped the Palace more than anyone in history. No one will deny you your right to its stores of karmic energy.” Chan took a deep breath. “The problem is your affinity for karmic energy. To help you raise it, we need to send you outside the Palace, to let you live among mortals as they struggle to improve their lots in life. Normally, this isn’t a problem. We would just send you to spend some time in the City of Selfless Courage. Now, though, if you leave the Palace, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to return.”

Chan let out a soft sigh. “Sovereign Enkhtuya has done her best to keep recent events quiet, but agents for both the Devil Saint and the Saint of Tooth and Claw almost certainly know of your existence. If you leave the Palace’s protections, they will assassinate you—no matter how many assets they have to burn in the process.”

“But as long as I stay in the Palace, I’m safe?”

“Yes. This place is protected by both the Palace’s formations and Sovereign Enkhtuya. Nothing short of an Ancestor-level cultivator can threaten you within these walls, and if one of those appears, the Saint of Heroes herself will step in to defend you. However, you are only safe here. The Saint of Heroes will help safeguard the Palace, but she won’t safeguard you. This means that you cannot leave the Palace until the Intra-Continental Tournament. You cannot attend the exhibition match, you cannot go out to experience a Return to Simplicity, and there is no way for you to enhance your affinity for karmic energy.”

I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face. Even if I only had the cultivation base of a low-level Lord, there might still have been members of the Palace who felt that I needed to compete in the upcoming exhibition match. However, if the Sovereign was actively preventing me from joining in for safety reasons, who could blame me for not participating?

“This won’t be a problem,” I told Chan. “I already have a decent affinity. As long as the Palace can supply me with karmic energy, I can break through at any time.”

Suddenly, my right hand shot up as I realized my mistake. “I will need to take a look at the Palace’s Ruler tier cultivation techniques, however. Hopefully, I can find one that is a good fit for the Warrior tier techniques I used.”

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Sadly, the Palace’s collection of Ruler tier cultivation techniques was rather disappointing. Sure, they had Peak-Yellow techniques, which was more than I could say about any faction on the Nine Rivers Continent, but that was it. Nothing was any better than the Core of Fellowship. They just had different effects.

If I wanted to use karmic energy that was generated by people loyal to the Palace, then I needed to use one of the approved techniques. These had effects ranging from increased loyalty to a greater work ethic. If I had a source of outside karmic energy, however, the Palace could provide me with techniques that had effects such as increased gullibility or increased aggression.

I didn’t find any of these techniques overly appealing, so I made copies of the manuals for each Rank of the Core of Fellowship and submitted them to the library for approval. Within the day, I was given authorization to begin using this ‘new’ technique, and within the week, the manuals were officially added to the Palace’s library.

By requesting authorization to use these techniques, I had, essentially, given them away for free. However, considering the mountain of novel pill recipes that I had given the Palace, handing over a few technique manuals was hardly worth mentioning.

Once everything was confirmed, Emperor Chan informed me that I had full access to as much Lord-level energy as I needed, so I took enough to complete my initial ascension and locked myself away in my cultivation chamber.

As I sat there, slowly constructing my karmic core, I couldn’t help but feel that foregoing the Return to Simplicity might have been a mistake.

Even without heading out into the City of Selfless Courage, I could have still used a Rank 3 Moon Cicada Pill to reset my cultivation base while channeling the energy toward enhancing my Crescent Moon Spade. I hadn’t thought about this since I was in a hurry to grow stronger, and I didn’t really care too much about becoming a more powerful warrior, but during my next life, I would need to make sure to enhance that spade as much as possible.

More importantly, though, was a Return to Simplicity only useful for enhancing one’s weapon? Was there such a thing as a Pill Cicada? Could I channel the energy of a Return into a pill furnace, enhancing my ability to perform alchemy?

Even if this were possible, without a high-Rank furnace, it wouldn’t matter too much. But, once I got a hold of a Rank 7 or better pill furnace, I would need to look into this.