Chapter 351 – Life 92, Age 16, Martial Disciple 1

Taimoor first led me to an office on the Hall of the Herb Lord’s second floor, where a middle-aged man with charcoal-black skin and long black hair was reviewing a pile of paperwork.

Taimoor cupped his fists to this man. “Manager Ulagan, a new Disciple has requested a position as a servant-alchemist.”

The manager didn’t even look up from the paperwork that he was reviewing. “Name?”

I stepped forward and cupped my fists. “Su Fang.”

The manager reached to his side and jotted this down on an empty form. “Affinity?”

Taimoor answered for me, “Zero.”

“Experience?”

I didn’t see any truth stones lying about, but I needed to be careful here. “I have yet to begin practicing alchemy.”

The manager let out a soft snort and jotted down ‘unknown.’ “Blessing?”

Just as I was about to open my mouth, he cut me off. “Just tell me if your blessing will help you with alchemy. Does it give you any special skills?”

“It… I do not have any special skills that will directly assist me with alchemy. Mostly, it has given me information and has boosted my comprehension.”

The manager scribbled down a few words on the form, then handed me a jade token. “Place a drop of blood on this and attach it to your waist. It will keep a record of your contributions. Welcome to the Hall of the Herb Lord.”

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Next, Taimoor took me to another office on the second floor where a green-skinned elder was hunched over a desk, reading a thick tome. Behind her, there were several shelves filled with storage bags.

Taimoor approached this old woman, cupped his fists, and bowed. “Elder Bilguun, a new Disciple desires to walk the path of an alchemist.”

The elder nodded and looked up at me. “Which flavor of qi do you wish to experience?”

I wanted to raise an eyebrow at this, but I restrained myself. Aside from the wording, I was a bit surprised that she would even ask this. On the Nine Rivers Continent, alchemists almost always cultivated fire qi. This would allow me more options with how I developed here, but I didn’t see any reason not to start with the more traditional path.

I cupped my fists and gave a slight bow. “Fire qi.”

She bobbed her head. “A sensible starting point.”

Elder Bilguun turned around, pulled a scroll from one of the storage bags, then placed it on the desk between us. “Your tuition entitles you to one Low-Yellow cultivation technique. If you master it, then you will be able to purchase a better one—up to a Peak-Yellow. If you are able to become an apprentice, then you will be allowed to purchase Profound techniques. Full alchemists are able to purchase Earth-Rank techniques. How far you progress along this path will depend on you—on your effort, and on your latent talent.”

I bowed once more as I accepted the technique. “Thank you for your guidance, Elder.”

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Taimoor then brought me to the final room on the second floor, a large hall filled with several benches made from living shrubberies. There were already a dozen young men and women sitting around on these benches when we arrived, and all of them were dressed in the fine silk robes of nobles.

There were several reception desks in this room, but Taimoor didn’t walk me up to any of them. He just waved his hand to introduce me to the place. “You can come here to accept tasks, earn contribution points, and continue down your path.”

He gestured toward one of the desks. “That desk is for the servant-alchemists. There, you can see what jobs are available.”

I looked around at everyone on the benches. “Is there a reason people are just waiting here?”

Taimoor nodded. “Yes. If you wish to accept a task immediately, there will almost always be one available, but those are mostly drudge work, such as restocking herbs, cleaning cauldrons, or waiting downstairs to serve as a guide. The people here, however, are waiting in the hopes that they will have a chance to assist an alchemist directly. Alchemists will usually just come by and grab people directly, without posting a task.”

This seemed… strange. Why would an alchemist need the help of an untrained servant? Even if they were trained, what was the point? Also, why waste time just sitting around? Why not spend that time practicing?

“Taimoor… are we allowed to purchase basic herbs to practice with?”

He furrowed his brow. “Of course. Don’t expect to receive any discounts, but you can go to the shop and buy herbs like anyone else.”

“Then…” I waved a hand at the people seated in front of us. “Why are they here? Why aren’t they off practicing? Isn’t this a waste of time?”

Hearing my question, one of the nearby youths let out a snort, but he didn’t deign to answer my question. Instead, it was Taimoor who explained.

“First, it’s a matter of cost. If you just try to start concocting pills directly, you can quickly burn through a mountain of gold with nothing to show for it. Even most wealthy families can’t afford such an expenditure.”

“But…” I wanted to explain—That’s how I had learned, and that’s how everyone I had ever spoken to had learned. We had used blue peonies to concoct mounds of basic Qi Gathering Powder. This wouldn’t make a person rich, but it was at least profitable. This wasn’t the right place to explain this, however. I could only nod my head in acceptance. “I… see.”

Taimoor smiled at my response. “More than that, working with a skilled alchemist is considered the best way to raise your affinity. Concocting failed pills will help, sure, but assisting in the creation of successful ones is far more effective. Even if you waste a dozen gold on herbs, you still wouldn’t gain as much as someone who assists in the creation of a high-quality Rank 1 pill.”

“But—” Again, I had to catch myself. This talk of affinities—it wasn’t… right. A person couldn’t raise their affinities just by practicing, could they? If they could, then my affinities should already be one-star by this point. Either the people of the Hall of the Herb Lord were lying, or the Laws of this continent had changed things.

In the end, I could only nod in quiet acceptance. Asking too many questions about this might give away too much information.

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Finally, Taimoor took me downstairs and out an exit that led to an alleyway behind the hall. From there, he led me through a series of dingy passages, to the servant’s dormitory, and showed me to my room. Then, he left.

As long as I continued paying the hall its 10 gold a month, I would have a room, and I would be able to accept tasks on the second floor, but I didn’t have any set obligations. As long as I paid my dues, I could simply lounge around all day if I wanted to. My time was my own.

This setup seemed designed to milk money from the scions of wealthy families. Such children would come to the hall, pay extortionate fees, and end up learning absolutely nothing. It felt like a complete scam.

For me, however, it was exactly what I needed. I had an endless supply of gold to throw around, and I didn’t actually need the hall to teach me anything. I just needed to use them to launder my preexisting skills while learning more about this continent.

And, I had already learned a lot. Some of it, however, was both concerning and confusing.

“System,” I subvocalized, “for this conversation, automatically purchase any answers that cost less than a billion credits. How much to upgrade or alter my fire affinity so that it would be recognized by the affinity testing orb?”

Processing… Cost cannot be calculated at this time.

“I… see. How much to calculate the cost?”

Processing… Cost 100,000 shards.

“Wha—” That price didn’t make any sense. Something was wrong.

“Okay… System, how much to… how much to know why the testing orb didn’t register my affinity?”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 1,000 credits.

Specified affinity testing orb is incapable of measuring a person’s fire affinity.

I nodded silently. That… They had different orbs here. That was good to know. However…

“What affinities does it measure?”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 100,000 credits.

Specified affinity testing orb measures a person’s affinity for alchemy.

My eyes widened in shock. Was that even possible?

“How much to raise my alchemy affinity to low nine-star?”

Cost 1,000 credits.

The same as affinities for the secondary elements. So, I had more than enough credits to raise it directly to three-star.

Did I want to, though? What if the people in the Hall of the Herb Lord were telling the truth? What if I could raise my affinities without essence? I needed to test this—both to know if it was true, and to know how long raising an affinity might take.

“That’s all for now, System.”

Transaction complete. 237,965,112,268,273 credits remaining.

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Over the next month, I spent my time doing menial tasks around the Hall of the Herb Lord. I could have used this time to concoct pills, but I wanted to see if these more basic tasks would actually help me get a low nine-star alchemy affinity.

Most of these were about what I had expected, but one stood out—cleaning the dregs from the bottom of pill furnaces.

Back on Nine Rivers, I had never even heard of ‘dregs.’ When concocting a pill, everything was either burned up or condensed into a pill. Here, however, instead of evaporating, an herb’s physical shell would slough off and fall to the bottom of the furnace. Once the concoction process was finished, an alchemist would then need to scrape out these dregs and dispose of them.

It was dirty, messy work, and it was made all the dirtier by the fact that most of the servants doing this work would take the opportunity to swallow as many of the dregs as they could stomach. They were bitter, nasty things, and eating them often resulted in people becoming violently ill, but consuming alchemical dregs was considered a surefire way of boosting one’s affinity.

Only the most desperate of the servants indulged in this practice, though, and after trying it once, I didn’t feel the need to try it ever again. Yes, I wanted to find new ways to raise my affinities, but… but some things just weren’t worth it.

At the end of the month, all the alchemy servants were gathered for a lesson on the Hall’s third floor.

Upon entering the lecture hall, I found 50 alchemy workbenches arranged so that they all faced the front of the classroom, where another workbench sat atop a raised podium.

When I entered, more than three dozen young men and women were already stationed behind the various workbenches. A few of them looked like ‘Nine Rivers’ people, but most had the green or brown skin that was more common in the Hall.

Whether ‘Nine Rivers’ people or ‘Hall’ people, however, nearly all of them looked wealthy. They were all wearing richly dyed silks embroidered with fanciful designs. There were only two exceptions: me and a man who had been left alone in the corner of the room.

His skin was that of someone from the Nine Rivers, and it was darkly tanned from long days spent under the harsh sun. His long black hair hung down in a loose queue, and only a worn leather strap kept it in place. His clothes weren’t silk. They weren’t even robes. They were the roughspun shirt and trousers of a common farmer. The man had cleaned himself up, but his clothing was stained with sweat, and he had a scruffy beard that made him look a bit dirty.

The more ‘noble’ servants had chosen to ignore this man, but I remembered what Mei had told me when we had first met. Sometimes, the rich and powerful would choose to dress as beggars. While I couldn’t be certain, looking at this man in the corner of the room, I felt that he shouldn’t be dismissed so easily.

So, I chose to take the workbench next to him.

When I did, I noticed a glint in his eye.

He walked over and stuck out his hand toward me. “Hello, I’m Johnathan Yo—ahem—Yong JinZhan. Call me Jon.”