Chapter 61: Life 60, Age 16, Martial Disciple 1

As I was preparing to return to my apartment, a voice echoed through the room. “SuYin, there you are.” I turned to see two people entering from the stairwell. In the lead was a middle-aged-looking man with a young man around my age following behind. Both were wearing dark yellow hanfus. The younger man’s was plain and unadorned, but the older man’s was embroidered with bright green flames. SuYin’s face fell the moment she heard the boy’s voice. “What are you doing here?” he asked in a harsh voice, “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” SuYin scooted closer to me at his words. This caused the boy to give me an appraising look. “Who are you?” he asked in a flat voice. What should I do here? Normally, I would just brush off someone like this as I always did in the sect. I generally felt there was little to gain from such an encounter, so why play the game? This time, though, I was Young Master Su, and this kid was trying to knock me down on the pecking order. That was something Young Master Su would not abide. “Su Fang,” I said with as cold a tone as I could muster. “Well, Su Fang, stay away from my woman,” he said with a snort. Looking back at SuYin, he continued, “You know I don’t like you talking with the rabble. You shouldn’t entertain them.” I looked over to SuYin to see how she wanted to handle this situation. “Alchemist Gou, please be polite. I am introducing a new alchemist to the Pavilion,” she said. Her voice was quavering, but she remained firm. “I told you, you don’t need to work anymore. You are my woman, so I will take care of you.” “Alchemist Gou, I am not your woman. Please allow me to continue my work.” “We both know what you are,” he smirked. Then he gave me a nasty look. “You’re a new alchemist? Why don’t you get the hell out of the Pavilion before you embarrass yourself.” “I can’t do that,” I said with a wide smile. “I just ordered a batch of ingredients, and it would be terrible to leave before I’ve made any pills.” He laughed uproariously at that. “Bought a few peonies, did you? Fine, I’ll give you ten silver to fuck off.” “Hmm, I believe it was twelve peonies, twelve astragalus roots, and twelve schisandra berries. I don’t actually know what the price would be, but it’s certainly more than ten silver.” He didn’t respond for a moment. He just looked at me. He was using his own qi vision to gauge my cultivation level. Finally, he burst into laughter once more. “You aren’t even a cultivator, and you think you can make Superior Qi Gathering Pills? You’re just making a fool out of yourself. Come on, SuYin, let’s leave this loser.” “Alchemist Gou,” she began to look worried. “I have to guide Alchemist Su. If you need assistance, another attendant can help you.” “He isn’t an alchemist!” Gou shouted. “I bet this time next week he will be coming back here having wasted all his money and begging for free herbs. Enough of him.” SuYin appeared to become more frantic as the conversation continued, so I decided to step in. “Fine,” I said, “I’ll take the bet, what is your wager?” “What?” Gou laughed. “You wanted to make a bet. I’ll bet. What’s the wager?” He gave me a sinister look. “If you don’t bring back a single pill, get the hell out of the Pavilion and never come back.” “Oh?” I asked surprised. “Alright, I can accept that. In one week, we will meet back here, and if I don’t have a single pill I will leave and never enter any Blue Wind Pavilion location again in my life. If I do bring one, then you leave and never enter another Pavilion in your life. Sounds like a good bet to me.” Even with this new technique, cultivating to Martial Disciple 2 was simple, but I still took the process slowly and observed every step of the process. I needed to gain a true understanding of how cultivation affected my body. In total, it took me four days to break through. For most people, that might have resulted in a rushed and shoddy advancement, but I made sure to reach the pinnacle of what was possible with this Mid-Profound technique. I had four years until qi stagnation began. I could run up to Martial Master in less than one, and I would have very few side effects, but I wanted to take it slow instead. I would give myself three years to advance to Master. That would allow me sufficient time to understand the changes in my body at a deeper level. I needed to reach Martial King, but I had 120 years. I could afford to spend three here to prepare. Having reached Martial Disciple 2, I left my cultivation room and returned to the sitting room. With qi to support me, concocting a dozen Rank 1 pills was no longer a concern, so I put that to the back of my mind. Instead, having access to wood qi for the first time, I wanted to see what I could do. I had a few martial arts that involved using wood qi, but they would be difficult to practice inside my apartment. They almost all involved using plants in the environment as tools to attack or defend. The ones that didn’t use environmental plants used seeds or other plant life carried by the cultivator. Such techniques seemed limiting, but techniques with more stringent requirements should produce superior results. I went to my bedroom and picked up a few of the flowers there. Channeling wood qi, I began practicing twisting and shaping them. Whenever my qi ran low, I cultivated to restore it. “So, where do you want it?” a burly, well-tanned man asked. After practicing all I could with the flowers, I needed something more, so I went out shopping and purchased a long flowerbed for my room. I didn’t have a balcony, but I had ample windows, so I could only hope it would be enough. “Over there,” I said, pointing to the sitting room wall. “You sure?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, “This is a nice room, and even if you’re careful, it’ll get dirty in here.” “Yeah, I’ll take care of it, don’t worry.” The floors were all hardwood, so a broom and dustpan could take care of a little dirt. “Your call,” he said, waving to a couple of guys in the hallway. They worked together to bring in a long flowerbed made of thick wood. Looking at it, I was impressed at their ability to maneuver it around tight corners. Then, after putting it in place, they made several trips to bring up bags of potting soil for it. All of this was done through the warehouse entrance on the bottom level, so on each trip, they were climbing up and down four sets of stairs, but they never complained, at least not in front of me. “Thanks for your work,” I said, giving each many a hearty handshake. Tipping wasn’t a custom here, but they did an excellent job, so I slipped them each a few extra silver. The leader grinned at me happily. “Let us know if you got any more work for us. Always happy to help.” “Will do!” I led the men out of the Pavilion and waved goodbye. After that, I grabbed some seeds and got to planting. The herbalism techniques I had studied in my last life were all very basic, but they included ways to encourage plant growth. Since I was only working with mortal plants, not spiritual herbs, I needed to be sparing in qi usage because they couldn’t handle much. I planted both seeds and a few young shoots and spent an entire day playing with them. On the evening of my sixth day in the Pavilion, SuYin came to see me. “How is it? Are you ready?” she asked with a face of nervous concern. “Sorry, what?” I was confused. “The bet? How did your pills turn out?” “Ah, the pills,” I said, suddenly remembering Gougou. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that. I’ll have them ready tomorrow.” “What!? You... you haven’t started?” She looked panicked. “No worries, I got this.” I was trying to be reassuring, but I don’t think it helped.