Sarei's glare burned into my back as I exited the warehouse. It was fortunate that she was too dedicated to leave her post and storm after me. She stood arms crossed, in silent accusation. I couldn't blame her. I had just thrown away the job she had fought to secure for me, a job I had promised not to lose less than an hour ago. No wonder she was disappointed.

  The morning sun warmed my face as I considered my options. Despite Sarei's displeasure that had gone as well as I could have hoped for, but the whole thing left a bitter taste in my mouth. It gave me no pleasure to speak to Old Xu that way. He wasn't a bad man, just someone woefully out of his depth. My offer truly was generous, I just had to hope that he would calm down enough to see it as the lifeline that it was.

  However, I now had hours to wait until I went back to see him and no job to fill them. I needed to use the time productively. One option was to go home and train by myself, but I had a better idea. Today would be an opportune time to take Ghost Fist up on his standing invitation to train with him. My conversation with Meiyu had crystalized what I had already worked out. My progress had stalled, and I needed a more rigorous challenge.

  The only issue was that Ghost Fist had told me that given how late he finished at The Broken Mast he would only get to the training hall late in the morning. It was still shortly after dawn so I had a few hours to wait. A thought came to me and I turned to head over to the merchants' district. I had been meaning to find time to see the alchemist, Cao Wenli, who I had stumbled across when I was fleeing the marines, and this was the perfect opportunity.

  As I made my way through the morning bustle toward Ash & Orchid, it struck me as I walked how badly this city was run. A week had passed since I had left two marines unconscious with their weapons impaled between their legs, yet there had been no follow-up investigation, no increased patrols, nothing. In my empire, such an attack would have triggered a manhunt that wouldn't end until the perpetrator swung from a gibbet. Here, the incident might as well have never happened.

  Either the Imperial forces were incompetent beyond belief, or they simply didn't care about two marines getting roughed up in the slums. I already had a low opinion of the Lord and the administration of Shuilin Haven, and it was only getting worse.

  * * *

  The merchant district was already bustling with activity as I approached Ash & Orchid. Through the window, I could see Cao Wenli moving about inside, her plain robes were a stark contrast to the array of exotic products on the shelves and the vibrant red of her hair. It appeared that she was just opening up for the day as she unlocked cabinets and arranged jars.

  The breeze ruffled some papers as I entered, and Mistress Cao looked up from lighting an oil burner lamp beneath a small alembic.

  "Master Shen, what an unexpected pleasure. I've just opened, you're here early." A slight smile crossed her face. "Or, given your reputation, maybe you haven't gone to bed yet. Either way, perfect timing. I was just about to have a morning tea. Would you care to join me?"

  Well, what a civilized idea.

  "That's very kind, Mistress Cao."

  She gestured toward a small table beside her counter. "Please, sit. It's nothing fancy, but I find that if you choose the right blend it sets the day up right."

  I settled into a chair and watched as she plucked a canister from the shelves and prepared the tea. Her movements held the same precision I had noticed during our first encounter and she measured out the leaves with her eyes rather than scales. Even though it was just tea it spoke of instincts honed over decades and I was again confused as to what someone with her abilities was doing in this part of town.

  "So," she said, not looking up from her preparations, "what brings you back to my humble shop? I hope this time we won't be interrupted by marines conducting their mysterious census."

  The mocking tone in her voice made me chuckle. "I was hoping you might be interested in purchasing alchemical ingredients, should I come across any. Also, I wondered if you might know where one could acquire proper alchemy equipment."

  This was something that I had quickly worked out I would need. The sort of rapid cultivation growth that I needed would inevitably require the help of potions and pills. Not an excessive amount, as that would damage my base, but enough to accelerate what I was doing.

  The issue was that the sorts of things I would need were outrageously expensive. Even if I did end up owning Qin's Fresh Catch that would just about help me to acquire some of the ingredients. There was no way that they would help me to buy the pills and the potions themselves. If I wanted them I would have to make them myself. Which is why I had come to Mistress Cao.

  For her part, Mistress Cao paused in her stirring, tilting her head thoughtfully. "An interesting question from a hedonistic fish porter. What sort of alchemy did you have in mind?"

  She handed me a steaming cup. The liquid was pale green with an almost imperceptible shimmer across its surface. I took a sip and then froze.

  The flavor was floral and nuanced, but I barely paid any attention to the taste. As I swallowed, the tea flowed through me like liquid starlight and sought out the rough edges of my meridians. Imperfections I had been working on every day, spots where the ki flow stuttered, started to smooth from just one sip. The sensation was so intense I had to grip the table to keep from gasping aloud. This wasn't tea, it was a cultivation treasure.

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  I looked up sharply to find Cao Wenli watching me with a small, knowing smile.

  "Good?" she asked innocently.

  "What is it?"

  "Whispering Petal infusion. A little blend of my own creation. Mostly Whispering Petal, but also a few other bits and pieces. Your meridians needed some rough edges and blockages worked out." She sipped her own tea, studying me over the rim. "It's also delicious."

  My blood chilled and I put down the cup. "I think you must be mistaken. As the marines determined last time I was here, I don't have a core, so how could I have meridians that need attention?"

  Her smile widened. "Well, indeed. That's the question, isn't it?"

  I started to rise. This was too risky.

  "Oh, sit down, Master Shen." Her voice carried a calm amusement. "If I was going to make trouble for you, I've had plenty of time to do it before now. Your secrets are safe with me."

  I hesitated, then slowly settled back into my chair and picked my tea back up. She had a point. It's not as if I was hard to find if she had wanted to. In any event, I was now almost certain that she was far more powerful than I currently was. If she wanted me to stay or to go, I would have no say in the matter

  I took another sip and the tea continued to work through my system. This one cup would take a week off the time that I needed to fix my meridians before getting my core. I may as well get the benefit of it.

  "Since you know one of my secrets," I said carefully, "it's only fair I should know one of yours." I gestured around the shop. "You're selling extraordinary alchemical products for a fraction of their worth to working folk who have no idea of their real value. What are you doing here? You're just losing money hand over fist. Who are you?"

  Cao Wenli rose to refill my cup, her movements unhurried. "As to the last question, Master Shen, you're asking the wrong one."

  "If you say so. In which case what is the right question?" I asked.

  Cao Wenli held up a finger, her wire-framed lenses catching the lamplight. "The right question is not who I am, but who I was. Though, if we're sharing secrets that won't do. The answer to that isn't a secret. Find out for yourself if you care, I refuse to waste my time rehashing history."

  She walked behind the counter with measured steps, scanning the shelves before selecting a small ceramic vial filled with pale blue pills. "As for losing money." She handed me the vial. "Do you know what this is?"

  I could feel her scrutinizing me as I opened the vial and tipped a pill into my palm. This was clearly a test of some sort. For a moment I weighed whether I should pass it or not, then smiled. I had never been one to hide my light under a bushel.

  The pill was perfectly spherical, its smooth surface held crystalline formations that glowed with an faint inner light. I shut my eyes as I inhaled to better parse the bouquet. The scent was subtle, a mixture of dried kelp harvested in a typhoon, pearls ground under a blood moon and, something I could have sworn was iron sand lightning-struck during a tribulation. Each ingredient was worth a fortune and had been combined with techniques that suggested a crafter who was at least at the peak of the Awakening Realm, but that may well have broken through to the Artisan Masters Realm.

  There was more but nothing that I could make our with my shackled senses. However, I didn't need more information to know what this was.

  "I don't know the specific name," I said, looking up to meet her gaze, "but I would say that this is a ki replacement pill. A very high quality ki replacement pill. As far as I can tell, this would fully replenish the ki of anyone up to somewhere in the Martial Realm. More importantly it would do so immediately and without side effects. Though I can't be sure about exactly where in the Martial Realm it's effects would start to lessen."

  Her smile widened. "What a fascinating fish porter you are. This pill works up to Champion stage in the Martial Realm, Wright stage in the Artisan Realm, or Virtuoso stage in the Aesthetic Realm." She leaned against the counter. "Consider the value of being able to restore all your ki against an opponent late in a fight. That would be the difference between life and death. Or worse, between victory and defeat."

  I nodded, I had been on both sides of that equation many times in the past, and I understood exactly what she was getting at.

  "Similarly for the other two Master Realms," she continued. "Not having to stop when you are in a creative frenzy might mean the difference between completing a work decades in the preparation, or being forced to start again from nothing."

  She gestured toward the vial in my hand.

  "So how many tears do you think something like this would be worth?"

  I stared at the innocent-looking pill. In this world I had no real sense of what cultivation treasures like this were worth. Was it really the case that this sort of pill was casually sold by ordinary alchemists in the rough part of a modest city? In my previous life, such an item would have been worth a king's ransom. People had been killed over lesser treasures.

  But Mistress Cao was looking expectant so I hazarded a guess. "Hundreds of gold tears, easily. Maybe thousands, depending on the buyer's desperation. But, if I'm honest, the fact that you have even one pill here, never mind a vial full of them, is making me doubt everything that I know about Shuilin Haven."

  Mistress Cao plucked the vial and pill from my hand with a swift movement.

  "Not even close." Her voice carried gentle amusement. "In fact, I owe you an apology for asking you something of a trick question. You can't pay for something like this in gold."

  She held up the vial, letting the morning light catch the pills inside.

  "The contents of this vial are worth more than the entire contents of all the warehouses in the docks combined. Pills like these are priced in spirit coins, or sect contribution points. Or, more valuable than either, for favors owed." She paused, studying my expression. "Now, does that answer your question about why I sell the products on the shelves around you for the prices that I do?"

  The implication hit me as I looked around her shop with new eyes. The rows of ceramic jars, the carefully labeled boxes, were as nothing compared to just that one pill.

  "If you have an entire wall of vials like that one," I said slowly, "and also have a cauldron somewhere that's powerful enough to make more, then any money you make on your other products is irrelevant." I met her gaze. "Yet you still spend your time making and selling those products. So you're doing it to help the common workers?"

  Cao Wenli's smile widened as she walked back to the shelf and carefully replaced the vial among its companions.

  "I think that's enough secrets for one day, don't you?" She turned back to me, her glasses glinting. "But I've kept you talking, haven't I?" She gestured toward my now-empty teacup. "And we're out of tea, You came here for a reason today, didn't you, Shen Taros?"