"Hey, you hear about Gao Feng?" One disciple asked a peer, both in ruddy orange robes, embellished with tigrine patternings. "What, that he lost to Qin Yihua? Yeah, I saw." The younger, swarthier disciple spoke in reply, fairly uninterested.

  "No, about what happened after! He actually picked another fight with someone else, barely an hour later, and he won!" At those words, the younger disciple who was being 'educated' in this interaction couldn't contain his surprise. "The hell…!? How could he possibly be in any condition to fight after he got thrashed by Qin Yihua!?"

  Playing up the mannerisms of a 'senior disciple,' the older disciple elaborated. "Well, I hear there's an alchemist from the Frost River Sect around here, selling his own pills and elixirs."

  "Even so…" The younger disciple began. "Qin Yihua hit that idiot pretty damn hard. Could a disciple alchemist really make medicines like that? It's hard to find something that potent and fast-acting, even from experts!"

  "I don't know if he made them personally or if he's reselling them, but it's becoming a big deal." The older disciple spoke with great interest and enthusiasm visible on his face. "Apparently, even Senior Brother Guan from our Tiger-Slaying Sect has bought from them."

  "Seriously…?" At the mention of this 'Senior Brother Guan,' the younger disciple's bafflement turned into outright suspicion. "That guy barely touches any medicinal pills or anything… You remember that tournament he won, where he got a High Spirit Grade Treasure Weapon, and a pill personally refined by a Sect Elder?"

  "The pill someone found tossed into the dirt a few steps away from the tournament grounds?" The older disciple couldn't help but smile wryly at that bit of his Sect's history. The Elder who refined that pill was truly furious. "Heh, how could I forget?"

  "So you're saying the pills this Frost River Sect disciple is selling… are of a high enough purity that they actually meet that guy's standards?"

  … … … … … …

  'Well… I didn't expect things to turn out this way.' Jun Li smiled to herself under her mask. She sat on a cloth she had pulled from her spatial ring, something thin to keep herself from dirtying her robe on the forest floor of the encampment.

  There, on the ground, she had been turning her reserve of medicinal plants into new batches of pills and elixirs. And every few moments, someone would come and ask if she was still selling.

  It was almost funny to Jun Li. If it were another alchemist, constantly being badgered by passing customers would disrupt their focus and muddle their work.

  But for her, the methods for these 'simple pills and elixirs' had become so completely ingrained into her that one could beat her around the head until her skull broke, and still her hands would not falter for an instant in their work, if she so desired that is.

  'I suppose that Gao Feng guy isn't very subtle. Well… not that I told him to keep it a secret or anything...' Despite not having planned for it, Jun Li believed she could transform this odd circumstance into a path to the Earth Dragon's Grave.

  When Jun Li finished her newest batch of pills, she opened the sealed lid of her Pill Furnace and allowed the six pills within to tumble out into a small box she had prepared, which was quickly snatched up into her Spatial Ring.

  "So, you must be the alchemist I've heard so much about." From above, the voice of a patient customer who had not interrupted Jun Li's work could be heard.

  When Jun Li looked towards him, a hidden smile appeared under her mask, noticing he wore the blue robes of the Frost River Sect, and that he bore some minor injuries. 'Perfect…'

  This disciple looked scrutinizingly towards Jun Li's work. Even at a glance, it was obvious these pills were of exceptional quality, judging by how they gleamed and shone like pearls.

  What made this disciple, a budding alchemist himself, feel inferior, however, was that Jun Li had made them in a batch of six all at once. Even if he had attempted to create these pills himself, one at a time, he may not have been able to reach the level of quality Jun Li had in batches of six.

  "What's your name?" The disciple spoke with more obvious hostility in his manner than he anticipated, and, for a time, Jun Li merely looked up at him blankly.

  "Purchasing?" Jun Li spoke one word in her quiet voice, unwilling to claim the name 'Kang Shi' unless she was forced to.

  The Frost River Sect disciple's eye twitched, and he drew in an unsteady breath to calm himself. "...Yes. I suppose I should." Although he was terribly frustrated by the appearance of such an abnormal person, from his own sect, no less, he still bore his professional curiosity as an alchemist, and could not resist it.

  "I hear you sell some sort of supplement for Qi Circulation. How much?" As he spoke, the disciple braced himself, unwilling to believe the price he had heard from his peers.

  "Ten taels, Low-grade Purple Jade." When Jun Li spoke, this Frost River Sect disciple felt dizzy, and wanted to scream out, '...Just why and how the hell are you selling this shit for so cheap!?'

  After a moment, he simply dropped the ten taels of Purple Jade onto Jun Li's cloth, and she responded quickly, producing a small jade bottle from her Spatial Ring. "Thank you." Jun Li spoke as she handed the bottle off to the disciple, who quickly inspected it on the spot.

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  The bottle itself seemed simple and cheap, but was made of appropriate materials. After a moment of inspecting the outside, the disciple twisted and slightly pried at the lid. Not enough to open the bottle, but just enough to catch a faint smell of its contents.

  Even just with that, he knew it was well-made. 'I can only identify some of these ingredients… where did this guy go to get some of this stuff? You can't find all of this in the land around the Frost River Sect…'

  "...Excuse me." Even more frustrated than before, the disciple glanced at Jun Li a few more times before turning to walk to the large, manor-like hotel on the other side of the encampment.

  Watching him leave, Jun Li was thoroughly pleased.

  She did not know or care for his internal thoughts and dismay; all that mattered was that her objective here was complete.

  After watching him disappear from her line of sight, Jun Li collected her belongings and stood up.

  From the side, a disciple approached Jun Li just as she was about to leave. "Oh, uhh! Are you still-" Before they could finish speaking, Jun Li pushed a box of pills into their hands and began to walk away. "That's it for today, I'll be retiring for now."

  Suddenly holding a box of high-quality medicine, the disciple that Jun Li had waved off was baffled. "Uh… thank… you?"

  … … … … … …

  Sitting in his room, the disciple who had purchased an elixir from Jun Li for ten taels seemed more ragged and worn out than he had appeared in public.

  "Damn… that guy put up a fight…" He thought back to earlier in the day, when he had challenged a senior disciple of the Frost River Sect for his spot in the Earth Dragon's Grave.

  The only rule concerning competition for one of the 'Entrance Slips' that allowed one a position in the expedition to the Earth Dragon's Grave was that such competition must be done exclusively between members of the same Sect.

  Otherwise, one sect might simply concoct a conspiracy of some kind to increase their presence in the Earth Dragon's Grave beyond 'their fair share,' and steal benefits from the other two competing Sects. And that could not be allowed.

  Unfortunately for some, it meant competing with those who best knew your capabilities. Something that caused this disciple's fight to drag out for some time and develop into an exhausting affair.

  '...But I won! That's all that matters!' Looking at the bottle of elixir he had purchased, this disciple of the Frost River Sect felt conflicted between his desire for growth both as a Cultivator and as an alchemist.

  'I can't spend time slowly examining this elixir overnight, every moment it's exposed to the open air, its effectiveness will degrade… I can't afford that, not when the Grave opens tomorrow.'

  'I'll just have to study it while I cultivate…' Thinking in this way, the disciple opened the bottle of elixir and took a deep breath. The moment he did so, the essence of an entire garden of medicinal plants filled his lungs, and memories of medicinal plants both native to the lands of his Sect and those far beyond sparked within his mind.

  'Absurd… just who the hell is that guy…?' Stunned where he sat, he thought that unknown disciple must be some Sect Elder's personal disciple, his true identity kept quiet and secretive.

  'Damn it…!' Shaking off his chaotic thoughts, he drank the elixir without hesitation. 'I need to be in my best condition tomorrow if I want to get anything done in the Earth Dragon's Grave.'

  The moment the elixir travelled down to his stomach, a sensation of intense cold spread through him like a wave. That icy sensation was so intense that it felt as if it were burning him from the inside.

  'It's strong…!' Taken aback by the intensity of the elixir, he quickly attempted to bring its medicinal energies in line and absorb it properly.

  Yet, as he attempted to perform a Qi Circulation to 'better his grip' over his meridians, it felt as if his Internal Qi had begun to slip loosely through his meridians without any friction or inhibition.

  'Huh!? The hell!?' The sensation of losing his control of the Qi in his very own meridians was so unnerving that it caused his heart to beat heavily in his chest.

  Or, perhaps that was the terribly invasive chill that had begun to seep into his organs.

  'Am I… going to have a Qi Deviation!? Now of all times!?' Panic setting in all of a sudden, he began to draw in deep breaths to steady himself and reclaim control over the Qi that slipped thinly through his meridians.

  Inhale, exhale, inhale, and… Before he could exhale even once more, a fierce knocking at his door caught him off-guard so terribly that he began to cough violently.

  His momentarily steadied breath was so horribly compromised that the medicinal essence he had absorbed began to coagulate unevenly in his body, withered away, and dried out from a lack of motion.

  'Who the… hell!?' In this moment, he was so unbelievably furious that he barely noticed that the locked door to his room had been opened, and a figure slowly walked in, shutting it behind them.

  "So, how was it? That elixir, I mean." An invisible smile behind her mask, Jun Li looked down on her last customer of the day, and he looked up at her, barely able to make her out with his tear-bleary eyes. "I made it extra potent as a special service. Nothing but the best for a fellow disciple of the Frost River Sect."

  "Ah, and yet…" Jun Li couldn't help but feel a thrill, both at her actions and at the miserably writhing thing at her feet. "It seems my elixir was too strong for you. What a shame."

  "It looks like a Qi Deviation… severe enough to prevent you from further cultivation for a while." As Jun Li spoke, she slowly walked about the room, observing the same amenities that she herself would be retreating to in a few minutes.

  "In that state, I suppose you can't go to the Earth Dragon's Grave. So…" Jun Li kneeled next to her 'fellow disciple.' "I suppose… you should pass your Entrance Slip on to someone else, someone capable of making use of it."

  Even as Jun Li pulled the Spatial Ring off his finger, this disciple could not resist. "After all, we wouldn't want the Emerald Blade Pavilion, or the Tiger-Slaying Sect to have a numbers advantage in there. It would simply be selfish to hold onto an Entrance Slip you can't use."

  Pulling a bright red Jade slip from the Spatial Ring, Jun Li transferred it to her own and returned the disciple's ring to his finger.

  "Well then…" Jun Li pulled a pill from her Spatial Ring, the likes of which she had neither used herself nor sold today, before grabbing this disciple by the collar of his robe and stuffing the pill into his mouth. "Here, with this, you should be able to get a restful week. Enough to recover from your clumsy Qi Deviation."

  Shoving the disciple, whose eyes had already glazed over, onto his back, Jun Li made her way to the door and opened it.

  "Thank you for passing on your position to me… I wish you the best." With those words, Jun Li quietly closed the door behind her, as if not wanting to disrupt her fellow disciple's rest.