Shao Qing and Tao Yun listlessly sat in Shao Qing’s workshop, their gazes unfocused and expressions grave. The situation was not going according to the best case scenario.

“I suppose he won’t just eat the pill he took?” Tao Yun let out a sigh as he reflected on their earlier failure.

Shao Qing responded with a dry laugh. “Of course not. He’s supposed to be a ‘spy’, not a poison tester. All in all though, that attempt was a long shot. We’ll just have to rely on our other preparations and hope they can bear fruit.” The two lapsed into silence for a few moments before Shao Qing spoke again, clearly exasperated. “I don’t suppose he eats food?”

The idea was shot down as quickly as it was thought of. “Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t. Even if he does, do you think he’s going to conveniently eat somewhere where we can tamper with the food, where we know he’s going ahead of time, and where he won’t suspect anything? That’s even more of a long shot.”

Their silence following this mocking remark was longer than the first. “You’re right. I suppose we don’t have any easy ways out then.” Shao Qing stood up after saying this, a bit of energy returning to his demeanor. “We’ll need to think things through carefully. Our win condition is to stop Gong Jiang from reporting our actions to the higher-ups. The primary ways to accomplish this are to kill him or to break his soul contract. His win condition is… debatable. Depending on how we view the situation, it could be to lure the nonexistent organization behind us out, or it could be to break his contract. Since he can’t directly try to break his contract while under it, we’ll go with the former. Both sides’ actions are going to be determined by what each side thinks will further their win condition.”

Tao Yun nodded lightly. “That makes sense. So what we need to do is take advantage of his main motivator- the group he thinks is backing us- and use it to reach our goal.”

“Agreed. It’s impossible to kill him or break his contract under present circumstances. We’ll probably need to lure him out of the clan somehow to do so. As for how to do this using his ‘investigation’ to lure him out…” Shao Qing trailed off, an awkward expression creeping onto his face. “I’m not sure yet. We’ll need to give it some more thought.”

Instead of sitting around, Tao Yun had started to pace around the room. “Well, it’s a better starting point than we had previously. For the time being we’ll just have to build up advantages and try to combine them into a functioning plan. We have…” A slightly confused expression appeared on Tao Yun’s face, his mouth hanging open mid-sentence. “How long do we have?”

Neither of them had enough information to answer that question, but that wouldn’t stop Shao Qing from trying. “It depends. He’ll probably stretch things out if he’s waiting for the people that are supposedly backing us to appear, but unless he takes things to extreme lengths I can’t imagine him taking longer than a week or so to investigate us. Both of our backgrounds are well-documented by the Kang Clan already.”

Mid-assessment, Shao Qing’s speech slowed down. It was his best guess, but he couldn’t be particularly confident in it. “...But I don’t really know. It could be a week, it could be less, or it could be more. For now we’re better off assuming the worst and that we only have… let’s say a few days. In a few days we need to have a way to lure Gong Jiang out and neutralize the threat that he poses.” With that addendum, Shao Qing seemed to relax slightly. He’d verbalized the basics of the situation to himself and started to process things. Now he just needed to brainstorm.

After some thinking, Shao Qing came to a conclusion. He wasn’t sure how to lure Gong Jiang out of the clan or otherwise create a situation where they could safely eliminate the danger he posed, but regardless of what plan they came up with they needed insurance. The difference between cultivation realms was a qualitative one, and even if Shao Qing and Tao Yun were both near the peak of Acupoint Opening, they couldn’t beat a Soul Foundation cultivator in a head-on fight. Unless they could figure out how to ambush a self-proclaimed spy he needed to continue making battle preparations, even if he didn’t know how he was going to get the battle part.

“I’ll be heading to the Alchemy Division to take care of some business. Keep an eye on Gong Jiang and contact me if anything comes up.” Tao Yun only mumbled something in acknowledgement, deep in thought. Taking that as a yes, Shao Qing left his workshop behind and headed towards the Alchemy Division, in search of two people who he’d realized could be of great assistance. ...Even if he’d be losing out a bit.

After a short visit to the Alchemy Division Shao Qing had determined that both of his prospective helpers were in their workshops and had gone to visit the first one. He was one of many Master Kangs in the Kang Clan, Kang Xin, and a member of the Alchemy Division who Shao Qing had never been thankful for being acquainted with before now.

A short walk led Shao Qing to a small residence on the edges of The Ironwood Estate, far detached from the main building. Its outside appearance was rather austere, but the formations surrounding it were irrefutable evidence of its owner’s wealth, which was impressive even among Acupoint Opening cultivators. Although that wasn’t terribly surprising for an alchemist, particularly one who belonged to a clan as powerful as the Kang Clan.

Instead of meeting the owner directly, Shao Qing first spoke to a mortal woman standing outside. While he didn’t feel the need for servants after many decades on his own, many other cultivators did, and the duty of receiving visitors generally fell upon them. “Is the master in? Tell him Quasi-Grandmaster Shao has important business.”

“One moment, let me check.” The woman hurried into the house and returned almost as quickly. A nervous expression could be seen on her face as she fidgeted slightly. “The master is in the middle of an important pill concoction, he won’t be able to meet you for the time being.”

Even if he hadn’t had anything else to go off of, her expression would have been enough to inform him that his old ‘friend’ was not actually concocting pills. As Shao Qing currently didn’t have the time to waste on farces, he made his way towards the home, standing directly outside of the closed door leading to the alchemy workshop.

“If you were actually concocting any important pills you wouldn’t have responded at all. Open up.” A few moments passed without response. “Despite your best attempts to convince me otherwise, you’re not an idiot. I come here on business.” Still nothing. After a few moments of considering his options, Shao Qing opted for a different approach. “I heard you’ve been busy lately. Love between apprentice and master is one thing, but two at once? Now that’s just being greedy-”

Before Shao Qing could continue, the door swung open from the inside, a handsome man in a gaudily-decorated robe holding the other end of it. “Please come in.” A grin creeped across Shao Qing’s face as he stepped inside. It looked like Tao Yun’s ear for gossip could be useful after all.

Kang Xin didn’t bother to wait for Shao Qing to sit down before speaking, only closing the door. “You may be a petty jackass, but even you wouldn’t come just to mock me. What do you want?” As Shao Qing prepared to respond, an odd look crossed Kang Xin’s eyes as he examined his adversary. He could faintly be heard muttering “...Wait, maybe he would do that…” before Shao Qing cut him off.

“You’ve wanted the recipe for my compact explosive pills for several decades. I’m willing to sell the recipes I developed to you, including my most recent revision.”

Kang Xin suddenly quieted down, a hint of surprise appearing in his eyes before he caught himself. “I’m surprised to hear that. I admit that I was rather interested in the recipe back then, but my research is less focused on explosives as of now.”

Despite his attempt to look disappointed and act as if the situation couldn’t be helped, Shao Qing wasn’t fooled- he definitely still wanted the pill recipe. Even if Shao Qing’s ability to read people had degraded in the past half century or so, almost no one could pull off a bluff like that after pestering him to sell the recipe for decades. “Is that the case? That’s a shame then. In that case, nevermind- I don’t really need to sell it.”

Before Shao Qing could take two steps towards the door his opponent had withdrawn his bluff. “Wait, wait, even if I don’t have the same use for it as before I’m still interested as long as the price is right. Sit down and tell me in more detail.” He moved to block the door as he spoke. “Bring in some tea for our guest please!”

The basics of the deal were hashed out without too much trouble from there onwards. Shao Qing would sell the pill recipes for all seven major revisions of his variation of compact explosive pills, although the sale of these recipes would not include the right to redistribute them, both in spoken and printed formats- the situation may have been grim, but he hadn't been pushed to that point quite yet. Some of his pill recipes were almost like children to him, and while he could accept another person having them, giving up all rights was another matter entirely. In order to enforce the terms of sale, it would be overseen by the Alchemists’ Guild and its branches across the three continents, with any violations to their agreement being punished if needed.

In exchange for these pill recipes, Shao Qing offered up a list of things that were of use to him. On it was a minimum amount of Kang Clan contribution points he required, as well as mentions of alchemical ingredients, spirit stones, movement-related treasures, and whatever else he considered useful.

Some more discussion to hash out the details followed. Due to his fellow alchemist’s previous interest in the recipe, he happened to get a fair price despite the hurry to sell. While he relinquished a monopoly over one of his most highly developed pill recipes, he got quite a bit in exchange: Hundreds of thousands of Kang Clan contribution points, a small supply of alchemical ingredients he happened to need, and a red rug that could be of quite a bit of use to him.

Despite its ordinary appearance, the rug which Shao Qing received was, in fact, a life-saving treasure. It was made of a thick, durable material that even he might not be able to pierce, and had three long tassels on the back of it out of an original five. The tassels were made to be removed, and whenever one was removed the rug would erupt with a sudden burst of speed that was able to compete with Soul Foundation cultivators. This state would last for around an hour, and if additional tassels were removed during this time the rug would only go faster.

Given the risk of Shao Qing needing to escape from multiple Soul Foundation cultivators in either the ensuing week if things went wrong now, or in the ensuing decades if things went wrong during his planned heist, he valued this rug highly, and accepted as the majority of payment.

After making the exchange, Kang Xin immediately went over the pill recipe. A happy expression covered his face as he went through it, occasionally muttering praises about it and jotting down a few notes. Regardless of his opinion on Shao Qing, he was a fellow alchemist and the recipe he was looking at was outstanding among Acupoint Opening grade pills- he couldn’t help but praise it.

“So that’s how the explosive strength is contained within a small area and strengthened… the burst of energies resulting should help weaken qi based defenses and batter the body… hm…” Shao Qing cleared his throat, knocking Kang Xin out of his reverie. “You’re still here?”

Ah. He’d been forgotten about. “Yes, I am still here. I have one more piece of business for you. But first- you’re able to concoct the pill, right?”

Instead of immediately replying, Kang Xin looked back to the recipe, refraining from making any exclamations this time. It took five minutes before he gave a response. “The requirements on one’s ability to carefully control small amounts of qi are shockingly high throughout, but if I use the simplified versions for the most difficult parts I should be able to manage. Of course, I can’t guarantee that the results will be of exceptional quality- I’ve just seen the recipe now and haven’t had a chance to practice it.”

The response was more or less what Shao Qing had expected. It was doubtful that the resulting pills could match his own, but it was certainly better than nothing. “In that case, how would you like to concoct some for me? I’ll buy as many as you can produce within the next few days, and if you need ingredients I can provide them at the standard cost. It’s a good way to get familiar with the recipe and earn some of the contribution points you just spent back.”

Kang Xin stared at him for a few moments before responding. “I’ll do it if you pay me 20% more than normal for each pill. I have other orders waiting.”

Shao Qing pretended to consider the proposition before slowly nodding his head. “I can accept that.”

Little did Kang Xin know that his bottom line was, far, far beyond being willing to pay a measly 120% of the normal price. Although that wasn't necessarily his fault- Shao Qing felt that he'd hidden his desperation rather well. With that, their first helper was recruited.