“Young mistress? Please come out, the great master is starting to get concerned,” Zu Ri called from outside the chamber. The older handmaiden could’ve easily entered the chamber at any moment if she wished, something both Yan Yun and Zu Ri were aware of.

Yan Yun, buried her face in her knees, not responding as she sat in a corner in her room. Thunder crackled around her in a furious display, as Zu Ri continued to stand outside.

“It has been three days young mistress, you need to come out now,” Zu Ri spoke in a stern voice from the outside and Yan Yun further buried her face into her knees, wishing she could die to hide from the embarrassment and shame that plagued her.

The only emotion that could overcome her embarrassment, had been anger at Leiyu. She’d refused to talk to her spirit, sending the prideful little bird to her grandfather as she’d refused to cultivate or spar, spending her time huddled in a corner as she relived through her shame.

The laughter of the other boy, alongside the dumbfound look of the boy, burned itself in Yan Yun’s mind, as Lightning crackled once more, leaving burnt marks on the floor mats.

Yan Yun felt the shadows ripple in the room, as Zu Ri made her way into the room. She did not react, as she continued to stew in her corner.

She could hear her handmaiden sigh, as she walked closer. Yan Yun continued to stew in her shame, but she withdrew her Qi inwards, to not have her thunder lash out at Zu Ri.

“Young mistress can’t be staying in here all day. The great master has made plans for you and is starting to get concerned. I think we both know how the great master’s ire is,” Ru Zi spoke.

Yan Yun sat in silence for a while, unsure of what to say. She’d just made a fool of herself in front of those two disciples. The entire sect must be laughing at her by now, her name tarnished as some sort of foolish deviant girl.

“The entire sect must be calling me a fool now Zu Ri. Similar to how that boy had laughed at me. Nothing remains of my name, and grandfather would be served best if he cut ties with me,” Yan Yun spoke, feeling shame fill her words.

“Nothing has happened, young mistress. The boys haven’t spoken a word, and will not be if they know what is best for them. I can have the boys expelled from the sect. One of them is stealing low-grade herbs as it is. The other boy seems to be making simplistic pills from those to sell. Just expelling them would still be a light punishment,” Zu Ri spoke.

Her words, finally had Yan Yun raise her head. She felt her cheeks flushing as she did, yet she silently shook her head. “Don’t do that Zu Ri. The tournament will begin in a few months, and that’d come too close to breaking my oath. I can’t have my cultivation be set back so close to the tournament.”

“If the Young mistress is aware of that, then she needs to talk to Leiyu and makeup with him. Your spirit is prideful, and barring him from this courtyard has wounded his pride.”

“I don’t care. He’s a fool that only cares about how he can grow stronger, and beat other spirits and cultivators up. He’s a foolish, prideful brutish bird who doesn’t care about me and my image at all,” Yan Yun spoke, feeling anger fill her core. Thunder crackled around her, as the Qi expressed her rage with strikes of lightning.

“Young mistress is just letting her anger get the best of her. She needs to think clearly. Leiyu is a companion, your companion, and the young mistress had ignored his words often, indulging in her fantasies far too much, resulting in this,” Zu Ri spoke, her voice sympathetic yet harsh.

Yan Yun sat in silence. It stung to admit it, all the more so because she knew, Zu Ri was right. “I’ll have a message sent to ensure they don’t speak of it,” she added.

Yan Yun felt her Qi churn, her emotions mixing with turmoil. “Don’t… I’ll talk with them…” she added, receiving a silent nod from Zu Ri.

“I’ll be looking into their backgrounds, and how far this little thieving of spirit herbs goes, in that I won’t be budging young mistress,” her handmaiden spoke and Yan Yun nodded.

Zu Ri’s form rippled dispersing into the shadows. Yan Yun sat in silence, for what felt like hours before she got up from her little corner. Her mind still lingered on the thoughts of the two lovers. And a desire began to bud in her chest. Yan Yun wished for some consolation. Things couldn’t end like this, she couldn’t let them.

Moving to open a drawer, she took out a bundle of parchment and a single brush, as she began to write.

The tales of a love that wasn’t. An Alchemist and a Thief’s untold story.

***

I breathed in the fresh air, smiling as Labby ran through the fields of grass, jumping around happily. I let her roam freely in the plains as she nibbled on spirit grass and the occasional herbs she found.

My herb basket sat nearby, as Labby brought the spirit herbs, collecting them in the basket, one at a time. There was no real need for me to have Labby collect low-grade spirit grass and herbs anymore with my own spirit garden around, but she seemed to be enjoying the task, and I didn’t want to ruin the fun for her.

“Alright, I guess it’s time we tested our hot and fiery explosives,” I said out loud to myself, taking the pouch I had filled with what I’d dubbed, Grenade pills. I’d been wondering over Molotov pills, and grenade pills, but the grenade ended up winning, considering the pill didn’t need to be lit on fire. Well, the name was under review for now.

I’d made a few more batches of my exploding pills, before returning to attempting to make the Poison Flame Pill. My attempts hadn’t led to much success, but I’d narrowed down the parameters by a decent bit. The heat sensing stone allows me a decent estimate of the external temperatures. I definitely needed better equipment, but one step at a time as they said. I had some plans in mind to get a Qi-based thermometer going as well, to be able to read internal temperature readings using a metal conductor attached to a spirit stone, eventually.

“Alright, let’s see how effective these are,” I said, taking out the bag of pills. I pulled one out, feeling the stinging warmth on my skin. I’d found out that fire couldn’t really burn me unless I kept my hand in there for a decent while. Not unless it was flames fuelled by Qi, burning at insane temperatures.

The fact that the pill still stung me was why I’d stored them in a separate container, to prevent them from simply burning through my pouch. A little pill holder made of conductive metal, that I’d put some freezing spirit grass on at the top and bottom ends to keep cool. Rather than directly turning hot, the metal helped radiate the heat enough that I could easily grab and use it. It also wouldn’t burn like my pouch.

I walked ahead, setting the pills on the ground. After testing for a while, I’d arrived at a stable configuration for these pills that I could stomp and crush and they would simply crumble and smoulder away with a small flame instead of exploding.

The trigger, I’d found out to be Qi instead. Walking a couple of steps back, and making sure Labby was a safe distance away, I sent a pulse of Qi and watched as an explosion sent a plume of rising flame, as a small inferno formed for a moment, swirling as it spread out in a flashy show of fire, before dissipating into nothingness.

“Holy sh- alright. That’s stronger than before. Take more steps back. Notes,” I said out loud, as I watched the still-burning fire on the grassy field. Flexing my Qi, I cut off the flames in a few moments as I walked closer.

Taking two pills out, I stared at the black charred marks on the ground. Was I dumb enough to stack them with the risk that one of them may shoot right at me? Yes, yes I was.

“Fire in the hole!” I shouted as I flexed my Qi, turning away from the explosion that ensued. Turning back around a moment later, I saw a swirling tower of flame spreading around in a fire tornado. For a moment, I was afraid I’d started a massive fire in the sect but the flames soon vanished through the swirling air, leaving a charred and smouldering mess of grass behind.

I sensed a sensation of great distress from somewhere, and my eyes shot towards Labby. Had she gotten injured? I paused as I saw Labby grabbing spirit herbs in her mouth, standing on her back legs as she stared at the charred ground blankly.

Following her gaze, I noticed the smouldering basket of spirit herbs. Oh shit.

Labby’s herbs… gone…

I felt my heart being stabbed over at her words, as I walked closer, hurriedly cutting off the fire. I opened the burnt basket, taking out the charred herbs. I picked one and munched on it. Bitter.

A couple were still just slightly toasted, and I called Labby closer. I’m sorry the basket got burnt. But this is still quite tasty. You can taste the fire essence.

I heard the equivalent of a muffled sniff come from Labby as she walked closer to the site of destruction. I handed her the toasted spirit herb as she began to nibble on it. If her eyes could go wide, I would be expecting them to be shooting open about now, as she began to munch on the leaves with renewed vigour.

I smiled, internally breathing a sigh of relief. That was a disaster averted, and possibly a new spirit herb dish to add to the recipe book. I paused for a moment, as I realised something. I didn’t remember the last time I ate food.

Going through my memories of the last week, realising it’d been well over three days since I’d had any food. A strange thing, as I hadn’t been cultivating at all to make up for food. Lu Jie had gone months on end with no food, as long as he’d cultivated, but even cultivators needed the energy to fuel their bodies. And a lot of food at that, if they didn’t cultivate at all. I’d partially been making up for it, by eating spirit herbs, yet somehow, something had changed ever since I’d formed my spirit herb garden.

I sorted the thoughts to be reviewed at a later point. Just another mystery to untangle among the many.

I hummed in thought as I looked at the burnt area on the ground. The question of how I’d be using these explosives remained. Will I be making explosives? Will they even matter against cultivators? The pills were potent enough to be functional grenades for any non-cultivators, but a mixture of a manual mentally infused trigger made it susceptible to someone else simply blowing them up on me. A safety trigger, and then added piercing chunks mixed in with an actual explosive would give me a functional and destructive firearm that would be usable by anyone, as long as they had spirit stones to use.

That is if I could figure out how to make black powder, which I had no idea how to do. But even leaving that aside, there was the ethical question of whether I should be doing this in the first place or not. The idea of giving weapons to the masses bothered and scared me a lot, and it wasn’t something I was comfortable with doing.

Inciting war was not my goal, increasing education and spreading the scientific way of thinking was. Yet, with understanding, revelations like these and more will become more and more common. If there was no one around to regulate the existence of firearms, then there was nothing to say history wouldn’t take the same path here as it did back home.

I stood silently for a while, thinking over the question. Eventually, I decided to let the decision off for a while. I’ll continue my research into the pill and potential avenues, but I wouldn’t be making working prototypes or firearms just yet. Possibly never.

I decided to lay off on any more explosion tests as the grim thoughts were laid to rest. I’d rather not traumatise Labby any further either.

Going through my mental to-do list, I arrived at the next test I’d had in mind for this trip. Walking towards the charred mark of land, I settled down crossed-legged on the floor and began to cultivate.

Time flew by in a blur, as I cycled my Qi. One cycle into another, an eternal balance. I breathed in sync with the life around me.

I opened my eyes, to find grass growing through the burnt ground. New life budding as fresh leaves began to sprout in front of my eyes.

I smiled, feeling awed at the impossible feat I was achieving so casually. Yet, I found no link to this patch of grass, the way I did to my spirit garden. I wasn’t the anchor, here, the grass around me, mundane and not a part of my own cycle.

I frowned, trying to understand what was different yet falling short. I was clearly doing something. Yet I couldn’t tell what it was.

I needed access to the second floor of the library. Perhaps even the third. My desire to learn what was different began to grow stronger as my frustration began to increase.

Sighing I got up, picking up the burnt spirit basket, with a sleeping Labby in it as I decided to make my way back.

Guess I was going on a quest to gain some sect tokens.