Wu Jian and Huǒ Shuchang made their way down to the appraisal room, where they had first met Zhou Mān. They found the man in question waiting for them upon arrival. He was quite happy if the smile on his face was any indication.

“Young master, congratulations on winning the Three Layered Red Yin-Yang Pill. Here is the pill in question. Would you like me to deduct some of the cost from your earnings in today’s action?” he asked, gesturing toward the young woman standing by his side. She carried a tray, upon which sat a bottle with a single pill inside.

Huǒ Shuchang shook his head. “No, thank you. I’ll pay for that myself.”

“Very well.”

Huǒ Shuchang held out his hand and summoned a bag from the storage ring on his index finger. He gave it to the old man, who closed his eyes as though about to fall asleep. Wu Jian felt his scalp prickle a little as the man’s perception extended into the bag.

He opened his eyes a moment later and nodded. “Everything seems to be in order. Here is your pill. And here are the earnings you made from this auction. I’ve already deducted the cost of the other items you acquired.”

“You have my thanks,” said Huǒ Shuchang. “Well, that’s all we came here for. We appreciate your hard work.”

“And you as well. Thank you for choosing to auction those items off here,” said Zhou Mān.

The two placed their right fists in their left palms and bowed to each other. Wu Jian did not since he was acting like Huǒ Shuchang’s bodyguard.

They left not long after that, traveling out the double doors and making their way into the city proper. The hustle and bustle of the city was very different from the tension of the auction house. Wu Jian took a deep breath. He enjoyed this lively atmosphere far more.

“Don’t look now, but we’re being followed,” Huǒ Shuchang suddenly said in a quiet voice.

Wu Jian clenched his hands as he fought the urge to look around. He took a deep breath to calm down, then, in a voice just as quiet, asked, “Where and how many?”

“Just two. One of them is behind us. Don’t look. You’ll give yourself away. The other person is tracking us from a distance. He’s on a roof roughly several lî to our left.”

“Any idea what they want?”

“The one who’s not being discreet is the bodyguard of that girl from the Water-Moon Pavilion, and the one hiding on the building was with Yin Xuefeng.”

“In other words, they’re following us because you won the Three-Layered Red Yin Yang Pill and they are trying to find out who you are.”

“Probably.”

Wu Jian rolled his eyes. “There’s no probably about it. Why did you even buy that thing. It’s no use to you right now.”

Huǒ Shuchang shrugged. “I’ll be attempting to break through eventually. I don’t know when that will be, and there might not be another chance to acquire a pill like this in the future. Might as well get it now. As they say, better to have and not need than to need and not have.”

“I’m not sure that phrase works here, but sure,” Wu Jian said. He paused for a moment. “So, what are we going to do about this?”

Huǒ Shuchang grinned. “For now? Nothing. They’re currently gathering information about me. I’m sure they want to know if I have someone powerful backing me. Once they realize I’m on my own, they’ll confront me. They probably won’t do it here though. They’ll wait until we leave the city. That way, they can kill me and steal the pill without consequence.”

The words were a stark reminder of how violent the cultivation world was. Cultivators would happily commit murder if it meant getting more power. It disgusted Wu Jian. He would rather fight for resources fair and square.

“Well, let’s just do some more shopping. The Zhou Clan has their own shopping district here. They should sell Low-Grade Chi Gathering Pills. You should use the money you just acquired to buy some,” Huǒ Shuchang suggested.

Chi Gathering Pills were, as the name implied, pills that contained chi. A cultivator could swallow one and refine the chi within the pill, thus making it their own. This increased the chi a cultivator possessed and brought them one step closer to breaking through.

Chi Gathering Pills came in three grades: low, middle, and high. A Low-Grade Chi Gathering Pill could be refined by a Second Grade alchemist. They were pills that cultivators at the Anima Realm used to increase their chi. Once someone reached the Asura Realm, they would need to move onto Mid-Rank Chi Gathering Pills, which could only be refined by Third Alchemists.

Huǒ Shuchang asked for directions to the Zhou Clan’s shopping district. It was in another pagoda, one that was wider than it was tall. It only had four floors, but each floor looked like it could fit a small town inside. There were vendor stalls, shops, and even people who had laid out blankets on the ground to display their wares.

“Anyone can sell in the Zhou Clan’s shopping district,” Huǒ Shuchang explained when he noticed Wu Jian’s incredulous stare. “You just have to pay a fee. There are different passes you can pay for. I don’t know what they are, but each pass grants you more rights. The ones who are simply sitting on the floor bought the lowest tier pass.”

“Ah. I guess that makes sense,” Wu Jian mumbled.

He let Huǒ Shuchang lead him through the shopping district. The man seemed to know what he was doing, for he walked confidently through the bustling crowd of people, ignoring the many stall owners hawking their wares.

They eventually stopped in front of a store that had a strong medicinal scent coming from it. Huǒ Shuchang didn’t hesitate to step inside, and Wu Jian followed.

While the center of the store was empty, the walls were lined with shelves, which had jars lined up in neat rows. Each jar had a pill inside. A plaque sat before each pill, describing what it was, what it did, and how much it cost.

“Earth Condensing Pill, 2,000 gold coins. Lightning Cloud Pill, 5,000 gold coins. Healing Pellet, 10 silver coins,” Wu Jian read out loud. These were much cheaper than the one that had been auctioned off. They must have been tier 1 and tier 2 pills.

“Hello, good sir,” Huǒ Shuchang said as he walked up to the counter in the back. A man with pale skin and sunspots sat behind it. “My friend here would like to buy some Low-Grade Chi Gathering Pills. A bag of twenty should do.”

The old man looked at Huǒ Shuchang, then shifted his gaze to Wu Jian, still hiding behind his cloak and mask. He didn’t seem bothered by the clothes, so he must have had a bunch of different sorts coming and going.

“A bag of twenty Low-Grade Chi Gathering Pills will be 1,000 spirit coins,” the old man said.

1,000 spirit coins would have sounded intimidating to Wu Jian before, but now that he had spent around 45,000 spirit coins on a single item, he didn’t bat an eye as he handed the money over. The old man checked to make sure it was enough. Then he went to a room in the back and returned with four jars in hand. Each jar contained five pills, which were a deep bronze color.

“Here are your Chi Gathering Pills,” the man said.

Wu Jian was about to store them, but Huǒ Shuchang grabbed his wrist. He looked at the older man with a raised eyebrow.

“Hold on a second. You need to check the quality of the pills first. It would suck if you bought inferior pills.”

“How do I check the quality?”

“You can generally tell by the smoothness of the pill, though I’ve heard judging by scent is more accurate. I can’t do the latter, but the former is easy enough.”

Huǒ Shuchang took each bottle and inspected the pills inside. He only set a bottle aside once he was satisfied. Upon reaching the last bottle, he furrowed his brow and looked at the old man.

“One of those pills is of inferior quality. Aren’t you ashamed of selling inferior products in your store?” he asked.

“Young man, you must be aware of how difficult it is to perform alchemy. Not every pill is going to be of perfect quality. Some will be inferior to others. This particular batch was made by a promising but upcoming young alchemist from the Shang Kingdom. I heard she became a Third Tier Alchemist within just a year. It’s quite the accomplishment.”

Huǒ Shuchang opened his mouth to argue. Wu Jian could already tell what the man was going to say, but his curiosity got the better of him, and so he asked the question that was on his lips.

“Do you know who refined those pills?”

“It was a young woman named Zhou Lihua, if I am not mistaken,” said the old man.

“We’ll take them,” said Wu Jian.

“Hey, Wu! What are you saying?! One of those is of inferior quality!”

“We’ll take them,” Wu Jian repeated as he stored the bottles in his storage ring.

“Ugh. Fine. Go ahead. Take them. Don’t listen to the guy who’s trying to get you a better deal,” Huǒ Shuchang grumbled.

Wu Jian could only smile behind his mask. He couldn’t tell his friend the reason he wanted these pills since it might give away more than he was able to share. He didn’t know how much about himself he could tell others, but Wu Meiying had said he needed to keep his identity a secret. It was better to share as little information as possible than slip up and share too much.

Still grumbling, Huǒ Shuchang bought several healing pellets and rejuvenation pills. Healing pellets cured simple wounds and rejuvenation pills restored lost chi. They weren’t good to use constantly, but they were useful if someone found themselves in a prolonged battle and running low on chi. Huǒ Shuchang inspected each pill, and this time, he didn’t let Wu Jian tell him not to.

“What else should we get?” asked Wu Jian as they left the store.

Huǒ Shuchang scratched the back of his neck in thought. “Well… I can’t think of anything else we might need. You could probably do with more techniques. It’s typically a good idea for cultivators starting out to have at least one attack, one defensive technique, and one movement technique. Right now, you’re all attack and no defense. I doubt we’ll find anything good here, but we can at least look around.”

They looked around for several more hours, but they didn’t find anything.

Upon arriving at their inn, they ate a quiet meal in the attached tavern, then made their way up to their room.

“All right. We’ll be leaving tomorrow, so we should plan our next move,” Huǒ Shuchang said as he laid a map of the Ming Dynasty on the floor. The two sat with their legs crossed, and Yōuměi also came out, though she laid down and placed her paw on Wu Jian’s lap. “We are currently right here. Shēnyuān. Our goal is to reach here.”

Huǒ Shuchang traced his finger across the map from Shēnyuān to the Ming Dynasty’s border with Qing Province.

“There’s a massive forest called the Mófǎ Forest that extends across the entire border, and the land is inhabited by magical beasts even more powerful than the ones we faced in the Magical Beast Forest. Of course, we can get through safely if we just follow the trail. There is a path that was blazed by cultivators centuries ago. This path has several checkpoints and rest stops along the way,” Huǒ Shuchang explained.

Wu Jian nodded along as he listened. “How long will it take to reach the border?”

“About a month, and it will take about two weeks to pass through if we follow the trail.” The way Huǒ Shuchang extended the word ‘if’ made it clear to Wu Jian that he was hinting at something, but he ignored that for now.

“We still have about four months before the White Tiger Sect ruins open. Will we make it in time?” he asked.

“Of course. We should arrive at least one month before the ruins open. The tournament to gain a pass takes place two weeks before then, and so we should arrive with two weeks to spare.” Huǒ Shuchang rolled up the map and sealed it away. “Now then, let’s get some sleep. We’ve got a long journey ahead of us tomorrow.”

***

Xin Yuefeng sat in his chair as he listened to his bodyguard’s report. He tapped his finger against the armrest as a smile crept on his face.

Said bodyguard knelt on the floor, head bowed in deference. This man was at the peak of the Asura Realm, though not as strong as him. The Wind-Lightning Pavilion did not have so many Human Limit Realm cultivators that they could afford to assign one bodyguard duty. Most of them were elders anyway. Still, this man had far more combat experience than he did. Even if Yin Xuefeng had a higher cultivation level, the man before him could easily kill him if he wanted.

This was the kind of power a person could only gain if they had a high position. Even the core disciples of the other sects did not have a bodyguard of this caliber.

“I see. So they are traveling to the Qing Province. How interesting. It’s unfortunate I’m half a step into the Human Limit Realm. I’m not sure I’ll be able to enter the White Tiger Sect ruins like this. Anyway, let’s prepare to head out tomorrow. We’ll confront that man a few days after he leaves Shēnyuān and make him give me the Three-Layered Red Yin-Yang Pill,” he said.

“As you will it, Young Master,” said his bodyguard.

“Don’t think I’ll let you escape after taking what is rightfully mine,” Yin Xuefeng muttered as he looked out the window.