Employee Stone collected me then Little Spring. He escorted us to the same private meeting room we used last time.

On our way, I informed him about the incorrect spiritual herb that I’d noticed and pointed out that other boxes also had to have contained some of these for the explosions to get so large. He promised to look into it. I had no energy left over to deal with it myself so I decided to throw the problem at the guild’s employees.

After that short conversation, I settled into the room and activated the privacy function. We didn’t have much time, only an hour so I set up the simple array and jumped directly into the spiritual spring... I kind of wanted to call it Lake(in Mandarin) Lake(in English), but that was my good ol’ earth-human naming sense coming in.

“Have you decided on what you’ll call this lake yet?”

Little Spring, who had been practically vibrating with restless and nervous energy since I finished the last round glared at me. “Fairy Lin. You don’t have a lot of time. And you’re still injured.” Then he bit his lip. ”Please focus on healing yourself.”

The kid practically threw himself down into the lotus position on the shore. He let out a frustrated sounding breath then started cultivating. He pulled in spiritual energy like crazy.

Fuck, was he trying to break into the third layer, already? No wonder he was so restless.

He also wasn’t wrong. I needed to heal what I could immediately.

I lowered myself into the shallow part of the lake, popped one of the few remaining healing pills we had, and began to slowly cultivate myself. I let the energy run through me and heal some of the internal damage that the backlash from using the shield had done to me. As it did this, it left some nasty impurities in my body. Fortunately, since I was in the spiritual spring, those impurities were immediately leached out.

After a while, I was still worse off than where I had been when I started the day, but better than I was after the second round.

My body was starting to worry me. The constant headache that I lived with was the least of my troubles at this point. My side hurt like a bitch while my internal organs felt like they’d taken several jabs.

I sighed. If I could just win this, I’d get a new cauldron. Then I could quickly succeed in making my needed pill. Well, considering that concocting it would normally be difficult for someone in Foundation Establishment, I had my work cut out for me.

Fuck. I wish I could break through to the fifth layer without harming myself further. An increase by a small realm would help.

I glanced at Little Spring who had just finished breaking through to the third layer. Maybe I could get him to assist me in concocting it. I could use some main character good fortune right about now. Making it in one shot might be too difficult otherwise.

Perhaps I could find more Vines of Stellar Rebirth nearby, or find a way to purchase some for cheap (from someone other than that bitch Violet). Otherwise, we would only have one chance at it.

I stood up, the aches in my body unexpectedly caused the world to dim for a second. I sighed. It may have come out as a groan.

The hardest part about living with pain was starting. The easy part was keeping momentum. As long as the momentum didn’t cause me to crash and burn, then I was fine.

I grinned. With a thought, I appeared dry and next to my junior brother. “Let’s go!”

Little Spring, slowly stopped consolidating his new realm and opened determined eyes. “Fairy Lin.”

“What?”

“I want you to be able to rely on me.”

Aww. What a cute kid. I smoothed his hair. “Okay. In the future, I will rely on my younger brother,” I straight-up humored him. “But, for now, just concentrate on having a good childhood. Grow up strong and be a decent person... And a righteous cultivator.” I proudly pointed at my chest with my thumb. “Follow my example and you can’t go wrong.”

The worry on his face grew exponentially. Ah, right. Maybe he still had doubts about my sanity. Whatever.

I left the space and Little Spring followed. Just after I put away the array, Employee Stone returned. He brought us back to the arena.

Aside from the judges’ desks, one earthen flame, two seats, and a single prep table, the whole staging area had been cleared. The stands were still filled with cultivators and judges had returned to their spots.

Pill Master No Longer Burning But Still an Asshole, had a normal color on his face. Seriously, this guy did not have healthy habits and needed to rethink his life choices if he wanted to reach Nascent Soul in the next 500 years.

Employee Stone stayed with me until I reached my spot where a nice seat had been set up for me.

He bowed and left. Little Spring did not follow him. He stayed at my side, hands balled into small fists. I gestured for him to go but he ignored me, his jaw clenched tight.

Those explosions hadn’t worsened his trauma from my last totally-not-close-to-near-death-experience, right? I mean, I was obviously not dead. This meant I was fine. Mostly.

I looked around. Well, as long as the guild didn’t say anything then I’d let him do what he wanted.

Soon, Violet Pill Fairy was escorted to her seat. She glanced over at me. Then her eyes briefly wandered over to Little Spring... Probably because he sent a glare her way.

She huffed out a delicate laugh. I ignored her.

Finally, the guild manager walked to the center of the arena floor.

”Welcome back, everyone. First, I would like to take the time to explain what happened during the last round, where three apprentices were severely injured and another seven came out with mild burns.” Even though it had only been a short hour, the poor man looked like he needed a break.

”We discovered that the root cause of the initial cauldron explosions was a consequence of a misplaced spiritual plant. Earlier today, two of our clerks who work to sort plants had an accident while carrying boxes of lilies that had similar appearances. Some of the boxes spilled and the lilies ended up mixed. This was due to the negligence of our clerks who both failed to notice their errors. This caused a volatile herb that would normally only be sold to Golden Core cultivators to end up in the hands of inexperienced Foundation Establishment cultivators.”

He stared into the crowd, his gaze sharp. It was like he was trying to say that he knew what was going on and he wasn't having it. ”We’ve fired those two clerks. And we will begin to institute policies to ensure that this mistake never happens again.”

He let out a breath.

Ah, so either it was really a mistake or he couldn't afford to go against the clan backing Violet. Well, I couldn't blame him. I had no energy to go against them either. Besides, I was going to beat her ass at alchemy soon anyway. May as well let her get away with something.

“Congratulations to both Apprentice Violet Pill and Apprentice Lin for making it to the final round. Whoever wins this will be awarded the newly forged Heavenly rank Spiritual Cauldron by local master craftsman Three-Tiered Flame Hammer. A cauldron perfect to last a cultivator up to their Nascent Soul Stage.

“The second place will receive a beginner’s cauldron and a thousand spirit stones.”

Damn. The difference between first and second was massive.

“Now, to begin I’ll tell you the rules. Each participant gets to choose one topic about pill making. This topic has to be about unusual problems in the concocting process. Or normal problems that have yet to be addressed but the participant has a theory on how to deal with it.

“Once both participants have presented their theories. One of the judges will test it out, and if needed we’ll use a pill testing beast to provide evidence.”

“If there is no clear winner, after two topics provided by the participants, then Pill Master Ruthless Divine Medicine will choose a topic.”

That Pill Otaku? I wanted to see what he’d choose but I also didn’t think poor Violet Pill Fairy would have the chance to even get close.

”Apprentice Lin. Since you’re the youngest, you may go first. Please propose a topic.”

Let’s see. A topic. The thing is, I had too much knowledge of the future. It would be easy to just pick something impressive from the millions of facts and discoveries over the years. What I needed was a nearly harmless fact that hadn't been discovered yet.

I glanced at the judges and my eyes stayed slightly longer on Pill Master Burning With Too Much Lust.

Or I could try to appeal to judges.

”Everyone knows that taking pills often leaves a buildup of residue that can be harmful to the body. But one of the more serious residues is left by, none other than the various aphrodisiac pills, especially the Happy Pulse Auspicious Dan. It causes kidney damage, heartburn, headaches, nausea, and if taken too much, it could even limit the potential of a cultivator, lowering their chances of ascending to the next realm.

”I would like to propose a theory on how to decrease the impurities in the Happy Pulse Auspicious Dan so that cultivators who take this medication will no longer have to worry about the impurities lowering their chances to ascend to a higher realm.”

The manager, whose face was bright red, coughed a bit. “Apprentice Lin! Isn’t that topic a bit inappropriate for a contest like this? Especially coming from someone your age?”

I tilted my head and blinked at the host like I had no idea what he was talking about. “I don’t understand. Aphrodisiac medicines, when used appropriately, are there to help cultivators who desire it, have cute little babies.” I blinked my big watery and innocent nine-year-old eyes again. “At least that’s what my master told me,” I lied cutely.

With his face still bright red, he nodded. “Right, as you said. When used appropriately, it is a medicine.”

I blinked again. “I don’t understand that part either. Why would anyone use it inappropriately?”

He swiftly turned to Violet Pill Fairy. “Do you have a problem with the proposed topic?” His eyes seemed to tell her that she should.

She smirked. “I don’t.”

Then he turned to the judges as if desperate. “How about our esteemed panel of judges?”

“We do not.” White Lily said. “As Apprentice Lin said. It is a legitimate medicine... when used appropriately.”

As if giving up, the guild manager said, “Then, Apprentice Violet Pill. Have you thought of a method to decrease the impurities?”