Alchemy was expensive. That was the first thing I’d realised over the last few days of my stay here. Not only did the spiritual herbs cost money, but so did having to refill my Qi using pills because of the meagre amount I had. It was a vicious cycle where each herb I wasted would also require me to use up a Qi refilling pill, increasing the cost of waste a ton.

Looking at the higher tier pills all of them could need a lot of expensive materials, and the more potent the pill, the higher its chances of failure increasing the costs of making the pill even higher.

In short, I needed money.

It was easier said than done. Outer disciples got paid a very small amount, as the sect itself provided for most of their needs as long as they remained in it. It would make me think that the disciples would be a burden seeing how few were ever kicked out of the sect, if I wasn’t out here sweeping the ground for the past four hours. We were free labour. Wage slaves without any wage. It made sense they only kicked disciples out when they committed some crime that had been caught and brought to an Elder’s attention. Pretty much never.

Things got worse when I had a look at Lu Jie’s finances, finding barely enough money to get food for a couple of weeks. The money would last me much longer if I took my leave and settled in some countryside farm but I refused to give up and turn to a life of labour so quickly. I can’t start experimenting if I didn’t have the resources, which would be far easier to find in the city.

Thus the problem turned into a vicious cycle, where I needed money to learn Alchemy to earn money to leave the sect and strike it out on my own.

“‘Eat something funny Lu Jie? Your face is all scrunched up like you got a nasty stomach ache.”

I turned to look at the other boy, sweeping the ground next to me, his two crooked front teeth peeking from under his lips, almost like a rat. Su Lin was the boy’s name, one of the few outer sect disciples to be both on a lower realm than me, and of an older age. It made me wonder how he got accepted into the sect in the first place.

“Just recovering from the spar,” I replied off handedly, as I returned my focus to sweeping the paths. There was a tinge of anger inside me, not an emotion I felt, but one born from Lu Jie’s memories. He despised how Su Lin was content to live his life in the sect, and do menial labour with no hopes of ever rising through the ranks. It went against everything Lu Jie had believed in.

“I told ya, the young masters were trouble. They got the Thunder-phoenix bloodline, and the twin cultivation stuff. You can’t beat em even if they’re in the same realm as ya. That too not for long I reckon,” Su Lin said, snickering once about something as he continued to sweep.

The jab at my bottleneck at the current realm was obvious, yet I couldn’t care less. Perhaps if Lu Jie was here, he’d have been fuming, but I found myself curious about the guy instead. I watched the lanky guy. He was clearly old, not the oldest outer sect disciple around, but then anyone who doesn’t go past the first circle before turning twenty five usually ends up taking a job at the sect, or leaving. Yet for some reason, Su Lin seemed to stick around.

An idea began to bud in my mind as I walked over to Su Lin.

“How long have you been in the sect?” I asked, as the lanky boy straightened a bit in surprise, his eyes scanning my face for any clues.

“Me? A decade? Dunno, been a while,” Su Lin said, with a slight frown as he looked down at me. He was taller, but not by much. I returned what I hoped was a friendly smile, as I walked closer.

“So you’ve been here for a long time. You must know almost all the outer sect disciples then, perhaps even some inner sect ones?” I asked, trying to mask my question as idle curiosity.

“I do know a few I s’pose. What about it?” Su Lin asked, eyeing me from the corner of his eyes, his two crooked teeth visible.

Now was the difficult part. I had created a narrative in Su Lin’s mind, without forcing the issue onto him. From an outsider’s perspective, I’d just lost a spar and had holed myself in for a couple of days, not talking to anyone. No one besides the Old Man really knew about my apprenticeship or the fact that I’d been devouring Alchemy text books and trying to set up experiments in the Old Man’s chamber. So to them, it’d look like I’d taken my defeat quite harshly.

“Nothing, nothing, no big deal. It’s just… I was wondering y’know? You’ve been here for so long, and even if we’re both outer sect disciples, you must get some respect for the time you’ve spent here serving the sect. The heavens may not bless us all equally, but hard work is valued equally.”

I kept my voice even, looking at Su Lin’s reaction. I was obviously trying to flatter him and I wasn’t even trying to hide it at all.

What I said was total bullshit. Age meant next to nothing, and the only measure of respect people gained was strength. It was a typical survival of the fittest world of a cultivation novel. And thus, I suspected there were two ways Su Lin would react to this. The first, and the disappointing one would be where he just accepts the flattery thinking I genuinely am trying to flatter him and get a favour. Not optimal but I could still work with it.

The second, the thing I’d been aiming for, would be if Su Lin was not as dumb as he appeared. I had suspicions for his reasons for staying in the sect for next to no pay, working as a wage labour even when offered a job. This was my way of trying to prod him into confirming my suspicions.

“A bit. You do get to know people with time, and they know you instead,” Su Lin replied, returning to his work.

A half answer then. Damn. At least this isn’t the first option, so there’s still a chance. I wasn’t great at this subterfuge anyways, but I had to try this time. My future was hinged on this.

“So I was thinking. Do you know anyone who works in the spirit herbs garden?” I smiled as I watched Su Lin go still. The spirit herbs garden maintained by the sect was one of the most guarded locations in the outer sect. And one of the more difficult places to enter.

“And what if I do?” Su Lin said, setting his broom aside as he turned towards me, standing completely straight for once.

I struggled to hold my smile back, as my guess was proved right.

“I may have something that could benefit both of us,” I said, digging into my pocket as I took out a single Qi refilling pill.

I watched Su Lin’s eyes shift towards the Qi refilling pill, as they widened in surprise. Outer sect disciples only got elixirs and pills for the first month. If they showed no signs of talent, then their support was cut off. Someone like me carrying pills around had a very specific image presented from an outsider’s perspective.

He thought I was stealing them.

“I’ve got more. But I need spirit herbs. You bring me spirit herbs and I give you five of these. You get to keep one-fourth of the money. And if I can trust you, then I also have some more potent pills lying around,” I put the pill back in my pouch, tapping it lightly as I sent a pulse of Qi in it. A strong Qi presence similar to a high grade 1st circle pill drifted out, and I watched Su Lin’s nose twitch. The bait was set.

“Near the second tree, next to the outer walls. Every seven days during the evening’s work,” Su Lin said quickly, turning around as he began walking away without taking a single glance back.

I stood at the same spot for a few more moments before I began to head towards my chamber, as I let out a sigh of relief.

The pill had been a bluff. The Qi refilling pill was the only one I’d successfully crafted in the last four days of work, out of the fourteen times I’d tried making them. Manipulating Qi was ridiculously tough and I’d still not found the optimal conditions required in making them. A lot more testing needed to be done.

The single pill I did succeed in making though, had still made me break out even in the cost. I still took a loss, which I could not afford, but with time I should be able to narrow down on the reaction conditions and become able to sustainably churn out pills.

The only problem with that had been gaining a sustainable supply of spirit herbs. And what the Old Man could afford to give me was very limited. Thus, this alternative method.

I tapped my pouch, glad about the fact that I carried some of the wasted pills I’d made. A pulse of Qi had broken them up, making them release their own Qi, which had briefly made it seem like I was carrying a high-grade pill on me.

I was glad Su Lin hadn’t attacked me, tried to steal my pills. I was a realm higher than him, but the difference would not be much seeing how he was more physically fit than me from his extended stay at the sect.

It had been a gamble, seeing how I barely knew the guy. But the temptation of higher grade pills seemed to be large enough for him to not do anything rash. It was a good deal too. He got to triple what he would’ve earned from simply selling spirit herbs at minimal risk.

I let thoughts of Su Lin be as I walked into the somewhat familiar chamber, my notes spread all around with little parchments containing half scribbled notes in English and some in the language for words I failed to translate.

Something chittered from under the notes and I frowned. A black figure peeked from under one of the books a portion of the page in its mouth. On instinct I moved ahead, jumping as I grabbed the little creature under the sheet of paper, before grabbing it in my fist.

I stared at the little rat in my hand, as it tried to escape my grasp. But no matter how weak, I was still a cultivator and a rat couldn’t free itself from my strength.

“So you’re the one who was eating all those pills huh?” I said, glaring at the little pest as I finally realised who had been chewing up all my paper and eating all the residue from my Qi pills.

The rat froze, shivering once as if it realised that it had messed up. I was about to let the creature go, not willing to kill it over just feeding itself when I noticed the tiny bead of Qi present at its core.

My eyes widened in surprise as I stared at the rat. The black furred pest squeaked in terror and a chuckle escaped my mouth. It too seemed to have realised that I could sense what it was.

A grin split my face in two as I stared at the little treasure in my hand.

I‘d just caught myself a spirit rat.