Lin Ya fell silent for a long moment before turning to Yue Zhao. "So... she took the assessment like that?"
Yue Zhao nodded gravely.
"And no one hit her?" Lin Ya pressed.
Yue Zhao sighed. "Let's just say... people have remarkable self-restraint."
Lin Ya patted his shoulder solemnly. "You've suffered."
Yue Zhao's eyes welled up with tears.
Finally. Justice.
Ignoring their commentary, Yun Jin examined the pill furnace with exaggerated curiosity. "Senior Brother, this furnace is quite nice. Seems even better than the one the Alchemy Pavilion used for the assessment."
"Pavilion Master Chen insisted on giving it," Yue Zhao explained. "This Hundred Herbs Pavilion is just a branch. Larger markets usually have their own branches too. Chen Changrong is only the master of this one, and from what I gather, there's fierce competition between branches. He's trying to secure a long-term partnership with you—if his branch's performance improves, so will his standing within the Hundred Herbs Pavilion."
Yun Jin raised an eyebrow. "Am I really that valuable as a mere first-rank alchemist?"
Yue Zhao chuckled. "You underestimate an alchemist's worth. Not only are they rare, but refining pills is incredibly difficult. Each batch demands immense effort, and failure is always a risk until the very end. That's why hiring an alchemist is so costly, and most prefer to work directly with the Alchemy Pavilion."
Yun Jin's interest piqued. "The Alchemy Pavilion also deals in pill sales?"
"Naturally. But selling to them nets fewer spirit stones. To compensate, they offer merit points—which can be exchanged for privileges within the Pavilion. If you need those, you could sell your future batches there instead."
Their agreement with the Hundred Herbs Pavilion didn't—and couldn't—include the Alchemy Pavilion.
Yun Jin pondered. "I'll check it out next time."
Just then—
The pill furnace emitted a resonant hum.
Lin Ya tensed. "Xiao Jin! It's time to collect the pills!"
"Mm." Yun Jin casually extinguished the flames and lifted the lid.
Golden light erupted once more.
Even Yue Zhao was stunned.
Again.
Another batch of perfect pills.
His eyes gleamed with realization.
What if... this wasn't luck?
What if she could do this every time?
His heart raced.
With this ability, his dreams of a mercantile empire were no fantasy.
"Senior Brother, take this batch for trade too." Yun Jin yawned. "From now on, I'll refine one vial daily. All perfect, of course."
One perfect batch a day?!
Yue Zhao desperately wanted to ask how—but he didn't dare.
He knew the answer would be another ear-scorching display of arrogance.
At his age, his heart couldn't take it.
Si Wanning, clearly not yet worn down enough by life, opened her mouth to ask—
Yue Zhao lunged and clamped a hand over her face.
Si Wanning let out a muffled protest before reluctantly giving up.
Only then did Yue Zhao breathe a sigh of relief.
"Junior Sister, you've been at it all day. Get some rest. We'll stop bothering you," he said gently.
Yun Jin blinked innocently, pretending not to notice Yue Zhao's antics.
"Honestly, with such a small audience, it wasn't worth the effort of a proper grandstanding speech. Good one-liners deserved bigger crowds."
"Alright," she agreed sweetly.
As the Tianjian Peak disciples filed out, Yue Zhao suddenly paused.
"Wait. Where's Yu Songnian?"
He glanced around and spotted the stoic figure still leaning against the wall, frozen in his usual aloof pose.
Yue Zhao's face darkened. He walked over and knocked on Yu Songnian's shoulder.
Clunk.
It sounded like striking stone.
Yun Jin gaped. "Third Senior Brother... turned into rock?"
"Don't worry, it's an old condition. He has these episodes—just leave him be, and he'll snap out of it in an hour or two." Yue Zhao hoisted Yu Songnian over his shoulder with practiced ease. "No wonder he stayed silent the whole time—he'd zonked out mid-meeting."
On his way out, Yue Zhao politely shut the door.
Yun Jin: "..."
Something told her Tianjian Peak wasn't exactly... normal.
A transmigrated senior brother.
A periodically petrified third brother.
At least Second Senior Sister seemed sane!
~
Alone at last, Yun Jin opened her system panel to review today's gains.
"Crowds really were the key."
Between all her grandstanding, she'd earned 10,478 Emotional Value—translating to 100 simplification chances!
Added to her previous stock, she now had 250 chances saved up.
An auspicious number.
Too auspicious. It had to go.
She pulled out her remaining pills—Foundation Establishment Pill and Recovery Pill (both second-rank).
After several simplification attempts on the Foundation Establishment Pill, she hit a snag:
[Prerequisite: Cultivation Base ≥ Foundation Establishment Stage.]
She could brute-force past it with more simplifications, but her breakthrough was imminent anyway. Better to save her chances.
With Biling Pills now self-sustainable, dual cultivation effects should push her to Foundation Establishment within days.
Next, she unfolded the golden scroll—Azure Lotus Sword Art.
[Earth-rank Sword Art: Azure Lotus Sword Art. Simplified version of Heaven-rank Azure Lotus Canon. Mastery required to begin Canon cultivation. Prerequisites: Comprehension of at least 10 sword intents. Exceptional sword dao aptitude.]
The requirements were deceptively simple—and terrifying.
Ten sword intents.
Senior Brother and Second Senior Sister each had one. Yue Zhao with his Void-Piercing Sword Intent, and Si Wanning with her Lotus Bloom Sword Intent.
Each one was already a pinnacle in its own right.
But this Azure Lotus Sword Art required ten of them just to begin?
An average cultivator might spend their entire life and still fall short of that threshold.
Worse still, even though the Azure Lotus Sword Art had a simplification button, it was currently greyed out.
"System, why can't I simplify the Azure Lotus Sword Art?"
[Host's cultivation too low. Minimum requirement for Earth-rank techniques: Foundation Establishment Stage.]
Yun Jin nodded.
Foundation Establishment again.
The universe was practically begging her to break through.
Fine. Time to sprint to the next realm.
She stood, reignited the furnace, and began refining.
She would break through to Foundation Establishment—in one go.