Her fingers moved with a fluid, practiced grace, placing the herbs upon the table before Bi Kan not as a random collection, but as a carefully curated lesson.

  Each movement was deliberate, her eyes showing a meticulous effort that bordered on reverence.

  "The first step into learning alchemy," she began, her voice a calm, instructional current in the quiet hut, "is understanding why these herbs go together."

  She picked up a single, vibrant spiritual herb, a Glimmering Sunpetal, its golden leaves pulsing with a gentle, inner warmth, and held it up for him to see.

  "You claim to have made pills before, yet you know nothing about the relationships between different herbs."

  She turned, retrieving a thick, leather-bound book from a nearby shelf and placing it on the table with a soft thud.

  "Which leads me to believe you've only been following instructions in guidebooks such as these."

  A faint blush crept up Bi Kan’s neck. He scratched his head, his hand trembling slightly as he looked away. "T-This senior is right," he admitted, his voice barely a murmur.

  "I… I have only followed the instructions." Relationships between herbs? he thought, his own alchemical process a chaotic, instinctual blur in his mind.

  Why would that matter? Could it be that if blended well, it could lead to a much more refined pill?

  The golden-haired girl nodded, as if she could hear his thoughts.

  "Following guidebooks isn't bad, per se. Why try to discover something already uncovered by past alchemists?"

  Bi Kan nodded frantically, the exact same logic having crossed his own mind when he had first begun.

  It was the reason he had given up on true experimentation after a few failures, choosing instead to rely on the proven paths of recipes.

  "But what's not fitting is to follow it blindly," she continued, her tone sharpening. "You must understand the elements of each herb.

  A Sunpetal is pure Yang, brimming with fiery energy. A Moon-Glow Moss is pure Yin, cool and restorative.

  Attempt to mash them together without a neutralizing agent, and the elements will clash.

  The concoction will explode. That is the key to perfecting alchemy: making sure contrasting elements don't just coexist, but harmonize."

  His eyes widened, a flash of revelation in their depths. He clasped his hands together, leaning forward eagerly. "S-So, if I meticulously do tha—"

  "No." The single word was a sharp, final blade that cut his excited question in two. "Only a grandmaster of alchemy can approach that kind of harmony, and even they cannot perform such a thing perfectly in the higher tiers of the art."

  His shoulders slumped, the bright spark of his discovery instantly extinguished. "T-Then what's the point of telling me that if even the great masters can't achieve perfection?"

  Her brows furrowed, a sliver of genuine disdain etching itself onto her beautiful features. "I'll ignore what you just said." She cleared her throat, her patience clearly wearing thin. "Do you truly believe that in order to become an alchemist, everything should be perfect? Then you're much more than a fool."

  Bi Kan took a half-step back, coughing into his hand. "N-No, definitely not. I was merely… joking."

  His mind, however, was already racing down a different path.

  Even if the greatest grandmaster in this world can't achieve perfection, that doesn't mean the Upper Realms can't.

  He felt the vast, silent presence of the wolf spirit within his Soul Sea, a sleeping titan whose very existence was a testament to powers beyond his comprehension.

  Does its silence confirm my suspicion? Or does it simply not care? Either way, this stubborn wolf doesn't even guide me.

  "You seem to be distracted by your thoughts constantly."

  The girl’s sharp observation snapped him back to the present.

  She slammed a palm against her forehead, a gesture of profound exasperation. "How can you focus all that energy into alchemy if your mind is always wandering?"

  She looked up at him, a decision made. "Enough. I can't teach you anything if I haven't gauged your abilities yet."

  With a gesture, Xia Jinyan presented a furnace that was less a tool and more a work of art.

  It was forged from polished obsidian, its surface etched with silver runes that seemed to pulse with a faint, inner light.

  "This was a gift from one of my uncles," she said, her tone a mixture of pride and nonchalance. "It is connected to me spiritually, but I'm sure you can use it normally."

  Bi Kan raised an eyebrow, crossing his legs as he sat before the magnificent object.

  Connected to it spiritually? The thought was a revelation.

  Does that mean you need a personal furnace? Mine is just… boding well. Perhaps it’s already intertwined with me.

  He shook his head, a mental image of his own rusty, dented cauldron flashing in his mind.

  No way. That thing’s too rusty. Does that mean my spirit is rusty as well?

  He dismissed the thought. This is special. Mine is just an ordinary cauldron.

  "What kind of pill would you have me refine, then?" he asked, his focus returning to the task at hand.

  Jinyan pressed her cheek against her palm, her fiery orange eyes staring at the wall as if consulting an invisible script.

  "Something basic, so it won't take too long." Her foot tapped a restless rhythm against the clean wooden floor. "How about a recovery pill? A low-level one, for the Qi Sensing Realm."

  A recovery pill. Simple enough. It was meant to restore a small amount of a cultivator's spent Qi, its potency dependent on quality and grade. "Since it's a low-level one," he mused aloud, "it'll probably barely even recover someone in the later stages like me…"

  Smack.

  The blow to the back of his head was sharp and precise. "If you have the energy to keep talking, use it on refining the pills now!" she snapped, her patience gone. "You're only wasting our time!"

  He bowed his head frantically, his hands clasped together. "Y-Yes! I won't spare any more time, Senior Sister!"

  Closing his eyes, he placed his hands upon the obsidian cauldron. The moment he connected, he felt the difference.

  The furnace sucked up his Qi far more prominently than his humble abode's, a hungry and efficient conduit.

  Jinyan crossed her arms, watching him with a critical, analytical gaze. He carefully placed the required herbs into the cauldron, maintaining a steady flow of Qi.

  Then, following the instincts that had served him so well, he added an excess amount of a key ingredient, a small gamble in case his luck ran thin.

  I see, Jinyan thought, her expression unreadable. The way he’s forging, it definitely speaks of talent. He’s a great instinctual alchemist, but he fails to understand how it really works… which is why…

  Two hours passed. Bi Kan finally slumped back, his forehead beaded with sweat. "Hah… hah…" On the clean cloth before him lay the results of his efforts. One pill was fine, though its shape was slightly deformed, a lopsided sphere. The other two attempts had resulted in small piles of charred, useless ash.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  "D-Damn it," he muttered, his face falling. "I thought I had a seventy percent success rate by now."

  A soft scoff came from Jinyan. Is this really a prodigy or a fool? "Impressive," she said, though her tone was laced with sarcasm. "Now, let's test this out." She produced a complex-looking talisman from her sleeve and activated it with a pulse of her own immense Qi.

  SWOOSH!

  Twelve spectral arrows of pure energy erupted from the talisman, shooting out of the hut's open doorway in a brilliant, searing streak of light.

  "W-Woah! Those arrows!" a villager shrieked, diving out of the way. The villagers scattered as the projectiles flew through the square in a straight line, crashing into a thicket of trees at the edge of the village. The moment they made contact, they exploded, a series of concussive blasts that tore the trees apart in a shower of splintered wood and vaporized leaves.

  "I-Isn't that overkill?" Bi Kan stammered, staring at the smoking craters. "What if you hit one of the villagers? I thought you weren't that reckless…"

  Jinyan ignored him. She turned, picked up his single, slightly deformed pill, and popped it into her mouth. She sat, cultivating for a moment, her brow furrowed in concentration. "Even lower than what a standard low-grade pill would give," she declared, opening her eyes. "You truly are the trashiest diamond in the rough."

  His eye twitched. "R-Right," he argued, his hands balling into fists. "But my other pills must be very refined! One of my junior sisters reached new stages in a mere da—"

  "You just got lucky," she cut him off, her voice flat and final. "Didn't you tell me your alchemy is based on luck? And right now, luck does not favor you."

  "Curse you, heavens!" he seethed, shaking his fist at the sky. His defiance was met not by divine intervention, but by the sole of her boot. He was sent tumbling to the floor with a pained grunt.

  "Ugh…" He rubbed his aching back, pushing himself up slowly. This was enough bullying for one day

  "It's time to teach you the elements," Xia Jinyan declared, her tone that of a master craftsman inspecting a flawed but potentially valuable piece of raw material.

  "I've judged you correctly now. Paired with your low knowledge, you are an outcast dog Outer Disciple."

  Bi Kan’s fist smashed against the clean wooden floor, the impact a dull thud that was more frustration than fury. He grit his teeth, the insult a fresh sting on top of his recent failure.

  G-Grr…! Should I put her name in my notebook? he fumed internally. The thought was a familiar comfort, a small act of defiance. But he hesitated.

  "I'll teach you the elements," she continued, oblivious to his internal debate. "These herbs contain them, after all. Once you understand their relationships to each other, you'll begin to increase your 'luck' in alchemy, without relying so much on your instinctual prowess."

  He leaned back against the wall, the tension slowly bleeding from his shoulders. Great. I'm actually about to learn instead of being hurled insults all day. This better be good.

  "First, there are five elements you need to understand," she began, her entire demeanor shifting into one of focused instruction. She picked up a vibrant, crimson-hued flower. "For example, this Crimson-Painted Amaryllis contains the element of Fire." With extreme care, she held it up, wiggling it slightly in front of his face as if presenting it to a toddler.

  "I am not a child," he muttered under his breath.

  She cleared her throat, either ignoring him or not hearing, and then showcased a small bowl of fine, gray dust. "This is the dust of Qi-Congealed Tungsten. It holds the Metal element. If you simply place both in the furnace, the volatile Fire of the Amaryllis might consume the Tungsten before it can add its properties to the pill you are forging. To prevent that, you need to control the Fire. The simplest way is with the element of Water."

  Her explanation was a key unlocking a door he never knew existed.

  "Water not only suppresses Fire, but it also pairs well with Metal, enhancing its potency and preventing it from being consumed completely. Of course," she added, a dose of harsh reality in her tone, "it's not that easy to control. The elements within these low-quality materials are volatile. Only a grandmaster could achieve a perfect balance with them, but that's the gist of it."

  Bi Kan nodded, his earlier frustration replaced by a rapt attention. He listened, his mind absorbing every word as Jinyan’s slow, patient teachings began to paint a new picture of the world he thought he understood.

  He saw it now, not as a jumble of ingredients to be mashed together by luck, but as a delicate, dangerous dance of elemental forces. He began to understand which elements dominated others, which ones clashed in a fiery explosion of failure, and which ones blended in a perfect, harmonious union to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

  The insults, the bullying, it all faded into the background. In this small, herb-scented hut, he was no longer a disciple being berated. He was a student, finally learning the true language of his craft.

  "I see," Bi Kan murmured, his eyes no longer just looking at the herbs but seeing them, tracing the invisible threads of energy that connected a woody-stemmed Iron-Root Bark to a fiery Crimson-Painted Amaryllis. "The elements that pair well together…"

  His voice grew stronger with each connection he made, a quiet litany of newfound understanding that filled the small hut. He was not just reciting facts; he was building a new world in his mind.

  "Wood fuels Fire, giving rise to it."

  He glanced at the small piles of ash from his failed attempts, the residue of creation. "Fire produces Earth, leaving it behind."

  He touched the cool, obsidian surface of the furnace, the Metal that had been mined and forged. "Earth bears Metal."

  He thought of the Dewleaf, glistening with morning moisture. "Metal collects Water… and Water nourishes Wood."

  A slow, triumphant smile plastered itself across his face. The generative cycle, the dance of creation, was finally clear. "And then," he continued, his voice now confident, his logic sharp and clear as he ticked the concepts off on his fingers, "there are the ones that destroy the other."

  "Wood controls Earth, its roots breaking the soil."

  "Earth controls Water, its banks containing the river."

  "Water controls Fire, extinguishing its flame."

  "Fire controls Metal, melting it to its will."

  "And Metal controls Wood, the axe felling the tree."

  He looked up at Xia Jinyan, his eyes shining with the pure, unadulterated joy of discovery, ready to declare his mastery of the fundamental principles. "I think I've got the gis—"

  CLAP!

  The sound was as sharp and startling as a thunderclap in the small room. Jinyan stood with her arms crossed, her face a mask of stone-cold stoicism that betrayed no emotion.

  "Bravo, bravo," she said, her voice dripping with a sarcasm so thick he could almost taste it. "You really are a great student, Junior Bi Kan. You'll become a great disciple one day."

  His eye twitched. He glanced towards the window, startled to see the world outside bathed in the deep purples and oranges of twilight. The sun had completely set. He had been so engrossed in her lesson that the entire afternoon had evaporated without him noticing.

  Jinyan scoffed, tossing her golden hair back with a dismissive flick of her hand. "That's enough for today. I can't believe it took you hours to grasp that simple concept."

  His pride, which had been soaring moments before, crashed to the earth. "H-Hey, grasping something isn't as easy as memorizing it!" he protested, his voice laced with indignation. "Even now, I have yet to wrap my head around the concepts fully…"

  "Hmph," she grunted, turning her back on him to begin cleaning her workbench. "No need to explain yourself. Come back tomorrow for more lessons. You've taken far too much of my time."

  As Bi Kan took his leave, the heavy wooden door of the hut clicking softly shut behind him, Xia Jinyan did not rest.

  She simply sat back down before her obsidian furnace, the focused, instructional light in her eyes replaced by a quiet, unreadable intensity. She began to forge pills once again, her movements a fluid and mesmerizing dance of control.

  Bi Kan walked slowly through the village, the pale moonlight shining down upon him, turning the dusty path to a river of silver. His mind was a maelstrom of new questions. What exactly is she using those Qi-Sensing Realm pills for? She’s clearly at a higher realm.

  He shook his head, the mystery of her purpose as deep and complex as the elemental relationships she had just taught him. I wonder which sect she's from, to be able to practice alchemy so openly… she must have a great backer.

  The thought was a stark contrast to his own precarious situation. Junior Elder Pia Xin is the only one back in the sect who knows I can make pills, he mused, a familiar knot of caution tightening in his gut.

  If the others were to know, they might force me into becoming an alchemist instead of letting me continue my own path.

  Hell, even if they allowed me to do so, I'd create even more enemies.

  The alchemists in our sect are prudish and have powerful people backing them up.

  And not only that, he let out a short, humorless laugh, we don't even have a dedicated alchemist hall.

  "Hah," he sighed, the word a small, cold cloud in the night air. "Could we really be a back-water sect?"

  His melancholic reflection was shattered by a series of sharp, rhythmic hisses, the sound of an object piercing the wind, punctuated by sharp, panting breaths. He followed the sound to the edge of the village, where a makeshift training ground had been cleared. There, under the moon's watchful eye, Ying Xia was a whirlwind of motion, the long spear she had acquired a silver blur in her hands.

  "Hah… hah… hiyah!" she grunted, her entire body twisting as she executed a powerful thrust. Wen Renge, the guard who had offered to show her around, was fast asleep on a nearby bench, his earlier infatuation no match for the sheer, relentless energy of the girl. She had been practicing for hours.

  This girl… Bi Kan thought, a faint smile forming on his face as he watched from the shadows. While I was learning, she was also practicing. Her love for the fight, for the hunt, was a pure, incandescent thing. She would thrive in the brutal crucible of the Annual Sect Tournament. "I'll definitely help her reach Inner Disciple before that happens," he vowed under his breath.

  His thoughts then drifted back to the sect, to the two friends he had left behind. You two… I wonder if by the time I come back, you will both be Inner Disciples. I've spent weeks out here already. Mei has probably finished her mission long ago. A quiet ache of concern settled in his chest. I guess we won't cross paths here. But still, be safe, both of you.

  He retreated to the small hut the village had prepared for him and Ying Xia, the sounds of her training fading behind him. He sat upright on a simple bedroll, the hard floor a familiar comfort. "Hah… I should cultivate, and see if I can break through to the next stage… while understanding these new concepts carefully."

  He closed his eyes, his mind turning inward. He pictured the dance of the elements, the clash and harmony of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. He began to breathe, to invite the world's Qi into his body, not with the blind instinct of before, but with a new, focused intent. I hope I'll understand it soon, he thought, his own ambition a burning, foundational fire. I want to make pills powerful enough to help me break through to the immortal realm!

  Deep within the vast, silent ocean of his Soul Sea, where a celestial wolf spirit slumbered in an eternal twilight, a single, ancient eye cracked open. It observed the boy’s fervent, almost comically grand ambition. A silent, ethereal scoff, more a feeling than a sound, rippled through Bi Kan's spirit.

  Then, the eye closed, and the wolf returned to its slumber.