Ch. 8 The Deal

Master Hu is the first to recover. In a mix of suspension and excitement, he asks, "You have all those recipes?"

"Yes." Refusing to aid them, I patiently remain waiting for their answer. The smile is just to maintain a friendly appearance, completely not a result from their gobsmacked faces. Nope.

"Soul Enhancing Pills," Master Hu quickly decides. It makes the most sense. They're the most profitable and sought-after types of pills. From a business standpoint, it is the wisest choice.

"I can provide three recipes that fall in the Soul Enhancing category. The first, and weakest, is an improved recipe of the Association's own Soul Assembling Pill. My recipe is 45% more potent and has a production cost of only 85% of the recipe currently being used. An Intermediate Apprentice can expect a 90% success rate after sufficient practice with the new soul-force technique."

"The second recipe is for the Soul Nurturing Pill. It is considered an intermediate level pill from the Sacred Empire Era. It is ten times more potent than the Association's Soul Assembling Pill and has a production cost of an estimated 8,000 demon spirit coins. For forging this pill, a Senior Apprentice can expect an 80% success rate."

"The last recipe is for the Soul Concentrating Pill. It is also considered a high-level pill from the Sacred Empire Era. This pill is ten times more potent than my Soul Nurturing Pill and has a production cost of an estimated 20,000 demon spirit coins. The strenuous demands of this pill require a Primary Alchemy Master in-order-to forge."

I successfully deliver my planned sales pitch to an awestruck audience. Judging by their wide eyes and slack jaws, I'm tempted to offer one of my legendary rank soul enhancing recipes, just to see if one of them would pass-out! I quickly squish that thought for the foolishness that it is. I have plans for those legendary recipes, and it doesn't involve sharing.

Tired of waiting, I make the decision for them. "Why don't we forge the Soul Concentrating Pill? I have all the required ingredients except for a stalk of columbine. If there is a stalk readily available, I will guide you through the forging process."

"I believe we have some in the storage room," announced Master Wang Chao, as he quickly moved out of the room.

Moving to the pill forge, I deposited all the ingredients needed, as Master Hu moves up beside me. His face is stoic and focused, but his eyes were alight with excitement. While Master Hu is filled with excitement, I am filled with worry. The Library of Heaven's Path may have played a huge part in the recipes design; I can't help but to worry about failure. Even if the recipe is perfect, there is always a slight chance of the pill forging process failing.

Getting into the lotus position, Master Hu announces he will begin to empower the pill forge. With pale blue soul force swirling around his body, Master Hu takes on the appearance of an ancient warrior bathed in fire. The weight of his power is awe-inspiring. He radiates power and destruction. Now, he looks every bit of Captain Yamamoto from Bleach. Before him, I know weakness, and I hate the feeling.

Unexpectedly, I'm instantly hit with a tremendous pressure bearing down on me. The pressure seems to be speaking to me, demanding my submission, my life. My soul realm is being ruthlessly and painfully attacked. It feels like it's about to collapse, and I'll be swallowed by an abyss. I'm on the verge of uncontrolled panic!

"Endure lad." Master Hu's soft command penetrates through my thoughts and panic. I latch on to that one word and turn it into my mantra. Endure. I must endure. I can endure. Cracks are still racing across my soul realm. The pressure hasn't eased at all. Just enduring is not enough! Disregarding the fear of breaking through to 2-Star Bronze, I circulate my soul force and desperately dive towards the anatta state of mind. With each breath the cracks on my soul realm recede just a bit more and my panic lessens. The pressure is becoming manageable.

"Well done lad. Very well done." Pausing for just a moment, Master Hu continued, "I was twenty years old the first time I experienced what you just went through. However, I stood before a powerful demon beast. I learnt what fear was that day, and I was lucky. We... We were lucky that day. But many more were not so lucky." His voice is hollow and pained. The memory running through his mind must be terrible indeed.

"Remember lad, to endure is to survive. And in survival, is hope. So endure." No longer is excitement dancing in his eyes, but grief and sorrow.

As suddenly as it appeared, the pressure was gone. I slowly stop circulating my soul force and exit out of the anatta state of mind. Looking at Master Hu, I am no longer blinded by his grandfatherly persona. Beside me stands an old warrior, and old warriors do not become old by accident. I honestly don't know how to feel about what just happened, but I will not forget this lesson.

Nodding my head, I softly quote, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

After a moment of consideration, Master Hu morphs back into the proud grandfather figure. Turning towards me, he smiles and nods his head. Some of the excitement returns to his eyes, but I'm not sure of the cause. Turning back towards the pill forge, Master Hu resumes his work.

Before long, Master Wang Chao returns with a stalk of columbine looking rather excited. He quickly makes his way across the room and hands me the stalk of columbine. Refocusing on the task at hand, I accept the aromatic stalk. Quickly checking for flaws, I turn to Master Hu right as he finishes preparing the pill forge. Without further delay, I begin guiding him through the pill forging. Regardless of the age difference, Master Hu never questions or hesitates in carrying out each instruction given. I continuously use the Library of Heaven's Path through the entire process.

At the 41-minute mark, I command, "Compress the pills and purge all heat as quickly as possible!"

Flaring his soul force, Master Hu directs a large amount of power into the pill forge. The forge is visibly cooling at an incredible rate. Beads of sweat stand on Master Hu's face, as he stands and reaches into the pill forge. Gradually pulling his hand out, the room is flooded with an intoxicating energy. Merely standing in the room gives the impression of potential power held within Master Hu's hand.

Carefully opening his fist, Master Hu reveals nine purple pills radiating energy. The pills seem to illuminate his palm.

"Heavenly grade! I never thought I would live to see the day of a heavenly grade pill creation!" Stutters out an elderly master.

Master Hu nods his head and turns to the ever stoic Master Zhang and asks, "Would you go and fetch Director Yang?"

Director Yang? Yang Xin!

So many thoughts begin rushing through my mind. Yang Xin was the character that I could have seen myself pursuing, back when I was 20 years old. She was beautiful and sexy, but extremely hard working and talented. She was able to rise to the position of Director from pure hard work. I loved her character. And that's the problem. I know of her as a character, but now I'm about to met Yang Xin the person.

Worse yet, is the fact that I'm not facing her as my old self, but as an orphaned young teen. The two of us may be orphans, but I can't relate to her about that. This body may be an orphan, but I am not. I'll never be able to understand the sorrow and loneliness she must have suffered.

The age gap isn't an issue for me. She's only five years older than my true age, but eleven years older than this body. Comparing the age differences with Yang Xin and Ning'er confirms that my hypocrisy knows no bounds.

A small jade bottle suddenly appears in Master Hu's other hand, and he carefully deposits the newly formed pills into the bottle. Making sure that it's tightly sealed, he moves his attention to me.

"That recipe. It is designed to form heavenly grade pills," asked Master Hu.

With a reproachful look, I reply, "You know that's not how recipes work. The grade quality of any pill depends on accurately refining and combining the ingredients based on their maturity." Seeing the recognition in his eyes, I continue before he can get any more ideas, "I was thoroughly familiar with the ingredients I supplied. I merely guessed at the time needed by integrating the stalk of columbine. We were lucky it turned out so well."

I'm temporarily saved from further questioning due to Master Zhang entering the room. Following behind him is an absolutely stunning woman. Her elegantly done ebony hair, perfectly frames her pale and flawless face. The sway of her body as she walks hints at an amazing figure under her robes.

Well, it looks like I lied. I wouldn't go after her in my past life, because she's way out of my league.

Yang Xin quickly scans over the room and focuses on Master Hu. Approaching Master Hu, her stare seems to intensify.

With his grandfatherly smile, Master Hu hands over the jade bottle containing the recently forged pills.

Seeing the stunned look on her face as she inspects the pills, only heightens her beauty. As I harshly squash the impure thoughts from my head, I suddenly regret not taking a calming elixir before arriving. I force my attention to my planned story and possible negotiation tactics.

Yang Xin suddenly turns to me and smiles. Damn, that's a beautiful smile. "You are incredible," she quietly says in a silvery voice.

My face is instantly on fire and I'm forced to look away. My entire body is heating up. Damn these teenage hormones. Really regretting not having a calming potion. I have to finish this quickly and create some distance before I further embarrass myself.

Determined to recover as much of my dignity as possible, I remove all emotion from my face and turn back towards Yang Xin. My blank face is quickly shut down as I see the smile on Yang Xin's face. That beautiful and breath-taking smile is nowhere to be seen. In its place is a smile that can only be described as predatory. I am so screwed!

Before I can open my mouth, Yang Xin speaks up, "Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Director of the Alchemy Association, Primary Master Alchemist Yang Xin." Her tone was professional, but her alluring dark eyes have a hint of mischief.

The sympathetic look I'm getting from Master Hu is not a good sign. Deciding to end this as quickly as possible I state, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Director Xin. I wish to sell five alchemy recipes today. Three soul enhancing pill recipes, one intermediate level body refining pill, and one intermediate level recovery pill. My price is 20% of the sales profits for the next 10 years, and 200 Soul Assembling Pills paid today. Does the Alchemy Association accept or not?" I remove the five recipes from my interspatial ring and slightly hand them in their direction.

I swear, for just a moment, it looks like Yang Xin pouts before she appears professional again. The other three masters, don't even hesitate before they nod. Seeing their reactions, Yang Xin announces the Alchemy Association's agreement.

Still not trusting myself around her, I express my need to 'see to other business'. I try keeping my eyes off Yang Xin without appearing rude, but I can't deny I'm deeply attracted to her. She has a contract quickly drawn up, and the five of us sign our names in quick fashion.

Two jade bottles suddenly appear in Yang Xin's hand. I can't help but notice a bit of mischief in her eyes as she offers me the bottles. As I take the bottles, she lightly slides her fingers over my hand as she lowers her hand. A shudder runs down my spine at her touch.

Her predatory smile is back in full force. "I look forward to our next meeting, Zhu Di," she replies in her silvery tone. My face is on fire again. I hate these teenage hormones, but I love hearing her say my name.

"Come, I'll walk you out," Master Hu states.

Once we're alone in the hallway, all thoughts of Yang Xin are pushed to the back of my mind. I take this opportunity to ask something that's been bothering me. Looking over at Master Hu, I ask, "Why?"

Seeming to understand what I mean, Master Hu slowly answers, "For confirmation and to assist you." Arching a single eyebrow, Master Hu elaborates. "You are an enigma. Your knowledge of alchemy should be around the level of a grandmaster. I suspected you were disguised to hide your true age, but your reactions clearly prove you to be a teenager.

"I have been unable to determine your cultivation level. Standing beside you is like standing beside a regular civilian. It's as if you're concealing it. Even when I was pressuring you, I was able to determine you're far weaker than myself.

"As for assisting you. Severe pressure on your soul realm will strengthen and stabilize it, helping to prevent bottlenecks. Of course, reassuring us that you're who you appear to be, is beneficial to everyone."

Arriving back at the front lobby, I nod my head to his answer. It's nice to have confirmation that others won't be able to pick up my strength easily. If I can perfect a technique to hide my presence than I could all but disappear. That has amazing synergy with the Shadow Devil.

Saying farewell to Master Hu, I depart the Alchemy Association and head to the market. I have to pick up some supplies before my next meeting.