Silver City.
It was loud. It smelled of unwashed bodies. Roasting meat. And greed.
Kaelen walked through the crowded streets. The massive rusted sword on his back drew stares. It looked like he was carrying a tombstone.
People moved out of his way. Not out of respect. Out of confusion.
He arrived at a tall, white marble building.
**The Alchemy Guild.**
The air here was different. It smelled of sulfur. Crushed herbs. And money.
Kaelen walked in.
The lobby was opulent. Gold chandeliers. Silk carpets.
Cultivators in expensive robes whispered in corners. Trading pills for fortunes.
Kaelen walked to the reception counter.
A young woman in a green dress looked up. She saw the mud-stained boots. The rusted iron slab. The intense, dead eyes.
"We don't buy scrap metal," she said automatically.
Kaelen placed a small bag on the counter.
*Thud.*
He opened it.
Inside were five Beast Cores. Low quality. From the boar and the wolves.
"Sell," Kaelen said.
The girl sneered. She picked one up with tweezers. Acting like it was radioactive.
"Low-tier Iron Boar core. Impure. Cracked." She dropped it back in. "Five spirit stones for the lot."
It was robbery. Market price was twenty.
Kaelen didn't argue. He didn't haggle.
He reached out. He grabbed the bag back.
"Keep your change."
He turned to leave. He needed thousands. Not five. Scavenging wasn't going to cut it.
As he turned, he saw it.
On the far wall, there was a massive slate of black stone. Crowds were gathered around it.
Written on the stone in glowing Qi calligraphy was a chemical formula. A recipe.
But it was incomplete.
> **[The Grandmaster's Lament]**
> *Finish the formula for the 'Seven-Heart Rejuvenation Pill'.*
> *Reward: 5,000 Spirit Stones.*
> *Status: Unsolved for 12 years.*
Kaelen stopped.
He looked at the formula.
It was a healing pill. High grade. But the flow of spiritual energy in the diagram was wrong. It caused the furnace to explode at the third stage of refinement.
"Idiots," Kaelen muttered.
He walked toward the board.
"Make way."
The crowd ignored him. A burly guard blocked his path.
"Back of the line, kid. Master Thorne... oh wait, you're the cripple brother?" The guard laughed. "Did you come to stare at the pretty lights?"
Kaelen didn't stop.
He grabbed the guard's shoulder plate.
*Squeeze.*
Metal crumpled like paper.
The guard yelled. Knees buckling as Kaelen tossed him aside like a ragdoll.
The crowd went silent.
Kaelen walked up to the board. He picked up the chalk brush resting on the stand.
"Hey!" An old man in purple robes—an Elder—stepped forward. "That is the property of Guild Master Zhu! Defacing it is punishable by death!"
Kaelen ignored him.
He looked at the formula.
*Dragon Grass + Spirit Mercury + Fire Lotus...*
"Too volatile," Kaelen whispered. "You're trying to force the fusion with heat. You need a binding agent."
He slashed the brush across the stone.
He crossed out **Fire Lotus**.
The crowd gasped.
"He's destroying it!"
"Stop him!"
Kaelen wrote one word over the crossed-out text:
**Ice-Venom Snake Bile.**
Silence.
Absolute. Confused. Silence.
"Venom?" The Purple Robed Elder shouted. His face turning red. "Are you insane? You want to add poison to a healing pill? Guards! Arrest this lunatic!"
Two armored guards rushed forward. Spears raised.
"Wait."
The voice came from the staircase. It was raspy. Weak. But it carried authority.
An old man walked down. He leaned heavily on a cane. His face was pale. Breathing shallow.
**Guild Master Zhu.** The most powerful Alchemist in the city.
He stared at the board. His eyes were wide. Shaking.
He walked past the guards. Past the Elder. Up to Kaelen.
He looked at the words: *Ice-Venom Snake Bile.*
"Poison..." Zhu whispered. "The cold nature of the bile neutralizes the heat of the Mercury... and the toxicity forces the body to reject the impurities..."
Zhu turned to Kaelen. He looked at the boy's young face.
"Who taught you this?"
Kaelen dropped the brush. It clattered on the floor.
"Common sense," Kaelen said.
"Common sense?" Zhu laughed. A dry, hacking cough. "I have studied for sixty years. I never thought to use poison."
Zhu waved his hand. "Give him the money."
"But Master!" The Purple Elder protested. "We haven't tested it! He's just a—"
"GIVE HIM THE MONEY!" Zhu roared. The exertion nearly made him collapse.
The Elder scrambled. He ran behind the counter and returned with a heavy sack.
He handed it to Kaelen.
5,000 Spirit Stones.
It was enough to buy a house. Enough to buy high-grade pills.
Kaelen weighed the sack in his hand.
"Good doing business."
He turned to leave.
"Wait," Zhu called out. "Young man. My name is Zhu. I am dying. My meridians are calcifying from years of pill fire."
Zhu stepped closer.
"You saw the flaw in the pill. Can you see the flaw in me?"
The lobby held its breath. The Guild Master was asking a teenager for medical advice?
Kaelen looked at Zhu.
**[System Scan]**
> **Target:** Zhu.
> **Ailment:** Fire Poison Accumulation.
> **Status:** Terminal. 3 months to live.
Kaelen smirked.
"Yes."
"Can you fix it?" Zhu asked. Desperation creeping into his voice.
"Yes."
"Name your price."
Kaelen looked around the opulent lobby. At the guards who had sneered. At the receptionist who had tried to scam him.
He looked back at Zhu.
"I don't want money."
Kaelen pointed to the massive, locked door behind the reception desk. The Vault.
"I want access to your 'Trash Pile'. The ingredients you throw away because you don't know how to use them."
Zhu blinked. "The waste disposal? That's all?"
"That," Kaelen's eyes gleamed with a dark light. "And I want the Purple Elder to eat that Iron Boar core."
Kaelen pointed at the receptionist's desk. Where the low-grade core still sat.
The Purple Elder went pale. "What? That will shatter my teeth! It's unrefined!"
Kaelen didn't look at the Elder. He kept his eyes on Zhu.
"Deal?"
Zhu didn't hesitate. He looked at his subordinate.
"Eat it, Elder."
Kaelen smiled.
"Lead the way."