Mage And Wolf
Chapter 79

Chapter 79: Chapter 79

"One kill wasn’t enough for the day, had to pick on the outer sect bullies?" Elder Po asks once we’re back at his pagoda.

"Well, it’s been a slow month. But no, I was just going to use Shadow Meld to make myself hard to find and burn them a little bit as a lesson."

"Being able to see those who think they’re invisible is a great advantage. Just don’t damage too many egos, you don’t want to be snuck up on for real."

I give him my most humble bow. "I understand Elder".

"Now that the obvious is out of the way, we’ve got training to do. There’s a free city competition coming up. The light sects will send their best to shame the Evil sects, luring away morally ambiguous recruits by making us look bad. we’ve got half a year to get you into shape to defeat whoever they send in the Fortification Realm."

"The light sects send recruits to a competition like that?" I ask, a bit surprised. "I heard they’re power first in their rules, but that’s a bit extreme."

A knock on the door interrupts our conversation.

"It’s not that kind of battle. You don’t get to kill them. I’m actually here to see if you’d like to join the pill making portion of the competition." Elder Ming explains.

"Surely I’m not up to the standards of the big sects?"

"Who do you think Elder Song is girl?" Elder Po laughs "Nobody else on this continent knows the knowledge transfer spell, if anyone else in this world does at all."

"Well that changes things. In my world there’s a half dozen on the continent that know a certain version of it. What do I have to do for the pill refining? Something complex? A high purity pill?"

"It’s judged by pill rank and purity. Last year’s winner for Outer Sect disciples was a rank 3 Qi gathering pill at 87 percent purity."

"You may not know, but the Shadowed Blade Sect holds far higher standards for our disciples than most. If you reach the 5th stage of Foundation, it will get you into most outer sects. So our standard of high Fortification or stage 1 Condensation puts most of our outer disciples into the Inner Disciple category."

"Condensation is the cut off?"

"You catch on quickly. We also train into the early Immortal ranks before moving them into a higher plane to train. Evil cultivators are easy targets if they’re under powered."

"I still think that whole naming convention needs a rethink. You guys aren’t so bad."

Both Elders laugh at my assessment before shaking their heads.

Elder Ming has a list of rank 4 pills with her. I notice that they’re separated by effect, not scarcity of ingredients or time to create. Sure, the higher levels require intensely precise energy control, but I’ve gotten really good at that lately, it helps that my flame spell is one so suited to my cultivation, burning straight external energy while I can access virtually no inner energy.

"Hey, how about we drop a cursed pill on them?" I suggest and they both look at me like I’m crazier than usual.

"Wait, hear me out. That Rank 3 Qi Condensation pill is the basis for one of the cursed pill recipes Elder Song taught me. The recipe doesn’t change, only the energy infusion. If it succeeds, my memories say it’s considered a rank 5 pill, correct?"

Elder Ming looks excited. "It is. The effect is almost enough to consider it a Rank 6, except that its use is limited to the Mortal Realms of cultivation."

"So, if I can successfully craft it, we will win in a landslide. Even better, refining with my own cultivation energy should give it a very high purity."

"I’m not going to get to teach you another combat style am I?" Elder Po sulks.

"Never fear, her energy will need to recharge at least once a day, so you’ll still get your 6 hours to teach martial arts."

"What do you have planned Elder Po?"

"The Divine Fist Sect and the Sacred Thunder Sect are the biggest Light sects attending. I intend for you to master both their styles before the tournament."

"A style every 3 months? I’m not sure how much I’ll accomplish at each that way." I remind the enthusiastic instructor.

"You did fine with mimicking the Blooming Lotus Style in less than a month, anywhere near that standard will be fine."

I just hope they’re not all ugly moves for burly guys to show off. But I don’t really get a choice this time.

Elder Ming takes the opportunity to drag me to the Pill Refining section.

"Alright, the Qi Condensation pill only needs 12 ingredients, where are they? Here they are. Do you have a pill cauldron suitable for cursed pill making? I don’t want to blow us both up today. We can get something from the storage house if you need."

I pull out my lucky Drake Skull cauldron. "I use this for everything. It’s also suitable for cursed pills."

"How did you not blow yourself up yet?" Elder Ming exclaims. "That thing isn’t suitable for anything but cursed pill refinement."

"Well since I use a Death Energy flame, it seemed best."

"What alchemy flame did Elder Song teach you?" she asks.

Alchemy flame? Oh, there are a bunch of them in his memories for making different pills more effectively. But I can’t use any of them, I’m a physical cultivator under Condensation Realm, I can’t manipulate energy like that. But what do I tell her? Totally gonna lie.

"He taught me a secret technique to create a flame out of pure Death Energy that’s easy for me to manipulate at my low level."

She definitely didn’t buy it. But she motions for me to follow her to a smaller lab and set up anyhow.

Cauldron goes in the circle, ingredients in order beside me. Press the button to raise the barrier and I’m ready.

Ender Ming is looking carefully at my cauldron as I coat my hands in energy to wipe any impurities off the ingredients. Then I light my flame and she starts laughing.

"That’s a special alchemy flame alright. Flame Sword cast on the floor?"

"Hey, I can control it well enough to cook with, so it’s an alchemy flame now."

She shrugs "I suppose that’s true. And nobody will be able to tell the difference without knowing how our Sect activates Flame Sword beforehand"

The first 2 ingredients go in together. Then one at a time, the enhanced senses granted to High Priestesses are extremely sharp, I can tell the temperature to a tenth of a degree, and smell the progress of the ingredients changing. Once I know the correct scent pattern it’s easy to duplicate. Like making the soup taste right.

Fifteen minutes in I start adding a bit of Death Energy to the cauldron. This is the part Elder Song had no experience with, so I’m going by feeling. Goddess Guide me, I hope this works.

As the scent turns from cooking to ready, I douse the flame and concentrate on forcing all the energy in the cauldron to condense. The white smoke of cooking turns to a warm black miasma that feels like home, and I pop the lid to recover the pill attempt. 5 shiny white pills with black veins running through them.

"Well boss, how did we do?"

Elder Ming stares at them in shock. "It worked! It really worked! Do you feel alright?"

"Yes Elder, I’m feeling great, just a bit drained from the concoction. That took a lot of energy."

more Elders every the little alchemy hut. "Was that what it felt like Ming?"

"It certainly was. The Young Miss completed a cursed pill formula."

"5 identical, still warm from the cauldron. Uniform white with no speckling shows success. Pill veins show purity above 90 percent. That is indeed a rank 5 Core Forming cursed pill."

"I’ll give you a thousand rank 2 stones each" one of the others offers, drawing hard glares and making hands go to weapons.

"Now ladies, let’s be reasonable. Elders Ming and Ye are already Immortals, they don’t have much use for this." the third Elder says.

"But my disciples are both nearing core formation and just need the push" the appraiser, now known to be Elder Ye, refutes.

I resist the urge to point out that there’s 5 pills and 5 people in the room, I don’t want to touch off any violence. Everyone wants all the pills.

Elder Ming passes me 4 more sets of ingredients behind her back. I think I know where this is going.

"We all know you can’t buy cursed pills with money. Plus the creator is Elder Po’s personal disciple, we should show her some face."

"How did that old man snatch such a talent? Tell me Young Miss" Elder Ye demands.

"Quite simply, he had the best luck." I tell the assembled Elders. "I was on a simple herb buying mission that led me here through a portal 2 days away."

"So you’re from another world?" Elder Ye cuts in

"She is, but that’s a whole other conversation, best leave it to later" Elder Ming reassures her.

"Elder Po was in charge of disciple trials for 3 young men. He saw me walking alone through the woods, determined I was a cultivator and set me as their target" the ladies all gasp in horror.

"After I killed the 3 morons, he informed me he was taking me in as his personal disciple and here we are."

"It takes 3 Elders to do an admittance. Who’s the third who kept you a secret?"

Elder Ming smiles "Dark Librarian Song" and they all give a rueful, slightly malicious laugh.

"So tell me girl, what experiment did he trick you into? He doesn’t favor anyone he can’t experiment on"

"Memory transfer" I answer, deadpan.

"Congratulations on not dying then" Elder Ye laughs, raising her hand as if holding a drink to cheers.

"But back to the important part. How do we sort out these pills?"