"This looks right…" Standing at the side of a street busier than any other Jun Li had seen in Tinglu city's middle tiers, she looked up at a towering pagoda wreathed in shining yellow tiles.

  Although its height was as grand as she expected, the pagoda's footprint was what truly struck her as remarkable. Even the nearby pavilions didn't match it in that regard.

  Matters of scale and grandiosity notwithstanding, Jun Li cast her attention to those who roamed the streets, whether on foot or by carriage. Estimating those around her, Jun Li indeed found that each and every person present was a Cultivator, something that, despite being a given, interested her greatly.

  'What kind of Cultivation Methods do these people use? Where do they get them, and how did they start? I suppose local families must pass down their methods…?' She desired to know more regarding Martial Cultivation, beyond the scope of her own experiences.

  Jun Li believed that, in the referencing of myriad methodologies and techniques, she would be able to create her own techniques by taking advantage of the knowledge within her inherited memories, or perhaps even by taking advantage of the uniquely abnormal mental models that 'Junzi' himself possesses.

  '...I wonder if people carry manuals and jade slips on their person…?' Jun Li's own unique logic honed in on a potential method to quickly obtain learning material, but she quickly stifled the thought, before her Killing Intent drew any attention.

  Letting out a sigh, Jun Li centered herself and turned to walk into the Alchemist's Association branch. 'I'll wait… until I can find a good excuse…'

  … … … … … …

  Inside the Tinglu City Branch of the Alchemist Association, over a hundred people roamed the first floor. Some waited patiently for their appointments, some spoke with the dispensary clerks, who sat behind large, ring-shaped desks, and pulled pills, elixirs, boluses, and balms from the glass pillars that sat behind their desks.

  Others, often those who wore elaborate and colorful Treasure robes and coats, were led by clerks to private waiting rooms, or even up stairwells, where more select and expensive goods were on display.

  At the edge of one such stairwell, a man, garbed in the thick, many-layered robes of a career alchemist, was speaking with a young man. Unlike many of those gathered, the young man did not wear a formal or modest robe, but instead a black silk suit inlaid with the image of a tortoise.

  At his hands, one could see the purple glint of a half dozen Spatial Rings adorning his fingers. This young man was wealthy in a very different way than what one might see in a Mortal Kingdom; his wealth was of willful freedom and boundless opportunity, rather than of mundane fortune and material goods.

  Yet despite that, even he had no choice but to wait in this moment. "Unfortunately… we cannot hold any tests for new alchemists right now… the infrastructure we use for such things has been, ehh… compromised."

  "Comp- Ahh damn it…." The young man ran a hand down his face in an exacerbative gesture. "What exactly does 'compromised' mean here? Am I going to be waiting long?"

  "Well, the last aspirant to take our test seems to have made a rather disastrous mistake, and… created a rather devastating poison." The elderly alchemist seemed almost embarrassed to have to admit this to the young man. "Our Branch Director is away, so… we've not been able to recover the body, let alone purge the room of the poison…"

  "Hah!? Do you seriously not have a Regalia Manifestation expert who can go in there and fix it!? Surely it's not such a terrible poison that they couldn't endure it?" He spoke as if it were a simple thing, but even for a sizeable branch of the Alchemist's Association, a Regalia Manifestation expert was not someone that could be called upon on short notice, especially for what amounted to a cleanup.

  "Well, it's not so easy here, you see, but… We do have a plan to work on it, but it may take a few days, perhaps a week?" Hearing that, the young man let out a huff in indignant shock. "I am in a bit of a hurry here! I'd like to receive a proper Identification Slip before I leave on a trip. Surely you can understand how inconvenient this delay is for me?"

  In truth, he had no 'trip' to embark on, and he was not greatly rushed by any external factors. This young man simply resented the notion that he had traveled for an hour, only for his intent to be denied and delayed, despite his absolute confidence in passing whatever entrance tests the Alchemist's Association might have saddled him with.

  "Can't you just make a reversal agent or antagonistic poison?" Having listened from the sidelines for a while, Jun Li stepped up towards the duo and posed a question. "A… reversal agent? Antagonistic poison?" The senior alchemist did not immediately understand what Jun Li meant, the phrasing being unfamiliar to him, but after contemplating the basic meaning of her words, he understood enough to reply.

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  He didn't pay any mind to Jun Li's somewhat ragged clothing and was more interested in her interjection. "Oh, no, I… I don't think so. The poison was created by accident and dispersed into the air; it would be difficult in the extreme to identify the ingredients used to make it. It's effectively impossible to create an antidote in these circumstances."

  Under the scrutinizing gaze of the well-off young man to her side, Jun Li continued to speak, somewhat unconvinced. "Then… how about we make something of it? Let's take a look at this room and see what we can identify from the outside."

  "That…" The senior alchemist felt some stress at the thought. It would be deeply irksome if someone were to become seriously ill from exposure to that poison; if he agreed, he would surely be held responsible for whatever befell these aspiring young alchemists.

  The young man immediately spoke up. "That is a wonderful idea! Perhaps we could use this as an opportunity to prove our skills as alchemists, in place of the normal test?" The young man's intentful gaze landed on the senior alchemist, who let out a deep sigh.

  'This kid… damn it, I can't afford to draw the ire of some spoiled little scion…' Shutting his eyes for a moment in thought, the senior alchemist realized he had no good option, and that no matter how he acted, there was risk. "Well… I suppose I can allow that…"

  "Wonderful! In that case, please lead the way, Senior!" Listening to the young man's words, the senior alchemist turned around to hide the dismay on his face while leading the two to the nearby stairwell.

  Following behind both the senior alchemist and the young man, Jun Li contemplated the oddly divergent circumstances she had found herself in. 'I suppose I didn't need that letter of recommendation? Maybe it will come in handy later…'

  The three climbed a number of floors, Jun Li being treated to several interesting sights along the way. 'The third and fourth floors were laid out more like art galleries than a clinic or store, such opulent displays… It can't be worth buying such expensive medicine, right?'

  "Here we are…" When the senior alchemist spoke, Jun Li pulled her drifting gaze away from the lower floors and saw a comparatively strange sight. The floor which they had stopped on was not open like the others, but instead a short hallway leading to a heavy door, seats arranged by the walls, under paintings, and beside tables adorned with vases and catalogues.

  "Through that door are our demonstration chambers, where alchemists go to discuss and display their techniques, theories, and methodologies. The door is air-tight, and the chambers have venting tubes that extract any vapors and gases outside, where they are safely dispersed into the air."

  He quickly continued. "Of course, that includes the poison that currently renders the room uninhabitable… It is no danger to those outside, dispersed as thinly as it is through our extraction system."

  To the side, Jun Li nodded along, visualizing the inside of the chamber. 'It all seems fairly familiar… I suppose each branch of the Alchemist's Association has the same basic layout… An automatic extraction system is a definite step up from the holes in the roof that the Zhao Kingdom Branch had…'

  "Then, Senior! Shall we open the door for an instant and see what we can identify about this poison? I'd be quite interested to compare our observations!" Somewhat dismayed by the young scion's enthusiasm, the senior alchemist took his time approaching the door. "Take care… I will only open the door for an instant; you must use that time to identify as much as possible, before I seal the door once more."

  Standing to the side of the door, the senior alchemist couldn't help but feel some anticipation himself. This was, for him, an academically entertaining concept, despite the potential for a career-shattering disaster should the young man before him prove too frail or intemperate to endure only a brief moment's exposure to the poison.

  Kneeling near the edge of the door, Jun Li waited alongside the young man for the momentary opening. "Ready yourselves…" The senior alchemist warned one last time, placing his hand on the door's handle and slowly twisting it. "Now…!"

  When the door opened, a blackened haze that clung to the floor within was revealed. None of the three paid attention to anything inside other than the haze of poisonous vapor, the corpse within, and the cauldron in its lap.

  Despite everything, all three gathered were alchemists and held a deep academic curiosity that sent their minds racing in that moment.

  'Black vapor… a water-aspected poison? So dense…' The young man considered the nature of the poison and the ingredients that may have gone into its creation.

  'I can feel its effects already, despite holding my breath, it must be absorbed through the skin…' The senior alchemist considered the vector through which it affected the body and contemplated Jun Li's initial suggestion of a preventative or antidote.

  'It's like… ahh, sort of like that?' Jun Li relied entirely on the intuition born of her own experience and the instinct born of her inheritance. 'A blood-based poison… a coagulant…? No, a sort of embolism-generating poison? It's safe for me, then…'

  Before the senior alchemist could shut the door, Jun Li shot forward, squeezing her body through the thin gap he had opened and forcing the door shut behind her.

  "Ah!?" Feeling his control of the door literally slip out of his grasp and watching Jun Li vanish inside, the senior alchemist cried out in shock and felt his hands begin to tremble as he raised them to grab at his hair. "What…!? Why!?"

  To the side, the young man fell back and quickly stood up. "Damn it…!" He wasn't concerned about Jun Li, but her actions caused him great distress. 'What the hell…!? Why is everything conspiring against me today!?' He let out a sigh, having entirely forgotten everything he had identified about the poison.

  'I won't be able to finish my test today if you up and kill yourself in the same room, you selfish piece of trash! Think about others!'