New Dwelling

"Please, this way."

An outer sect disciple draped in grey robes led Sheng Zhen, discretely taking glimpses of him from time to time. He knew the boy in form of him was an inner sect disciple but his rough clothes, young age, and the fact that he had a horse along, not a beast but just a common steed with no cultivation to speak of, made it difficult for him to compare Sheng Zhen with arrogant young masters he usually had to deal with.

On the other hand, Sheng Zhen paid his companion no mind and kept looking around in wonder. Despite being just a branch, the Alchemist Hall grounds were large, much larger than all the fields back in his village.

Many Alchemic Gardens and greenhouses filled the entire walled section, where grey-robed outer sect disciples tended to the spirit herbs. To him, the faint smell of alchemic herbs and exquisite flowers was refreshing especially after twenty hours of mind-numbing test.

Beyond the small fields, hundreds of small buildings stood in semicircular formation, surrounding a very large white tower. From those buildings, many columns of smoke constantly rose.

Seeing Sheng Zhen's wonderous expression, the outer sect disciple started to explain, "These fields are where we grow spirit herbs for the Alchemists in the tower, well at least low-level herbs that can be grown without any special requirements."

"And there", he pointed at the buildings surrounding the white tower, "is the inner sect workshops. Every inner and core sect alchemist is given a workshop along with some living arrangements. Even few elders but most just live in the alchemy tower."

"Huh...great! So which one is mine?", Sheng Zhen asked eagerly, a wide smile plastered on his face. For the past week, he had been roaming the city without anywhere to sleep. Not that he needed to, his cultivation along with an insane amount of spiritual energy made the need for sleep a moot point but even he needed to occasionally unwind. Not to mention having a proper alchemy station could help in moving past the bottleneck in his alchemy, he has been at the second rank for a year now.

The outer sect disciple was taken aback by his enthusiasm before he composed himself, "Ye..yes, I am taking you there. And a good one too...usually new disciples are given small dwellings in the outer circle but the dwelling young master is assigned a dwelling that used to belong to the elder"

By that time they had moved past the alchemic gardens and entered the inner sect area. Rows upon rows of buildings with large chimneys, people in outer and inner sect robes milling about, people in cultivator robes of various sects, beasts carrying large amounts of spirit herbs; the entire inner district was a scene of organized chaos.

To Sheng Zhen, it felt like he entered the bazaar, only with fewer shops and a richer crowd.

"Is it always like that?", he asked his escort.

"Yes, the cultivators from all sects are allowed to come here and request pills directly from any alchemist without going through the Alchemist Hall as long as the pill requested is lower than the second rank."

Sheng Zehn nodded, that seemed reasonable enough. Apprentice pills, the pills lower than the first rank could be refined without any spiritual herbs and most first rank pills use low-level spirit herbs. The cost and revenue from these pills should be negligible, practically cheap change for a behemoth like Alchemist Hall.

He kept following the outer sect disciple through the crowd as they made their way towards the large white tower. Sheng Zhen kept petting his horse to keep it from panicking by being close to large herb-carrying beasts.

Soon they were out of the crowded district. The buildings now looked grander and streets wider. The roads here were empty except for occasional inner sect disciple or herb-carrying beasts.

The outer sect disciple stopped in front of one building, "Young Master, this is your dwelling."

The building they stopped in front of was not too large compared to others around but it was definitely more exquisite. The walls were made of redwood, and red tiles adorned the thatched roof. A modest garden surrounded the dwelling, and a stone chimney protruded out from the top.

"Young master, I should go now. Someone else will come and give you your robes and standard-issue resources.", Bowing the inner sect disciple made himself scarce.

The moment he left, Sheng Zhen frowned. He had not wanted to bring such scrutiny to himself so early. His little stunt in the examination hall may come to bite him back in the future.

Shaking his head, he banished such thoughts.

'I will deal with it when the time comes. For now, let's check out my now dwelling.' He tied his horse outside in the garden and stood in front of the door.

Humming to himself, he took out his jade token for his pocket and waved it in front of the door. It glowed briefly, the protective formations registering the signature before opening the door.

Sheng Zhen stepped inside, admiring the building. The entrance hall was large enough to fit his family's entire hut and fully furnished with furniture. Connected to it via a wide arch was the alchemy room. Despite being filled with a myriad of different instruments used in alchemy, everything here was neatly organized, but there were signs of wear and tear. Whoever lived here before, regularly used the room.

Putting down his cauldron and the remaining bundles of evergreen sickle grass in the center of the alchemy room and left to explore the top floor. Climbing the stairs he sensed something, and turned, making way towards a small room that looked like a storeroom.

He entered to see a small form curled in a corner. Sheng Zhen frowned and stepped closer.

The form was of a girl in her teens, although Sheng Zhen could not be sure. Her nails were blackened, her skin pastry white filled with black veins, and her hair were greying like a century-old mortal.

Her body twitched from time to time, shivering with a high fever.

Sheng Zhen kneeled beside her, examined her pulse. He had quite a good guess what happened to her but reading her pulse, he became sure.

"Pill Poisoning..., extreme pill poisoning"