Tower Lord - Alchemy Guild.
"Old Man, we've got a new disciple joining us!" Tao Ru shouted as she burst through another door, they had travelled a few floors up until they reached a rather spacious floor with only four different doors, the one they went in was a fancy wooden one with trees carved in the wood.
A aged sigh echoed from the other side of the room as the sound of a cup being placed down followed "Little girl, how many time have I told you to not call me that?"
A gentle looking old man with combed grey hair and beard turned in his chair so he could look at the rude guest.
"How many times have I told you I'm not a little girl!" Tao Ru complained in turn.
The man gently shook his head "You'll be a little girl until you learn to properly listen to others".
Shu He felt this old man was very agreeable already and he steadily nodded behind them.
"Ugh- never mind that, did you hear what I just said?!"
"Yes, yes, a new disciple is it? How rare…" The old man's eyes moved over to Shu He's figure; his old wizened green eyes looked him over as he smiled gently.
"I see… I think I've seen you recently, no? In the recent tournament?" He asked.
"That's the one! The one that blew up the arena!" Tao Ru affirmed while nodding.
"I did no such thing…" Shu He sent the alchemist girl an annoyed look.
"Has he taken the test already?"
"Yeah, I just took him through it, he passed." Tao Ru nodded.
"That's odd, last time I checked we didn't have any recorded requests to take the exam…" The old man smiled slightly, his eyes thinning into smirks.
"Ack- I-I don't know what you mean?" Tao Ru's expression froze as she tried to maintain a poker face.
"You remember that the job of a clerk is to record all happenings while at their station, correct? Yet while a certain someone was taking the position a month ago, you seemed to have missed some things, like some scrolls being taken, right?"
"…" Tao Ru had frozen in place, her expression turning sheet white.
"I know you only did that job because of a silly little bet, but I do expect you to take every job here seriously, you don't want to lose your license, right?" A cold smile was plastered on the old man's face, even Shu He felt a little chill up his spine as he saw it.
"No! No! I'm sorry Tower Lord! I won't make such mistakes ever again!" Suddenly Tao Ru bowed deeply as she spoke apologies in shot gun fashion.
"Then see to it you don't" He chuckled as he looked back over to Shu He.
"Now then, I know who you are, so I'll introduce myself- My name is Bo Yun, the Tower Lord of this here Alchemy Tower and a 1st class alchemist".
"Disciple Shu He greets the… Tower Lord?" Shu He performed the usual bow but couldn't help but express his confusion at the title.
"Hahaha, if you have any questions feel free to ask, I'm quite free right now after all". Bo Yun chuckled.
"Then, why are you a 'Tower Lord', not a division elder? This is the Alchemy Division right?" Shu He had felt something was off since he came here, he felt that the Alchemy Division was different from the rest of the others.
"It is, and it isn't" The elder took a sip of his tea.
"…" Shu He waited and said nothing, despite his desire to point out how much of a non-answer that was.
"Well, at least you have a longer fuse than our Tao Ru there" He sighed, glancing at the now quiet brown-haired alchemist in the corner.
"While we are the 'Alchemy Division' it's basically in name only, we function very differently to the other divisions; In a way we are an independent force from the sect that has signed an agreement with them, or rather an agreement with the 5 sects themselves".
"In each of the 5 sects, and a few other places around the centre of the country we have multiple Alchemy Towers, these aren't independent of each-other and are in fact part of the Alchemists Guild, as long as one becomes an active alchemist they can visit any of these locations freely".
Shu He frowned slightly "So if one becomes an alchemist, they can enter the 5 sects freely?"
"With restrictions, of course, there's no way they'd let a unknown alchemist wonder freely in their sect, you'll have about as much freedom as you would if you went to another sect as you are now".
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Oh, right, you're not allowed to leave the sect yet… You should know that the 5 sects have somewhat of a sibling relationship, they're all part of one force under the capital Iris, while there may be rivalry and competition between the different sects they are allies, that's why you can freely visit other sects when out on missions to stock up on resources and such."
"Heeh, I didn't know that… how far do those restrictions go, could we have access to other sects techniques?" A small glint grew in Shu He's eye, if he could go to the Sleeping Forest sect at a later date…
"Of course not, while all 5 sects share a library of low-level techniques they still want to keep the higher-level ones exclusive for the members".
"Oh…" Shu He's hopes were dashed immediately.
"Keh, there's no need to look so disappointed, I'm sure if you do something to help the other sects they'll open their coffers." The old man couldn't help but let out a slight laugh seeing Shu He's expression.
"Ah, right…" Shu He scratched his chin in contemplation.
"Anyway, back to the original question, I've received the title 'Tower Lord' from the guild because I'm in charge of this tower, in a way my position is similar to that of the Sect Master of this sect; I'm sure you don't know about the ranks for alchemists yet either, correct?"
Shu He nodded.
"An alchemist rank is a representation of their skill, it has gone through many reforms over the years to arrive at the current simplified version, there are three ranks; 3rd, 2nd and 1st class, going from largest being lower to the smallest being the highest".
"The ranks denote the skill of the alchemist based on their success rate and tier of the pills they can make, for 3rd class you need to be able to make Tier 1, 2 and 3 pills all with at least a 80% success rate" He held up three fingers as he spoke, before he put one down.
"For 2nd class, you need to be able to create Tier 4, 5 and 6 pills with a 50% success rate, however you will also need to be able to create Tier 1, 2 and 3 pills with a 100% success rate".
He held up one finger, his voice rose an octave as he spoke "And finally, for 1st class you need to be able to create Tier 7 and 8 pills with a 30% success rate, however you also need to be able to create all pills Tier 1 to 6 with 100% success rate".
"What about Tier 9?" Shu He asked, he assumed there would be nine tiers since there's 9 stages of cultivation in the mortal realm.
Bo Yun paused for a moment, before he gave Shu He a deep look.
"That's irrelevant".
Shu He frowned in turn causing the old man to take a deep breath and exhale.
"Do you know about the 9th stage of cultivation?" he asked.
Shu He nodded and replayed what he knew in his mind.
'The ninth stage is called Mortal Rebirth, it is the last stage of the mortal realm and also serves as a bridge to the ascended realm, to reach this stage is simple, yet also lethal; You must trigger your heavenly tribulation and, under the rain of heavenly lightning, destroy your mortal body exposing your core seed, and then using the residual energies, you must create an ascended form from the seed.'
And then it struck him.
"Create an ascended form…" He murmured.
"So you realised, that's right, like the 9th stage of cultivation, the 9th tier pill is different in form entirely, it's essentially a half-step ascended pill; All pills require Qi of a certain potency to form, if you're slightly weaker you can use certain tools to help you, but for the 9th tier that just isn't possible".
"Thus, it's irrelevant, the only ones capable of making such pills will have assailed their tribulation and left this world" Bo Yun explained, yet as he spoke Shu He felt like he caught a hint of longing in the eyes of the old man.
Bo Yun took another sip of his tea.
"It's getting cold…" He frowned as he placed it back down.
"Tao Ru, do your job" he called to the brooding woman in the corner.
"R-right!" she quickly headed over to the bookcase before she stopped and turned around.
"Oh! Shu He, did you decide which alchemy technique you wanted to use?".
"The second one, Alchemy Gate" He replied without hesitating.
It hadn't been a hard decision in the end, the first technique the conversion technique was too pitiful and felt like a waste, whereas the third technique, the core flame conversion presented many risks, not only could it affect his combat potential, but he also had no idea how it would actually affect his core flame because it simply wasn't normal!
"Sensible" She nodded before pulling out a scroll and handing it over to Shu He, as expected when he read the label it said, "Creating an Alchemic Gate".
He stashed it away in his robe.
"Pass me your token" Bo Yun held his hand out, so Shu He did so.
His token was placed on a plate that was on the desk and with a few flashes of light there was another line of writing on it, 'Alchemy Division'.
Shu He was handed back the token, he smiled slight looking at it now.
'Only one free side left to fill' he thought as he stored that in his robe too.
"Now then, you may be a part of this Alchemy Division, but you aren't recognised as an alchemist yet, you aren't part of the Alchemy Guild, currently you can't even be considered a trainee alchemist yet since you haven't even made a single pill, so that is your first task."
Bo Yun stroked his beard in contemplation "Let's see, who shall we assign as your teacher… right! Since you already know each other, Tao Ru can teach you!"
"What?! Me?! But I was going to-" She wanted to complain, yet the moment she looked into the tower lords chilly eyes she went silent.
"…Alright I'll do it." She said, without any other words following.
"Then, get going, I need to get going as well" He stood up, shooing them away.
They both left the room, walking down the hallway in silence.
"…Three days" Tao Ru suddenly spoke.
"Pardon?" Shu He asked, unsure what she meant.
"I'll give you three days to create an Alchemic Gate, when those three days are up I'll show you how to create a pill, don't be late!" She said, before storming off.
"…What the hell?" Shu He stood in the hallway dumbfounded.
He then looked around, the unfamiliar halls and doors surrounding him.
'I hope I can find the way out…'