The Alchemy Pavilion

When Amrit's hour in the Divine Ascension Tower was up, he descended the crystal staircase feeling like a new man. The colossal leap in his cultivation had settled within him, the once-wild ocean of his Spirit Sea now as calm and responsive as a tranquil lake. The world felt different, sharper, more pliable. He had consciously suppressed his aura, folding his immense new power so deeply within himself that, to an outside observer, he still appeared as a mundane Outer Court disciple.

Stepping out of the tower, he was met with a wall of silence. The crowd that had gathered was still there, but they now looked at him with a primal fear that transcended mere rivalry. They had all felt the cataclysmic energy drain, the moment the entire city's spiritual grid faltered. They didn't know the specifics of what had happened in that room at the top, but they knew it was his doing. He was no longer just a talented student; he was a phenomenon that could affect the very stability of their world.

Prince Valerius was gone, but his lingering aura of frustrated fury was a palpable stain in the air. Zian, however, had waited. He rushed over, his face a mixture of terror and exhilaration.

"Amrit! What in the name of the forgotten gods did you do in there?" he hissed, his voice trembling. "The energy fluctuations… the entire city felt it! The Elders had to put out a notice blaming a 'temporary instability in the primary spiritual nexus' to prevent mass panic!"

"I was cultivating," Amrit replied simply.

"That wasn't cultivation! That was… that was celestial gluttony!" Zian exclaimed. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "The final trial is tomorrow. The combat tournament. After what just happened, everyone is terrified of you. Valerius will be gunning for you with everything he has. Kael Volkov looks like he wants to personally tear you limb from limb. You need to be prepared."

"I am," Amrit said.

"No, I mean with equipment!" Zian insisted. "A strong offense is good, but a strong defense is better. You need potions, recovery pills, defensive talismans! With the Merit Points we have, we can afford the best. We should go to the Alchemy Pavilion."

Amrit considered this. He had already crafted his own superior equipment, but Zian's point was valid. Visiting the Pavilion would allow him to see what the Academy considered "the best," giving him a baseline for the level of craftsmanship he would be facing. It was also an opportunity to acquire rare ingredients he couldn't find in Kshirapura's treasury.

"A sound idea," Amrit agreed.

The Alchemy Pavilion was another of the Outer Court's major hubs, a large, ornate building shaped like a giant cauldron, from which faint, multi-colored wisps of smoke constantly curled. The air for a hundred yards around it was thick with the complex, mingling scents of a thousand different herbs, minerals, and elixirs.

The inside was a vast, bustling marketplace. Hundreds of students browsed rows upon rows of stalls, each run by a senior disciple or a contracted alchemist. Glowing potions bubbled in glass beakers, perfectly formed pills rested on silk cushions, and powerful talismans were displayed under protective energy shields. It was a dazzling display of alchemical wealth.

"Alright," Zian said, rubbing his hands together. "We need three things. First, Qi Recovery Pills. For quickly replenishing Prana during a long fight. Second, a Body-Tempering Brew, to temporarily boost physical defense. And third, a Soul-Shield Talisman, to protect against spiritual attacks."

They approached a stall run by a stern-looking senior disciple, a girl with her hair tied up in a severe bun. Her stall was considered one of the best, her products famously potent and pure. A small crowd of wealthy students was gathered around it.

"Two high-grade Qi Recovery Pills," Zian said to the girl, holding up his student token.

The girl nodded curtly. "That will be 1,000 Merit Points."

Zian winced but authorized the transaction. She handed him two small, fragrant pills. Zian passed one to Amrit. "Here. Keep this for the tournament."

Amrit took the pill. It was well-made, the energies within it stable and pure. By normal standards, it was a work of art. To his own system-enhanced knowledge, however, it was flawed.

He focused his senses on it, his alchemical understanding providing an instant, deep analysis.

[Item: High-Grade Qi Recovery Pill.]

[Quality: 8/10. Ingredients are pure, but the fusion process was imperfect. Contains a 3.4% impurity residue of Moon-Dew Herb, which will cause a slight sluggishness in meridian circulation after the primary effect wears off. Energy conversion rate is approximately 78%.]

It was a good pill, but not a perfect one. Amrit could, with the right ingredients, create a pill with a 100% conversion rate and zero impurities.

"What about a Soul-Shield Talisman?" Amrit asked the girl, gesturing to a beautiful, silver-etched paper talisman on her display.

"The pride of my master's work," the girl said, a flicker of pride in her eyes. "It can block a direct spiritual assault from a mid-stage Spirit Sea cultivator. One-time use. 5,000 Merit Points."

The price was exorbitant. Amrit picked it up, feeling the flow of runes within it.

[Item: Soul-Shield Talisman (Superior Grade).]

[Quality: 7/10. Runic pathways are stable but inefficient. The core rune for 'Dispersion' is slightly misaligned, creating a 12% energy leakage upon activation. The defensive matrix could be 30% stronger with a more optimal geometric layout.]

Again, good, but flawed. Everything here was. It was the work of talented mortals, limited by human error and imperfect understanding.

Amrit placed the talisman back down. "I am not interested in buying," he said to the girl. "I am interested in selling."

The girl, Zian, and the other students at the stall all stared at him in confusion.

"Selling?" the girl asked, an arrogant smirk on her face. "This is the Alchemy Pavilion, boy. We deal in master-crafted goods. We don't buy the crude concoctions of first-year students."

Amrit ignored her tone. He reached into a small pouch at his waist—a storage pouch he had crafted on the sky-barge—and pulled out a single, simple-looking pill. He had made a small batch of them last night, using some of the ingredients he had brought from home. It was his own version of a Qi Recovery Pill.

The pill was a perfect, translucent sphere, with a single, tiny wisp of golden light swirling at its core. It had no fragrance. It had no grand aura. It was utterly, perfectly simple.

He placed it on the counter. "I call it the 'Pristine Source Pill'," he said. "It is also for Qi recovery."

The girl scoffed. "It looks like a glass bead. There's barely any energy radiating from it."

"That is because the energy is perfectly contained," Amrit said. "There is zero leakage. It has a 100% energy conversion rate and zero impurities."

A ripple of laughter went through the students gathered at the stall.

"100% conversion? Zero impurities? Is he mad?"

"That's a theoretical impossibility! Not even the Grand Alchemist of the Empire can achieve that!"

"This backwoods fool is trying to scam us!"

The senior disciple running the stall looked at Amrit with utter contempt. "Take your useless trinket and get out of my sight before I report you for attempting to defraud students."

Amrit did not move. He simply looked at her and said, "Test it."

His calm, unshakeable confidence was unnerving. The girl hesitated, then, with a roll of her eyes, she picked up a small, crystal diagnostic tool from under her counter. It was a device used to measure the purity and potency of alchemical items.

"Fine," she sneered. "Let everyone see what a fraud you are."

She placed Amrit's Pristine Source Pill on the device. The crystal needle, which was supposed to measure the impurity percentage, was at zero. The potency meter, a glowing bar, was at max.

She activated the device.

The needle for impurity didn't even twitch. It remained perfectly, absolutely at zero.

The potency meter, however, began to glow with a brilliant, golden light. The light grew more and more intense, far surpassing the bar's maximum reading. The crystal device began to hum violently, vibrating on the counter.

CRACK!

With a sharp report, the diagnostic tool, a precise and expensive piece of equipment, shattered into a thousand pieces, overloaded by the sheer, perfect potency of the single, unassuming pill.

Silence.

The laughter died in the throats of the surrounding students. Their mocking expressions were replaced by the same slack-jawed, soul-shaken disbelief that Amrit was becoming accustomed to seeing.

The senior disciple stared at the shards of her broken device, then at the Pristine Source Pill, which still sat placidly on the counter, its inner light swirling gently, completely unaffected. Her face was as white as a sheet. Her professional arrogance was gone, replaced by the horrified realization of a master craftsman who had just spat on a divine artifact.

"What… what is that?" she whispered, her voice trembling.

"It is a perfect pill," Amrit said simply.

He picked it up and held it out. "I will not sell it to you. But I will trade. I will trade this one pill for every single raw ingredient you have in your stall."

The offer was ludicrous. The value of her entire stock of rare herbs and monster cores was worth tens of thousands of Merit Points. But the girl, and everyone else who had witnessed the event, knew they had just seen the birth of something that was, by all rights, priceless. A single, perfect alchemical pill. Its value could not be measured in points. The knowledge that could be gained from studying it could revolutionize an alchemist's entire career.

Without a word, her hands trembling, the girl began to pack up every single ingredient she owned.

Amrit had come to the Alchemy Pavilion to buy resources. Instead, he had just acquired a small fortune in materials, and had once again, without even trying, turned the established order of another of the Academy's pillars completely on its head.