Hearing Tang Yan's words, Ge Ming felt a flicker of displeasure. You ask to borrow my Pill Furnace, yet you won't even name your reward outright? The reply made him suspect that if Tang Yan ruined the pill, the youth meant to back out of paying anything at all.

Still, curiosity got the better of him, especially after the boy's earlier display had left him astonished. Annoyance aside, what he felt most was anticipation. What could this youth possibly offer that he acted so mysterious about it?

In any case, lending out the Pill Furnace for two hours cost him little. Ge Ming nodded. "Very well. Then I shall wait for your good news, little friend. Come with me to the pill room."

"My thanks, Elder Ge. I trust this gift will not disappoint you."

Tang Yan smiled faintly and followed the old man toward the pill room.

Only once he was inside did Tang Yan realize how much ground Myriad Pill Pavilion truly covered. Behind the shop stood the front hall; past the front hall lay the herb garden to the east and the pill rooms to the west.

They wound through several corridors before stopping at last before a stone door. Ge Ming pushed it open, and a wave of heat rolled out.

"This is the new cauldron I just acquired," he said with a smile as they stepped inside.

"A fine cauldron." Tang Yan studied it. "The inner wall is forged from refined Black Sea ore iron, keeping the heat even throughout. The outer wall is ancient black bronze, handsome to the eye, and it locks the warmth within. A porcelain-wood core set dead center strengthens the insulation again. Ingenious design. A cauldron like this couldn't be bought with silver alone."

Ge Ming could not put words to what he felt. The young man before him was clearly so young, yet on the path of Alchemy Dao he carried talent and insight beyond compare. Such a pity, his Dantian had been crippled.

"Sharp eyes, little brother. This cauldron was made by a Master-grade craftsman. It cost no silver, but it cost Myriad Pill Pavilion no small amount of goodwill. Haha, well, I won't disturb you any longer. Two hours from now, come find me in the front hall." Ge Ming said no more. He glanced once at the herb bag slung across Tang Yan's back, then closed the stone door behind him.

"Phew." The moment Ge Ming was gone, Tang Yan stepped up to the cauldron and laid his hand against it, feeling the flames roaring within the furnace fire. A long-missed sense of familiarity stirred in his chest.

He opened his pack, picked out more than ten kinds of herbs, and took his place before the cauldron once more.

He cast the herbs into the cauldron, stripping away the dross and drawing out the essence, his movements as easy as eating a meal or sipping tea. Had Ge Ming seen it, his eyes would surely have bulged from his head. Sorting, trimming, placing, tempering, each motion flowed into the next without the slightest hesitation. Ge Ming was nowhere near his match.

When every herb had gone into the cauldron and Tang Yan channeled his True Qi to draw out their essence, an incredulous look crossed his face once more.

He hadn't known before, never having refined a pill in this world. But here, cultivating the Supreme Alchemy Scripture, his True Qi seemed to refine the herbs further as it worked through them.

The effect was faint for now, yet as a ninth-rank Alchemist in his past life, no change so subtle could escape his notice.

"So the Supreme Alchemy Scripture is this marvelous. There's no more miraculous method for refining pills." He muttered to himself. "My cultivation is only Origin Rank, third grade. If it climbs higher and my True Qi can turn fully into flame, what will my pills be like then? Now that's something to look forward to." Then he stilled his mind and went back to drawing out the essence.

Tang Yan bent every ounce of focus into controlling his True Qi. Sweat beaded on his brow, drop by drop, and as the time wore on the drops fell faster and faster, until his robes were soaked through.

It was only his iron will that carried him. Anyone else, with the strength of merely Origin Rank third grade, attempting to refine a first-rank Middle Grade pill, would have given up long ago.

A long while later, Tang Yan's eyes opened and he dropped onto his backside, spent, gulping down air.

"Damn it, that nearly killed me!"

He wiped the sweat away and, without pausing to rest, opened the cauldron. Twelve pills sat in the center, jade-green from end to end, round and full, a rich fragrance hanging thick in the air without scattering. At last Tang Yan broke into a grin.

He glanced at the timepiece on the wall. Barely an hour and a half had passed. The Supreme Alchemy Scripture truly was marvelous, he thought, it had even quickened his refining.

He drew out two porcelain bottles and stored every pill away. After resting on the floor a while, he found the robes that had been drenched in sweat already baked dry by the furnace's heat. He pushed open the stone door and made for the front hall.

Back in the front hall, Ge Ming's head had been full of guesses about Tang Yan, where he lived, who his master might be, and the like. After sitting for more than an hour, he suddenly recalled that Tang Yan had brought a maidservant with him. He slapped his forehead and cursed himself a fool. Why hadn't he simply asked her?

"Many thanks, Elder Ge." Just as Ge Ming meant to go question Tang Yan about his background, a clear voice rang out.

He looked up. It was Tang Yan, sure enough. He smiled. "Little Brother Tang, how did it go?"

"Finished it, by luck and the grace of Elder Ge's cauldron." Tang Yan offered his thanks, then smiled. "My business is done, so it's time I made good on my promise. Elder Ge, do you have paper and brush?"

"I do. What, little brother, don't tell me you mean to write me a debt note?" Ge Ming chuckled as he fetched paper and brush, teasing him.

"If Elder Ge wouldn't mind, neither would I." Tang Yan laughed, took the brush, and began to write.

When that bold, forceful running script struck the paper, Ge Ming's eyes lit up at once.

For an Alchemist, a fine hand was nothing rare, but Tang Yan's script was vigorous and strong, free and graceful, carrying real character.

"Thousand-Layer Ice Crystal, Coral Grass, Bright Moon Juice, Red Crab Claw Foam, Fire Ox Bone Powder, Seven-Aperture Dream Lotus..." Tang Yan wrote out fifty-one ingredients in one smooth stream, set down the refining process, and finally laid the brush aside.

He blew the ink dry and pushed the finished formula forward. Ge Ming took it.

The moment he read it clearly, his hand jerked hard. As an Alchemist, the properties of every herb were second nature to him. The Coral Grass, Red Crab Claw Foam, and Fire Ox Bone Powder all pointed to a pill that nourished the meridians, and by the difficulty of the refining, this looked to be a second-rank high-grade formula. Whether it was genuine, he could not yet say.

But with Ge Ming's eye, there was a nine-in-ten chance it was real.

"This is a pill formula? What pill?" he asked, puzzled.

"Earlier I noticed a red glint in the whites of Elder Ge's eyes. In your youth you pressed too hard on the path of Alchemy Dao, your method carried some error, and you forced a breakthrough while your strength was still unsteady. Fire poison has settled deep in your meridians because of it. This formula is the Ice-Snow Flame-Cleansing Pill. It will suppress the fire poison in your body, and after seven doses it will be gone for good."

"It's a third-rank low-grade pill. You can't refine it yourself, Elder Ge, but surely someone in Myriad Pill Pavilion can. And if that proves troublesome, once my Master returns I'll beg him to refine a batch for you. The reward is humble, but it carries Tang's full sincerity. I'll take my leave." Tang Yan smiled, cupped his fists toward Ge Ming, and turned to go.

Ge Ming stood there, dazed. The fire poison in his body was exactly as Tang Yan had said, born of careless cultivation in his youth. By now it flared once every three months, and each time it did, every meridian in his body felt as though it were roasting over flame. The agony was a fate worse than death.

As for pills that could resolve fire poison, he had combed through every record he could find, only to learn the lowest grade among them was sixth grade. He had resigned himself to a lifetime tormented by it, and now, by sheer chance, a cure had fallen into his hands?

If he sent word of this to the main pavilion, they would never leave him to suffer. The day his fire poison was lifted was finally within sight.

"Wonderful, truly wonderful!" Ge Ming could not remember the last time he had felt such excitement. He actually clapped his hands, tears nearly spilling.

"Brother Tang! Brother Tang!" He called out twice before realizing Tang Yan had already gone. Tucking the formula away, he rushed after him.

Seeing Tang Yan emerge safe and sound, Xiaocui finally let her heart settle. Master and servant were just about to leave when, with a crash, the shop's inner door flew open and Ge Ming came charging out.

The shop hands and the customers around them stared in shock. Master Ge was always so poised, the very picture of refinement, so why had he lost his composure today?

"Brother Tang, wait, wait!" Ge Ming shouted.

What, Brother Tang? Everyone in the shop froze at once, jaws dropping to the floor.

Ge Ming, Great Elder of Yun City's Myriad Pill Pavilion, a man even the City Lord addressed respectfully as Master Ge, had just called a wet-behind-the-ears stripling his brother. Who in the world was this young man?

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