The third step, which was used to gauge their ability to control the temperature, gave them fifteen minutes to brew a cauldron full of Purple Cloud Tea. While it did properly demonstrate this control, as Purple Cloud Tea would become too strong if steeped for to long, too weak if steeped for too little time, too bitter if steeped at too low of a temperature and would burn easily if steeped at too high of a temperature, it had another purpose for being the step just before the final refinement. This was mostly a break for the contestants to refill their qi reserves, deal with the accumulated stress, and work out the details of how they would refine everything. After the contestants finished brewing their tea, everyone in the audience, judges and honored guests receiving preferential treatment, could sample any of the tea which they made, and they would have thirty minutes to do so.
Every cauldron was filled with fresh spirit water from the well behind the house, and given a bag which contained the tea leaves. Jiang hung her tea on the side of the cauldron so that it would be able to float near the middle of the cauldron, but Five threw her bag into the bottom, where it immediately sank. I had made tea for the Ambassador a few times, and knew that was a mistake. The bottom of the pot would be slightly hotter than the water, and the water at the bottom would be slightly hotter than that at the top or in the middle. This would make it quite difficult to properly control the temperature. She had most likely never made tea with a bag before, but at least she didn’t open it and pour the leaves in the water. Most tea which mortals drank, as well as the type she had made me once, simply added a small amount of leaves to the cup, then poured hot water over them. If the tea became too strong, one could simply add more water. With higher end teas, like Purple Cloud Tea, however, one always used a bag so that they couldn’t over-steep the leaves and ruin it.
Jiang used her excellent fire control to bring the water up to temperature and maintain it there for exactly six minutes before cutting off the flame, letting the tea sit for another three, then removing the bag, letting it drain a bit before setting it to the side. While most of the others did approximately the same thing, Five carefully adjusted the air vent to only allow a slight flame, heating it up more slowly, and only allowing it to steep for five minutes before cutting off all air then climbing up a ladder to fish the bag out with a pair of tongs.
Once the time was finished, a lower servant was sent to each cauldron to pour all of the tea into a numbered ceramic jug. Each of these jugs was then wheeled to the front where each judge was given a small cup of each. Most of the teas received adequate reviews, while number three and five, Jiang and a man two cauldrons down from her named Ji Pon, received praise for their excellent tea brewing skills. Then there was number eight, Five. As one of the judges put it, “While the tea leaves were not overcooked to the degree that they lost their potency, the temperature they were steeped at was slightly too high, leaving a slightly burnt aftertaste in the mouth.” She managed to barely pass this step, though the judge who gave her such a review suggested that she read a book on the proper way to prepare tea, as he considered it a mandatory skill for cultivators, alchemists, and nobility.
Everyone on the stage and in the stands wanted a cup of either number three or number five’s tea, though many asked for cups of other numbers, mostly people they knew. I was the only one that asked for a cup of number eight’s tea. When a cup of both Jiang’s and Five’s tea arrived, I examined them both. Both of them were the same purple cloudy color. I took a sip of Five’s and found that it did, in fact, have a slight burnt aftertaste. Still, it was quite relaxing, like a cup of chamomile, and I felt my false meridians and dantian relax a bit, similar to that fruit wine I had once had. I knew that this tea would make it a few percent easier to cultivate. Then I took a sip of Jiang’s tea. This sip felt far more relaxing, like a good message, and drinking the entire glass made it at least ten percent easier to cultivate, if not fifteen. I asked for another glass of Jiang’s tea, sipping on Five’s until it arrived, then got up and walked to the bleachers on the other end of the field. No one was able to talk to the trial takers until the contest was over, so I went to talk to their family instead.
After chatting a bit with the Qins, including the proud Ding, and petting the various pets, I walked over to the Ambassador. “I must admit,” he said, “I didn’t think that they would do so well. I assumed that two days was too little preparation time. It seems you’ve proven me wrong.”
“While I would love to claim victory, they still need to complete the final step, and it should be the hardest.”
He nodded. “True. It isn’t over yet, but I think there is a good chance they might succeed, and you’ll have two new alchemists as followers.” While his words said he was impressed, I could tell that he wasn’t entirely approving of the way I was doing things. I still didn’t know how I would handle them before returning to Earth, as I couldn’t bring slaves onto US Territory, which the base counted as. I had also rejected freeing them and having them live in the outer city of the base as local refugees, as there was already a shortage of alchemical ingredients at the base, thus stagnating Jiang and Five’s training and job skills. I had arranged to send them to the White Tiger sect, as long as they were fine with it, but I wasn’t sure if I should free them first or name Randy or Mike as their manager, then free them before leaving for Earth. While I didn’t want to keep them as slaves, I had to do so in the city for now just to keep up appearances. The family and other rich people would suspect that I had ill intent if if I freed them too soon, and other slaves would constantly be approaching me to free them as well. Speaking with the monk, who voiced my position, however, gave me the beginnings of an idea on how to free them while not ruining my reputation or attracting too much attention.
“We are leaving with the caravan tomorrow morning, correct?” I asked.
The Ambassador nodded. “Just after sunrise, tomorrow morning. So don’t stay out too late celebrating your victory here today.”
I nodded. “In that case, I will see you then.” I saw Ji Cha in a different section of the bleachers and wanted to speak with him, and there were only a few minutes left for me to do so. I went up to the man and bowed slightly. “It’s good to see you again.” I said. “I assumed you would be at your shop.”
“I am allowing my assistant to run it for now. I will return after the trials. My great grand daughter is contestant number two, so I wanted to watch her trial.”
I nodded. “She seems to be doing well, and her three pills don’t seem to be the most difficult. She will likely pass.”
He nodded. “True, though I managed the first three tests both times I took the trials, but could never pass the last one. If I had more time to practice, perhaps, but the family only gives you two years to learn alchemy, from your eighteenth to your twentieth birthdays, and didn’t have the money at the time to fund my own practice.”
“You could afford to do so now, I’m sure.” I responded. From the look of things the book store was doing quite well.
“True, but I lack the desire to spend my last days studying an art I will never excel at. Your two new slaves seem to be doing quite well, though. The young one slightly botched the last test, but not by so much that she failed the entire assessment. This is most likely because she hasn’t ever made proper spirit tea, just the cheap mundane kinds. I was surprised that they could learn alchemy in merely two days, though.”
I nodded. “Yes, they are doing well. Mo Lin instructed me well on what study materials they would need, and they were essentially in closed door cultivation for the last two days studying it, but their progress is quite amazing.” I paused for a second and sipped the last of Jiang’s tea from my cup. “I actually had an opportunity to enter a hidden realm in the last week, and brought a gift for you from there, something which might allow you to break through to level two and extend your life by another hundred years. I’m not certain that it will, but if you are willing to try, I will gladly give it to you free of charge.”
Ji Cha shook his head. “I won’t take something from you without a free trade, for I don’t feel that we are close enough friends yet. Though, if I think it will work, I will gladly pay a fair price for it.”
I nodded, seeing that everyone was returning to their seats. “I paid fifteen stones for it, so just paying that is fine. When you return to your shop, please learn the Swarm Control Technique and the Swarm Contract Technique from the Beast Tamer’s path. I will visit your store after I run a few errands in town.”
He nodded. “I heard you had visited the White Tiger Sect, and know that they are Beast Tamers, so it isn’t surprising that you brought me a spirit pet. I will do so.” He bowed to me and I returned the gesture, then quickly returned to my seat on stage.
About a minute after I sat down the gong rang again and the test takers returned to their cauldrons, having prepared as best they could for the final step. Their pill embryos were returned to them, and the family head, Ji Quan, stood to repeat the rules of this final step. They would be given thirty minutes per pill to refine them. They would automatically pass if they refined a batch in which all pills were at least average quality. They would automatically fail if they produced a batch with no usable pills, with lesser and petty grade ones counting as usable for this purpose. They would also technically pass and receive certification if they made fifteen total pills of at least average quality, though the family wouldn’t allow them to make pills on their own if they won by such a method, only to serve as an apprentice to a full alchemist until they succeeded in a full batch of salable pills.
When the speech was over they all started on their first refinement. The eight from the Ji family all used the same refinement technique, thought it wasn’t the standard one. As their ancestor had left them a family cultivation technique for alchemists, this technique was likely part of that family secret. Jiang and Five, however, used a variation of the taiji formation from before. While the others added the ten pills before beginning to use a technique with hand signs, Jiang and Five were creating a formation before adding the pill embryos.
I could tell that their techniques were drawing in large amounts of qi from the environment, much like the gathering formation in my room at the Eastern Gate Sect, but this one seemed to be splitting the qi into two types of qi. One type was vibrant and active, full of life. The second was cold and stagnant, not quite like death, but like complacency. From my studies of Chinese philosophy in college I knew that the first type was Yang qi and the second was Yin qi, though I didn’t know the exact properties of either. Did they actually contain different types of qi particles which gave them these properties, or were those properties imbued on the qi? I would need to study it later.
When a pill was placed within the cauldron I carefully shared Liang’s qi sense for a few seconds, not wanting to disturb her. The connection to her was weaker than the one with One, closer to the connection I had with the dragonfly I caught upon first entering the hidden realm, so I had to put a good bit of mental effort into doing so, even spending a bit more qi than necessary so that she wouldn’t notice, as I didn’t want to break her concentration. I could feel the pills form miniature copies of the two energies, which drew the qi and effects from the ingredients, concentrating them. The effects which were closer to yang went to that half of the miniature formation, and the effects which are closer to yin went to that half, thus being mostly separated from the pills and somewhat insulated from the refinement process. As the pills heated up through three different stages, the various impurities that were susceptible to those temperatures, including the water inside the pill, were either burned away or evaporated. Every time the impurities left the pill, some of the energy from the miniature formation would return to the pill, and by the time she was finished all of the qi had returned to the pill.
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After letting it cool for a few minutes she opened the cauldron. An overpowering stench flooded out, but most of the audience was too far away to smell more than the slightest whiff of it. She then used her qi to float out ten pills, then start on the next batch just as eight of the other nine testers started cooling their cauldron. Five followed a few minutes later.
I swapped my sense borrowing over to Five for her second batch. This batch was much more difficult that the first. First, the temperatures needed to be much more exact. If she went too low, the impurities wouldn’t leave the pill, and if she went too high, the Sacred Fire Sage would ignite, causing the pills to prematurely activate and draw in the qi from her formation. This could cause the entire batch to fail, causing her to automatically fail. There was only about a five degree difference between ‘too cold’ and ‘too hot’ in the case of the final purification step. In this case, the world essentially used the metric system, as just like on earth their standard temperature unit was one hundredth of the temperature between melting ice and boiling water, though the slightly denser air caused their degree and a Celsius degree to not be exactly the same. The variation was too small to really care about in most cases.
As the pill heated I could tell that Five started to panic. She closed off the vent on the bottom just a few seconds too late, and one of the pills near the bottom got slightly too hot. The formation started to have its qi drained, and she focused everything on stopping the formation’s collapse. The rapid inrush of qi slightly heated the air near the pill, similar to how tribulation ionized the air. There was a loud pop from inside the cauldron, like a strong firecracker going off, and a few seconds later another, though it was significantly weaker. The audience all knew that this was a serious problem.
I knew about the concept of a cauldron explosion from Maria. Though it could happen for numerous reasons, in her case usually being from using flammable materials in the pills, such as alcohol as a solvent or nitroglycerin in a heart pill, pills could rapidly destabilize and explode. Usually this would result in a cascading reaction that destroyed the entire batch, which was called a Cauldron Explosion. Though Maria used a bronze cauldron, and therefore never risked damaging her cauldron when that happened, Five was using a significantly weaker ceramic one, and the explosions were significantly stronger than the ones Maria had deal with. A full explosion could crack or even destroy the cauldron, putting her life at risk.
There was another slight pop about thirty seconds after the last, but Five concentrated more, exerting her full mental strength, and no further pills exploded. A few minutes later she relaxed and closed the vent on her cauldron, suffocating the fire, and sat down to meditate. I could tell that she was using the mental rest technique to try and recover from the exertion. While she only had five minutes left to remove the pills, she had to let them cool, and spent the cooling time meditating. Four and a half minutes later she opened her eyes, stood, and opened her cauldron. An even stronger stench escaped the cauldron along with the distinct smell of smoke from something burning. Still, she floated the pills out and onto a tray. Seven of them were a golden yellow in color, but three were dark black, having been turned to charcoal when they detonated. Luckily she was able to stop it from cascading.
After using the cleaning technique to remove all of the pill residue from inside the cauldron, she started the formation again and added the satiation pills. The temperature range on these wasn’t as critical, and only needed to reach cooking temperatures, not the hotter temperatures of the previous batch, so she didn’t need to exert herself very much on the last batch. Fifteen minutes later she snuffed out the fire and then sat down to finish her meditation. She only opened them five minutes later to lift the lid and float the ten pills onto the tray before sitting back down and continuing to meditate. These pills were all a dark green in color and the stench that had left them during the refinement was like hot compost, not necessarily bad, but not a pleasant scent.
When the time was up, all of the trial takers had already finished their last batch and some of them also started to meditate. Five seemed to be the only one that was actually cultivating, though, as she was the only one drawing in large amounts of qi. Or, more accurately, the others were using qi breathing, but she was using qi skin, absorbing qi through the tiny nerves on the surface of her skin, while the others only used the qi that entered their lungs. This used more concentration, but she had just fully restored her mental state, so being almost exhausted of qi was a bigger problem. After all, she was still in the initial stage of level one, and Liang had just entered early level one, but the others all seemed to be in the middle of level one if not late. I removed myself from her qi sense, as I didn’t want to watch the process of qi restoration from her perspective.
Once the time ran out the lower servant girls rolled the trays of pills over to the judge’s table and the judges looked over the pills. Number three, Jiang, hadn’t lost any pills, but two of the first batch and one each of the other two batches were lesser grade. She had passed, but only with a technical victory. The other star tea maker had done far worse, making seven inferior grade pills in one batch, five in middle, and four in the last, bringing his successful pills to a total of fourteen. He looked angered by this, but knew not to challenge the judgment. With such a performance it was likely that his tea making skill was more closely related to his love of tea than his flame control ability. Five had made three inferior grade pills with the first batch, had three failed pills with the second batch, though one of them was high grade and the rest were average, but had managed to make nine average quality and one high quality satiation pills, succeeding in the trial and technically outperforming her mother. I would argue that Jiang’s more consistent success was better overall, however.
After the chamber of commerce handed out certification badges to Jiang, Five, and the six Ji family juniors that passed, including contest number two, Ji Cha’s great granddaughter, the crowd was allowed to speak with the contestants. Many of the alchemists got up to talk to those that succeeded, with Ji family members mostly heading towards their six winners and a few outside alchemists approaching Jiang and Five. I knew they would most likely receive offers of employment. While, as they were my slaves, I would technically be the one to make the decision concerning their careers, it was traditional to talk to the contestant first, then the one making the decision, should there be someone else in that role, like a training master or a slave master.
I noticed an angry contestant number five start to walk towards Jiang. When he reached her she turned to greet him and a large hand impacted her face, causing her to fall down. “Cheater!” he yelled, and Jiang raised her arm, a small flood dragon coming out of her sleeve to hiss at him. I leapt off of the stage and flew over to land between them.
He started to approach her to hit her a second time, when I landed and he simultaneously noticed the snake. He stepped back slightly in fear, though I wasn’t sure if it was because of me or the snake. He seemed surprised that I would stop him, however. “Please, tell me how you think she cheated at a test which your own family elders say is impossible to cheat at.” I said, releasing just enough qi to intimidate him. He took a step backwards again. I turned around and helped Jiang up. “Are you okay?” I asked, and she nodded as she stood up. I used Taking Pulse and saw that she didn’t have any injuries more serious than a few burst blood vessels on her face, and that the son she carried was healthy as well.
“She...She had to, somehow.” he stuttered. “How else could she succeed with only two days of study?” This statement seemed to impress those standing there, as they started to murmur.
“So, because she was able to succeed in two days whereas you weren’t after, what, two months? Two years? Because she succeeded where you failed, you accuse her of cheating?” I knew it likely wasn’t a full two years, as they likely hadn’t used this as the final test for any of their family members, but it was likely close.
“A year and a half.” he said. “But that doesn’t matter. No one in the family can do the same, regardless of their talent, and we have a heavenly and master technique to study.”
“No one in your family goes into closed door suicide cultivation to accomplish that, either, I’d wager. But that is essentially what the two of them did, only getting a good meal twice, and only getting a few hours of sleep last night, so that they could be well rested for the test today. If you were willing to do the same you could probably repeat their feat.”
He scoffed. “Why would I do that? Do you think I’m a slave that can be worked half to death?”
“So it’s because they are slaves that you think they are unworthy?” I saw that Jiang was reluctant to speak up, so I motioned for her to come forward. “This seemed far more personal than simply that she has the talent and drive to learn the skill in days. Tell me, Jiang, what is your history with this man?”
Jiang took a step forward and looked nervous, but when I encouraged her, saying that he wouldn’t be allowed to hurt her, she spoke up. “Three months ago Ji Pon demanded that I come to his quarters and dual cultivate with him. When I refused on the grounds that I was already over five months pregnant and had a husband, he told me that I would regret that decision and soon beg him to take me. For the next several weeks my children started being bullied by the other servants. After that, my husband was reassigned from the stables to the spirit tree cutting group, a detail which is usually reserved for the disobedient slaves and lower servants. Then, two months ago, I and Five, the girl that just passed the test, were pulled out of the kitchen and flower garden and sent to work in the herb fields, despite the fact that I was a good chef and six months pregnant.”
Several people gave him angry looks, and a few of them commented on the fact that the quality of the food decreased slightly around two months ago. “And why shouldn’t I be able to reassign a mere slave to a better job?” contestant number five, Ji Pon, asked.
“I thought that Ji Terron was in charge of the slaves and lower servants. I didn’t realize that you were one of his assistants, merely trying to improve the staff arrangements. I apologize.” I gave him a slight, mocking bow.
“He isn’t.” said Ji Quan, stepping over. “He is a trainee alchemist and has no other job than to focus on his studies.”
“Why shouldn’t I have the right to demand such a thing, though?” Ji Pon said, trying to salvage some dignity. “She’s only a slave, and I needed to get stronger so that I could do more for the family. It would have made her stronger as well.”
I saw that some of the lesser servant girls, who had helped move the ingredients and pills earlier, were looking much like Jiang had before she spoke up. I decided to take a chance. “Tell me, is it only slaves that you think you are entitled to demand come to your room, or is it the free, lesser servants as well?” I motioned to the two nervous girls. “Tell me, did he do something similar with you?”
One of them looked like she was about to say something when the other, more frightened girl grabbed her arm, causing her to stop. “Come on.” said Ji Quan. “Answer the question. I won’t let him do anything to you.”
The girls seemed to get more courage, seeing that the branch family Patriarch was willing to protect them, and the braver one spoke up. “He said that if I refused he would get me fired. I really need this job though, so…” The other girl nodded in agreement.
“Just to be clear, he demanded that you dual cultivate with him?” I asked, and the girls nodded. “Are either of you cultivators?” They both shook their head. I looked at Ji Pon. “I thought you were doing it for the family?” I asked. “But you should know that mortals can’t dual cultivate unless they have a spirit root. I assume neither of you ladies do?” They both shook their heads again. “Strange,” I said quietly while bending over slightly so that the children outside didn’t hear me, “especially considering that this city has at least two brothels specializing in dual cultivation that you could have visited for training. It’s almost as if you didn’t want to actually train.” I stood up and bowed to Ji Quan. “I apologize for bringing a private matter of the Ji family into the public.” I said, then bowed again. “If I had learned about this privately I would have spoken to you in private, but unfortunately this is the first time I am hearing about this.”
Ji Quan nodded. “Ji Pon made it public by attacking your slave out of jealousy.” He said, then looked at Ji Pon. “I think that Jin Pon wants to return to his room in order to engage in closed door cultivation until he can refine a full batch of qi gathering pills. We can deal with the other matters once his training is complete.”
“Yes, Patriarch,” Ji Pon said, then kowtowed three times, leaving a small amount of blood on the pavement stones from a cut on his forehead, before running off towards his room to obey the order.
“You know, using the standard technique or even your family technique, he might not be able to do that before his twentieth birthday.” said Mo Lin, and Ji Quan nodded.
“True, but I’m not sure if I want to provide him with a copy of the Taiji Refinement Art right now. I’ll think about it in another month.” She nodded and Ji Quan ordered Ji Terron to step forward. “I believe you had a bet with Daoist Li.” he said.
Ji Terron nodded. “Yes, indeed. I hereby acknowledge that Li Kev was correct, and that the two slaves, Qin Jiang and Qin Five were, in fact, talented alchemists. I also acknowledge that I have lost my family valuable talent and money by selling them to you.” He bowed and I nodded.
“Well, if that is all,” I said. “I believe I will go take my two new alchemists to purchase a congratulatory gift.” The others nodded and I took Jiang and Five to their waiting family so that they could speak with them. Once their conversation started to die down, I spoke up. “If you don’t mind me borrowing them for an hour,” I said to Ding, “I think it is time for them to get proper cultivation techniques.”
