Cultivating Chai

“Who is that?” A young female recruit whispered to her group of friends, trying her best to conceal her bafflement at the scene unfolding before her.

“No clue,” A male recruit standing next to her replied. “Maybe he’s the Grand Alchemist’s long lost son?” He jested.

“Silence, you buffoon,” A short blonde-haired recruit hissed, mock punching the male recruit on his back.

“Sorry,” He hurriedly replied, realizing how badly his misstep could have cost him.

“And I know that person. He’s from the Martial Division, he joined my class today,” The blonde-haired girl conspiratorially whispered.

“Martial Division? Didn’t those guys only come here to make money? How does that make any sense?” The young female recruit who had initiated conversation on the topic asked.

“I’m just a recruit like you, Qing. How am I supposed to know,” The short blonde-haired woman replied with a shrug.”But I can tell you one thing. Someone called him mid-class and he left soon after. Didn’t come back the entire lesson.”

They know I can hear them, right? Xiao Feng wondered as he overheard the young recruit’s conversation without really intending to. Oh well, it’s not like I didn’t gossip in my first year. What’s good tea without spicy gossip, anyway?

Directing his attention away from the gossipmongering students and to the alchemist designates, he allowed himself a brief moment of basking in the smugness as the shopkeeper who had been preoccupied enough by a book to ignore the customer standing before him was now running around the shop, directing the other alchemists with names of spiritual herbs even as he deposited more in the basket he had slung over his waist.

A mere five minutes later, Xiao Feng was staring down three baskets full of spiritual herbs with a scrutinizing gaze.

He watched the other alchemist designates return to their posts, leaving behind only the one manning the weighing scale.

“As per your requirements,” He began, his tone sounding a little off-balance.“I’ve given you two of each spiritual herb that is edible. The non-toxic part goes without saying. I would be stripped of my rank if I allowed you to walk out of this store with a toxic herb. As for all this?” he asked dramatically, knowing that there was a crowd watching the proceedings.

“You could grind all this together, wrap some of the mixture in paper and smoke it and nothing harmful will happen to you. Though recruit, that is most definitely not permission to try it,” The alchemist designate said, once again impressing upon Xiao Feng the weight of his rank.

“And the milk?” Xiao Feng asked.

“Well, recruit, I could sell you the milk but I’m not entirely sure if I should,” He said. “Why do you wish to purchase milk in large quantities?”

Xiao Feng cocked his head as he stared at the alchemist designate, before replying, “To drink, of course.”

“Pa-Pardon?” The alchemist designate queried, almost choking on his words in the process.

“To drink it,” Xiao Feng replied again, with a shrug.

“Why under the heavens would you want to drink raw beast milk, recruit!?” It took every ounce of the alchemist designate’s willpower to not scream out his inquiry.

“Raw?” Xiao Feng questioned, his tone incensed. “Who said anything about drinking milk raw? I will boil it of course. Just because us cultivators of the Martial Division hunt spiritual beasts, doesn’t mean we act like them too, you know?”

The alchemist designate blinked.

“You’re from the martial division?” He asked Xiao Feng.

“Formerly.”

“Oh. Nevermind,” The alchemist designate’s features relaxed, as he nodded at Xiao Feng in understanding.

“Hey!” Xiao Feng protested, but the alchemist seemed to be done exchanging banter with him.

“I can get you spiritual beast milk, but it’s going to be expensive, even for you. And just so you know, we have pills at the Foundation Establishment stage that can recover your Qi much faster than nourishment designed for a species that is not your own. It’s cheaper too, you know.”

“How much will one bottle cost?” Xiao Feng asked.

“Three Ge of milk will cost you two silver taels,” He replied.

“What spiritual beast does the milk come from?” Xiao Feng followed up with another question.

“A Bi-horn,” He replied.

“What does it taste like?”

“I don’t know, alright. Look, drink it and find out if you’re so curious. Do you know exactly how expensive that is? I make that in a month, recruit. Do you think I can afford to drink it to satiate your curiosity?”

“Fine,” Xiao Feng replied, throwing his hands up in surrender. “As long as drinking it won’t do anything to me, I want five bottles of three Ge each”.

“Maybe you’ll grow horns,” The alchemist designate jibed, before he signaled to one of the other alchemists he had been directing earlier. The man in question nodded, before leaving the room.

Is he calling me bull-headed? Xiao Feng thought. Well, I’ll give it to him. Pretty good clap-back.

“He will be back from the bestiary in about ten minutes. Make yourself comfortable,” The alchemist designate explained.

“What’s that?” Xiao Feng asked, completely ignoring the request to leave the alchemist designate alone. He was pointing at a large wooden basket that had a cloth bag lining its inner surface, placed at one corner of the room. It was full to the brim with spiritual herbs that seemed to be ruthlessly discarded within the bag, a far cry from the otherwise meticulously organized and well-maintained shop.

“Junk,” The alchemist designate replied. “When cultivators of the Martial Division go into their expeditions into the Mistveil Bamboo Grove, they pretty much come back to us with anything that even vaguely resembles a spiritual herb. Most of them turn out either rotting, rotted or corroded spiritual herbs. We don’t really know what to do with them, so they’re all on sale for a fifth of the useful price”.

Xiao Feng’s practically gleamed with interest, as he gazed at the trash pile as if it were a mountain of gold.

“Can I look through it?” Xiao Feng asked.

This time, the alchemist designate didn’t even look surprised.

“You know what, anything you like from that trash heap— just take it. You’ve already exceeded my sales quota for the entire month, so it’s on the house.”

“Really?” Xiao Feng asked.

“Yeah. Just remember, recruit. I’m not giving you a refund once the sale is made, even if you come begging and crying at my feet in a couple of days when you realize that you just spent a fortune on herbs you don’t know how to use.”

“That won’t happen,” Xiao Feng replied, before turning around and heading to the trash heap.

Now, let’s see what the Essence Cultivation Art can do for me.