Awakening

Chen Chong's head throbbed faintly, as though pricked by needles.

He slowly opened his eyes. Before him was an unfamiliar side chamber. The room was not large, yet every corner exuded understated elegance. A wooden bed, a low table, two round-backed chairs; before the window hung an ink-wash landscape, its brushwork pale, as though veiled in a layer of morning mist.

A plum vase stood in the corner, holding several dry lotus pods. Their withered yellow set off the snow-white walls, lending the room an indescribable cleanliness.

Yet on closer inspection, the bed's grain was as fine as hair—it was premium rosewood; the tabletop's lacquer was warm and smooth as jade—polished lacquer.

Chen Chong braced himself and got out of bed. His feet felt weak, as though he were stepping on cotton. He pushed open the door, and sunlight rushed over him, making him squint.

Outside stood a maid of fifteen or sixteen, dressed in a narrow-sleeved green cloth blouse. Upon seeing him, she gave a slight curtsy and bowed. "Alchemist Chen is awake. Miss is in the study. I will lead you there."

Still somewhat dazed, Chen Chong nodded and followed the maid through a covered corridor.

Several clumps of slender bamboo grew beneath the corridor. Whenever the wind passed, they rustled softly. At the end, the maid pushed open a door and stepped aside.

The study was not large. Bookshelves lined three walls, filled with books. Some had been read until their edges had frayed, while others still bore bookmarks.

Sunlight slanted in through a carved wooden window, fine motes of dust floating in the beam. A writing desk stood before the window, covered with xuan paper. Li Zhaoning sat behind it, writing something, her brush tip whispering across the page.

The sunlight fell across her face, illuminating her clean, unadorned features until they seemed nearly translucent. Her brows were faintly furrowed, her lashes lowered, and the bridge of her nose appeared especially soft in the light. Today, she wore a loose pale-green house robe, her hair casually pinned up. Compared with the plain clothes she had worn outside the city gates that day, she carried a touch more languid ease.

Chen Chong, already somewhat blank-minded, stared even more foolishly.

The maid silently shut the door and withdrew.

Li Zhaoning put down her brush, raised her head, and looked at the bewildered Chen Chong. "That day, after you successfully refined the pills, you fainted. I had a physician examine you. He said it was due to excessive exhaustion of your mental strength."

Chen Chong opened his mouth, his voice somewhat hoarse. "Those bandits..."

"They withdrew as agreed." Li Zhaoning nodded, then paused. "However, I did not expect Alchemist Chen to possess Nourishing Flesh Realm cultivation."

Chen Chong froze, then realized that the physician must have discovered it during the examination. He nodded. "I merely broke through by luck."

Li Zhaoning glanced at him, her gaze calm. "For martial artists, every pass is hard to cross. The four great barriers of skin, flesh, sinew, and bone are shackles that restrain ordinary people from cultivating martial arts. Where does luck come into it?"

Chen Chong fell silent.

Li Zhaoning withdrew her gaze, took a booklet from beside the desk, and pushed it toward him. "This time, Alchemist Chen could be said to have saved my life. Take this alchemy book. Aside from some secret pill formulas of the Li Family, it records everything."

Chen Chong looked at her, accepted it with both hands, and thanked her. The booklet was not thick. Its cover was made of indigo coarse cloth. When he opened it, the handwriting was neat, and the ink looked freshly applied.

He hesitated for a moment before finally asking the question that had lingered in his heart for so long. "May I ask where more advanced cultivation methods are sold?"

Li Zhaoning did not answer immediately. She raised her eyes to look at him. Those eyes were deep, like a bottomless well. After a moment, she gave a soft sigh.

"Does Alchemist Chen know how wealthy households with no martial cultivation at all keep slaves?"

Chen Chong replied, "By feeding them enough that they do not starve to death, but not enough to leave them with any spare strength."

Li Zhaoning said nothing. Chen Chong suddenly seemed to understand.

Wasn't a Lineage like the Li Family simply another kind of wealthy household? Many trades within the city were tied to the Li Family. Wasn't Chen Chong himself working for the Li Family as well? He was merely a little freer than a slave.

The room suddenly fell quiet. Wind passed outside the window, and leaves rustled like water flooding over stone steps.

"Even if I can obtain cultivation methods from the Li Family for you," Li Zhaoning said, her voice very soft, "every gift comes with a price."

She said faintly, "Even I, a member of the Li Family, have not cultivated the Li Family's methods."

Having said this much, she paused, as though she felt that continuing would make things too heavy. Her gaze fell upon Chen Chong's still somewhat pale face, and her tone softened.

"This time, you exhausted your mental strength mainly because you refined pills for the refugees and had not rested properly for many days."

She took a wooden box from beneath the desk and pushed it toward Chen Chong. "Consider this a gift of thanks from them, through me."

Chen Chong looked at the box, then at Li Zhaoning's eyes.

Yet Li Zhaoning did not look at him. Her gaze passed over the box and settled outside the window. Her voice sounded as though she were speaking to herself. "Power is something that intoxicates people. With it, we can stand above others. In pursuing greater power, it seems as though bullying others becomes inevitable."

"I only hope that in the future, Alchemist Chen will not forget how you risked your life refining pills when you were aiding the refugees."

She pushed the box to his side, her gaze falling upon the courtyard outside the window as well.

"This courtyard was, when I was young and disgusted by my family's atmosphere of sacrificing everything for power and authority, my entire imagination of 'suffering.'"

She paused.

"But later, I learned that the cost of building just such a courtyard could feed an entire city for a day."

She said leisurely, "I am merely a fool. This world is ultimately one where martial might is revered above all. If I had accepted the family's training, perhaps I could have entered the Nourishing Flesh Realm like you, or even gone higher."

"But every gift comes with a price. Whatever you take from the family, you must earn back for the family."

"By any means necessary."

Perhaps it was because she had just experienced a brush with death, or perhaps because these words had weighed on her for too long, but Li Zhaoning spoke rather more than usual today. She simply murmured on and on to the wind, without caring whether Chen Chong listened.

The wind gradually grew stronger.

Outside the window, petals from the peach tree scattered and danced in the wind. One pink-white petal happened to drift down, floating past the window lattice, skimming over the desk, and landing softly in Li Zhaoning's hair as an adornment.

That petal seemed to pull everything back to reality. Li Zhaoning removed it and placed it in her palm. Another gust of wind swept it away.

Her expression returned to normal, neither warm nor cold.

"In a few days, I will transfer you to World-Aiding Hall as deputy chief steward." She spoke to Chen Chong. "But as I said, every gift comes with a price. The chief steward there may have some problems. Help me keep an eye on him."

Chen Chong gave a sound of acknowledgment.

Li Zhaoning waved her hand.

Chen Chong picked up the box and the alchemy book, then rose to take his leave.

When he pushed open the door, wind poured in from the far end of the corridor, urging him outward. Behind him, the door gently closed. Amid the sound of the wind, he could faintly hear the soft whisper of a brush falling upon paper once more.