Now that we didn’t have any enemies around us, I relaxed my muscles. That was a mistake.

Pain shot through my limbs. My head started to ache. There was also this rhythmic ringing in my ears that I really wished I could have sampled for a song—

Shit! Focus!

Little Spring ran over to me and shoved a Lin’s Healing Dan into my mouth.

As the pill began working, my mind cleared some. Unfortunately, there were major consequences for using the full force of my divine sense in a body too weak to handle it.

What was the most problematic, though, was my invisible injuries. My inner Qi pathways would have to go through months, possibly years, of rehabilitation before I was well enough to take on my Golden Core tribulation.

Which was fucked because I needed to transcend my tribulation to decrease my soul/body dichotomy within the next five years!

Mother fucker!

::Are you okay, Sister Lin?::

The kid crouched down next to me. His eyes were wide with worry.

And his clothes had dirt and blood on them. They looked awful.

Mine were worse.

Ah, now that I noticed it, my skin started to tingle like a thousand bugs crawled all over me.

I immediately used my cleaning technique on the both of us.

Little Spring’s white, husky ears flattened against his head and he winced.

Ah, right. He was sensitive now.

Why was focusing so hard?

Everyone else had already taken their Qi Replenishing pills and began resting. Thankfully, most of us were relatively unharmed.

Since I didn’t have the strength to move, I sat on the dirty ground in the lotus position and circulated the healing energy of the pill. It cleared my mind, reduced my headache, and repaired my fingers.

Unfortunately, it didn’t do shit for my Qi pathways, but I recovered enough to stand. Which was just in time to see Gold String Delicate Touch reach down toward the body of the demonic cultivator. Specifically, toward the bag his ancestor was in.

“Stop!”

He froze. I jogged over to him, wincing with every step thanks to my headache. “Listen up! Everyone here should know that you never touch a demonic cultivator’s dead body without proper preparation. They’re always trapped in some way. Considering that this guy is the leader of the army attacking the sect, we can assume that his body is extremely trapped. I’ll take care of it.”

With a wave of my hand, I swiftly sent the body into the time-stopped area of Little Spring’s space. Once it was there, I pulled out the storage bag.

Shit. I didn’t have enough energy for this.

Good thing we had spiritual spring water and Qi replenishing pills.

Everyone awkwardly watched me as I began to quickly replenish my inner Qi. Which also hurt like a bitch due to my injuries. Frankly, it was like having a thousand hidden cuts on my hands and cutting into a lemon caked in coarse salt.

But it was better to be in pain than to get caught weak.

The kid winced. ::Sister Lin. The freezer doesn’t have unlimited space. Between his body, my ingredients, and the barrels of demonic vines, it’s getting crowded.::

::I know. We’ll have to do something about it soon. Our best option is to clear out those vines. We’ll have to find a strange flame strong enough to burn them first. But we can handle that later.::

Using a good portion of my replenished energy, I did something I hadn’t done in years. I drew an enchantment on the bag that would prevent the typical high-end traps demonic cultivators of this era left on their bags from going off. It wouldn’t remove them entirely, but as a master spiritual tool smith, I could take care of that later. The important part was taking out the necklace.

I pulled it out by the chain. It glittered under the moonlight.

Now that I was seeing it up close, it looked nothing like Ghosty’s, aside from the fact that it had a soul gem.

I gently handed the necklace to Gold String. He looked down at the soul gem. He covered his mouth with a shaking hand, and his eyes became watery.

“Ancestor Dreaming Winds?” He paused, waiting for a response. Suddenly, he paled. He jerked his gaze toward me. “There’s something wrong!”

Fuck. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another.

Basically, Dreaming Winds had some kind of control bond on him. I had assumed that with the bond’s master killed, the ancestor would be freed... or dead. I grabbed the soul gem and used my divine sense to peer inside.

I sensed a type of soul binding that demonic cultivators used back in... this time period. Fortunately, I was familiar with how to unravel it.

The problem came from the fact that I didn’t have access to soul-based abilities. Ones I would have had if I’d been in Nascent Soul.

Which meant I needed a healthy Nascent Soul to undo this shit.

Ghosty was still recovering, so he was out of the question. The only other I knew of was that fucker, Noxious Fangstrike.

I may not like the asshole, but considering everything we’d been through, I felt we could trust him with this. If he was alive. No. That fucker had to be alright. There was only one thing to consider...

“I think Senior Noxious Fangstrike can help unravel your ancestor’s forced bond that’s keeping him in this comatose state. The issue is that I doubt he’ll do it for free.”

“I’ll do whatever I can as long as Ancestor Dreaming Winds can get better.”

I nodded and turned to Dread Lotus. “Can you—”

She bit her lip. “Uncle is in the middle of a war. The demonic sect is attacking the festival. Actually, we should—”

“Absolutely not. We all need to recover. Even if we go, we’re a group of five Foundation Establishment cultivators. Our immediate presence there isn’t going to make or break an entire war.” I’d become disillusioned with my contribution to battles at the Foundation Establishment level after realizing that a single cultivator two realms higher than me could wipe out an entire small sect.

“No. I have a better idea of how to help the sect that will be more effective than pointlessly rushing there. Besides, we also have something very important to do.”

“What?”

I clasped my hands behind my back like the little master I was and tilted my chin up. “Listen! We risked our lives and overcame impossible odds. We took care of the enemy general, which will help end the war faster than us participating in a large-scale battle. If anything, we deserve to be rewarded for our major contribution.”

They all nodded.

I grinned. “And the best way to make sure we get our well-deserved reward is to loot the fuck out of this place.”

Everyone froze for a moment. They looked at each other, and nodded, then they all began running toward the various buildings in the mansion complex.

“Good idea, sister Linlin!” Gold String called as he pulled up roof tiles on his way.

“I knew I chose the bestest, smartest friend!” Dread Lotus whooped and ran towards a structure in the back that used to hold a bunch of beasts. ::By the way, my uncle just won his fight. He’s on his way to defend the sect from the demonic cult’s army. He told us to stay where we are.::

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Of course he would. He adored his niece and wanted her to be safe.

Little Spring must have been inspired by Gold String because he ran to a small nearby building. With a wave of his hand and a ton of spiritual energy, he broke it down and sent it in pieces into his space.

Well, I guessed having more buildings in there wasn’t a bad thing. Especially since the city lord didn’t cheap out on his building’s construction. Everything was made from the highest quality ingredients he could afford.

Meanwhile, I started running to where I remembered the alchemist’s guild communication wall was.

As I passed Little Spring, he finished with the first building. He must have decided that one was enough since he waved, then ran and jumped into the small crater with the dead eagle. The bird vanished suddenly.

Oh... Well, he was an immortal chef, and these beasts would make good practice for him. Not letting a beast’s death go to waste was the very least a cultivator could do.

I glanced behind me at the dozens of soulless beast bodies.

Yep, he’d get to practice a lot.

***

I frowned at the Alchemists’ Guild’s communication wall.

“You’re sending people to fight the demonic sect, right?”

“Of course! It is the responsibility of every orthodox organization to fight the demonic sect when it attacks. It will just take time.”

Basically, they were telling me that they were going to drag their feet and let the unorthodox sect do most of the work before swooping in and taking most of the credit.

“Then what about City Lord Bountiful Tenacity?”

“We’ll be on the lookout for him. If we see him in any city our organization is in, we’ll send someone out to capture him.”

“You should just kill him on sight. He traded a weapon of mass destruction to the demonic cult. He’s an enemy to every orthodox organization.”

“We will take that into consideration.”

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These mother fuckers!

It was too frustrating talking to the Alchemists’ Guild’s communications department. It was like trying to get my cable canceled in my past-past life.

I rested my hand against the cool stone again.

“I handled a big issue for you all. I uncovered a corrupt Alchemists’ Guild owner and city lord. As a Grandmaster Alchemist, I expect my due compensation.”

“Of course! We’ll do whatever we can that is within our means.”

“I want to be teleported back to the city nearest to the Indomitable Will sect within the next two years.”

“...”

“You’ll do it, right?” As much as I enjoyed my time here. I wanted to go home.

There was a long pause. Whoever was on the line was likely communicating with someone higher up and checking account balances.

“This is Grandmaster Black Cauldron.”

Hadn’t there been a movie in my past-past life named something similar? Whatever. I hoped this guy wouldn’t be an asshole.

“I looked over our funds. We are currently incapable of sending you back to the Indomitable Will Sect. Even if you give us two years. I deeply apologize on behalf of the Alchemists’ Guild. After some calculations, we discovered that it would take us 20 years to save up for that trip due to the increased costs of teleportation over long distances.”

Well, I knew about formations and teleportation costs, so… I’d give them that. Damn it.

How the fuck was I going to get home then? Would I really have to abandon this sect soon and go join another in the righteous faction under a different identity just to compete in the inter-sect tournament against my own sect?!

Or I could wait ten years for the next Alchemy Convention... If they still put it on after that last fiasco... goddamn it.

I’d just have to figure all this out later.

Fine. If they couldn’t send me home, then...

“If you can’t do that, then I want to use this wall for free, any time I want until I go back home.”

“Oh... well. We’d love to do that. We’d even be willing to foot the energy costs on our side. It’s just that, unfortunately, your end will still need spirit stones to operate. These walls expend a significant amount of energy.”

“Then, as compensation for needing to use my own stones to pay for it, my band and I will take whatever we can in the city lord’s mansion.” Not that we weren’t already looting the fucking place.

Later, I would just use my spiritual energy to power it. It would work as long as I set it up properly and added a few things here and there using the technology from the tablet I designed with Senior Black Jade.

Of course, their side would still be footing the massive amount of energy it took on their end to send my communication to my sect. Muahahaha.

I’d make sure these fuckers would financially regret not sending me when they had the chance.

“That is acceptable. You took care of the City Lord who had been in league with the demonic sect, after all.”

“And you guys will have to use your own energy to connect me to my sect whenever I want.”

I had to wait for a while before words appeared on the wall again. “So as to not put a strain on your finances, how about we limit your communication to once a month for 8 hours?”

Was he fucking kidding me? “Once a day for four. I’m not as poor as you think I am. Also, your guild might be on a smaller continent, but it isn’t broke.”

There was a long pause where I could practically feel him choking at my audacity. “Fellow Grandmaster, we are a much more limited operation compared to the main branches. Please understand.”

They were just trying to get out of fully paying me for my contribution. I wouldn’t let them.

That said, I also had to accept that they were financially weak. Grimacing, I added. “Then once a week for 16 hours.”

“I know you’re frustrated, but the most we can do is once a week for six.”

“Are you lying to me?”

“Never. I wouldn’t dare.”

Well, fuck it.

“Fine. But I’m taking this wall. It’s mine now.”

“Wait... What do you mean, take the wall? That’s the wall for the city’s Alchemists’ Guild. You can’t just take it.”

“Sure I can. It’s in the city lord’s mansion and you already said that I was free to loot everything I could from here.”

“Grandmaster... Please leave that with the city. These communication walls are expensive.”

“Mine.”

With a wave of my arm, I placed the wall in my ring.

Muahahaha!

If I couldn’t go home, I’d just have to take everything I could. Even the damn floor tiles.

These guys would learn not to mess with a grandmaster with a grudge.

***

When I exited, I saw that my band had continued to loot while Little Spring carefully chose the beasts he wanted to prep for eating.

It mostly seemed like the boar, bird, and oxen beasts were taken while the wolves and tigers were left for everyone else to sell as they pleased.

Considering the size of the beasts, their meat would last us years... and completely fill up the rest of the time-frozen storage. No wonder the brat complained to me earlier. He wanted space for cooking ingredients.

There were also another two buildings completely missing. Either the kid had gone back and forth or the others decided that taking whole structures was a good idea.

I called over Three Drops. “Take me to the spiritual tool.”

He nodded, and we started running through long and confusing hallways. It was no wonder it took so long for him to find it. It was deep inside the main mansion, placed in a hidden room.

Frankly, I was shocked this guy found his way there. Though, when I saw the bodies of some of the servants, I realized that he must have interrogated some of them. Judging from my student’s bruised face, he hadn’t had an easy time.

The spatial lock device rested on a pedestal. It was white, egg-shaped, and about the length of my arm. A large crack cut through it, starting from the weak point I’d told Three Drops about. A small amount of smoke seeped from the hole.

The body cultivator awkwardly scratched his head. “I think I broke it.”

I nodded. “You did. Good job!”

I wrapped my spiritual energy around it and brought it inside the space. “If anyone asks, that’s exactly what happened, and I just took the remains to melt down and sell for scrap.”

“It sounds like you’re going to do more than that.”

I grinned. “How could I possibly? I’m just a weak and arrogant Foundation Establishment cultivator. Not a real expert toolsmith at all.”

He looked confused for a second, then his eyes widened in realization. “Yes, teacher. I’ll be sure to tell them exactly that.”

I grinned and patted his shoulder. Only I could choose such a good student.

“Now that we’re alone, are you going to tell me why the city lord called you Alchemist Lin instead of Linlin?”

“Because I’m Lin, Fairy Lin.”

“Please, teacher. I’m serious.”

“If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you. Are you positive you want to know?”

He shook his head vigorously.

“Just don’t think about it. I’m not here to harm the sect, after all.” Not anymore, anyway. “Now, help me find the treasure storage room and anything else that’s worth money.”

“...”

“Don’t worry. I plan to share some with my band members and you. But we need to loot it before any of our seniors get here and take it for themselves.”

His eyes widened. “Actually, I know exactly where it is. But there is a complex formation protecting it.”

I grinned. “No problem. I’m also good with formations.”

***

My band and student helped ransack the place up until the Alchemists’ Guild guards arrived.

At that point, we took them to where the battle was still taking place. And together they and the Irrepressible Beast Blood sect brought the war to an end within minutes.

Mostly because those demonic bastards retreated and escaped.

Because the elders had been prepared for it, there were actually very few casualties. All the healing pills I’d created went to helping those who were injured.

Black Cauldron walked up to me once everything was settled. “Grandmaster Lin.”

::Call me Linlin here. I’m still undercover.::

“Lin. Linlin.”

He was making it worse.

“Please give the wall back.”

I crossed my arms. “No. It’s mine.”

“But you won’t even be able to use it unless you set it up everywhere you go, and nobody has the time or the expertise for that.”

“I do. You can have it when you send me back to my continent.”

He looked like he was about to cry.

Good. I was pissed.

“Alright. I’ll let the headquarters know that you’re keeping the wall until you leave as an incentive to help you get back home as soon as possible.”

I nodded.

After he left, Noxious Fangstrike and Gold String walked up to me, both looking a little upset.

“Junior Linlin. How dare you tell this disciple that I can help him?!”

I crossed my arms. “Before that, I’m glad you’re safe, senior. I would hate to have to learn poisons from someone else.”

He snorted.

“I can teach you how to do it. I just don’t have the power to do it myself.”

“Hah! You expect me to believe that?”

“Dread Lotus.”

He winced and scowled. “That was about alchemy. This is about souls and removing the bonds those evil bastards leave on them...”

He continued ranting and lecturing. Basically telling me it was impossible.

I sighed. Well, it wasn’t like I didn’t want to spread this technique wherever I could. I would tell everyone if it wouldn’t force the Demonic Sect into coming up with new shit I’d have to create another damn countermeasure for.

I used the telepathic technique to drop the information packet into his arrogant little mind.

He sputtered to a stop and coughed.

I shrugged.

His brow furrowed. He gestured for the soul gem and the bassist handed it to him.

The poison master’s golden eyes focused on it for a solid twenty minutes. Suddenly, his pupils shrank, and he appeared absolutely furious.

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