The trio of inner-sect disciples walked towards the alchemist workshop. Kafka was in the lead as usual, while Seph and Lilith walked side by side.

  Seph was busy playing with Baby, finally resolving to let go of his mock fear of her, and attempting to build a relationship with her as she was the fourth member of their team.

  Seph took out a piece of pork steak and held it up next to the shoulder where Sun was sitting and played with Baby’s chin with his other hand.

  Once she noticed the steak, she was a little hesitant in the beginning, but got the courage to walk on his hand up towards his shoulder.

  Once she was on top of the opposite shoulder of Sun, the monkey got scared and jumped to Kafka’s shoulder, who was in front of them.

  Meanwhile, with the other shoulder cleared, Baby moved to Sun’s previous place and started burning the steak and eating it.

  Once Seph reached that moral victory of having Baby trust him enough to stay on his shoulder, he asked Kafka, “Where is Gabalawi, by the way? Is he cultivating already?”

  Kafka answered, “No, he left with Divinity a couple of days ago.”

  Seph raised an eyebrow as he said, “Divinity?!”

  Kafka said, “Yes, I know; we all thought it was weird too. They had literally started talking on the side away from everyone immediately after we left the trials, and then they met again in the sect and stayed in seclusion for a long time, and a few days ago they both left.”

  Seph hummed before saying, “Yes, I remember when they were talking after we got out of the trials too; I thought that was weird too. I hope they are okay; they are both strong, but still the world out there is deadly for yin cultivators.”

  Kafka agreed with him, “We all got to the sect before the trial by sneaking our way through the land, but we heard from the elder that many like us never actually make it and they get stopped by cultivators or even mere soldiers who end up killing them.”

  Seph thought deeply before saying, “It sounds like we need a new system where we don’t just pull these cultivators towards us but send out some escorts to bring them home safe.”

  Lilith interjected, “Regardless of the means we need to achieve that, be it new arrays, or whatever, the sect is way too small to do that at this point. They don’t have the advantage to spare valuable strong disciples and send them out alone just to rescue a single person, and risk exposing the entire sect.”

  Seph hated to admit it, but she was right. “The needs of the many precede the needs of the few.”

  Lilith said, “Exactly.”

  The workshop came into view, and they saw an inner sect disciple waiting in front of it for them.

  The workshop had a chimney above it that was letting out smoke; there was also a huge pipe on the side of the building going underground that was used to expel the refuse of the workshop underground.

  Once they were closer, they noticed a big patch in front of the workshop that was blackened.

  Seph whispered, “What the fuck!” before he spoke out, “Why is the ground blackened like that?”

  Kafka answered, “Our tour guide said that it’s because the alchemist sometimes throws things out that explode or were lit on fire to save herself and the workshop from going up in flames.”

  Seph exclaimed, “No way, even I wasn’t that horrible when making fire-breathing bottles.”

  Lilith said, “Yeah, but surely she makes more complicated stuff and tries out new formulas and that’s why things are more dangerous for her.”

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  Seph nodded and said, “Fair, yeah, that could very well be the cause.”

  The inner sect disciple put on a fake welcoming smile on his face as he said, “Welcome; the elder sent me here to wait for you guys. I come bearing gifts.”

  They bowed slightly to him, and he immediately headed towards Lilith and gave her a glass container that had 100 yin cultivation pills inside, as he said, “These are for you, one hundred yin cultivation pills, just remember to tell that to the elder, as he doesn’t really trust many people around here.”

  She clasped her hands and thanked him. “Thank you, senior brother. I’ll put in a good word. Sorry, if we kept you waiting there.”

  The guy plastered his face with a genuine smile as he thought he had a chance with Lilith if she was speaking with him this respectfully, “Please, call me Xin Feng, and you are most welcome, it’s our job to welcome bright new inner sect disciples like you sister Lilith.”

  He then looked to Seph and headed towards him, and Seph closed the gap too.

  Once Seph was in front of him, Seph got so close and opened his hand, because he wanted Xin Feng to give him the pills without Lilith noticing them.

  Xin Feng noticed what was happening and Seph’s nervous glance at Lilith and smirked maliciously as he pumped his shoulder into Seph’s and dropped the pills on the ground.

  He then made a fake excuse by saying, “Sorry, brother Seph, I dropped your ten cultivation pills on the ground. Excuse me, I didn’t think you would come very close to me.”

  All the while, he didn’t even make any attempt to pick up the pills with Seph.

  Seph crouched on the ground embarrassed as he picked the pills from the sand.

  Lilith was puzzled as she asked, “Why am I getting 100 pills while Seph is only getting ten?”

  Xin Feng rushed to answer, “It must be because of your importance to the sect, sister Lilith. Not everyone is going to get the same treatment as you. The elder nurtures exceptional talents, so not just anyone would get that many pills. Seph is lucky he even received ten pills; probably the elder only gave him this much not to make him feel jealous of you.”

  Lilith was agitated as she said, “But Seph is an exceptional talent; he won the trials!”

  Xin Feng spoke lightly of Seph’s achievement as he said, “Yes, he did, but winning a newbie trial while competing against a bunch of other newbies isn’t really that impressive, sister Lilith. We have some monster-level yin cultivators in the sect. After all, Seph is just the new inner sect disciple; he either shows up or becomes one of the forgotten.”

  Seph heard the entire conversation and felt mad, as Xin Feng was taking every opportunity to diminish the value of his achievements. He knew he was probably doing that to make Lilith cut ties with him or treat him as less than a friend.

  Doubts crept into his brain; Do I even deserve her friendship? I am just the first guy she saw after thousands of years. She didn’t get to meet other people yet, better people: with famous families, or who are richer than life like she probably is. Guys who didn’t commit murder multiple times just to save their mother.

  Lilith cut his chain of thought as she shouted, “This is preposterous; if you don’t value the members who proved themselves in isolated legacy trials or mystic realms, you won’t get anywhere as a sect.”

  Xin Feng said sheepishly, “That’s the elder’s decision, sister Lilith, not mine.” He bowed down slightly to show he wasn’t against her, and then asked, “The elder told me to guide you around the sect, so where would you like to go first?”

  Lilith said in exasperation, “Nowhere, thank you very much. We don’t need another guide; we have already got our good friend Kafka here showing us around.”

  Xin Feng bit down on his lower lip from inside his mouth as he thought he lost an amazing opportunity to get closer to her and said, “Well, sister Lilith, if you would like anything from me at anytime, just ask about, Xin Feng, and anyone will lead you to me.”

  Lilith had stopped listening to him before he even finished and crouched next to Seph and helped him pick the rest of the pills, as he got frozen in place when he heard all the nasty things Xin Feng said about him.

  Suddenly out of nowhere, Zhi Zixin appeared in their midst and said in a loud voice, “Hey, Seph, stop playing on the ground with your new girlfriend and let’s see what we have got to work with in this workshop.”

  Seph whispered to himself in disbelief, “G..G.. Girlfriend?!” Lilith was close enough to hear his whisper and chuckled.

  Zhi continued, “I mean, this place looks very humble already, but I guess there isn’t much we could do about it now. I expect you to turn this into a replica of my old workshop when you are rich enough. Let’s go inside and talk with the resident alchemist and see if we can’t kick them out or something.”

  Seph said, “Kick them out? What are you talking about? I am just a new disciple; don’t go causing trouble for me now.”

  Zhi Zixin ignored him and zipped through the air straight into the workshop, leaving Seph behind looking at him in disbelief.

  Lilith said, “Let’s go in there before he gets us kicked out before we even get in!”

  Seph looked at her and just ran inside as well to prevent that from happening.