Shin; Alchemy Association

It didn't take much time for the whole group to reach the alchemist association, even less time for Shin to speak with the receptionist at the front who quickly led them to a guest room.

Right now Shin was seated on a table calmingly sipping on a cup of tea that was brought by a servant with Nie Li seated at his left and Ning'er sitting at Shin's right, the other looking around the room behind the three.

Nie Li turned to his left as he saw a door open as Yang Xin slowly walked inside, a small smile gracing her face as she looked at Shin.

"Oh my, finally found some time to visit your Sister here? I was feeling really lonely without you. The night has been so cold.."

Shin furrowed his brows as he looked at Yang Xin who grinned at him while sitting down in front of him, fortunately both Nie Li and Ning'er new that she was just joking , actually out of everyone the only one that didn't understand she was just joking was Lu Piao as he turned his gaze to Shin.

"The temperature is quite cold these days, Sister Xin should remember to always close her window before going to sleep."

Yang Xin's smile fell into a pout as he saw his unfazed expression.

"Anyway I've come here because my friend Nie Li wanted to propose a deal with the alchemist association."

As he said that she finally looked at the other people inside, she ignored the kids behind as they probably were simply accompanying them, but she focused on both Nie Li and Xiao Ning'er for different reasons.

Taking out a piece of paper Nie Li handed it to Yang Xin.

"These are five pill recipes that my master gave to me, he wanted to make a 30 to 70 deal with the alchemist association with us taking only 30%."

Her eyes widened as she heard that, the more she read the piece of paper the more she couldn't believe her eyes, not only the ingredients were extremely commons but if the effect of the pills were the real deal then she could already anticipate that the profit would be enough to lift the alchemist association to a new level.

'Who could have thought that by using such common materials we could have such powerful pills.'

"I also have a list of uses for the Purple Haze Grass."

Taking an even longer list he passed to Yang Xin who could only take it while nodding her head.

'Is this why he asked me to collect more Purple Haze Grass?'

As Shin looked at the long list he immediately thought back to how Nie li asked him to collect as much Purple Haze Grass as possible.

'How amusing..'

Some people would've been angry about being played so bluntly by the other party by Shin only thought of the situation as amusing, even if Nie Li became rich thanks to him he still wouldn't ask him to give him more than what he spent when he first bought the purple grass.

"Amazing if even half of these works then the price of Purple Haze Grass would skyrocket…"

It was only at this moment that she understood how cunning Nie Li's master was.

'We have to make sure that such a character never goes against the alchemist association..'

From that point onwards Yang Xin didn't dare to underestimate Nie Li anymore instead she made every deal as if she was making it with Nie Li's mysterious master himself.

After an hour they finally finished talking about everything as they all stood up reading to leave.

"Ah you guys go ahead I have another thing to do here."

Nie Li turned to Shin who simply waved at them to go and glancing at Yang Xin and Ning'er they both didn't show any sign of getting up to go with them, a small grin made it's way to his mouth as he looked at Shin again before he started to push Lu Piao out helped by Du Ze.

"Don't worry we understand, see you tomorrow in class!"

Shin couldn't help but be perturbed by what he meant but decided to ignore it.

After the group left Shin simply sat back down as he saw Ning'er uncomfortably shift in her seat while Yang Xin looked in curiosity and amusement.

"What could you want from your older sister that you even send out to the others? Could you want some help in how to do that? Don't worry I'll teach you bo-"

Having heard enough he stopped with a small glare as she only responded with a smile.

"That's not what I have in mind… But before anything, where is Eiko?"

"Ah he went into closed door cultivation, he said he will be busy making pills and cultivating and that unless it's important to not bother him, should I..?"

Shaking his head Shin sighed, after getting help from the alchemist association he knew Eiko made a promise that he would have helped any of the alchemists that came that day so it's normal that he entered closed door cultivation to finish whatever pill they asked as reward or compensation.

"It's ok, I just wanted to ask something but it can wait. Anyway, this is for you."

Taking out a copy of a book he gave it to her as she took it confused as for what it was, the book was the copy of a special technique from the ravine it was the Rushing Golden Thunder Technique a Wind-Gold-Thunder technique, it was a bit surprising but both Yang Xin and Ning'er had the affinity for the wind attribute the only different was that Yang Xin had the Thunder Wind attribute where Ning'er had the Lightning-Wind technique.

"When I was separated from Naoki I ended up finding an ancient palace filled with interspatial rings that contained different special techniques. This is the copy of a technique that should be quite useful for you and this is a movement technique that uses the power of the laws."

Seeing her confused look he proceeded to explain what laws were to her along with helping her to form the first few lines of the inscription pattern, this time it was even easier to explain as Ning'er also helped her using her own experience to help her form the first few lines.

"Shin… I don't even know how to thank you for this…"

As she looked at the small azure lines various emotions surged from her, whenever it was Shin or Eiko the Akagawa clan as been the best thing that ever happened in her life, thanks to them she went from director to becoming the president of the association along with how Eiko has been teaching her even giving a better cultivation technique that brought her to the peak of the gold rank infinitely close to the black rank something that she never imagined to reach in her life.

"Sister Xin doesn't need to say anything, the alchemist association has been a great help to us too."

Hearing that she looked up to see Shin smiling lightly at her as part of her couldn't help but don't see the young man in front of her as a kid anymore.

'Really… If only I was born a little later then…'

Shaking those thoughts of her head she thanked Shin again as she put away the two books.

"In my life I've always been alone, I grew up as an orphan and continued to walk this path alone without the help of any way but since the Akagawa clan arrived in this city my life changed for the better. What I want to say is that if ever you need something from me I'm willing to even leave my position as the president of the alchemist association to help you."

Shin's eyes widened as he saw her resolve, he didn't expect for her to be so thankful but he was also underestimating the value of what he just give her, everyone was underestimating the real value of the books he had found.

After calming her down they bid her farewell as Shin and Ning'er started to walk back toward the institute.

"Sorry, I wanted to give you some pills and elixir but I guess I'll send you some later."

Hearing that Ning'er quickly shook her head left and right.

"It's ok really you've already given me more than I can ask for."

She couldn't help but still feel as if this was just a dream, since the start he's been helping her solving any problem she had whenever it was the illness that her elders didn't even notice or helping her by giving her a way to increase her strength and now he was even willing to give her some pills and elixir.

'And yet I can't do anything but accept his gift without having anything to give in return, with my strength right now I'm just useless to him, I don't even have the power to move my own clan.'

Shin obviously noticed her emotions but as he was about to say anything he looked ahead with a frown, they just entered the institute so he was sure that it wasn't an assassin but he still could feel the clear bloodlust and anger directed toward him, but just as fast it came it quickly disappeared.

"Shin? Is everything ok?"

"Ah?.. Yes sorry I just felt like someone was watching.. Anyway this is where we part for today."

Saying so he looked at Ning'er who nodded her head albeit a little regretful.

"Yes, I'll see you tomorrow?"

Asking that she looked up to him with a small blush on her cheeks as she fidgeted in place.

"Sure."

Smiling at her he saw an even bigger smile grow on her face before stepping back, she did a couple of steps before looking back an hesitant expression on her face but after thinking about it she shook her head before waving one last time and walking away.

'I wonder what that was about?'

Shin remained looking in the direction where she disappeared for a minute before going to his own room.

'I still have tons of things to do but first I should expel all of the pill toxins in my body..'

The quicker he cleansed his body the quicker he would be able to use his own soul force but even then he wanted to stabilize his own cultivation for a little while as he studied the various special techniques he chose from the ravine.

Reaching his own room he closed the door as he prepared a wood barrel and filled it with hot water, he then put inside a couple of medicinal herbs that normally are used to cure light poisons.

"This should be enough."

Stripping of his clothes he submerged himself inside the barrel as the water reached his neck leaving only his head out, starting to move the small amount of soul force he had inside his body he could feel the scorching pain of the soul force passing through the various acupoints before starting to pass through the twelve principal meridians.

'Mh? If it's like this I could probably start with the Titan Emperor Cultivation Technique.'

It was risky but this was also the best moment to do it, the first layer of this technique required the user to wash their own blood to get the impurities out of the body and strengthen the vitality and natural regeneration but to do that one had to pull down their own defence while still having enough energy and will to push their own blood out of the twelve principal meridian before using soul force to have the body create new blood, if a mortal tried this along they would die in the first few seconds but if a gold rank tried they would have to suffer for hours before they are able to drain their own blood without the natural regeneration of a gold rank interfering with the process.

'They say that the best rewards come with the highest risk right?'

Gritting his teeth he felt body go cold as he blood started to leave his body from his meridians, the process was painful and long but Shin didn't even emit a sound as he felt his consciousness start to fade from the lack of blood but he still persisted as he continued the process.

Time passed as the moon shined brightly in the sky, Shin was already swimming in a black-red substance the strange liquid already spilling out of the barrel to the floor, thankfully he put the barrel in the bathroom so it wouldn't be a problem to clean it later but at this moment this wasn't even in his mind as he had his eyes closed his full concentration on the small amount of blood left in his body as it passed through one of his meridians before leaving his body.

'This was the last one… Now I have to block my meridian off and recover with pure blood essence!'

Moving his arms he quickly pressed various parts of his body as he lost all sense over those parts of body, finally even his arms fell flat inside the barrel. Right now he was at his most vulnerable as he couldn't even perceive what was happening outside, his whole body was dried up like a mummy, his heartbeat soft and slow.

'Now to reform it..'

Just like opening a dam a flow of soul force accompanied new blood as it started to flow around his body restoring it to its previous condition as new bright red blood took the place of the previous blood.

The only reason that Shin had to drain his own blood like this was so that he could change his own blood from normal blood to blood essence, normally a human had limited blood essence but even then the humans found a way to use this limited resource to momentarily increase their strength just like how Shin increased his own strength with the Blood burst technique.

"Fuuuu…"

Exhaling he opened his eyes as he looked at his body, the liquid almost completely evaporated during the process only leaving less half of it, his whole body was bright red his face flushed red and his whole body temperature was high but he felt like he could take on a demon beast without even using his weapon.

"What good technique, I feel like my physical strength is on par with that of a peak Bronze rank or a weak silver rank!"

The Titan Emperor Cultivation Technique had Six main layers, each layer indicating the strength of a whole demon's spiritual rank.

'If I reach the second Layer I could probably reach the strength of a peak silver rank or a weak gold rank…'

While the first layer could be reached by anyone the second layer would already need different medical herbs or demon beast blood making it too difficult for a normal civilian without support from a clan to increase and hope to reach the third layer.

'But even then I can have the whole clan elevated their strength to a bronze rank with just this huh..'

Shaking his head he exited the barrel before starting to clean himself, thanks to reaching the first layer almost all of the pill toxins were expelled from his body so he would need only a day to recover his full strength a lot sooner than he thought.

'I should still try to not show that I already recovered unless it's really necessary.'

While he didn't like to hide his strength like this he knew better than go around boasting that he already recovered as that would be useless and may even bring trouble on himself.

Like this the day ended as he sat on his bed cleaned and changed slowly expelling the remaining pill toxin on his body.

…

The next day, other than Nie Li the Lightning Dragon cultivation to Ning'er, nothing much happened, Shin still seated together with Ning'er as they received the curious glance of the whole class and the frown of Shen Yue.

'Let's see how much you're gonna shame the name of Elder brother Shen Fei..'

Shin frowned as he saw Shen Yue smile smugly at him with contempt written on his face.

'What does he want?'

The lessons for the day ended as Nie Li informed Shin of something.

"In five days there will be an exploration?"

Right now they were in a secluded area of the library, they were all seated down in a circle.

"Yes, Divine family's Chen Lin Jian already started recruiting people to go on an exploration outside of the city to the Ancient Orchid City Ruins."

Lifting his brow he tilted his head as glance at the empty corridors.

"Weren't they already looted? Will we even find anything?"

Nodding his head Nie Li shows a smile as he lifts his head proudly.

"They only checked the civilians residence and took everything that was outside. They didn't even try to search for an underground vault so I'm sure that if we search thoroughly we will find a treasure."

Obviously Nie Li was thinking of the treasure the same group found in his other life in particular he was thinking of a particular treasure he wanted but he couldn't say that to the group as much as he trusted them.

"Then let's go, even if we don't find anything it will be a good train experience and I've always been curious about those ruins…"

"... Can I also come with? I'm already close to the second star of the bronze rank and I feel that with the Lightning Dragon cultivation technique I may be able to break through in five days or at least be close to it."

At that moment Ning'er spoke as she shyly lifted her hand, even today she chose to follow them as she was curious at what they would be doing along with wanting to spend more time with Shin.

Hearing that Shin glanced at Nie Li who understood what he meant.

"The group is quite big with some silver rank and the place isn't too dangerous itself so as long as you aren't a simple 1-Star Bronze rank then you will be fine."

"At worst just stay close to me and Nie Li, keep it a secret but I've already fully recovered and in five days I'm sure I will be really close to reaching the peak of the bronze rank."

Taking out a small soul crystal he showed it to the others as they looked in amazement especially Nie Li as even he couldn't phantom such cultivation speed.

"Then we can meet each other after five days, no?"

Changing the subject he put away the soul crystal as he looked at Nie li once again as he nodded.

"Yeah, I will spend the rest of these five days training so you won't be seeing me in class."

Shin nodded at his words as he thought about it.

"That's a good idea. I'll also do it."

Like that the group continued talking until the sun was about to set.

"Then I'll see you guys in five days!"

Separating they all went toward their own rooms as Shin prepared himself to train for five days without exiting his room.

'I'll use this time to study all of the special techniques I chose from the ravine..'

Like this Five days passed.

Yeah I know, it's been a while. Anyway, here's the new chapter and I don't want anyone to tell me how the human body works because the whole body cultivation technique was bound to be something that didn't make any sort of sense in the first place.

The next chapter will be about the start of the ancient ruins arc and well, I kinda swapped that arc with alchemist association but it doesn't change much in the whole plot for now so it's alright, Ning'er will be in the expedition along with her showing off the special technique and actually be useful and not a simple trophy waifu (even if it's my own fault for not finding anything useful for her to do so early in the story…).

Hope you liked, if you found some grammatical errors please tell me so that I can change it and see you soon!