"Thank you for your hard work, Lady Bai!"
On the rooftop of the ten-story building, several groups had gathered, all of them people who had been involved in building this village. Tang Tianjie was the one making his way toward her, smiling broadly. By all indications, the annual profit from this place was going to be astronomical.
Bai Fanxian had just finished a demonstration refinement for the alchemists who had come to see the newly opened branch of the association. They were all people of considerable standing. The association's elders had turned out almost in full. Only those unlucky enough to draw the short straw had been left behind to watch over the branch at Mount Kienga.
"Mm..."
Bai Fanxian nodded. She handed Tang Tianjie seven Grade 5 nourishing pills she had just refined, to be used as prizes for tonight's lottery.
This was the celebration for the village's official opening. Tang Tianjie and Xie Zizhou had arranged a banquet for the evening, with prizes to be won through a lottery draw. Only registered residents could participate.
Some of the prizes had already been announced: luxury goods, mostly. Bags, clothes, jewelry.
But what truly made people's eyes light up were the "mystical items."
Ancient herb roots, rare medicinal plants. Tang Tianjie had called in favors and received generous support from the Alchemist Association, securing a good number of them for the event.
Pills were among the prizes as well. Health had always been a priority for residents here. But until recently, with the cultivator world still largely unknown to the public, even people of high standing rarely had any real understanding of what a skilled alchemist's pills could do.
And once they did find out? Word spread fast. People started reaching out to buy pills from the association. Some went further, contacting individual alchemists directly. But supply had already been falling short of demand. Now, it went without saying.
Even with money, you couldn't get them.
Especially pills refined by the Alchemy Empress herself — those were a different matter entirely!
So when Bai Fanxian passed those seven pills to Tang Tianjie, every eye in the room went straight to them. People wanted to reach out and grab them. They knew better.
The security detail alone said everything. The Tang and Xie clans had staffed nearly half their guards at Martial Master level. Both clans had poured resources into credibility and stability from the start. Even so, the moment they announced open recruitment, nearly a hundred unaffiliated cultivators had shown up to compete for positions. The quota filled in minutes.
The reason was simple: working here meant free access to the life force flowing through the village, without having to buy one of those expensive houses.
"My lady!"
Meiying led Chunfeng through the entrance. People were beginning to recognize Bai Fanxian's inner circle on sight. Wherever her disciples went in the village, heads turned and people moved to approach them. Right now, the crowd parted without prompting to let Meiying through.
"You're awake?"
Bai Fanxian stepped out from the crowd, eyebrow raised when she saw Chunfeng trailing behind Meiying.
"...Yes."
He didn't know quite how to answer that. In just two encounters, this woman had put him under for half a month without asking. Being anywhere near her now put him on edge.
"Slept longer than last time... or does the liquid version have stronger effects?"
She murmured it to herself, pulling out her notebook and jotting something down, paying no mind to the looks from those around them.
"..."
"Shall we try the powder version next?"
She looked up. His right eye twitched.
"You won't try it on someone else first...?" He could hear the unease in his own voice. Somehow, without realizing it, he had become her test subject.
"That's fine... but the mana I extracted is limited. If you want to hand your slot to someone else and lower your own success rate, I don't mind."
Her complete nonchalance told him everything. He had no leverage here.
Hadn't he walked straight into this from the start?
"Made up your mind?"
"...Do as you like."
In the end, it was Chunfeng himself who had to agree to let her test the pills as she pleased.
"Lady Bai, about tonight's banquet?"
Xie Zizhou approached with the look of someone bracing for rejection. Knowing her, the odds of her agreeing were slim to none.
"...Alright."
She agreed.
"Wonderful!" Xie Zizhou's face broke into a grin. He and Tang Tianjie weren't the draw here. If Bai Fanxian didn't show, the whole event would fall flat. Half the attendees would probably not bother coming.
"I'll have everything ready. Please, make yourself comfortable."
He was already rushing off before he finished speaking, hurrying to notify the event team before she had a chance to change her mind. With her, nothing was ever certain until it happened.
Less than ten minutes later, word had spread through the village. Residents who heard the news started preparing to attend.
"Lady Bai is coming to the banquet? Then I'm going too."
Luo Xintao had been sitting with neighbors watching the evening sky. The moment she heard, she was up from her wicker chair.
"I'll go as well. I thought it would just be the younger crowd, but it sounds like it's turning into something bigger."
The man sitting beside her with his tea was the grandfather who had once been confined to a wheelchair, the one Bai Fanxian had treated and the same one who had first urged Luo Xintao to visit the clinic herself. Now they were neighbors again, the same as when they had both lived in the military housing.
They weren't alone in thinking so. The banquet was shaping up to be a good occasion to meet people and build connections.
By evening, the area around the village's main building had come alive with lights. Decorations stretched through the surrounding streets, giving everything the feeling of a festival. Even those with no plans to attend the banquet found themselves drawn outside for a walk. Restaurants and shops stayed open to meet the traffic.
"Lady Bai, welcome!"
The event staff at the entrance scrambled when Bai Fanxian arrived — she was early. The banquet had not yet started.
"Mm..."
She wore a simple white robe, light and unassuming. She didn't need to dress for attention. She had come alone, without her usual attendants. Her plan, as she'd put it, was to get in and out quickly.
"Lady Bai! The banquet hasn't started yet. Would you like to rest inside?" Tang Tianjie came rushing out the moment word reached him, but noticed her gaze had already drifted to the far side of the hall.
A large prize booth had been set up there, piled with items and lit up with red cloth and orange light. At the front counter sat a spinning drum that would dispense numbered metal balls one at a time.
At that very moment, a small girl was being lifted up by her grandfather so she could reach the handle and spin it herself.
*CLANG! CLANG!*
"Congratulations to our lucky winner! You've taken home the grand prize — a stunning jewelry set from the gem shop!"
A staff member in a red uniform announced through a megaphone, shaking a golden bell for effect. But the girl, who had just won the top prize, looked close to tears.
"...But I wanted the big Little Bear."
Her small hand pointed toward the medium prize section, where a mountain of plushies was on display — and right in the middle, the one she had her eyes on: a large brown teddy bear from a well-known cartoon.
The staff member's smile stiffened. He had never had a winner turn down a higher-value prize for a stuffed toy. But he caught the grandfather's eye — the little girl's guardian — winking at him repeatedly, and quickly changed his expression.
"Oh! My sincerest apologies — it seems I misread! What you've actually won is this magnificent giant bear, straight from the prize floor!"
He rang the bell again and signaled his team to bring the bear out from the back. The child's expression shifted, and she broke into a wide smile.
"Thank you!"
She wrapped both arms around the doll and walked off with her grandfather, who laughed with quiet relief. At his age, money and status had long stopped being the point. What mattered was his health, and being around to watch his granddaughter grow up.
"Each resident gets one free pull," Tang Tianjie explained. That was why the crowd had gathered around the booth so eagerly.
The top-tier prizes were what held everyone's attention: ancient herbs, rare mystical objects, select pills. And at the very top — none other than the seven pills Bai Fanxian had just handed over!
Her gaze moved across the booth and she nodded, taking it in. Then something caught her eye — tucked among the mystical item prizes, something she had never expected to find here.
"...Where did you get that?" She grabbed Tang Tianjie's shoulder. He jolted. The look on her face — sharp, unsettled — put the Tang clan head on alert.
He followed her gaze. She was pointing at an old metal pendant set off in a corner of the display, unremarkable at first glance. The pearl beside it, softly glowing, was clearly more eye-catching by comparison.
"...I'm honestly not sure," he said, shaking his head. "Do you want it?"
Bai Fanxian nodded without hesitation. Her eyes stayed fixed on the markings etched into the surface, something shifting behind them.
...Because that symbol — the one engraved on the pendant — was the signature of her closest companion from ten thousand years ago.