— The Emperor’s Imperial Record, Entry No. 26 —

  Smack**Smack**Smack

  I woke up to Yao Po lightly ‘tapping’ me on my face. I tried to shoot up to my feet immediately, but could barely move my body.

  She sighed in relief when she saw that, “You’re awake. Good.” Then put both her hands on her hips. “Didn’t I tell you to come here often? Every day?”

  ‘If I were being truthful? I didn’t remember.’ But I was glad I had been able to get here in time.

  “What happened?”

  Yao Po hurled back a response that sounded like an insult, “What happened? You came here and fainted in my hut!”

  She bent down to pick up the bucket of warm water by my side, “You’ve been poisoned. I don’t know how I didn’t notice it the first time, but for this, we’ll need more of the healing elixir.”

  I visibly cringed, thinking about how much it would cost.“I don’t have the money for that.”

  Healer Yao let out a scoff, ‘Hmph, “Serves you right for going to hunt down a spirit beast. Especially after I told you not to”

  She took the healing elixir from the table and brought it next to me. “Drink.”

  I pursed my lips tightly and did my best not to let her feed it to me. “Don’t worry, you can pay me back when you get the money. I’m still a healer after all, seeing the people I heal better matters more than the silver to me.”

  I must have looked unconvinced because she took her hands and held my mouth open as she poured the elixir down my throat. I struggled against her strength and my own weakness, but I couldn’t win.

  The elixir was hot. Like harsh alcohol, the first time I drank it, burning my throat as it went down, the heat gradually infusing the rest of my body.

  Within a minute, a second wave of heat hit me. This time it only mimicked the first heat, soaring through my body, like water in a desert.

  I felt…alive.

  Like I had been living in gray this whole time and was finally seeing color.

  …Was this, qi?

  Yao Po nodded to herself, ”Mmmm, it's working.” She squeezed the skin between her eyebrows. “Do you feel it?”

  I nodded.

  “That’s dreg qi, many adventurers and cultivators can’t get enough of it, they keep getting themselves hurt, fighting beasts, cultivators…themselves.”

  I was still confused, so she explained, “You see the elixir,” she put it right in front of my face, “it's not an actual healing elixir. When the alchemists finish making whatever they want to make, there are usually sediments from failed tries of the product. They package this up and sell it to low-class cultivators, or sometimes…mortals.”

  I was starting to see it now. “So, the reason they sell it to us is because it's addictive?” A cold sweat broke out down my spine.

  How close was I to becoming one of them? An addict chained to the elixir, and it was expensive too, I would become a poor slave.

  I clenched my fists under the blanket. ‘Never. I won’t fall like that.’

  Yao Po chuckled darkly. “Right on. Low-class cultivators—the ones who won't go far in their cultivation, are very danger hungry, it's the only way they might advance, they always hope to one day stumble on a treasure, or some legacy, then they can soar into the skies…”

  “So they get hurt while on a mission?”

  She shook her head. “Yes. Then they need the healing elixir to help, normal ones won’t work, int the end, they just become addicts.”

  Yao Po got up, looking at the potion in the glass like she was holding a magical specimen, “The only problem is that it's not a healing potion.”

  “What? But it—”

  “Let me finish. You should be resting.” She proceeded to pour a few more drops into my mouth, making sure to wash them down with some water. Not a bit escaped her eyes.

  “It heals you- Yes, but it's not normal qi that’s inside, even the cultivators don’t know what it is, it just appears after they make any elixir. The first time you use it, it heals you, but for a price.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  She removed the potion bottle from my mouth. “That's enough.” She walked back to the table where she kept the elixir and locked it in a hidden drawer, out of the corner of my eye.

  “The potion creates a little want—a little need, in the user. At first, it's barely noticeable, and they don’t know what they are feeling. They think it's bloodlust, or some sort of fate guiding them to find something–a treasure, an opportunity, it doesn’t matter, so they go out again, and they hunt, or they fight, or search, “ She gave me a meaningful look.

  I didn’t look away.

  “They get hurt, and so they come back. Buying the elixir from whichever bastard cultivator chooses to sell it to them.” She spat out the words.

  “And the need intensifies, so they repeat the cycle, and repeat it, till they are doing whatever they can to hurt themselves. They want that feeling again. And only the elixir can give it”

  I interrupted, “Wouldn’t it make more sense to just drink the elixir?”

  She shook her head, “No, the elixir doesn’t have the desired effect unless you are hurt. It would be like trying to breathe in more air when you’ve already sucked in multiple deep breaths.”

  She stared at me. Harder this time. Decades of her life infused in that one stare. “Do you understand?”

  I nodded.

  “Stay here for the night, you won’t be able to move for a while.”

  “But I have to go buy a ho-”

  “Khan, did you learn nothing from the story?”

  “I’m not hunting, I just want to go buy a house?”

  She laughed, “A house? What for?”

  I told her what had happened.

  “You won’t be able to escape him. He’s a corrupt scoundrel, he has friends everywhere.”

  “Do you know any good places? I don’t have enough money to move to the Silverscale district, but I have enough to let us live just at the edge.”

  The healer thought for a moment, “I know some people, but they’ll charge you through the nose. Even if it's just the edge of the mudfoot district, living anywhere close to the silverscale district is expensive.”

  “No problem, how much do you think they’ll charge me?”

  “At least a hundred silver, and that’s because I’m recommending you.”

  “A hundred?” I sighed, “Fine.” In just a few short days, I was at the end of my purse.

  I’d have to work harder.

  I tried to get up again.

  She rushed to stop me, succeeding without much effort, “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “I just want their names and locations. I can handle the rest.”

  “Are you mad?... Foolish child.” She pushed me onto my butt. I’ll have someone go talk to them, give me some time.”

  She called a young boy about 12 years of age from outside, on the street, giving him a few coppers, and not even an hour later, he was back with a message.

  After talking to Yao Po, she gave him a few more coppers and a piece of bread, and he left excitedly, probably running home.

  She laid the back of her hand onto her forehead, “I had him go talk to the people I know, six of them said no when they heard your name, only one said yes. He’s charging 120 silvers.”

  “One hundred, twenty! I thought it would be around a hundred.”

  “Calm down, Khan, it's my fault, I thought I'd be able to help you, word has already spread. Overseer Liang has said no one should work with you. Anyone who is still willing to do that would be people who already have enmity with him or who are powerful enough to ignore him.”

  She sighed again, “Not many are like that… what will you do?”

  I shook my head, “I'll have to go with him then, I doubt I have any chance with someone random.”

  She nodded, “Do you want to see the house first?”

  "No," I rasped, barely keeping my eyes open. "If you trust him, that’s fine."

  ‘And if she doesn’t, what can I do?’ I was at the mercy of her goodwill.

  I spent the hours staring at the cracked ceiling, drifting in and out of sleep, the mere thought of spending 120 silvers on a house made my heart race fiercely.

  It was three hours later that the seller of the house finally came. I still lay there, recovering from having fainted earlier.

  The seller was a gruff man, thin, much thinner than those who lived around here, especially for someone who owned a place so close to the silverscale district. He constantly scratched his skin, as if there was something crawling beneath it.

  When he looked at me, he had to angle downwards, because his large nose was in the way, and lice fell off his ample head of hair every so often. His eyes were beady, I assumed from years of looking around in fear.

  “Yao Po, is this the man?”

  “Yes,” she answered.

  He looked at me, once over, a small smirk coming on his face, hidden from Yao Po behind him, “It will be 130 silvers for the house.”

  ‘Why was his voice so oily?’

  Yao Po hollered, “Xin Bai, you owe me.”

  “If he can’t pay, then I can’t do anything about that.”

  She glared at him with a look that would have killed if she were a cultivator.

  I glared, too, but I wasn’t angry at him; I was angry at myself. ‘Look at this weakness, ’ I knew why he was doing this.

  I’d pay him back one day, but till then, this was just how the dough rose. “I can give you 120. Right now. All silver.”

  He looked at me, considering, then a small chuckle. “125 and it's a deal.”

  I gritted my teeth…

  But then, I agreed.

  I would not show more weakness. Not here. Not now. I clenched my hands around my pouch of silver until I felt blood, and handed over the silver.

  ‘Damn it. All this because I angered one man.’ I grit my teeth so hard they cut into my gums.

  ‘A house bought with shame.’ I had given 125 silvers to live like a rat on the edge of the slums.

  ‘Fine.’ I thought to myself, ‘let him laugh now. Let him look down on me. The day I carved my way out of this mud with bloodied hands, I would come to collect on this slight.’