Remian had close to half a hundred vinetrap cores by now. Maybe it was too greedy of him, but with the pod around, he basically went into a core-harvesting craze and only came to his senses after almost fainting from physical exhaustion. Even with the Pod flying him around, cutting vines and collecting cores still took some effort.

After a few hours rest, Remian grabbed up a sack and headed out. With goods in hand, it was time to sell them off and collect the money.

"Alchemist Pavilion, here I come!" Remian grinned as he entered the city.

The Alchemist Pavilion was actually more like a private housing estate. There was such a thing as an Alchemist Guild in the Soaring Empire, and the local branch was housed here, in this walled-off area of roughly a squared kilometer. Various houses and heavily fortified laboratories dotted the interior along with private herb gardens, a library of sorts and most important of all, the Guild Hall.

The Guild Hall was basically the only ground entrance into the compound; everyone wanting to enter the area first had to step through its doors. These doors were ornate, gilded wood towering easily ten feet overhead, and would normally be a pain to open or close, but they were usually open all day and all night. Alchemists apparently kept odd hours and sometimes went out at the strangest times to harvest ingredients under the moonlight or some such. Anyway, the point was, the Guild Hall was open to the public, and it was here that Remian needed to go to sell off the vinetrap cores.

Through the doors was a large, guarded lobby, with uniformly armored guards on either side. There were grand stairs directly in front, with corridors leading out on either side, a series of corridors and doors to the left, a reception area and a courtyard cafeteria to the right.

Remian approached the reception desk and said, "I'm here to sell alchemic ingredients."

"Very good, sir. Do you have a token?" the receptionist asked.

Remian shook his head. Apparently regulars who traded with the Alchemists Guild had some sort of identification token with differing grades to show how valuable these traders were to the Guild. "This is my first time here."

"I see. An interview will be required. Conference Room 2, if you please." The receptionist gestured to one of the doors on the left.

Remian went in and found himself face-to-face with Mu Hou.

"You?!" they both exclaimed at the same time.

Hou's thoughts clarified matters easily enough. He was a member of the guild and today he had a work s.h.i.+ft in Acquisitions. He had voluntarily taken up the job because he was expecting Big Li to come in today to sell Iridiscent Jade.

Where had Big Li gotten that sort of Jade in the past three days? Remian had no idea, and neither did Hou. Nor did either of them care.

"Hey there." Remian put on as friendly a grin as he could muster. "I went back into the forests and found a few more cores. I'm here to sell them."

"All by yourself?" Mu Hou looked at him blankly, then nodded. "Right. With your abilities, you'd be able to sneak in and out like a rat and never get caught."

Remian was not a fan of being compared to a rat, but he held his peace. "Do I need some sort of token?"

"How many did you get?" Mu Hou asked. "At least five?"

Five? Three days of harvesting and Hou thought he only got away with five? Remian hesitated, considered, then said, "Nine."

"Huh. Not bad." Mu Hou sounded slightly impressed.

Carefully, Remian counted out nine cores as he took them out of his sack. As for the remaining forty, he didn't say anything about them. Goodness knows what Hou would do if he found out Remian brought in forty-nine cores today. He might very well try to kill Remian either out of jealousy, or greed.

"Here." Mu Hou handed Remian what looked like a steel bookmark, lined with bronze on the edges. "This is a level 3 affiliate token. Nine cores are worth only 9000 Black, and you should only qualify for a level 2, but I'm feeling generous today, so here you go."

It was true. In Mu Hou's thoughts were the entire scale of qualifications and affiliate levels. For those selling ingredients, values below 1,000 were counted as level 1. 1,000-10,000 were graded at level 2, and 10,000 to 100,000 would make level 3. Level 4 and upwards were out of Mu Hou's hands; he'd have to call in an Elder for those.

What Mu Hou was really thinking was, [Since he can do it on his own, Lem Yan might actually turn out to be useful, at least as far as vinetrap cores go. This could be good for the Scorched Earth City's Alchemist Guild in the long-term and that means it's good for my family. Maybe I shouldn't kill him after all. Also, if I showed Lem Yan some favor, maybe Big Li would be pleased.]

Good to know that in Mu Hou's eyes, Remian had changed from a Pest to a Resource. Hou wouldn't bother to kill him any more, though he would definitely try to exploit him (in his thoughts, vinetrap cores were bought from outsiders for 1000 Black, and sold to others for 2000, or used in concoctions which would make their worth far, far more).

Knowing now what Hou wanted, Remian relaxed a bit. "I'll bring more next time."

Preferably in a couple of hours, after Mu Hou's s.h.i.+ft ended and someone else would be here. At that point, Remian could come in and show his token and that would be enough.

"Great. Anything else?" Hou asked, as he laid down nine bank notes for 1000 Black.

"I want to buy a Green Jade Vitality Pill." Remian mentioned. "Any idea where I can get one, and how much it would cost?"

"If you have the money, you can order one from the Guild, and we'll have it ready in a week." Mu Hou said simply. "For a Level 3 Affiliate, it will cost you 350 Earth-grade Spirit Crystals, or 350,000 Black."

Remian's face fell. Before today, he'd only ever earned 540 Black, 130 of which was already spent on food, cutting tools, a sack, and other daily necessities. Adding today's earnings brought him up to 9410 Black. Even if his business later succeeds and he brought in another 40,000, that was still a very, very long way away from 350,000.

At this rate, it was going to take him a month to gather enough money for that one pill!

"Why are you buying it, though?" Mu Hou asked. "Is it for yourself?"

"Yes." Remian didn't deny it.

"It's because you're weak, isn't it?" Mu Hou pondered.

"That, and apparently my meridians are withered, and I can't cultivate and some such." Remian frowned.

"Oh. That's bad." Mu Hou grimaced. "Short of a Tier 9 Meridian Rejuvenation Elixir, there's no fixing your problem."

Remian almost jumped. "It can be fixed?"

"Sure. If you had five hundred million Black lying around." Mu Hou snorted. "And even that would only put you on the starting line. Most guys our age would already be Innate Qi pract.i.tioners. For you to catch up to even the average guy around town, you'd need much, much more pills and elixirs. In other words, it's going to cost you hundreds of millions. But hard work always succeeds, eh? A problem that can be solved with money is no problem. It only takes effort!"

That was easy for him to say. His family was rich and he was spending their money like water. Remian on the other hand had a great deal of pain and problems working hard for money.

From Mu Hou's thoughts, he had already spent almost a million in the recent auction buying nice things for Big Li. Based on the favor he now received from her, it seemed he felt it worthwhile.

Almost a million Black! Great uncle, please spare me just one third of that money, and I'll happily buy a Green Jade Vitality Pill to save my life!

"Well, goodbye, and take care, now. If you need our goods or services, or even some service men to help you in the forest, we can handle those too." Mu Hou said, by way of farewell. "Just ask at the reception."

'Ask the receptionist', not 'you can come find me'. Mu Hou wasn't exactly trying to befriend Remian here, but at least he was courteous.

"Right. I'll be back." Remian promised.

But of course. He would have forty more of those cores to sell just as soon as Mu Hou went away.

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