27 Be Still, Peanut Gallery

From a serene building in the innermost area of the Cedar Sect, steam rose up and curled through the cool morning air. It was one of the buildings under the sect's pill refining division.

Within the building, a tall young man's back could be seen.

Klaus rolled his sleeves up to his elbows and carefully lifted a ceramic pot from the steaming water. His pale brows were knitted in concentration.

The door opened loudly, and several uncouth figures rushed in.

"Junior Bayer, you have to do something!"

Klaus did not shift his eyes away from his task.

Carefully, the pot was placed on the table and the lid lifted. At the bottom of the pot lay a bowl's worth of aromatic, blue liquid.

The refining process had gone extremely smoothly - the tincture had been successfully made. His heart dropped back into place and the knot in his brows relaxed.

Finally turning his eyes to the figures that had so gracelessly rushed in, Klaus raised a pale brow.

"What's got your pants on fire, Hans?" He drawled as he poured the blue liquid into a jade vial.

The two that had rushed in looked at each other in deliberation.

One was a girl of about fourteen years of age with a pixie-cut and the other a brawny fellow about the same age as Klaus. The two of them were from well-known merchant families who had had the funds to support them to the first level of qi distillation.As soon as he entered the sect, their families had pushed them to latch upon him the way one hugs a golden thigh.

Klaus didn't mind too much… but only if they could prove themselves useful.

In truth? Merchants were just presumptuous low-bred citizens who thought they had become something just because they had been able to make some chump change. He was quietly disdainful of them, but not stupid enough to reject an ally.

The girl, Freya, stepped forwards. She turned her deep brown eyes onto Klaus but froze when she met his icy gaze.

"U-um…" she stuttered, suddenly unsure of what to do with herself.

"It's about that boy… the one who broke the thirty-year record…"

Klaus' eyes twitched as soon as he heard the words 'broke the thirty-year record.' So, that eyesore was acting up so soon? How annoying.

It had to be known that, despite Klaus high potential for cultivation, his physical strength was on the low side. He had always been extremely dissatisfied with that, especially since his older brothers… Well, it was just disgusting how that village boy's little display of strength had made the whole examination hall almost break out into a frenzied celebration.

Freya saw the look of irritation on Klaus' aristocratic features and immediately continued, "He's been doing exactly what you said he would… acting all high and mighty just because he has some strength… you should have seen what happened today! The head servant was praising him up and down as if he were some god from Heaven…"

The burly young man, Hans, stepped forwards now, nodding angrily.

"It really is too unfair! The rewards for the most trees felled in a week are not low quality, as you know, and he's snatched them all for two weeks consecutively! What's worse, the head servant has deliberately increased the rewards because of the kid, leaving the rest of us with only low-level trash! That kid is stepping all over us and restricting our cultivation progress!"

Of course, Hans was over-exaggerating.

How would the one-eyed head servant be so biased as to leave only trash for the other servants who had performed well? He might have slipped some extra goods into Van's hands, but he certainly wasn't neglecting the rest of them!

The burly young man's envy and jealousy had gotten the best of him – before Van arrived, he was the strongest servant in the Woodcutting Division and the one who had been receiving the top rewards. Now that his seat had been stolen by a brat a few years younger than him, he felt a simmering disgust that wouldn't go away.

He wanted to teach that brat a lesson!

Klaus saw clearly Hans' fury. Freya's expression was also filled with annoyance - she had been second on the Woodcutting Division's ranking before being pushed down to third.

Some village kid sitting on her head made her feel very dissatisfied!

Klaus tapped a thin finger against the vial in his hands, thinking.

In the end, his head cooled.

That kid was just a lowly existence. With his low spiritual potential, he wouldn't amount to much more than another low servant in the sect, working for decades on end until he was finally released as a decrepit old man.

Although he was extremely annoying - like a large, buzzing fly that wouldn't go away – his level of existence hardly required Klaus' personal interference.

Catching the other two's gazes, he gave a slight tilt of his head.

"Do as you like."

As they left, Klaus looked down at the still-warm jade vial between his fingers.

His thin lips curved into a satisfied smile.

Indeed.

He had better things to be doing.

_______________

Zing!

After three tries, the thin spear of qi finally pierced through the blockage.

A comfortable feeling suffused Van. He felt a thin strand of qi flow into the newly opened meridian in his hand.

Two weeks had passed since Van opened his first major meridian, and now he had only twenty or so minor meridians left to open. As they were smaller, they were much easier to unblock. But he did also need to spend time widening them.Of course, this was only if one wanted to achieve the mythical 'perfect' foundation for Qi Distillation.

However, to stretch them like this required resources - as the simplest way to make them larger was to flood them with just the right amount of Qi. Luckily enough, the prizes for the top-performing servant in the Woodcutting Division had been able to fill this gap.

The herbs awarded brimmed with vital spiritual energy and were very good quality prizes – especially considering they were only servants. From this, the Cedar Sect's generosity and forward-thinking could be felt.

Chewing slowly on these herbs as he cultivated gave him the amount of energy needed to continuously flood his meridians for several hours, eventually widening them slightly. After they were widened, Van was required to meditate to consolidate the change.

Satisfied with his progress for the night, Van returned to his sleeping quarters. There were only three hours left til Head Servant Jinyi would come with her gong and wake them all up.

He climbed, sleepy and exhausted, into his bedroll.

If he were less worn out by that night's exertions, he might have noticed the two dark figures lurking just outside the window.