Quietly, Jun Li fiddled with the lid of her cauldron, propping it open carefully so that the vapor inside could leak out and mix with the poison in the air. 'This should do it…' Carefully setting her cauldron to the side, she looked around the room.

  Nothing had changed in the room, of course, she was as alone as she had been when she first entered. But to her, it felt as if a great deal of time had passed. 'Am I… tired?' The realization hit her with slow certainty, and her thoughts were dragged backwards through her memories.

  'I was walking for hours, and before that I had been busy discussing alchemy all last night… Even before that, I had fought some of those puppets at the estate, and before then, I had traveled the wilderness to find this city in the first place…'

  Even for someone who has completed Viscera Tempering, it had been an exhausting period of activity. 'But I don't feel fatigued… just tired.' There was a strong distinction, and although she perceived it with certainty, she couldn't define it so easily.

  'At the very least, I should be able to ignore it for a while…' Standing up, Jun Li felt her sodden clothes unstick from her skin and weigh heavily on her. Looking down at the front of her robe and seeing the vibrant red of her own blood, she let out a sigh. "Right…"

  '...It'd be easier to change clothes at this rate.' With intent, Jun Li ran a finger across the thin incision in her neck, coaxing the living blood within to form into threads and stitch the wound closed. 'I really hope I won't have to make a habit of cutting myself open…'

  Walking to the side of the room as she closed the wound on the other side of her neck, Jun Li looked through one of her Spatial Rings for a change of clothes. 'Oh, this one belonged to that Frost River Sect girl.' She recognized the style of garb stuffed into the ring, and the items that rested alongside them turned her recognition into knowing.

  Quickly slipping out of her blood-slicked clothing, Jun Li wiped herself down with her old robe and tossed it into a random Spatial Ring before she produced the clothing that had once belonged to 'Bai Yuelin.' Someone whose name she never bothered to remember.

  'A bit undersized, but it should be fine…' Quickly clothing herself in the shortened variant of the Frost River Sect's robes, Jun Li looked herself over as she made for the room's exit. 'Slack and comfortable pants, a robe cut short into the silhouette of a shirt… Nice, 'what's-her-name' had good taste.

  … … … … … …

  Outside the demonstration room, the senior alchemist, who had led Jun Li and the young scion in the tortoise robe there, was speaking quietly towards a burning talisman that floated next to him. "Yes, right… If he returns, I'll formalize him immediately." He nodded along towards the burning talisman as if speaking to someone through the flame.

  "And, uh, for the demonstration room, could I request-" The flame was suddenly snuffed out, the connection forcefully severed from the other end as a preemptive answer to his request. "Ahh, damn it… at this rate, I'll be demoted to managing logistics…!"

  A few steps away, the door to the demonstration room swept open, causing the senior alchemist to startle and turn to the door. There, Jun Li quickly emerged and shut the door behind her, brushing off the cloying vapor that stuck to her clothing as she moved a few steps away from the door.

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  For a silent moment, the senior alchemist lacked a response. Jun Li had remained in that room for upwards of forty minutes. The concept that she would be alive, let alone unharmed, was absurd in the extreme. "Ah." Jun Li noticed the senior alchemist staring at her. "I fixed the poison issue."

  "The poison takes effect by clotting the blood, so I made an anticoagulant, and now it's slowly vaporizing. Just give it a few hours, and it should be safe to work in there, enough to clean up at least."

  Although it surely existed, there was no shock or surprise on the senior alchemist's face. At Jun Li's words, he simply fell into quiet contemplation. "...How did you manage to survive in there before creating the anticoagulant?"

  When he spoke from valid confusion, Jun Li had a lie ready. "I was able to make a personal dosage within a minute of entering. The real difficulty was in creating a variant capable of naturally vaporizing and mixing with the already existing poison."

  "You… made that sort of thing in less than a minute? But… why did you enter the room before making it?" Jun Li nodded along, as if she were listening with earnestness. "Ah, I needed to use the Medicinal Plants that the… former applicant had used in the poison's creation. To avoid any unexpectedly clashing aspects and energies."

  "Then… why did you take it upon yourself to rush in and fix the poison yourself…?" Jun Li laughed at that question, noticing the genuine confusion in the senior's expression. "Because I wanted to impress you and prove my skills as an alchemist. You are capable of formally inducting new members of the Alchemist's Association, right?"

  With no reason to doubt Jun Li, the senior alchemist looked like a great weight had been taken off his shoulders. "Haha… Well, I suppose you've succeeded there!" If Jun Li had truly walked into that room and died, it was very likely that this senior alchemist would have lost his position as a tutor and minor representative of the branch.

  Even if neither were truly his fault, having two aspiring alchemists die in the same room, on the same day, no less, would have reflected so badly on his discretion that it would have been strange for him to retain his position.

  "Yes… I suppose you've proven your skills well enough that I can induct you as a formal member of our branch of the Alchemist's Association without hesitation!" His expression showed just how pleased he was with Jun Li, not merely as a prospective alchemist, but as a living buoy with which he might be able to keep his career afloat.

  "Now, what is your name? Once I have your information, I will have a badge and Jade Slip created for your identification as soon as possible." When the senior alchemist asked for Jun Li's name, she hesitated imperceptibly, having become so used to lying that the act of telling the truth caused her to pause, if only for a moment.

  "Ah… My name is Jun Li." She quickly caught herself and answered honestly. 'There's no point joining this branch if I can't use my real name, I need to make a reputation, and allow Uncle Zhu to find me…'

  "Perfect! I'll have your identification ready by tomorrow! And, it is optional, but would you like to receive a formal alchemist's robe?" Jun Li thought for a moment about the offer. Although it could be useful for putting on airs as an alchemist, it may be better for her to stand out as irregular or unusual among her peers.

  "...I'll abstain for now." Jun Li answered, before quickly becoming distracted by another notion. "About… the man inside that room."

  "Oh, the… young alchemist who poisoned himself?" The senior alchemist raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised that Jun Li would bring him up. "What about him?"

  "I used a couple of Medicinal Plants from his satchel to make my anticoagulant, but… could you hold onto his belongings for a time?" She followed up her words quickly. "I mean, that is… do you have a lost and found, or a place to store reserved orders?"

  "I don't know if he has any relations, but at the very least, if someone comes to ask after him, they should have something to take back with them."