Getting back to the common room, I came across something that I most certainly didn't expect. Xiao Wu, my newest lackey, was squaring off with her forehead, all but against the forehead of another girl.
And seeing the other girl with her blue hair and having some violet highlights. I knew all too easily that this was Tang Wutong, my newest sister disciple of Yu Xiaogang.
"You lost to a boy with no martial arts training at all. What makes you think you are still my rival anyway?" Tang Wutong spoke with a dull and uninterested tone.
Xiao Wu snorted and then said proudly. "Heh! My Tian Long is a strong boy so he is naturally stronger then me. Plus he also has innate spirit power as well!"
I coughed which made the other kids jump slightly with Tang Wutong's eye's sliding over to me. Not with suprise though, so I assumed she saw me as I came in.
"How did the meeting go with Master?" Tang Wutong asked calmly even as Xiao Wu snorted and stomped away from her.
I looked between Xiao Wu and Tang Wutong knowing these two were already like oil and water. Unable to mix due to their natural attitudes and personalities.
In the canon timelines, Xiao Wu and Tang San got along due to Tang San being a guy and her rowdy personality meshing well with his calculating, petty, vengeful, and cool personality that evened her out.
Here however? I didn't know if Tang Wutong had Tang San's scheming and petty core.
With how she was obviously going to be different with how she was raised in that lower Wuxia world before being reincarnated here.
Still, I took a breath and I approached more before I said quietly with a small smile. "He decided to take me on as another disciple. I am your sibling disciple I suppose."
Tang Wutong went quiet for a moment before she closed her eyes and slowly nodded before saying thoughtfully. "I see... Then it's nice to meet you Tian Long, I hope that we can work well together."
Then as the other kids went back to their own thing seeing as we weren't going to fight. Tang Wutong asked quietly. "What is your Martial Soul, and what Soul Level are you?"
I shrugged and said easily. "Dragon Cauldron and I have innate spirit power. I haven't gotten a Soul Ring yet though."
Tang Wutong slowly nodded thoughtfully before she gave a wane smile and said. "I see... Hopefully master can help you get a decent Spirit Ring as well."
I shrugged and said helplessly. "He said that when he tried to help you get your own. That it had it's complications so he wants to wait to go for it, while he gets some help to make sure it's safe."
"That... Would be wise." She said with a slight sigh and rueful smile as she thought of the previous trip it seemed like.
Still, I tilted my head to the side and asked. "So what is your Martial Soul and Spirit Level then?"
Well, Xiao Wu had told me that it was a butterfly, but not its 'exact' title, at least, which would make a massive difference.
"My Martial Soul is the Light Butterfly, and I have reached twelfth soul level." Tang Wutong said simply before she looked aside as Xiao Wu came over to me. "Is it true you beat Xiao Wu?" She asked curiously.
I shrugged in answer as I really only made her 'tap out' by biting the shit out of her. Not exactly an honorable battle to be proud of.
Still, Tang Wutong got the answer she wanted and said calmly. "I see... Then, you have a good night, Tian Lung. I am going to sleep."
She then moved to climb into her own bed and I heard Xiao Wu snort behind me as she whispered. "Look at how she just disregards us! She is looking down on me for losing to you!"
I gave Xiao Wu a slight poke to her arm that made her scowl before I smiled and said casually. "Go get your own pillow. You can sleep in my bed with my comforters and blankets, with the pillow separating us."
To say the least, I had a lot I wanted to get started on now that I had the 'support' of a master.
Xiao Wu gave me a long look as I climbed into my bed before she bit her lower lip and nodded. And as she grabbed a... Very ratty pillow that looked like some rags held together with safety pins and stuffed with fucking dead grass.
I just literally tossed the pillow aside making Xiao Wu freeze as she laid beside me and prepared to sleep without a pillow at all. "Nope, I am not sleeping with bugs in a bag." I said tiredly as I pushed my own pillow below Xiao Wu's head before I folded my spared blanket into my own pillow.
Thankfully with my inherited memories of being in the orphanage, I was used to the sounds of other people especially children's antics so I was able to sleep through the common rooms noise until the next morning came around.
But as I woke up... I woke up to the form of a little 'rabbit' resting her head agaisnt my shoulder as she had rolled across the dividing pillow.
'Whelp I got the bunny girl's trust.' I thought sleepily but any such romance or anything would need to wait for a good long time... Literally like ten years at the very least as we were both 'six' years old.
'We both have the bodies of a six year old, but I have the inherited memories of my previous life... And Xiao Wu is a human who reincarnated from a hundred thousand year cultivation spirit beast. We can't exactly be called children I suppose.' I mused to myself.
It seemed however that my breathing had awoken Xiao Wu who woke up with her hazy brown eye's blinking repeatedly at the sight of me before she flushed a bit and said quietly. "Sorry... I roll around in my sleep. Did I wake you up?"
To which I just chuckled and said with a bit of teasing. "No, a little rabbit's snoring can't wait me up."
Xiao Wu's face turned pink and she hissed out. "You are the who snores! How could you say that to a lady?"
And that set the tone of my morning as Xiao Wu and I got up to get breakfast though I noticed that Tang Wutong was already up and gone from the common room.
Then after our breakfast we seperated as Xiao Wu was very much in the working student program and had to do chores for a good chunk of the day.
Meanwhile I went back to the library to continue my research on the local Spirit Beasts, and local herbs and such. As I had the Flame Emperor's Divine Body technique which required me to use poisons, pills, alchemical dregs and other things to refine my body.
Although the whale gel would be a massive boost to my natural bodies tolerance for spirit rings. I could still get started in improving my body, mind, and spirit to ready myself for the rigors and stress of preforming alchemy.
'Hmm I wonder if there is already a way I can help Xiaogang at this point... His martial spirit is still fucked, but there are other paths of power that DON'T require an entire heavenly herb to unfuck his Martial Soul.' I mused to myself thoughtfully.
Still with a hum I thought of opening his acupoints so that he could at least cultivate his physical body... Maybe that would turn his hair from grey back to black?
Either way I looked up to the sounds of the private reading room I was in opening and I blinked at seeing my very master and Tang Wutong coming in.
"Master, Tang Wutong." I said in greeting as I closed my book on local herbs for the Heaven Dou Empire.
Xu Xiaogang raised an eyebrow at the book I was reading before he asked curiously. "Hmm Xiao Lung, you are looking into poison for weapons perhaps?"
I shook my head and said calmly. "No I was just looking to see what was in the local area for concotions and elixers I can make with the right materials."
I gave a small smile and asked. "So is this a more formal introduction?"
To which Yu Xiaogang just chuckled softly and shook his head before he said. "That doesn't seem so nessacary. You both seem like well behaved children and I will treat you both as equally as I can."
"So there won't need to be any sort of hierarchy in our discipleship... Unless you two want to make things complicated?" He finished with a raised eyebrow as he looked between me and Tang Wutong.
Tang Wutong gave a helpless smile before she said faintly. "I would rather not fight Tian Lung... He beat another girl who already got her first spirit ring by biting her into submission."
Yu Xiaogang sighed before he said with amusement. "Well at least we have alreadly learned Xiao Lung is a man who won't give up in a fight."
"Can we please move on from that." I said with a wry smile, with the master nodding and pointing out to another book and with a hand offering a chair to Tang Wutong with her sitting in as he took the book on spirit beasts.
Then for the next couple of hours, the great 'fraud' tested us on the knowledge of the spirit beasts within the book and told us some more interesting facts about them. Like their lifestyles, where they could be found.
And most importantly,y about their growth cycles so that we Spirit Masters could understand their cultivation levels.
"Well, that should do it for today's lessons. I would prefer to host these lessons every other day and while you both are so young, I can't have you both doing too hard of physical training." Yu Xiaogang explained before he added.
"However, I will be keeping an idea of your diets and will offer corrections as you will need to fill your bodies with the right nutrients."
I nodded in understanding and then asked carefully. "Master, I was hoping to get some supplies and the tools needed to make some concoctions but I can't store them in the common room. Can I store them in your house?"
Master blinked at my request before smiling softly and saying easily. "Of course Xiao Lung, that's perfectly fine. I do ask that you not mess with my bedroom however."
Of course I wasn't going to fuck about with his bedroom and such so I just made it clear I wasn't going to make a mess as much as I could anyway.
Then Tang Wutong asked curiously. "Concoctions and elixers? Are you an alchemist then Tian Lung?"
To which I nodded with a brief "Yes." Leaving me, though Yu Xiaogang looked a bit confused at the intensity in Tang Wutong's eyes at my response.
Still with that, both Tang Wutong and Yu Xiaogang left to go do their own things... While I with my pittance of money left over left the academy as I had some to get some alchemy tools.
Well... Calling a small iron pot that was made out of a hundred forged, refined iron that required a dolly for me to move was an 'alchemy' tool, along with some other tools like a mortar, and pestle, true alchemy tools was a stretch.
But without my first spirit ring to get my Martial Soul active and able to refine concoctions within it... I was shit out of luck, obviously.
"Alright, got most of the tools... Now to go get some goodies to refine in a mortal fire." I muttered as I then spent the rest of the day basically trecking the outside of Nuoding City near the nearby forest so I could pick out some low-quality herbs and medicinal ingredients.
As it wasn't like I had any money to actually buy higher quality herbs let alone any bulk amounts.
Still, I got the herbs and some special insects without running into anything dangerous like spirit beasts, thankfully.
Once I got back with my large bag filled with goodies, I got to see Yu Xiaogang's expression at seeing me grinding up insects and poisonous herbs together into a thick paste. "What are you going to do with that Xiao Lung?" He asked with some worry as I fed the fire that was heating up the pot filled with filtered water I had in his small house's yard.
"This poisonous concoction is good for my body with the various medicines I have taken over the years. Once I boil and filter out some of the impurities, I will make a bath out of it, with the poison forcing out some of the impurities in my body and even you can use it if I make the antidote for you." I explained happily.
His disbelieving expression was something to remember to say the least, but still he could tell I 'knew' what I was doing from the assuredness in my movements.
After a few minutes, the clearly toxic purple concoction in the thick pot thickened as the reactive elements within it transformed it from a mostly liquid to a consistency closer to pudding-like.
And within a large rain barrel that I already filled with 'clean' water. I scooped a large ladle of the concoction into the barrel, with the water hissing and spitting violently as the contaminants and bacteria within the water was torn apart.
"Have you done this before, Xiao Tian?" Master asked again with clear concern and with a wry smile,e I answered honestly.
"With an intensity like this? No, but I will be fine. The most dangerous thing for me would be drowning in the barrel actually."
I could tell he didn't really believe me totally but he knew that I 'Knew' what I was doing at least so he didn't waste all my efforts as I threw myself into the large rain barrel with a loud hiss, leaving both me and the Body Refinement elixer.
"Haaa this stings!" I cursed through gritted teeth as it felt like ants were biting and tunneling through my skin's pores. All in the hopes to get the impurities to devour from within myself.
But even as Master huddled over the barrel, clearly ready to rip me out of the concoction should it looked like I was going to lose control. I closed my eye's and smoothed my breathing as I began to operate the Flame Emperor's Divine Body Technique.
The Flame Emperor's Divine Body Technique had ten levels to it. The first stage was the 'Candle Body' stage in which I would refine an inner fire the size of a candle's flame that would be fed the alchemical ingredients and such that would nurture my body, all the while.
'Sadly, I don't already have a fire elemental spirit ring... That would let me skip this whole step to begin with. But god knows when Yu Xiaogang will get that help and that whale jelly.' I mused to myself with a sigh.
After a few more minutes of slight 'agony' I had absorbed all the essence I could from the concocotion with Master helping pull me out of the rain barrel with him saying with some bemuesment. "Well thankfully we can pour this down the drain as the sewage isn't going to be any cleaner."
Clearing my throat a bit, I said with a bit of a sheepish smile. "Yeah, look at the bright side. The bugs and vermin in Nuoding's sewers are going to be in for a spicy taste until it dilutes more in the water."
After helping him drain the large rain barrel into a grate in the back of his yard that led directly to the sewage line. I went back to my reading until it was the early afternoon.
From there I spent time with Xiao Wu, and with her help. She helped me find some edible roots, vegetables and other goodies around the cities outer forest as well.
All so that I could make some herbal soup which was far cheaper then the dinner's that the caferteria had.
"Hmm, I am suprised your master isn't paying for your food as well." Xiao Wu said between large scoops of her soup.
I gave a wry smile and said honestly. "He is already supporting one orphan and helping me with alot of other stuff. I can't ask for food money if I am not actually struggling."
Xiao Wu shrugged and then she asked thoughtfully. "Well how do you plan to get more money then? Being a working student only covers a small lunch and dinner. And you might have base tuition covered but you still need more money."
To say nothing of my need for alchemical reagents, natural treasures, and god knows what else besides just... Food to sustain myself. Yeah money was going to be my next focus frankly.
"Hmm, maybe I can open a small still and pretend to be a Spirit Chef to make some money?" I muttered as I did know how to cook, and my previous lives cooking abilities were further enhanced with the existence of Alchemical Dishes that were lesser elixers basically.
Because although Yu Xiaogang had connections, and a good knowledge base that could help me... He didn't exactly have much money to his name, and I didn't want to ask for any when I my alchemy was going to be a money pit until I got connections to people who would trust and actually buy my stuff.
'Actually... Yu Xiaogang does have the reputation as the 'Grandmaster' maybe I can use his reputation and just have him sell my stuff in the short while to raise funds?' I mused before I realized that he might very refuse instantly.
As his reputation as a wise man was literally all he had to live for frankly... Asking him to use his reputation to sell health supplements and such would be a quick way for him to get uncomfortable with our master/disciple relationship.