A group of six travelled through the forest, their hands resting on the hilts of their weapons so that they could put them to use whenever they needed to. Four used swords, one had an axe with a handle of stone and a head of inscribed wood, and the last utilised a simple club.
One of the sword wielders was a woman, standing over one of the other men, but all of their outfits revealed notably more than those of the Yi District. Some parts of the men’s chests, arms and legs were exposed to the cool air of the world, while the woman’s armour showed a good third of her breasts, and neither of these outfits were even close to the kinds of things that those in the Northern Desert would wear. Out there, it was not uncommon to witness those without anything to cover their chests at all, limiting themselves to a belt, loincloth and some light footwear to be able to navigate the scalding sand without burning themselves.
These guards were not from the extreme north, as could be seen by their light skin, but the heightened warmth in the Ning District encouraged lightened equipment and less privacy in general.
“There’ve been quite a few beasts coming in this direction, no?” the woman said, leaning slightly towards one of the men that walked beside her, intentionally pushing her breasts against his arm while he attempted to ignore her.
“Yeah. I think there may be some kind of predator hunting all of them.”
“Predator?” a third guard wondered, “By the heavens, what kind of thing would be able to scare so many?”
The second guard was about to suggest some kind of answer, but before he could conclude whether an expert or some aberrant planar beast was most likely to be the cause of the disturbance, all of them felt an immense power appear beside them, forcing every single one of them to turn around and view the cause.
That cause presented itself shortly after, a tall figure emerging from the bushes behind them. Crimson hair covered her head, descending below it in a thick ponytail, and did nothing to obscure her dark green robes or the pieces of armour that covered it, nor the defined muscle visible on her arms.
Her only weapons seemed to be a pair of daggers, both dark and rough, as if they were bones torn out of some kind of terrible beast and carved into tools of combat and war. However, that did not mesh well with the rest of her appearance, as her entire being seemed to radiate maturity and pure might that did not need to use something like weapons to achieve her goals. Nevertheless, one of them was surrounded in a crimson mirage that did not even seem to be entirely real, for it would disappear and reappear with every blink of the eyes.
What they could be entirely certain of was that her cultivation realm was somewhere in the third realm, although her exact stage was difficult to determine for any one of them – she was simply stronger than them. For this reason, they immediately drew their weapons and prepared for combat, as they could not be certain whether this woman was responsible for the beasts or what reason she might have had to call them towards the district, if she was responsible.
“Name yourself!” the fourth guard called out, stepping to the front of the group.
The woman did not respond immediately, not even bothering to use her eyes as she instead scanned each one of them with her spiritual perception. Unlike their expectations, wherein any normal cultivators of the same realm would easily be able to sense one another’s spiritual perception and block it from entering their bodies, they instead found that her energy was not only incredibly overwhelming, but also entirely unstoppable. It searched their bodies and clothes with ease, passing through them just as easily as water could pass through a net.
“You are guards of the Ning District?”
They looked at one another, nodded, and then the fourth guard responded, “That’s right.”
“My name is Wei Yi, and I wish to set up shop in your district. Do you have the authorization to permit me entry?”
Her words were incredibly clear, and the aura of power around her only seemed to grow when she looked down upon them and folded her arms. Not one of the guards could determine the exact nature of this, as it different from the raw power of planar energy, but they knew better than to look down on someone just because of an uncertainty.
“We do, but-”
“Bring me to the district,” she cut him off and ordered instead, not giving him a moment to argue against her – not that the guard wished to. She seemed like she could crush him using her physical body and nothing else, despite him having done a significant quantity of body cultivation in his own time.
“H-Hey, we’re in the same realm! Don’t think you can just do whatever you like!” the female guard stepped in after a moment, although her confident tone was undermined by the slight shaking and quivering of her limbs, “We’re the authority here, so you have no right to just decide whatever you want, is that clear?”
The crimson-haired woman’s eyes moved to her, prompting an undignified yelp to flee her mouth against her will, “Take me to your district and to someone acting out of more than impulse.”
Once more, they shared a few glances before the fourth guard returned to the front of the group and nodded, “Alright, we can do that. However, if our superiors tell you to leave, we’re going to make sure that you do. We’ve got people in the fourth and fifth realms-”
“Stop talking. I don’t care,” Wei Yi replied, “Furthermore, my business has nothing to do with you.”
‘Fuck, this woman is terrifying,’ that fourth guard thought as his group surrounded her and began to walk back towards the Ning District, ‘Is she actually in the third realm, or is she somehow in the fourth or fifth realm? Her stage is also unclear… first, or maybe fourth, or maybe even ninth… And her spiritual will…’
He also shook when her gaze suddenly moved to him, as if she had somehow heard his thoughts, and couldn’t fully relax even when she did not appear to address this.
“Are all of your forces this disorganised?”
“I… don’t quite know what you mean,” he responded, “We-”
“Not you. If you’re the leader of this group, then I suggest demotion and the transference of your power to anyone else in your group. She had the courage to address me, so she would do better in the middle of conflict,” Wei Yi pointed to the female guard, “The others may have some merit as well.”
None of them were able to respond.
‘Did I take it too far? I’m just trying to act dominant, as though mere guards of a district are nothing to me, and that I have previously dealt with far greater threats – like the Greats and otherworldly demons, although they don’t need to know that – with enough ease to do whatever I want to them without breaking a sweat…’ she thought to herself, deciding that further communication was currently unnecessary.
She simply followed them for a little while at their top speed, keeping her aura around herself so that no beasts would interfere with the journey, and so that she would have the opportunity to display her ability against a sufficiently powerful foe if it was not immediately scared away.
This did not prove necessary for her, as they finally arrived at their destination.
The Ning District was surrounded in enormous metal walls that towered over every other structure within, going up to the height of almost fifteen average men. The walls were slanted inwards, and a number of guards stoop at the top of each major segment of the wall. It was all made from a dark iron and lined with glyphs, arrays and inscriptions that released a constant crimson glow, instinctively warding away intruders with the simple appearance of them. Although she had found it difficult to be particularly amazed by the beauty of most structures after witnessing Sanctuary and its reconstruction after she had knocked down a few towers, this wall impressed her by the sheer might and practicality of it, despite her innate dislike of the structure due to it likely originating from some otherworldly fantasy, much like the swords and armour of Fu Zan.
‘Actually, thine assumption is incorrect, insofar as I am aware. According to Ah Shi Meng, he had come into possession of an excess of a certain kind of metal as he was setting up the Ning District. The clans there were all proficient in blacksmithing and crafting anything related to metal, so he commissioned them to work with him and integrated a number of ideas from the Truth of the Universe in order to strengthen the structure,’ Yi Shi Ming stated when she was asked, ‘Although, he did say something about a game during the later half of construction…’
‘Then, I was right. According to Fu Zan, there are countless games on the planet of Orbis, which feature plenty of designs and ideas for them to steal- I mean, borrow from. Did he ever say the name?’
‘Eh… I can pass on the memory to thee, but I know not the language in which it ought to be interpreted,’ the mother of the Master of Yi City replied, focusing on that memory before passing it along to her, ‘Cans’t thou gather anything from this?’
‘Let’s see… World… eh… That’s not a real word in either Enian or Antanorden, so I have no idea.’
In terms of population, the Ning District housed almost fifty thousand people according to the latest records available within the Yi District, and they were clearly using every inch of space that they could. Homes were tightly packed in the majority of areas, and even the Ancestral Hall, which was also made of pure metal and resembled a forge more so than a typical building, only had a small space around it in which to navigate around it without needing to take a lengthy route.
The few areas that were empty were only devoid of structures due to being large fissures in the ground that appeared to occasionally tremble even without anyone to interfere with them, as well as parts that were so barren and empty that no structure could be constructed on them without far too much work and effort.
With such limitations, Wei Yi thought that acquiring any building for herself would be quite the difficult task, especially if she wanted to own more than a small shack to reside in.
‘This district may have groups or unions that may allow me to trade in their premises without needing to acquire my own territory. It’s a shame, since if these people were able to move these walls, they would have so much excellent land for me to build upon,’ she thought, although she knew that they could not achieve this any time soon, not even if she stepped in to help with everything that she and Yi Shi Ming knew about the Master of Yi City’s designs.
His creations always incorporated an immense quantity of knowledge obtained through the Truth of the Universe, and so the great iron walls that surrounded the Ning District were likely created just for this purpose, in their specific arrangement. If she changed something without the full understanding of those same factors – which would ordinarily mean achieving the sixth or seventh star level of understanding in array and inscription creation – then the walls might even be ruined forever, which naturally extended to most other cultivators in the Planar Continents, providing them with an excellent reason to keep the district as it was.
Expansion with a new, external set of walls was also out of the question, as the Ning District was surrounded with the nests and lairs of several extremely territorial packs of planar beasts. The moment that humans attempted to intrude too far into their territories, they would storm the new walls and ensure that they learnt their lesson.
Their current path led to a gate within the metal, with its sides being just as jagged and intimidating as the rest of the structure. A large portcullis obscured the path through, in addition to several guards on the inner side of the walls, all of whom were equipped similarly to those on patrol.
“Approach the portcullis and speak to the guards there,” the female guard said, pointing towards it.
Wei Yi did not nod or reply, as she usually would, instead heading directly towards the opening in the wall and approaching the closest guard she could, placing her hands behind her in a dignified manner.
“I have been told to request permission for entry from you.”
The person she approached, a bald man who was clearly in the later half of his life, turned towards her and spent a few moments looking at her in suspicion. “We don’t just allow anyone in, so you need to explain why we should let you in, of all people. Do you have any ability in one of the great arts, or are you looking to assist in the maintenance of the underwalls?”
She shook her head at the later suggestion, as she remembered that the position was the lowest one that could be found in any civilized district, involving extreme quantities of difficult labour in filth generated from the faults with the inscriptions utilised by Kong Shi Meng during and after the construction process, and replied, “I am an expert pill refiner, and I want to provide my services within the district.”
“We’ve got pill refiners. Why would we want you?”
“I can guarantee you that I am the only person capable of refining anything without affecting it with elemental energies. Depending on the pill, this could increase its effects by more than thrice.”
That was a bold claim to make within the Planar Continents. Pure refining, or refining without the influence of the furnace and the elemental cultivation of the refiner, was something long sought after due to the incredible difference it could make with certain recipes. However, due to the extreme prevalence of elemental planar energy cultivation, even the latter aspect couldn’t be addressed easily, whereas the first was likely to be impossible even in the days of the Master of Yi City and before then, as it would necessitate an energy without an elemental affinity to form the shape of the refining furnace and endure the process.
For Wei Yi, making such a guarantee was not unreasonable. She had three unique forms of energy that could balance themselves out, those being her cosmic energy, spiritual will – killing will and killing intent both contained too much polluting hatred to be used for the same purpose – and physique energy, as it could be converted into perfect balance via the equal combination of yin and yang.
Of course, the guard was unaware of this, and We Yi did not intend to reveal her full capabilities now.
For this reason, his look of suspicion intensified, “Are you going to ask me to bring you inside so that someone capable can assess your capabilities?”
“No need for that. My abilities can be understood by the most common of men, so long as you pay attention,” she answered, slashing the air with her hand to cut all of the grass around her and separate the individual stalks from the grass, before gathering all of them together in a sphere of spiritual will behind herself that she allowed to be slightly translucent as to ensure that he was able to sense her thin, nigh non-existent spiritual will.
Then, as she returned her hand behind her back, the grass suddenly caught aflame and burnt, splitting into nine portions as it slowly revolved within the internal chamber without any influence from planar energy, the atmosphere around it, or even the soft winds that travelled past them.
It was refined into dull medicinal essence, the most that could normally be achieved from a plant without any inherent planar properties or medicinal uses, but it was still something significant for the Planar Continents, for normal grass was one of the few things in existence that could not be processed without extreme care, as any wayward influence would instantly disperse the essence it contained.
When she had made her point, she absorbed her spiritual will, which instantly made the essence of the grass wither and turn to dust, that then scattered even further into nothingness.
“I demand entry.”
“Very well, we can allow it,” the guard replied after he shared a look with the others, “If you can find a place of work or a residence before the end of the day, we also won’t have any reason to throw you out.”
Most likely, he had no desire to throw someone of her talents out of the district even if she did fail to meet those requirements, as it would be a complete waste to allow some other district to claim her, likely for a lower price as well, but it was only natural for him to ensure that she bound herself to some place within the Ning District as soon as possible, so that she would have greater reason to remain there for as long as possible and form as many trade connections as possible that would then ensure that it would be unwise for her to move on for long periods of time.
Basic recruitment and business, really. Wei Yi had done the same by granting her twin mental energies and techniques to the people under her in the prison realm, and back then, she had only been nineteen or twenty years old, far younger than those who led the districts of Yi City and had created the initial forms of governance before it.
“You can be assured that you won’t need to bother yourself over such a thing.”
The guard shrugged and gestured to his fellow warriors, who then gestured on until it reached someone within the district, who then activated the mechanism to open the portcullis that stood in her path.
It rose slowly, with a mechanical sound following every single small increment. Step by step, it ascended just enough for her to be able to pass through without bowing her head – a fortunate coincidence for her persona, as the guard was just a little too late to stop the opening process and would have otherwise forced her to inconvenience herself – and then immediately dropped to the ground, only for the patrolling guards to rush to it and demand it to be opened yet again so that they could provide their reports to their superiors.
Wei Yi chose not to look back, instead striding into the streets of the district and looking for the first credible-looking person she was able to find; she approached a street vendor and addressed him.
“Where is the nearest alchemical store or faction?” she asked without any elaboration.
“Lady, couldn’t you buy a skewer or two before asking questions?” he replied with similar straightforwardness, “As the younger generation is slowly getting old enough to chew on Nutrient Pills and the like, I get fewer and fewer sales here. More people approach me to ask questions than to buy my food.”
‘A sort of equivalent exchange? Sure, I can appreciate that, especially considering the fact that I have the exact currency that he is asking for,’ she thought, silently handing him the money for one of his meat skewers, “So, the answer…”
“Go down the street until you get to the building labelled with the Chu (出) character. Go inside and to the left if you want to buy, right if you want to sell, forward for other topics.”
“Chu? Quite the unexpected name to hear around here. Is the family operating here, or…” to be sure that he answered, she tossed him another coin and took a second portion for herself, “is it just some kind of coincidence?”
“I dunno. I don’t often go there, since I don’t have any aspirations for cultivation.”
“You could just say that your dantian is in an impure state…” Wei Yi shrugged, “Thank you.”
She turned away and walked away, trying one piece of her purchased meat and instantly turning the rest to ash once she found herself incapable of tasting his produce, and didn’t want to enter the Chu structure while chewing on something tasteless and unpleasant.
As she approached the structure mentioned by the street vendor, she saw no other characters nor titles written around it, with the Chu character being the only label above the main door.
‘Interesting. The focus is clearly on the family name, and the character also seems to be the same one as Chu Ling’s,’ she noted, scanning the inside of the structure using her spiritual perception while she pretended to admire the outer shell of the building, ‘No hints of the Great Families inside, so it doesn’t seem to be related to them, although I am not too sure of how well others can detect the anchors of the Greats, so perhaps it is inconvenient for them to appear in public the vast majority of the time.’
After all, even before she had been made aware of the truth about the mirage-like anchors, she was able to sense their disruption. Although, besides her spiritual will being superior to that of normal people due to her inadvertent cultivation of it prior to entering the prison realm, as well as the possession of the Third Eye and the like, the two Greats had also appeared in the middle of the Yi District, where many would be able to witness them from the safety of their homes or if they stumbled past the scene of their combat, so the exact etiquette and common behaviours of the Great Families was difficult to narrow down without further experience.
She manipulated her aura to subdue it slightly without removing the power that it radiated, then timed her entry into the building so that she wouldn’t have even the slightest chance of bumping into someone.
The inside of the structure, at the very least the reception room, was quite basic, with a carpet leading from the entrance into the structure and then splitting into three, one of which carried on straight forward while the other two headed to the left and right. As per the trader’s description, on the left was a smiling woman with an enormous tome of items available for sale listed within, on the right was a stern man that would likely do a good job at negotiating prices, and in the front, behind a large and ornate desk, sat… well, sat would be giving her a little too much credit. Rather, the grey-haired woman had her head on the table, her hair obscuring her face as she quietly snored, no awareness of her surroundings whatsoever.
Something suggested that she either didn’t speak to many people on the typical day, or that she did not care about her appearance nor presentation.
Then again, the younger generation could just consult their parents about anything to do with the Chu building, whereas the adults would know anything they needed to know already, so there would be very little reason for her to do more than sit in her seat the vast majority of the time, indicating the first possibility.
Approaching the woman, she leaned on the desk and said, “Who should I speak to if I seek to provide my services here?”
Fortunately, the resting woman stirred, and after a few moments, she rose and stared Wei Yi in the eyes with a blank expression. Slowly, her eyes focused, and her face brightened, as if she had only woken up then.
“Did you…” she yawned, “want something?”
“Is this a building that is, in some way, dedicated to alchemy, pill refining and the great art that encompasses such actions?”
“Eh… yes?” the woman replied after yet another yawn, during which her grey hair had shifted just enough to show the pitch-black bags under her eyes, creating the most contradictory image that Wei Yi had seen in some time. It seemed as if the desk beneath her had become moulded to her face due to all of the time that she had spent resting upon it, with a dark stain where she had drooled onto the wooden surface, and yet she seemed as if she still required more rest – while being a cultivator in the second realm, no less.
This wasn’t something that she could address immediately, nor did she have any particular interest in figuring out the cause for such a phenomenon, so she continued, “Am I able to sell my services in pill refining and acquire ingredients for it here?”
“Mhm… I dunno… Wait, did you say pill refining?” she woke up just enough to utter that, “Can you… make me something to let me sleep less?”
‘Never mind, then- No, that’s hardly an official request from this organisation. I can’t just do whatever everyone wants, or else I will appear to be an individual that is easily manipulated and made to do what others want. I ought to confirm whether this is a necessity first,’ Wei Yi concluded, remaining where she was, “I am looking to do business. If you intend to pay me, or if this is some prerequisite test to confirm my ability, then I can make an attempt. Otherwise, I am afraid I won’t.”
“Uh… Maybe… I can’t really write anything… like this… My eyes hurt…” the woman muttered, her eyes losing focus with every moment that they were open.
Wei Yi mentally rolled her eyes while straightening her back and forcefully flooding the receptionist’s body with spiritual perception, making no attempt to obscure the displeasure with being bothered with something so seemingly insignificant.
As she withdrew her perception, she remained unmoved outwardly, but was somewhat excited to locate yet another physique. So long as she was understanding the differences within her correctly, it appeared to be the Dark Shield physique which allowed its user to create a barrier around themselves that would be able to absorb incoming attacks and, once it ruptures, emit all of them back in a weakened form. In general, it was a rather useful thing to have in any fight, as it almost guaranteed the ability to endure a single strike without any harm to one’s person, but there was a flaw.
Physiques, even those that were human in nature, were not a natural part of most humans, nor of other creatures that can be born with them, such as dragons, phoenixes or the primordial gods, although the latter act in peculiar ways that have not been fully analysed by the scholars of the past prior to their retreat.
Before it was awakened and fully activated, it was possible for most physiques to negatively influence the body or mind of those that own them. This was one of the many reasons for the development of the Physique Awakening pills that did not rely on an existing physique, and the possibility of creating one’s own physique that would not then need to suffer through the same issues that those born with a physique would suffer from.
As of late, this seemed to be less of an issue for most, although the exact reason for this was not known to Wei Yi. It could be that the reduced quantity of planar energy in the world had lessened the aggravation of the internal physique energy onto the body, or perhaps the bodies of people had adjusted to physiques over many generations of cultivation and were now less vulnerable to the aberrant power of superhuman forces, but whatever the cause, as the cases of physique disease, so to speak, decreased, so did knowledge of them, and since physiques in general were not fully understood, neither were most people able to detect them.
For this reason, this receptionist had clearly not received any kind of assistance that she would have had the times been different, but fortunately for her, Wei Yi also had a solution to her problem.
“If you want to be cured, I will need a private room with you, for approximately twenty minutes.”
“Why… would we need that?”
“Do you want to show off your naked body to everyone who’s currently here?” she answered just as a few people entered through the front door and promptly looked towards them. Everyone who was already inside did the exact same thing, stepping away from their duties just for this.
Treatments of various conditions often required some degree of direct physical contact, but stating it explicitly was still a little uncommon.
For this exact reason, it did the job, causing the grey-haired woman to spring up, grab her by the arm, and drag her away into a small building near the Chu building, where there was nothing but a bed and just enough space to rise from it. Most of the woman’s clothes and belongings were hidden beneath the wooden frame of the bed, as there was simply no better place to store her items without paying more money for more land or space elsewhere.
After the burst of energy faded, the woman dropped onto the bed face-down.
“So… what exactly are you… going to do to me?” the grey-haired receptionist asked, although her voice was greatly masked by the pillow beneath her face.
“You have certain stagnant elements within your body that are affecting your daily life. I will extract them, and you will complete whatever documentation you must to allow me to work at that building and reside within the Ning District with more permanence than a single day or two. Presuming that the latter is outside of your control, at the very least permit me to offer my wares.”
“Alright… Sure… Please fix me…”
Wei Yi suspected that the woman was simply falling back asleep and speaking entirely incoherently and without much awareness of her own words, but she took it as a yes and removed her robes to have free access to the woman’s back.
She had worn rather large, loose robes that had obscured her figure, but it turned out that she was rather slim and about as fit someone who slept most of the time could possibly be. There were several dark but mostly inconspicuous spots on her back that could easily be overlooked by someone who was not a professional, but she was able to identify them as spots of significant yin from the receptionist’s yin baleful-type physique.
‘If this was in the past, I would have needed to awaken her physique to solve this, and risk all kinds of things occurring, as I was unable to target physique energy within the living. Although I think that this is still the case, as I could otherwise drain everyone around me whenever I want, I should have no difficulty getting either at yin-type energy or inert physique energy,’ she thought as she released a thin thread of yin Ascendant energy, ‘I have both types of energy now, and can accumulate both types of physiques. If someone like Meng Chu ever decides to blatantly turn against me, I will be able to experiment with the true abilities of the Ashen Form physique…’
Those threads of energy seeped into the veins and meridians of the receptionist as Wei Yi placed her hand upon the top of her spine, near the neck, and slowly slid her finger downwards. With each moment, particles of baleful energy from the Dark Shield physique were consumed by the overwhelming yin from her physique energy, and while her own power did not grow by any noticeable extent, the woman’s sleepy and tired exterior slowly recovered, although there was only so much that curing the cause could do for the symptoms.
Once the spots on the woman’s back disappeared, Wei Yi had to move further down, sliding a finger down each of her legs to recover all of the stagnant baleful energy from within.
She could have attempted to do this without any physical contact at all, and, although she couldn’t say that she didn’t appreciate the sight to an extent, the primary reason for this particular method of treatment was simple. From afar and through clothing, she would risk freezing the insides of the receptionist with any careless movement, whereas direct contact permitted her to relax significantly more and feel for the meridians and veins in more ways than one.
When she had extracted everything she could from the legs and feet, she returned her focus to the head, placing both hands onto the back of it before sending a thousand thin threads into it, carefully worming her way through every single feature in the woman’s skull to find the primary source of her malaise – and found it in the form of a large clump of inert, baleful physique energy resting near her brain and eyes, likely contributing to the constant sleepiness and lack of energy that this woman had felt despite being permitted to rest for far too long. Naturally, she absorbed this as well, bringing her one step closer to the physique itself and the ability to rest in the Ning District for a while.
As she finished, she realised that this only proved her ability to deal with illness, not pills, so she dove beneath the woman’s bed and removed a few of the herbs that had been stored there for some uncertain reason, throwing all of them into the spiritual will pill furnace.
She did not need to create much besides a one star energy pill, so she rushed it with her normal refining process – utilising the Cherry Revolving Blossom Art rather than the inverse Antithesis energy method, which tended to produce significantly better results despite the seeming vulgarity of it – and tossed one of the pills into the receptionist’s mouth, storing the rest away for use as initial merchandise.
The woman woke up only a minute later and nearly threw herself off the bed with the quantity of energy that she had found within herself.
“I have dealt with your issue and gave you an energy recovery pill. If the symptoms return, come to me,” Wei Yi explained what happened so that she wouldn’t be too confused about the rapid change, “Payment will only include service fees, as the ingredients for the pill were taken from your residence.”
“Oh, really? Thank you very much,” the receptionist spoke quickly, turning around to put her robes back on before turning back around and continuing, “How did you do it? I’ve been suffering from this for so long, and although I’ve been allowed to occupy that position due to how few people I need to speak to around here, but no-one’s been able to help me out! How did you do it? Could you tell me? Please?”
‘She’s a chatty one in normal circumstances, then…’ Wei Yi sighed inwardly, “If you remember, I told you that I seek to provide my services here. I am Wei Yi, Master Pill Refiner. That’s all.”
A group of six travelled through the forest, their hands resting on the hilts of their weapons so that they could put them to use whenever they needed to. Four used swords, one had an axe with a handle of stone and a head of inscribed wood, and the last utilised a simple club.
One of the sword wielders was a woman, standing over one of the other men, but all of their outfits revealed notably more than those of the Yi District. Some parts of the men’s chests, arms and legs were exposed to the cool air of the world, while the woman’s armour showed a good third of her breasts, and neither of these outfits were even close to the kinds of things that those in the Northern Desert would wear. Out there, it was not uncommon to witness those without anything to cover their chests at all, limiting themselves to a belt, loincloth and some light footwear to be able to navigate the scalding sand without burning themselves.
These guards were not from the extreme north, as could be seen by their light skin, but the heightened warmth in the Ning District encouraged lightened equipment and less privacy in general.
“There’ve been quite a few beasts coming in this direction, no?” the woman said, leaning slightly towards one of the men that walked beside her, intentionally pushing her breasts against his arm while he attempted to ignore her.
“Yeah. I think there may be some kind of predator hunting all of them.”
“Predator?” a third guard wondered, “By the heavens, what kind of thing would be able to scare so many?”
The second guard was about to suggest some kind of answer, but before he could conclude whether an expert or some aberrant planar beast was most likely to be the cause of the disturbance, all of them felt an immense power appear beside them, forcing every single one of them to turn around and view the cause.
That cause presented itself shortly after, a tall figure emerging from the bushes behind them. Crimson hair covered her head, descending below it in a thick ponytail, and did nothing to obscure her dark green robes or the pieces of armour that covered it, nor the defined muscle visible on her arms.
Her only weapons seemed to be a pair of daggers, both dark and rough, as if they were bones torn out of some kind of terrible beast and carved into tools of combat and war. However, that did not mesh well with the rest of her appearance, as her entire being seemed to radiate maturity and pure might that did not need to use something like weapons to achieve her goals. Nevertheless, one of them was surrounded in a crimson mirage that did not even seem to be entirely real, for it would disappear and reappear with every blink of the eyes.
What they could be entirely certain of was that her cultivation realm was somewhere in the third realm, although her exact stage was difficult to determine for any one of them – she was simply stronger than them. For this reason, they immediately drew their weapons and prepared for combat, as they could not be certain whether this woman was responsible for the beasts or what reason she might have had to call them towards the district, if she was responsible.
“Name yourself!” the fourth guard called out, stepping to the front of the group.
The woman did not respond immediately, not even bothering to use her eyes as she instead scanned each one of them with her spiritual perception. Unlike their expectations, wherein any normal cultivators of the same realm would easily be able to sense one another’s spiritual perception and block it from entering their bodies, they instead found that her energy was not only incredibly overwhelming, but also entirely unstoppable. It searched their bodies and clothes with ease, passing through them just as easily as water could pass through a net.
“You are guards of the Ning District?”
They looked at one another, nodded, and then the fourth guard responded, “That’s right.”
“My name is Wei Yi, and I wish to set up shop in your district. Do you have the authorization to permit me entry?”
Her words were incredibly clear, and the aura of power around her only seemed to grow when she looked down upon them and folded her arms. Not one of the guards could determine the exact nature of this, as it different from the raw power of planar energy, but they knew better than to look down on someone just because of an uncertainty.
“We do, but-”
“Bring me to the district,” she cut him off and ordered instead, not giving him a moment to argue against her – not that the guard wished to. She seemed like she could crush him using her physical body and nothing else, despite him having done a significant quantity of body cultivation in his own time.
“H-Hey, we’re in the same realm! Don’t think you can just do whatever you like!” the female guard stepped in after a moment, although her confident tone was undermined by the slight shaking and quivering of her limbs, “We’re the authority here, so you have no right to just decide whatever you want, is that clear?”
The crimson-haired woman’s eyes moved to her, prompting an undignified yelp to flee her mouth against her will, “Take me to your district and to someone acting out of more than impulse.”
Once more, they shared a few glances before the fourth guard returned to the front of the group and nodded, “Alright, we can do that. However, if our superiors tell you to leave, we’re going to make sure that you do. We’ve got people in the fourth and fifth realms-”
“Stop talking. I don’t care,” Wei Yi replied, “Furthermore, my business has nothing to do with you.”
‘Fuck, this woman is terrifying,’ that fourth guard thought as his group surrounded her and began to walk back towards the Ning District, ‘Is she actually in the third realm, or is she somehow in the fourth or fifth realm? Her stage is also unclear… first, or maybe fourth, or maybe even ninth… And her spiritual will…’
He also shook when her gaze suddenly moved to him, as if she had somehow heard his thoughts, and couldn’t fully relax even when she did not appear to address this.
“Are all of your forces this disorganised?”
“I… don’t quite know what you mean,” he responded, “We-”
“Not you. If you’re the leader of this group, then I suggest demotion and the transference of your power to anyone else in your group. She had the courage to address me, so she would do better in the middle of conflict,” Wei Yi pointed to the female guard, “The others may have some merit as well.”
None of them were able to respond.
‘Did I take it too far? I’m just trying to act dominant, as though mere guards of a district are nothing to me, and that I have previously dealt with far greater threats – like the Greats and otherworldly demons, although they don’t need to know that – with enough ease to do whatever I want to them without breaking a sweat…’ she thought to herself, deciding that further communication was currently unnecessary.
She simply followed them for a little while at their top speed, keeping her aura around herself so that no beasts would interfere with the journey, and so that she would have the opportunity to display her ability against a sufficiently powerful foe if it was not immediately scared away.
This did not prove necessary for her, as they finally arrived at their destination.
The Ning District was surrounded in enormous metal walls that towered over every other structure within, going up to the height of almost fifteen average men. The walls were slanted inwards, and a number of guards stoop at the top of each major segment of the wall. It was all made from a dark iron and lined with glyphs, arrays and inscriptions that released a constant crimson glow, instinctively warding away intruders with the simple appearance of them. Although she had found it difficult to be particularly amazed by the beauty of most structures after witnessing Sanctuary and its reconstruction after she had knocked down a few towers, this wall impressed her by the sheer might and practicality of it, despite her innate dislike of the structure due to it likely originating from some otherworldly fantasy, much like the swords and armour of Fu Zan.
‘Actually, thine assumption is incorrect, insofar as I am aware. According to Ah Shi Meng, he had come into possession of an excess of a certain kind of metal as he was setting up the Ning District. The clans there were all proficient in blacksmithing and crafting anything related to metal, so he commissioned them to work with him and integrated a number of ideas from the Truth of the Universe in order to strengthen the structure,’ Yi Shi Ming stated when she was asked, ‘Although, he did say something about a game during the later half of construction…’
‘Then, I was right. According to Fu Zan, there are countless games on the planet of Orbis, which feature plenty of designs and ideas for them to steal- I mean, borrow from. Did he ever say the name?’
‘Eh… I can pass on the memory to thee, but I know not the language in which it ought to be interpreted,’ the mother of the Master of Yi City replied, focusing on that memory before passing it along to her, ‘Cans’t thou gather anything from this?’
‘Let’s see… World… eh… That’s not a real word in either Enian or Antanorden, so I have no idea.’
In terms of population, the Ning District housed almost fifty thousand people according to the latest records available within the Yi District, and they were clearly using every inch of space that they could. Homes were tightly packed in the majority of areas, and even the Ancestral Hall, which was also made of pure metal and resembled a forge more so than a typical building, only had a small space around it in which to navigate around it without needing to take a lengthy route.
The few areas that were empty were only devoid of structures due to being large fissures in the ground that appeared to occasionally tremble even without anyone to interfere with them, as well as parts that were so barren and empty that no structure could be constructed on them without far too much work and effort.
With such limitations, Wei Yi thought that acquiring any building for herself would be quite the difficult task, especially if she wanted to own more than a small shack to reside in.
‘This district may have groups or unions that may allow me to trade in their premises without needing to acquire my own territory. It’s a shame, since if these people were able to move these walls, they would have so much excellent land for me to build upon,’ she thought, although she knew that they could not achieve this any time soon, not even if she stepped in to help with everything that she and Yi Shi Ming knew about the Master of Yi City’s designs.
His creations always incorporated an immense quantity of knowledge obtained through the Truth of the Universe, and so the great iron walls that surrounded the Ning District were likely created just for this purpose, in their specific arrangement. If she changed something without the full understanding of those same factors – which would ordinarily mean achieving the sixth or seventh star level of understanding in array and inscription creation – then the walls might even be ruined forever, which naturally extended to most other cultivators in the Planar Continents, providing them with an excellent reason to keep the district as it was.
Expansion with a new, external set of walls was also out of the question, as the Ning District was surrounded with the nests and lairs of several extremely territorial packs of planar beasts. The moment that humans attempted to intrude too far into their territories, they would storm the new walls and ensure that they learnt their lesson.
Their current path led to a gate within the metal, with its sides being just as jagged and intimidating as the rest of the structure. A large portcullis obscured the path through, in addition to several guards on the inner side of the walls, all of whom were equipped similarly to those on patrol.
“Approach the portcullis and speak to the guards there,” the female guard said, pointing towards it.
Wei Yi did not nod or reply, as she usually would, instead heading directly towards the opening in the wall and approaching the closest guard she could, placing her hands behind her in a dignified manner.
“I have been told to request permission for entry from you.”
The person she approached, a bald man who was clearly in the later half of his life, turned towards her and spent a few moments looking at her in suspicion. “We don’t just allow anyone in, so you need to explain why we should let you in, of all people. Do you have any ability in one of the great arts, or are you looking to assist in the maintenance of the underwalls?”
She shook her head at the later suggestion, as she remembered that the position was the lowest one that could be found in any civilized district, involving extreme quantities of difficult labour in filth generated from the faults with the inscriptions utilised by Kong Shi Meng during and after the construction process, and replied, “I am an expert pill refiner, and I want to provide my services within the district.”
“We’ve got pill refiners. Why would we want you?”
“I can guarantee you that I am the only person capable of refining anything without affecting it with elemental energies. Depending on the pill, this could increase its effects by more than thrice.”
That was a bold claim to make within the Planar Continents. Pure refining, or refining without the influence of the furnace and the elemental cultivation of the refiner, was something long sought after due to the incredible difference it could make with certain recipes. However, due to the extreme prevalence of elemental planar energy cultivation, even the latter aspect couldn’t be addressed easily, whereas the first was likely to be impossible even in the days of the Master of Yi City and before then, as it would necessitate an energy without an elemental affinity to form the shape of the refining furnace and endure the process.
For Wei Yi, making such a guarantee was not unreasonable. She had three unique forms of energy that could balance themselves out, those being her cosmic energy, spiritual will – killing will and killing intent both contained too much polluting hatred to be used for the same purpose – and physique energy, as it could be converted into perfect balance via the equal combination of yin and yang.
Of course, the guard was unaware of this, and We Yi did not intend to reveal her full capabilities now.
For this reason, his look of suspicion intensified, “Are you going to ask me to bring you inside so that someone capable can assess your capabilities?”
“No need for that. My abilities can be understood by the most common of men, so long as you pay attention,” she answered, slashing the air with her hand to cut all of the grass around her and separate the individual stalks from the grass, before gathering all of them together in a sphere of spiritual will behind herself that she allowed to be slightly translucent as to ensure that he was able to sense her thin, nigh non-existent spiritual will.
Then, as she returned her hand behind her back, the grass suddenly caught aflame and burnt, splitting into nine portions as it slowly revolved within the internal chamber without any influence from planar energy, the atmosphere around it, or even the soft winds that travelled past them.
It was refined into dull medicinal essence, the most that could normally be achieved from a plant without any inherent planar properties or medicinal uses, but it was still something significant for the Planar Continents, for normal grass was one of the few things in existence that could not be processed without extreme care, as any wayward influence would instantly disperse the essence it contained.
When she had made her point, she absorbed her spiritual will, which instantly made the essence of the grass wither and turn to dust, that then scattered even further into nothingness.
“I demand entry.”
“Very well, we can allow it,” the guard replied after he shared a look with the others, “If you can find a place of work or a residence before the end of the day, we also won’t have any reason to throw you out.”
Most likely, he had no desire to throw someone of her talents out of the district even if she did fail to meet those requirements, as it would be a complete waste to allow some other district to claim her, likely for a lower price as well, but it was only natural for him to ensure that she bound herself to some place within the Ning District as soon as possible, so that she would have greater reason to remain there for as long as possible and form as many trade connections as possible that would then ensure that it would be unwise for her to move on for long periods of time.
Basic recruitment and business, really. Wei Yi had done the same by granting her twin mental energies and techniques to the people under her in the prison realm, and back then, she had only been nineteen or twenty years old, far younger than those who led the districts of Yi City and had created the initial forms of governance before it.
“You can be assured that you won’t need to bother yourself over such a thing.”
The guard shrugged and gestured to his fellow warriors, who then gestured on until it reached someone within the district, who then activated the mechanism to open the portcullis that stood in her path.
It rose slowly, with a mechanical sound following every single small increment. Step by step, it ascended just enough for her to be able to pass through without bowing her head – a fortunate coincidence for her persona, as the guard was just a little too late to stop the opening process and would have otherwise forced her to inconvenience herself – and then immediately dropped to the ground, only for the patrolling guards to rush to it and demand it to be opened yet again so that they could provide their reports to their superiors.
Wei Yi chose not to look back, instead striding into the streets of the district and looking for the first credible-looking person she was able to find; she approached a street vendor and addressed him.
“Where is the nearest alchemical store or faction?” she asked without any elaboration.
“Lady, couldn’t you buy a skewer or two before asking questions?” he replied with similar straightforwardness, “As the younger generation is slowly getting old enough to chew on Nutrient Pills and the like, I get fewer and fewer sales here. More people approach me to ask questions than to buy my food.”
‘A sort of equivalent exchange? Sure, I can appreciate that, especially considering the fact that I have the exact currency that he is asking for,’ she thought, silently handing him the money for one of his meat skewers, “So, the answer…”
“Go down the street until you get to the building labelled with the Chu (出) character. Go inside and to the left if you want to buy, right if you want to sell, forward for other topics.”
“Chu? Quite the unexpected name to hear around here. Is the family operating here, or…” to be sure that he answered, she tossed him another coin and took a second portion for herself, “is it just some kind of coincidence?”
“I dunno. I don’t often go there, since I don’t have any aspirations for cultivation.”
“You could just say that your dantian is in an impure state…” Wei Yi shrugged, “Thank you.”
She turned away and walked away, trying one piece of her purchased meat and instantly turning the rest to ash once she found herself incapable of tasting his produce, and didn’t want to enter the Chu structure while chewing on something tasteless and unpleasant.
As she approached the structure mentioned by the street vendor, she saw no other characters nor titles written around it, with the Chu character being the only label above the main door.
‘Interesting. The focus is clearly on the family name, and the character also seems to be the same one as Chu Ling’s,’ she noted, scanning the inside of the structure using her spiritual perception while she pretended to admire the outer shell of the building, ‘No hints of the Great Families inside, so it doesn’t seem to be related to them, although I am not too sure of how well others can detect the anchors of the Greats, so perhaps it is inconvenient for them to appear in public the vast majority of the time.’
After all, even before she had been made aware of the truth about the mirage-like anchors, she was able to sense their disruption. Although, besides her spiritual will being superior to that of normal people due to her inadvertent cultivation of it prior to entering the prison realm, as well as the possession of the Third Eye and the like, the two Greats had also appeared in the middle of the Yi District, where many would be able to witness them from the safety of their homes or if they stumbled past the scene of their combat, so the exact etiquette and common behaviours of the Great Families was difficult to narrow down without further experience.
She manipulated her aura to subdue it slightly without removing the power that it radiated, then timed her entry into the building so that she wouldn’t have even the slightest chance of bumping into someone.
The inside of the structure, at the very least the reception room, was quite basic, with a carpet leading from the entrance into the structure and then splitting into three, one of which carried on straight forward while the other two headed to the left and right. As per the trader’s description, on the left was a smiling woman with an enormous tome of items available for sale listed within, on the right was a stern man that would likely do a good job at negotiating prices, and in the front, behind a large and ornate desk, sat… well, sat would be giving her a little too much credit. Rather, the grey-haired woman had her head on the table, her hair obscuring her face as she quietly snored, no awareness of her surroundings whatsoever.
Something suggested that she either didn’t speak to many people on the typical day, or that she did not care about her appearance nor presentation.
Then again, the younger generation could just consult their parents about anything to do with the Chu building, whereas the adults would know anything they needed to know already, so there would be very little reason for her to do more than sit in her seat the vast majority of the time, indicating the first possibility.
Approaching the woman, she leaned on the desk and said, “Who should I speak to if I seek to provide my services here?”
Fortunately, the resting woman stirred, and after a few moments, she rose and stared Wei Yi in the eyes with a blank expression. Slowly, her eyes focused, and her face brightened, as if she had only woken up then.
“Did you…” she yawned, “want something?”
“Is this a building that is, in some way, dedicated to alchemy, pill refining and the great art that encompasses such actions?”
“Eh… yes?” the woman replied after yet another yawn, during which her grey hair had shifted just enough to show the pitch-black bags under her eyes, creating the most contradictory image that Wei Yi had seen in some time. It seemed as if the desk beneath her had become moulded to her face due to all of the time that she had spent resting upon it, with a dark stain where she had drooled onto the wooden surface, and yet she seemed as if she still required more rest – while being a cultivator in the second realm, no less.
This wasn’t something that she could address immediately, nor did she have any particular interest in figuring out the cause for such a phenomenon, so she continued, “Am I able to sell my services in pill refining and acquire ingredients for it here?”
“Mhm… I dunno… Wait, did you say pill refining?” she woke up just enough to utter that, “Can you… make me something to let me sleep less?”
‘Never mind, then- No, that’s hardly an official request from this organisation. I can’t just do whatever everyone wants, or else I will appear to be an individual that is easily manipulated and made to do what others want. I ought to confirm whether this is a necessity first,’ Wei Yi concluded, remaining where she was, “I am looking to do business. If you intend to pay me, or if this is some prerequisite test to confirm my ability, then I can make an attempt. Otherwise, I am afraid I won’t.”
“Uh… Maybe… I can’t really write anything… like this… My eyes hurt…” the woman muttered, her eyes losing focus with every moment that they were open.
Wei Yi mentally rolled her eyes while straightening her back and forcefully flooding the receptionist’s body with spiritual perception, making no attempt to obscure the displeasure with being bothered with something so seemingly insignificant.
As she withdrew her perception, she remained unmoved outwardly, but was somewhat excited to locate yet another physique. So long as she was understanding the differences within her correctly, it appeared to be the Dark Shield physique which allowed its user to create a barrier around themselves that would be able to absorb incoming attacks and, once it ruptures, emit all of them back in a weakened form. In general, it was a rather useful thing to have in any fight, as it almost guaranteed the ability to endure a single strike without any harm to one’s person, but there was a flaw.
Physiques, even those that were human in nature, were not a natural part of most humans, nor of other creatures that can be born with them, such as dragons, phoenixes or the primordial gods, although the latter act in peculiar ways that have not been fully analysed by the scholars of the past prior to their retreat.
Before it was awakened and fully activated, it was possible for most physiques to negatively influence the body or mind of those that own them. This was one of the many reasons for the development of the Physique Awakening pills that did not rely on an existing physique, and the possibility of creating one’s own physique that would not then need to suffer through the same issues that those born with a physique would suffer from.
As of late, this seemed to be less of an issue for most, although the exact reason for this was not known to Wei Yi. It could be that the reduced quantity of planar energy in the world had lessened the aggravation of the internal physique energy onto the body, or perhaps the bodies of people had adjusted to physiques over many generations of cultivation and were now less vulnerable to the aberrant power of superhuman forces, but whatever the cause, as the cases of physique disease, so to speak, decreased, so did knowledge of them, and since physiques in general were not fully understood, neither were most people able to detect them.
For this reason, this receptionist had clearly not received any kind of assistance that she would have had the times been different, but fortunately for her, Wei Yi also had a solution to her problem.
“If you want to be cured, I will need a private room with you, for approximately twenty minutes.”
“Why… would we need that?”
“Do you want to show off your naked body to everyone who’s currently here?” she answered just as a few people entered through the front door and promptly looked towards them. Everyone who was already inside did the exact same thing, stepping away from their duties just for this.
Treatments of various conditions often required some degree of direct physical contact, but stating it explicitly was still a little uncommon.
For this exact reason, it did the job, causing the grey-haired woman to spring up, grab her by the arm, and drag her away into a small building near the Chu building, where there was nothing but a bed and just enough space to rise from it. Most of the woman’s clothes and belongings were hidden beneath the wooden frame of the bed, as there was simply no better place to store her items without paying more money for more land or space elsewhere.
After the burst of energy faded, the woman dropped onto the bed face-down.
“So… what exactly are you… going to do to me?” the grey-haired receptionist asked, although her voice was greatly masked by the pillow beneath her face.
“You have certain stagnant elements within your body that are affecting your daily life. I will extract them, and you will complete whatever documentation you must to allow me to work at that building and reside within the Ning District with more permanence than a single day or two. Presuming that the latter is outside of your control, at the very least permit me to offer my wares.”
“Alright… Sure… Please fix me…”
Wei Yi suspected that the woman was simply falling back asleep and speaking entirely incoherently and without much awareness of her own words, but she took it as a yes and removed her robes to have free access to the woman’s back.
She had worn rather large, loose robes that had obscured her figure, but it turned out that she was rather slim and about as fit someone who slept most of the time could possibly be. There were several dark but mostly inconspicuous spots on her back that could easily be overlooked by someone who was not a professional, but she was able to identify them as spots of significant yin from the receptionist’s yin baleful-type physique.
‘If this was in the past, I would have needed to awaken her physique to solve this, and risk all kinds of things occurring, as I was unable to target physique energy within the living. Although I think that this is still the case, as I could otherwise drain everyone around me whenever I want, I should have no difficulty getting either at yin-type energy or inert physique energy,’ she thought as she released a thin thread of yin Ascendant energy, ‘I have both types of energy now, and can accumulate both types of physiques. If someone like Meng Chu ever decides to blatantly turn against me, I will be able to experiment with the true abilities of the Ashen Form physique…’
Those threads of energy seeped into the veins and meridians of the receptionist as Wei Yi placed her hand upon the top of her spine, near the neck, and slowly slid her finger downwards. With each moment, particles of baleful energy from the Dark Shield physique were consumed by the overwhelming yin from her physique energy, and while her own power did not grow by any noticeable extent, the woman’s sleepy and tired exterior slowly recovered, although there was only so much that curing the cause could do for the symptoms.
Once the spots on the woman’s back disappeared, Wei Yi had to move further down, sliding a finger down each of her legs to recover all of the stagnant baleful energy from within.
She could have attempted to do this without any physical contact at all, and, although she couldn’t say that she didn’t appreciate the sight to an extent, the primary reason for this particular method of treatment was simple. From afar and through clothing, she would risk freezing the insides of the receptionist with any careless movement, whereas direct contact permitted her to relax significantly more and feel for the meridians and veins in more ways than one.
When she had extracted everything she could from the legs and feet, she returned her focus to the head, placing both hands onto the back of it before sending a thousand thin threads into it, carefully worming her way through every single feature in the woman’s skull to find the primary source of her malaise – and found it in the form of a large clump of inert, baleful physique energy resting near her brain and eyes, likely contributing to the constant sleepiness and lack of energy that this woman had felt despite being permitted to rest for far too long. Naturally, she absorbed this as well, bringing her one step closer to the physique itself and the ability to rest in the Ning District for a while.
As she finished, she realised that this only proved her ability to deal with illness, not pills, so she dove beneath the woman’s bed and removed a few of the herbs that had been stored there for some uncertain reason, throwing all of them into the spiritual will pill furnace.
She did not need to create much besides a one star energy pill, so she rushed it with her normal refining process – utilising the Cherry Revolving Blossom Art rather than the inverse Antithesis energy method, which tended to produce significantly better results despite the seeming vulgarity of it – and tossed one of the pills into the receptionist’s mouth, storing the rest away for use as initial merchandise.
The woman woke up only a minute later and nearly threw herself off the bed with the quantity of energy that she had found within herself.
“I have dealt with your issue and gave you an energy recovery pill. If the symptoms return, come to me,” Wei Yi explained what happened so that she wouldn’t be too confused about the rapid change, “Payment will only include service fees, as the ingredients for the pill were taken from your residence.”
“Oh, really? Thank you very much,” the receptionist spoke quickly, turning around to put her robes back on before turning back around and continuing, “How did you do it? I’ve been suffering from this for so long, and although I’ve been allowed to occupy that position due to how few people I need to speak to around here, but no-one’s been able to help me out! How did you do it? Could you tell me? Please?”
‘She’s a chatty one in normal circumstances, then…’ Wei Yi sighed inwardly, “If you remember, I told you that I seek to provide my services here. I am Wei Yi, Master Pill Refiner. That’s all.”
