Sect Leader's Rise to the top!

Kai walked back into the basement. The Jian sisters would be well cared for until he figured out what to do. In the meantime, Kai got back to his preparations.

He pulled out the document from the Twin-Lions Sect's liaison and read it.

"Hmm, It only shows where and when the invitees must be before being taken to the pocket-dimension. As long as I have the invitation at that moment, I'll be allowed to enter...".

Kai still did not fully trust the liaison, but he also couldn't let such a good opportunity pass by.

"I have twenty-eight days to prepare. That's less than a month.". Kai figured that he would be able to reach the peak of the Qi-Condensation stage now that he had a way of breaking through thanks to his new Qi-Rotation technique.

"Before I go, I should upgrade my manuals. I'm still using F-Rank martial arts manuals which is a waste of martial-arts slots. I also need to keep up with my alchemy training since I've been making good progress lately.".

Kai decided on his course of action. He would split his time between looking for [Grade-3] beasts while polishing his alchemy skills during the downtime. Kai had now reached a success rate of over 70% thanks to applying the Qi-Rotation technique to his alchemy process.

Kai had discovered that this technique made efficient use of Qi wherever he applied it, quickly making it one of his core abilities. This was a milestone for Kai since this was a skill that he was learning without the system's help. Kai knew very well how dependent on the system he was, so this little bit of independence did not go unnoticed.

Over the next few days, Kai traveled back and forth between different hunting grounds looking for [Grade-3] beasts to hunt. Unfortunately for Kai, [Grade-3] beasts were a lot rarer than he had anticipated.

"How could I not find one [Grade-3] beast after three full days of searching?". Kai thought in frustration while walking into the house. He had gone to every nearby hunting ground but found no signs of [Grade-3] beasts. Kai assumed that they had to be further into the wilderness, but he couldn't afford to go too far for fear of not being back in time.

"Master, welcome back!" Old Lao greeted Kai as he walked in. Behind him were the two girls, Jian Yi and Jian Na. They were now wearing matching uniforms in Kai's distinct Wuxia theme. They bowed to Kai respectfully, clearly not as scared as before, but they still seemed a little nervous around him.

Kai nodded his head and gave them a small wave. "I'm back. Has anything happened while I was out?". Kai asked while he sat on the couch.

"A representative from the Pill Association was here to see you this morning. It seems Mr. Song hopes you will visit him soon", Old Lao said while signaling for one of the girls to fetch Kai some refreshments.

"Mr. Song...". Kai thought while remembering the old internal-cultivator from the Pill Association.

"I'll give him a visit today. I've made some good progress on my alchemy over the last few days", Kai said while stretching his legs. He spent the last three days in the wilderness by himself with little to no sleep. Any downtime he had was used to practice alchemy.

Kai had achieved a breakthrough while making pills in a forest. He got a sudden epiphany that helped him push his success rate to a whopping 90%. Kai had crafted over 1000 [Basic Healing Pills], which were ranked as [Grade-1] by the system. He had also used Qi-Rotation on the completed pills to increase their quality even further.

Kai pulled out one bottle of [Basic Healing Pills] from his spatial bag and popped the cork off. At that moment, an almost alluding scent of medicine spread out into the room, surprising Old Lao and the two girls.

Kai did not notice their shocked faces while inspecting one of the pills.

[Basic Healing Pill] [Grade-1] [Qi- 89]

"It's good, but I still can't get it to become a [Grade-2] pill. I wonder what I'm doing wrong", Kai thought while looking intently at the pill.

"Master, could this be a High-Grade pill?", Old Lao said with a shaky voice. He had been a merchant's assistant for a very long time, so he was knowledgeable in differentiating High-Grade products from Low-Grade products. From the scent, Old Lao could tell that this was a High-Grade pill.

Kai turned to look at Old Lao with interest. He threw the pill into his hands. "You tell me, I just made this batch in the woods without too much care, so they're only average to me". Kai said while being completely honest. He had a better batch that was twice the size of these.

Old Lao caught the pill and inspected it carefully. "This is indeed a High-Grade pill, congratulations Master!".

"Basic healing pills sell for a few dozen silvers at most, but High-Grade pills sell for a minimum of one gold!". Old Lao said while handing the pill back to Kai.

Kai was taken aback by the sudden news. He had no idea that the pills would be that valuable, so he quickly pulled out the better pill bottle. He only had one batch of these but was curious to see what Old Lao's evaluation would be.

Kai had barely pulled the cork out when a noticeable scent wafted throughout the room again. When the two girls took a whiff, they instantly fell into a feeling of euphoria.

Old Lao almost fell to the ground in shock. He quickly ran towards Kai while starring at the pill with shaking hands.

"s...S...Superior-Grade?!", he yelled out loud, startling everyone in the room. This made Ryu and Mina run downstairs to see what all the commotion was about.

"Master, you can make a Superior-Grade Pills?!", Old Lao asked, his professional self was completely gone, now replaced by the eyes of a merchant.

"....well, I just thought these were slightly better than the ones I showed you earlier. Wait, Old Lao...what do you think the value of this would be?". Kai asked carefully while inspecting the pill.

[Basic Healing Pill] [Grade-1] [Qi- 99]

Old Lao noticed everyone starring at him and quickly fixed his posture back to that of a professional butler. He cleared his throat and answered.

"Master, Superior-Grade pills are difficult to evaluate since they are so rare, but a basic rule of thumb is that they're valued at 100 times the price of High-Grade pills..."

"That would be 100 gold per pill?" Kai said with some excitement. Selling just one batch of these would pay for all the resources he had wasted while practicing his alchemy, with some profit to spare."

"That is just the minimum", Old Lao quickly added; "However, my point is that only Master-Alchemists can create Superior-Grade pills....Master-Alchemists are respected no matter where they go. Even sects like the Twin-Lions Sect will have to show them a certain level of respect!"