Chapter 93: All of a Sudden
"Hmm?"
Kim Simona froze mid-motion, her fingers hovering over the buttons of her robe. A sudden flare of light pierced the dim grotto courtyard, the Dao Fulu igniting with a hiss. Smoke coiled upward, contorting into a leering skull, its hollow eyes burning with ghostly light. Then, from its gaping maw, a crisp feminine voice echoed. "Junior Sister Kim! The Foundation Establishment Pill's alchemy formula—I've found a lead!"
Kim Simona's breath hitched. For a heartbeat, disbelief held her still—then elation surged through her veins like liquid fire. Her eyes sparked with excitement fire.
"Senior Sister Rosa-chan! Are you serious? Where's the formula? What's the price? How much do they want for it?" Her voice trembled with urgency, years of pent-up longing breaking free.
Years of relentless alchemy had made Kim Simona a master of Qi Refinement Stage elixir pills, yet the Foundation Establishment Pill's Alchemy Formula had always eluded her. The Tower of Hundred Treasures didn't put the rare Alchemy Formula on sale, instead, this Sect-owned enterprise guarded such rare special Alchemy Formulas as secret, locking them behind an exhaustive loyalty program—THT Membership (THT stands for Tower of Hundred Treasures)—one designed to bind registered Artisan disciples to relentless labor.
Alchemist like every registered Artisan could earned "THT Points" by supplying pills, Dao artifacts, weapons, or talismans, each contribution inching them closer to milestone rewards, like the Foundation Establishment Pill's Alchemy Formula.
The THT membership program was a gilded cage. The milestones were brutal: accumulate providing ten thousand pills of mid-level quality unlocked the first milestone reward, then the requirement leaped to fifty thousand quantity, before the tower would even consider parting with its prized secrets. For a talented alchemist like Kim Simona, a prodigy with a near-perfect success rate, the path was still grueling. Every hour spent refining elixir pills for the Tower of Hundred Treasures was an hour stolen from her own advancement.
When Kim Simona had joined the Abyss Pit Sect alongside her squad member—Ruru Rosa and the others—her cultivation talent had burned brightest. Her aptitude outshone them all, a star among novices. But alchemy's demands had drained her. While her peers surged ahead in cultivation, Kim Simona lagged, her qi channels starved by endless hours by the Dao furnace. Now, the weakest among her squad, she felt the weight of her choices like a chain.
So she sought another way.
While still grudgingly meeting the THT membership's monthly task quotas, she scoured the shadows, bribing informants, hunting whispers of the Alchemy formula's existence outside the sect's grip. If she could obtain it elsewhere, she could break free—no longer a slave to the Tower's point system, no longer forced to choose between labor like alchemy and her own cultivation advancement.
The news from Ruru Rosa was a spark in the dark—a chance at freedom.