"Please increase the heat a little more.", Ma Rong murmured, not taking his eyes of the cauldron as he guided his Qi to through the viscous brown liquid, merging and enriching the ingredients. His assistant obliged, letting the flames flare up with a careful injection of his own Qi. Ma Rong smiled as the liquid began bubbling, adding a couple more spirit herbs when it had reached his desired heat.

"That's enough."

Having a fire attuned cultivator as an assistant was such a boon, he didn't know how he had managed without one all the years. Following his example, most of the Alchemy Hall's members had chosen to follow the Dao of Nature, while a few others still followed the sect's traditional Dao of Water.

His current assistant, on the other hand, was the only fire attuned cultivator of his hall. Fire was just as popular a Dao as nature for alchemists to pursue, but it was simply not something the sect could offer the appropriate resources or guidance for. He probably had Elder Wei to thank for anyone daring to choose it at all, his success having proven it possible against the odds. Role models were an important motivator for all but the most exceptionally talented.

Ma Rong grabbed a root from his bag of ingredients and placed it in his mortar, working it with his pestle until it had turned into a deep red paste. He then squeezed the sap from it, letting it drip into another bowl where he mixed it with a conglomerate of powders he had prepared beforehand. This darkened and thickened the sap until it took on a color and consistency similar to blood.

Once this point was reached, he slowly added the liquid to the cauldron, constantly stirring as he did so. The mixture in the cauldron sizzled and bubbled, its brown color becoming noticeably lighter as the two substances mixed.

"Bring it to a boil one more time please."

"As you say, Elder Rong!"

Ma Rong continued circling his Qi and stirring the mixture as it boiled up and then slowly cooled down. Once it had sufficiently cooled down, he poured it into a large cylinder of clear crystal. After some time spent waiting, which he used explaining his assistant and the various alchemists standing around him as onlookers the recipe he was currently following, the liquid separated into two distinct phases.

The upper phase was an undefinable tone between dark grey and brown, while the lower one displayed a rich golden color. Once they were fully separated, Ma Rong decanted the upper phase, added a good amount of water, shook the cylinder to mix it, and then waited once again. Since only the darker liquid was soluble in water the two phases formed again, though this time the upper one was far clearer.

After decanting again and repeating the whole process five more times, the golden liquid was so pure that even Ma Rong's fine-tuned soul sense couldn't find any impurities in it anymore.

"Please boil away the remaining water."

His assistant did so, heating the cylinder up until the remaining water had evaporated. After letting it cool down once more, Ma Rong finally poured the golden liquid into a large flask and closed it shut. It's resplendent, almost glowing color was proof that everything had gone perfectly. It would need to rest for three days before he could finally work it into supreme grade healing pills.

It was a laborious process, but the result was the best medicine money could buy in the alliance – and it could only buy it in the first place because Ma Rong produced them. They could bring people back from the brink of death, cure almost any known illness and, in concert with a healer like Meixiu Xia, heal any injury short of a missing limb.

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Ma Rong helped his hall members to store away the various ingredients and instruments he had used as well as his preliminary product – he couldn't store it in his spatial ring as that wouldn't allow it to take in ambient Qi, messing with the process – before stepping out of the tent, just in time to witness the first rays of sunlight fall over the horizon.

They had encamped for the night, resting before the next day's march on a clearing in a small forest that limited their visibility. Since they were already in territory occupied by the enemy, they were doing their best to keep away from villages, population centers and well-traveled roads. Every person that saw them could potentially start a rumor and every rumor bore the risk of being picked up on by the enemy.

Ma Rong walked over to the campfire, prompting the assigned guards to stand up straight.

"Elder Rong!"

"Please start waking people up. We'll break camp in two hours."

"Yes, Elder!"

While the guards did as he had asked them to, Ma Rong sat down by the fire, starring into the flame and slowly sinking into his meditation on the Dao. He had taken as much time to cultivate as he could in recent times, his usual schedule having freed up due to Liu Wei's involvement with his faction.

Combined with the epiphanies he had been receiving from attending Geming Lei's lectures, it seemed like the seventh stage was in reach of possibility once again, after he had previously resigned to remaining at the sixth. He wasn't close to it yet, but… who knew what the future would hold.

When Ma Rong looked up again, the sun had risen, his understanding of the Dao had been furthered by a little step and the camp was in turmoil. Some of the senior members were going around barking orders, telling everyone to pack up as fast as possible. Meixiu Xia approached him, worry written across her face.

"Elder Xia. What is the matter."

"Bad news, Elder Rong. Some of my men have found hoofprints leading to and away from our camp while scouting the area. They're fresh, certainly from last night, and they seem to belong to horses of abnormal size."

"The Roaring Thunder Sect."

"We're almost certain of that, yes."

"Scouts. Then we've been spotted."

This wasn't good, not at all. Their group wasn't helpless, but they also weren't aiming for an engagement with a large enemy force. Most of them were alchemists and healers, two of the least combative groups of cultivators. Meixiu Xia and himself were powerful cultivators, but there were still only two of them in the end.

At their current pace they were still at least two weeks from the Serene Plains Sect, and that was being extremely optimistic. Trying to rush there for safety wasn't an option. They could head to one of the closer friendly sects instead, but if they did that, they'd likely not get another chance to make it to Patriarch Ye's army. Their objective would fail, and they'd have to rely on the other pillars of Elder Wei's plan.

"Do you have a closer estimate on how old these prints are?"

"My men estimate that they're only an hour or two old. No guarantee on that though, they aren't specialists."

"Where did they find them?"

"North-east of the camp, about twenty meters from the edge of the camp."

"I'll follow them", Ma Rong said without hesitation.

He needed to try to intercept them before they could pass on their sightings, that was the best shot they had at keeping themselves safe.

"This might be rather dangerous. If there are scouts here, enemy elders might not be far away either."

Ma Rong wasn't entirely certain whether Meixiu Xia's concern was genuine, but what she was saying was certainly true. Still, he didn't think he had an alternative option.

"I know, but I have to try. Stay with the group and be ready for a potential attack. I'll return as soon as possible, so keep to the agreed-upon route as best as you can."

"Good. I won't try to stop you. My men will show you…"

"I'll find them using my soul sense. Time is of the essence.", Ma Rong cut her off. She considered for a moment, then nodded.

"Good. Our ancestors be with you!"

"Be they with you too!"

Ma Rong returned her nod and took off, racing in the direction Meixiu Xia had pointed him towards.

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