The First Tier Alchemist badge was a small bronze disk engraved with the guild's insignia and Xiao Yan's name. It weighed almost nothing and fit in the palm of his hand, but when he pinned it to his chest and walked through Wu Tan City's market district, the reaction was immediate.

Shopkeepers who had ignored him for years suddenly had time to chat. Cultivators who had mocked him as a cripple now stepped aside to let him pass. Even the Xiao clan's guards at the main gate did a double-take when they saw the badge glinting in the afternoon sun.

'Young Master Xiao,' one of them said. It was the first time anyone had called him 'Young Master' in three years.

Xiao Yan didn't let it go to his head. He was still only at the 7th Duan of Qi Refining — stronger than he'd been a month ago, but still nowhere near his former peak. The alchemist badge bought him respect, but respect didn't win fights. It just meant people would be more careful about how they beat him.

Yao Lao's advice that night was characteristically blunt: 'Now that you're an alchemist, you have two jobs. First: brew pills, sell pills, buy cultivation resources. Second: cultivate until your cultivation matches your alchemy, because right now you're a First Tier alchemist with a Third Duan Dou Qi. That's like being a master chef who can't afford ingredients.'

'What's the third job?' Xiao Yan asked.

'There isn't one. Two jobs is already more than anyone expects from you.'

The next morning, Xiao Yan hung a sign outside his meditation chamber: 'Qi Replenishment Pills — Freshly Brewed — Market Price Minus Twenty Percent.'

By noon, he had sold out. By sunset, he had enough gold for a month's worth of cultivation resources.

Yao Lao, hovering invisibly beside him, made a sound that might have been approval. 'Not bad, boy. For a beginner.'