Book 3. Sunrise Alchemist, Ch 1: Sunrise. (Patreon)

The sunrise flared in a brilliant shade of silver and gold that reflected in his eyes as Verse flew through the sky, each step sending him farther to the east.

A large city built of emerald-hued stones was just coming into sight on the horizon in front of him. He had left Whitestone three months ago. That was how long it had taken him to travel to the closest middle province, the Leafhaven Province, and its capital city, Boreal.

He had arrived here in a very roundabout manner, crossing tens of thousands of kilometers.

Now that he was here, he planned to take up residence in the city for a while to train. It was a middle province city, which meant that it was much larger than his old home. It was supposed to have excellent resources for alchemy.

As he approached the towering gates of Boreal, there was a line of other cultivators waiting to enter. One of them at the end called out to him, her voice rising as she tried to get his attention, waving at him to come down and talk to her.

“Senior! ...Wait!”

It was a young woman, perhaps in her late teens. She had an anxious look on her face and was dressed in a slightly worn, light blue robe that had seen better days. On the sleeve was the emblem of a square, red mountain with a white peak.

“Did you come from the west? Do you know what is happening in Deepridge City?” She called, trying to get his attention again.

He paused and looked down at her with curiosity. She was standing with a youth of about the same age who resembled her closely, but he might have been a year or two younger. He was probably her brother.

The boy was tugging at her arm, frowning, as he gave Verse a nervous look. It seemed he was less willing than his sister to ask strangers for information.

“I did pass through there,” Verse answered with a slight smile. He flew down towards them, stopping at a comfortable distance. He had only vague memories about Deepridge City. It had been a week or so before, to the northwest, but he didn’t recall anything interesting about it. Otherwise, he would have investigated.

These two siblings had caught his attention now. There was no reason to rush into the city. Instead, he looked at them with an interested, steady gaze, waiting to see what they would do.

There was no sense of guile about them and their cultivations were only in the Energy Gathering realm. They were not strong enough to travel safely through this area on their own.

Something must have happened to them.

Most young cultivators of their age would have been kept at home until they broke through to Essence Condensation. Had they come here without a guard?

“Do you know what happened to the Santori family?” The young woman asked, her words tripping over each other as she tried to speak as quickly as possible, worried that he would leave. She had been asking many strong cultivators that morning, but all of them had ignored her until now.

Now, one of them had finally stopped!

She had been so occupied with waving at him that she’d forgotten to look at the other details. They struck her all at once as she felt a piercing emerald gaze studying her. It felt as if he were looking into her heart and unraveling all of her secrets.

A red blush spread across her cheeks.

It was hard to place his age, but the cultivator looked like he was just a few years older than her...or maybe a handful more than that. There was something inexplicable about him. For the first time, she noticed that he was extremely striking, with high cheekbones, jet black hair, and those brilliant eyes that never left her own.

“Eeep!” A chirp of embarrassment escaped from her before she clamped her hand over her mouth.

“Selae!” A shout came from a concerned voice as an older man flew through the air towards the woman. He was wearing the same type of robe as the girl.

“What are you doing! Apologize to that senior at once!” The older man reprimanded her as he came closer.

“Father!” The girl turned, her embarrassment changing to delight as her eyes lit up. “You met with the guard captain already! Will he help?”

“Err, this….” The man’s expression became strained, even as he landed next to the girl and pulled her back towards him, sheltering her behind his arm as he looked towards Verse. He bowed politely as he assessed this senior that his daughter had been bothering.

Senior seemed liked too strong a word for him, since he looked so young, but it also felt right, as if the man’s power were great enough that calling him that was only appropriate. The man prided himself his insight, but at the moment it was failing him.

“Ahh...brother,” the man finally said, “Let me apologize for my daughter’s brashness. She is always so overeager. Please forgive her. My name is Deras.”

“Brother Deras,” Verse replied with the same, interested smile on his face. Stopping to see what the girl wanted was already paying off. They were clearly not your normal travelers. “How may I help?”

“Please, don’t let us trouble you,” Deras answered as he gave his son a stern look, stopping him from interrupting. The boy had been just about to about his mouth. “It’s nothing of concern.”

“Father!” Selae protested. “He passed through our town. Maybe he knows what’s happening there. It’s been a month since we left.”

She turned towards Verse before her father could stop her, words falling out of her.

“Are the mercenaries still attacking? Did the town survive? Did the Red Mountain clan survive the beast wave?”

The questions came one after the other with barely a pause between, until Verse couldn’t help but laugh.

“I traveled through there about a week ago, but I’m afrad it wasn’t for very long. It looked peaceful enough at the time.” That was all the information he could give them.

“A week? You traveled so quickly, senior!” The son stuck his head out from behind his father’s arm, looking at Verse with wide eyes. “It took us a month to get here.”

Anyone who could travel that fast had to be near the Aligned realm. His father was only at the middle of Essence Condensation, so to him, that was extremely impressive. His questions joined his sister’s in surrounding Verse.

“My apologies, senior brother,” Deras interrupted, pulling his son back again. “My children have never seen much of the world.”

His worry was growing. They had bothered a cultivator who was stronger than him and he didn’t know how to get out of it. What if this senior brother was angry?

He had unconsciously changed his address for Verse, upgrading him in his mind now that he knew Verse was stronger than him. Power dictated interactions.

What would he do if he knew Verse was also an Imperial Knight? Verse dismissed the thought instantly. It would probably scare him to death. He waved away the apology with a few polite words.

“We will not delay you. It is not much, but please take these spirit crystals as an apology for interrupting you.” The man pulled out a small bag and offered it to Verse with a bowed head.

“Nonsense,” Verse replied, rejecting the offer. He didn’t need a few more spirit crystals and this family looked poor already. His curiosity got the better of him, however, and before he left he asked the question that was on his mind.

“What was the help you were trying to find? The reason you sought out the guard captain?”

“Err...,” Deras responded again, becoming nervous as his face paled as he considered whether or not it would anger this cultivator if he refused to explain. Eventually, he answered. “It’s just...the guard captain is my cousin. He’s in the Aligned realm. I hoped he would return with me and save our Santori family.

“We’re part of the Red Mountain clan, but mercenaries seized our family village and demanded the clan pay them a ransom to release it. Unfortunately, there was a beast wave at the same time that took up the clan’s attention and they were unable to help. I managed to escape with my children and came here.”

As he explained, Selae and her brother grew worried, looking back towards their home.

Verse listened a bit more to the details, before nodding. The family had caught his attention, so he would help a bit, but that didn’t mean he was going to spend weeks flying to their village and back. Fortunately, there were other options.

“Your cousin refused to see you?” He raised one eyebrow. “Take me to him.”
About an hour later, a pale-looking guard captain at the early Aligned realm flew hurriedly out of the city, heading toward Santori Village. Even he wasn’t sure if he was going to help his family or if he was just running away from that Imperial Knight.

Verse grinned as he bid farewell to the wide-eyed family. Deras had already announced that he was planning to stay in the city until he heard back from his cousin. He didn’t want to risk his children around the mercenaries and traveling through the wilds with them was dangerous.

It hadn’t taken much effort to scare the guard into behaving. He’d just projected a bit of his Knight’s aura. The guard captain much preferred chasing away mercenaries to facing a Knight.

“Senior! Wait, my name is Teon. Can you teach me how you scared uncle into helping?” The younger brother rushed over to him, tugging at his sleeve. The family wasn’t familiar enough with Imperial Knights to have known what that pressure and golden light were, so he was confused.

“I’m just a wandering healer,” Verse replied innocently, sticking to the story he had settled on. “Your uncle changed his mind after he thought it over.”

It was time for him to focus more on healing and alchemy, so he had decided to take those as his primary identity while traveling.

“What can I do to repay you?” Deras asked earnestly. Complex thoughts were running behind his eyes, but he did his best to hide them. Without Verse’s help, his cousin would have ignored them.

Verse stopped the man from bowing and set him back on his feet.

“Do you know the city well? Just tell me where I can find the healers and alchemists here.”

“I have spent many years here.” Deras felt relieved that he had something to offer this strange cultivator. “Allow me to be your guide.”

---

Unlike most cities in the empire, Boreal was run by a council of non-humans. It was mainly dwarves, giantkin, and fire sylphs. Together, they worked to harvest the valuable resources that came from the volcanic forests near the city.

Normally, a volcano would have been a mountain peak, but the geography of Boreal was unique. It was a large plain with volcanic vents beneath. In those veins of magma, many different types of spirit stones and rare ores were present.

On the land above, enormous, obsidian-barked oak trees grew through tropical forests that sprawled endlessly across the plains. The entire province was rich in earth, wood, and fire essence, which made it an ideal place for alchemy and herbalism.

With Deras’s help, and his children adding helpful details, it didn’t take Verse too long to find a courtyard to rent. He chose that over buying one directly.

He had a significant number of spirit stones from his travels on the way here, so there was no need to worry about finances in the short term, but he wasn’t sure if his treasury would hold out once he started buying herbs for alchemy.

It was a profession that both destroyed and created vast quantities of wealth.

The courtyard he settled on was a small mansion in a quiet, middle-class neighborhood that mostly catered to wealthy merchants. It was much less ostentatious than the areas where the nobles stayed, but still impressive.

The house could easily hold three dozen people and there were multiple interior courtyards scattered through the broad building. The gardens were works of art with sparkling streams and waterfalls interwoven through lush vines and flowers that bloomed across tumbled stones.

To Verse’s eyes, the design clearly showed the hand of a Wood-aligned race, which was why he had chosen it. It was more peaceful than houses built by humans.

On the outside, it was surrounded by a high stone wall that revealed nothing of the interior.

“This place was built by one of the Fire Sylph merchants, from what the broker said,” Deras chimed in, looking around with amazement. “I’ve never seen a place like this in a city.”

“Do you have a place to stay?” Verse asked with a smile, knowing that the man was hard up on spirit stones. “You are welcome to stay here.”

“I couldn’t!” Deras objected, waving his hands in front of his face. “I am the one who owes you, not the other way around!”

“Father, please!” Selae tugged at her father’s sleeve, her eyes imploring. “This place is beautiful. We can take care of it for the senior, cooking and cleaning....”

“Not necessary,” Verse responded, waving away the idea at once. He didn’t mind if they stayed here. It would make the place more lively. “The broker is sending over servants already. Just stay here as guests. Make it your home.”

“But...,” Deras’s objections grew a bit weaker as his son joined in, tugging at his other sleeve. Finally, he gave in. “I will pay you for the inconvenience, at least.”

“I won’t hear of it,” Verse refused. “The house is large enough that I won’t even notice. If you want to pay me back, just keep acting as my guide around the city now and then. That is what would be most useful to me.”

With both of his children and Verse insisting, Deras could only bow and accept the offer. He would never have been able to afford a house like this, so in his heart he also didn’t want to refuse. He had just been held back by more politeness.

“Then I will do my utmost to make sure there is no corner of the city that is unturned if you need something,” Deras proclaimed, bowing again. Since Verse wanted a guide to the city, he could accept a place to stay in return.

And so, Verse acquired a house, a guide, and some entertaining young cultivators to keep an eye on. The four of them settled into the house without any difficulty, sorting out rooms and gardens in an instant. Selae and Teon ran through the hallways and chased each other through the gardens, their laughter filling the halls.

Verse sat down with a long sigh in the largest garden at the center of the house. It was filled with obsidian stones placed abstractly between cobblestone walkways and spiraling vines, and vibrant trees towered towards the sky with jeweled leaves. Little birds sang from the branches and fruits dangled from the sides.

He was glad to help the family out and to have a guide, but that was only part of the reason he had asked them to stay. The other part was that he didn’t want to be alone, to lose track of the years and spend all of his time in cultivation. He wanted to be surrounded by life.

He wasn’t sure why, but it felt right. Or perhaps it was just because he missed his friends and family in Whitestone.

“You’re a strange dragon hatchling,” Nine Revolutions laughed. The shrine floated above the sea of jade essence in his dantian, watching everything that was going on. “Most dragons like to live alone. You know that girl has a unique spiritual aura, right? She could make an excellent Fire cultivator, perhaps even an alchemist. The boy is also not bad. He smells like Stone. I wonder who their mother is.”

“This will be a good place to practice for a while,” Verse replied, letting the shrine’s words pass by without comment. He wasn’t planning on turning the children into expert cultivators, although he might give them a few pointers if they asked. Who knew if they even wanted that life?

“Right then, hatchling!” The shrine declared. “I’ve given you everything you need to master those three seals, so you’re on your own. I’ll answer basic questions, but that’s all. You have a bit less than three years to prove to me that you’re as talented as I hope you are. Otherwise, I won’t teach you any more.”

The shrine had every confidence in Verse passing the trial he’d set, but it still felt the need to motivate him. He was going to do everything in his power to make sure Verse got the best education he could in how to be a dragon.

There was an illusory image of the shrine in Verse’s sea of consciousness that grew bigger as he walked towards it, stretching up towards the heavens.

This was the inner space of his soul, a projection of his mind and spirit. The shrine had placed two dragon arts for him to train here, the Nine Revolutions Celestial Refinement Method and the Nine Dragon Meridian Art.

The Nine Revolutions Celestial Refinement Method was this illusory copy of the shrine itself. Inside, the arched gates opened onto a small room that held an altar at the center. On top, there were three shining gemstones. Each one of them was a special seal, basic tasks from the three paths the shrine had to teach him: alchemy, formations based on the runes that made up the dragons’ language, and the Dao of the Stars, which had been used to build the shrine itself.

Verse studied them for a moment before he turned to the first. He laid his hand on top of it.

He had been waiting a long time for this.

“The alchemy of the Emerald Dragons,” he murmured. “I wonder how different it is from the arts used today.”

The seal unfurled like a thousand-petal lotus.