Emerald Alchemist: Epilogue (Patreon)

“Verse!” Ames’ shout carried across the grand hall. “I thought we were supposed to be drinking!”

“That’s where we’re heading next,” Verse said with a grin as he looked toward the now gold-ranked guard.

The destruction of the Crimson Shade Sect had taken a couple of weeks, and Ames had led a lot of the effort. Combined with his training of new guards, it was enough to qualify him for the gold rank he wanted.

The induction ceremony for the Azurewind Guard had just finished, and now they were mingling together in the hall. Even though he was also being officially welcomed into their ranks, Verse hadn’t paid much attention to the proceedings except to nod and wave in the right place.

He was happier for Ames than for himself.

Breslin and Visele had also earned their official status as new guards, and now they were speaking with some of the local officials, making their own political connections.

Verse had waved at a few, but he didn’t feel inclined to do the same. Here and there, he nodded as one looked over at him.

“Congratulations, Ames.” Vesana laughed as she sent a smile of her own at him. She was standing next to Verse in an elegant blue dress and her hair was pinned up in a stylish cascade that fell down her shoulders.

“Ahh, it’s nothing, it’s nothing,” Ames chuckled as he waved away the words. “The real congratulations go to Verse.  I never thought those ruins were the tomb of an old Imperial Knight. Who would have thought you’d luck into an ancient inheritance and jump to the Primal Spirit realm! I’ve heard rumors of that sort of thing, but it’s still incredible.”

“The empire is full of mysteries and old sects,” Verse said with a laugh as he waved away the words. “I didn’t expect to meet the spirit of an old Imperial Knight there, especially not one at the Dao Echo realm who wanted to pass on his dao flame.”

He couldn’t hide his sudden increase in strength, so that was the story he’d come up with, that the sect ruins had once been the tomb of an Imperial Knight, and that when the spirit there sensed Verse, he passed on an inheritance.

There were many stories of masters handing down inheritances and a portion of their strength to their descendants or to lucky explorers. For a knight to give that sort of inheritance to another knight made sense.

A dao flame was something left behind from a high-realm cultivator, a combination of their dao insights and some of their energy. Some cultivators created them just before they died and used them as a way to pass on an inheritance to their descendants or students.

They had enough of a spiritual imprint to recognize a worthy successor, and absorbing one could help to ignite a dao spark, with a small risk of causing a divergence in your dao path. That was why they were most often given to someone who followed the same dao.

It wasn’t what had happened, but it was close enough as an explanation and it let him keep all the discussion of dragons out of it.

“It’s a step in the right direction!” Elamrin said with a laugh as he walked up on the other side of Vesana. “But if you want to date my niece in the future, you’ll have to do better than that. The capital is full of inheritances and even more powerful things than dao flames that get passed down.”

He raised the glass of spirit brandy in his hand, which had a bright sapphire color, and toasted Verse.

“I’d say the Dao Echo realm sounds about right before you meet her parents. They’re ferocious, so you’ll need it to keep them in line.”

“Uncle!” Vesana chided him with a frown. “Mother and father aren’t even at the Dao Echo realm yet, unless they’ve suddenly had a breakthrough. Isn’t that asking a bit much?”

“That’s why he should get there!” Elamrin laughed. “Then they can’t complain that he’s from the outer provinces! A knight, a baron, a powerful cultivator...he’ll have the whole trifecta. And an alchemist too, of course! Right now, he’s just missing the powerful cultivator part.

“Getting a dao flame inheritance isn’t bad, but it can’t be said to be that rare. A lot of masters want to pass on their dao before they die. He’s just lucky that the spirit he met had a compatible one, or he’d be stuck at this level forever.”

“I’ll work on my cultivation,” Verse said with a chuckle. “It will also take a little while to stabilize myself at this realm and improve my foundations.”

Elamrin’s teasing didn’t bother him. It was really a sign of the man’s approval. Since the battle at the sect, the enforcer had been a steady presence around the guild and he’d been very helpful in settling things back to a more normal rhythm.

With his help and her own accomplishments, Vesana had been appointed as the branch manager for the city, a position that was a steep jump in authority for her. Normally, it would have taken another couple of decades before she was qualified for it.

With her in charge of the local guild, it would be easier than ever for Verse to practice alchemy here.

Heten, the appraiser who had helped Renzer to kidnap the alchemists, had been dealt with as part of the changes, which cleaned out the last trace of corruption in the guild branch. He had been judged guilty as an accomplice and was on his way to appraise pills in a guild prison, where he would be held until he paid for his crimes.

The guild here was in good hands now.

In terms of stabilizing his foundations, like Elamrin was saying, that was something that Verse planned on. He didn’t need to do it as much as he told everyone, since the bloodline energy had given him an incredibly sturdy base, but he still wanted to familiarize himself with his new strength.

His memories at the Jade Scripture sect only went up to the middle of the Aligned realm, so now that he’d advanced to the Primal Spirit realm, he was finally past that and in new territory.

He had the Jade Scripture to guide him, but he wanted to practice and make sure he understood everything before he went any higher.

He also needed to keep working on his alchemy and bring it up to Rank 4 or higher to match the Primal Spirit realm before he left Boreas, and that would take a while.

Fortunately, alchemy training was good practice for his cultivation too, so everything was falling into place.

He was looking forward to a few good years here.

In terms of other matters to deal with, the five kidnapped alchemists were slowly recovering in the guild, and he planned to help them integrate the Ice Titan energy, which would take a little while.

He also planned to improve the formation on his house and to cultivate more spiritual herbs in the courtyard, which would be useful to his work and make Leaf happy. He’d already requested a large number of living herbs from the guild to plant there, as well as to put in his soul space.

With the improvements to his cultivation, his soul space was much larger than before. It would be easy to foster the growth of selected herbs that he wanted to use in draconic recipes.

He’d only scratched the surface of his alchemy so far, and there was a lot more to do. If things went well, it would be very useful in the future.

With his expanded inner world, there was enough room to carve up to 25 jade seals now. That would take him several weeks of dedicated training, but once he was done, the number of seals he would have access to would enable him to create extremely powerful spells.

But those thoughts were for the future.

Now that the ceremony was over, he was starting to get into the cheerful mood of the celebration, and he felt himself relaxing as he looked around.

Vesana’s hand was on his arm, reminding him constantly of her presence.

“It is still a rare inheritance,” she said with a smile as she pulled his attention back to the present. “One that will make things easier for you in Boreas. As a Primal Spirit-realm Imperial Knight, you’re one of the most powerful independent cultivators here.”

As much as he wanted to dismiss that, he couldn’t deny it. Reaching this realm had already made it easier to interact with the local officials, including the other guilds and the auction house.

They’d been polite to him before, since he had the city’s guest medallion and his status as a Knight, but their perspective of him had changed. They were much more considerate now.

He didn’t dwell on it, however. Instead, he turned his attention back to the people around him.

“Are you coming with us?” he asked Elamrin with a grin. “As soon as this wraps up, we’re heading to some tavern that Ames keeps talking about. He says it’s the best one in the city.”

“It is!” Ames agreed fiercely as his eyes flared with a passionate light. “You can’t even get in without a recommendation! The spirit wine there has been aged for decades and is the finest thing you can find in all of Boreas. I was going to take you there after you got your silver badge, but this works better.”

“Absolutely then,” Elamrin agreed. He’d looked asleep during most of the ceremony, but curiosity was in his eyes now, making him lively again. “Show me the best this city has to offer!”

“I think we can sneak out,” Verse said as he looked around the hall. “It’s just a bunch of schmoozing going on.”

“It’s an important part of being in the guard,” Ames said with a pained grimace that showed how much he disliked it. “It’s how we get a lot of contracts.”

His eyes narrowed as he looked around.

“I think you’re right though. This is a good time to escape. Imriz can deal with the rest of it, and Breslin and Visele can be the sacrificial sheep talking to everyone. They seem to like this part. I wonder if they’ll think the same in a couple of decades.

“Normally, they’d all want to talk to you too,” he added as he looked at Verse, ”but I think they’re scared of you. They know you’re the one behind the destruction of the Crimson Shade Sect, even if we were your hands and feet. None of them want to make you angry.”

“That was more Elamrin and the guild than me,” Verse said as he waved the idea away. “But I want to see what this famous tavern is like. The first few rounds are on me.”

“That’s a dangerous offer to my uncle,” Vesana laughed. Her hand tightened on Verse’s arm as he turned toward the door. “He’s a famous partier in the capital.”

“It was just a few evenings on the town here and there,” Elamrin said with a grin, but he didn’t deny it.

“Let’s go find out if that’s still true,” Verse suggested as he turned toward the door.

The need to open the Path to Heaven and shatter the demons’ hold on the world was heavy on his mind, but right now it was time to see if Ames' drinks lived up to their reputation.

When he looked over at Vesana, her smile was bright and matched his, and her blue eyes were sparkling.

Light steps marked their departure as the four of them escaped toward freedom.