The emperor ultimately chose to produce a pure lazarus stone. With that choice of his, Grant requested an empty courtyard.

  Simple and barren.

  The emperor complied, asking one of his aides to go find one such yard.

  Grant glanced at him quietly, with a flicker of interest.

  The man had the scent of faith lingering about him. His disguise may be able to confuse mortals, but Grant was not so easily fooled.

  It wasn't that weird. In old egypt, the god's used to rely on the pharaohs as their incarnations on earth, possessing them at times.

  The vanir and the aesir also often wandered among men. Grant as a young lad before traveling to the east had seen Odin hang himself upon the world tree.

  The immortals of the east would often reincarnate into important positions to help ensure the prosperity of a nation.

  It wasn't rare that gods chose to travel amongst men; but that didn't make it any less interesting.

  Of course he was curious as to what the god was up to, but it wasn't his priority in the moment so he chose to ignore the aide, deciding to investigate him later.

  Grant was led to an empty courtyard, devoid of life as requested.

  That aide didn't show up again this time.

  Seeing that the courtyard was satisfactory, Grant pulled out a small simple furnace.

  At first glance it was a basic thing, so primitive that not even the cheapest of stores would sell such a poor furnace.

  Yet the furnace had the faint scent of charcoal, a lingering presence.

  There was a faint sense of reverence as they looked at it, though they couldn't place it.

  "The first furnace of the east, the sacred furnace of Suiren. It's a fifth level artifact that I managed to acquire by chance a while back." Grant said calmly. But his words betrayed the specialness of the furnace.

  The mage was amazed.

  Artifacts weren't hard to find; finding useful ones was the difficulty.

  Currently, the mage tower has over 100 different artifacts, yet only 20 of them are actually of significant use.

  This is due to the nature of artifacts; artifacts hold a position similar to deities, their existence fueled by the beliefs of the people, and affected by them. The result is that artifacts can wildly vary in their effect. Many of them useless for actual combat.

  A perfect example is the piper's flute, an artifact capable of hypnotizing children and luring them elsewhere.

  ...

  What use is that? Unless she's planning to kidnap children and drown them in a lake, the pied pipers flute is functionally useless.

  Could it be useful one day? Sure, if something extremely dangerous and effectively a newborn emerged, then yes, the pied piper's flue would be useful, but that's an extremely rare instance making it incredibly niche.

  It was rare to find a tool that was both powerful and useful, and useful for the tower itself.

  The mage tower had found the king-slaying blade Clarent, a powerful sword. But they were mages, making it useless for them. And although it had power, it also had the stigma of slaying a great king. Wielding such a thing was ominous in nature, and destined to bring a great deal of scrutiny to the user.

  In contrast, such a furnace would still be of huge use to them, even if they weren't blacksmiths. Magical tools after all, require the help of skilled blacksmiths and such a valuable tool in their hand would have people flocking to it.

  As for trying to take it from Grant? Impossible.

  Ignoring the fact that Grant was here to help the emperor and to try to take it from him forcefully here would essentially be a slap in the face of imperial power, she simply couldn't

  This man's power was weird, constantly waning between the 5th level and the third level.

  You would think that meant he was in horrid shape, but as a mage, she was well adapted to studying the flow of magic.

  As a genius mage, she was even capable of studying qi and starting to dabble in the path of faith and mental energy.

  That wasn't a sign of weakness. This man wasn't severely injured and declining from the 5th to the 3rd level.

  This was intentional. He was purposefully raising and lowering his level at a whim.

  That required more than a mere mastery of magic, that required a high control of the body, of magic, and most importantly, corresponding level.

  Unless you've already reached the 5th level, this kind of trick isn't possible. But the ability to forcefully lower the body to the third level without injuring yourself?

  That requires skill beyond hers, a terrifying amount.

  The other more terrifying conjecture she made was that this man was actually at the 6th level, and just hiding his level.

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  One of those naughty old men who likes to play tricks on the young. The empire already has a famous one, Pangu, hiding at the Gamoceras territory.

  He'd approached them as a mere nascent soul practitioner seeking help.

  Were it not for the heads up of the retired lord Ra, who exposed an old frenemy, they would've been never the wiser.

  Turns out being high level means developing a naughty streak.

  She was right in a way.

  Grant promptly shoed them away while he sat down and began.

  First he pulled out Berg and Devis.

  Devis was to sit and observe with his new partner. Perhaps they could gain something. Authority is mysterious like that. The refinement and burning purification of authority can easily enlighten someone closer to the process, hence why he drove the others away.

  It's also why he asked for a barren courtyard. If any life managed to absorb the lingering authority, they could easily enjoy the benefits and become a small monster, an immense leap in level of life.

  Even if the crown prince ended up his student soon, the emperor and his followers were not.

  Why should they be allowed to share in the benefits? Especially when it detracted from Devis' benefits?

  As for Berg, he was here to fan.

  When hanging out with Taishang Laojun, Grant had come to realize the importance of having a boy.

  Prestige.

  Admittedly, a servant would likely have accomplished a similar result, but not quite. Kings have aides, wizards have apprentices, and dragons have turtle ministers.

  Taoists have boys, or servants who maintained a childlike appearance. It was just part of appearances, making yourself more authentic in the eyes of others.

  Of course, Laojun had another reason: money.

  Laojun already had the two boys: gold horn and silver horn. But he had them assist in the refining process despite not needing them.

  Partially it was convenience, partially appearances, and finally money.

  As the leader of the three pure ones, he was rich. But who would be opposed to saving money? So, he shamelessly asked for separate paychecks for his two boys who "assisted" in the process.

  The jade emperor had been a boy before under the seat of Daozu; of course, he knew the ins and outs of what Laojun was doing.

  If you thought he'd expose it however, you'd be gravely mistaken. He was a boy once after all. Naturally he'd be partial to them, having once shared their plight.

  Boys aren't actually children after all. In reality their Taoist servants with not enough talent to be disciples, but immortals who have a fondness for them will take them as "boys" as well as guardian beasts and mounts. At least beasts and mounts get to look majestic.

  Boys practice techniques that keep their youthful form as children, a unique form of immortality in the form of eternal youth, but it's not a pleasant form of immortality, especially as you get older.

  Imagine being thousands of years old, yet you have to stay as a 10 year old child just to be cute for the master. It's not all bad; boys tend to receive a great deal of fondness from their masters. To touch them is to offend their masters. It's a well-known fact that Haotian only became the jade emperor because of the favor of his master, Hongjun Daozu.

  So he didn't mind letting little resources slip into the hands of Laojun's boys, especially since it meant maintaining a good relationship with his senior brother.

  In this case, Berg, who was still in a cue deformed appearance happened to meet the standards of what he needed.

  Appearances? Check

  Convenience? Check

  Cheap labor? Check.

  So, while Devis got to relax and enjoy the enlightenment with his new ignystro partner, Berg had to keep fanning.

  "I don't get why I have to do it. Don't you have Devis here? Why doesn't he do a little fanning?" The golem complained.

  Grant snorted. "You silly golem, you know exactly why. This is a prime opportunity for him to gain some insight into the laws and establish a firm foundation.

  You've already enjoyed such blessings by my side countless times over the years. Don't be greedy." He scolded, swatting the golem with a whisk.

  Not the taoist type though. A cooking whisk. He likes to mix things up sometimes.

  "I'm not being greedy, I'm complaining that I'm the only one doing work." Berg correct.

  "If not you, then who will?"

  "Then why not have Ursa Honey and his crew do it? They're chefs! Clearly they should be the ones over the furnace?"

  Hearing this, Grant remained silent. How could he admit that he had forgotten about them at this moment. Grant was the stubborn type after all, preferring to pretend he hadn't heard what he said.

  He learned that from the taiqing saint too.

  Ignoring his master's silence, Berg continued to talk, reminiscing. "I miss those two. They used to take over here whenever we did this nonsense. When are you going to bring them back?" Berg asked, referring to the two homunculi who used to follow Grant up until that final battle.

  Like Berg, they had self-destructed, and like him, their souls were contained by the inventory afterwards.

  Grant responded calmly. "In a few years. I wanted to enjoy this peace and quiet for a few more years before bringing them back."

  Alchemists often recommend to either not give homunculi genitalia, or to avoid giving them partners.

  Grant had thought this unreasonable until he had made two of them, and had to endure years of that noise.

  It was only then that he realized that one should respect the wisdom of the sages before them.

  "They were rather loud weren't they. You know, we could just..." Berg suggested, using a snipping motion to avoid saying something vile in front of the child.

  Grant laughed angrily as he pointed and scolded. "Bold! If they knew you suggested this to me, those two would have your head you know."

  The golem shrugged as he continued to fan the flames. "I don't understand you organics and your obsession with those kinds of things. All I know is that they costed me a good few nights of sleep. "

  He paused before admitting. "I do miss them a bit. The gang feels a bit empty without them."

  Grant made no comment this time, merely continuing to refine the stone

  So for the next few days, Grant focused on condensing the authority within and producing a singular authority.

  It was similar to gu raising, where you have the authorities contained within devour one another until the last one remains, strengthened and more complete than before.

  In this case, he was ensuring that the authority of flourishing was consolidated.

  He didn't tell the emperor that he could control the outcome, merely stating that it was up to fate.

  Why?

  Because he didn't want the emperor to blame him when a certain one was produced

  If he was dissatisfied, then Grant could simply blame "Fate" rather than admitting he had chosen this one.

  Within these sparse days, the emperor had come over, engaging in small talk to better discern his son's future mentor.

  He also happened to see Berg fanning and indeed, the appearance of a flame fanning boy did raise Grant's prestige in his eyes.

  Of course, what was more important was Devis, who was sitting there and absorbing the lingering authority, seeing if he could learn something.

  The emperor had learned something about the boy from the reports, Grant's first apprentice.

  He was not disgusted by his hybrid nature. As an emperor, he had long learned to accept all people.

  His position as emperor could not afford such prejudice, not with the Lord Jorvus Mars always watching.

  No, what attracted the emperor's attention was the treatment of the boy who was clearly the apple of the master's eye, as Grant would occasionally say something, guiding the child, and patiently explaining problems the boy had.

  As a father planning to entrust his son, an emperor entrusting the future to the man before him, this was naturally a good thing.

  The tower master also appeared quite often, discussing matters of magic and even qi surprisingly.

  Grant was willing to engage. Even if his understanding was at the 6th level already, discussion was always a good thing, to sharpen and improve your own understanding. Even the lowest of hills occasionally unearths a gem.

  Eventually Grant called them over, signifying the completion of the pill.

  So the emperor and his entourage walked in to find Grant silently watching a floating, pure pill, as well as a cake.

  Upside down renshui peach cake to be exact.

  He did pull out a cooking whisk after all.