"I would hesitate to use them to diagnose scarring. The elixir merely requires a single drop of blood or vital essence, if you have no blood. The testing treasure requires the ability to open specific meridians in sequence- To perform an extremely simple technique, if you will. We do have our clan's export text, The Principle of Pills, which provides an overview of alchemy basics and listing of most common pills, free of any deeper secrets. Usually offered to allies, of course."

She's overextending. This is interesting, but she should wrap it up and sync with Wen before striking out more by herself.

She nods. "I shall consult with my master. For now, let me peruse your stock."

Spirit sensitivity, burning blood, blood and qi, and body refinement pills. Does their catalogue have anything else presenting itself as standard fare which she hasn't heard of?

The scaling cost goes up fast if she wants excellent pills. They offer to make pills specifically customized to one's constitution, reducing toxicity concerns further, for a hefty fee and a week's lead time- Not something she can afford right now, possibly. They also have wound-sealing pills, serenity pills, contraceptives, and an extremely expensive elixir that supposedly allows one to glimpse the Dao.

"Allows one to glimpse the Dao" as in closer to "psychedelics" or closer to "astral projection"?

As in 'enlightenment', or so they're claiming with very serious faces.

She will skip the extremely expensive elixir for now, and anything else which is implausible to be in her price range. She'll also skip the contraceptives. Everything else she'll buy a small amount in the middling price range: serenity pills presumably help you reach a meditative state, or something to that effect, but she's not going to ask. Wound-sealing pills are unlikely to be useful but good to keep in her back pocket in case it does and they work; and Wen might find them useful.

For the blood and qi, spirit sensitivity and burning blood pills, she'll also shell out for the smallest sold unit of the class which is right on the margin of her plausible buying power. Those are the ones most likely to be useful.

Much of this might be redundant with what Wen's doing, but if so they'll can still do a retrospective analysis of what Rebecca did wrong.

The smallest unit would be a single pill apiece.

The contraindications in her purchases are: Don't take burning blood and serenity together, or ideally within three days of each other. Don't take more than one burning blood a month. Don't take more than one spirit sensitivity or serenity in a week; These two can be safely taken together at once, though. Three a day is the absolute upper maximum of blood and qi pill usage without running into toxicity issues, and less than five a week is ideal. Her body tempering pill will be best paired with a specific cultivation plan and goal; This particular variety is the Six Crucibles of Reconstruction. Paired with an appropriate medicinal bath, she could likely refine her skin in one session with it. Her master will no doubt know what to aim for there.

Much appreciated. Refine her skin in one session—she doesn't reveal her ignorance but she does wonder what exactly that looks like. Is it just purging impurities from it?

"Toxicity is generally recoverable without permanent damage?" she asks, before she leaves.

"If you don't let it go too far. So if you find yourself bumping into toxicity in a rush for faster growth- Well, we all want to become stronger, but it's a short term gain at a long term cost to keep going past that point."

She nods. So obviously she's going to slowly crank up her dosage to see if her toxicity resistance is below, at, or above average.

This is the point where she has discharged all of the immediately presented social obligations of being a person of interest and hightails it back to where they're staying, lest new hooks present themselves a dilemma to reject or accept.

Or it's the point where she attempts to, anyway.

Someone is standing outside the compound, arms crossed. A brick wall of a man, brown hair, strong jaw, shirtless but with exceedingly fancy pants, with an expression of intent observation and eternal readiness.

"I want to fight you," he says bluntly.

...That's forward. Back home, her response would be, in an entirely sincere tone, "send my secretary an email," but that's not so much an option here. The spirit is the point, though. First, she steps away so they're not blocking the entrance.

"I'm tentatively interested, but for private reasons, I am unavailable today," she says. "May we arrange a meeting place tomorrow? I cannot promise I will give you a fight, but I will deliver the answer in person."

A single nod.

"I am Shun Kun, of the Shun family. I'll be training at the Earthblood Pavilion tomorrow afternoon and evening. I'll ensure you're welcomed. I hope you accept and we can learn from each other by trading pointers."

And then he bows shallowly - superior to an inferior - and turns on his feet and marches away.

Problem defused! She picks up the meaning of the bow, by the rest of his body language as well as by the textual meaning, but she doesn't know enough to refute the implicit claim—nor does she think she would care to make a scene if she did, local values of face or not.

Is anyone else going to make her life difficult going back to the villa?

Someone invites her for drinks! He's arrogant and loud and showing off wealth. He only barely makes a scene when she declines. Otherwise, nope.

Two buzzes come in on the comm link. The signal for a check in, from Wen.

She gives two buzzes back. Nothing wrong on her end.

Two buzzes once more, and then nothing.

The block of villas is peaceful. Past the main gate but not quite to their residence she passes a tall, eerily pale pair, with dark hair and dark makeup and expressions that look kind of snake-like. They seem like siblings more than husband and wife, and give her a glance and sniff the air and start whispering to each other, seemingly debating something quietly.

...She is going to not racially profile them, despite fantasy cues, and keep going, if they don't actively accost her.

"Fellow Daoist, are you interested in herbs and medicines? We have a harvest to liquidate."

She'll put on a politely interested face. "What types of herbs and medicines?"

It's probably not anything shady, if they're dealing their wares right out in the open road of a premium residential area.

"Poisons, herbs, and extracts of potent and varied nature harvested from the Deepbriar Bogs some two thousand li south of here. You smell of alchemy, I'm sure you'll be interested in some of them?"

"Ah, I'm afraid they would be wasted on me," she says, affecting disappointment. "I'm not much specialized in the use of  such materials. But I do wish you good fortune with your merchandise."

"Shame. Good fortune, then."

And they resume their walk.

...Once she's back in private, she attempts to Dragon Fairy Elf Witch the two, focusing strongly on considering being pale, dark and vaguely snake-like a downside.

Nothing seems to change.