9 THRONES

CHAPTER 22: FAILURE

Storing the message paper, Vann lowered the pile of firewood on the ridge before saying excitedly "Let's get to work!".

Unconcerned about the darkness of the night, Vann moved to another class and gathered the failed ingredients from the manufacture of the Qi Medicine by the disciples today.

As Hasel had said, the failed medicinal ingredients were unlikely to make any more Qi Medicines. Unless one gathered 100 failed medicinal ingredients, they could make at least once more.

After going to the entire class on the 4th and 5th floors which was the alchemy class, Vann actually managed to gather 500 failed medicinal ingredients thus making him happy. With 500 medicinal ingredients that failed, he could try to make the Medicinal Qi as many as 5 times.

Rushing towards the class he was in before, Vann took his firewood along with this failing medicinal material towards a furnace in the class.

Vann placed the firewood under the furnace carefully, and the firewood began to burn itself.

More precisely the wood was burned by the power of the furnace, as long as something flammable was placed on this particular furnace then something flammable would give rise to its own fire.

Vann stared at the newly emerging flame carefully to realize that the temperature was still lacking, therefore Vann added more firewood which made the fire even hotter.

When already feeling the heat of the fire according to Hasel's instructions in class, Vann opened the lid of the furnace and placed 100 failed medicinal ingredients tastefully around the furnace.

At first everything went according to plan, Vann again closed the furnace while waiting. But in the 5th minute, black smoke was seen rising from the closed furnace.

Vann immediately panicked, he had never heard the furnace would show black smoke while making Medicinal Qi which meant he had already failed.

Vann opened the lid of the furnace before his face turned grim.

From the beginning Vann was over he could not succeed in making Medicine Qi that easy, but who would have thought Vann had instantly failed with just 5 minutes.

Quickly, Vann stared at the fire under the furnace to find the temperature of the fire was already too high, higher than what Hasel had said.

Though the fire on the furnace was only higher between 1 to 4° C, but the medicinal ingredients on the furnace immediately turned completely black and could not be processed anymore.

Vann put out the fire before disposing of the 100 failed ingredients which again failed, when the medicinal ingredients had already failed as much as 2 times then they could not be used anymore no matter how many ingredients were merged.

Despite the failure, Vann did not lose his spirit and continued to try again.

While most of the people in the Wood Sword Academy had most likely already slept, Vann still continued to try to make medicine.

...----------------...

2 Hours later, Vann saw what was behind the furnace cover with a gloomy face because he had failed 5 times.

The longest time he failed was only 10 minutes in this 5th trial, meaning Vann should still have to wait another 50 minutes before he could succeed, he failed in the 10th minute.

Vann took the material that turned black before sighing "At the 10th minute, the temperature of the fire must be changed to low in order to successfully make the medicine. But it is very difficult to change the temperature of the fire only takes less than 1 minute, if exactly a second, the medicinal ingredients must be destroyed again. Now I understand, the reason why so many people fail to make Qi Medicine".

Shaking his head, Vann stopped thinking about all that.

He cleaned up the classroom and the furnace he had used, then brought back some unused firewood and returned to the warehouse, since there were no more materials to use then he had to go back to rest.

Closing the classroom door, Vann walked back without realizing there was a pair of eyes staring at him from the darkness, that figure was none other than Hasel.

Hasel observed Vann and said "It seems I did not misjudge the boy".

Then Hasel's figure disappeared again in the darkness of the night.

...----------------...

Vann returns to the warehouse to find Foltra already asleep in the haystack, after all it is now midnight so it is not strange for Foltra to fall asleep.

As Vann thought he was going to sleep too, Vann realized that he had to clean his body first. He hasn't had a bath except this morning, not to mention he has to clean the whole teaching building and make medicine, if he doesn't shower, he's definitely bothering others tomorrow due to the scent on his body.

Vann searched the bathroom around but he couldn't find it at all.

When Vann was confused as to whether the cleaner was not getting a bathroom, Vann found a well located near the warehouse.

Without much thought, Vann immediately knew the water from this well must be what they use for bathing and daily necessities.

Vann took the water from the well using a rope and a bucket on it, then threw the water all over his body.

The cold water at night really made Vann's entire body cold, if he was still in the villa with his father, he would definitely not need to experience all of these things.

But Vann shook his head quickly, he was determined that he must have succeeded in becoming a great cultivator so Vann continued his bath before going to bed in the barn.

...----------------...

The next morning, Vann woke up before 6am where most of the students and people in the academy were still sleeping.

After all, classes start at 9 a.m., they don't have to get up too early.

Vann who woke up just washed his face using water in the well then took a broom and went to the teaching building.

He still remembered Hasel's advice yesterday that he had to clean the building early in the morning before everyone came so that it was not too late if Vann was interested in listening to the explanation of his morning lesson.

Vann had no interest in throwing away the chance of obtaining a cultivator's knowledge from an expert like Hasel, so he started working from morning.

Fortunately at 8am, the chef in the cafeteria found Vann already busy cleaning up this early.

Appreciating the diligent Vann, they gave Vann a loaf of bread and milk as breakfast which made Vann very grateful.

The disciples could get breakfast, noon and night, but those who were cleaners could only get lunch so Vann was a little hungry now.

Spending the breakfast given, Van continued to do his job until everyone had arrived at school.

When 9am was the start of the lesson, Vann also finished cleaning up his duties this morning which meant he could also listen to the class on time.