Alchemies

Chapter 50: The Surprising Progress

Alex took a deep breath and prepared himself. Once the cauldron was at the right temperature, he put in the first ingredient. Thanks to his spiritual senses, he could see what was happening inside the cauldron with a very accurate rate.

As he moved the material, slowly burning it, he felt it release a certain amount of energy from within. He felt some of the released energy transfer back to the material that was now powder while another part floated in the air inside the cauldron. Some energy even came out of the cauldron.

He tried to capture them with his Qi, but his energy seemed to only pass through them gradually. Ma Rong watched his every step. He could see how accurate his Qi manipulation was and how accurate his temperature-altering ability was.

Alex put in the second ingredient. The same thing happened to this one. The release of energy from the second material as well. However, somehow the energy from the first material directly moves to the newly released energy and ‘makapnya’. He could feel his energy still present, but somehow the 'feelings' of the energy he released changed.

'Do I feel the elements in the energy?' he thinks.

He continued the pill formation. Due to his increased mental capacity and being able to handle more than 5 things at once, he was able to easily handle the pill making process.

From the first ingredient to the last ingredient, he felt he had done nothing wrong. A lot of energy came out of the cauldron, but it was not something he could control.

At this moment, the ingredients had turned into powder, and the energy behind it had aligned to a certain degree. Now it's time to take the pills.

He slowly began to condense the powder into pills. There are 2 sets of energy inside the cauldron now. The one in the powder, and the one in the air.

As he began to condense the powder to form pills, the energy in the air started to come out of the cauldron. Almost half of the energy from these materials is in the air, and somehow it has now been lost.

He stopped caring about it and began to focus on pill formation. Soon, a pill was finally finished being formed. Alex slowly took it out and looked at it,

[Qi Increase Pill: 26%

Increase in Cultivation speed by 26% for 18 hours]

Alex couldn't process what he saw. '26%.. it's-it's an earth grade pill, right?' he thinks. Suddenly, the pill started to float and landed in the hands of Ma Rong.

"Earth level pill !!" he somehow had a surprised face and also a face full of understanding. “I expect you to do well, but I don't think you'll develop that much.” She said.

He reached into his bag and took another talisman and handed it to Alex. He then said, "This talisman has information about some widely available materials. Burn some of them to release energy, and try to feel the elements. The better you are at recognizing the elements and understanding their relationship, the more you grow as an alchemist."

“Also, Improve the quality and you can make better pills.” She said

“Master, how to perfect artifacts?” She asked. This is the perfect opportunity. He had tried to perfect the Ebony Corundum Stiletto but was instead injured. So he wondered if his idea of purification was wrong.

"Purity easy. Just pour your Qi into that thing, and keep washing it from the inside. One day, it will be easier to pour Qi, and at that time, you drop some of your blood into it. The blood must be the blood you have in it, meaning it must come from your forehead."

“We can communicate using this communication talisman.” He said and left.

Alex stayed there while looking at the amulet. It looked similar to other normal talismans, but instead of storing some text, this talisman helped communication.

Alex looked inside using his spiritual senses. Since opening up his spiritual awareness, he did not need to use that system at all. He can do almost anything with his spiritual awareness.

The talisman only seemed to be connected to other talismans. The talisman might be on his master. He stuffed the talisman into his bag and looked at the two other information talismans he had obtained.

One of them explains the relationship between the five elements. It does not speak of the other 2 high elements, Yin and Yang. The other talismans spoke of different ingredients and their elemental affinity.

He read the first talisman for about half an hour and understood the concept behind it. He then read the second amulet and tried to memorize it.

After he finished, he was shocked by what he had just learned.

'So that's why!!' he thinks.

The first ingredient in the Qi Improving Pill recipe contained water energy. The second ingredient he put in contained fire energy. In this case, the water energy was much stronger in terms of strength and quantity and had destroyed the fire element behind the second material. That left the cauldron with a lot of energy but the water energy within it was extremely low.

This is then played to the next material and so on. Alex decides to try making the same pill once again.