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Chapter 66: Alchemy Competition 2

First, one needs an adequate cauldron or furnace, this in front of me is a square cauldron with a cover. It’s made of Dragon Brass and can sustain great levels of heat. But there is a problem.

***

The moment you use your Poison Qi on a cauldron, it can never be used to create a Spiritual Qi pill, it will only contaminate other pills with your poison and will destroy anything else that is created besides poison pills, but at the same time, the cauldron will be attuned to make powerful poison pills.

***

Now, this is problematic, because due to the Poison Qi within me, I’m only able to make poison pills. That won’t do. For example, I heard that there will be an alchemy competition by the alchemy guild that will be held soon in the capital, and they’re required to make pills that require the use of spiritual Qi since I can’t use Spiritual Qi and only Poison Qi, I’ll be disqualified before I even begin.

I put the idea aside, to think about a solution later, for now, let me focus on Poison Alchemy and see how it will work.

The Poison God Book began by giving me detailed information on how to start Alchemy. First off I need Hearth Fire or a powerful Qi counterpart. Cultivators of the higher realms don’t use Hearth Firestones and use their own Qi to extract the essences of the herbs this is Receptarism. The Poison God explained the method clearly and I found myself surprised as this was highly related to how I first used the small flame to light my pipe.

I pointed my finger forward and exerted my poison Qi onto my finger, a small candle-like flame lit up, then I willed it to increase in potency and it raged like a flame thrower. I frowned, the flame I have is hot but at the same time, it’s not stable.

I clenched my hand and forced the flame to equally be released from my palm. Then as if the raging fire was toned down it turned from its raging form to a calm almost liquid-like flame.

The second thing was for me to use this flame and coat the herbs with it so that the flames would burn the Spiritual Herbs and extract their essence.

I tried it with a low-grade herb and almost immediately the herb withered and turned to ash while a drop of concentrated essence remained afloat.

I pushed my hand onto the cauldron as the essence fell inside and I did the same to a couple more essence extractions and amassed everything within the cauldron. Once the essences were inside I needed them to mix harmoniously. And this can only be done by increasing the flame but keeping it at a moderate heat.

And with only one hand it would be impossible to spread the heat all over the cauldron.

I exerted the same energy onto my second palm and pressed both hands on the cauldron that began heating up to an adequate degree.

A powerful spiritual smell came out of the cauldron, as the essences gathered and mixed together. But I began feeling slightly exhausted from the continuous poison Qi exertion. Suddenly I felt that something was awry, the liquid inside the cauldron began turning darker, it was burning before it reached harmonious levels. I had to lower the heat, but that didn’t work perfectly, the color continued to darken but at a slower pace, and if I were to lower the flames from my hands even more it will only cause the mixture to fail at such a critical moment.

Suddenly the whole mixture turned up in flames as the result was a failed sludge.

I cursed at the failed attempt and went to the poison god’s book to read more.

It seems that I was too hasty in my attempt that I failed to notice a simple factor. Not every herb in existence is the same as the other. Thousand-year-old ginseng will not have the same potency as a thousand and one-year-old ginseng, and it is an alchemist’s job to regulate the heat depending on the ingredients he has.

So when I lowered the heat at that moment, I needed to immediately increase it several folds again, and continue manipulating the heat so that all the ingredients would harmoniously merge. It wasn’t a perfect science as it relied heavily on one’s understanding and skill. Though I could create a full laboratory gear and make micro-adjustment with regulated tubes and laboratory drippers and such, it will still end up in failure, as even the greatest scientists will take years to make a good extract from these spiritual herbs, science and spirituality are two different things and one cannot logic their way through spirituality.

I have to be patient and try again and again until I perfect the creation process. That moment when I felt something awry while I was extracting the essence, I need to be able to sense the wrongness in my methods and act accordingly, if I’m able to grasp the correct timing with trial and error, I’ll be able to make any pill I want. I just need practice.

So I started trying, trial and error, and kept going through my herb reserves, with more than eighty percent of the pills I tried to make turning to sludge.

I tried so many times that at one point I couldn’t even stand the smell of the sludge that gathered around in the basement and that was also affecting my products. The discarded scum on the ground was actually highly toxic, and though I could benefit from consuming it, it would not be useful, as I already burnt through most of the QI of the sludge, and the majority was only impurities. So, it’s double the work with half the results.

I gathered the sludge in a holding bag and cleaned the cauldron and started over. By the end of the first month of my ceaseless attempts at Alchemy, I had already created hundreds of Cracked pills, dozen of dim-lit ones, and a couple of bright pills.

But they were all just side effects, yes, my objective was never to create a pill, as I had already figured out how to make a proper pill. I only needed to focus a bit increase the heat and regulate it in different intervals, and I could have a bright-lit pill of the ninth grade. But that’s not my goal, my goal was to know exactly when a pill will be lost, I want to grasp the timing when the pill will be turned into trash and how to counter it and I was almost at the cusp of success when I heard a loud booming voice calling me.

"Brother Shen Bao!" Zen Fei’s voice sounded from outside the manor. I sighed and left the room, then walked up to the gate.

"Greetings!" Zen Fei said as he beamed with a smile. "Here, offering from Xi Son," Zen Fei said as he gave me a pouch. I took a look at it and grinned, it seems like Xi Son has a good head.

Looking behind me I sighed, the manor had been infected with my failed attempts at alchemy and grew several dangerous mushrooms and poisonous plants all over it. The smell was definitely annoying the neighbors, but in my secluded time, many had understood that an ’alchemist’ was living nearby and in this world, alchemists are feared as much as kings. Most of them are eccentric and rude, and no one would cross them. So, even if the neighbors were disturbed by the smell, they didn’t voice their complaints.

"I’ll take care of this mess later on," I said to Fen Zei.

"I can send a few servants to clean up the manor." Fen Zei said while giving me a slight nod.

"No," I shook my head, "They’ll definitely die if they inhale the smells of the manor, I’ll manage this on my time. Thank you for the gift and tell Xi Son that he’s on a good track to regaining my favor."

"Right," Zei Fen nodded. "Ah, by the way, while you were cultivating alchemy, I received some news. The Imperial Clan is holding the next alchemy tourney within the halls of the mansion, would you like to attend? I know you’re a great craftsman, but seeing how many alchemist came here and commended the efforts of your alchemical attempts, I think you’ll do great joining."

Well, that came in time, I’m definitely joining. I grinned at

"Right, I might as well try, when is the competition starting?"