87:
“What is it that you are noting down?” Lianhua asked as she watched spring water bubble in the now clean pill cauldron.
“Nothing important,” Xiao Feng replied, entirely too nonchalantly.
“Is that so?” Lianhua asked with an upward lilt to her tone, her expression one of amusement as she leaned forward to peek at his notebook.
“All you had to do was ask, you know?” Xiao Feng chided, feigning disapproval with a shake of his head as he offered the new leather-bound notebook to Lianhua.
“I did, though,” Lianhua said with a huff, as she gingerly accepted the open notebook, clasping it with both her hands. “Differences between concoctions and refined pills?” Lianhua read out loud, a strong note of intrigue audible in her tone.
“Well, we are currently making a concoction,” Xiao Feng pointed out.
“I thought you held your Chai in higher regard than a mere concoction,” Lianhua teased.
“I do,” Xiao Feng replied. “But it is not enough. I can improve the taste, I can substitute expensive ingredients for far cheaper ones and with enough trial and error, I can develop a recipe that does not compromise on taste while retaining useful medicinal properties, but in the eyes of Alchemists, it will only be an affront to their craft, albeit quite the scrumptious one. And under the stern gazes of my Martial Division brothers and sisters, unless I can prove that my chai has properties that can be beneficial to their cultivation in some manner, they will not spend their hard-earned taels on my tea shop.”
“I see,” Lianhua turned, her searching gaze meeting his own as the corners of her lips quirked upwards in a mischievous smile. “So, you wish to develop a concoction that has the efficiency of a pill, then?” She asked.
“Eventually,” Xiao Feng admitted. “Getting the taste right at an affordable price remains the most important task in the short term, but stopping there feels like I’d be doing a disservice to my goal. Unless I find a way to offer true value to both alchemists and martial cultivators, my customers will be limited to aficionados and wealthy elders.”
To his surprise, a chuckle escaped Lianhua before she posed another question to him, “Xiao Feng, how do you suppose concoctions came to be in the first place?”
He blinked, not having expected the conversation to take a turn. “Uh, I’m not sure,” Xiao Feng truthfully replied.
“Neither am I,” Lianhua admitted. “But all records you can find on the matter agree that concoctions came far before the first pill was refined on the continent of Tian. It is not a stretch to imagine that cultivators who stumbled across ingredients containing medicinal properties would seek other such spiritual plants and fruits, then try to discover a way to combine those medicinal properties into a more potent form. To put it simply, it is widely agreed upon that concoctions were the first shape the Dao of Alchemy took.”
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Now that you’re explaining it to me, it does seem kind of obvious,” Xiao Feng sheepishly admitted, as he massaged his chin in thought. “So you’re saying that by trying to improve the medicinal properties of my concoctions, I am in fact, regressing as an alchemist instead of progressing?” He asked.
“Not quite,” Lianhua refuted. “Refining a pill requires training as an alchemist for months if not years, not to mention the cost of failed pill refinements and the difficulty in procuring more ingredients adding to the final cost. You are not the first alchemist to be aggrieved at our inability to do more, to serve more cultivators and even mortals on far grander scales and I daresay, you will not be the last. You have spent time on the frontlines, yes?”
Xiao Feng nodded.
“Then you must be familiar with the Lingxi Root Concoction,” Lianhua deduced.
Xiao Feng’s eyes widened in recognition, as he all but blurted out, “It saved my life.”
Lianhua blinked twice in rapid succession, as she took in the revelation before slowly nodding, “The primary ingredient in refining a Soul Restoration Pill is the Lingxi Root, which is not a particularly rare or valuable spiritual plant. However, the assistance of Earth Cultivators is required in sensing and collecting the Lingxi Roots, their cores are found deep within the earth, connected to unassuming shrubbery on the surface through which the Lingxi Roots draw in the Wind Qi they need to survive along with the Earth Qi they are steeped in. As you would well know, Earth Cultivators are the best counters to Flame Cultivators, the same way the Lingxi Root is highly resistant to Fire Qi. It requires being heated to very high temperatures to be refined, but without a high degree of control over the heat source, it would just be burnt to a crisp along with its medicinal properties. An alchemist’s flame is the ideal way of refining Lingxi roots alongside a strong heat source, but you know how rare they are now.”
“Then how was a concoction made in the first place?” Xiao Feng asked, puzzled by the revelation.
“In his memoir, Senior Alchemist Sheng described his first and only experience on the battlefield as a profound waste of cultivator life. Back then, the demonic path threat was poorly understood by the reigning clans and sects, and as such, hundreds of weaker cultivators were caught in the crossfire of Nascent Soul Elders and their exchanges in the battle he had witnessed. The Water Cultivators present were well equipped to deal with physical wounds, but there was little they could do to aid in recovery from soul damage and neither were battles at the Qi Gathering or Foundation Establishment level supposed to be capable of dealing such a vicious and rare form of attack. Even amongst Core Formation level cultivators, attacks capable of striking the soul are fleetingly rare, so this was an understandable oversight,” Lianhua explained and he couldn’t help but be drawn into the story, having gotten fleetingly little history out of his predecessor’s memory bank. “Senior Alchemist Sheng had been called upon the battlefield because the healer in charge of maintaining their pill repository had died in a previous skirmish and to his abject dismay, he had been ordered to reserve the Soul Restoration Pills for Core Formation and higher stage cultivators. An order that he did not disobey, for he was only an alchemist in the face of cultivators and one that ultimately would have had little effect on the total number of casualties— there weren’t enough pills, not nearly enough,” Lianhua paused for effect and it worked, as Xiao Feng found it too difficult to suppress his curiosity.
“What did he do?”
“On that day? Nothing,” Lianhua replied. “But the events of the day had left such an impact on Senior Alchemist Sheng, that he dedicated the next decade of his life in discovery of a method to turn the Soul Restoration Pill into a concoction, a notion that attracted nothing but mockery and disappointment from his fellow Alchemists, who thought such a feat to be impossible.”
tomorrow, on April 1st (Yes, lol) and it's called The Legendary Fool: A LITRPG Adventure. It'll be out on and Audible, so you don't have to pay for it if you've got the membership and can just download it (If you're interested in this, I'd totally recommend waiting 24-36 hours till April 1st swings around and just downloading it on Kindle Unlimited).
The Legendary Fool: A LITRPG Adventure on Amazon and Audible (LINK)
A new world. A rare power. He must master it to become a legend.
Thomas Lowe was destined for a life of mediocrity, working a dead-end job in rural America. But fate seemed to have other plans for him.
Reborn in a new world, he's gifted a rare soul card that grants him a power beyond imagination. The name of the card is simple...
[Card Name: The Fool]
[Rank: Ephemeral/ Legendary-Unique]
Mastering his new ability is the key to thriving in this new life. But the card also unlocks a prophecy that puts Thomas in the crosshairs of Ancient Clans and Noble Houses that have existed since the dawn of the first era.
P.S.- Here's a cool that all pocket money was blown on. Live in 24 hours, to those of you that read it I hope you like it.
