15. Alchemy VI

It is late in the afternoon and Clay is blankly staring at his dinner seemingly unable to accept the sudden change shift of his living conditions.

Yesterday, Elder Ulvar told him he will be relocated and this morning, he was brought to another empty house somewhere within the city. He is still clueless why are they further isolating him and where to but recalling the route the carriage took in or to get to his new house, he can tell it is a commoner’s residential area.

His new residence is on the last block at the end of the street and similar to every two storey wooden houses they passed by, the only thing distinctive on this house is the San Ruk Elven Crest on the gate and the wide courtyard and stone walls imbued with Isolation Arrays that was probably built to keep neighbors away.

Clay extended his hand on a rounded bread on a plate before him and took a bite.

The taste is similar to what he had eaten back at the orphanage, bland and crudely prepared. For the past two months, he may have been isolated but he was at least served with delectable meals but not today. Even food seems to torment him now that he has to muster courage and strength in order to stir his appetite.

“Young master, you may leave the table when you are done.”

Clay was busy hypnotizing himself that the bread he is chewing tastes like chicken when a woman in her late thirties placed a bowl of soup on the table.

The woman's name is Dara Mabna'y, a descendant from Dara Branch Family who had been commissioned to his maid. This is the other part of his new arrangement. They hired him a fellow human to prepare his meals and clean the house.

“Thank you and please stop calling me young master.”

Clay respectfully replied as he watched his maid walked towards the adjacent room. Earlier, he tried initiating a conversation but after this woman introduced herself as Aunt Mabna’y, he noticed that she did not like to talk much.

Honestly, he did not know how to strike a good conversation either so he can only wait. If there is one thing interesting, it is Aunt Mabna’y’s identity. Unlike the Lanas Family with blue eyes, Dara Bloodline has crimson eyes. Unfortunately, Aunt Mabna’y is half-breed so only her left eye has the distinctively color. But even as a half-breed, she still has thirty more Qi Nodes in her body than a normal human. And Clay can tell this because of the ability given to him by his Failed Superman’s Eyesight. He can even determine her strength which is Mid Qi Condensation.

After dinner, Aunt Mabna’y cleaned the table then said her goodbye for the night. Clay did not want her to leave but apparently Aunt Mabna’y is like a part-time maid who will only show up to arrange his meals or clean the house. Even so, he is still grateful he has company.

When Aunt Mabna’y left, Clay was once again reminded of his current predicament so he walked upstairs towards the room dedicated for his Alchemy practice.

As usual, the room is empty aside from the cauldron at the center and the Formations inscribed on all side including the floor and the ceiling. Sadly, the Formations are unfamiliar to him and he laments he did not receive proper knowledge of it before Buaki Gang has been attacked.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Let’s do this.” Clay encouraged himself.

For the past two months, he refrained from refining pill and had only focused on controlling his Essence Flame. With the absence of a master to guide him, he can only rely on what he believes is right from experience. At least today he has proper control of his Flame.

Clay sat near the cauldron then took out a few ingredients from his spatial ring then recalled what he saw from the recording crystal.

Since there are no complicated process on each step, he is confident he can emulate Alchemist Agda.

Clay materialized his Qi outside his body and guided it to wrap around a stalk of Tiger Grass and make it float before him then summoned his Essence Flame to extract the essence.

After a few seconds, the grass disintegrated leaving behind a liquid the size of a candy.

“Next.” Clay smiled as the first step was a success. He then took out the second and third ingredient of the Qi Sensing Pill and enveloped them with his flame and after extracting their respective essences, he combined them together causing medicinal fragrance spread throughout the room and after about five minutes, he concocted his first pill- a failed Qi Sensing Pill exactly like how Alchemist Agda first presented it to him.

“Ha ha ha” Clay rejoiced that his two-month flame control practice has awarded him like planned. It was indeed relatively simple and at this point, he already guessed why the pill was a failure.

When the pill was forming, he felt the Essences leaked out instead of accumulating at the center and like how Alchemist Agda pointed out, he cannot do anything about it prompting the need of a cauldron.

At the heat of the moment, Clay prepared another batch of ingredient then opened the cauldron.

“Look at this piece of art.” Clay gently patted the cauldron before imbuing his Qi into it.

The cauldron looks like a pot around 40 centimeters tall and 60-centimeter radius at the center and inside it are beautiful intricate interconnecting circular Formations carved all over including the lid.

Whatever those Formations are for, he guessed it is integral to the pill formation during the concoction process.

“Come on, I’m counting on you.”Having confirmed the cauldron is ready for use, he placed the ingredient inside then placed the lid back.

When Clay extended his Qi towards the cauldron, controlling everything inside did not pose any challenge. Thanks to his self-made exercises, imitating Alchemist Agda is going smoothly as he extracted each Essences from the three ingredients inside.

First was the Tiger Grass, then the slice of Stone Monkey Fruit and after four minutes, the Essence of the third ingredient which is a stalk of Blue River Grass was extracted.

Slowly, he combined them together.

Unlike his first attempt, he could feel a small pressure emitted by the Formations inside the cauldron forcing everything to compress at the center and after another ten minutes, the liquefied Essences evaporated leaving a small rounded object behind.

Clay’s heart is pounding as he took the lid up. Ignoring the hot smoke that came out, he used his Qi to recover his first official pill.

Observing it up-close, it looked like a dark candy wrapped on a semitransparent white marble.

Based on the size of the dark cloud at the center of the pill, he guesses that he just concocted a Low Tier Qi Sensing Pill.

He wanted to celebrate but his mind is still engrossed on the step by step process involved during the coagulation of the pill. As Alchemist Agda emphasized, aside from him summoning his flame and maintaining the intensity of the heat, the pill formed on its own.

Not satisfied with the result, Clay set aside the pill then prepared another batch of ingredients.

As he closed the lid, it dawned to him that the way he refined a pill outside the cauldron was the same exact method when concocting the pill inside the cauldron. Which means, the cauldron made the difference or rather, the unknown Formation within the cauldron was the trick.

“Let’s see…” Clay imbued his Qi again into the cauldron and just as expected, the intricate carvings inside activated. Seeing the Formations automatically adjust during each step, Clay was not surprised to learn that all he needed to do again is to inject his Qi.

At this point, Clay waited until the pill is formed then decided to stop.

At least he now has better understanding of what directly makes a quality pill.