16. Alchemy VII
The following morning, Clay is sitting in the kitchen staring at the food he was served an hour ago. His appetite still refuses to accept the devolved form of the set meal before him. There are slices of hard bread, a bowl of soup and god-knows what those minced vegetables placed beside the bread.
While the taste was not that bad, his palate is really having a difficult time adjusting. Even the food he was given while he was in a cage tasted and smelled better.
Clay sighed and still is grateful since it is still better than the rations from the orphanage. He can only set his objective to concocting and selling pills which brings him to his currently problem.
Since last night, he had trouble sleeping since his mind is still engrossed in the idea of improving the quality of his self-concocted pills. Having seen the pills sold by the Alchemists Association, he knew it will be difficult keeping up with this business if low quality pills is all he got.
While Clay is staring at an empty space thinking if he should be contended with current results, his thoughts were distracted when he heard Aunt Mabna’y cough.
Cough!
Clay may not fully remember his past life but the cough just now was a deliberate one reminding him to eat. Now that he came back to his senses, he just realized he had been seating in the kitchen for almost an hour and Aunt Mabna’y just left the house.
Clay looked at the table and grabbed the spoon currently dipped on the bowl of soup but the moment he lifted the spoon, he noticed the rippled on the bowl.
“Hold a minute.” Clay paused as he had an inspiration.
During the process of mixing the Essences from each ingredient, the combined Essences naturally solidifies at the center and by the time the pill had formed, all the impurities gathered in the middle and looked like coated by the useful parts at the end of the refinement.
“What if I stir it or scoop out the impurities as the pill forms?”
Clay smiled then quickly finished his meal then walk upstairs to conduct a test.
Upon entering his Alchemy Room, Clay did not rush and instead sat in meditative position to condition himself. If only he has a master to guide him, then he would not trouble himself into this idea.
After confirming his strength had fully recovered, Clay took out a batch of Qi Sensing Pill ingredients then placed them inside the cauldron.
Unlike yesterday where he had doubts about his skills, today is the opposite. He materialized his Qi outside his body and imbued into the cauldron then slowly conjured his Essence Flame inside like an experience old man.
He only has one objective today which is to scoop out the mass of impurities that forms in the middle of the pill as it coagulates.
Having extracted and combined the Essences together, Clay patiently waited as the goblet of liquid is lowly being refined and after another two minutes, the pill started to show signs of coagulation.
Clay then materialized a strand of his Qi inside the cauldron and shaped it like a spoon then slowly, he injected it into the cloud of hot liquid that is currently coagulating into a pill.
Clay was still calm but the moment he was about to stir it, he suddenly felt a familiar fluctuations of energy similar to the Fire Balls that bombarded Buaki Gang.
POOF!
CLANK!
The coagulating pill exploded throwing the lid of cauldron towards the ceiling then ricochet near the window. Everything happened too fast Clay watched in horror. He wanted to move backwards but he felt his feet has been tangled and frozen.
Using hands, Clay slowly dragged himself and moved backwards while observing everything.
Upon reaching the door, Clay finally regained control of his feet so he stood by the entrance gasping for air. He could feel his heart racing and having been reminded of the Buaki siege, his mind felt liking blacking out.
Seeing the black smoke coming out from the cauldron, Clay forced himself to calm down then instinctively, he ran down stairs and fetched a pale of water. He just moved into this residence and he cannot afford to have caught in a fire.
Clay’s body is small and looks like a frail stick but after he became a cultivator, he can easily lift ten times his own weight.
Clay rushed back up but upon reaching the entrance again, the black smoke had disappeared leaving only a charred smell mixed with the fragrance of Medicinal Essence.
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He is tempted to splash it towards the cauldron but at this point, he could not feel any abnormality and having regained his sense, he decided to wait.
Clocked ticked and after half an hour, Clay have not noticed anything different so he extended his Qi towards the cauldron and investigate the inside.
“Who said it was simple?” Clay cursed. Now that he has completely calmed down, he realized he may have overreacted. He believes it is probably due to the trauma.
The Alchemy books he had read did mention pill explosion however it was not indicated whether it is lethal or not but from his estimate earlier, the forced that displace the lid of the cauldron was enough to break the nose of a normal adult.
“Let’s stop for now.” Clay cleaned the dregs from the cauldron then decided to rest for the day.
The next morning, Clay woke up only to find out that there was no breakfast on the table, instead he found a wooden container on the table with dry rations in it. From his conversation with Aunt Mabna’y last night, he was advised she won’t be showing up for two days as part of the arrangement.
The concept of days of this world is based on the number of moons seen at night, however if converted to Gregorian Calendar of Earth, today is considered a Saturday.
He guessed it is probably her maid’s day off. Clay anticipates that he won't have his maid serve his meal again tomorrow so he can only persevere until he is able to sell his pills later.
Left with no options to eat, Clay opened the wooden box and grabbed a slice of hard bread before walking upstairs to his Alchemy Room.
Since the incident yesterday, he had temporarily decided to settle of concocting Low Quality Pills. Although he needed to improve as soon as possible, he realized he was too rash and ambitious to even think he could immediately perfect the craft after successfully refining two pills so for now, the plan is to take it slow, amass enough wealth, by then, he will commission someone to further teach him of the craft.
Before starting, Clay inspected the cauldron. Yesterday when the pill exploded, he was able to detect how the Inscriptions inside the cauldron instantly activated to form a layer preventing any damage. It was momentary but his improved perception managed to notice it.
Having confirmed the condition of the cauldron, Clay took out a batch of Qi Sensing Pill ingredients.
As much as he would like to convert it to pills now, there is one thing that he was itching to try. Not another blind test but to actually observe the concoction process while using his Failed Superman’s Eyesight.
Although it failed to give him Laser Beams in his eyes, at least it did allow him to see the flow of Qi Energy of this world and thanks to it that he can discern the cultivation level of another cultivator.
Since the Essences of Herbs are pretty much concentrated Qi, he should be able to observe what is going on during the pill coagulation step.
It is obvious that stirring it would trigger the explosion but be is curious as to what exactly was triggered.
Currently, he has 46 sets remaining for Qi Sensing Pills and ten each for the succeeding higher pills and he cannot afford to have any explosions later. It would be better to experience failures while he is still refining the lowest level of pill.
Similar to his first attempt, Clay did not placed the ingredients inside and extracted the Essences outside the cauldron and after a few minutes, three goblets of liquid are floating before then slowly guided the three to combine at the center. At the same time, Clay activated his Failed Superman’s Eyesight.
“Wow!” Clay can’t help but exclaim.
Usually, he would just see gaseous-like movements but this time, the image projected in this black and white world are hundreds of tiny flickering sparks of lights like fireflies.
Clay refrained from moving and after a minute, he noticed some of the flickering lights started to spread out and when it was around five inches away from the center, they turn into a trail of white shadow.
Clay switched his eyes to normal vision then noticed that at this time is when the coagulating pills emitted white smoke.
“I see.” Full of anticipation, he switched back to his Failed Superman’s Eyesight again.
Every second that passed by, more and more of the flickering tiny sparks of lights are separating from the center like dandelion being blown away by the wind and when there was around fifty remaining, Clay noticed a familiar image.
“Is that what I think it is?” Although the image is small, it does resemble a basic Gathering Formation.
When all the flickering lights faded away, Clay switch to normal vision and at the same time, a charred black pill was formed above his palm.
Clay’s countenance became serious as he took another ingredients and this time, he placed them inside the cauldron. Although he found his answer, he needed to ascertain that he is correct.
After another five minutes, Clay had already extracted three goblets of Essences then guided them to combine. Then when he saw the tiny flickering lights again, Clay manifested a strand of his Qi thinner than a hair then used it to pierce the center of the coagulating pill and literally right after, Clay felt the same fluctuations of bursting fireball.
POOF!
This time, the pill explosion was not as strong as his initial experience but the lid was still displaced.
“I knew it.” Unlike the last time where he ran like a trembling chicken, Clay was calm. In fact, this discovery may have made him uncover the secrets of higher quality of pills.
Clay was unaffected despite wasting two sets of ingredients and is willing to waste a few more if he needed to but with the next batch of ingredients he took out, he is confident it will be a success.
Clay started over then when he got to the process of combining the Essences together, he enabled his Failed Superman’s Eyesight then summon a strand of his Qi then slowly, he carefully guided his Qi to connect to the tiny dendroid-looking Gathering Formation at the center of the flickering sparks of lights then reinforced it with his Qi.
He may not have fully received proper education on Formation but one thing that is certain is that all Formations must be reinforced with someone’s Qi or external source of Qi to activate. And at the center of the flickering sparks of light was created naturally and is too weak to keep the combined Essences together.
Clay patiently waited and after ten full minutes, he opened the cauldron.
“Ha ha ha ha” Clay made a hysterical soundless laugh.
“I’m a genius.”
Unaware, he gleefully jumped around the cauldron as he picked up a white circular pill with zero impurities. Although it is twice the size of a normal pill, his body uncontrollably danced.
Clay forgot everything and just wanted to celebrate. Even if he only has piece of hard brown bread and a cup of water, he’d happily make a toast.