Ten minutes later, we loaded ourselves onto the Heavenly Ark and set off back to the sect. Once we arrived at the palace, we proceeded under guard to the warehouse, where we found Chuk Cha Pyo and the storekeeper deep in conversation.
“What happened?” - the guild leader asked in alarm upon seeing our procession.
“Grandmaster O Hu Yan, because of his health, has delegated leadership of the expedition to me” - I immediately reported, brandishing the jade slip. O Hu Yan, who was being supported on both sides by two assistants, coughed up blood again and nearly crumpled to the floor. - “And thanks to my infinite genius, I personally gathered all the necessary herbs in just one day. I have no idea why they even bothered sending these lazybones along with me.”
At that, the grandmaster was seized by a violent coughing fit and lost consciousness.
What followed was a ceremonial inventory of my haul, after which the entire set of herbs required to make the pills was loaded into my now unsealed spatial ring. I didn’t even wait for the promised rare herbs from the guild’s stock, as I had already gathered everything I needed myself.
It was already late, so I decided to head back home and grab a bit of sleep before starting the pill-making marathon. But halfway to the exit, I suddenly spotted Mu Niam, who was talking about something with one of the alchemists. They were in a separate room, but I could perceive them perfectly with my psionics. Moreover, by using it, I managed to eavesdrop on their conversation and I didn’t like what I heard.
“Everything must be ready by noon tomorrow” - Mu Niam said sternly.
“But why? Weren’t you planning to leave in a week?”
“Plans have changed. I’m leaving tomorrow afternoon.”
“All right. I’ll get on it now. I think I can manage in time.”
“I’m counting on you” - Mu Niam replied. Then he headed for the exit, muttering under his breath, - “I need to clear out before that disciple of mine gets back from his trip.”
I prudently hid in one of the corridors and watched Mu Niam leave the guild building and fly off. Fortunately, he not yet realized the herb-gathering expedition had already returned, so I still had a chance to make him keep his promise.
After that, I didn’t go home. Instead, I went to the lab assigned to me and began pondering how to crank out all those thousands of pills I’d been tasked with producing in just one night. It was obvious I couldn’t do it by ordinary means. Even if I made ten pills at a time, the pills still have a certain manufacturing period, and the most complex, recipe-intensive ones couldn’t be done that way. I only had two alchemical furnaces one stationary and one portable and if I just added up the total furnace time for all the pills and divided by two, it would still amount to at least three days.
I picked one of the recipes and began making a pill according to it, closely monitoring the process with my psionics. Once the pill was finished, I examined it even more carefully, then set it aside. Next, I took a chunk of clay and the cheapest shredded herb I found lying around in the laboratory cabinets. Mixing them together, I began infusing this “pill” with my Qi, imparting to it the same qualities as a normal pill.
It wasn’t easy, but thanks to my refined control and psionics, I managed to precisely reproduce all the necessary features of the pill’s energy and remove traces of my own “personal” energy. I employed a complex vortex-Qi technique, which filtered out the finest threads possessing the characteristics closest to what I needed; then, the rest of the energy in the vortex was brought to that “ideal standard.” Afterward, the process of mutation, selection, and homogenization repeated. There was a bit of difficulty getting the Qi to the necessary level of density, but I had some advanced cultivators’ Core Crystallization–stage Qi “stashed away” which allowed me to use it as expendable material and a catalyst.
Just five minutes later, I was gazing at two pills that were indistinguishable in terms of their Qi quality, even though one had been made from rare alchemical herbs, and the other from cheap filler. Grabbing the “forgery” I went off in search of a test subject. One showed up pretty quickly, an apprentice walking casually down the guild’s corridors, completely unaware of his fate.
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“Hey, you! Stop right there!” - I pinned him to the ground with a malicious gaze.
“Wh-what can I do for you, Grandmaster Alchemist?” - he bleated, breaking out in a sweat.
“Here, eat this” - I said, handing him my creation.
“What is it? Some new poison?” - He went pale, trying in vain to focus on the gift.
“It’s a gift from a Grandmaster Alchemist! You dare to refuse it?” - I roared, exuding killing intent.
“No, of course not, sir. I humbly accept this gift.” - He grabbed the pill like a drowning man clutching a piping-hot lead weight. Under my watchful eye, he had no choice.
“Swallow it” - I said, sadistic notes creeping into my voice.
The apprentice looked around in desperation, but he didn’t see anyone nearby who could help him. So, he closed his eyes and swallowed the pill. Immediately, it started taking effect, sending waves of Qi coursing through his body. Right in front of me, his cultivation advanced, and then he broke through from the second to the third level of Foundation Formation (13).
“See, and you were worried for nothing” - I said with a satisfied grin.
“Thank you, Grandmaster Alchemist Tan Ji Tao, for your mercy!” - The apprentice instantly dropped to his knees, bowing all the way to the ground.
“Quit yelling. Otherwise, your enemies won’t forgive you for getting so lucky” - I cut him off.
After that, he clammed up, my simple words guaranteed he wouldn’t say a word about my little “non-targeted use of resources.”
Returning to the laboratory, I began mass-producing pills by this new method, using whatever was at hand as my base material. I didn’t even need to make a “prototype” anymore because I could “derive” the pill’s energy by analyzing the ingredients and recipe. In rare cases, the presence of certain chemical substances from the herbs really did matter, so then I’d add some powdered or extracted form of them. To keep anyone from noticing differences between the “recipe” and the standard version, I coated all pills with a glaze made from starch and sugar, fortunately, sugar was also considered an acceptable “filler.” I even used a few simple herbs to produce edible dyes, coloring the pills in various hues.
At three in the morning, I ran out of “hay” so I went to the nearest forest to pick the most ordinary grass. All I had to do was make sure I didn’t gather anything nasty like a laxative or sleeping herb. By dawn, I wiped the sweat from my brow and proudly surveyed the three buckets of finished product. Each pill was wrapped in a piece of paper labeled with its name. “Candy wrappers” hadn’t yet been invented in this world, so once again I was on the cutting edge of innovation. As for the paper, I had to peel apart a regular roll of rice paper of very mediocre quality into thin layers.
After that, I carried the three buckets in my two hands and lugged them off to the warehouse. Surprisingly, the storekeeper wasn’t asleep, though he was dozing at his desk. The moment he saw my load, however, any trace of drowsiness vanished. He even lost the ability to speak; only after a minute of fingering the pills did he finally manage to ask the question that was tormenting him:
“What…is this?” - he asked, giving me a wild-eyed stare.
“These are the pills Cheon Chu Han ordered me to make” - I reported cheerfully. - “Here’s the list.” - I placed the precious jade slip before him.
The storekeeper looked again at all the treasure spilled out before him and sent his apprentice to fetch Chuk Cha Pyo. The guild leader showed up five minutes later, rubbing sleep from his eyes.
“What’s so urgent around here?” - he asked irritably, glancing at us until his gaze landed on the pills, where it stuck fast.
“Our new grandmaster made a year’s worth of pills for the sect in one single night” - the storekeeper said with spiteful satisfaction, clearly pleased that the headache was no longer his alone.
“How could you make so many pills in one night?” - Chuk Cha Pyo asked me.
“Piece of cake. Just a little ‘slapdash, done!’ My teacher Chu Zhu Zhu always did it like that. But feel free to confirm that each of these pills is of excellent quality.”
“I get the feeling there isn’t enough Qi in them” - the guild leader remarked with some puzzlement, inspecting one of the pills.
“I glazed them with a coating that doesn’t let Qi leak out” - I explained. - “If you cut it open, you’ll see there’s plenty of energy inside.”
In truth, such a “shielding” glaze was essential because I was using cheap “bases” for the pills. Cheap grass and clay refuse to hold Qi within, so I was forced to glaze the pills and then add a simple shield to each one to keep the Qi from escaping. It was my attempt to merge the Heavenly Shield method with my rudimentary knowledge of spiritual seals. The end result was a novice’s crude contrivance, but it got the job done.
Chuk Cha Pyo took one of the simpler pills and cut it in half. Immediately, the air filled with a dense Qi evaporating from the mixture of clay and herbs. I had to remake nearly a tenth of all the pills because of that problem.
“Incredible!” - the guild leader exclaimed.
“What powerful Qi!” - the storekeeper chimed in.
Nevertheless, a trace of doubt remained in our superiors’ eyes.
“Tan Ji Tao, will you allow me to check the contents of your spatial rings?” - Chuk Cha Pyo asked.
“Of course” - I nodded.