A bitter flavor assaulted Mortal’s tongue. He pulled his hand away from his mouth, pursing his lips in disgust. Oh. Ugh. That’s not good.
Following the bitter flavor, a wave of heat flowed through his body. It flared for one moment, almost unbearably hot, then faded away. Mortal pressed his lips together thoughtfully. Perhaps a heat poison? Or some kind of heat-heavy yang pill, meant to expel yin poisons? One way or another, it was a success. Let’s put it to the side and memorize the recipe for now, to come back to later. I’ll figure out all the low-level successes, and use them to build up to the high-level successes.
So far, I have one success. There’s plenty more low-level herb combinations. No time to celebrate this small victory. On to the next!
Using different parts of the same three plants, he tried a few more combinations, but nothing came out but ash and smoke. Mortal coughed a few times, waving his hand as smoke spewed out of his throat. Gotta say, using my dantian as a pill furnace isn’t the most pleasant idea I’ve ever had. At least I’m not using my physical body’s dantian. If I permanently scar it doing this, I’ve only ruined a single mental clone, and I can easily respawn a new “body” for myself.
Cautiously, he added the bulb to the original mixture of the three. The skin of the bulb, the pulp, and the flowers all did nothing, but when he squeezed the bulb and extracted a glistening drop of milky red sap, it mixed cleanly into the pill. Even without testing the resultant pill, its powerful yang aura told him everything he needed to know. By adding the bulb’s sap, I can create a more powerful version of the heat/yang pill. In other words, the bulb’s sap accentuates the yang and heat attributes of the other ingredients around it.
Setting the first three herbs aside, he turned to the next set, drawing in the herbs associated with life: the black leaf, the dried bud, and the half alive-half dead branch. This time, he hesitated a moment, eyeing the black leaf in particular. That thing absorbs life qi. What’ll it do in my dantian? I need to take care.
Turning to his dantian, he quickly shuttled the life qi out. A dozen golden songbirds burst out and perched on his shoulders. Rather to his surprise, another strange bird slid free. He peered down, confused, as it plopped to the floor.
A blue-colored translucent penguin stared back up at him, covered in gray dust, the same color as the soot and smoke he’d just coughed up. It flapped its wings and shook itself, and bits of yang-tinged ash flew off its dark-blue back. Without the yang covering it, it exuded powerful yin energy and an icy-cold aura, cold enough for Mortal to feel it on his skin.
Mortal’s eyes widened. Wait, hold on. Is this… is this what the yin energy we absorbed condensed into? Penguins? How…?
I mean, it kind of makes sense. Penguins are birds that love the cold, and they’re basically the opposite of phoenixes. Phoenixes fly and are heavily associated with flame, while penguins can’t fly and are associated with ice and water. Still. Yin penguins? Yinguins? How did I not notice?
The penguin stared at him for another moment, then waddled off, moving away from him.
Ah… I guess if it’s the representation of the yin energy I’ve collected, it wouldn’t be too happy with me brewing yang-flavored pills in my dantian. Er, sorry about that. I didn’t know you were there!
A few paces from him, the penguin tipped over onto its belly and slid off on an imaginary ice shelf, looping around him at a safe distance.
Yes, that’s… that’s probably for the best. Thank you. Nodding at the penguin, Hui turned his attention back to brewing pills.
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Distracted by the penguin, the life qi birds fluttered over and circled overhead, watching it play on the ice below. They sang to one another, tittering along over the penguin’s head. The penguin glanced at them and sped up, swirling faster around the invisible ice path it followed.
“Hey! Don’t hassle it,” Hui called, shaking his head at the birds. It’s only been alive for a few minutes, and you’re already causing trouble?
The gold songbirds pulled back, though they gave the penguin dirty looks. The penguin ignored them, though it did return to its relatively slow pace of circling Hui.
Hui looked at the songbirds. “I know it’s yin, which opposes life qi, but it’s your sibling first. Besides, you didn’t do this to the ducks, and they’re full of death qi. Is it because they’re older than you?”
The songbirds twittered at him and fluttered up to land in his hair.
Hui sighed. How on earth have I ended up with bird representations of all the qi types I’ve gathered? Why is this somehow part of my karma? Is it all because I ate Fatty? Is this some strange qi deviation based on that one event…?
The cultivation world is dangerous, dangerous indeed! To think, I didn’t even realize I was fixating on Fatty, and yet, karmic bonds drove me down this strange, bird-filled path. Ahhh, I really need to pay the Sect Master back those spirit stones. That’s the only way to sever my karma!
But first, let’s brew some pills.
Hui flicked his sleeve, calling the life-associated ingredients over to him. They swirled around, floating idly in midair. Looking them over, he put a hand on his chin.
These ingredients are not purely life-associated. They’re life-and-death, like the branch, or life-absorbing, like the leaf, or rebirth, like the bud. Rather than considering them the life-themed ingredients, it’s probably better to consider them as life-adjacent. They all have to do with the life property, but in a roundabout way. None of them are directly life-elemental.
My question here is, do I take pieces of them to make them purely life-associated? The reborn flower of the bud, the life half of the branch, the heart of the leaf where the life qi it absorbs is stored? Or do I process the whole thing, keeping its negative attributes with its positive?
Hui considered for a moment, then shrugged. That’s what the whole point of using myself as a model is, right? I try the herbs and figure out how they work together. So… here we go!
He took the life-oriented bits and sent them into his dantian. Spinning them together, he applied the heat and pressure and waited.
The life-absorbing heart of the black ridged leaf opened wide under the heat of the flame. A great pressure emanated from its core and wiped out the rest of the ingredients, rendering them directly to ash. Despite having flushed his stores of life qi, the black ridged leaf sucked at Hui’s own life qi, withering his body in the space of a breath.
Hui threw his hands out, forcibly tossing the leaf out of his dantian. It sucked at the air around it, absorbing so furiously that the light around it faded for a moment before it cooled, returning to a relatively inert black leaf heart.
Panting, Hui stared at it with wide eyes. Holy fuck! I almost died! Pill cultivation is dangerous, far more dangerous than I anticipated! I know I said I was willing to die for experimentation’s sake, but I take that back, I take it all back! Even this small clone doesn’t want to die!
But damn, putting that thing in with only life qi around is like throwing a sponge at a puddle. It soaks it all in so greedily that nothing can get out!
Is that what it’s supposed to do? Am I supposed to fill it with life qi? Or maybe… He looked at the non-life-associated parts of the other two plants. Maybe… do these plants act as inhibitors, when used in whole?
Or… or they could make the absorption effect even stronger…
Hui looked at the two other herbs and swallowed. I’m starting to regret my decision to try using my dantian as a pill furnace…
Oh well. I’ve already absorbed most of my own life qi. At this point… at this point, I, I might as well! I can do this! Do it! Just try it! I can definitely throw it away again! I won’t die! I’m just a clone, I’ll be fine even if I die! No, no. I’m not dying. It’s just energy dissipation! Fundamentally, I can’t die until the main body dies, since I don’t have my own soul anymore. I’m basically just a slightly more autonomous thought than the other thought-clones!
Taking a deep breath, Hui stared down the herbs. Without letting himself think about it for a second longer, he waved his hand and sent the herbs into his dantian, both the life and anti-life parts.
I already regret this—ahhh, dammit! Here goes nothing!