Year 11, Day 44
It was a lot. So much geographical knowledge- sure, things might have changed in 100 years or so, but the knowledge of their general location was still something he found to be amazing. He had to process this all. “Thank you, Elder Ránshão, for a nugget of your wisdom and knowledge.” The older man smiled before he seemed to gather all his courage to ask: “Patriarch, I hope this doesn't offend you, but could I… I am getting older and older every single day. I have hit the bottleneck of my cultivation and can no longer advance on it due to the mistakes I made when building my foundation… If I were to restart my cultivation, the very act of undoing my cultivation would kill me.” He paused, looking Root right in the eye as he said: “I have lived a long life, and now my family is safe in your arms… roots?” The old man shook his head, sighing once more: “I wish to try and undo my cultivation, I wish to start from the very beginning, and maybe… Become better than what I am today.”
“Tell me, Elder Ránshão, do you know what Alchemy is?” Root smiled at the old man, making him confused for a moment. “The lost art of molding ingredients to incredible pills? I have heard of it. Many of the fabled recipes have long been lost, although some Cultivation families like the Icerose and Gloomrose family still have alchemists in their home… I have seen a single pill be sold for 5 Beast Cores of the Core Exaltation stage! They're ridiculously expensive.”
“Well, I happen to have an extremely talented Alchemist within my sect.” Root didn't even have to get up. He simply sent a small message for the always happy to help Tahsm and waited. Within minutes the one he spoke of-
“You've called me, Patriarch?” Zhu Tei stood tall and proud- Okay, he was nervous as shit! He looked at the Elder… Opinions about the new family under the Heavenly Spirit Forest Sect was a little mixed. Da Huren shared his wisdom with them about what he knew of the Flareburns, they were, after all, a rather famous family. The very phrase that even mortals used to quote “doing something stupid” or “doing something fruitless”, and even used to describe “foolishly follow after what you already lost”, was based on them. How many times has he heard the words “You're chasing a cloud” or “You're acting like you got fire in your blood” being said to him when he spoke about his wish to become a cultivator? His family laughed at his dream and his siblings even mocked him, his mother would even tell him to stop being so stupid…
And now, he is a cultivator. And better yet, he is the only alchemist in the Heavenly Spirit Forest Sect! ‘Well, not exactly the only one…’ He smiled as he thought back about the little guy that was very excited to learn, little Wei Wei and little Yan Zhun really wanted to become Alchemists too. And it fell on his hands, as the only alchemist of the sect , to teach them what he knew- He had read and re-read the book [Alchemy for Dummies] a hundred times over and over again. He has absorbed every ounce of knowledge he could from the book, even making the only 5 pill recipes that there were in the book.
The majority of the book explained what Alchemy was, and what it could be too before explaining techniques to do with alchemy and the process of burning away or removing impurities from ingredients, mixing them the right way, and also controlling the Qi within the Pill Cauldron (They only had a literal cauldron of iron use to store water, that was what he was using) to make sure the pill could be perfect. Even under these harsh conditions, he was able to make a perfect pill. Perfect enough to hurt him! He remembers the pain he went through after eating a Bone Marrow Cleansing Pill, one of the most basic pills one could make and yet had the most impact when used. Burning the ingredients in the cauldron was a common way to cleanse the ingredients of the impurities, which was what he did when making the pill, and now he has one of each pill the recipe had given him.
One Bone Marrow Cleansing Pill, one Blood Cleansing Pill, one Muscle Cleansing Pill, one Skin Cleansing Pill- because according to the [Alchemy for Dummies] book, the first things to cleanse on the body are the bones, blood, muscles, and then the skin. If you do it in this order, your body will be purified more easily -and the last one was a rather odd pill. Because it was a poison, used for a really interesting thing, do the exact reverse of the Cleansing Pills listed above. It was called the Impurities Absorption Poison Pill, which when consumed by a cultivator, made their bodies absorb the impurities all around them. It was described as an “unfeeling” pill, meaning the cultivator would be none the wiser of the pill. He doesn't truly see a good use for this pill, he only made it because he had all the ingredients.
“Zhu Tei, today I am giving you your first task as the only Spirit Cultivator and Alchemist of the Heavenly Spirit Forest Sect…” Suddenly, a thin sheet of paper- It unraveled and turned to him, and he read-
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[Return Pill:
Description: Tired of having built a cultivation in a weak foundation? Easy! Taking one of these pills will return you to the Qi Gathering stage of cultivation. Can only affect those of Pale Star Core stage and below.
Recipe:
1 Very Good Source of Spirit Qi
1 Excellent Qi Cleansing Root
1 Average Body Cleansing Root
5 Good Qi Pearls - Fire, Water, Earth, Wood, Metal.
2 Liters of Excellent Pure Water
Making Technique:
Heat up the pill cauldron with at least a Core Formation realm Fire Qi Cultivator for 10 minutes, add the water first and let it boil for 15 minutes. Next, cut the Body Cleansing Root in 5 pieces of the same size, add the Qi Pearl of Water first, and a piece of the Body Cleansing Root. Add the Qi Pearl of Earth after 1 minute has gone by, the water in the pot must start to fizzle before you add it, and after adding it, wait until it turns brown to throw in the Body Cleansing Root. When the water turns yellow, add the Metal Qi Pearl, twist it to the left for 2 turns before throwing the third piece of the Body Cleansing Root- Wait for 3 minutes and 33 seconds and add the Wood Qi Pearl and let it sit for about a month.
Once the month has passed, add the Fire Qi Pearl before increasing the flames of the cauldron for 7 days, it needs to be set alight every single day by a cultivator at least on the Core Exaltation stage. Once the seven days have passed, add the Source of Spirit Qi, be it alive or not. It needs to have enough Spirit Qi to be at the Qi Gathering Realm, at the 5th Stage at least. Once the source of Spirit Qi is added, stir the liquid for five minutes. It should turn into five small pills, if done above what is normal, more pills will come.]
“...” Zhu Tei looked at the paper with exact instructions and exact ways of using the ingredients. The past recipes he used- all the Cleansing Pills and the Impurity Poison -were simple recipes as simple as putting the ingredients in and stirring it in a specific way while guiding the Qi within the cauldron to better produce the Pill- But this? This was something new. It sparked a curiosity within him that he hadn't seen in a long time, the very first time he found consciousness to be present within his mind was when curiosity arose within his soul and burned like a never-ending flame… Until he had to eat the corpse of his mother alongside his starved siblings to survive.
I haven't really explained how mortals can live in this world, have I? You know how some species have a lot of children in hopes some of them live on, Type r Reproduction? Well, mortal humans in this cursed world were similar (not in the Veloah region). When the Boundless Bountiful appeared, they would mate like rabbits, the gestation period of the women would be reduced to 3 months due to the sheer amount of Nature Qi around, and the amount of children was also a large amount. This was a double-edged knife, seeing as more mouths to feed wasn't good when you are absolutely starving and have been starving for weeks… Well, sometimes, you have children to have emergency food.
Some mortals establish towns where they farm a lot of food in the Boundless Bountiful, as much as they could get, and then that food was what kept them alive for the remainder of the Drought of Death- They also had to fight off Demonic Beasts, and sometimes, eat them. It wasn't that harmful to eat a weak Demonic Beast like a Giant Burrowing Rat, but if you ate a strong one? Well, splash! You turn into goop as mortals can't eat things with strong Qi within it, because it'll explode them.
The way these mortals get their moisture and water is through three ways- They find an underwater water reservoir by luck or skill (believe it or not, water dowsing is a thing! Some people are just sensitive to Water Qi, and that trait has passed down generations!), they find and eat a Water Bug, or they drink the blood of the deceased. Now, that normally is a very, very bad idea, but humans in this world are very different- under the endless periods of drought and famine compared to the single small period of bountiful feast over this period of more than 100,000 years caused these humans to evolve and adapt. Evolution is always a thing, but when you mix it with Qi? Oh boy, you get a lot of really wild things.
I mean, remember the spiders?
Anyway, the humans of this world changed in four fundamental ways. They all have some sensitivity to some sort of Qi, the most common is Water Qi. They all have a slower digestive process and a slower metabolism in general, they are also able to store fat (and nutrients within the fat, compacted inside the fat- It's really cool) more easily, the most radical change is that their blood has a higher water percentage. On average, blood is 51 percent water. We can calculate this based on the percentage of blood made up of plasma and the water content of plasma. Normally, blood is 55 percent plasma and 45 percent blood cells and other material. Plasma is 92 percent water. But in this world? Blood is 60 percent water, with their blood being 60 percent plasma and 40 percent blood cells and other materials- Oh, and of course, they also received the ability of absorbing more water from everything they consume.
Including blood.
So yes, humans in this world can get their water from blood if needed. In fact, it is pretty common for younger mortals to drink the blood of their parents when they're thirsty and the parents have no water.
Zhu Tei has drunk his mother's blood. He remembers the taste of her flesh, he has nightmares about it every single damn night. He fears he would become a monster, because her blood tasted sweet-
(Oh yeah, forgot to mention that- The blood of humans in this world also has a higher amount of sugar than normal.)
-and he liked the taste, the moment he was drinking her blood, he had liked it. He didn't like the taste of her flesh, though.
“Zhu Tei?” Snapping out of his thoughts, Zhu Tei looked up to see the Patriarch looking at him: “Are you willing to try?” For a moment, he looked almost worried for him, but Zhu Tei must've imagined it. Lord Patriarch only cares for his children, and that's alright.
“...I am.”