The sizzling of food filled my ears, as I stirred the large pot of vegetables around, occasionally picking up a couple of logs to throw into the campfire I’d made.

“Got anything Labby?” I asked the little rat, and got a squeak as my reply. Labby ran closer, a little plant filled with Qi in its mouth.

“Good boy!” I praised Labby, petting him once before I let him back out again. I stored the herb into my pouch, as I put my attention back to my lunch.

I’d come out into the little forest area near the backside of the sect. The Cloudy Peak sect, quite aptly with its name, was situated on two cloudy hills. The smaller hill being the outer sect where I was, and the larger one being the inner sect compound.

The amount of land combined under the sect’s control was massive, spanning around both hills as it spread into a forest. All of which was within the Sect’s premises. The city outside was a five minute walk away.

I’d decided to spend my ‘Cultivation’ time, to do something far more productive, and gather some spirit herbs. Labby had proven his worth as he’d quickly sniffed out the spirit herbs among the regular plants and herbs.

The spirit herbs I’d gathered were not potent, unlike what the spirit garden would produce. These wild spirit plants had minimal Qi in them, and were quite weak, but they were also relatively easily found. Making them perfect for any testing I wanted to do.

I stirred the vegetables and meat fry once more, as its scent filled my nostrils.

“Nothing quite like campfire food,” I muttered, smiling as I hummed some random song under my breath. I sprinkled some of the spirit herbs into the food. Any outer disciple would’ve gasped in horror at that, but I found myself not caring too much. Labby had gotten me quite a few spirit herbs today, enough to create the needed pills for my deal with Su Lin and have a few spare for testing as well.

I picked up my bowl, sitting next to me on the grass, as with a flick of my wrist I made the fire go away. I smiled smugly at the little trick I’d learned from the Old Man for starting the fire under the cauldron.

Starting the fire was quite simple, all I had to do was focus on where I wanted to concentrate my Qi, and envision it turning warm. The Qi would then provide enough energy to start combustion in whatever fuel you were providing it.

The process made me wonder how exactly the energy transfer would work, and further questions on how people even controlled their Qi anyways, but I wasn’t going to be solving all mysteries in one day was I?

Putting out the flame had been a bit more tricky. I had to direct my Qi fast enough over the flames that a layer formed for an instant over the wood, cutting the oxygen supply as the fire died instantly.

I served myself the fried meat and vegetables, taking a little bowl out for Labby as well. A gentle breeze blowing through the grassy plains brought a smile to my face. The air here was much fresher, and I could feel the Qi of the land around me. No doubt, the sect had been located here due to the Qi present in its environments.

Labby ran closer with another squeak, carrying a cut off herb. I saw a few chewed leaves at the end, and shook my head as I took the herb from its mouth, and gave it a pet in thanks.

“You can eat the food too, if you want to,” I said, holding out another small bowl of my homemade recipe of stir-fry poor college student edition. His little nose twitched a couple times as he inspected the food, before Labby dug in.

I sighed contently, as I ate my lunch out in the open. A couple of animals curiously walked by from the denser tree groves nearby, but none were curious enough to come out into the open grasslands.

I ate my food, soaking in the sights around me, as I marvelled at the mystical magic of Qi that flowed all over this place. Following a whim, I took out my notes, taking a look under the section where I’d tried to test on the spirit herbs, to see if I could make them grow faster with Qi or not.

I stared at the problems, the drying leaves, the shimmering energy, and a whole bunch of messy notes that I’d written. I leafed through the pages, my eyes wandering over the text yet not reading them.

An instinct called out to me, and I began to channel my Qi. It swirled in my dantian, rotating in circles, the Qi of the land began to soak into my veins, as I kept reading through my notes. Idly making remarks on portions.

Time flew by in a daze, as I heard the wind tell me something. There was something wrong with my Qi. I frowned, still lost in a strange trance, as the words faded across the wind. I absently held a quill in my hand, writing something down, as the answer became obvious.

Two circles, one flowing into the other. Like an infinite never ending loop. I changed the pattern, and something shifted inside of me.

One circle… Two circles…

The Qi swirled.

Fifteen circles… Sixteen circles…

Something began to form in my dantian.

Eighty circles… Eighty one circles…

With a pop, the Qi settled down, as my sight came back into focus. The Qi within my Dantian changed, and as if with a sigh, the Qi of the land began to flow into me. I sat there, letting the wind flow through my hair for a while before my mind finally broke free of the daze it had been stuck in.

I looked down, and found Labby sleeping quietly on my lap. I smiled, gently petting his head as I put the rat into the herb basket. Stretching my limbs out, I stood up.

I looked at the sky, noticing the high mid-day sun as I realised that it had been hours since I’d started.

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“Must’ve lost track of time… I had felt that writing in my notes was strangely meditative but wow.” I heard Labby squeak, as he woke up, peeking over the basket.

“Yeah, little buddy. Sorry about the delay. Let’s go now,” I said, packing my stuff up, and clearing up my little campfire, when something caught my attention.

“Is the grass longer here?” I said out loud, staring at the grass under my feet. For a few feet around me, the grass seemed marginally longer than everywhere else. I looked around once more, as the wind bent the grass, merging them all into a single green blanket. I shrugged once, chalking it up to an optical illusion of some kind.

Labby chittered, playing with the spirit herbs as one sat on its head like a crown made from one single leaf. I laughed, feeling strangely at peace.

A smile adorned my face as I looked at the basket of spirit herbs in my hand.

It was time to do some Alchemy experiments.

***

Qi stirred within the cauldron, its contents bubbling and frothing more like a witch’s poison, than any life saving elixir. I stirred the liquid lightly, as I kept adding my own Qi to the mixture.

The smoke from the potion stung my eyes as it started to gush forth, the herbs letting their essence out as they began to mix into the solution and turn homogenous. I continued my stirring, keeping my speed even.

This was my sixth recipe to make a Qi Refilling elixir, as I'd shifted my focus from making pills to an elixir. I’d found that the saturation point of water for Qi was much higher than that of spirit herbs. Which was a bit strange since herbs should naturally contain a lot of water in their cells, but leaving that aside for a moment. In just a cup worth of water, I could drain all of my Qi and the water would hold it, so long as I didn’t boil it away.

Unlike water, steam sucked at holding my Qi whatsoever. I didn’t have any ice to test with, but I suspected the same was true with that as well. My theory so far was that Qi was an intermediate stage of Energy, a transition element of sorts where it was on me to guide how the energy was being applied. The reason why steam could not hold on to my Qi was due to the particles being far too excited, making the Qi excited as well, and unable to mesh properly.

Similar to mixing sugar in hot water, the Qi could dissolve in hot water, but impossible to do so in steam. It was just a hypothesis for now, I’d need to run a lot more tests before I could prove any of this, but I felt like I was moving in the right direction.

With a bubbling noise, the Qi within the cauldron poured forth. The smoke coming out of the cauldron contained leftover Qi that had begun rising, and I knew that I’d reached the saturation point.

Taking out a couple of the spirit herbs from yesterday, I gently added them to the mixture, stirring evenly as I increased the Qi-pressure inside the cauldron. There was a light shimmer to the green potion now, as I mixed it, and I was starting to think that what the herb’s shimmering glow was, was just the layer of water molecules on its leaves latching onto the Qi, as they evaporated through the pores.

“Labby! Can you get me that flower?” I called out, keeping my eyes on the cauldron as I pointed towards the flower on the nearby shelf. Labby chittered, climbing up the wooden shelf, as he grabbed the flower.

Taking a small run, he leapt from his perch landing on my knee before he climbed up to my shoulders, the flower in its mouth. The best lab assistant ever.

“Thank you,” I said, gently petting Labby, as he jumped back down, going off to do whatever he was doing.

I looked at the spirit lotus petals in my hand. This was the part that made me nervous. The alchemy book had called the spirit lotus to have Earth and Water Qi, similar to the muddy waters it grew in. The properties from those Qi, being the ability to sustain and coagulate Qi into them.

The lotus petal was usually used in pills to bind the Qi together. It was a common ingredient. The regular method of brewing the Qi refilling elixir simply involved pouring in spirit herbs, and holding the solution at the right Qi pressure as I melded in my own Qi, waiting for it to dissolve into the mixture, and then boiling the excess water away slowly.

My intention was to use the lotus petal, to increase its capacity. The Old Man would’ve probably frowned had he been here, another reason why I’d asked permission to get a small cauldron for my own chamber, where I could experiment freely.

I took a breath and let the petals fall into the potion. I stood nervously waiting for the reaction to go horribly wrong and splash me with boiling water everywhere, but the petals simply floated in the bubbling solution, slowly starting to break down.

The musty smell of earthy Qi hit my nose and I hurriedly started to churn my Qi through the solution. My heart began beating faster, as I felt my Qi turn thicker. I added more intensity to the flame under the cauldron, as the water began to boil faster.

Labby chittered from behind me, almost as if sharing my nervous excitement and I smiled. This was the fun part.

The Qi gushed forth,swirling on its own now, as a whirlpool of Qi formed. The earth essence was heavier than normal Qi, refusing to be moved by my meagre Qi as it started to form a lump at the centre. Panic began to grow in my heart, as the Cauldron started to turn hotter and hotter. The Qi was swirling, as the solution began to glow.

I dimmed the flame, focusing all my attention on the cauldron as I tried to spread the Earthen Qi uniformly through the solution. The Qi spread under my will, mixing in with the essence of the spirit herbs. The energy began to focus, as I guided it all together. With a pop, the cauldron shuddered, a cloud of smoke spewing forth from the potion, as Qi gushed forth.

I coughed, taking a step back as my eyes watered from the smoke, the Qi burning my nostrils and throat. I took a moment to clear my vision, before I walked closer and my heart dropped. Clumps floated in the potion, bobbing up and down in the now brown and murky potion.

The earthen Qi hadn’t spread properly, binding the solid particles of the solution into clumps. I let out a dejected sigh, about to drain all the potion into a bottle to store away when I heard Labby squeak.

With a jump, the little rat stood on my shoulder, before leaping into the cauldron. I panicked, my hands shooting out to grab him when he expertly grabbed on to the cauldron’s rim, as he dunked his little head into the potion while taking a drink.

A happy chitter sounded out, as Labby sipped the potion and I walked closer. My heart fluttered as I saw the layer of brown gunk float away, as the underneath bright green potion became visible.

Realisation hit me the very next moment as to what had happened. The Earthen Qi, had sucked out not the herbs, or their Qi, but the gunk from the Cauldron and the low grade spirit herbs instead.

I skimmed the filth away, taking out a porcelain container, as I poured the light green potion in. I grabbed the elixir, swirling it once as I took a small sip. Qi rushed through my body, filling up my dantian as it swirled around.

I grinned as I stared at my first successful experimental potion.

“Quest complete. Reward is a caffeine substitute,” I said out loud, snickering as Labby squeaked, licking his paws for the little remaining bits of elixir left on them.

I shook my head, still smiling from my successful results as I turned back towards the cauldron. I needed to make notes on the process, and increase its success rate, but this was my first step towards making a working formula for the brewing, and even the refining process. There was no way I could stop smiling even if I tried.

I took another sip from the elixir, feeling its refreshing energy travel through my body before I closed the bottle and put it away.

It was time to crank out some cultivator energy drinks.