Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex knew what the result would be the moment he put the two ingredients into the cauldron. Due to the difference in the temperature and the motion of the two ingredients according to their recipe, one of them had to burn while the other one barely cooked.

The energy released from the two ingredients wasn't what they should have been either. While the vine had released regular energy, the fruit had burnt and released its energy way too quickly.

Alex stopped and quickly threw away everything before clearing the cauldron.

"So, I can't send them in at once," he spoke out loud. He liked talking through what he was doing and it certainly helped him. "One at a time then?" 

He tried.

He first threw in the vine and controlled it until it was reduced to nothing but powder with the energy in the cauldron. Then, he threw in the fruit. 

The fruit turned into powder as well and its energy was released inside the cauldron. However, as he had expected it to happen, the moment the energy was released, it mixed with the energy from the vine, ruining both of them at the same time. This was not the way to go well.

Alex cleared the cauldron again, but this time he noticed that they were separate powders, neither of which was ruined. "So the Energy is the problem. Not the powder?" he wondered. "Does that mean that if I can keep the two energies separate somehow, it will be possible?"

He tried for the third time. He pulled out the two ingredients and did the same as before. Only, this time, he tried his best to use his Qi to keep the two energies separate from each other.

He made the energy from the vine remain on the upper section of the cauldron, while the energy from the fruit remained on the lower section. It was a somewhat difficult task, but it was certainly not impossible.

It didn't even burden him as much as he would've thought it would, but that simply meant he had stronger Intent now and could do more without losing much spiritual energy.

Once the two energies stopped mixing, it was time for the third ingredient, which would be the second ingredient for the healing pill.

Alex took out the ingredient and put it in, without a care in the world for making be good. However, the moment he put it in, he realized there was a problem. The energy at the bottom of the cauldron belonged to the ingredient that did not belong to the recipe that was for the ingredient he just put.

So, the moment he added it, he knew something was going to go wrong. And it did.

This try of his was a failure as the wrong ingredients mixed together, creating the wrong combination. He had to give up right then and there.

"That was wrong as well," Alex thought. "Then should I have put the fruit's energy on top? No, it would work for the 3rd ingredient, but the 4th one I put would be in the same problem." 

That stumped him for a few seconds. He thought for a moment, trying to deduce what the core problem here was. And the answer was surprisingly simple.

Gravity.

Anything he threw in there would fall to the bottom where the heat was present from the fire. Normally, it all had to fall to the bottom as not all the cauldron would heat the same, at least not if you wanted to make the pill quickly.

However, with Dao of Heat, he wasn't limited to that. With his Dao of Heat, he could heat up the entire cauldron to the same temperature every time. It would certainly use a lot more Qi and Intent than normally, but that was possible.

So… he didn't have to have the ingredients ever fall to the bottom.

"I can have it at the top." Alex slowly came to the conclusion. "I can simply make one pill on the top half, and the other on the bottom half."

He resumed making his pill again, with newfound ideas to help him.

The vine went in first, and then the fruit. Together, they formed 2 different sections in the cauldron, the top and the bottom, where their energy had settled, kept from mixing together thanks to Alex's Qi and Intent.

Then, Alex sent in the third ingredient, processing it normally as it belonged in the recipe for the bottom pill. Once done, he put in the fourth ingredient, the 2nd ingredient for the top pill.

The ingredient teleported onto the top half of the cauldron and remained there. Then, Alex used his Dao to heat up the entire cauldron to the required temperature at once and did what he would have done at the bottom.

Once completed, the energy from the ingredient mixed with the energy on the upper half, perfectly mixed as it would have in a normal pill.

Alex smiled a little and continued. One after another, he alternated between the two recipes, making the pills. It took longer than it would have taken for him to make the pills back to back, but in the end, he did it.

Once after another, he put the two pills in the cauldron and pulled it out with a bright smile on his face. Neither of the pills was even close to touching the 90% range because of how much time he had wasted while making them, but he had done what the trial had asked for.

And so, the barely blue walls around him slowly turned white. He had passed the trial.

The Dragon floated down in front of him with an expecting look. "For a second I thought you were going to fail," he said. "I didn't realize you would have such trouble with this."

"I've never done something like this before," Alex said truthfully. "It took some time for me to know what to do."

"Well, it's just making pills normally, except you split the space inside your cauldron to make it appear as if there are two sections. Once you do it, you'll be able to do it all the time," the Dragon said.

Alex slowly nodded, slightly out of it as he looked at the two pills in his hands.

"Congratulations on finishing the trial. You can leave now," the Dragon said.

"Can I stay for a bit," Alex quickly said. "I feel like I need to spend some time on what I just learned."

"Hmm," the Dragon soul thought for a moment. "Alright, I'll give you an hour. Take what you learned and try to understand it. I can't keep you here for long, so you'll have to leave after that."

Alex nodded. "Thank you, senior."

The dragon nodded back and left him.

Alex remained in there, surrounded by the bright white walls as he looked down on his pills once again. Neither of the pills he made were up to par for him at all.

And he knew the reason. It was because he wasted time between the pills. Had he not done that, he could have made two different pills in the same cauldron at once.

So, he decided to do exactly that.