Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex checked his Qi once more but there was no doubt that about 5% of it was True Qi. He was only in the 1st Mind Tempering realm and was already 5% of the way into getting ready for the True realms.

He stood up and checked his aura, but he realized that there wasn't any difference in it.

"Hmm… so it's only because I have such a thick Qi that I got to make so many Qi into True Qi huh?" he thought. "I wonder if I will get more True Qi when I log out."

He couldn't know that until he tried, so he forgot about it for the moment. He took out the talisman from the storage bag and looked at it.

"Oh, she's teaching me in her house? I thought she'd come here," Alex thought with a surprise. Since it was time for his alchemy lessons, he left.

He went to his master and sent out his spiritual sense to find her. Surprisingly, she was already in the Alchemy room practicing her own Alchemy.

Alex walked up to the alchemy room and stayed outside, waiting for him to finish. He could see her struggling to control the fire.

'Why did this happen to her?' Alex couldn't help but feel bad every time he thought about his master losing her alchemy skills.

He kept watching until she was barely able to make a pill. She pulled the pill out of the cauldron and put it in the pill tester.

34%.

That was the harmony the pill tester showed the pill had. An alchemy master that could make Heaven grade True pills was now struggling to make a decent Earth grade one. In Alex's eyes, that was one of the cruelest tragedies life had played on anyone.

'Still, 34% is quite a progress,' Alex thought.

"Oh, you are here? Come sit down," Ma Rong said.

Alex walked forward and sat in front of her with the cauldron in between the two of them. Ma Rong took back her cauldron. She caught Alex's gaze at her pill tester.

"Sigh, yes. Your master has indeed fallen into such a dire state. I can barely make such pills," she said, half-mocking herself.

"I-It's fine, master. 34% is still 34%. I'm sure you will be able to increase that up to 50% and make Heaven grade True pills once more," Alex said.

Ma Rong flinched a little when she heard that and her face twisted to show a hint of agony and sadness she was hiding inside.

"Is something wrong, master?" he asked.

Ma Rong took out the pill she had just made and threw it to Alex. Alex caught the pill and looked at the pill trying to understand what was wrong with it.

He checked the color and smell of the pill as well as he could, and that was when he realized.

"This is a common pill!" he said in surprise.

"Yes. Your master has become so incompetent that she can't even make a Heaven-grade common pill now," she said.

"But… But just because your Qi turned into Yin Qi shouldn't mean suddenly losing so much ability, right? As far as I can understand it should only affect the temperature," Alex said.

"No, it's different. My Qi affects the temperature, yes, but it also affects the energy. Do you remember about the attacks that my body stopped so easily?" Ma Rong asked. " Similarly, it also stops all energy that comes close to my body. So, if I stay close by, the ingredient's energy in the cauldron starts suffering too."

"That's why its so hard. If even the energy of the cauldron starts being hampered with due to my body, it's impossible for me to do anything," Ma Rong said.

"That's… there much be some way to control it, or maybe even suppress the constitution altogether right?" Alex asked.

"I… don't know, but it's not your problem to think about. For now, focus on yourself. It's not like your own body doesn't have mysteries that need some explanation either," Ma Rong said. "You are just as unique of a person as me, perhaps even more so."

"Okay," Alex said after seeing Ma Rong not wanting to talk about it at all.

He took out his cauldron and kept it on top of the fire. While the cauldron started heating up, Ma Rong started explaining.

"Do you know the theory behind making True pills?" Ma Rong asked.

"Yes, just the theory," Alex said.

"Tell me," Ma Rong asked.

"Uh, making True pills is the same as making common pills. The only difference is that True pills have a few ingredients in them that are of True rank, which requires one to be in the True realm to use," Alex said.

"Hmm… the fundamentals are at least there," Ma Rong said. "Do you know any more?"

"Umm, I know a lot of miscellaneous information, but nothing concrete regarding just the True pills," Alex said.

"That's understandable. Alchemy is not something someone just randomly writes about for someone else to learn for free. Most of the people out there want to use it to earn money."

"Given how expensive ingredients can get if they want to improve upon their Alchemy knowledge, they have to use their information to finance themselves. Even then most won't give out everything they know since that could bring up potential alchemists that could surpass them," Ma Rong said.

"So, it's better not to fully rely on those books as everything there is to about alchemy. Most of the important information is always kept close to the chest."

"For example, you don't need to be in the True realms to make True Pills, you just have to have True Qi. I believe I've told you this before," Ma Rong said.

Alex thought for a second and said, "Yeah, you did say something to that effect. It was so long ago that I completely forgot."

"That happens. Anyway let's start the lesson," Ma Rong said. " Do you know the recipe for the Chromatic Disillusionment pill?"

"Yeah, I believe so. It's the pill that makes people see the colors perfectly such that they can separate even the most similar shades of the same color, right?" he asked.

"That's the one. Do you have the ingredients for it?" Ma Rong asked.

Alex looked into his storage bag for a minute, and then finally answered, "Yes, I've got about 8 sets in total."

"Alright, it's not the most important pill so we can waste it for training," Ma Rong said.

Alex nodded and took out all 8 of the ingredients set.

"Thankfully you have some True Qi, or It would all just be us talking for today," Ma Rong said.

"Oh, you can see my Qi? It's about 5% of the way to True realm now, "Alex said.

"Yes, I wouldn't have let you make any pills today otherwise," Ma Rong said. "Okay now, do you know which one of the ingredients is the main ingredient in the pill?"

Alex looked through the list of ingredients as well as what they did and finally answered. "The Rainbow Peacock's feathers?"

"Yes. Those are the main ingredients. There are other 2 ingredients that are semi-important, but those come at the final end of the pill-making portion, but we won't reach there today," she said.

"We won't?" Alex asked in confusion.

"Start!" Ma Rong commanded without explaining anything.

Alex put his first ingredient inside of the hot cauldron and started moving it almost instinctively.

'Oh, should I switch to True Qi for this?" he wondered. He thought for a second, but since he was making True Pill, he needed to switch for sure. So, he started moving his True Qi around his body and started bringing it—

"Don't use True Qi. Keep using your normal Qi," Ma Rong said as he kept track of everything that was going around her.

Alex nodded and stopped using True Qi. If his master said he didn't need it, then he truly didn't need it. He continued moving the ingredient around until it was all powder and all of its energy had escaped.

Without asking his master for further instruction, he immediately put in the 2nd ingredient too. The energy from the ingredient escaped out faster due to his taking it slow and the heat getting to move onto the ingredient at a fast rate.

The energy from the second ingredient mixed with the energy from the first ingredient, and soon resulted in another energy.

Alex looked at it all with a very confused look. 'This just feels like a normal pill-making process to me,' he thought.

"Focus," Ma Rong said as she noticed his change of expression. Alex nodded and put in the third ingredient too.

Ma Rong felt the third ingredient disappear into powder soon and felt the energy settle in the cauldron.

"Use your True Qi for the next ingredient," Ma Rong said.

"Okay," he said and nodded. He took out the fourth ingredient and put it in. Alex could see that the fourth ingredient was the Rainbow Peacock's feather.

He moved his Qi around and brought out his True Qi. The True Qi felt weird, almost not belonging to him. But he could perfectly control it, so he knew it was his.

He used the True Qi and followed the recipe. He moved the ingredient around inside the cauldron and could feel quite a strong energy being released from it.

This energy was of a level that he had never before felt. His eyes went wide as he sensed the strength of the energy compared to the other energy that was released before.

"So that's what a True rank ingredient feels like, huh?"