21 Chapter 21: Batch Refinemen (1/2)
Nadran sat down in his room in front of a newly acquired pill cauldron, setting an open book down next to him. The cauldron was of the high-slate rank, the same as the ones used during the alchemy entrance examination. Between the cauldron, alchemy book he was borrowing from the library, and large quantities of herbs, he had spent quite a few contribution points. Despite the fact that he had recently received a large windfall of 4,000 contribution points thanks to his performance in the challenge room, he still had to use over a quarter of his points to acquire all of these materials. [Alchemy really isn't cheap,] Nadran wryly thought.
His objective was to create a large number of mid-slate grade pills known as the Body Purification Pill. This was a very useful pill in the realm of alchemy which helped to cleanse the body of impurities. Over a person's lifespan, their body will collect numerous impurities and imperfections, which affect not only their external appearance but also their muscle strength and bone density. Once consumed, this pill's medicinal effects would spread throughout the body, removing impurities as it went. While a single pill was far from enough to remove all of the impurities by itself, the results were far from insubstantial. This was one of the most commonly used pills by cultivators. After all, they simply had to spend some money, and in exchange they would obtain a stronger, more resilient body (that also looked more appealing), and the improved hand-eye coordination provided by the removal of impurities even made the tracing of sigils slightly faster and easier. After all, nerves were also areas that accumulated impurities.
This pill was practically miraculous in its effects, and while it could not remove any of the deeper-rooted impurities, it was still highly sought after due to its effects for the price it cost. For this reason, there were almost always requests from the pill hall to refine more of these pills, since their stock was always being depleted.
Nadran was familiar with this pill, but had never taken one before. After all, his family barely had the money to feed themselves, and while these Body Purification Pills were not considered very expensive, that was only by the standards of pills. For the price of a single pill, Nadran's family could eat comfortably for weeks.
[Since I need to make a lot of pills, I'm going to have to put a larger amount of materials into the cauldron, otherwise it will take me forever to make enough pills. Hm, I need to be careful, though. In general, the more pills you make at once, the lower the quality of the individual pills. Maybe I should try to make them in multiple batches? If I use a liquid manipulation sigil, I think I could keep the batches isolated from each other so that the material ratios won't be messed up. That way, I could make multiple batches in the same cauldron simultaneously, and that would hopefully cause them to be a higher quality than if I made one giant batch. Well, it's worth a shot, at the very least.]
Nadran picked up a batch of herbs, then carefully divided each component into two groups of equal size. [Let's just start with 2 groups, then work our way up to more groups if this goes well.] A sigil was traced under the cauldron, lighting a small fire that flickered softly, heating the dark gray cauldron and the purified water contained within. Next, Nadran dropped the cut and dried herbs into the cauldron, keeping his hands apart to prevent the mixing of the batches. After doing this, he quickly began casting a sigil, causing the now brackish-looking water to split into two different sections. A rift of air formed across the liquid, resulting in the two halves of the cauldron being isolated from each other.
[It would probably be simpler to just refine these pills in two separate cauldrons, but at my current level, I am incapable of creating and sustaining two different fires simultaneously.]
In truth, the reason for this was quite simple. The flame he used to heat the cauldron was not an ordinary fire. It was 'his' flame. This flame had a special connection to him, and he could only control the flame because of this special trait. Rather than creating fire, it was more that he was summoning fire from its home in the elemental plane of fire. It was said that every person alive had their own fire that burned on that mystical plane, and this sigil was just a method of pulling it over to this plane of existence and manipulating it. Nadran still wasn't completely sure as to when and how this connection was formed, though, and the instructors he had seen never gave an answer that satisfied him. Of course, he couldn't ask the instructor himself since he was sneaking into the classes in the first place, so he had no choice but to reign in his curiosity.
[I should see if I can find a book or something on the subject when I have the time… woah, the batches are sliding closer together. I don't want them to end up mixing after all this effort, I need to focus more.]
Nadran put more mental energy into the separation of the batches, then watched the slowly bubbling liquid as dark shapes began taking form in the murky liquid. He carefully continued the process of pill refinement, making sure to closely follow each step. It was not long, however, before the bubbling liquid showed signs of instability, the contents of the cauldron swirling about chaotically. Nadran quickly tried to calm the liquid, but it was already too late. The partially formed pills trembled before crumbling into pieces, leaving Nadran with nothing but a useless pool of liquid that no longer contained any medicinal properties.
[What happened?] Nadran wondered in confusion, staring into the cauldron as he released the sigils he had been maintaining. [I thought I had been following the instructions correctly, so why did this happen?]
Frowning, Nadran emptied out the cauldron before preparing a new set of ingredients and starting anew. This second batch ended the same way as the first. This time, though, Nadran was able to identify the problem.
[With the liquid separated like this, it cannot follow the flow path it wants to. This wasn't mentioned in the condensing instructions, but it seems that the path of the liquid is important in shaping and holding together the pill. While following the directions, the fluid will naturally flow in a path that holds the pill together while pulling the necessary ingredients closer and pulling away the unwanted parts. Thinking about it, this recipe is rather impressive to allow all of these things to happen simultaneously without needing to be directly controlled. But if I want to be able to make multiple batches at a time, I won't be able to let the liquid flow as it wants to. What should I…]
[Oh, wait! Maybe I can control each of these processes manually. They are normally done automatically, but that doesn't mean they NEED to be done automatically. It will probably be difficult to control them all at once, but it should solve the problem if I can pull it off. Besides, practicing my control shouldn't be a bad thing, and success means I can take less time refining large amounts of pills in the future. It might even make it easier for me to pull off more difficult refinements in the future that have more considerations and moving parts.]
With his course of action set, Nadran began his third attempted batch refinement. This time, Nadran controlled the liquid manipulation sigil to the limits of his abilities. He was unable to control all of the required aspects properly, however, and was soon left with another failure. Undeterred, he tried again, but this time, he didn't pay enough attention to managing the flame, causing the pills to become burnt, effectively destroying them. Suppressing a grimace, Nadran took a deep breath to calm himself, then started again from the beginning.