226 Pill Tester (1/2)
Sighing, Xue Wei understood that Bai Tianyi had some other reason behind making him learn alchemy, yet he did not explain why. As to this reason why, Xue Wei did not inquire.
Shaking his head, he sat down on the floor and took the cauldron into his hands. At first glance, he found that it was not very large; it was only around twenty centimeters in diameter, and it was round and black with a flood dragon engraved on it.
It was a very beautiful cauldron, but knowing Bai Tianyi, it was likely a very ordinary cauldron. Bai Tianyi did not have a lot of assets, even with the gold and essence stones he had been given by Xue Wei, he was not considered rich. One also had to consider Xue Wei's current achievements in alchemy. Giving him a unique, special cauldron would be too much of a waste.
Without wasting time, he started sorting the herbs into what kinds they were and placed them in piles around himself. There were so many herbs that he had no clue how Bai Tianyi had managed to produce so many.
Next up were the formulas. He picked them up one by one, placed them on his forehead, and felt how the knowledge poured into his mind.
The formulas were all for Warriors. There were pills for Earth Warriors, Sky Warriors, and Heavenly Warriors. There was nothing for Knights, but Xue Wei was not too surprised. He was a complete novice so trying to bite more than he could chew would be a bad idea.
He quickly picked the simplest of the formulas, a Rising Qi Pill, and studied it thoroughly. It was a pill for an Earth Warrior and it could increase one's Qi a full layer if the pill was of high grade.
Pills were ranked similarly to cultivation levels, and then further into low, middle, high, and profound-ranking pills.
Low-ranked pills had many impurities and would prove problematic to consume. One would only consume these pills if one had no other option, such as in a life and death situation where it could save their life, because it could leave damage on one's cultivation base that was not easy to manage.
Middle-ranked pills were not as bad, but they still had quite a bit of impurities. If one consumed too many of these pills, it could cause problems down the road, but these impurities could be removed by relying on other pills.
Finally, you had the high and profound-ranked pills. These pills had little to no impurity within them and you could eat them like candy. There would never be any threat to one's cultivation base.
Xue Wei had never before made a pill, so he would be content if he managed to concoct a low-ranked pill. Having decided on the Rising Qi Pill, he picked the herbs he needed and closed his eyes.
Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself down. When he opened his eyes, he tossed the herbs into the cauldron.
He then summoned the Golden Dragon. It blew a ball of spiritual energy into the cauldron, which lit up with a flame that started to refine the herbs, transforming them into liquid.
Just as he was about to extract the impurities from the herbs, he felt that something was wrong. His control of the spiritual energy was not precise enough, and soon a loud boom resounded in the room. The entire hotel started shaking.
”Okay, not like this then,” Xue Wei said to himself as he touched the burn marks that the liquid had left on his face from the explosion. Clearly the process of concocting pills was not as simple as he had thought. Fortunately, the cauldron itself was safe.
”Let us try one herb at a time,” Xue Wei decided, completely ignoring the fright his explosion might have caused to others outside.
Putting one herb into the cauldron at a time made it easier to control. This time, he managed to refine it three times, removing impurities three times.
Then after finishing one herb, he wondered what he was supposed to do. It was now liquid that floated within his cauldron. He could not take it out, but adding another herb to the cauldron meant that the difficulty would increase.
The Rising Qi Pill required seven herbs. But Xue Wei was not one to give up. ”Worst that can happen is that it explodes again,” he consoled himself before he began refining the second herb and distilling it a few times to remove the impurities.
It went surprisingly easy, but he was at a loss for what to do again when he was finished. Should he try merge the two liquids or should he keep them away from one another? Did it matter? The formula had not described it, all it had said was that the user should refine the herbs and add them together.
”Well, I am not going to be the one eating the pills, so why not try a few different ways and see if the results are different,” Xue Wei thought casually. He could always get someone to try out the different pills to see whether or not it mattered in which way he made the pill.
With this in mind, he merged the two liquids slowly. It was not as difficult as he had expected, and he could begin on the third herb.
Everything went smoothly up until the merge of the fifth portion of liquid. Then it once more exploded, making yet another tremor run through the entire hotel.
Fortunately, no one could track the source of the explosion back to him. Many thought it was an earthquake, or someone fighting. Xue Wei was completely safe from being blamed; the only ones aware of it were himself and Bai Tianyi.
Xue Wei was not good at giving up. Although his first two attempts had ended in failure, he was not willing to give up just like this. In the end, he would not give up before he had mastered the trade, and thus he continued to merge the herbs.