Weekly Practice
-HEI AN'S STORAGE RING-
I cultivated for hours while I was controlling the fire beside me. Master said it was still too early for me to do the harsher methods so instead, while cultivating, I am surrounded by a couple of bonfires while consuming the energy cores. The heat and exposure to fire not only increases my comprehension of the law of fire but it also let me cultivate.
After sometime now... I feel like I'm about to breakthrough! My body released a sudden burst of energy! It felt like my energy is overflowing and stronger than before!
But I have to use my fingers to pinch my nose because of the smell... I just pooped and wet my pants. I'm sweating all over the place too.
"Finally, the 2nd layer of innate realm. Your progress is indeed fast. You're not even using cultivation pills. Go clean yourself." Wait, master. It seems my energy and the law of fire somehow feel like they're connected.
"Let's see what your energy can do. Focus your energy on your hands and try to make the energy ignite." Igniting the energy? Focus...
I can feel my energy flowing and staying on my hands. Now, burn!
*IGNITES* Fire suddenly appeared while the energy disappeared! So using the energy, I can create fire now on my own!
"Those who have in-depth knowledge of the first layer of the law of fire can create fire at their own will using their energy. It's called "Ignition". The second layer is "Incineration". This knowledge of the law of the fire is the powerful version of ignition. Ignition comes from your energy while Incineration comes from the energy around you making it your own. That means you can create fire all over the place with just little energy spent." Does that mean with incineration, I can burn people alive without them knowing that it was even me?
"That's right. But still, when you control fire, you spend your own energy. The energy around only helps you maintain it which would also mean that your energy will still be traceable by higher realms. The Law of fire is big, powerful, and loud. It's not good to use for assassinations." Even so, that's still powerful.
"That's right. Now, can you make it burn stronger?" If I put a little bit...
*BURN* Holy... that's too much! Control... control... There... The flames settled down and I made it bigger this time consistently.
"For your first time, it's not bad. Now, Make the fire smaller." If I release too little energy, the fire would go out. Energy control is hard...
"It sure is hard. If you can't control fire like this. How are you supposed to concoct pills when you need to control the fire while also putting materials on the cauldron?" So, alchemy is all about control... even the amount of materials should be controlled as well or else it will ruin the finished product.
Master, I could really smell myself right now. I can't concentrate at all.
"Go. You better eat food as well. You'll be hungry soon." Talking about food... I suddenly felt too much hunger... Time to clean and feed myself!
...
Since I was able to reach the 2nd layer of innate real, I have more energy to spend on training.
Before I even realized, 2 days have passed and now I managed to control my flames on my own. Not only that, but the energy I use when using the law of fire was also cut down at a significant rate. My cultivation progressed a lot as well.
Master, how's your cultivation? Since you're a soul, I couldn't really see your aura.
"Right now, I was able to reach the 7th layer of innate realm. After I revived Bei, my innate realm was cut down to the 4th layer. Since then, I was cultivating non-stop and even using the remaining energy crystals and cores that are left from the cultivation room." No wonder some of the crystals and cores are empty. But that's good to hear too since you're getting your strength back. I need to catch up soon.
"Now let's go and practice alchemy. I'll transfer all my knowledge about alchemy and blacksmithing to you. It's up to you how you can use the knowledge in the actual process." Master, please enlighten this student of yours.
"Empty your mind." And so... once again memories flow through my mind... Concocting pills over and over again. Explosions coming from the alchemy cauldron, burning of the house, even melting the surrounding after successfully creating pills... but he was happy. Who is this lady beside him all the time? She looks familiar... I think I saw her when master was also transferring memories... that lady was her soul puppet? But she's definitely moving on her own this time and very much alive...
Now... this time, master was holding a forge hammer with sadness in his eyes. Hammering down the metals over and over again... mining ores, collecting elegant wood and assembling the parts making equipment... I can see it in his eyes. Anger fueling his will to pick up the hammer and smashing the metals with great strength bending them with his sheer power. The lady was not with him any longer...
...
Ugh... my head, it hurts. I looked around and I was still at my storage ring. I remember master transferring his knowledge to me. Did I pass out? Master? Are you there? Did he disappear?!
I decided to check on my cultivation realm. My soul wandered through a foggy place of energy. This fog is my energy. It's like a small space with nothing but darkness and fog. Wait... I found him!
From the looks of it... his soul is cultivating. He must have used a lot of energy after he transferred his energy to me. I will let you rest now, master. I might want to practice alchemy on my own since I can tell that I do know a lot about alchemy now.
I went to the alchemy room and used my common storage ring where the materials I've bought from Elder Zun Yan is stored. I looked at the list once again and now I understand why master asked me to buy all these materials. Some are low-grade, probably for practice, and mid and high-grade for the real deal. First, let's try a low-grade healing pill.
Hmmm... now, master has 2 cauldrons. Judging by the aura they emit. This one is magic-grade. It can create mid-grade pills at a high rate while high-grade pills would possibly be rare. Creating a low-grade pill using this cauldron would definitely increase its effectiveness.
The other one is spirit-grade. It's a little bit bigger and has an intense feel to it. Creating high-grade pills using this cauldron would be so much easier but with my master's memories, he was able to create a tier 1 pill at best. I'm not sure what the cauldron's special effects yet but I bet it would be great.
So... with a low tier healing pill, I need a couple of low-grade herbs for its minor healing properties, green mushrooms to spread the effect of the herbs quickly to the body, and a couple of drops of pure dew which can be used to remove the impurities of the other materials.
I prepared the magic-grade cauldron and made fire beneath it using the law of fire. It needs a little bit of heat and all I have to do is combine the first two materials while making sure that the cauldron is sealed.
A couple of minutes has passed, the materials finally melted into a liquid form. With normal fire, it would take much longer and could ruin the materials.
After that, I put the pure dew inside the cauldron, and upon landing on the melted materials, it dispersed together with the impurities. I closed it again and used my energy to form the melted materials into spheres. I finally stopped the fire and waited for the materials to form into solid.
It's not as easy as I imagined. I am still using my energy to hold the liquified materials and after a couple of minutes, it finally dried up. The effort... it's a little bit too much for me to handle right now. I hope there's an easier way for the other process.
I finally opened the cauldron and inside, there should be around 25 pieces of low... wait... there are mid-grade pills. The pills emit a slight green aura! Man! That was worth the first try! I still don't know how to check the quality of these mid-grade pills but still, I've finally learned alchemy! Before, I was only reading about it from the library... but now, I'm living it!
Ok... since I think I can handle making mid-grade pills using low-grade materials, I think I can create even better pills using the high-grade materials and the spirit-grade cauldron with the help of my master's memory. He knows a lot of recipes that would benefit me. A mid-grade cultivation pills perhaps.
...
...
..
"Son, one day, you'll be a great disciple of the Frozen Lake Sect just like your father. But for now, you have to eat your veggies or you won't get taller." Father? Mother? It feels like yesterday... I must be dreaming...
"But it's not the veggies... it's mom's cook-" I miss them... even with my mom's cooking...
"Shhh... you shouldn't talk loud while we eat."
...
.
Ugh... how long was I out? I think I passed out again. I'm hungry and I need to eat soon. I think I've been doing alchemy for almost two days now. My energy isn't doing so well because of that. I have to rest a bit more but I'm hungry... I have to check... wait...
Oh, what the hell?! I saw Bei on my wooden tub! She's taking a bath! I better not use my mind to check the inside of my storage ring. It would definitely ruin my reputation... Though... she's definitely stunning...
How can she enter my ring, though?
"Goodmorning, pervert. Since you let her enter before, your ring can now let her pass without your permission as long as she doesn't have ill intent." Ohhh... Stop with the pervert though... and you've been cultivating for a while now, I better not slack off. My soul cultivating alone won't be enough to catch up.
"So, how was your alchemy?" I think I used half of the materials and I'm almost out of energy cores as well.
I have created a 120 high-grade cultivation pills, 15 tier 1 cultivation pills, a thousand of high-grade healing pills, and a couple of high-grade body strengthening pills and mid-grade energy restorative pills. I was trying to create a high-grade energy restorative pills but it's the most complicated pill to create. I only managed to create mid-grade.
"I didn't know you could create such pills in a short duration. Since you know how to create those pills from my memory and also because of your law of fire, your future for alchemy is going to be legendary." No need to flatter me, master. I still have a long way to go.
Suddenly, I heard someone walking nearby my storage ring. I should go out for a bit and check, master.
-FROZEN LAKE DUNGEON-
I got out of the storage ring and from the looks of it, the guards are rounding up the prisoners so I decided to put my treasures back to the storage ring. I lifted my prisoner's robe and created a tier 1 energy suppressing rune. I don't want them to be confused when they see me being a 2nd layer of innate realm while being imprisoned this whole time.
"Hey, get out. It's the weekly practice for the prisoners." I don't think I have a choice here. The guard put wooden handcuffs on me. Weekly practice huh... against whom?
We were brought outside the dungeon. Upon looking at the area, there's an empty field and a couple of disciples from the outer sect. Are we going to fight against them?
We were gathered together and forced to kneel in front of the disciples. Even if we're prisoners, forcing us to kneel in front of these young disciples is humiliating!
These young ones are almost the same age as me, they might be a bit older than me.
"Now, pick your sparring partner." It looks like an instructor is leading the disciples.
"I pick this one. He looks like he can fight." One of the disciples picked a man with a big stature in his thirties. He's way larger than the disciple. They let the man's cuff off.
"Kid, you made the wrong decision today!" His breath is intense. I could tell that his body refining realm is higher than most of us here.
/Liu Gong Lu
Frozen Lake Sect's Prisoner
8th layer of body refining realm
2nd layer of innate realm/
"Better shut your mouth, trash! You're good target practice for me!" Both of them stepped forward and started to do their fighting stance. I can feel it, the disciple has 3 layers of energy aura. He's in 3rd layer of innate realm!
/Bo Que
Frozen Lake Sect's Outer Disciple
5th layer of body refining realm
3rd layer of innate realm/
On the other hand, the prisoner stayed clutching his fists. I can vaguely see his aura but upon checking, I could see 2 layers of aura. 2nd layer of innate realm against the 3rd layer... This is going to-
A powerful blow! It must be Wave Art! *BAAAAAM!* But how?! The disciple made his move and used his energy to strengthen his forward punch but it was blocked by the prisoner using both of his arms. The prisoner wasn't even fazed by his attack... After blocking...
*GRABS* The prisoner grabbed his hand swiftly and pulled the disciple closely to him and *BAAAAM* A body tackle in close range! With a body like that, the attack must have hurt the disciple real bad! He's using the Flow Arts! Technique against power...
The disciple was pushed back and lost his balance. Now he's lying on the floor. "Damn it!" He said, trying to stand up as fast as he could.
But suddenly, the prisoner swiftly approached the disciple and about to deliver a surprise body blow after the disciple slightly regaining his composure!
"Don't get carried away!" The disciple tried to defend himself creating an ice barrier in front of him but *CRACKS* The attack of the prisoner pierced right through the thin ice barrier and knocked the disciple back with a solid body blow. The disciple's knowledge of the law of ice is not so good... no wonder it broke so easily.
The student splurted blood but he still wants to continue. He must have broken some ribs after absorbing an attack like that but his pride is the only thing he has to keep on getting up.
The instructor stepped forward, "Stop! The winner this time is the prisoner. I hope you learned a lesson from the last fight." Of course! Don't mess with a big man like him! After that, the disciple collapsed and lost consciousness. He was helped by the other disciples before another one stepped forward.
"I'm Bo Er De! I heard one of you guys killed my cousin!" Oh man, I'm feeling bad about this...