Alchemy

Thinking on what to make with the materials, he set his eyes on a beginner level pill - the body refining pill. This pill increases the efficacy of body cultivation by 2 to 4 times - or at least that's what the sketchy website said. Confused with how the names of the ingredients that existed in this world were the same as in the "fictional" recipes of Earth, he shrugged. It didn't matter to him why, he was just glad that it made it easier for him to use Earthly knowledge to his advantage.

Jean was ready to start. After skimming through the guide on alchemy, he lit the furnace using a flint and shoved the ingredients in. After a while, he opened the furnace, and to no one's surprise, he failed. He had already wasted priceless plants because he didn't read through the guide properly. Reading carefully, he realised how much of an idiot he had been, and what he actually needed to do to create the pills.

Before even starting, he needed to know how to create and manipulate flames using qi. Other than that, the ingredients had to be precisely measured out - both of which, he hadn't done. Being a (future) member of the He family, he was authorised to access the first floor of the He family's skill library under the authority of the second elder.

Greeting the elder at the front, he entered the skill library and searched every book of every shelf. Such a big family was bound to have a skill for alchemy. But they didn't, resulting in Jean scouring the city in search of a book. He found himself at the blue pond city's branch of the skill pavilion - a large organisation, spanning the Profound Sky Continent, that buys and sells all types of skills.

Looking around all three floors of the shop, he hoped to find at least one book.

And there was one. Just one. It was a skill book buried and stashed at the back corner of the third floor, where it had remained untouched for years, gathering dust. Jean picked it up and blew the dust covering it, revealing it's pristine condition. From the smooth, red cover, to the lustre of the metal protecting the binding, it was evident that no one had even seen this book for a long time. It was also clear that no other book on this floor, or maybe even on other floors, was similar to this. He knew it contained an alchemic fire control technique, because all completed collections of fire related skills had one.

Reading the title, he muttered, "Omni-Python's Tome of Fire"

Suddenly, the book burst to flames, and he threw it to the ground, stomping the fire out. To his surprise, the book was still in the condition it was in prior to the fire - completely untouched, and in mint condition. How powerful must it have been to have combusted from uttering the title? He had to get this at all costs.

Approaching one of the workers, he asked how much it was.

"Omni-Python Tome of Fire? Since when did we have a book like this?"

Opening the book showed only blank pages. No writing, no nothing.

"Someone must have left it here as a joke. Do me a favour and just throw it out. Or keep it."

"Thanks? I guess."

...

He arrived back at the mansion and headed straight to the courtyard. He opened the book once more, and this time, there were words on one page, and a painting of a large serpent on another. Aside from that, nothing else.

On the page, was written this:

"The Omni-Python is all-powerful, and has existed since time immemorial. With a dragon's head, and a serpent's body, it has complete mastery and immunity to every element. Its greed is insatiable and can devour worlds. Only those who are worthy may inherit its bloodline. Those of its bloodline, too, can devour other's destinies."

As soon as he finished reading the last word, information and fire techniques flooded his brain. A featureless figure appeared when he closed his eyes. It kept repeating one skill over and over again. Jean decided to follow its movements. After one hundred repetitions, he could summon and control his own flames using qi. The figure disappeared. Power and pain surged in his body and he screamed silently in agony. His body was burning up and he began feeling dizzy. His throat and mouth were too dry to be able to speak. He expended most of his energy writhing in and fighting against the pain. A few minutes later, a burst of qi exploded and capacity of his dantian (organ that stores qi) and absorption rate of his meridians increased moderately. He had broken through to the third stage of Qi Condensing!

"Such a mysterious skill! The so-called "Omni-Python" must be unfathomably strong!"

"Now that I've learnt a fire controlling skill, I can finally start making pills properly!"

He brought out the furnace and ingredients again, which he had measured beforehand, confident that he would succeed.

Using his qi, he ignited a fire below the furnace and kept it at a high temperature. Slightly lowering the temperature, he added the ingredients one by one, sometimes waiting minutes before adding another. Half an hour after adding the final plant, he put the flames at a constant, low, simmer and waited another half hour. His qi was nearly depleted, but he was also nearly done. The fire control skill he learnt was very efficient, in that a small amount of qi could last longer than with normal skills. Using the very last few drops of his qi, he manipulated the flames to shape the liquid mixture into small balls. Cooling down, the small balls solidified and retained their spherical shape as he took them out.

"1...2...3...4!"

Four pills! To actually make four pills on his first try! Although this amount of ingredients could make ten pills, four pills was still an impressive amount. Even one pill was hard to make and could be sold for a lot, even if it was one of the easiest pills. Unfortunately, there were no more plants and it was just barely enough to make up for the costs. He had to sell them for the highest price he could, and there was no better place for that then an auction house.

Being such a small city, even the surrounding cities combined only had one auction house and less alchemists than fingers on one's hand, not including Jean. Because of this, those few alchemists became arrogant and sought no self-improvement. Instead of trying to make pills of higher grade and quality, they inflated the market price to gain as much profit from one pill as they could - almost to the point that it would be cheaper to travel dozens of miles to buy one pill.

Although he wanted to a have a good reputation and be respected by many, he wasn't nearly strong enough to back it up. He decided to keep his identity hidden when selling pills or doing "divine doctor" work on the way to the auction house. He bought a black cloak with fur, a conical straw hat, and a blank mask - the kind that covers the whole face and not just the top half. Before leaving, he informed He Sheng and Zhang Xiang, taking a couple of gold taels (a weight and currency system) with him.

Donning his new apparel, he chose the name "Guo Mengyao" as a pseudonym to maintain anonymity. He set off on horse and used a map of the surrounding cities, he had bought for the journey, to find his way to the auction house. Three day trip, there and back. Should be fine, right?