Pill.

—

Thinking about the ceiling, Yoriichi's line of thought was drawn to his current level, which had already reached the trillion-digit mark. Similar to the idle mobile game Xiuzhen Idle from his past world, where one session of cultivation could raise his level by billions of digits, he experienced a similar rate of progression. Even so, the ceiling of this world kept expanding toward infinity, providing him with new understanding and new energy to draw upon.

There is no concept of stopping just because the energy suddenly runs out of options. The electron orbits, which in his past world could only be discovered at four levels, now reveal that they can continue to jump to orbits he had never known about. Moreover, the science he thought would become useless over time is still functioning without any difference whatsoever.

Every piece of knowledge he could think of has already been explored by him, yet the spring of inspiration can still be drawn upon and discovered. Even now, he has entered the realm of mystical things, where the concepts of science and magic have become interchangeable. At this level of enlightenment, quantum leaps and linear progression have no distinction whatsoever.

Like a cultivator who suddenly has an epiphany about comprehension that is not rigid like science, the distinction has become so blurred that similar concepts, such as enlightenment, are now understood through tangible laws that can be felt and touched. Even so, when he starts to ruminate on the mathematical equations and conducts experiments like a scientist, these tangible laws become so enhanced that they create a cycle of progression between quantum leaps and linear progression.

This realization made him understand that every concept humanity from his past world could think of, in a sense, is science that has not yet been explored due to a lack of tools to measure it or because their ideas were dismissed as delusional. As a result, scientists who could only fantasize and philosophically ruminate became depressed and were shunned by society for not conforming to the norm.

This realization came from his repeated reading of the Tao Te Ching, during which he understood that Laozi had already contemplated quantum mechanics long before society discovered the behavior of particles. In Chapter 2, Laozi states: "Difficult and easy complement each other, tall and short shape each other, high and low rest on each other, voice and tone blend with each other, first and last follow each other."

These observations reflect the behavior of every particle in existence—from quarks and photons to electrons and more—showing superposition, where they exist in multiple states or locations simultaneously. Furthermore, Laozi's repeated use of the water metaphor led him to realize that man was referring not just to the H₂O molecule in his book, but also to wave-particle duality, where particles act as waves of water when they are not measured. 

That's why, when humanity thinks of a string of fate, it refers to a literal string of fate in the scientific sense.

Thinking about a string of fate, Yoriichi activated his modified eyes, which could now only see brane zero-dimensional points. After calculating six hundred superstring theories in his head, he grabbed the silver-colored tangible thread of fate connected to Ember. Confirming that she would be fine for the foreseeable future, he nodded in satisfaction, knowing that everyone in this multiverse was behaving well. However, he sighed, realizing he could not predict the actions of those who would arrive later. He wanted to continue his calculations but was suddenly interrupted by a question from Jaina, who was beside him.

"Why calculate your daughter's fate all of the sudden? Is there something wrong?"

Seeing that Rita had become anxious as well, Yoriichi shook his head and answered, wanting to clear up the misunderstanding, "No, there is nothing wrong. It's just that I can't help but reflect on how science still works even at this level of cultivation."

"Ah, I see," Jaina chuckled to herself and then replied, "Yes. It is magical, isn't it? That every concept anyone could think of is just a branch of science that has not yet been discovered. And now, I can't even say that science is not magic anymore."

"Thinking about science, how is it? Your pill-making technique? Can you create it using only the laws of thermodynamics, without relying on your cultivation level?"

With her eyes dilated in excitement, Jaina eagerly nodded her head up and down, "Yes! It can happen! The Xianxia pill-making concept also follows the principles of science! It's not just fantasy anymore!"

Shaking his head at her enthusiasm, Yoriichi simply said, "Show me."

Waving her hand to materialize a classical alchemy furnace with a green color, similar to what she imagined from cultivation fantasy literature, Jaina took some normal grass from the ground and leaves from the bushes. Opening the lid of the furnace, she placed the grass and leaves inside, then added water as a solvent to help the solid materials turn into a pill.

Closing the lid and turning around, Jaina began explaining, "As you know from the Ideal Gas Law, to make the pressure and volume of a substance much smaller, we must reduce the number of moles of that substance."

Waving her hand to turn the grass and leaves into dust and dissolve them into the water, she continued, "Because water molecules are very hard and difficult to compress in volume with external pressure, we must first reduce the number of moles of water as well to turn it into gas."

Producing fire at the bottom of the furnace, she pointed out, "The easy way to achieve this is to increase the temperature until it reaches the boiling point."

Turning around and feeling the alchemy furnace, which was tightly sealed like a vacuum chamber, she nodded in satisfaction as the solid and water molecules had spread out like a gas due to the high temperature of the fire.

"And this particular step will later show us how much of the pill is produced. The more spread out the moles are, the more the quantity of the pill."

Increasing the temperature slowly, she then explained, "Referring to the formula PV=nRT, the higher the temperature, the more expansion occurs. The more expansion there is, the higher the pressure. The higher the pressure, the higher the boiling point. And this, Richard, is the key to creating the pill itself."

Having a eureka moment, Yoriichi then asked for confirmation, "Ah… So that means the art of pill making itself is about controlling the temperature or fire, and controlling it so that every atom inside the furnace reaches the thermodynamic equilibrium of the Phase Diagram. Am I right?"

As the substance inside reached a critical point and turned into a supercritical fluid, Jaina nodded and added, "Yes. But it's not to the point of creating nuclear fusion—it's just below that."

Turning around, she then explained, "Now that the substance has become a supercritical fluid, we just need to draw out the water molecules from the leaf and grass by performing supercritical drying. This essentially creates a process similar to making aerogel, but this time we mold it into a round ball shape to form the pill."

Chuckling, he then made the connection, "Does this mean that the pill thrown by alchemy cultivators is just an enhanced version of aerogel that, instead of cracking into a solid, cracks into a gaseous state instead?"

Laughing, Jaina simply nodded, "Yes." Shaking her head to continue, she then said, "Now, what about the impurities and the quality of the pill you might have asked?"

Seeing Yoriichi's knowing smile, she became dejected and answered herself, "It's all about the drying process."

Opening the valve of the furnace to allow the hot water molecules to escape into the air, she continued, "By controlling the valve's opening, we can manage the escape of gases and the trapped leaf substance inside, which allows us to control the impurities in the plant ingredients."

Turning around, she pointed out, "And this process takes a long time—anywhere from a day to years, or even eons, depending on the plant substance molecules. But because this is only for demonstration, I will speed up the process."

Waving her hand to instantly dry the water solvent out of the furnace, Jaina then released a few grass particles into the air to produce an aroma that they could breathe in.

Tasting the air, Yoriichi clicked his tongue and said, "It's just grass."

Rolling her eyes, she retorted, "Of course it's just grass. The pleasant aroma described in Xianxia literature comes from the Qi and the spirit herb itself, not the alchemy process. That's why, when someone creates a pill, I presume they are tasting the Tao Qi, which is abundant with all kinds of different energies, rather than the expertise used in creating the pill."

Rubbing his cheek in embarrassment, Yoriichi coughed to indicate that she should continue.

Giggling at seeing Richard feel embarrassed, Jaina shook her head and answered, "It's done."

Stunned, he asked, "Huh, just like that?"

"Yes."

—