1.37 Exposition Galore

  It had already been two years since Ning entered the outer sect. Between tending to his fields, hunting boars, cultivating herbs, and practicing his techniques, the time seemed to slip from his grasp in an instant.

  And today, he found himself in the alchemy courtyard.

  A large, dedicated space had been built specifically for outer-sect alchemists. Of course, only those officially registered with the Alchemy Pavilion were allowed inside. It sounded prestigious and refined.

  Reality?

  BOOOOM!

  A nearby furnace exploded, sending black smoke into the sky.

  “Damn it, AGAIN?!”

  “Whose cauldron is leaking?! That thing costs more than my life!”

  “Move! Move! Fire! No, not the herbs!”

  So much for elegance.

  In an allocated private room, Su Fan carefully adjusted his cauldron. It was a specially crafted first-tier high-rank cauldron, costing several thousand spirit stones at the very least.

  Beside him, Ning picked up a sprig of ebony with his right hand, deftly removing the withered leaves. His movements were swift and precise.

  Alchemists usually worked alone or with the help of disciples or servants; this was the norm.

  But because Su Fan despised anything considered the "norm,” he didn’t mind accepting extra help.

  Especially since ingredient preparation was the part he disliked the most.

  That was where Ning stepped in.

  Ning wanted to become an alchemist.

  This wasn’t an impulsive desire. With the spiritual plants he cultivated himself, he could attempt simple alchemy at a far lower cost.

  Moreover, after reading about how the Eastern Region was regularly plagued by beast tides, not to mention having a protagonist like Xiao Fan right beside him, Ning had already realized that a calamity was only a matter of time. After all, adversity was where protagonists shone brightest.

  In most xianxia and fantasy stories, the protagonist’s novice village always gets destroyed so they could venture into the wider world. Pure Qi Sect might not be a “novice village” with a Golden Core cultivator leading it, but Ning wouldn’t be surprised if something disastrous eventually befell the sect.

  All for the grand purpose of character development, of course.

  Because of these thoughts, Ning wanted a second profession, something portable. Spiritual farming was tied to land; one couldn’t uproot their fields and run. If something happened to the sect and Ning had to flee, all his work would be left behind.

  But alchemy? A profession respected anywhere, one that didn’t require fixed land?

  That was ideal.

  “Still… I didn’t expect it to take more than a year just to gather the funds.” Ning sighed.

  Among all his progress, the most significant achievement this year was his recent purchase: an alchemy inheritance.

  It was only for first-tier low-grade pills, but it cost quite a pretty penny. A 1,000 spirit stones upfront.

  Outside the sect, such inheritances were rare and normally appeared only in high-grade auctions. Sellers even added restrictive clauses preventing buyers from passing the inheritance to a third party, and the cost for a transferable heirloom version was even greater.

  Fortunately, Ning only needed to visit the sect’s exchange center to purchase one.

  He had also explored other methods of acquiring an inheritance. One option was to just pay 250 spirit stones, in exchange, for the next ten years, the sect will take 50% of the profit.

  That was far too steep.

  So Ning bought a non-shareable inheritance and resolved to make the most of it.

  It helped that he had been saving for a while.

  He would particularly like to thank the gooners in the sect who had earned him more than six hundred spirit stones over the last year. A very surprising amount.

  In hindsight, with the number of simps in this world, it kinda made sense.

  So with the spirit stones he had been saving up like a squirrel, he was finally able to afford one.

  That was why he was here now, applying what he had learned since that was one of the most practical ways to learn.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  After preparing and portioning the ingredients, Su Fan began the alchemy session.

  Ning, still a novice, watched intently. This was his true purpose after all.

  Pill concoction consisted of three steps:

  Gathering and condensing the medicinal liquid.

  Solidifying the pill and locking in the spiritual essence.

  Opening the furnace and collecting the pill.

  Simple in theory, difficult in practice, one tiny mistake could turn everything to ash. Improvement came only through constant repetition.

  Su Fan approached the furnace, placing spirit stones to activate the engraved fire arrays. Flames rose.

  He then executed the Fire Control Technique, gradually stabilizing the fire.

  One by one, he added the processed herbs, using another fire technique. Flames inside the furnace spun like a vortex, pulling the herbs into a uniform rotation.

  The beauty of this method was its even temperature distribution, preventing herbs from burning and losing potency. The rotation also removed impurities, enhancing pill quality.

  Before long, clumps of medicinal liquid floated within the furnace.

  “Gather Liquid!”

  Su Fan’s hands formed several rapid seals, guiding the liquid until it slowly merged into one mass.

  “Spinning Condensation!”

  Another series of seals. The liquid spun faster and faster… until it finally condensed into a shimmering sphere.

  At that moment, Su Fan cast several Solidifying the Elixir and Locking the Spirit spells.

  Three incense sticks later,

  “Open the furnace!”

  Su Fan surged his spiritual power and cast the Collecting the Elixir technique.

  With a roar, the furnace released a pale yellow pill, which landed neatly in his hand.

  But before he could celebrate, the pill darkened rapidly, turned black… and crumbled into ashes.

  Ning immediately understood the problem.

  “The locking-spirit and collecting-elixir steps were incorrect. You collected too early, before fully locking in the pill’s spiritual power."

  Though Ning wasn’t deeply trained yet, his perception was sharp. This was precisely why Su Fan allowed him to observe.

  When Su Fan became too absorbed and tunnel-visioned, Ning’s clarity made up for it.

  “Tsk!” Su Fan clicked his tongue in frustration.

  Meanwhile, Ning calmly gathered the pill residue.

  This could still be mixed into soil as fertilizer.

  This was one of the cases of alchemy supplementing the spiritual farming. Balanced as all things should be.

  ...

  Elder Shen took a slow sip of spiritual wine, exhaling contentedly before finally beginning his lecture.

  “The path of qi cultivation,” he said, waving the wine gourd lazily, “begins with essence and qi.”

  Ning straightened his posture. After all, it was not every day one could hear a Foundation Building cultivator preach.

  Only after pestering him for a long time did the lazy elder finally get into the mood today. Normally, such insights were not easily passed down, but with their recent collaboration and spirit stones as the bond, Elder Shen had clearly gotten quite used to Ning.

  “Essence and qi,” Elder Shen continued, “are simply a person’s internal breath, one’s fundamental vitality. The original qi of the human body is born from the balance of yin and yang. Only when spirit and flesh unite can this pure qi emerge.”

  He tapped his chest lightly.

  “People temper their bodies, cultivate their qi and blood, strengthen their bones. Meanwhile, meditation nourishes the spirit. Breathing techniques and guiding methods refine the internal flow. When practiced together, and aided by things like spiritual incense to calm the mind, the spirit, blood, and qi converge. And only then can one produce the first wisp of true qi.”

  Ning nodded repeatedly.

  The explanation wasn’t scientifically perfect, per se, but compared to vague phrases like ‘Feel the Dao around you’, this was a breath of fresh air.

  Elder Shen continued, voice slow but steady, “But cultivation is not rigid. Yin transforms to yang, stillness to motion. Everything cycles. All techniques, if applied correctly, lead toward the Great Dao.”

  “The spiritual root,” he said, “is one’s innate endowment. Without it, it is difficult to transform the body’s blood, qi, and spirit, and impossible to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Refining essence into qi? Forget it.”

  He swirled his wine, then pointed upward.

  “Once essence and qi mature, the spirit awakens. With spiritual awareness, you can sense the heaven and earth around you. The spiritual energy strengthens the body, fortifies the spirit, and gradually reshapes the physique toward Foundation Building.”

  Ning’s eyes brightened.

  “Foundation Building,” Elder Shen continued, “is the culmination of Qi Refining. When the physical body is nourished to its limit by spiritual energy, one breaks the constraints of heaven and earth, draws upon their essence, and condenses all accumulated essence and spiritual power into a firm foundation.”

  He lifted a finger.

  “In this stage, depending on the chosen Dao foundation, one may introduce either Mysterious True Essence or Heaven and Earth’s Various Evils.”

  “Mysterious True Essence refers to the wondrous qi of heaven and earth. For example, in the common ‘Sun-Bathing True Essence’ and ‘Moon-Bathing True Essence,’ mortals often speak of ‘Great Sun Purple Qi’ or ‘Moonlight Essence.’”

  “As for the Various Evils, they refer to the primordial qi of all things, divided into Heavenly Evils, Earthly Evils, and Human Evils. Earthly Lung Fire Evil and Military Formation Blood Evil are two well-known examples.”

  Elder Shen waved dismissively. “After completing the foundation, you open the Purple Mansion… but at your level, you don’t need to know that yet.”

  As expected of an elder-type character, they always stopped right before the important parts.

  He took another sip.

  “Before Foundation Building, the three major phases of Qi Condensation are simple: qi like silk, qi like a river, and qi like a tide. All of this describes how spiritual energy condenses.”

  Ning nodded. The entire reason he asked for this lecture was to gain insight into the dos and don’ts of the path ahead.

  “These stages describe how the spiritual energy gathers, thickens, and eventually becomes strong enough to surge through the meridians like a living force. That is the essence of Qi Condensation.”

  Ning bowed respectfully.

  “I understand. Thank you for the explanation, Elder.”

  Elder Shen waved him off. “Go, go. Cultivate while the insight is still fresh.”

  ...

  Returning home, Ning activated the small Spirit Gathering Formation carved into the floor. The air instantly thickened with spiritual energy.

  He sat down, popped a Purple Cloud Pill into his mouth, and began meditating.

  Ning was genuinely surprised by how Elder Shen’s explanation clarified things. Just those descriptive terms, silk, river, tide, made everything easy to visualize.

  No wonder novels always have long exposition scenes.

  As Elder Shen said, he was currently in the qi-like river phase. In this phase, the key was to accumulate qi intensely enough that it flowed powerfully through the meridians. Between the fourth and fifth stages, bottlenecks were rare; only those with poor talent or poor mental state struggled.

  Ning circulated his qi slowly, delicately.

  A thin stream…

  thickening…

  swelling…

  until it rushed like a river through his meridians.

  His breathing deepened.

  His dantian vibrated.

  Then, boom, a wave of qi surged, crashing like a tide.

  With that final push, the bottleneck shattered.

  Ning opened his panel to view his status, only to freeze in surprise.

  ...

  Thanks for reading~