The Science of Cultivation- Chapter 104: Vein Flow Calculation Method (Patreon)

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At the summit of the largest mountain within The Great Trial of Water Crest, there laid a simple lone hut. If one were to venture inside, they wouldn’t find the typical interior of a structure. Instead, they would find themselves in a world of yellow clouds and purple skies. The clouds stretched across the horizon as far as the eye could see. Even the ground itself was made up of these same clouds.

The entire expanse was empty except for three small glowing orbs of light that floated frantically about. They differed in color, consisting of orange, blue, and green.

Most people would believe it was some sort of Qi art or phenomenon, but in reality, they were the artifact spirits of the mountain that were in charge of the trials.

The artifact spirits were currently panicking. It was a rare sight to see them troubled, as it could view everything that went on within its grounds. Little fazed the experienced artifact spirits, which meant they noticed something unprecedented.

They eventually stopped flying around aimlessly and fell into the clouds below. In an instant, three teenaged figures appeared in their place. It was their habit dating back to a time when their master was still alive, transforming into a humanoid form whenever they discussed something serious. 

“What do we do? What do we do, green? At this rate, we will run out of energy entirely in a few years,” a teenage boy in orange robes asked with a frown, pulling on his companion in green.

“Get off me! Why are you asking me? I know as much as you do!”

“...If only we could control the pocket realm to start absorbing the Qi from the outside world. Then we wouldn’t be having this problem.”

“Shut up, Orange! You know that’s impossible without someone controlling us. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t changed my mind and I won’t change it. I will never yield to anyone else as our master!”

“Now, now, you two. Settle down. I’m sure Orange didn’t mean to say we should find a new master. We all swore to only serve our one true master for the rest of eternity.” The only female of the three mediated as she inspected her blue robes. “Since we do not know the root cause, we must remain vigilant while monitoring the new challengers even more closely.”

“That’s easy to say!” Green shouted. “But we have our master’s legacy at stake! At this rate, this will be the last trial we’ll be able to hold. Once we’re drained of Qi, it’ll be impossible to recover without someone at our reins! I say we should just banish every single one of those challengers right away! It may be against our master’s orders, but we were also told to carry out these trials for as long as we can.”

The woman in blue robes said nothing and only gave Green an icy glare. It instantly silenced the loud man.

“Umm, calm down, guys. We’re only making it worse if we fight among ourselves.”

Orange’s words drew the attention of both parties. The intensity in their eyes softened when they landed on the nervous young man in orange robes.

“Orange is right. Master always said never to get emotional when making decisions. Let us continue to observe these new challengers. We know they are most likely the source of the anomaly. We must strive to deal with this without breaking any rules our master has set.”

With that, the three artifact spirits all stared blankly out into the distance. They were directing their attention to the numerous cultivators below.

“If the disturbance is this strong, it must be from one of the more talented challengers. We should direct more attention to monitoring the most talented among them. I will watch the girl wearing clothes that share my color,” Blue declared.

“Then I’ll watch over the kid with white hair.”

“Then…I’ll watch other the girl in grey.”

With their assignments delegated, the three figures soon turned back into glowing orbs of light and floated away.

-----

Inside a splendid refining room, a lone boy was completely focused on his task at hand. He had his hands on his pill furnace, and silverish-blue flames could be seen within it.

With the intense pill-refining session going on, one would expect him to be drenched in sweat, especially having worked nonstop for the past four hours. However, his robes were completely pristine. Only those who were in the room with him could figure out why. That was because the room’s temperature was completely moderate, a far cry from what you would expect during a pill refining session.

The Primordial Star Fire had allowed Li Lang to more precisely control the heat. While it synergized well with his mass-production method, the same could be said with the traditional alchemy methods. 

It allowed him another tool in his endeavor to nurture the nascent pill within his furnace. No longer would he have to worry about the fire suddenly flaring up because a material drew a little too close. His flames completely enveloped the space within the furnace while being fully under his control. 

His practice of managing the temperature in different sections within the fire had been paying off. On his seventh attempt at refining a top-quality pill, Li Lang finally succeeded! It may have appeared easy, but it had been backed up by weeks of hard work.

He had spent so much time on it that he was left behind by all his peers. They had all moved on to the combat trials, as every bit of progress became harder and harder. It was also because they wanted a breath of fresh air, studying new techniques.

“Fourth round passed. The challenger is awarded eighty trial points. The next round is starting shortly.”

It was only after having read the notification that he had completed his task that Li Lang dared to relax and plopped himself down on the floor. The glowing words quickly changed to display his next trial, but he barely paid attention to it.

He was instead focused on the new pill he had just refined. It was his first and only top-quality pill. He couldn’t help but be mesmerized by it. He couldn’t wait to have Ruby analyze it. He may already have a good idea of what the results would be, but he still wanted to take a closer look at his handiwork.

A top-quality Recovery Pill wasn’t something often seen on the market. At least not Mortal-grade ones. Usually, they were refined by apprentice alchemists, so they would be dubious in quality. The more experienced alchemist wouldn’t be wasting their precious time on the low-level version of the pill. All this made it a rare sight and usually doubled the price of the average quality version.

Laymen may find the price not worth it compared to a standard Recovery Pill. That was because the effects were only thirty percent better at most. It could close larger wounds at a more rapid pace, but it still couldn’t deal with a lost limb. 

However, what laymen would fail to consider was how advantageous it was to have access to such a pill in dire situations. One often didn’t have many opportunities to take a pill in the middle of combat, so when they could, having a more effective pill could turn the tide of a battle.

It was such a big advantage that the offspring of the large organizations would have space rings filled with Earth-grade pills and higher if they could use them. Unfortunately, for them, the power contained in those high-grade pills wasn’t something their body could handle.

Before long, the trial deemed Li Lang had failed the fifth round. He had noted that the next trial was about creating an elemental variant of a Qi Replenishment Pill, but he was too exhausted to proceed. Even if he wasn’t, he knew he wouldn’t succeed at an unfamiliar task without some time to research it. He was happy to receive the new reward that may help him in this endeavor and work his way one step at a time.

This time, the trials didn’t award him anything unorthodox. It was an alchemy manual titled Vein Flow Calculation Method. While he hadn’t gone over in detail yet, his skimming allowed him to learn that it was a technique to assess and calculate materials.

It was comparable to a Qi version of a scanner. It allowed its practitioner to thoroughly analyze the properties of materials. Specifically, it allowed the practitioner to know what elements a material had an affinity for.

Needless to say, Li Lang was ecstatic about his new reward. Despite being a top scientist back in his previous life, it didn’t mean he was multi-talented in all fields. Specialization was the norm, and he specialized in biodefense, specifically against alien biofaunas. That meant he couldn’t just recreate the advanced lab equipment he used in this new world.

The more advanced the society, the more people sought to make things easier. People from Li Lang’s old world relied on their fancy tech like AI companions heavily. It gave Li Lang a lot of comfort knowing there were noncombat Qi techniques that he could use to assist his research.

With the reward in hand, he exited from the trials just in time for the daily meetups with his companions. He let out a sigh of relief upon realizing he wouldn’t be late. It would’ve been awkward if he was tardy or missed the scheduled event.

One month after Tang Yulian’s breakthrough, it was time for Li Lang to make good on his promise. He and his companions were allowed to spectate the breakthrough in exchange for guiding Tang Yulian in the art of brushweaving.

Walking into the mess hall, it was hard to miss the unstrained aura of a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Tang Yulian noticed him from beginning to end, staring at him like a hawk. By her side was Sima Xue who watched on with a smug expression.

However, Li Lang wasn’t fazed. That was because he was busy thinking up ideas to train his soon-to-be proteges. There weren’t a lot of chances to get a Foundation Establishment expert to listen to instructions. Li Lang couldn’t help but want Tang Yulian to test out some theories he had.

He walked over with an unsettling grin on his face. Unbeknownst to the girls, the madman before them was entirely unafraid of making them into his guinea pigs!

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