Sunrise Alchemist 17: Progress in Alchemy (Patreon)

Verse didn’t feel a need to sleep and his bloodline was surging with power, so he headed for the courtyard. It was time to start preparing his Jade Foundation for his upcoming breakthrough to the Aligned realm.

He couldn’t build the full foundation yet, but now that he had a basic understanding of Wind, he could start constructing four of the five elemental pillars that supported it. That would create the basic structure so that when his breakthrough did arrive, it would be quick.

Only Stone would be left.

Days passed as he meditated in the courtyard and laid the groundwork. Fire, Water, Wood, and Wind swirled around him in intricate patterns that fused into his dantian one after the other. They formed ornate sigils as he used the fundamental truth of each natural element to create the new pillars of his cultivation.

It was complicated work, but the Jade Scripture laid out a clear path to follow.

Time flowed passed as the elements roared at the center of the courtyard, surrounding him in waves of power that spun like auspicious clouds. When he set the final sigil in place, he double checked that he had done everything he could.

Then he let out a deep breath and opened his eyes.

There were now four glowing pillars in his essence sea, respectively attuned to Fire, Water, Wood, and Wind. They were equidistant from one another, with a clear gap of the missing fifth pillar at the bottom of the arrangement.

He hadn’t touched the last one yet, not even for the basic foundation. Even the simplest part of it had to be created when he had a basic understanding of Stone.

The area that the pillars marked out was his entire essence sea. They were like four corners holding up the sky. Within the center of that area, on top of his essence sea, he would construct his Jade Foundation. It would be born from his essence like an island, becoming stable ground for the future.

From there, his cultivation would rise to the heavens.

Based on the philosophy of the Jade Scripture, the inner world of his dantian was a reflection of the greater truths of the outside world. The Aligned realm was the moment where he would establish his core five elemental truths, which would then form a powerful cycle of the dao.

It would enhance his energy in every way..

He needed to be at Touch of the Dao with the elements so they would balance the elemental truth of his inner world with the outer world. Otherwise, his cultivation wouldn’t be able to channel spiritual energy as well.

If he made an error in one of the elements or in building the foundation, his cultivation would always be flawed and it would be hard to reach higher realms unless he destroyed it and started over, but that was a dangerous route to take.

Now that he’d constructed four of the pillars, that was all he could do until he comprehended the basics of Stone. His plan for that required leaving the city, so that was the next thing to prepare for.

Before that, however, he took a few moments to clear his mind and to brew a pot of tea at the center of the courtyard. He had a small tea table that he set up, and before long the hot fragrance of tea drifted through the area.

This tea was one he’d acquired here, a product of Boreas’s fascination with spiritual herbs. The best area for these tea bushes was far away from the city, but the demand for them was high. The tea had a pleasant woodiness with a slight hint of orange and mint layered on top of a bold, oaky leaf that held a significant amount of spiritual energy.

He held the steaming cup in one hand and let the mist from it drift around him as he pulled out a communication plate and channeled some spiritual energy into it. It was one that Vesana had given him, something created by the White Cloud Auction House for their clients. The formation on it was designed to prevent eavesdropping.

There were ways around everything, but it was enough for now.

Fortunately, it didn’t take him too long to get a hold of her.

“Verse!” Vesana’s voice was happy as she spoke from the other side of the plate. “I tried contacting you a few times, but there was no answer! Is everything alright?”

“I’ve been cultivating,” he replied calmly. “The sect has been causing some trouble, but I’ll deal with it soon enough. I might need your help with that eventually.”

He didn’t plan to tell her about everything that was happening, but she was an important ally. She should at least know the basics. She would also be important for channeling the guild’s anger in the best way later on.

“Are you planning to fight them head on?” Vesana’s worry was obvious. “They’re really dangerous around here. Boreas is a big city, but it’s still just the capital of a middle province. Maybe if you were at the Inspired realm, you could do something, and if you were higher than that, you could eliminate them without any trouble at all, but otherwise....”

The Inspired realm was currently three realms above him. It wasn’t something he would reach for a while. Dao Echo past that was even further off.

“There’s more than one way to deal with a sect like this,” Verse replied. “I’ll let you know when it comes down to it. The most important thing is for you to make sure the Alchemists’ Guild knows what the sect is doing, even if they don’t act yet. Can you contact anyone in a higher branch who would be interested?”

“The guild enforcers would definitely want to know,” Vesana said, “but we still don’t have enough evidence against Renzer or the sect to make them act. I’ve been keeping an eye on new alchemists, and there was even one heritage one who arrived after you, but nothing happened to them. Otherwise, I would have come to see you directly.”

“It sounds like Renzer is being careful now,” he said. “All you can do is keep an eye on things. If he feels safe, he might slip up and try again.”

He spun the tea cup in his hand as he looked over the rim, his eyes on the courtyard as he thought about what to do.

“Tell one of the enforcers you can reach that you have suspicions about the sect kidnapping alchemists,” he said eventually. “Get them interested. Tell them you can’t prove it yet, but that four alchemists have gone missing and never returned home. Tell them I’m looking into it as well and that the sect has tried twice now to kill me. That’s not proof, but it should lend some weight. Then tell them you’ll keep looking for evidence.”
The problem of evidence was the most difficult part, but if the sect continued to attack him, he might be able to get the guild to move because of that. He was one of their alchemists, and it would look bad if they didn’t help him out. Being an Imperial Knight didn’t hurt either.

The best thing would be to catch the sect in the act or retrieve one of the kidnapped alchemists to prove it, but there were other options to make the guild move against them.

“The sect tried to kill you twice?!” Vesana’s shout echoed in Verse’s ear, making him wince. “Why didn’t you tell me that first?”

“I said they were causing trouble,” he replied. “It’s the same thing. But yes, two assassins snuck into my house a bit ago and another one just tried to kill me with a poisoned dart on the way home. The sect definitely doesn’t want me involved here, which is proof of a sort on its own.”

“I’ll tell some friends of my family,” Vesana said immediately. “I’ll get you an entire team of enforcers! I’m not going to let you die for helping me!”

“Don’t break the rules yet,” Verse said with a more related voice. “You only want to call them when it’s part of your job duties. If you ask them to come as a personal favor, and they find nothing, it won’t help your position here.”

“I don’t care if it looks like I’m bullying them anymore or if I get low marks here,” Vesana said angrily. “I’m calling my uncle!"

“That will work.” This time, Verse didn’t disagree with her.

He wasn’t sure if her uncle would act, but if he did, it was a good solution too. By the time he arrived, there should be more evidence.

More than that, if her uncle was strong enough, he could just waltz into the Crimson Shade Sect and demand to see all their alchemists as part of an investigation into the missing ones. It wasn’t polite, but it was normal for how large organizations acted.

He spent a few more minutes talking to Vesana about various details, as well as how her life as the deputy branch manager was going, but it wasn’t long before she went off to contact her uncle in the capital.

A smile creased his lips as he thought about her reaction to him being attacked. It made him like her more. She’d tossed aside her desire to fix things in secret as soon as she heard it. Even if her uncle arrived with an entire team of enforcers, there was still a chance to keep the guild out of the public eye and make her look good.

It was a matter of framing it the right way.

As for the sect’s future, that would be fine too. He didn’t have to crush them personally. As long as it was his claw that summoned the storm, it would satisfy his anger. But either way, he wasn’t planning to stay out of it.

When the pot of tea was empty, he flicked his sleeve to clear the dust from the area. Then he created an emerald soul cauldron from his bloodline energy and set it on the ground. This one was much larger than the first one he’d made.

It was a mark of his improvement since then.

It was time to focus on alchemy for a while.

He wanted some pills to deal with the sect and he also wanted his alchemy skill to be higher. He still needed to master the basic techniques. Now that he had most of his elements complete, it would be faster than before.

Things at the guild were stable for now and the sect was still lurking in the shadows, so as long as nothing extreme happened, there should be enough time to get some work done.

***

An emerald dragon with scales etched in gorgeous detail turned circles over the cauldron in front of Verse. It was made entirely of emerald flames, but it looked so life-like that it was hard to tell.

His affinity with Wood brought it to life, turning the Emerald Rain Dragon technique into something that almost had a spirit of its own. Each curve of its tail and bend of its wings radiated a harmony of the natural dao.

Below the dragon, a cauldron of Woodbalm Paste bubbled madly as droplets of energy from the rain dragon struck it, giving rise to a frothy effervescence that filled the courtyard with the scent of a medicinal forest.

Layered smells of mint, pine, orange, and a strong astringent tang overlaid a deep, verdant base. The paste was only made from two ingredients, but somehow it smelled like he’d condensed an entire forest inside, one that was just on the verge of the spring equinox where moss grew rampant and rain flushed everything with life.

Below the cauldron, dozens of tiny green scales made of flame kept the heat up.

The paste reached its peak swiftly and then began to condense as Verse reduced the temperature, until a moment later there was a layer of translucent green balm in the cauldron.

“Last one for now,” he said quietly as he swiftly put it away in boxes. He didn’t need to check the quality of it. Based on the scent, he already knew.

He’d made nearly 2,000 pastes over the past two months. His speed had increased until he was able to make around two batches an hour, and then he did almost nothing else, barely even sleeping. Every iota of his attention was focused on perfecting his techniques, regardless of the change in the paste.

Some of the results suffered for that, but his ability increased quickly.

It was fortunate that the paste was so simple, with only two ingredients that barely required any preparation. It allowed him to focus all of his attention on the techniques instead, with a clear change in the result when he used them correctly. The shrine had chosen well when he suggested it.

He looked down at the jade box of paste in his hand and grinned at it before he tucked it away.

It wasn’t the hardest recipe, just one for training basic skills, but the scent told him that it had reached master quality.

It was the first one that he could say he solidly understood and that had been under his control the whole time.

For the last several hundred pastes, he’d walked the edge between high and master quality, and some of the pastes had also ended up at master, but this time, he’d finally succeeded in understanding exactly why it turned out this way.

In other words, it was finally acceptable.

Alchemists in the modern empire might think harnessing 50% of an herb’s properties was enough, but from the dragons’ perspective, that was a complete waste. The only way to properly channel natural energy into medicine was to use all of it.

He closed his eyes to meditate for a while, consolidating everything that he’d learned from his latest practice. When he was ready, he opened his eyes.

A wave of emerald flame formed into a new cauldron in front of him. This one looked much more realistic than his cauldrons had been a month ago. It sat in front of him with a deep belly and a narrow lid that was thicker around the edge to sit heavily on the top and contain the pills boiling inside.

The deep emerald hue of its sides looked like it was cast from some type of rare bronze, and the scene imprinted around the outside was now clearly of dragons flying between clouds and mountains. A closer look revealed even more details, as the depths of the cauldron came to life.

Here and there, the outlines of potent herbs were visible from the mountain slopes and the plains below, and the clouds looked like they were swelling with energy. They weren’t completely visible yet, but the foundation was there.

That was the result of mastering these two techniques before he started on the rest of his alchemy. Emerald Rain Dragon and Thousand Scales of Emerald Flame together formed a complete foundation.

It was similar to mastering a basic sword form. He didn’t have all of the advanced skills, but his footwork was deft, his movements followed a reasonable pattern, and his technique was solid.

That meant it was time for the next step, the one he’d been looking forward to for a long time.

Making a pill.

The first one he intended to make was one of the simplest, but also one that would be very useful to him in the future: the Cleansing Rain Pill.

It was a solid antidote pill that was good against many different types of poisons. Its value came from its relatively cheap price to manufacture and the high efficiency it had. The trick in creating it was that the recipe relied almost exclusively on attunement to the natural dao to get the best effect.

That understanding had to be channeled into the pill as the alchemist aligned the medicinal properties to match. If it was done well, the pill would work. If it was done badly, it would be useless. The quality of the final product was based on how well integrated the elements were.

The trick for this pill was that the herbs needed for it were mostly aligned with the Dao of Water. As a cleansing pill based on that dao, it was extremely effective, but the Dao of Water wasn’t a common one for alchemists to have.

He did. It was the very first dao he’d comprehended.

A wave of his hand brought out a dozen sets of ingredients and he set them on a low table to his right. There were four herbs necessary for the pill, and as a bonus, they were all Rank 1.

The first was Yellow River Seed, which looked like a small golden seed pod that was full of sap. After that was Marrow Sprout, which looked like a stalk of dense white grass with a bone-like texture, and then there was Serene Willow, which was a cutting from a type of spiritual willow tree. It had both long willow leaves and some bark attached.

The last material was Lunar Water, which was water infused with spiritual energy from the moon. It could be created, as well as found naturally, and most alchemists would make their own if they had time.

He turned his full attention to the materials as he began to prepare them. Unlike the Woodbalm Paste, these materials needed to be processed in different ways before they could be used.

This was also one of the critical steps where the Dao of Water came in useful. Without it, it would have been easy to damage the herbs from the beginning. With his awareness of the core element, however, preparing the herbs was a simple task.

He separated the Yellow River Seed and removed the inner husk, which he set to the side to grind down later, and then he stripped the Marrow Sprout apart with deft fingers, turning it into a collection of pulpy strands that he placed inside the empty seed pod so the herbs could begin to mix.

Doing that helped to balance out some of the mild toxicity of the Marrow Sprout, which wasn’t a plant you wanted to eat raw. Once it was purged, it had a powerful reverse effect in cleansing other toxins from the deepest regions of the body.

Then he bathed the Serene Willow leaves in a bowl of Lunar Water, making sure they were saturated in its energy, before he pulled them out and set them on a board made of ash wood to dry. They glistened with droplets like the full moon as they began to glow with a soft light.

When he saw that, he nodded in approval. It meant that the nature of the water was beginning to enhance the leaves. It would take about thirty minutes before they were ready, but then they would be good for a few days until they needed to be bathed again.

That was all he needed to do to prepare. This pill wasn’t too complicated, so the initial work was fairly simple. Now the real test began.

His fingers wove a web of spiritual energy around the cauldron as two dozen scales of emerald flame ignited around the base. He began heating it slowly, letting the temperature increase until the entire cauldron radiated with waves of heat.

He knew it was ready when the outside turned a brighter emerald and looked translucent. The clouds and dragons engraved onto it began to turn like they were flying.

Without hesitating, he reached out for the Lunar Water and poured in a perfectly measured cupful. Once it was heated enough and began boiling, it looked like a full moon was rising inside the cauldron. The glow of silver light radiating from the opening.

Quickly, he tossed in three of the Serene Willow leaves, followed by a handful of Marrow Sprout. The two herbs hissed as they struck the boiling water at the same time, and the scent of something strange and bitter began to rise from the cauldron. It disappeared after a moment, replaced quickly by something sweet. Shadows of willow leaves rustled in the moonlight glow, which took on a color closer to white bone.

All of his attention was on the mixture as he sensed the flow of Water and maintained a steady heat. Now and then, he adjusted the emerald scales to shift the heat, making the contents swirl in response.

Gradually, the Marrow Leaf and Serene Willow leaves melted into the Lunar Water and the color of the mixture changed to a bright silver. As soon as it did, he threw in the Yellow River Seed and the remaining portion of the other two herbs.

Then his hands wove an intricate sigil in the air and an Emerald Rain Dragon appeared inside the cauldron, flying just above the mixture. It spun around in a dance as it pulled the Lunar Water after it, creating a whirlpool.

He instantly focused on the Dao of Water, pouring his spiritual sense into that flow of energy as he swiftly began to blend the properties of the herbs together with the energy of the moon.

This part touched on the celestial dao, the movement of the stars and the heavenly bodies, but it was an unfamiliar area for him. His dao was part of the Sun, and it was a much more violent aspect, even in its healing properties, than this gentle and serene face of the moon.

The Dao of Water enhanced the mixture of herbs into the whirlpool and almost instantly they dissolved into the mix, turning the whirlpool dense as it began to slow down.

At that moment, he flipped the lid onto the top of the cauldron and sealed it with a gesture. Then he began to increase the heat in a specific pattern, pushing the contents inside to continue fusing.

Meanwhile, he tracked everything happening inside the cauldron through his spiritual connection with it. This was one of the greatest advantages of using a soul cauldron. The process happening under the sealed lid was as clear to him as if he were looking straight at it, and he could feel every shift of energy inside, including whether it was balanced or not.

With his deft adjustments to the heat, the spiritual pressure inside the cauldron continued to rise as the herbs fully broke down. The whirlpool was still spinning, pulling the herbs around as everything mixed evenly.

When the time was right, he increased the heat even more, forcing the mixture to start condensing. The whirlpool began to slow down, and under the influence of his careful positioning of the flames, seven hot spots appeared where the energy concentrated.

The whirlpool broke apart into seven smaller, distinct swirls, which continued to condense, getting smaller and smaller as the energy inside them fused together.

Each of these spirals was a nascent pill, and it meant that the process had almost reached its critical point. From here, it was down to his finesse and understanding of the techniques.

He could have made up to a dozen spirals, but he’d settled on seven to be more cautious, since it was easier to maintain. It also ensured that more material was available for each pill. Twelve was the maximum he could make with this recipe, but it would require the finesse of a master and he knew he wasn’t there yet.

Above the seven spirals, the Emerald Rain Dragon continued to fly around the inside of the cauldron, maintaining a circular force that kept the pills from condensing too quickly.

He watched the process with serious eyes as he kept his attention on the flames, the rain dragon, and the principles of Water. Each twist of the spirals was a law of Water itself, condensing like a point in the ocean, and he did his best to enhance that energy.

Above the cauldron, a liquid ripple of Water energy began to form in the air, turning in the same direction as the pills inside. It slowly descended, trying to touch the cauldron and absorb the energy in it, but Verse reached out with a careful hand and seized control of it.

Under his will, the force of Water wrapped around the lid of the cauldron, creating a calm pool that seemed like it was waiting for something. He held it there, not letting it leave, as he completed the final steps of the process.

The heat reached the critical point and inside, one of the seven spirals began to wobble, its cohesion becoming loose. Without trying to reclaim it, he let it break apart and turn into a liquid stream that ran around the other six spirals, where it was quickly absorbed into those forming pills.

The remaining spirals grew more stable as a result, but then as he began to alter the pattern of heat to move to the last stage, one more of them began to fall apart. At his gesture, it quickly joined the others, leaving only five dense spirals inside the cauldron.

The heat shifted and the spirals grew tighter, condensing into five spinning spheres. He continued to let them condense, and then when they were rattling around inside the cauldron like five ball bearings, he opened the lid with one swift gesture.

The five pills shot upward with the releasing pressure, flying straight into the pool of pure Water that was waiting above the lid. With a beautiful hissing sound, they cooled off in an instant, losing most of their remaining heat.

At that moment, he reached out and swept them up with the lid in his hand. It was a smooth, gliding motion that kept the pills spinning around as they finished cooling off. All five of them rotated around on the lid like rolling gemstones.

They glowed like silver full moons.

Each of them was about two centimeters across and a perfect sphere. There were tiny wave patterns on their surface that were left over from the spirals that had formed them, and now those patterns spoke of subtle natural energies of the Dao of Water.

As they rolled around on the lid, they sounded like crashing waves and distant storms.

Slowly, he let them come to a halt as he looked down at them. There was a broad smile on his face. All of his hard work in basic techniques had resulted in this.

It was only five pills instead of the twelve he could have made with a perfect method, but it had worked. These were his first pills ever.

“Success,” he said with a smile. He turned to look at Leaf, who was sleeping off to the side in the courtyard. “What do you think?”
“Noisy,” Leaf complained as he opened one eye to look at Verse. His tail was over his nose. But there was a glint of amusement in the elemental’s eye that said he was just teasing. A moment later, he closed his eye again. “Good.”

“I’m glad you approve,” Verse said with a laugh.

“Good work, dragonling,” the shrine said with a yawn as he woke up. His attention was fixed on Verse’s work as he studied the result. He’d been silent for a while as Verse practiced, working on rebuilding his energy. “That’s a pretty good result for your first attempt. It’s still a waste of seven potential pills, but 40% isn’t a bad result for your first cauldron. Keep going and you’ll get more. The good news is that those pills are easily medium-quality. You can tell from the patterns on them. That’s thanks to your Dao of Water. It gives you a big advantage on this recipe.

“Remember to store them in a jade bottle to preserve the energy. Pills can break down quickly. If you have a really unique pill, you’ll need a special formation to preserve it. Some pills even require a long tempering process with a formation in order to reach their highest state, but you probably won’t see one of those for a while.”

Verse nodded as he pulled out a white jade bottle and transferred the five pills to it. The shrine had seen too much to be as enthusiastic as he was about the success, but he knew just how rare it was to succeed on the first try.

That was why he was still smiling.

“This is due to your guidance,” he said, giving credit where it was due. “Thank you.”

“It’s the least I can do to help you live up to your potential,” the shrine replied with another yawn. “How else are you going to be a proper dragon and help me find my old master? Wake me up when you need some help. It looks like you have things well in hand for the moment, so keep at it.”

Verse nodded in agreement as he looked down at the pill bottle in his hand. It was a sign of changing times, but it was only the first of many. Soon, it wouldn’t be just one pill that he’d made.

He stored the bottle away and then he looked over at the materials he’d prepared. There were eleven more sets of ingredients to work through here, and he would probably keep working on this single recipe until he was comfortable with it.

They might not all be as easy as this one, but failures were also part of learning.

There were other pills to make as well, but when he was facing a sect that was famous for its poisons, it didn’t hurt to have a lot of antidotes on hand. He might not be the only one who needed them soon.

Nonetheless, as he began preparing the next batch, he was already considering what to make next.