Sunrise Alchemist, Ch 18: Cleansing Rain Pills (Patreon)

Time passed swiftly as Verse continued working on pills. He made dozens of batches of Cleansing Rain Pills to improve his technique, which filled his bracelet with hundreds of jade vials full of antidote pills.

Each of them was like a miniature silver moon, and the marks of the Dao of Water on the surface were like ocean waves, each line holding a familiar and potent presence of natural energy.

As the quality of the pills increased, the dao markings began to shine with a gentle blue light, giving the pills a mystical quality. If he held them up to his ear, he could hear the sound of crashing waves.

As best as he could tell without poisoning himself and testing them out for real, the strength of these pills was very high. Draconic alchemy was an incredible art, one that brought together the strength of the world and the medicinal nature of the herbs to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

The Dao of Water infused them with a strong cleansing property and there was no harm in taking more than one. If one didn’t work, then just like many streams gathering to form a river, the strength of the antidote would increase if you took more.

It wouldn’t work against every poison out there, but it should be enough to deal with a lot of what the Crimson Shade Sect was able to bring out.

At the very least, he was sure that it would work on the poisons he’d seen from them so far: the bone-melting one on the dart, the contact poison they’d placed on his door, and the clouds of poison they had used in his courtyard.

Those poisons were like a sandcastle on the shore. They might resist a single wave, but if they were constantly struck, they would fall. The stronger poisons would just take more than one antidote pill to overcome.

Day by day passed as he continued to work on the pills in his courtyard, making one batch after another while he tried to bring out the best from each batch.

After a week or so, however, he noticed something strange happening to the emerald soul cauldron he was using. The emerald exterior was slowly being infused with blue lines similar to the ones on the pills.

“What is that?” he asked with a puzzled expression as he studied the change. “It feels like the Dao of Water?”

“That’s exactly what it is,” the shrine agreed with a yawn as it woke up and studied the cauldron with him. “That cauldron is made from your soul, and you’ve been studying the Dao of Water while making those pills. The change to the cauldron is harmless, but it’s a good marker of what affinity you’ve been using the most.”

“It doesn’t feel like it’s harmful,” Verse said with a frown. “But does it affect the quality of the pills at all?”

“Some pills require a single-minded focus on a specific dao,” the shrine said, “and the changes to the cauldron are one way to track whether or not you’ve reached the right state. For this one, you should notice that it’s slightly easier to get a high-quality pill as the color becomes more blue, but it’s not going to help that much.

“If you were focused on Stone and kept making pills for long enough, your cauldron would eventually leave a stone replica behind. Since this one is infused with Water, if you keep practicing, you might leave behind a pool of pure water or even create a natural spring from the earth at this spot. You’re not there yet, but it’s possible.

“This is where many strange natural features of the world have come from,” the shrine added with a laugh. “Great pools of natural lunar water, unique mountain ranges with a strange elemental affinity, hidden valleys of Wood to grow herbs, caves filled with purified metal essence, you can make them all if you try hard enough. Draconic alchemy changes the world around it.”

“It would be interesting if a pool of water sprang up here,” Verse said. “Although, I don’t know if the city would appreciate me undermining their foundation.”

There was already a stream in his courtyard, though, so perhaps it wouldn’t cause too much trouble. At any rate, the presence of Water in his cauldron wasn’t that intense yet. It was just beginning to appear.

He was thoughtful as he studied the markings, but since they weren’t causing any trouble, he turned his attention back to his work.

One day passed into another, marked only by the swirling force of Water and the shining pills that streamed from his cauldron.

He had enough herbs to make over a thousand batches, so he didn’t worry about ingredients. He focused his attention on the nature of the pill and its relationship with the dao, doing his best to increase the potency and improve the quality.

It was a worthwhile study, since it gave him a chance to see how the dao merged with the pill and changed the nature of the ingredients, enhancing them past what they could otherwise be.

As he worked, the dao markings on his cauldron continued to increase, and they never felt out of place. It was like the subtle presence of the ocean flowed through the cauldron, surrounding the pills and naturally supporting them.

He kept working on new batches until he felt like he had a basic handle on the process of making pills. By the time he felt satisfied with them, most of his batches were turning out as high quality.

He’d also managed to increase the number of pills per batch to 9. It wasn’t the maximum, but it was still noteworthy. It took a very careful balance to reach that point. 12 would be perfection.

“That will work for now,” he said as he held up one of the pills from the batch he’d just finished and examined it.

The subtle roar of ocean waves came from the dao markings on the surface. It changed now and then to the fast patter of rain striking the earth and then to the rumble of a thunderstorm.

The amount of spiritual energy in a single one of these pills was similar to a mid-grade spirit stone. He wasn’t sure what they would sell for, but it would definitely be over that.

He could continue on to master the recipe, and there was a great temptation to it, but it would take a while. Since the sect was causing trouble, he had other things he needed to work on.

High quality was good enough for now.

He placed the latest batch of pills into a white jade bottle and stored it away in his bracelet with the rest. There were over two hundred bottles of Cleansing Rain Pills in there, one for each batch. They all had somewhere between 4 and 9 pills inside.

He could have combined them by quality and saved some bottles, but he liked keeping them separate as a way of studying the difference between each batch. It helped him to see where he’d gone wrong.

He wasn’t concerned about using so many bottles. He had thousands of them in a spare storage ring. If there was one thing that Boreas didn’t lack, it was pill bottles. They were dirt cheap and cost less than a silver each. A single low-grade spirit stone could buy a dozen of them.

At this rate, he was going to have an entire horde made out of pill bottles. The thought made him chuckle.

When everything was cleared away, he glanced at the communication plate from Vesana as he considered contacting her. It had been a few weeks since they’d last spoken.

A quick message, however, confirmed that no new alchemists had gone missing. Another heritage alchemist had appeared, but they’d been registered in a perfectly normal manner. Whatever Renzer and the sect were up to, they were keeping a low profile.

It made Verse frown as he considered what the sect was up to. He still wanted to know what they were doing with the heritage alchemists. If he figured that out, he had the feeling that many things would be clear.

“There is one strange thing though,” Vesana told him with a teasing laugh. “I’ve heard that you are to be treated as an honored guest of the guild. Isn’t that interesting?”

“It sounds like Renzer is trying to behave while I’m around,” Verse said as he narrowed his eyes. “If we’re going to catch him colluding with the sect, we’ll have to be focused about it. Your uncle will need some proof as well.”

“I have an idea for that,” Vesana said cheerfully. “I bought several useful items from the auction house that should let me keep a close eye on him. I’ll know when he does anything strange. I’d thought about doing this before, but he is the branch manager and I didn’t want to offend him if he found out. Now that I’ve called the guild to come investigate, it doesn’t matter anymore. He’ll be offended either way.”

“Let me know if you find anything,” Verse said with a nod. “I’ll be heading out of the city for a short while soon, and I expect the sect will try to cause trouble while I’m gone. That might be a good opportunity. I’ll let you know when I leave.”

“Don’t leave too quickly,” Vesana said quickly. The sense of a smile came through in her words. “It’s a small town, but there are still lots of things to do. I know a great little tea house near the river. They have a Green Mist Tea that is hard to find.”

“Then we should try it,” Verse agreed with a laugh. “Perhaps in a few days?”

“How about tonight instead?” Vesana replied with delight. “I’m going to be busy at the guild soon with some tasks that need to be arranged, but I’m free today.”

“Alright,” Verse said easily as he looked up at the sun. It was only mid-afternoon at the moment. “I’ll see in a few hours at your office.”

After a few more words, Verse put the communication plate away. He was smiling as he looked up. It had been a while since he’d seen Vesana in person.

She was more than pleasant company.

Going out in public meant that they would have to keep their conversation to lighter topics, so they couldn’t plan how to deal with the sect. That would have to wait for the secured room at the auction house or through their communication plates.

In other words, this was a date.

A spark of amusement ran through him as he considered what would happen if the sect tried to attack while they were together. Beyond the fact that he would kill them as soon as they appeared, there was good reason for them to stay far away from her.

Her background made her a dangerous target. If the sect threatened her, it would be more than enough reason for the guild to destroy them as soon as her uncle arrived. They would be signing their own death warrant.

It should be fine to go out.

He was looking forward to seeing the town with her. There were a lot of places he hadn’t explored yet. It also made him laugh that she thought Boreas was a small town. It was one of the largest cities in the middle provinces, and enormous by the standard of anything except the capital.

It would probably make Renzer uneasy to hear about the two of them spending time together, since he would wonder what she was up to. That was a secondary but important reason to go out today, even if it pulled him away from his work.

If they could scare the branch manager into acting irrationally, it would be easier to gather evidence on him.

Plans flickered through Verse’s mind as he considered the issue from different angles, as well as how to use the rest of the afternoon. He’d been planning on starting the next pill, but that could wait until tomorrow.

There was something else he could do with the next few hours.

He meditated for a moment to clear his thoughts. Then he pulled out the Guardian Bark and Forest Emerald from his soul space. They shone in his hands, one of them like a rough golden bar that gleamed with dense energy, and the other like a glowing green forest heart.

He took a deep breath as he focused on his bloodline, pulling the thread of emerald energy from his veins to the surface. Swirling emerald mist poured out around him and created a bank of shimmering fog in the courtyard.

The bloodline energy flowed down his hands and wrapped around the two natural treasures, surrounding them in emerald flames. Gradually, their shapes began to melt away as Wood energy poured into his veins.

The two treasures were full of Wood energy, enough to create a tidal wave of it, but the instant it met his bloodline, it was cleanly absorbed with barely a ripple. The force of vitality fused into his body as he directed it to the first layer of the Nine Dragon Meridian Art.

His lungs filled with power as he drew in energy from the world, following the technique of First Dragon Breathing. Lightning bolts of green Wood energy crackled along his ribcage and poured into the first meridian.

Meridians were mystical pathways for channeling power and the draconic ones were more complex than any others he’d heard about. This one circled his head like a crown and then ran down to his heart, where it split into two parts and then headed out along his arms to his hands. From there, it looped back to his heart before it descended to his vital region and then split into two pathways to reach his feet.

It was a complete pathway that touched every core region of his body, like a tree trunk creating a solid foundation for the future.

A wave of vitality roared through his body, making his bones crackle as the outline of silver scales appeared on his skin. The Guardian Bark and the Forest Emerald had a significant amount of energy in them.

If they’d been used in pills, some of it would have been wasted. As he absorbed it, however, no trace escaped. The progress of his first meridian doubled, moving from 10% to 22% before the items crumbled to dust.

The emerald thread of his bloodline surged in a fury as it drank in the energy. When it settled, it was wider than before and the density had increased significantly. It felt like there was more depth to it, like the top of an emerald sea.

He let out a breath that was filled with emerald flames. It crackled in the air of the courtyard before fading away.

Leaf looked up from where he was curled around the base of a bamboo stalk, his attention fixed on the flames, but then he just bobbed his head in a short nod and closed his eyes again. In his opinion, dragons were expected to breathe fire, so there was nothing too surprising about it.

Verse stretched his arms as he studied the changes. His physique had grown more powerful, both in terms of crushing strength and durability, and his physical regeneration had improved.

He brushed the dust of the two treasures off his hands before he stood up and stretched. It would take more than a couple of treasures to fully empower his bloodline, but this was good progress.

One day, that thread of emerald energy would be his blood and completely fill his veins. That would be the beginning of a new era. Even now, he could feel that his aura was denser than before, and his physical strength was pushing past the peak of the Aligned realm.

The barrier between realms wasn’t so easy to break through, but his bloodline was making it look simple.

If he could find more Wood-aligned treasures, it might be possible for his body to reach the Aligned realm or even the Primal realm long before his spiritual cultivation. He would have to prioritize that, since it would give him a strong advantage when fighting the sect.

It sounded like a trip to the auction house was in order.

He glanced up at the sun, which told him there were still a couple of hours left in the afternoon. There should be just enough time to see what they had available before he met up with Vesana.

He didn’t have an enormous amount of spirit stones left, only about 800 mid-grade ones altogether, but he did have a lot of Woodbalm Pastes and antidote pills to sell. It would be a good way to get rid of some of his earlier batches.

The guild was next to the auction house anyway.

***

Verse kept his attention on the surroundings as he passed through the city and headed for the Alchemists’ Quarter. As he walked, Leaf was hidden away on his shoulder like usual. The streets were filled with the bustle of merchants and travelers, but there was no sign of sect assassins.

There was little chance they’d given up after their earlier attempts failed, so they were probably keeping an eye on him from a distance, waiting for an opening or for him to leave the city.

He’d been working on pills for a while, so hopefully the sect was suffering from unrelenting boredom. They were cultivators and used to long meditation, so it was unlikely that a couple of months would shake their mindset, but it was still an amusing thought.

“It’s only fair to wish frustration on our enemies,” he said with a grin as he rubbed Leaf’s head. The thought of passing time brought something else to his mind as well.

“That reminds me, there’s only a few months left until the Azurewind Guard induction ceremony, or maybe a bit less. I should check in there and see if they have any missions that meet my requirements. It wouldn’t hurt to double up, especially if the rewards are good.”

He needed a location with a strong Stone presence for his breakthrough, so if there was a mission available that coincided and that didn’t take too long, it would be convenient.

It would also improve his status in the guard and count toward the required mission he needed to complete each decade. He wasn’t in a hurry to finish that one, but it wouldn’t hurt to check it off either.

It didn’t take him too long to reach the guild. This time, as soon as he approached the doors, the guards snapped to attention and gave him an imperial salute, almost like they were legionnaires.

“Lord Knight, your presence graces the Alchemists’ Guild,” one of them announced formally. “How may we assist you today?”

It was vastly different from the last time he’d arrived, but for a moment he was surprised. Then he remembered what Vesana had mentioned about him being an honored guest of the guild now.

Apparently, Renzer had been busy.

“I’m just here for pill certification and sales,” he said as he returned the salute. He bid them farewell as he headed into the guild. The guards just nodded in reply and returned to their duty.

While it was nice to be recognized, it didn’t change any of his plans toward Renzer, so he pushed it out of his mind as he walked toward the appraisers.

This time, he didn’t need directions.

This time, Heten was away somewhere and it was a different appraiser. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the dao markings on the side. A flurry of activity followed as she examined it in different ways, from scraping off a tiny amount of the exterior coating and simmering it in a vial, to using half a dozen spirit testing formations to assess it.

As she worked, occasional mutters could be heard about the absurdity of what she was seeing.

“This is definitely a medium-quality Rank 1 pill,” she said when she finished studying it, but at the same time she was shaking her head in disbelief.

She held it carefully on a white jade plate that was inscribed with a stasis formation to keep the potency from dissipating as she looked at him. The certification letter approving the pill was on the table in front of her, already signed.

“To have dao markings as a Rank 1 pill is unheard of. They usually only appear on Rank 4 and higher pills, and rarely at that. Even Rank 6 pills don’t have them all the time, and any pill of that grade is legendary. This is the first time in all my years as an appraiser that I’ve seen anything like this.

“Those markings put this pill at the very top of its rank, but it’s better off in a collection than being consumed, though I don’t doubt its effectiveness. How in the world did you achieve this?”

“It’s a heritage pill,” Verse said calmly, covering up the truth of the matter with something that the appraiser could accept more easily. “It does have a high requirement in the Dao of Water to create it, as well as the heritage requirements.”

“I can imagine,” the appraiser said slowly as she handed it back to him. “Are you planning on selling those to the guild? If so, I suggest charging a premium for them and not selling too many. There will be many who want to study them. If you can make them like normal pills, you should take advantage of that early surge to get the best price.”

“I won’t turn down extra spirit stones,” he said with a sudden grin. His opinion of this appraiser went up a notch too, since it was obvious that she was nothing like Heten. She was clearly interested in the pills, but doing her best to help him.

“Do you have a suggestion for the price?” he asked.

“A normal medium-quality Rank 1 pill would sell for perhaps 20 low-grade spirit stones,” she said carefully, “but for that one people might pay a thousand or even more, at least until the novelty wears off. If you only had one, you would want to auction it, but since it seems like you want to sell a lot of them, it’s not the best choice. It would make you enemies to do it like that.”

Verse nodded in agreement. If he auctioned one pill for a high price and then immediately sold others for a lower price in bulk, it would offend the person who won the auction, and possibly their allies as well. He could still do it, but he would have to separate the auction from the bulk sales by a long time, and that sort of delay wasn’t something he was interested in.

It would be easier to just sell them to the guild and let them deal with it.

“Thank you for the advice,” he said as he placed a bottle of Cleansing Rain Pills on the table. “Please, accept these as a token of appreciation.”

The appraiser’s eyes were wide as she looked down at the pills and then back up to him, but before she could say anything, he gave her a quick smile and walked away. The certification letter for the pill was already stored away in his bracelet.

It didn’t take him long to reach the trading office. It was the same clerk he’d met there the last time and after a short discussion there, he ended up selling 300 of the Cleansing Rain Pills to the guild for 900 low-grade spirit stones each, which came out to 5,400 mid-grade stones.

Just the first handful of them was enough to satisfy the requirement for the guild’s annual support. It didn’t look like that was going to be an issue any longer.

“Do you have any high-grade spirit stones?” he asked as the clerk was counting out the sale.

“7,500 low-grade stones to one high-grade stone,” the man replied with a bland nod. “It’s the standard price for them here and you’re limited to purchasing 100 per year. High-grade stones are in short supply. If you’re found reselling them for a higher price, the guild will blacklist sales to you and you’ll suffer other penalties. They’re intended only for your recipes or personal cultivation.”

It was a high price, though in the middle range of what he’d expected. Verse frowned as he considered the issue.

“I’ll take ten of them then,” he said after a moment. He didn’t like spending so much on them, but high-grade spirit stones were the best if he needed a supplement while breaking through.

The Bright Storm Wine should take care of the energy requirement this time, but he had to plan for the future. The more of them he had, the better.

“Very well, I’ll retrieve them for you.” The clerk returned a few minutes later with a jade case that he set on the counter.

He flipped the lid open to show the neat rows of ten high-grade spirit stones inside and then quickly shut it again to prevent any excess energy from escaping.

“That’s 10 high-grade spirit stones and 3,900 mid-grade ones then,” he said as he pushed everything across the table.

“I’d also like to sell these pastes,” Verse said with a grin as he placed a storage ring on the counter. “Similar to last time, but higher quality, including some master-quality ones.”

The clerk let out a short sigh at the interruption, but he turned to the ring and began to evaluate the pastes inside. There were almost 2,000 of them in there, so it took him a little while.

Verse had spent a little time practicing with the paste in between making Cleansing Rain Pills, to get a better idea of the difference in techniques, so he had a handful of master-quality ones to sell, as well as some that he was reserving for his own use.

He kept two dozen of the master-quality pastes for his own supply, just in case something came up, but he gave the clerk everything else he’d made. At the end of it, he sold the master-quality pastes for 50 low-grade spirit stones each and the rest for around 30.

“That adds another 59,120 low-grade...which comes out to 1,182 mid-grade and change,” the clerk said when he finished counting them up. After returning to the guild vault, he set another bag of spirit stones on the counter. “There you are.”

“Do you have any other Wood treasures available?” Verse asked as he gave the tired-looking clerk a grin.

Unfortunately, the clerk just shook his head. “I’m sorry, but the supply of those is limited and I can’t sell you any more immediately, at least not until you reach Rank 2 as an alchemist. That will be when you can supply pills of that rank to the guild.”

Verse nodded as he swept the bags off the counter and stored them away. He hadn’t expected to find more here, but it was worth a shot.

“See you next time,” he said with a grin as the clerk recorded the transaction in his guild plate.

As he walked away, there was a cheerful energy in his step. He hadn’t expected he would earn that much from the Cleansing Rain Pills, but it definitely helped his finances.

He had almost 6,000 mid-grade stones now. It was three times what he had when he arrived in Boreas. Alchemy was looking more promising with every passing day.

He glanced up through the ceiling to where the sun was in the sky. Although it wasn’t visible, he could still sense its position. There was still some time before he met up with Vesana.

That meant it was time to visit the auction house. Hopefully, he could find something good there.