blogombal Chapter 47 Attempting Alchemy
Chapter 47 Attempting Alchemy
[Completing the "Introduction to Alchemy" requires 9 cultivation points. Do you wish to invest?]
Another 9 points were needed. Lorne calculated his current "savings" and, feeling that it was more than enough, decisively invested!
[Remaining points: 17.]
In an instant!
Lorne felt as if there was a world in his mind, where heavenly splendor descended, spiritual springs gushed forth, Bodhi trees bloomed in the void, wondrous lotuses blossomed, auspicious herbs sprouted, and magical plants were blooming in all colors. Scriptures appeared in the sky, and countless methods and endless insights flowed into his heart like a gentle stream. Insights about alchemy naturally surfaced in his consciousness.
For a moment, he was somewhat dazed, as if he had been isolated in a cage for a long time and suddenly saw a wonderful world. Every plant and tree was so full of vitality and contained new philosophical ideas. All kinds of insights were born, and the various potion knowledge he had just learned took on a different appearance in his mind.
The "magic potion" became the "spiritual medicine," the medicinal herbs became the "medicinal properties," the medicinal liquid turned into vapor, and even the ordinary little crystal crucible in front of him seemed to have transformed into a heavy alchemy furnace.
Cold, heat, warmth, coolness; sour, bitter, sweet, spicy, salty; principal, assistant, adjuvant, and guide; mutual generation and mutual restraint... This knowledge about elixirs and alchemy was crudely crammed into his understanding, clashing violently with the potion-making knowledge that Professor Sylvie had previously taught, leaving his mind in complete chaos.
Cultural integration is always intense. Two completely different cultivation systems cannot be integrated without any differences. Lorne first studied potion-making and gained some understanding of it. Now, with the added insight into alchemy, he has become even more aware of the differences between the two.
Although "The Art of Alchemy: An Introduction" is only the beginning of the art of alchemy, the profound mysteries it contains are complex and subtle, no less so than those of potion-making. It not only describes the processing methods of various medicinal materials, but also contains a unique understanding of the universe, immortality, and all things in the world. It enters Lorne's mind with a magnificent momentum, allowing him to see everything from a different perspective.
After a long while, Lorne slowly opened his eyes and his gaze fell on the magical plant on the table called "Hemostatic Fern". This time, he did not look at the magical plant with his naked eyes like the students around him, but used his spiritual sense to perceive it in detail and "saw" a ball of light red "qi".
"Warm in nature and sweet in taste, its medicinal properties flow within the roots and stems..."
Then I looked at another "Moon Silver Flower".
"A cool, silvery-white aura, a pungent taste, light and ethereal... these are the characteristics and properties of medicinal herbs, subtly aligning with the principles of mutual generation and restraint among the five elements. Thousands of elixirs are refined based on this principle..."
His understanding of alchemy, elixirs, and other related knowledge continued to improve, corroborating his original knowledge of potion-making, and gradually becoming clearer and more comprehensive.
Professor Sylvie is already instructing everyone on how to concoct potions.
"I just demonstrated the steps for making the hemostatic ointment. Now try it yourselves as today's homework. Remember to control the temperature and don't make any mistakes in the steps. Let's begin."
The sound of crucibles clashing against stirring rods filled the classroom, and the students began to busily work away.
Lorne didn't rush to act. He stared at the potion plants and various tools in front of him, constantly comparing the potion recipes that Professor Sylvie had just explained with the alchemy knowledge he had just acquired. Potion science emphasizes the interaction of similar ingredients, while alchemy emphasizes the combination of ingredients. Potion science uses basic ointments as a medium to neutralize various potions, while alchemy uses "auxiliary ingredients" to harmonize the properties of the medicines. The two are different, but they also have commonalities in some areas.
"What if we used alchemy techniques... using a crucible as the furnace, spiritual sense as the fire, and magical potions as the ingredients, to refine these magical potions into pills? What would happen?"
A thought struck him, and his spiritual sense quietly emerged, enveloping the entire crucible. His spiritual sense was exceptionally sensitive, and every change in the inner wall of the crucible, as well as the flow trajectory of every wisp of medicinal vapor in the liquid, was clearly displayed in his mind.
He picked up the Blood-Coagulating Grass and threw the whole plant into the crucible. His spiritual sense instantly cut into the inside of the grass leaves, extracting the pale red medicinal energy from them one by one. The grass leaves themselves turned to ashes in the high temperature, and wisps of pale red light floated out of the ashes like fireflies, hovering above the crucible.
Viola, who was weighing the pollen of the moonflower nearby, caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of her eye and exclaimed in surprise:
"What are you doing? Throwing the whole plant in? Crush it and filter it first."
"A family heirloom." Lorne didn't even look up.
"A family heirloom?" Viola's expression froze for a moment, thinking to herself, what kind of family heirloom does an orphan like you have?
Seeing his serious expression, I swallowed my question back, but my expression was a little strange, and I wondered what he was imagining.
Lorne sprinkled the silver leaf pollen into the crucible again. Professor Sylvie had taught him to "stir three times, alternating between clockwise and counterclockwise," but he ignored that and directly used his spiritual sense to weave the silvery-white coolness and the pale red warmth together. The two medicinal energies, one red and one white, merged in the crucible at an incredible speed, without any violent reaction, as if they were meant to stay together.
"How did you do this so quickly? And why is your medicine glowing?"
Viola leaned closer, her eyes wide.
"The heat? You didn't even use a thermometer, you just relied on the back of your hand to test it?"
Lorne didn't answer; the most crucial stage of Core Formation had arrived.
He took a deep breath, and his spiritual sense surged into the crucible like a tide, compressing the fused golden liquid and rotating it continuously. The liquid became thicker and thinner, and finally solidified with a soft hum.
He lifted the lid of the crucible, and a rich, sweet aroma wafted out, like a mixture of honey, caramel, and freshly baked cookies, completely devoid of the bitterness of the ointment. The giant boy turned his head sharply, his nose twitching.
Viola curiously peered over, then looked surprised.
Inside the crucible were round, translucent candies, the deep red ointment nowhere to be seen, their surfaces gleaming with a faint golden light. Each candy was uniform in size, like amber soaked in sunlight.
"Is this candy?"
The giant boy, filled with curiosity, swallowed hard. "It smells so good!"
"Is this edible?"
"It should be okay, right?" Lorne himself was a little unsure. After all, this was his first time refining pills. Although he already had theoretical knowledge, theory and practice are not the same thing. There were many examples of people who were confident in their abilities but suffered a crushing defeat when they put them into practice.
Moreover, the concepts of potion-making and alchemy are different. Although the raw materials are the same, he uses alchemy to refine potions, extracting the medicinal properties and discarding some of the medicinal power of the raw materials. Therefore, the effect of this pill may not be the same as the original hemostatic ointment.
As he pondered the pharmacology and the effects of the combined medicinal properties and aromas, the greedy Viola swiftly picked up a pill and tossed it into her mouth.