The spirit phantom was gazing at Shi Lang's face as if staring at a dumb guy. He asked, "Do you realize what you are asking from me to do?"
Shi Lang nodded but did not speak any further. The phantom said, "In my entire life, I have never came across someone quite like you. Asking for my inheritance when you are not even a member of the Medicine God Valley. Let me ask you, do you even know how to concoct a potion?"
Shi Lang shook his head and said, "No, sir."
"What were they thinking when they asked you to come here?" asked Yama in an exasperated tone.
The Terran raised the cloth covering his arm and said, "Senior Yama, this is the remnant of a Sovereign's soul. He was betrayed by another expert from the Martial Council."
Yama trained his gaze at the dragon tattoo and said, "Is this person very important?"
Shi Lang replied, "Umm, he commands the strongest army at the front. They surpass the strength of the united armies. So, I guess he is somewhat important. Another thing is, my sister is his Dao Companion."
Yama realized that more than anything else, Shi Lang was here because of his sister. He took a deep breath and said, "I will give you a chance just because you staked your life coming here through all the dangers and threats of the Titan Mountains."
Shi Lang bowed and said, "Thank you very much Senior. I will not let you down."
Yama scoffed and said, "Forget about me kid, you better not let yourself down. This is not going to be as easy as killing someone. Alchemy is an art of creation, it can bring forth life, and snatch away people from the clutches of death. In one month, you will have to raise your level to a grand alchemist, only then will you be getting a glimpse at my inheritance. Otherwise, forget it."
Shi Lang was stunned, because people would take ages to rise to the grandmaster level. He was a master forger and even with all the knowledge he learned in the federation, he was not sure if he would be able to rise to the higher level any soon.
He asked doubtfully, "Senior, is it possible if I bring out your inheritance to a suitable candidate of the Medicine God Valley?"
Yama shook his head and said, "If it were possible, I would have sealed my entire soul inside the bead for someone to extract it later. However, my own Dao Laws make it impossible for me to do that."
He sat down to meditate. Shi Lang was not in a hurry to look at the cauldron and check the material, he first wanted to access the knowledge in his mind and digest it all. Only when he had the theory knowledge nailed down will he be able to pass through the practical application.
Shi Lang took two days to sort out the knowledge in his mind. Then he stood up and inspected the cauldron and the space ring to check the materials. The Terran familiarized himself with the herbs stored in the space ring, and then he took out the simplest recipe in his mind, the body refinement potion as a practice material.
The cauldron was engraved with flame control arrays, one had to infuse spiritual energy in them to control the temperature. Shi Lang tried using it once without any herbs inside the cauldron. When he developed a sense of familiarity with the cauldron, he took a deep breath and began to put in the herbs according to the potion formula.
His speed was steady and his spiritual energy output was controlled too. Yama's spirit phantom was monitoring him in the void, and could not help but think that Shi Lang was a genius.
A genius would be the person who managed to excel at everything. That was Yama's initial response because in his eyes, Shi Lang had never held a herb in his hand let alone preparing a potion with such ease and mastery.
What he did not know was that Shi Lang had been simulating every process in his mind over a thousand time. This was a gift of being an evolved human. Shi Lang could visualize himself doing a lot of things and when his visualization was detailed enough, his body would act just how he wanted it too.
After an hour, Shi Lang finished the product, and thought about how to check the effect, and heard a sound from the void, "This is pass. You qualify as an Alchemy apprentice."
Shi Lang was stunned but realized that it was Yama's spiritual presence that was monitoring him. Then began a storm of work where Shi Lang created one potion after the other, and he only took a fifteen minutes gap between every potion.
One reason was to comprehend the things he learned from the earlier process and the other was to regain his spiritual energy. Even Yama could not help but recall how long it took him to realize that he needed to spend some time to comprehend things from every concoction. He even had the urge to sigh repeatedly thinking that such a talented guy was busy fighting as a martial artist.
...
After fifteen days, Yama's spirit phantom had grown numb to Shi Lang refining pills. It was not that this guy only refined pills but he even improvised the pill formulas in his possession. These formulas that existed from ancient times were being improvised by a guy who had no knowledge of alchemy fifteen days prior to this.
He did not know how to express his shock and awe about the things before. Many time he had the urge to stop Shi Lang in the process and then tell him to accept the inheritance. However, the alchemist inside him wanted to see how far this guy could go.
Shi Lang did not know what was going on around him. Even outside the cave, the spirit beasts were surprised by the scent of pills being refined inside. They could not help but calm down and absorb them. Suddenly, on the sixteenth day, when Shi Lang was refining a grandmaster level pill formula called, soul rejuvenation pill, clouds condensed above the ruins.
Yama gulped and thought, 'This guy called forth a pill tribulation?'