Chapter 2172 First Try
Silvermist had no more hand in what he could teach Alex. All he could do was wait for Alex to figure out what to do on his own. "I cannot tell you how to use Pills as an ingredient if you can't create the pill in the first place," Silvermist said. "I will be back in a while after you've managed to make the pill."
Alex nodded and watched his master leave. After he was gone, he simply looked at the Blueveined Orchid in front of him for some time while thinking of all the ways he could mix ingredients together to get the result.
He thought for a while, coming up with some that got close but not perfect. He knew what the Blueveined Orchid did, so coming up with a combination that did something similar was not that difficult. However, even after an hour of thinking, his mind was mostly blank.
He had come across a very fascinating problem that he needed to ask his master about. But as much as he needed to, he was stubborn and wanted to find the answer himself. At least, he had enough time to waste trying to figure this out on his own.
The issue he was having was one where he needed to find a way to get rid of elements inside of a pill that weren't present in the ingredient.
It was just a common bit of knowledge he had known about for some time now, perhaps since the day he learned the Five Elemental Interaction Dao, which was now the Seven Elemental Interaction.
The higher the quality of the ingredient, the less the amount of elements it had.
The Common grade ingredient had all 7 elements, with one major element and the other at a various amount. It included elements that Ruined, Weakened, Controlled, and Empowered the main element, while also having Yin and Yang as extra.
A step higher, the True Grade ingredient had 6 elements, missing the one element that ruined the major element of the ingredient. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
Then a step higher, the Saint Grade ingredient had 5 elements, missing not just the Ruining element but also the Weakening Element.
The Immortal Grade ingredient had the Controlling element missing, having only 4 elements, one main element and one that Empowered the main element, along with Yin and Yang.
As far as Alex was aware, the Divine-grade ingredients simply had Yin and Yang along with the major element.
'Intent,' he told himself. 'Focus your Intent on removing Fire, Metal, and Earth.'
He took a deep breath and began. On top of using his Qi and Intent to condense the energy, he used additional Intent on the removal process, which caused an additional strain on his mind.
Because it was only Saint ingredients, Alex didn't expect the strain to be much at all. However, to his surprise, it was quite a bit of strain. Subduing elements was not something he had expected to be this difficult to do.
He pushed against the elements, making them weaker and weaker, but even as he tried, it did not get rid of the element at all. Each time he pulled back his Intent, the subdued element would simply return.
To Alex's sheer confusion, he could not make it disappear at all. He continued wondering what could be done when something happened on its own.
As he condensed the energy on its own, there was a change in the elements. The first thing he noticed was the Earth element fizzling out. Suddenly, it was gone.
While he was surprised, he sensed Fire go out next. Alex didn't understand why it was happening, but it was happening on its own. The two elements were gone, with a tiny change in the amount of Wood in the end.
The Metal element disappeared next, fizzling out right within his senses. The Wood element lowered a tiny bit once again.
All 3 times, it was the amount of element that changed, not the overall energy. The overall energy in the pill was the same. In fact, it was stronger as it was condensed more and more. When all three elements were gone, all that was left was Wood, empowered by Water, along with Yin and Yang in negligible amounts. Alex felt the change and slowly let go of the energy.
It was completely stable.
"Did I... do it?"
There was only one way to find out. The powder clumped up in a ball at once and a vortex of Qi formed above it as it swallowed all of the energy into it.
Once the pill was formed, Alex pulled it out of the cauldron. The harmony was very low, but... he had done it.