14 Everything is an ingredient

The Serpent Alchemy Tower was covered with green tiles. The floor, the ceiling and the walls. Everything was green. The structure of the Tower was not very complex. A spiral staircase led to the top of the tower. On each floor there were dozens of rooms. Mei Rong and Wei Ren climbed to the first floor. Every room on this floor had a simple board hanging on its door that said 'Tier One'.

"These are Tier One alchemy rooms. Pick one for yourself. Once you choose, you have to use that one until you become a Tier Two alchemist. Mei Rong said with a sweet smile.

"This one." Wei Ren pointed towards the nearest one.

He pushed the wooden door open. The room was very poorly furnished. A single mat was on the floor. In front of the mat was a small book reading stand.

Wei Ren sat down cross legged on the mat. He looked at Mei Rong to give further explanation.

"Place your Plant Genesis on the reading table and you will see." She pointed at the small wooden reading table.

Wei Ren pulled out his first volume of Plant Genesis. The reading table was built just for this book. It was a perfect fit. He opened the first page and placed his finger on one jade slip and closed his eyes.

His qi opened the jade slip in his mind.

Bam!

His whole consciousness expanded at a monstrous rate. A very delicate and translucent leaf appeared in his mind.

He gazed at the leaf for a long time. Just like usual, there was a long text that explained the uses of this translucent leaf. He could read the description very fast and immediately moved on to the research phase. He grabbed several jade slips out of his void ring and started writing his findings. His speed of finding hidden uses and deducing power also entered into hyperdrive.

After two minutes, he completely filled the jade slip in his right hand and opened his eyes.

"My speed of learning has increased. Is this the use of this Tower?" He asked with amazement.

"Actually your speed of learning is still the same. But your ocean of consciousness expanded. Ocean of consciousness is responsible for our thoughts. If your ocean of expansion grows in size then there is more space for thoughts and ur will becomes stronger. This whole tower is a magical treasure. When you use your Plant Genesis here, your mind is linked with the tower. This is the reason this tower is so great for Serpent Valley Sect." She sat down very close to him and explained.

Her right thigh almost touched his thigh.

"Is she doing this on purpose?" Wei Ren controlled his breathing and tried not to focus on what she was doing.

She used her delicate hand to flip through the Plant Genesis and continued.

"Junior brother Li, master still hasn't returned. So Elder brother Jian told me to guide you about a few basic things about Alchemy and Healing."

"Okay." He nodded and listened.

"To become an alchemist, a person has to meet three requirements. First, is a complete knowledge about plants and ingredients. Because without knowing anything about the ingredients we can't make a pill. Second, a person needs a very excellent control on his qi. During a pill concoction, alchemists control the whole process with their qi. Sometimes we need excess qi, sometimes we have to completely remove qi from the cauldron to successfully concoct a pill. The whole process is more tiresome than an actual battle. Lastly, a person must have a strong affinity for alchemy. The Celestial Star Essence test is how we judge whether a person's affinity and potential for alchemy meets the mark. If you can't reach all these requirements, then you will never become an alchemist."

Wei Ren stayed silent and pondered. This was the first time he had given alchemy any serious thought. Watching all these enthusiastic and diligent students striving to become alchemists, made him grow more and more interested in alchemy. Just the whole process of studying Plant Genesis was very enlightening for him.

This was not very surprising because Wei Ren had spent most of his time studying languages, war tactics etc. His talent for cultivation is still lower than his talent for learning new things.

Looking at Wei Ren's pondering face, Mei Rong decided to free his mind a little.

"But there is no need to worry about failing to become an alchemist. There are many great people in the sect who have done great deeds in our sect. Take Elder Qian for example. He is only a Tier Two alchemist but he has mastered the fourth volume of Plant Genesis. His affinity for alchemy is not that great so he has been facing a bottleneck for a long time. But he still worked his way till he reached Tier Two with just hard work. His knowledge about ingredients is the same as our master. He is the sole overseer of all the farming and cultivation of plants in our sect. There are some who have great control over their qi but don't have strong affinity for alchemy. These people moved to other professions like Healing."

"Healing also requires good qi control?" He barely knew anything about Healing.

"Of Course. Healers have frightening control over qi. Their control on Qi is unrivaled. Even alchemists can't conpare to Healers when it come to this. They can create threads of Qi so thin that the human eye can't even see them. Plus they have to study Anatomy and many things about potions and poison antidotes. Healing is at the same level as alchemy. Both are equally hard professions."

"My control over qi is so poor. I should forget about becoming a Healer." He sighed in his heart.

"So am I going on the right track?" He asked her without turning his head. Because she was sitting too close.

"Yes." She said and looked at him.

Wei Ren could even hear her breathing. He didn't dare to turn his head and look at her.

"Why is she doing this?" He cried in his heart.

"There is a saying that we alchemists use, 'Everything is an ingredient'." She said into his ear with a soft voice.

"Everything is an ingredient?" He tried to understand it while ignoring her seductive breathing.

"Plants are not the only type of ingredients we use. Some pills require metals, ice, ash, wood, etc. Ancient Alchemists tried to categorise all the things that can be used to make pills. But as they continued to research, they found out that almost anything can be used in a pill formula. Even human blood, demon cores and human organs are ingredients for some pills. After careful planning they decided to write the Plant Genesis. When you become a Tier Two alchemist you will find that later volumes of Plant Genesis have less and less number of plants in them. New ingredients are introduced in the later stages. This is why learning the Plant Genesis is the most challenging of the three requirements for becoming an alchemist."

"Do I have to learn the entire first volume before starting pill concoction?"

"Not at all. You can try to make some easy Tier One pills like Spirit Rejuvenation Pill or Stream strengthening Pill. This last pill is best suited for someone at your stage. Qi Streams cultivators use this pill to increase the speed of their cultivation." She placed her hand on his shoulder and explained.

He could feel her grip on his shoulder.

"Her hand is on my shoulder...HER HAND IS ON MY SHOULDER!?" He was going to faint any time now.

"You can try to concoct some pills. Although your chances of successfully concocting a pill are very low, practicing alchemy is definitely a good eye-opener."

"Hmm." He nodded and tried to shake her hand off his shoulder. But this only resulted in her grip getting tighter.

"Next we need to talk about your Qi control. Show me how skilled you are." Mei Rong moved from her seat and sat adjacent to him.

Wei Ren also moved to sit exactly in front of her. She extended her right hand and pointed at his robe.

"Take it off." She said plainly.

"What? Why?" Wei Ren covered his chest with his arms like a girl who was getting teased.

"I need to monitor the way you move your qi." She talked as if she was explaining things to a child.

"Umm...okay." He decided to comply. Who knows what this girl would do if he denied. His bare chest and six packs were before her eyes. He trained in martial arts so his body was naturally very fit.

"..." Mei Rong quietly feasted with her eyes.

Cough. Cough.

She coughed twice and stopped staring at his body.

"Give me your right hand." She extended her own hand and grabbed his hand like a mantis.

"Stay still and try to stop my qi from entering your body. If you can successfully stop any of my qi to enter your body, it means you have great control over your qi. This is a simple test that we all did with Master. I have decided to do this test considering his absence." She placed her left palm on his hand and placed a finger in an acupuncture point on his forearm.

"Okay." Wei Ren closed his eyes and didn't say anything else. He wanted to finish this test as soon as possible. If someone were to barge in this room at this time they would surely get the wrong idea. Wei Ren suspected that there was no need for him to take off his robe.

"Here I come." Mei Rong's voice rang in his ears.

Thin strands of qi invaded his body from the acupuncture point. It moved freely inside his arm and proceeded towards his chest.

Wei Ren moved his own qi and blocked the way for Mei Rong's qi by making a barrier of qi in his arm. Strands of her qi started attacking the barrier he had made with his qi. In less than a few seconds, Mei Rong's qi destroyed the barrier and kept moving towards his chest.

Sweat beads formed in his chest. He created several mover barriers and used up a lot of qi. But the result was still the same. All the barriers were destroyed by her as if they were made of paper.

"Your Qi control is...so bad. It's almost like you started cultivating very recently." She said, alarmed. This Was the first time she had seen someone with such bad qi control.

Little did she know that she was right. He obtained the Starmist Law just a week ago. He really was a beginner.

"I know." He lowered his head dejectedly and pulled his robe back on.

"This is very dangerous, Junior Brother Li. If an enemy evades your body with his qi, he can basically do anything he wants. He can use his qi to destroy all your organs and possibly even your cultivation. But don't worry. I can teach you. I am your Elder Sister. If I run away from my responsibility of teaching you, then I don't deserve to live in this sect." Mei Rong finished with such grand expressions. But her words sounded so fake.

Wei Ren looked at her incredulously. She was obviously trying to make him fall for her trap so that she could toy with him even more.

They continued their discussion for two whole hours. Mei Rong didn't lie. She truly wanted to help Wei Ren become better at controlling his qi. She gave him several tips and also gave him a simple exercise to become better at controlling qi.

She gave him two small marbles. One was black and one white. The material these marbles were made from was unknown to him. They were very heavy compared to normal glass marbles.

"Spin them in the air." This was all she said. For better explanation she showed him how to do it.

She placed both marbles in her right hand. Suddenly both marbles flew into the air and hovered in front of her. She cupped her hands into the shape of a leaf and held her hand below the hovering marbles. A second later, the marbles began to spin around each other. A yin yang symbol flashed when they spun very fast.

"You need very good control to spin these two marbles at once. If you use too much qi in one marble and less in the other, then they would bang into each other. "

One hour later.

"I will see you tomorrow. Have a goodnight, Junior Brother Li." Mei Rong said with a cute smile and bid him farewell.

The walk back to his immortal cave was uneventful. He went in and fell onto the stone bed and immediately fell asleep.

Just talking to Mei Rong used so much energy. Plus practicing his qi with her was also very tiring.

In less than a minute he drifted into deep sleep.

Inside Mei Rong's cave.

Mei Rong was standing in front of a large mirror. But the image in the mirror was not her. It was an old man wearing white robes with serpents on them. There were four green serpents and five golden serpents.

"How is he doing?" The old man asked Mei Rong with a smile.

"It is too soon to tell. But I think he won't disappoint you Master." Mei Rong said respectfully. This was her master, Grand Healer Lu Sheng.

"Take good care of him, I can't come back just yet. General Wei Tian has asked me to come to the border. Several soldiers have fallen ill. He thinks someone is poisoning his soldiers. After taking care of them, I will come back. You can do whatever you think is right to teach him the basics." After saying this his image turned hazy and then he disappeared.

An evil smile appeared on Mei Rong's face when she heard him say the words ' do whatever you want'.

"I will do as Master says." She bowed to the mirror and started laughing maniacally.