Chapter 13 - Drawbacks
Hauling the ferret back to the contribution hall, he was awarded seventy-five contribution points as it was the highest stage monster beast on the mountain. This brought his total up to ninety contribution points. As the disciples were still hesitant to take on Foundation Body sixth stage monster beasts, this left many of the tasks to hunt them available. Aster Wen thought that he would need all his energy to complete the second movement, and now that he had spent some, he would have to wait until tomorrow to begin the second movement. However, this left him with the ability to take down any Foundation Body sixth stage monster beasts in one move. If he could take down seven more of the sixth stage monster beasts, he would be able to exchange for the manual to make the Revitalization Pill. It would also feed the natural qi that he had acquired into the lotus of the Looming Blossom Martial Technique, meaning he would have to use another Foundation Forming Pill to restore his natural qi.
For the entire day, he hunted the Foundation Body sixth stages monster beasts, gathering five hundred twenty-five more contribution points, bringing his total to six hundred fifteen. Once more exhausted of his physical energy, the energy the Looming Blossom Martial Technique used, and natural qi, he set off to bed. He planned to buy the manual for the Revitalization Pill in the morning after he restored his natural qi.
Refining the Foundation Forming Pill took Aster Wen four times before he succeeded, and he sat in a lotus position to refine it. Circulating through his meridians, he found the process to be even smoother than before, now only needing ten minutes to cover all of his meridians. Another ten minutes went by to restore the power of the natural qi. The first movement of the Looming Blossom Martial Technique had no effect on the power of the natural qi anymore, and he would need to practice the second movement to improve it.
Returning to the contribution hall, he exchanged five hundred contribution points for the manual of the Revitalization Pill. Heading to his room, he opened the manual and read what ingredients he had to get to refine the pill. The pill required ten stalks of Yang Fire Grass, one hundred drops of blood from a monster beast with affinity of the yang element, and the entire Spirit-Dripping Flower. As he had fought with monster beasts with the yang affinity, he already had one hundred drops of blood. The Spirit-Dripping Flower would not be difficult to get, but the Yang Fire Grass could be a problem. There was a field around the mountain where patched of Yang Fire Grass would grow, but this field was home to many Foundation Body sixth stage monster beasts who treated it as food. These monster beasts were called the Yang Fire Bulls, and were very territorial. As Aster Wen wanted to practice the second movement of the Looming Blossom Martial Technique, he would have to avoid conflict with the bulls.
He first went to fetch a bouquet of the Spirit-Dripping Flower, storing it in his room before setting off to acquire the Yang Fire Grass. He saw patched of the Yang Fire Grass that were free of the presence of the bulls. Observing his surroundings, he snuck towards a patch. Once close to a patch, he laid down on the ground and started collecting the stalks of the Yang Fire Grass. He soon had collected the entire patch over twenty minutes, gathering around two hundred fifty stalks of it. He snuck back towards the mountain, and made it safely back to his room.
Opening the manual, he set out the materials for at least five attempts at refining the pill. Following the instructions, he put a stalk of the Yang Fire Grass and ten drops of yang affinity monster beast blood into the alchemy furnace, and turned the temperature to as high as he could. After five minutes, he did the same thing again. When he had gotten to five stalks of Yang Fire grass, and fifty drops of monster beast blood, he inserted the Spirit-Dripping Flower into the alchemy furnace, turning the temperature down to half of what it was before. After ten minutes, he started the process of putting in the Yang Fire Grass and monster beast blood again. Once all the ingredients were in, he waited twenty minutes before opening the alchemy furnace. Smoke rose out of the furnace, and the first attempt was a failure.
Starting the process again, the second attempt was another failure. So was the third, and the fourth, and fifth attempts. Frowning, he remembered he had a Burning Mongoose monster beast core, and grabbed it to help with the manipulation of the temperature. Starting again, the process failed again, but there was less smoke than the previous attempts. He took a break and circulated his natural qi for a moment before continuing to refine the pill.
The seventh attempt began, and the last twenty minutes of refining the pill felt like an eternity. After twenty minutes, he opened the alchemy furnace, and a medicinal fragrance wafted out from it. Success! He took out the Revitalizing Pill, and took a look at it. It had a light orange color, and was warm to the touch.
With the success, he chose to practice the second movement of the Looming Blossom Martial Technique. He circulated his natural qi, and before circulating to the heart, lung, and blood circulation meridians, he sent it through his liver and stomach meridians as well. Completing the circulation of his natural qi, he thrust his palm forward. He felt an immense power surge through his arm, and a fourth of his energy and natural qi was consumed. He had also become immobile for fifteen seconds. After he had gained his mobility, he stretched a bit, and found that there was some pain in his arm. Ignoring it for now, he performed the movement the three more times he could for the day.
As he thrust his arm forward during the fourth time, the immense power rushing through his arm caused him a lot of pain, and he felt a bone in his forearm crack under the pressure. When he gained back his movement, he rushed to his room and started to refine the Revitalization Pill. It seemed as though the energy of the Looming Blossom Martial Technique was too powerful for his body to handle at this stage. He could still practice it four times in a day, as he had done when first practicing the first movement. Feeling the energy of the Revitalization Pill, he felt warmth spread throughout his body, and as an hour went by he felt his bone heal, and other injuries he didn't know he had begun to also heal.
After he had healed, he started to refine another Foundation Forming Pill. He succeeded on his second attempt, swallowing it to begin refining it. Five minutes went by and all his meridians were being washed by natural qi. After ten minutes, the power of it had been restored. The second movement had added an even greater amount of power to the natural qi than any time he practiced the first movement. However, he didn't know if the drawbacks of the technique were worth it. But in any case, he already started to go down this path, and this path also allowed him to practice alchemy more. The fourth movement also changed from the first three movements, and he wondered if it would be a different attack, or even a defensive movement. There was a chance it could be something else as well, but he still had a while before he would be able to practice the fourth movement.
Given the fact the second movement injured him, he would begin to research more on tempering his body as well. There might be techniques in the contribution hall, or even alchemical ways to temper the body. Aster Wen thought of the saliva of the Five-Colored Toad and the blood of the Gold Sun Snake and wondered if he could use them to make a body tempering pill. If combined with Yang Fire Grass and yang affinity blood, would it work? He didn't know, and didn't have much knowledge in the theory of alchemy. If it did work, he would have to make the recipe and technique himself over many, many, attempts. The ingredients he speculated would work were all yang related or could burn him, tempering his body to be resistant to heat and burns if the pill was refined successfully. For now, this pill only existed in his mind.
He had done a lot in the day, and was now exhausted. He laid down on his cot with thoughts of alchemy and body tempering floating around his mind. Falling asleep, he dreamed of refining pills, with failure after failure, he never succeeded in refining even one pill.