History of the Pill - Alchemy Gate.

Currently, Shu He was sat at his desk back in his room, he had a scroll unfurled in front of his as he steadily studied the contents.

He had returned from the Forging Division not too long ago after finishing his chat with Yun Jiang, according to him it would take around a week to finish the knife he requested which surprised Shu He, he thought a single knife wouldn't have taken long at all.

And to that, Yun Jiang shook his head and tutted, apparently he would first work out a design for the knife using the two materials he had been given, he can head in to forging blind if he was just working with materials he was familiar with, but now he wants to make sure he knows exactly what he needs to do, and what form the knife should take.

Secondly, because it was the first time he would be working on the materials he will be taking a slower but more precise pace, he said himself that he wanted to perfect his current forging technique, and this was the best chance he's gotten.

So, Shu He will have to wait to get his hands on the knife.

'Oh well, I wasn't rushed for it anyway' He thought.

Though, that wasn't to say he didn't hold some excitement as to what Yun Jiang could do with those materials, the idea of a weapon suitable for a cultivator excited him as all he has now was the bow he had inherited from his father and some other normal pieces.

Right now though, his focus wasn't on that, it was on the scroll laying open on the desk.

'Beginners Guide to Alchemy' was written on the label on the side, it was the scroll handed to him when he visited the Alchemy Tower, since he didn't have any other pressing matters right now he figured he would get stuck into it.

He found it rather interesting, it first detailed the history of alchemy which was information he didn't expect to see, he had seen little to no historical records since he came to this world, so he fully welcomed it.

Unfortunately it was a rather brief overlook rather than a detailed explanation, but he still enjoyed leaning about what he could.

Essentially, like he thought, alchemy is an art that held its roots in medicine and the various practices that the category encompasses, in the distant past medication was simply using resources as they existed naturally, eating certain fruits, sleeping in certain ways, drinking certain liquids.

And then it steadily began to evolve, humans learned to combine resources or process them, they didn't try to understand the meanings behind the changes and instead applied their own meanings, often spiritual in nature as an explanation.

From then on the human race started to expand as their medicine advanced, sometimes great discoveries were made, sometimes disasters were caused by their own hands.

And then came the first human that is referred to as the progenitor of alchemy, they started questioning the world around them, why did the water disappear? Why does our blood change colour? Why do we need to eat? And other, varied questions, that led them to taking action.

They acted, observed, and recorded, then formed a theory and repeated the process until his theory was proven correct, until he understood the truth, the basis of experimentation.

Their records would form the basis for the existence of modern alchemy, though their actions were treated as heresy at that time; it wouldn't be until the records were discovered by an enemy tribe many years later that they were put to use and the ideas began to spread.

The human race as a whole entered an era of evolution as more and more interacted with the knowledge of that one person, their techniques expanded their views of the world and it wasn't just medicine, but all forms of engineering stepped forward with leaps and bounds as they discarded the shackles of complacency that had bound them for so long.

It was truly a golden era for human ingenuity.

But it wasn't allowed to last for long.

A great calamity befell the world, countless species died, many wiped from existence forever.

Humans were forced to retreat to the ends of existence, hobbled in caves and underground to hide away, yet even then their efforts were for naught.

It seemed as if their end was nigh.

Yet a miracle occurred, when all hope was lost, when the world was falling apart and stained by darkness, a man appeared.

The man we called the First Sage, the Sage of Heaven.

And when he came, he brought forth the blessings of the heavens themselves, a torrential flood of power crashed through every corner of the word.

The power is what we call 'Qi'.

From that moment on the world, existence itself was changed, we became entwined with this power and so did everything else, it was no longer something that we could live without.

The First Sage taught us how to grasp this power, how to use it, how to overcome the calamity.

One by one, more sages were born to hold up our race from the fractured world.

And with great struggle, we succeeded, the era of calamity ended.

From that point on, humanity began their second golden era with the First Sage at the head, it was here where modern Alchemy would be born.

We learned that by manipulating Qi we could transform the world, and by transforming the world we could create new resources.

By infusing these resources with Qi we could empower them, direct them, creating possibilities that never existed before.

But we felt it was a waste, that nothing we created could capture that vision of perfection that we desired.

It was countless years later that it was discovered, the spherical shape encompassed the essence, creating a perfect loop, a lasting enclosure, the beautiful shell that held all our accomplishments.

That was the birth of the Pill, the pinnacle of Alchemy.

"…" Shu He sat still, reading it through again and again before rubbing his brow.

'So alchemy is basically exactly what it was in my other world, a precursor to modern science and it would have remained that way if not for the existence of Qi…'

He read through some lines again.

"A great calamity?" He murmured as he frowned.

'How long ago was this? Why haven't I heard a thing about this before? Why does this not give any greater details?'

'Is humanity currently in a golden era? Or is it some other era? Who is this 'First Sage'?'

He lent back in his chair as he stared at one of the brightstone lamps on his wall.

"It's nice to learn how pills came about, but they're just going to drop all of this important information and then starve me of the most important parts…" He complained to himself.

'There is quite an interesting piece of information here though…'

It had caught his attention as soon as he read it.

'A torrential flood of power… Qi wasn't originally a part of this world either, if that hadn't happened, would this world be just like my other one?'

That questioned intrigued him, is the existence of Qi the sole reason for differences, or is there another influence?

No one else in this world would ask the same question because the idea of a world without Qi simply didn't exist in their minds.

'Unless people from back during the disaster were still alive, but they can't be right?'

The thought of humans living that long sent shivers down his spine.

Why? Because he simply couldn't deny it happening! He barely knew anything about cultivation still, what he knew was basically a drop of water in an ocean the size of the universe.

He sighed as he looked back towards the scroll, that was only the introduction so there was more to read.

As he unfurled it even more a bunch of diagrams came up, a lot of them depicting basic qi circulation methods, apparently they supplied them simply because not everyone has access to them, notably people that don't come from cultivation families or clans.

People like Shu He.

''Interesting…" He muttered as he scratched his chin.

His current circulation method was one he had made himself through trial and error and he thought that it was perfectly fine, but the more he looked at these diagrams he spotted flaws in the flow of his Qi, he could move it faster and more precise than he was doing now and even increase his rate of absorption.

'Great! Just this makes the trip to Alchemy Tower worth it.'

He then scrolled on; he would put those diagrams to practice later, he soon reached the next chunk of text and began to read.

"Prerequisites to learning alchemy:

Meridian Awakening or above, Qi externalisation.

Sufficient aptitude in a variety of elements, wood is preferred.

Good degree of Qi control.

Standard Core Flame, or an Alchemic Core Flame (If you have created an Alchemic Gate, you pass this requirement)

Patience and plenty of resources."

He read them out to himself and couldn't help but frown.

'I only pass 2 don't i? My aptitude is good, and I have a standard core flame'.

He pouted slightly.

'Patience and resources? How am I supposed to know till I try? And how many resources, I'm just a single child!'

'What's an Alchemic Gate?' That term had made him curious, so he began reading on.

It read as follows:

Alchemy is a cultivator exclusive art, it is the process of extracting the absolute purest of essences from the world, combining and transforming them to create a miracle like substance, it is a skill that requires a lot of patience, willpower and talent, a single mistake can ruin many weeks of preparation and lack of attentiveness can lower the quality of the result.

The main difference between an alchemist and a normal cultivator is the type of qi that they use, alchemists use a special type of qi called Alchemic Qi, this qi was born through the hard work of countless generations of alchemists.

Alchemic Qi is not a naturally occurring Qi and as such you will never find it in the world unless someone has purposely put it there, in order to use Alchemic Qi you have three ways to do so.

The first is the Alchemic Conversion technique, it requires absolutely no prerequisites, and anyone can use it, this technique can convert normal Qi to Alchemic Qi, however the conversion rate is slow and the control you can exert over the created Qi is low, thus this is barely ever used by actual Alchemists, and you would barely be able to make the most basic of pills with it.

The second is the creation of an Alchemic Gate, the technique is not here and will be provided once you pass the initial test, it involves using Alchemy Qi to create a 'gate' orbiting your core flame, when you funnel your Qi through this gate it will become Alchemic Qi, this option is the most common choice, but it requires good comprehension skills and natural attunement to the Qi otherwise it won't succeed'.

The last is without a doubt the best choice to make as an alchemist, but it has its drawbacks. The third choice is converting your Core Flame into an Alchemic Core Flame, this can only be done if your core flame is untouched. By doing this you will be able to create the purest of Alchemist Qi and your control will be excellent.

However! There is one problem with this method, Alchemic Qi is by nature a type of Qi that is about carefully extracting and combining the essences of this world, therefor when an alchemist with an Alchemic Core Flame uses a combat technique, its potency will be laughable.

They essentially forfeit all their abilities as a fighter, such a thing is unthinkable for many and so the second option is the most chosen.

Before your test, you should think greatly about which option you want to go with.

"…Which one is the question, huh…"

To Shu He, the first option was obviously out, Who in their right mind would choose that and still want to be an alchemist.

'The second one… seems like the best option.' He thought, weighting the benefits against the negatives.

But he still had his reservations, it wouldn't be wrong to say Alchemy will pay a large part in Shu He's goal, in order create even better medication he would need it.

So he stared at the third option, its benefits weighing heavily in his mind; He really wanted to go with this option, but his common sense was telling him not to.

He shook his head.

'I can't just charge into this, it's something that will affect me forever, going by gut instinct would be a terrible idea'.

'Besides, I have a weird feeling that I won't even be able to convert my flame as is' He thought, observing the two flames inside him now merged slightly like conjoined twins.

He closed his eyes and thought for a minute.

'As I thought, the second option will be the best'.

With that decision made, he read on.