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16.77% Learning To Live As A Cultivator / Chapter 54: Chapter Fifty Four - My school’s Twin Lotuses

Chapter 54: Chapter Fifty Four - My school’s Twin Lotuses

After speaking with Mino, Leon decided to get a small bite to eat before returning to his hut. It was fairly noisy in the Food Hall, unusually so, he thought. Although there were set times for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with students making pills or potions, cultivating or trying to grow basic herbs, the numbers within the food hall at any one time varied and the cooks always made sure that there was cold foods available for late comers and bundles for those wanting to partake in a long periods of closed door cultivation. The times Leon had come to eat, there was usually no more than a dozen people sitting about inside the hall.

However, during this lunch time, there were closer to sixty, reminding Leon of the busy martial arts school food hall and he had to search for somewhere to sit. He didn't want to eat outside. Eventually, he found a spot in the corner, when someone took their empty tray back to the front. The other occupants at the table paid him no mind, however as their attention was clearly elsewhere.

One boy sighed. "If only we could have grabbed a seat closer," he said with a melancholic tone.

"Blame Jude," a snarky boy said. "If he hadn't lost track of time messing about with those blood burning pills, we would have gotten here earlier! Everyone knows that the twin lotuses eat lunch when the sun is at it's zenith!" Leon vaguely recalled that Blood Burning Pills were a stronger version of the Burning Energy Pills that he had made frequently in exchange for herbs.

"Those pills are tricky," the one, who had clearly lost face, complained. "And how will I get into the inner school if I don't practice making those harder pills?"

"But, if you get transferred now," the first boy mentioned. "Won't you miss out on seeing the girls everyday?"

"Do you really think that Miss Merylin will remain in the outer school long, Fin?" Jude asked. "Not only is she beautiful and kind, she has proven to be very talented at making pills. Her pills are already of good quality, despite she and Miss Maimai having only been enrolled for four weeks. I heard Senior Brother Bow say so."

"And what of Miss Maimai?" Fin asked. The boys all paused in their musings and sighed in unison.

"I heard that she had made an almost flawless first fortitude pill the other day?" Jude said with a slightly dreamy sigh upon his face. The first fortitude pill was a basic defence pill. It strengthened the body by ten percent for a period of two hours and this enhancement was stackable; a body could cope with taking three of these pills at once. However, the impurities in the pill were high and a nuisance to be rid of if they built up within the body due to overuse of the pill. A basic purifying potion would not necessarily be strong enough.

"Was that before or after I saw smoke billowing out of her hut's window again?" the snarky boy asked, but there was not a lot of ridicule in his tone.

"After," Jude replied. "She made it after she obtained her fourth replacement cauldron." Leon frowned as he chewed upon a mouthful of rice. What sort of person needed to replace so many cauldron's in just four weeks? His question did not remain unanswered for long. One of the boys nudged the other and all three boys seemed to sigh in unison once more.

Two girls in the spring time of their youth stood up from the table in the middle of the room, causing practically the whole room to pause mid bite and silence descended. One girl was quite tall. She was slender and elegant and held herself upright and her soft pink lips were curved into a gentle smile. Her dark auburn hair was arranged neatly upon her head, the long straight tresses having been wound partially into a bun with the rest to hang down her back like a silk cloak. There was an emerald green and gold hair pin decorating her hair and the robes covering her pale skin were of pale green skin decorated by moon birds and flowers.

Beside her was a girl of similar colouring, but a broad smile brightened her pretty face. Her hair was curly and worn in a messy bun that somehow did not look as if she simply tied it back just to get it out of her eyes. She wore a simpler hair pin with pale pink crystals and wore plain pale pink robes, although they were still made of silk. She was slightly shorter than her companion and more curved of figure. They made quite the comparison, but both could be considered beautiful... if Leon was into that sort of person.

"Pink suits Miss Maimai, don't you think?" a boy from the table next to him whispered to his table mate, who nodded in agreement.

"Miss Merylin And Miss Maimai are daughters of the same sect leader," another whisper reached Leon's ears. "But Miss Merylin is the daughter of the first wife."

"We are so lucky that the Twin Lotuses chose our school of alchemy," Fin sighed out loud.

It was then that Leon realised that most of the room's occupants were male. He rolled his eyes heavenward and returned his focus onto his meal.


Chapter 55: Chapter Fifty Five - I expand my repertoire

Having heard talk about other pills, Leon wondered if he hadn't been a little slack with his own. Of late, he generally had stuck to what he knew he could make with ease and those he could sell to the apothecary. Of course, the better strength of pill required more uncommon herbs, which were not given freely; they were earned by way of the request board or given by Teachers to personal apprentices. He did have one or two uncommon herbs in his garden, but they were not ready for harvest as yet.

However there were still many basic pills that used common herbs that he had not tried forming yet. He exchanged several bottles of burning energy pills and clear spiritual pills for herb bundles and returned to his hut to sort through them.

If he recalled correctly, he had once been told by Caprian that Leo had created a 'not so simple' beast calming pill. A beast calming pill was a basic pill that was not for human consumption, but for beasts. If a weak beast consumed the irresistibly scented pill, it was then easier for a beast tamer to create a bond and tame it. But just as many pills contained a side effect that caused problems for humans, the beast calming pill could actually morph into a weak poison within a beast, not only causing it to become enraged, but weakening it to point of death in worst cases. This happened in one in five cases, so was only used when the risk was considered worth it, perhaps when the beast was uncommon or rare or when the creature had too strong a will despite being categorised as weak.

However, according to Leo's notes, his improved beast calming pill reduced the chances of the medicine altering to poison, the risk was only one in ten. Also he claimed, though Leon wasn't sure whether he had tested his theories like he had with other pills, that the 'poison' would never be fatal, that the sick beast would recover in two or three days at most. Seeing as the pill had paved Caprian's entry into the inner school, Leon could only assume that some if not all Leo's points were true.

Leon did not want to make the improved version; he did not want it to appear in the wrong hands and cause him more problems. So he chose to create it just using the written method, which required the leaves and stalks of the northern gemweed plant, and the stalks of honeyvine and fragrant beasttails. Even this took him several tries as the stalks of the three herbs needed had to be slowly heated within the cauldron at first, so that their juices were released until pooling together at the base before the succulent leaves of the northern gemweed were added and the fire increased to boiling temperatures. His spiritual energies then helped the pills to form. Once he had the hang of it, the cauldron produced a batch of three, green pills.

He filled three jade bottles, each containing five pills before he was satisfied that he had the hang of this particular pill. He also learned how to make hidden mist pills, which hid a Cultivator's scent from many types of weak beasts for a while (not all, as certain beasts were famed for their enhanced sense of smell) and first fortitude pills. He had more success creating the latter than the former as Leo had written notes along the diary entry for this recipe recording ways to not only increase chances of success making it, but an improved version as well.

Leo's notes tending to be more detailed and researched in pills that he had been interested in than those he hadn't. For instance, pills that helped him and kept him safe were ones he had expressed interest in, whereas ones that benefited others, but not him, he was not. Why he had experimented with the beast calming pill, that was explained in the diaries and had been on a whim.

Tired and feeling slightly drained of spiritual energy, he decided that he would call it a day and take a bath. He placed the jade bottles into one of his interspacial bags before entering the small 'bath shed' and realising his mistake. His soiled change of clothes were still to one side, stained in the muck he had expelled from his now smooth skin and the bath was filled with cold, murky water. He sighed and rolled up his sleeves, beginning the chores that would take him until the sun had disappeared beyond the horizon.


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