When Leon woke, it was already dark. He lay upon the bed, still fully robed, his talismans digging into his waist, so he automatically sat up to remove his sash and outer robes. He inadvertently woke the man lying next to him. That man treated him to a flick upon his forehead.
"Ow," Leon complained. "What was th-that f-for?"
"A secondary Cultivator is not lacking in spiritual energy," Jin Li advised him, "and yet you collapse after pouring it all into four small pills? Draining your soulsea almost completely, are you an idiot?"
"I d-d-didn't m-mean too," Leon replied, chastised.
"Don't do it again," Jin Li stated. "It is dangerous and this Lord will just leave you next time, wherever you fall." He sighed and rolled over onto his other side.
"S-sorry," Leon whispered. He finished removing his outer robes before lying back down beside Jin Li feeling downcast. But he could not fall back to sleep. He listened as Jin Li's breath steadied, thinking over what had happened. He was usually a little more conservative with his energies, knowing that that which he released from his soul sea was easily wasted if he was not careful, so he'd become used to knowing exactly how much each pill required of him thus producing perfectly acceptable, but very average pills. But this time, he had been so focused on not messing up, he's actually managed to go too far and pour too much of himself into those four pills, hence pushing himself to the point of collapse.
Closing his eyes, he turned his mind's eye inwards and felt his consciousness float down to his soul sea. It was spinning a little sluggishly and as the specks of light were not so clustered, it seemed less bright, but he could also see that it was slowly filling with fresh energy. If he cultivated, it would draw in the energies in the surrounding air and earth much more swiftly, but Jin Li still had him on a cultivation ban, so he could only refresh naturally.
After examining the rest of his internal body and seeing nothing wrong, he took a deep breath noting Jin Li's musky scent and settled into sleep.
His head pounded slightly as he woke and his stomach felt hollow. Groaning, he lifted himself from the bed to notice Jin Li was not there. However, there was a note; Gone to train. He turned the note over, but it did not say anything else, so he tossed it aside and brewed himself a cup of tea.
Jin Li did not return that day and Leon decided that he didn't wish to mope around in his small hut waiting for whenever the man deemed him worthy to be once again in his presence. Also, although his soulsea was back to normal, he did not want to make more pills today. So instead, he decided to take a walk to the library.
It still irked him that he could not create an improved version of the cloudy spiritual pill. He had clearly become too reliant on Leo's diaries, even though they could only help him so much. Leo had not broken through to secondary rank before he died, which was likely why he had not researched this pill, just jotted down its recipe. However, he had left notes about how he first discovered that he could change pills for the better.
It came down to luck and curiosity.
When Leo was a boy, he helped his village collect wild herbs to sell. Where he lived, most herbs did not grow abundantly, but it also happened to be near where a few types of herb grew best, though they would be considered rare anywhere else. One of these were fragrant beasttails.
The Elder's had told him that beasttails attracted weak beasts, their fragrance was mostly calming, but every so often, the beasts would become enraged after scenting them. So they would only be harvested at the height of day, when most beasts were napping or seeking water, or in winter when most were hibernating. Leo wanted to know why the fragrant beast tails would cause two very different reactions. So he rose in the morning to watch beasts interact with the Herb, then harvest it when they went away. It took two weeks for him to realise that what was happening.
Beast tails, which were long curled green fronds with spikes of green hair, sometimes changed colour a little, from green to red. Sometimes it was a small patch, sometimes it was the whole tail. He found out later that this had something to do with how it reproduced, but that red patch also altered it's scent. Not enough for the human nose to detect, but any patch with a red frond was often ruined in a beasts rampage, although it was hardy enough to regrow and wherever the red fronds fell, a new patch would grow later.
But the villagers did not discriminate when harvesting this weed, sold all developed beast tails though autumn and winter. Hence the pills took on both the ability to calm and enrage the weak beast it was fed to.
The poison came from the northern gem weed's succulent leaves, but only would be deadly to a beast exhausted from rage, so Leo figured out that as long as he was careful not to use fronds with red patches, his pills would be safer. Not perfectly as it too easy to miss small spots beneath the tufts of green hair, but still. The less red in the pills, the less likely the beast would rampage or die.
As Leo realised this and began tweaking the recipe to also reduce the poison (by adding a small amount of its natural antidote, a thought to be useless weed called northern tingweed, that grew amongst the succulent), he wondered what other recipes could be made better. Hence he had stepped on a path of discovery, that unfortunately also lead to his death and Leon's rebirth. Leon could only hope that he too had been reborn and was happy in his new life.
As hopeful as Leon had felt when he stepped into the library, he soon found that reality was not so kind. But then, he mused, if discovering ways to improve pills was easy, it would have been done many times before and not just by a curious boy who had the audacity to question recipes that had been in use for centuries!
Leon had gathered up several indexes of herbs as well as books containing basic potion recipes, but what he generally discovered was that the facts within were common knowledge. The recipes were identical to those handed to apprentices and students. The indexes simply stated what the plant looked like and what part of it was used in what pill or potion or on rare occasions as spice upon cuisine. Well maybe there was some small snippets that hinted more such as an added detail about sweet sunclover that he hadn't known before.
Many alchemists argued whether the herb was better used fresh or dried, but in the end it came down to preference, not any real benefits. The herb in dried form was acrid and bitter, more so than in fresh form. However, it was more convenient to use in dried form when making pills. Only when the herb flowered had it a sweet undertone that cut through the bitterness, which is why it was used while flowering in basic purification potions. Hence the whole argument did not help him with his research at all.
With a sigh, he turned the pages to find another herb he was familiar with. He settled upon Purple Spirit Grass. He had used this herb in many concoctions and there were a few other pills that he had not yet made that also required the grass. The herb could be used in seed form, but also leaves and roots were used. He had used it whole in clear spiritual pills and in burning energy pills and boiled it within a tea for blood pills. The seeds he had used in one heart pills. Now in a large patch of his garden, the grass was growing fresh and tender, close to needing harvesting.
The description basically repeated what he already knew, but also added that it was no good to use while it flowered. That was something he was not aware of as Leo had not cultivated or gathered the herb himself. The herb was as hardy and hard to kill as sweet sunclover, but unlike the latter, it grew in many places, from grassy plains that were open to the elements to sandy deserts that struggled to maintain life. It also varied in purchasable cost, which Leon found odd; surely something so common would not have fluctuations in price. Alchemy could be expensive when it came to making more uncommon pills as they used more uncommon and pricey ingredients, so why buy a high priced weed when you could get it more cheaply elsewhere.
It did not say much more than this, so Leon noted it down. Best ask a merchant or an experienced alchemist why it was expensive in some places and not others.
He flicked the pages of the book once more and came across the red lantern plant. As he had not used much of this herb, only flowers and seeds in the making of blood pills, he had never seen the whole plant before. The painted image revealed that the leaves of the plant grew thick along the ground, shaped like rounded peacock feathers. They were of a deep green, but their veins were a vivid red. That same fiery colour blossomed into dangling bulb like flowers, hanging from tall stalks that burst from the foliage.
Leo had stated that the flower used was best as fresh as possible in the improved recipe, leading Leon to now wonder why. This was revealed in the text, written down as the author noted that herbalists harvesting the flower would know when it is due to die as the red veins, the vividness of which varied between plants, would become dim or disappear altogether. From others perspective, Leon guessed this was just a passing quirk of the plant even to himself who had never much interest in gardening in his previous life, but he knew to Leo's observant eye, this meant so much more.
Leon tried to place himself into Leo's mindset, to read between the lines and see what the original saw. He recalled a nature program in the past where reptiles and insects used the colour red as a warning, perhaps they were inedible, poisonous or it was a bluff. Maybe something similar was true to this plant. It was not listed as poisonous, though Leon was aware that even medicines and pills could be poisons if abused. So was it a bluff?
No, it was simpler that that, he felt with a groan. Tree leaves turned red in the autumn, this was due to them filtering the waste products into the foliage, causing them to die and fall. What if it was something similar? What if the red represented waste or impurities and the plant transferred them to the flower after it bloomed? So if the flower was plucked before it was due to die, wouldn't those impurities transfer to the pill?
He shook his head, feeling that he was right about this and marvelling over Leo's very unique point of view that allowed him to notice these things. He wasn't sure he could follow suit, but he knew that he would never know unless he tried.
Want to thank everyone who has voted with powerstones, past, present and future! This week we got to 35 which is the highest so far since I launched the book!
Thank you also to all my readers, silent or vocal. Without you guys this book would be harder to continue writing!
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