The rest days passed quickly for all those within the school, for whether you were truly at rest and playing or working hard to practice your craft or organise your new room to perfection, the number of rest days you had never seemed to be enough. After that, things became a little more serious, at least as far as the first years and one senior (who might as well have been a first year considering the length of time that he had attended this school technically speaking was only thirty or so days greater than theirs and part of that was spent convalescing) were concerned.
The first years now should be considered used the way things were at the school, should have lost some of the arrogance they held on entering the school or gained a little confidence. Many had been tempered by events in the school as well, such as the Standings for the Martial Artists (the Mages and Beast Tamers had something similar). Freshly enrolled alchemist students learned that pill making was not an easy path, despite it being the easiest school to enrol into and hopeful Beast Tamers learned that it was not so easy to coax a wild beast into becoming their partner, more so if they were of rare or strong bloodlines. It should be noted, that the scholars were serious by nature, so the first years there were about to experience what for them amounted as excitement; allowed to access new levels of the library and aid seniors with their research!
As for Leon, his first duty to his new Master was to help him carry his things to a lecture in the inner alchemist school; Teacher Sagi would speak to a gathering of first years giving them a lecture on control and conservation of spiritual energy during pill making. The outer school students would be able to attend the same lecture the following day.
Lectures were considered optional for students even now, but those who wished to progress would attend them and those who were either too lazy or thought that they knew enough would likely opt out, but their choice would be quietly noted. Perhaps it was due to that and perhaps it was due to the fact that they were older and wiser, but not fewer than two handfuls of seniors also attended the lecture.
By now, it should be clear to most first years that their control over their fires and cauldrons was not as adept as they might have believed when forming those first few pills, even here in the inner school where talent was higher. So this lecture could be said to reveal some secrets to help them with this and Teacher Sagi was lured into having high hopes for these first years, thanks to the great attendance of students to his lecture this time around.
The students in the lecture hall quickly settled as Teacher and disciple entered and the Teacher began reciting the words that he had used each and every year for more times than he could count, while Leon set up the man's cauldron and stove. A stove was a portable device that produced flames for a cauldron. It was a magical device using a firestone to produce the flames without physical fuel. The reason that students had to use fixed fireplaces were that stoves were very expensive and the costly firestones produced by mages needed replacing frequently. Only top alchemists would use them as they had several additional benefits other than not requiring wood as fuel and being portable. It was easier to control the flames of the firestone than the flames of a wood fire.
That being said, Leon, unknowingly, had exceptional control over his spiritual energy already, having learned quickly and early on. The reasons were simple; he hadn't a huge pool of spiritual energy at that time so if he was to save his own skin, he couldn't be wasteful of it. It might also be to do with his former life's upbringing as well, as waste was not tolerated, his small family did not have the money to spare.
Teacher Sagi had three disciples currently, but he had chosen Leo(n) to help him with this lecture due to this reason, even though the other two had more experience. He also recalled how Leo had attended this lecture, actually most lectures, with complete and utter rapt attention. It made a Teacher feel as if his lessons were worth giving when a student was so diligent.
Leon listened carefully now, not aware that Leo had listened just as carefully a year prior as Teacher Sagi explained the importance of control. If an alchemist were to only focus on tempering the fire, he could neglect the forming of the pills and should he focus more on the pills, he could neglect the fire that would ultimately effect the quality of the pills. And if they focused on both, but neglected themselves, they could squander their spiritual energies and fail in the end as their inner pools would become drained.
The key partially lay in their ability to multitask and partially in finding a balance that felt right within their work. Sure it was to be expected that this was a difficult task, mistakes would be made and pills would fail, but so long as one learned from their failures and did not become too conceited over their successes, such a balance could be found.
He gave a demonstration, his skill was so profound that he could form the basic Burning Energy pill and explain all of the steps at the same time. The Burning Energy pill required a very hot flame, but the temperature needed to be consistent, so the students should practice to ensure a steady stream of spiritual energy poured into the heart of the flames. This should not cease at the pill forming stage, but a second steady stream ought to be sent into the cauldron to stir the liquid and begin to congeal it into round pills. At this time, students should not worry about how many pills form in the cauldron, if they can only cope with creating one pill, then focus on that one pill. If they can cope with more, then that is fine as well.
After a few moments, the flames of the stove went out completely and Teacher Sagi explained that he had withdrawn his spiritual energy, reclaiming it into his sea or it would dissolve into the air and be lost. Leon was not the only one to grimace as they were greatly aware of this already. From his cauldron, the Teacher produced rich and fragrant Burning Energy Pills, their spicy aroma filling the entire hall. There were ten in total, not a single drop of potion wasted and each and every one was of high quality, with two being considered perfect and one just slightly of weaker quality than the rest.
"Don't you think that this seems a bit too much?" Complained one first year as he and the others sat at their stone desks, each containing a fixed fireplace in the hollow of the desk and an abundance of firewood in a cubby within reach.
The students were placing their cauldrons into the hollowed fire pits and preparing the herbs required for the pills so the Teacher could see their strengths and weaknesses for himself and provide support when necessary. The first year who was complaining was not the only one to believe this, but was the only one to speak aloud. They were all talented in regards to making pills; this generally meant that they had fire or wood related roots or abundant spiritual pools. Their successes generally outweighed their failures, but their consistency was lacking. Most students, though, were not too worried. So long as they produced mostly good quality pills, then they were still better than outer school students whose pills were mostly average in quality.
They had both conceit and arrogance that remained due to the fact that they had been accepted directly into the inner school due to their talent and never considered the fact that the outer school produced more of the institutes pill requirements than the inner school. So the outer school's importance to the overall institute was just as great as the inner school.
In fact, with the exception of the seniors and about a quarter of the first years, the rest only attended the lecture for a different reason; a female student who had transferred into the inner school from the outer school.
Miss Merylin sat at a central desk with a female friend and a senior, who happened to be earnestly attending the lecture as his control was very weak, causing him difficulties progressing to more complex pills. Miss Merylin herself was doing her utmost to improve her abilities so that she might appeal more to a certain martial artist. So she was quite surprised to see the obstacle in her path to becoming that man's personal alchemist (before stepping into the realm of lovers and perhaps even marital partners and dao companions in the future....) enter the classroom behind the Teacher.
She did not allow it to distract her, however, from listening to the lecture and learning from Teacher Sagi. Indeed, if it wasn't for his strange striped hair and thick glasses that hid his large eyes from view, the youth would have been far less noticeable in her opinion. She was most impressed by Teacher Sagi's resultant Pills. She, herself, produced pills ranging in good to high quality, with only the exceptional failure. Her control was not at all weak, but she was wise enough to understand that there was room for improvement, that her talent did not make her exceptional in this school and as a new practitioner, she was a speck of dust compared to alchemists who had practiced their craft for hundreds of years.
Despite her faults and tunnel vision when it came to a certain man, she had a wide view of the world and her place within it. Unlike some other students here.
The student who had verbally complained and those who had not complained out loud but wondered why they needed to bother with this control thing in their hearts, conceitedly offered the contents of the cauldrons to the Teacher (and assistant). Each cauldron contained numerous pills (many sought to impress with quantity and not the Teacher either) which ranged from defective to good even high quality. There was not one cauldron from this group of arrogant boys and girls that offered consistency.
The Teacher shook his head and sighed inwardly. "Leon, come sit at my stove and produce a batch of Burning Energy Pills if you will."
Leon looked at the stove, then looked at the fire pits. "T-t-Teacher, m-might I use one of those? I've n-n-never used a st-stove b-before." There were a few ignorant smirks, those who looked down on Leon for his speech impediment and white hair that spoke of spiritual deviation.
The senior next to Merylin offered his seat, curious to understand what this chosen disciple could do. Merylin was also curious about Jin Li's alchemist servant. Obviously, she had heard from others that he produced a lot of pills compared to some others, but that his pills were all of average quality, hence why she never saw him as competition. Yet Teacher Sagi had selected him as his disciple...
Leon sat down after thanking the senior and carefully prepared his ingredients to one side of him, placing his much loved cauldron into the hollow upon fresh firewood. Seeing the very clean, clearly cared for cauldron placed inklings of shame into a couple of seniors hearts, while others sneered again. It was only a cheap cauldron, why make such a big deal of it? Leon quickly settled into his memorised routine for this pill, placing the ingredients into the cauldron in a set order, rather than tossing them all in at once, the heat from the fire was obvious to those close by and the most sensitive amongst them clearly noted that there was no change in temperature by even a half degree in all of this time.
Their senior was utterly focused as well, any coughs or whispers did not enter his hearing nor disrupt his concentration and after he took the curious choice of adding a drop of purple spirit grass due at the beginning of pill forming stage, the observers could not help but anticipate the final results. Leon produced eight pills in that batch, a far cry from when he had first made Burning Energy pills and could only make one pill in his cauldron at a time.
However, each and every pill was of average quality.
Teacher Sagi smiled and nodded happily at the result. Merylin was disappointed and held an inward pool of contempt. Was this man truly the obstacle in her path? The loud first year muttered; "what's so much better about his pills that ours? They are average, not a good one in the batch."
The senior, who had given up his seat, passed Leon a couple of jade bottles and examined the pills carefully as the outer school student placed them into the bottles. And then he smiled brightly. The first years were frogs in the well, too foolish to see what the Teacher was trying to teach them. Leon had produced eight average pills, that was true, but each and every pill was exactly alike. This lesson was about control and there was nothing more impressive than the control it took to produce identical pills.
"I have much to learn from you, brother," the senior grinned and encouraged Leon to repeat his lesson. His words drew over a few curious and clever students.
Teacher Sagi nodded in complete satisfaction.
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