Bab 10: Ch. 10 clear spiritual pill

Ling Xi smiles, looks like his hard work really paid off. He can only divide his soul force three right now but he knows that for a bit of hard work and practice he can do more.

He decided to go outside and look for some medical plants that are over a hundred years of age and start experimenting in dissolving and refining them to become medicinal pill.

He first try making a level one medicinal pill, the clear spiritual medicinal pill. He studies the recipes diligently before starting. He first started his fire, poking and prodding it until it produces the heat he needed. Putting his cauldron and the medicinal herbs he divided his soul force into two parts dropping it in the cauldron, he can see the herb dissolving and turning into a green fluid substance.

Everything is doing well, the plant is now emitting a fragrance making him so excited. 'This is good, I'm doing great' LingXi thought to himself looking at the cauldron.

Unfortunately due to his excitement, he decided to form the liquid substance to soon without waiting for the herbs to thoroughly became liquid.

It only takes a single mistake to burn his herbs into a brown mess emitting a burnt and bitter smell.

He tries again, this time because of his impatience the fire is to big, making his cauldron fly.

His his control in his soul force waver, cauldron flies.

The herb burn again. Fail.

It took him almost six tries before refining a single clear spiritual pill, this time, he studied and reread the recipe over and over to avoid making future mistakes. The fire is supposed to be just ember, and he can add a little stalk of winter ice to nullify the heat making the pill successful.

"This is hard!" Ling Xi says to himself after putting the pill in the bottle container. His soul force is in its limit pushing him to meditate to avoid straining his soul.

"But, nevertheless i succeed." he said before patting his back congratulating himself on a job well done.

Smiling widely, still savoring his success he goes into the kitchen to cook. The wind is really strong, making the fruit trees sway. It looks like it is going to rain.

While waiting for clear broth noodle soup to cook, he opened the jade book to read, his understanding about alchemy and how to refine pill is so little making him make so many mistakes.

The ability to refine pill can't be considered hard or easy. The process is related to practice, perseverance, patience and the ability to control the soul force. If you have all of that, there will be less chance of failure.

And if refining two or more plants, the blending and forming the pill is not just about putting the two together but you have to mix it together. And the process of mixing is not simple, if any error was made, it could cause the medicinal pill to lose some of its value, or may even be result in failure by either making the cauldron fly or being burnt. A medicinal pill should come out emitting a fragrance, the lighter the fragrance is the better the value and grade.

"So my pill is considered to be a failure even when i form it into pill." Ling Xi says, looking at the pitiful pill quietly sitting on the bottle.

"Forget it, Learn from your mistakes." but Ling Xi still decided to keep the first pill he have done as a memorabilia not knowing that the pill would save his life someday.

After breaking his fast, Ling Xi decided to continue practicing this time, he has to be patient. Gathering thirty stalks of spiritual flower medicinal herbs and fifteen of the winter ice medicinal herb, the ingredients in making the clear spiritual medicinal pill. Going inside, the rain is now falling making the surroundings gloomy.

Sitting in the rug besides the fireplace, Ling Xi bring out the cauldron again. This time in full concentration. The cauldron is now emitting a fragrance, the sign that it is ready to form, he merge the liquid by mixing it carefully but thoroughly before refining it.

Ling Xi's face is now full of sweat and his breathing come out harshly his soul force is now on the limit but he endure until succeeding in refining the clear spiritual medicinal pill.

The pill is green in color. Slightly emitting a light fragrance making him so comfortable. The pill is mid grade, clearly he had a long way to go before making a high grade pill but he is happy. Happiness is bursting in his heart but after a minute he suppress it. He still has to practice and refine the medicinal plants. His goal is to produce twenty-five to twenty-eight medicinal pills and make as little mistakes as possible.

His result exceeded his expectations, he refine twenty-nine and he only fails because his soul force is to strain that he has to stop before doing some serious damage.

When he looks outside, the night is approaching but heaven is still pouring buckets. This time he decided to not cook anymore and instead concentrate on meditating. Pulling the spiritual qi on his meridians and flowing to his dantian where his soul force resides. He stays in this position until morning arrived.