章 79: Chapter Seventy Nine - My first experiment
Leon drowsily slipped from his dreams feeling fairly warm and wondered if he had forgotten to extinguish the fire within the stove the evening before. He wouldn't be surprised if this happened to be true, he was up quite late experimenting with clear spiritual pills to the point that he had filled close to twenty jade bottles. In fact the sun had descended beyond the horizon and plunged the world into the darkness of night before he even became aware of it. He had literally dragged his weary body to his bed to fall face forward, unconscious before his head had touched his pillow.
Leon nuzzled into said pillow and wondered why it felt so firm this morning. In fact, was the heat warming his cheek not emanating from the pillow? How was that possible? His eyes opened and nostrils flared suddenly becoming aware of a familiar scent. Leon's arm was wrapped around the source of heat and though that source still wore his inner robes, Leon could not help but be suddenly aware of how close they were. Why did these sort of things keep happening? Actually, when did Jin Li get here at all?
Jin Li's heart was beating softly, directly below his ear, the calm pace indicating that the youth had not yet woken, therefore would not be aware that Leon was hugging his body. Leon felt this was his saving grace and slowly slipped out of the bed.
The aroma of freshly brewed tea had Jin Li finally stir and rouse from the bed. Leon quietly placed the steaming cup and honey pot before him and Jin Li quietly accepted it.
"How d-did you g-get in?" Leon asked after half a cup was consumed, refreshing and soothing his mind.
"The door was unlocked," Jin Li sneered. "As usual, you fail to take care of yourself."
Leon frowned, he was certain that he had locked it, even despite his weariness. However if Jin Li was here, he supposed he recalled wrong. "I'll t-t-try to remember n-next time," he acquiesced. "I w-was up late last n-night. M-making p-p-pills."
"Did you not learn your lesson last time? Making pills until you completely drain your innersea," Jin Li muttered, thinking that Leon had pushed himself to collapse the evening before. Indeed, the youth had been splayed out upon his bed when Jin Li had arrived last night, still fully dressed in both inner and outer robes.
"N-no, I was c-careful," Leon assured him. "B-but look!" He indicated the twenty jade bottles upon the table, they were grouped into four batches. Jin Li frowned and placed his cup down, before picking up one bottle. It was filled with the basic pill, the clear spiritual pill. Something that was of no use for him, so he was not sure why Leon was so proud of his creations.
"What of it?" He said, dismissively, placing the bottle down.
"P-purple spirit g-grass is a m-main ingredient, b-but I found out if h-harvested from some p-places like White J-Jade C-Crystal M-mountain, is exp-pensive, I w-wondered why." Jin Li blinked, surprised by this servant's sudden excitement, his eyes seemed to sparkle even through the thick lenses covering them from view.
"Go on," Jin Li pressed.
"M-merchant c-c-could only say that alchemist p-prefer it, so higher p-price," Leon said, thinking this was just supply and demand, a usual tactic for selling goods. Nothing surprising about this. To really learn about what made the herb preferable would require him to purchase and use it. But this would not be enough, he needed something to compare it against. So, while he was in town the day before yesterday, he had purchased a fair amount of the herb that had come from White Jade Crystal Mountain for the price of nearly 1 silver as well as the much, much cheaper purple spirit grass from Southern Grassy Seas, a large, sweeping grasslands in the south of the continent for just 100 brass.
Leon pointed to a set of bottles. "These p-pills were m-made with school h-herbs," he stated. These could be considered his base for the experiment. He had made the pills many times using the school grown herbs after all, the impurities usually varied between not high and not low, an acceptable standard, if not an ideal one. Admittedly, the grass he was given this time from the Herb Hall by a Senior was a little dry, but still usable.
"These with g-grass from Southern G-grassy Seas. These with White J-jade C-crystal M-m-mountain herb and these... with m-my own." When he had returned to his home, he had noticed his own purple spirit grass was ready for harvest and was curious to know how it would compare.
"And the results?" Jin Li could not help but ask, slightly influenced by Leon's enthusiasm.
Leon took out a single pill from each batch and placed them on the table before him. At first glance, there was not too much difference and Jin Li was not an expert when it came to pills. However, there was a subtle difference in scent and clarity of each pill if one was astute.
Leon slowly advised him that the ones made with grass from the grassland was high in impurities so all of the pills resulting were fairly poor in quality. He had still made fifteen pills to be sure. Were it not for the high level of impurities, the pills would otherwise have been his usual average levelled ones.
The ones with grass from school were better, his usual standard of pill, definitely a good base to compare the others. The pills with the grass from the mountain were of good quality due to the much lower amount of impurities. It seemed the grass grown there was unsullied by whatever caused the impurities within the herb and therefore the pills made with it. It was no wonder it was considered to be expensive if it could make even an average alchemists pills turn out better!
"And this one?" Jin Li asked, picking up the pill that Leon had produced using the grass from his own garden. Leon blushed slightly as he claimed back the delicately scented pill.
"C-comparable to th-that one," Leon said, pointing at a pill still on the table. That pill happened to be the one made with purple spiritual grass from White Jade Crystal Mountain.
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