Ye Ming pulled out his training sword and began to practise. He used the lightfoot technique, but on hand.
It’s like a whip-slash, he sends a pulse of Qi and then pulls back a smaller amount, allowing a small bit to merge with the sword and then leave mid-swing, creating a sharp air that rushes forward.
’I do believe this is what they call a sword beam. A standard move in cultivation worlds.’ The alchemist sagely nodded as he practised more.
His next attempts were far deadlier, as the sharp winds he generated grew louder and more devastating.
"Hmm..."
He walked over to the trees at the back of his house. Since he lived at the edge of the sect, he had a decent amount of vegetation.
The Alchemist selected one of the trees to be a training dummy for him. After looking at the tree for a bit, he tried once more. He sent a pulse of Qi into the blade before doing a swing.
The move left a gash in the tree’s bark.
"Hmm..."
After a couple more swings, he got the hang of it.
’Now for the next step.’
Ye Ming took a deep breath and used the ’Sharpening and Cutting Art’, but this time around, he used it as a pulse.
And then he swung the blade.
*SHING*
A loud metallic sound followed as one of the larger branches was snapped off and dropped on the ground.
The cut was clean; in fact, it was so clean that the Alchemist needed to inspect it closely.
’What a surgical cut... it’s a bit scary...’
After inspecting it, he went back to his previous position and tried the new technique several more times.
He even did different strokes with the blade. However, the result of that was a bit different.
’I need more practise...’
Ye Ming frowned as he looked at his handiwork. Some of the cuts were clean, but some swings failed badly, and the release of his new move is what makes it work.
That means that if he sends the pulse at the wrong time or the swing is not right, then the cut could miss its target.
"Well, it was fun, but I have other things to do."
The Alchemist returned to his favourite spot under the tree as he began to read the new material he got from Jiang Mengxue.
The recipes for pills.
’Heavenly Qi Grass... the last time I remember reading is that this grass is simply a more grown version of Qi Gathering Herb.
It means it’s a much older ingredient.’
From that alone, this grass becomes a rarer ingredient.
But it makes sense; anything made from it becomes a Foundation Realm Pill.
’Yet, they still use Qi Gathering Herb alongside it... I wonder why? I guess it is a more flexible and easier-to-use material.’
Regardless, there wasn’t much that the Jiang Family had on pills.
’Oh, some of the healing pills look great, and it’s not easy to make!’
The Alchemist grinned as he knew this grass well! This specific thing grows everywhere!
He got up and walked to his house. All sorts of invasive grasses grew around the fences.
Ye Ming found just that! The wide-leaf grass. This specific grass is nothing special; all it does is stimulate the wounds so they can close faster. But if one mixes it with Qi Gathering Herb...
Give the grass essence a bit of Qi and mix it up.
The effects of it would magnify.
’Oh... if I put Pure Water Grass?’
A small grin appeared on his lips. It would become a Detox Pill!
It purifies bad stuff and closes wounds.
"Hmm... let’s try."
The Alchemist walked into his house and pulled out a bit of Qi Gathering Herbs and Pure Water Grass that Jiang Mengxue brought over.
He began to test his new pill.
First, he threw the wide-leaf grass into the cauldron to check the heat tolerance.
The invasive grass wasn’t bad; it was somewhat tolerant, so that he could use Qi Gathering Herb next.
Ye Ming didn’t fuse together just yet, as the next one was Pure Water Grass. The hardest part is adding the purifying effects to these two.
’As expected, Qi Gathering Herb is literally like glue; it just... gathers Qi... like its name. I wonder if Heavenly Qi Grass is like its mutated older brother or something similar to that.’
The Alchemist pondered on that as he merged the three effects together and created what he called the Detox Pill.
What he didn’t realise yet was that this was a Rank 3 Pill, since he used three ingredients!
Though...it’s hardly a Houtian pill; no one at that level uses such cheap grasses. Even the effect... it should do some basic Detox. But for anything more powerful, he would need a grass with more potent Qi for stronger effects.
So, in a sense, to him, this was a fake rank-3 pill.
’Hmm, well, you don’t look bad. I would need this pill appraised by an expert.’ Ye Ming pondered as the pill floated out of the cauldron and into his hand.
"What is that pill? The purity..." Liu Li’s voice brought him from his thoughts.
"I used Wide Leaf Grass, Qi Gathering Grass and Pure Water Grass to make this. I suspect that this should have a decent purifying and detoxifying effect while accelerating wound closure." He explained to her as he threw the pill up and down.
"...Three ingredients at once!?"
"...Oh... right... You think this can be classified as a Houtian pill? I doubt that... It’s made from random grasses found everywhere." The Alchemist commented with a small, confused frown.
"It doesn’t matter! It’s the fact that you used three ingredients to merge together! That’s the whole point. The cauldron is what crystallises the effects!
This means that your spiritual sense is stronger than even I have hoped!" The Fallen Princess commented as there was hope now in her eyes!
"...Liu Li?" Ye Ming was a bit worried; the girl’s gaze grew heated.
"Unbelievable!" She said with a small gasp of awe as she walked over and inspected the pill. The girl could tell the radiance in that pill... it was Houtian Realm! While not as strong as she remembered, the radiance was still there!
"You could keep those ingredients in a perfect state in your cultivation realm, which is the most impressive thing!" Her eyes glinted as she exclaimed, wondering how strong his spiritual power was!
"...Umm... not really? I mean... I developed a technique to do that."
His response caused her even more excitement!
"Even a technique! Unbelievable!"
Ye Ming doesn’t realise yet, but his curious nature and sometimes even reckless behaviour are a novelty in this world.
For these Cultivators, techniques and arts are something akin to holy texts of his old world. One simply doesn’t try or recklessly practise Qi techniques.
That’s because these people respect their elders, and these elders are the ones who invent or refine these techniques.
Normally, and most of the time, no one even develops such a curious nature in this martial arts world.
Ye Ming questions everything and even treats these ancient arts as if they were guidebooks rather than specific manuals to follow. Nope, for him, they are simply hints on how to use something, not something he HAS to follow.
However, such a reckless outlook could hurt him if he isn’t careful.
"Yes... I thought of ways to lessen the strain." He replied to her, but the more he spoke, the more he fascinated the princess before him.
"...amazing..." The girl gushed, making him a bit nervous.
"Yes...anyway..."
He stored the pill away and instead decided to make more of the pills. He should make some for Mengxue’s family.
No doubt they want his pills.
’Let’s go with my Rank 2 purifying pill. Her family should be Houtians. I wonder how much these pills will help them.’
With that in mind, he returned to his cauldron and began to cook those pills.
~~~
As Jiang Mengxue was getting the lotus flowers and Jiang Tianyu was collecting Heavenly Qi Grass for Ye Ming, there was something else that was happening in the Sect.
A certain Reincarnator of Founder’s Son was planning his revenge.
"Long’er?" Bai Lingxi had returned from her first day in the gardens, where she needed to pick up herbs and grasses for Jiang Mengxue.
What she found was Jian Long, cackling as he had a cauldron before him; he looked... unstable?
’Alchemy? No... that’s pill making? Can he do it?’ The difference between Alchemy and regular pill-making is that one looks quite magical, while the other looks like cooking.
"They will all die! I will kill them all! This sect... it belongs to me!" The hunched teen continued to use alchemy flames as he was refining something.
The girl’s eyes ended up on the side as she saw a pile of herbs.
"Those..."
What she saw were vines with spikes; those are invasive vines that release certain toxins upon contact with skin. They are not lethal on their own.
But if they are combined with something like Qi Gathering Herbs.
A rank 2 poison could make even a Foundation Realm Expert paralysed for life.
"Long’er, what are you doing!" Bai Lingxi walked over. She was terrified! If Cloud Sword Sect finds out that Jian Long is making poison, he will be exiled! If not killed!
The guy is mad!
"Oh, Lingxi, just what I needed. You have some Qi Gathering Grass, right? I need those, give them to me."
The friendly girl finally saw his face. There was a certain strange glint in his eyes.
"Long’er, you need to rest! Your back is not healed yet, and your cultivation realm is not stable! You shouldn’t be pretending that you know pill making! Those vines, those are Underworld vines! They are toxic!" The girl tried to reason, but it only made Jian Long gnash his teeth.
"Don’t tell me what to do! This is exactly what I need! I will kill every single Jiang! Once I mix Qi Gathering Grass and devil’s horn! I will be able to make a Rank 3 Poison that is strong enough to take out even Houtian!"
Bai Lingxi looked at him with horror! How does he even know Houtian Realm poison!? Who taught him!?
"W-Who are you? What happened to my Long’er!?" The girl immediately pulled back from him and took some distance.
"I am your Long’er! I am doing this for you as well! Those Jiang fools are pretenders! They took this Sect from me! I am Jian Long! Son of Jian Xuan! He was the founder of this Sect! These lands belong to me!"
The hunched teen was ranting, causing Bai Lingxi to shake her head. She was looking at a stranger.
Most likely, when Wu Bingyun hit him, those hits broke his mind!
’I-I need to get out of here!’
The girl used her Lightfoot and disappeared from the house.
"Lingxi! Where are you going!? I need those Herbs!!!" Jian Long tried to go after her, but his leg stumbled over the table’s leg and that caused the cauldron with Underworld Vine’s Essence to spill on him.
"AGHHH!!!"
The Founder’s son screamed at the top of his lungs as the neurotoxic essence spilt on his back, easily burning his robes and hitting his skin.
The guy collapsed on his stomach, twitching and spasming from the pain. But then the paralysis kicked in as he couldn’t even scream anymore.
’No... this can’t be happening!’
He tried to resist, but his body went into shock and started to shut down so that it could resist the poison that he had inflicted on himself.
The moment he abandoned his ideals... Heaven went against him. And if you have a lot of luck, it can easily flip into bad luck and get worse.
This is what happened to Jian Long: the moment he went against his family’s ideals and began treating Heavenly Daughter as a tool, he was doomed to a bad end.