“Now we have to trim the unnecessary portions of the plants off those we can. Some of these need to be done right before they enter the cauldron so you need to really know your plants. In this instance...”

I went ahead and sliced the unneeded roots of Yang Heart Burning Weed, and the tips of the petals on the weirdly shaped Ghost Horse Bone flower. The others, I’d all already cut properly when I took them from where we’d planted them. I also did the other extra prep work explaining each step as I went along.

Finally, it was time to start the concocting process.

“Go ahead and use the hand seal to lift the flames so they’re at a medium height.”

He did so easily and I nodded. ”And remember that these hand seals stay between us. They’re not for outsiders to see. I'll teach you the more traditional hand seals later.”

”I understand.”

I grinned and resisted the urge to pat his head.

Now I had to explain about timing.

“When you cultivate, you breathe in and out in a specific rhythm. When you concoct a pill, you also must breathe in a specific rhythm. A breath is a unit of time, and if you don’t get it right, you’ll fuck up your pill. Now, practice breathing with me, like this...” I breathed like an alchemist and with each breath, I held up a new finger to show the count. After 60 breaths, one minute, I stopped. “Don’t worry about being perfect right now since I’ll count for us, but eventually you’ll need to learn.”

He nodded, seriously, but continued to breathe in the rhythm I gave him.

“Now, for alchemists above Qi Condensation, they have divine sense, limited though it is, that they can use to sense the inside while the lid is closed. Since you don’t have that, you’ll have to rely on your perception of spiritual energy to guess what the energies inside are doing.

“Now. I’m going to start the pill. But before I do, when I do this...” I made the stop hand gesture. “I need you to back off and let me take over. During that time, drink some water and replenish your energy so you can take over later. And when I do this...” I made the thumbs-up gesture. “I need you to take over.”

He nodded. And since I wasn’t too sure I practiced with him for a bit. He caught on quickly.

I teleported the Vine of Stellar Rebirth’s flower over to me to automatically dry it. Then I lifted the lid and threw it into the cauldron. And I counted.

125 breaths.

Next Verdant King Spiritual Grass. This one I had to cut in half lengthwise before throwing it in.

208 breaths.

I raised the fire higher and waited another three breaths before adding the Monkey’s Palm Rose. I was still okay, but my side ached, so after 23 breaths I gave the sign for Little Spring to take over for me.

He deftly used the hand seals I taught him to keep the fire steady.

I brought out a cup of the spring water, downed it then cultivated for 100 breaths. When done I noticed that the concoction appeared even more stable than usual. Was that Little Spring or the perfect plants? Whatever.

I grabbed the small vine that had mini brown coconut-looking pods. This was the Vine of Resplendent Ocean Seeds. I poked a hole in each of the mini-coconuts and threw the whole thing into the furnace by the 56th breath. Using my divine sense I watched it melt into the concoction.

Once again, I took over for Little Spring.

I continued to throw plant after plant into the cauldron and we continued the back and forth where one of us rested while the other manned the flames. This felt more and more natural as the concocting process went on. The dumb cauldron even started to hum in my head expressing its happiness.

Then I threw the last plant in, waited 42 breaths for it to melt fully, and then made the improved hand seal for creating pills.

Once done, I lifted the lid, made the new non-hand-burning pill collection seal, and caught a dozen fleeing little pills into a beautiful jade bottle.

Worryingly, that was one of the smoothest pill concoctions I’d ever been a part of. But why? Was it just Little Spring and his protagonist’s energy making things go smooth? Was it because of our similar but reversed energies? This new cauldron? Was it special or something? The fact that we were working with perfect plants?

“Fairy Lin? Did we succeed?”

I poured out a single pill into my palm. Since I was about to take it anyway, it didn’t matter if it touched my skin. Then I stoppered the rest and threw them into my storage ring.

Pinching the pill between two fingers, I held it up so both he and I could see it.

“It looks good?” He asked nervously.

I nodded. “It looks beyond good. This is near Unparalleled Perfection in quality, which is a quality that is impossible to get so no one ever mentions it.”

“It’s very clear... and blue. Are pills supposed to be that clear and blue?”

“This one is...” though I’ve never seen it be so perfect. To soothe his nervousness I grinned and he relaxed. “You did well. Did you enjoy your time performing alchemy?”

He nodded happily. I smoothed his hair. “Good. We’ll do this again then. But for now. I need to heal myself. Can you take care of the excess?” I pointed to the messy work table that had plant remains strewn all over it.

He nodded and I teleported directly into the spiritual lake... that I remembered still didn’t have a name. Once I sat in the lotus position near the shallow end, I popped the pill.

Healing energy bubbled forth from it. It spread from my center through my body. Each area the energy touched, renewed, grew stronger, and became purer. The damage I’d taken through my overuse of techniques beyond my level, the wounds and harmful energy I’d sustained from that fight, and even the slight malnourishment my body had from nine years of inconsistent meals, all of that had healed completely. And whatever minimal amount of bad residue this pill would have left was immediately cleared away by the spiritual spring.

I released a turbid breath.

The extra impurities that the spring water hadn’t been able to touch before this pill, slowly cleared away, turning my already good skin beautiful and perfect. Inhumanly so.

I was looking forward to seeing what my body would look like once I reached Foundation Establishment. Hehehe. Muahahaha! I would be the most adorable child immortal cultivator in the world! Everyone would bow before my cuteness!

Seriously, I loved this healing pill. It was so fucking badass!

Grinning like a damn fox cultivator, I stood up from the lake. I turned to see Little Spring shuffling his feet and looking down.

“Are you feeling better now, Fairy Lin?”

“I’m all better!” Well, I still had a troublesome headache and a time limit of four months before I died, but that would be resolved soon as well. It just required spirit stones. Lots of spirit stones.

He sighed, the relief on his little face palpable.

“By the way. Have you thought of a name for this lake yet?”

He turned bright red and nodded. “I think we should call it...“ He mumbled the rest.

“Speak up!”

“I said, ‘Fairy Lake!’”

I laughed and sent him a thumbs up. “Good job.”

Let’s see. I won new alchemy supplies, gained connections in the guild, taught my adorable junior brother many things he needed to know to be a good alchemist, and healed my physical wounds. All in all, it had been a good couple of days.

The only thing left was to go make some cash while staying safe. Really, things were looking up.