Labby felt Qi thrumming in her core. The vague mass of Qi at the centre of her foundation now slowly but surely solidifying, as shimmers of Lunar Qi began to mingle with the Lightning Qi. A conflicting mixture of a soft gentle Qi, with the volatile thunder waiting to erupt.

Labby could see her understanding of the world grow. She’d understood one cycle of numbers that her Great Master had taught her, and now, the Qi echoed his words, as many, many cycles all around the world began to be obvious to her. What was cold but the absence of heat, and the heat, the lack of the other. The night an absence of light, spirit the absence of the physical.

The absence contained a symbol. A meaning that she’d never known. The numbers the Qi had whispered to her, took on a different meaning altogether, as the new symbols lit up in her mind, like beacons of insight.

“Labby… are you okay?” her Great master spoke, his face covered with concern for her wellbeing.

Labby squeaked back at her Great Master. Labby thanks the Great Master for granting her such profound knowledge.

She sent to her Great Master, bringing her paws together in a respectful gesture. Her Qi had grown, as the Lunar Qi had strengthened her. The light of the moon, the light that showed the absence of heat and warmth.

Labby could sense the boon from the spirit grow within her core, strengthening itself. She was still far, far from attaining a form more suitable to a disciple of her Great Master. But she had grown, and she had learned and that alone was enough to please her greatly for today.

“Good job on breaking through Labby. The steps in between realms are easier to take, yet no less challenging. Each step will form the path to your growth, similar to how the numbers grow by singular increments each. Well, there’s also fractions, then ratios, irrational numbers, and real numbers not to mention complex numbers but that’s getting a bit too far ahead for now,” her Great master said, and Labby found herself tilting her head.

She could sense the ideas from the bond she shared with her Great Master, yet the idea of unending numbers and portions of a whole baffled her, so much so that her head began to spin and Labby let go of the thoughts for now.

Labby is eager to learn more! She exclaimed to her Great master, pleased to see him laugh at her words.

“Alright, then, let’s start with the basic science of matter and atoms now. The building blocks of the world”

***

I put a sleeping Labby into a comfortable corner to rest. My gaze drifted outside, finding the morning sun rising, and I laughed at the thought of how envious I would have been in my past life if I had known people could shrug off two all-nighters with no trouble.

I noticed the little spot of white fur forming a crescent on Labby’s forehead, and Lunar Qi inside her core. The spirit pill had clearly done something, and I could sense Labby walking on a different path than the one she’d taken before.

The words of the spirit, and how it mentioned Labby’s path differing from others of her kin, played in my mind. A part of me wondered just what would’ve happened, had I not caught Labby that day in my room. Would her life have been better off, as just a simple rat, unaware of the world?

I didn’t know the answer. I couldn’t guess what could’ve been. Yet, I didn’t regret my choices either. What had been a simple desire to gather more spirit herbs had ended up giving me a precious and dear Junior sister, who followed my desires and passions to learn, albeit fuelled more by a pill addiction than anything else.

A part of me was bothered by the respect Labby held for me. I had been trying to ignore it, treating her as a child, who’d become aware of my faults the more she learned about the world and saw the truth for herself. But her growing knowledge only seemed to lend itself to further devotion towards me.

I’d thought it’d simply been the result of an impressionable mind, like how a duckling would think the first creature it saw was its mother. And yet, clearly, there was more to it than just that. Perhaps it was also a part of me, trying to run away from having to live up to Labby’s expectation.

I felt like I’d been misleading her into having an inflated expectation of me, as her image of me, and my image for myself was in conflict. Yet perhaps I simply refused to accept that I really was her master. Not a great master, more of a senior brother, if you’d ask me. But the role of an elder guiding her was still mine, and it’d do me well to act like one.

I walked to my collection of spirit herbs, that I’d bought from Granny Lang. I’d probably want to add some of these to my spirit herb garden. Taking out the heat sensing stone, I flexed my Qi, lighting a fire under my new cauldron with a thought as I prepared the ingredients.

I couldn’t sit around, while my junior sister was making breakthroughs. It was time to make the first of the three pills needed to become a Junior Alchemist and graduate as an apprentice.

***

“Ouch! Goddamnit that burns,” I shouted, putting my hand back from the blazing hot fire. I pulsed my Qi through my stinging fingers as the fire subdued and I let the Qi from the cauldron dissipate.

Another failed test.

I scratched out the temperature requirement, and the Qi pressure requirement, as I applied a salve on my fingers.

Stupid cultivation pill with stupid requirements. I grumbled to myself as I looked through the texts for the creation of the pill.

Poison Flame Pill: A pill formed of seven poisons, based on the raging heat of the Flaming tongue grass of the southern deserts of the empire. A pill at the peak of the first realm, capable of granting a cultivator immunity to the seven poisons present within, while burning through the impurities within their cultivation.

Excruciating pain will be experienced when consuming the pill as the purification process takes place.

The pill needed to be refined at an extremely high concentration of fire essence, yet the process was extremely delicate, any changes in the Qi pressure of the cauldron caused the fire to burn through the herbs instead of refining them, or in this case, lash out and burn my hands instead.

None of the herbs being used were poisonous, but from what I read, the ending result was a fairly poisonous mixture with a solid restriction on which realm of cultivator can ingest it safely. A pill that I definitely wouldn’t want to consume to test the effectiveness for myself. Some other method would have to be used for that. That is if I can even create the darn thing in the first place.

Cleaning out the cauldron of burnt herbs I took a break and set to the task again. I crushed the herbs, using a simple mortar and pestle to mix and grind them as the steps showed. I added the mixture to the cauldron, feeling the essence being released as the leaf itself was crushed. Ruptured cells didn’t hold Qi as well in them was another thing I’d checked with this preparation method.

Opening my drawer, I took out the flaming tongue grass, grabbing it by the small end at the bottom portion of the stem, where the flames didn’t reach. Quickly, I added the herb to the mixture and poured in some Qi filled essence water, and a simple elixir before I shut the lid on the cauldron.

Qi instantly gushed forth, as the Qi water reacted with the spirit herbs, drawing their Qi out, and the fire grass added fire essence to the mixture. I could sense the rising temperature and I let the flame under the cauldron start.

Adding another spirit stone to fuel the fire, I quickly churned my Qi through the mixture of herbs and essence, submerging it throughout the cauldron. A benefit of the small cauldron I had was the lowered requirement of Qi needed to make a single pill, at the cost of needing more time.

Yet, the time aspect was counteracted by the Qi spreading far more evenly, as I found the channelled Qi travelling through the cuts and lines carved into the cauldron itself, in a circular shape on the bottom end like a head coil dispersing the heat.

Another thing I was definitely going to check out.

Focusing back on the task, I nudged the essence of the Qi in the caldron. The fire essence in the mixture churned, trying to erupt out in random directions and I stirred the pill mixture slowly but surely, as the water evaporated, the essence being absorbed and condensed together into the crushed herbs, thickening the mixture.

I felt the heat of the fire increase, intensifying the Qi pressure to not allow the Qi to spread away and expand, despite the increased energy. The Qi churned, swirling like an inferno of fire, and I felt sweat dripping down my back.

I focused my attention on my Qi, the cauldron, a part of my body, an extended limb that I controlled. The Qi around me began to swirl, as I drew the essence of the herbs together. Something was forming in the cauldron.

A shape formed, as the water was almost all evaporated. A thick mixture of herbs swirled in a raging hot cauldron, slowly but surely coming together into a singular circle.

The Qi intensity ramped up, the Qi of the pill-pushing back against the Qi pressure permeated throughout the cauldron.

I pushed, increasing the flames as high as I could as I burned through the spirit stones. Qi churned, struggling, refusing to take shape as I held on.

The Qi pushed, I pushed back. The Qi tried to break through, I held on.

I sensed a burning inferno condense itself under the pressure of my Qi pressure, the fire, taming itself as it bound itself to the pill.

I’d done it.

I gasped, exhausted, with almost all my Qi expended on the task. I still had a ways to go with Qi efficiency. A grin covered my face, even as sweat covered my whole body. I’d done it!

I extended my senses towards the pill, trying to see the result. With care, I quickly opened the lid to an extremely hot cauldron, setting it aside as I looked in.

A burning sphere, like a chunk of earth with lines of lava running across it, sat in the middle of the cauldron. Silently I inspected the pill, frowning when I sensed fire essence leaking from within.

The pill shouldn’t look like this.

Hesitantly, I sent a pulse of Qi within and jumped back as fire exploded in front of my face. An inferno raged from within the cauldron as heat pulsed out in waves, swirling around in one place.

I stared at the swirling mass of fire raging around in my cauldron before a laugh broke itself from my mouth.

Silently, I crossed another list of requirements for the Poison Flame pill and made another entry within a new section.

It seems I’d just found the recipe for creating exploding fire pills. Exploding drug bombs, just what I needed.