Horse 12, year 8690 of the Grand Wulin Era,Alexander Grandstar

I had finally finished reading over and memorizing the Alchemy primers and basic theory manuals I had, both the ones I’d already had or rented from the library, and the ones Uncle Andrew told me to study. I knew a lot about the basics of how alchemy worked, and even some basic chemistry, which would be enough for me to learn to concoct basic pills and powders, though higher tier Alchemy like transmutation or complex chemistry like producing bombs or doing things like isolating chemical elements was beyond my reach without years of experience and plenty of experimentation.

I’d learned a lot though, it turned out that mana was tied to all other energies because it was both a form of energy, like light, and an elementary particle, like a quark or lepton The elemental energy or elemental affinities that mana in the form of energy or in other forms had also had turned out to be types of elementary particles, meaning that mana and elemental energy are some of the fundamental building blocks of everything, even influencing these other building blocks. In a sense, mana and element were also fundamental forces, alongside such things as the weak-strong forces, electromagnetism and gravity. Every atom in existence, every proton, electron and neutron, every molecule, every cell, anything alive or dead, all the way up to the entire Myriad Heavens Cosmos with its infinite planes, had mana and elemental affinities.

This meant that every action , every chemical reaction, every energy expenditure, had the involvement of mana and element. It wasn’t entirely necessary for me to know this yet, but Uncle Andrew said a solid theoretical foundation would help my comprehension of Dao in general, help my cultivation, and help me to understand things that could otherwise waste my time or lead me down incorrect paths, as well as to understand why my experiments would go the way they would. Besides, I’d have learned the knowledge for the sake of learning it eventually anyways, so it was good to learn it now.

Today was special to me, Uncle Andrew was going to first demonstrate the processes of making some a basic medicine, while doing so slowly so I could see and understand it, then give me the recipe and a few sets of ingredients to practice with. This would be my first true foray into alchemy, and I really hoped nothing would explode in my face.In hindsight, that hope was practically inviting something to do so.

I entered Uncle Andrew’s shop and went to the Alchemy lab in the back, where he was waiting for me, playing with a very small alchemical bomb as if it were a coin. When I approached, he flicked his wrist, and the bomb vanished. Spatial storage , or something else, I wasn’t sure, but that trick did look pretty cool. He flicked his wrist again, and a small pile of various plants and a few weird things like snake gallbladders appeared on the table in front of him.

“Watch closely, Alex, i’m only going to show you this once, while I walk you through how to do it. This is a basic medicinal solution that disinfects wounds,dulls pain, promotes healing, and,helps regenerate lost blood, and aids in sealing up wounds. I call it Wound Patching Potion, but the official name is Lacusvulnere, which means pretty much the same damn thing in a language that hasn’t been commonly spoken outside the Sol Magna Empire for 5000 years.” He flicked his wrist again and a mortar and pestle flew out,as well as a small glass vial full of water. He grabbed five nearly identical looking plants from the table in front of him.The major difference was the color. One had a purely green stems and a green flower, another was tinted blue-green and had a blue flower, the next was still green stimmed but its flower was bright red, one had a brownish-gray flower, and the last was golden-stemmed and had a metallic flower. “These are the 5 Elements Poppies, and they are the main ingredients of the Potion, and everything else in it is there to either increase its effect or minimize unwanted side effects.” He explained.

“Wow, and normal poppy is just a painkiller!” I said

“Well, mana effects different things differently,and even a regular poppy that becomes a Magic Plant can gain interesting magical and medicinal properties, let alone poppies like this that were hybridized with other Magic Plants to give them more useful properties.As the seed capsules on these have already opened into flowers, they have less pain killing properties and are less likely to cause addiction, but the other properties are stronger.”

He put the flowers in his mortar and pestle and mashed them until they became a multicolored paste, upon which he tossed in part of the snake gallbladder a white mushroom that radiated heat and a small amount of light, called a Yang Mushroom, a blackish-green grass with a black flower,that gave off a cold aura, called Yin Flower Grass, and a magical variant of a rather ordinary looking herb called Oregano. I knew that one even better than I knew most magic plants, Papa used it as a seasoning pretty often, he would make interesting seasonings with magic herbs sometimes.Andrrw then pulled out a very small cauldron, poured the water in the vial into it, and scraped the paste into it with what looked like a flattened spoon. He used a small spell to hover the cauldron in the air, then created a flame with mana and held it under the cauldron until the paste dried into bright purple powder. He then poured the powder into the vial, used mana to condense water to fill it, and shook the vial until the powder had fully blended into the water. I’d say there were about….3 ounces of the translucent purple potion? I had taken careful note of the exact proportions of ingredients used, and used my fire affinity to keep an eye on the flame’s temperature. Those would be in the recipe anyways, but I figured I should take notes anyways, to see how different Uncle Andrew’s preparation was from the recipe’s.

“Did you catch everything,Alexander?Enough for 10 doses for a Mist Sea cultivator, one dose for a Mana Sea, and 50 doses for a mortal. It should greatly aid the healing of most cuts and bruises, even deep ones, but damage like broken bones or severed parts are beyonds its ability to repair.

He moved aside to let me make an attempt, and let me read the medicine’s recipe. I made an attempt to copy the process he had used myself. Everything was going fine,until , when I was mashing everything into paste, the mixture spontaneously caught on fire. I yelled and poured water on the fire, putting it out. Uncle Andrew wordlessly got more ingredients, cleaning out the cauldron with a wisp of mana.

“What did I do wrong?”

“Too much Fire Poppy, too little Water Poppy, a bit too much Yang Mushroom. The five elements and the yin-yang ingredients have to be balanced,or else even weirder stuff could happen.” He showed me the process again, showing me where i’d gone wrong. It looked like, even if I was supposed to be talented, there was a long road ahead.

The next attempt was also a failure, I used too much heat when drying the paste and ended up with a bunch of purpleish ashes. I was pretty sure those would make good fertilizer, they were chock full of mana.

***

About 2 weeks, 200 tries, 20 spontaneous combustions, 8 explosions,2 very angry nests of sparrows, and 1 accidental neurotoxin later, I’d learned to consistently refine the Wound Patching Potion in powder form and potion form. After the first successful refinement, I had immediately taken it to Uncle Andrew, more than a little exhausted. He scanned it with his Divine Sense, which was the most efficient way to determine the quality of the potion.

“Good Job, Alex, this meets the standards of low quality Wound Patching Potion! I’ve seen your work, and I’ll supervise your next few refinings to help you can improve. Once you can refine intermediate quality Wound Patching potion and powder, i’ll let you move on to the other forms it’s available in, like ointment and poultice.”He explained, seeming excited by my progress.

“Can I start to work on making other medicines too?” I asked. I felt learning how to make other medicines would make it easier to make high quality Wound Patching Potion.

“Sure, but only one other type until your refinement of Wound Patching Potion reaches the intermediate level.”

With that settled, I went to go take a nap. Cultivation can restore energy and drain away fatigue, but especially when mental exhaustion builds up enough, you have to sleep sometimes. I had a lot of self-assigned work ahead of me,after all, so I’d need a lot of rest, especially with being a kid and still having a lot of growing to do.

I needed to work hard to improve the quality,as mine had around a quarter of the effectiveness of his, but that would come with time and experimentation He’d helped me a lot by walking me over the medicinal formula and why it was the way it was during my mana attempts, as well as answering my many questions as to why my medicine refinement had gone wrong. I was told that I had to learn every basic medicine to at least my current mastery of the Wound Patching Powder, if not better, before I was allowed to work on cultivation medicines or anything else alchemical.

It’d been tough to learn, but once I got it down, it wasn’t really too difficult outside of the focus and energy expenditure required. I knew it was the absolute easiest medicine to produce, as well as among the least expensive, but I was sure that with this basis, I should be able to grasp decent Alchemy skills at a pretty good pace. Soon, i’d be allowed to learn Enchanting as well, and I was excited by the possibilities there too. I wonder if it’s possible to enchant alchemical pills, medicines, and such to make them stronger or last longer or whatever? I knew Alchemists, Enchanters, and Blacksmiths all got along well, but I wasn’t sure why. I decided to leave that for later and fully immerse myself in Alchemy for now.