《Severing Time & Space》Round Three, Part III
Advertisement
“What’s going on? Why did everyone’s cauldrons explode?” asked Wu Jian.
He knew very little about alchemy beyond what Zhou Lihua had told him. Having watched the woman refine pills several times already, he knew that cauldrons exploding was nothing knew. She blew up several in his presence already.
This didn’t always mean the cauldron itself exploded. It was often the ingredients inside. Actual cauldrons exploding was not only more violent but resulted in the alchemist needing a new cauldron. What happened here was the ingredients inside exploded.
Though Zhou Lihua had actually made several cauldrons explode when she refined pills, but that was neither here nor there.
“Hmmm…” Master Wong Jiu stroked his beard as he observed the participants. “I believe Sao Yong has purposefully introduced a flaw in his recipe.”
“He can do that?” asked Wu Jian.
Master Wong Jiu snorted. “Of course, he can. There is nothing in the rules of this competition that says he cannot. I would have been even more disappointed if he didn’t.”
Wu Jian was confused. Why introduce a flaw in the recipe? What purpose would that serve? He thought about this for several seconds, watching as several participants began trying to refine the pill once more. A flaw. A flaw…
“Have you figured it out?” asked Master Wong Jiu.
“… He is testing them,” Wu Jian said at last.
“That’s right.” Master Wong Jiu crossed his arms. “Being an alchemist is about much more than just tossing ingredients into a cauldron, refining, and combining them. A good alchemist must also have excellent deductive skills and reasoning. He’s testing to see whether these participants can figure out why they failed to refine the pill.”
“I see.”
Wu Jian’s eyes were on Zhou Lihua. She was one of only three participants who stood on the highest raised platform, reserved for the three who did the best during Round One of the tournament. She had not begun trying to refine the pill again after her first failure. Instead, she just stood there, lips pursed and eyes unfocused.
“Have you figured out the flaw in the recipe?” asked Wu Jian.
Master Wong Jiu chuckled. “That’s impossible.”
“What? Why?”
“Because…”
***
Since she did not know why her pill had failed to refine the first time, Zhou Lihua had decided not to begin her second attempt. She only had enough ingredients for one more pill.
Xiao Wei and Lili Ling were the same. Neither of them were attempting to refine their second pill.
Refining a pill without knowing what went wrong was the mistake of an amatuer alchemist. If you didn’t know where you failed and tried to refine a pill again, there was nothing to stop you from making the same mistake.
There must be a flaw within the recipe. That’s the only explanation for why every alchemist here failed to refine the pill. Even Xai Wei and Lili Ling failed to refine the pill, and they’re arguably the best alchemists in this competition.
Several other participants had already begun their second attempt. Zhou Lihua paid careful attention to the order they refined their pills. She believed the flaw had something to do with the rank 3 monster core and pure heart clover. That was why she felt shocked when she noticed that two alchemists had what seemed like completely different recipes. One of the alchemists placed the jade leaves in before adding bromeliad. Another added anthurium stems after the bromeliad.
Their cauldrons exploded less than a second later, thus disqualifying the pair from the tournament.
Advertisement
Zhou Lihua checked her recipe again, which called for those particular ingredients to be added in the following order: anthurium stems, bromeliad, then jade leaves. Her eyes widened.
All of the recipes have a different flaw in them!
Sao Yong was clever. He knew people would begin watching others to see where the flaw was, and so he had added a different flaw into each recipe so they couldn’t take notes from someone else. Now that she knew this, she also realized there was a possibility this recipe had multiple flaws.
Of course, it wasn’t as if studying others as they refined was completely hopeless, but it may also amount to nothing more than a waste of her time. She could use the flaws found in their refining method as the basis to locate her own. Whether or not this helped was up in the air.
Lili Ling and Xiao Wei finally began their refining process. She didn’t know if they had figured out what flaw their recipes had, but she assumed they wouldn’t start refining again unless they had figured it out. No alchemist worth their weight in ingredients would do something like that, and these two were disciples of two rhodium rank alchemists.
Zhou Lihua had already figured out the first flaw in her own recipe. The rank 3 monster core and pure heart clover were out of order. Adding a monster core with a lightning affinity created a volatile reaction that caused the ingredients to explode when they interacted with each other. However, if she added and refined the monster core first, she could purify it without having to worry about the other ingredients getting in the way.
Monster cores were some of the hardest ingredients to purify, not only because of their density but also because they were essentially solid balls of pure chi. To purify them with flames, you had to pure away all the impurities until the monster core was liquid, then you had to heat it on a lower temperature until the liquid turned into a fine powder.
Sparks flew inside of her cauldron as she purified the monster core. Flashes of lightning could be seen emitting from the vents.
Those vents were designed to release the impurities from the ingredients into the atmosphere so they wouldn’t affect the pill when it was being refined, but right now, they were simply releasing sparks of lightning. The lightning skittered across the cauldron for nearly a full minute before Zhou Lihua was able to completely refine the monster core into a powder.
Zhou Lihua took a deep breath as the first step was complete, then reached out for the next ingredient.
***
“Hmmm. It seems she’s figured it out,” mumbled Master Wong Jiu.
“You mean she figured out where the flaw in her recipe is?” asked Wu Jian.
“Yes.” Master Wong Jiu paused for a moment as though collecting his thoughts before continuing. “The most interesting thing about his recipe is that many of the ingredients don’t need to be refined in a specific order. That is why he used this specific one for the competition. He can rearrange many of the ingredients that need to be refined during the process and it will still come out right, but some of them do have to be refined in a specific order. Using a recipe like this will prevent people from cheating by looking at what everyone else is doing.”
“Hmmm…”
Wu Jian might not have been well-versed in alchemy, but he at least understood this.
He was starting to get hungry, so Wu Jian went over to the table, quickly piled up a plate with steamed pork buns, egg rolls, and fried dumplings. He went back to view the competition and saw that Zhou Lihua was still in the process of refining her ingredient.
Advertisement
Some ingredients took a very long time to refine. The more powerful the ingredient was, the longer it would take. Zhou Lihua had once told him that some ingredients could take days if not weeks to refine. Of course, those ingredients were the kind used in tier 8 and 9 pills. The ones these participants were refining would only take a few hours at a maximum.
“Since the order of the ingredients can be changed, does that mean it doesn’t matter what order they are placed in besides the few that must be refined in a specific order?” asked Wu Jian before phasing an egg roll through his mask and eating it. This food had been well-prepared. The egg roll had a deliciously crispy fried texture on the outside, but the inside was moist and overflowing with juices.
“Not necessarily,” Master Wong Jiu answered. “While this recipe doesn’t call for a specific order to refine the pill, it can affect the pill’s quality. This is also part of the test. The alchemists who can refine the highest quality pill will receive the most points and also earn the highest praise.” He glanced at Wu Jian out of the corner of his eye. “I am surprised you can eat during a tense competition like this.”
Wu Jian shrugged as he continued eating. “I have complete confidence that Zhou Lihua can win.”
Master Wong Jiu raised an eyebrow, but then he broke out into a smile. “Good. Very good. It seems you recognize talent. Ha ha. I also have the utmost confidence in my disciple.”
The pair turned back to focus fully on the competition.
***
Refining all of the ingredients was much harder than she thought it would be. Not only did each ingredient require a different temperature to properly remove the impurities and turn it into a usable substance, but the amount of chi she was burning to refine them was insane. Sure, she might not have as much chi as monsters like Hou Jingshu and Wu Jian, but her chi was very pure, very refined, and much easier to control. She could perform alchemy without even using half the chi of a normal alchemist, which was how she could refine dozens of pills a day.
She would only be able to refine this pill once.
Truly, the Refreshing Pill was a monster. She now understood why Sao Yong had decided not to sell it on the open market. It was too difficult to refine. Even a normal palladium rank alchemist would have trouble with it.
Sweat dripped down her chin and fell onto her cauldron, sizzling as it evaporated in an instant. Her clothes were soaked and caking to her skin. She glanced at Xiao Wei and Lili Ling. Both were in the same situation as her, breathing heavily, drenched in sweat. It at least made her feel better to know she wasn’t the only one struggling with this pill recipe.
She had finally refined all of the ingredients. Now she had to combine all the ingredients and form a pill. This next part would be even more difficult.
Zhou Lihua clapped her hands together as she unleashed her chi, causing the flames to roar. They covered the entire cauldron, wrapping around it like the petals of a flower closing during the night.
Sweat beaded her brow as she willed her chi to swirl around the ingredients and bring them together. Each ingredient reacted negatively. The repulsive force almost made her cauldron blow up, but she quickly brought them under control. She took a deep breath through her nose.
I can’t just combine them. It looks like I need to combine them in a specific order…
Zhou Lihua quickly ran through the list of ingredients, then began combining the gentlest ingredients together. They had little reaction as they merged. She continued to breathe evenly as she merged more of the ingredients one at a time. It wasn’t until she came upon the last three ingredients that she struggled to figure out which to combine with the others first.
The ingredients to be refined were the pure heart clover, rank 3 monster core, and twenty year iron chi sand.
While it was called iron chi sand, it was not actually sand or iron. The reason it had been given this name was because of what the ingredient looked like after it had been refined. It was originally the bulb of the iron daffodil, known for the hardness of its petals. It was an ingredient heavy with the earth element. That meant it should have complimented the pure heart clover, which was also of the earth element, but that wasn’t the case. The reaction she got between these two when she tried to merge them was violent.
A gong suddenly echoed around them.
“You have twenty minutes left,” said Sao Yong.
Zhou Lihua’s eyes widened. How much time had passed? Had it really been almost five hours?
A cheery shouted alerted her that Lili Ling had finished refining her pill. The woman was cheering wildly as she removed her pill and held it up for all to see. Xiao Wei had also just finished, but he did not react with the same enthusiasm as the young woman.
Noe one else had refined their pill yet. Most of the disciples had already failed both attempts. Only a few were struggling to finish. Just then, another cauldron exploded, making Zhou Lihua feel the pressure.
I need to refine this soon or the ingredients will get burned. What do I know about these three ingredients? Pure heart clover is gentle, but it doesn’t seem to react well when I attempt to combine it with the iron chi sand. That has to be due to the earth element. Too much earth element is creating an unstable reaction with the flames. I can’t combine the monster core with the pure heart clover, but what if I combine it with the iron chi sand?
Zhou Lihua narrowed her eyes and focused her will, slowly merging the monster core with the iron chi sand. Sparks flew. They were muted, however, and it wasn’t long before the two ingredients were smoothly combined. She didn’t allow herself to feel relief yet. The moment she lost focus was the moment her control would slip.
Forming a tiger seal with her hands, she willed the flames to burn hotter, then merged the combined monster core/iron chi sand with the pure heart clover. The ingredients congealed together and formed a substance that felt like it was halfway between a solid and a liquid.
Another gong sounded. Just five minutes left. Several more cauldrons exploded as alchemists rushed to finish their pills and made simple mistakes.
Zhou Lihua felt the pressure, but she remained calm as she merged the last three ingredients with the rest. No sparks flew this time. She took in a deep breath before changing the hand seal from tiger to snake. Her chi condensed around the cauldron as the ingredients formed the shape of a pill, then hardened.
She released her control over the flames just as another gong echoed out and Sao Yong yelled, “Time is up!”
Advertisement
Mother of Learning
Zorian is a teenage mage of humble birth and slightly above-average skill, attending his third year of education at Cyoria’s magical academy.He is a driven and irritable young man, consumed by a desire to ensure his own future and free himself of the influence of his family, whom he resents for favoring his brothers over him. Consequently, he has no time for pointless distractions or paying attention to other people’s problems.As it happens, time is something he is about to get plenty of. On the eve of the Cyoria’s annual summer festival, he is killed and brought back to the beginning of the month, just before he was about to take a train to Cyoria.Suddenly trapped in a time loop with no clear end or exit, Zorian will have to look both within and without to unravel the mystery before him. And he does have to unravel it, for the time loop hadn’t been made for his sake and dangers lurk everywhere…Repetition is the mother of learning, but Zorian will have to first make sure he survives to try again — in a world of magic, even a time traveler isn’t safe from those who wish him ill.
8 435The Shadows Become Her
A fantasy progression, a coming of age story, and a tale of revenge... Alvixia "Vix" Altorelli's idyllic childhood is disrupted in one tragic night when the duke's fanatics ransack the Altorelli home and imprison the rest of her family, selling them into slavery across the ocean. Vix soon finds herself fleeing for her life and her freedom, fleeing to the faraway city of Floria on an island ruled by the mysterious Nurass, Prince of Shadows. In Floria, Vix's sharp mind and talent for magic land her a spot at the Perdita Free Collegium, the world's greatest school for spies, saboteurs, swashbucklers, seductresses and, some claim, practitioners of dark magic... and that suits Vix just fine. If the Collegium wants to give Vix the tools she needs to save her family and get her revenge on Duke Orso, she'll take that deal any day of the week and twice on Saintsdays, even if that means making a deal with the Prince of Shadows himself. This is Vix's tale. Author's Note: Now that Writathon 2022 is over, updates will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays!
8 95Trails of Ascension
At the top of countless universes that constitute the Great Cosmos, stands the Divine Realm also known as the "Peak of all worlds" where the Gods reigned supreme and all ascension stopped. But the Path is endless, and upon the discovery that there were actually higher realms in the path of ascension, a revolutionary army of ascenders and warriors of many dimensions rose up to overthrow the reign of the so-called Gods. The resulting Cataclysm shattered the Heavens and the death of the majority of powerhouses threw the Cosmos into chaos, but it also granted freedom to all.Upon the destruction of the chains that oppressed them and now that the seal upon the countless worlds has been broken, how will the new ascenders face these challenges and how will their paths intercross each other? This is the story of how new powers rise into existence, heroes and overlords ascend to the higher realms and the new order of the eras is formed, now that the regents of the laws and elements of the multiverse are gone, new paths are created and a future of infinite possibilities opens!
8 149The Seven Demon Gods' Successor
Mikhail, also known as the greatest and most powerful hunter on earth, was a man whose allegiance was only to his desire and his greed. After clearing the last of the 72 dungeons that turned Earth into an apocalyptic world and having obtained the Ultimate Godly Artifact, the Hunter Alliance was afraid he was growing too powerful and ambushed and killed him before he could discover the secret of the Godly Artifact. After thinking that everything was over, he opened his eyes and to his surprise found that he had transmigrated into another world.
8 118Black God of Lightning.
Lucas is an orphan who worked hard to achieve good grades. But before he could realize his dream, he died... However, a God "invites" him to another world where magic is used and gives him a system! Can Lucas reclaim his former dreams but in another world? Can Lucas become the strongest despite being different from the rest of the population? Adventure: CheckSystem: Check Follow: CheckFavourite: CheckAm I shameless: Check Join Lucas on his road to becoming the Black God of Lightning!
8 92Precipice
Man believes in his dreams, his hopes, his prayers. But what if those very prayers led to his downfall? Humanity’s thirst for knowledge and greed for power has left it at the pinnacle of science. At least that’s what Smith believes. Working tirelessly on the ‘Spread Function’, he hopes to usher in a golden age for mankind and to reconnect with his wife and child, victims of his obsession with the Spread Function. The world is not what it once was. Altered forever by ‘The Reckoning’, the survivors of humanity struggle to live on, drifting as nomads or forming small communities, sustained only by their own blood and sweat. This is the world that Esterian is born into. After learning of his father’s death at the hands of one known only as the 'Shadow of Heaven', he vows vengeance. But there are other forces at work as well. The rulers of the land, beings of unimaginable power known only as the ‘Holy Ones’ would twist Esterian’s rage to serve their own perverted motives. So too would the band of rebels called Advaitha, shrouded in mystery, their seemingly noble motive of reclaiming the world for man hiding a much darker agenda.
8 241