Chương 122: Alchemy competition

"Go, Xinru! You can do it!" Tianyi called out from the sidelines.

"Aren't you being a bit partial? They're all your nieces and nephews," Tianren commented.

"I'm perfectly impartial," Tianyi said, crossing her arms.

"I'm just rooting for the one who respects me, their aunt, the most. If they want to have my vote, they'll have to start showing some filial piety."

"It's not a vote; Dad decides who wins," Tianan said.

"Then why are you complaining so much?" Tianyi questioned. Shu Yang smiled, watching his kids argue. He quite enjoyed the lively atmosphere. The entire Shu family had gathered to watch the competition, as well as quite a few in-laws.

"Do you think anyone can even succeed?" Qianyue asked beside him, "Alchemy isn't easy, right? Do you think anyone can learn it in just a month or two?"

"I have no idea," Shu Yang said.

"Let's just see what they manage to produce. If no one makes anything that's even safe for consumption, I'll just reward the one I think got the closest." Shu Yang had been trying to get a quick overview of alchemy over the past few days, since returning with Tianxu. Now, he felt he shouldn't be completely lost and at least have a basic understanding of what was going on, so he was watching his grandchildren intently as they competed. With his senses, he could make out all the details even from a distance.

"You're going to add that Crimson Moss? You know it has a yang attribute, right?" Xinqian, Tianan's second child, questioned as she watched her brother beside her.

"Of course I know," Xinming, Tianan's firstborn, answered, focusing intently on grinding the moss to a dust with a mortar.

"It's for martial arts; you can't do without a bit of yang-attributed resources."

"Where did you hear that?" Xinqian questioned.

"It's obvious. Do I need someone to tell me?" Xinming questioned back.

'Is that true?' Shu Yang had no idea himself.

'I guess we'll see the results later.' A total of ten of his grandchildren had come to compete, basically everyone who was old enough to stand a chance. They each had a workstation consisting of a table where they could prepare their ingredients, as well as a fire and a cauldron where they could concoct their potion or pill. Shu Yang's competition was fairly simple. He had taken out a bunch of resources, both common and spiritual ones, but nothing of a high grade.

He then let them choose whatever they wanted and make something that had a better effect than the sum of its parts, which is the essence of alchemy. He felt fairly confident that he would be able to determine a winner just by tasting the results and feeling their effects. He was also pretty certain that no one would be able to poison him by using resources like the ones they had at their disposal.

If someone actually managed to make something that could poison a Foundation stage body cultivator, he would just be happy that he had a promising talent to nurture.

'It's too bad that no one is able to use spiritual qi, though.' Shu Yang had found that almost all the books on alchemy he had read assumed that you at least were a low-level Qi Refiner, and a lot of steps involved using spiritual qi when doing alchemy. Perhaps making some basic pills and potions was possible, but the fact that they didn't have spiritual qi would limit them eventually.

'Oh, well. You never know. Perhaps one of them can think of a clever workaround in the future.'

"Xinye, stop copying me! Make up your own potion," Xinchu yelled to his brother.

"I'm not copying you. Look, I have used a lot more Tremor Tree bark," Xinye defended himself.

"Then tell me what you're planning on doing next," Xinchu said.

"No, what if you steal my idea?" Xinye questioned.

"You!" Xinchu clenched his fists, looking like he was about to lose it. Shu Yang rolled his eyes.

'How can he get angered so easily? And does Xinye really think I can't tell he's copying his brother? They're both 15 years old, aren't they a little too immature?' Shu Yang turned to look at his son Tianan to see if he was planning on doing something, but the kid was just flirting with one of his wives.

'By the heavens. Those poor kids never had a chance with that unreliable father, did they?' Xinming and Xinqian were arguing, Xinchu and Xinye were about to come to blows. At least Xinnan and Xinnu, his two daughters, were behaving decently. They were even cooperating with each other. Shu Yang didn't know if that should be allowed, but figured he shouldn't discourage the siblings from getting along. Tianan's son Xinping was also competing, but he was only 11 years old, and looked to be in over his head.

"I studied so long for this, and you're just going to steal my ideas?" Xinchu continued to argue.

"Xinchu, just ignore everything else and focus on yourself," Shu Yang called out.

"But, grandpa, he-" Xinchu began to complain, but Shu Yang frowned slightly, and the kid shut his mouth and got back to work, finally ignoring his brother.

'Let's see if he has actually studied like he said he would.' Xinchu was at least the one who had shown off the most to Shu Yang about his studies, so he should have some capabilities. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Impressive, Dad," Tianan walked up to him and said, "I can never get that boy to listen. If he's not bragging, he's complaining." Shu Yang turned his head to his son and locked eyes with him.

"Er, well, he's still young…And it's my fault, really. I'll…talk to him and make sure he straightens out," Tianan said nervously.

"Do whatever you think is best; they're yours to raise as you see fit. Just don't come complaining to me for any of their faults. You can make mistakes, Tianan, but take responsibility," Shu Yang said.

"Yes, Dad. I understand," Tianan said, backing away with his head lowered. Shu Yang sighed slightly. Tianan wasn't a bad father, not even close. But he was mostly good at the fun parts of parenting, like playing with the kids. He wasn't as good when it came to discipline. Now that his kids were in their early teenage years, they would need a lot more attention than what Tianan was giving them.

Probably because he had four new children all under 5 years old, and most of his time was spent on them, as well as his new wife.

'It's not like any of them are bad; they just haven't developed character yet.' Unlike Tianan's children, Tianren's kids were all working quietly on their own. Xinyang wasn't in the competition, as he wasn't very interested in alchemy. He spent his time on martial arts and the sword. Shu Yang also suspected the reason he didn't participate was that he didn't want to compete with his younger siblings. He shared many of Tianren's characteristics, always aware of his role as the eldest son.

'I should reward him a bit as well. He has been quietly working hard all this time, and never asked for anything.' Shu Yang felt it was important to reward those who made several smaller contributions as well, as they added up over time. Especially when they were almost always done without anyone seeing, and rarely receiving a thank you. Other than Xinyang, Xinxin and Xinxu also didn't participate.

Xinxin wasn't interested and had a hard time sitting down to focus on reading, while Xinxu was still just eight years old. So out of Tianren's children, there were only Xinru, Xinxiao, and Xinzhang. Since Tianhu's children only had swords on their mind all day, and both Tianzheng's and Tianxu's children were still babies, the competition was only between Tianren's and Tianan's children.

Shu Yang kept observing as two hours passed, and he felt he had a pretty good idea of which of the kids had an actual plan and which ones just competed for the sake of it.

"Alright, time is up," Shu Yang said, and everyone stopped what they were doing. Almost everyone had finished, though, as they had been given a whole three hours. The crowd around him quieted down as Shu Yang walked up to Xinzhang's workstation.

"Grandpa, maybe you shouldn't eat it," Xinzhang said hesitantly.

"It's fine, let's give it a try," Shu Yang said with a smile. Xinzhang was only 12 years old, so it wasn't strange if he didn't do as well as some of his siblings and cousins. But he had been giving it his best effort, and Shu Yang's only worry was if it tasted bad. He took a spoon and tasted the potion Xinzhang had concocted.

"Not bad," Shu Yang said, nodding.

"At least you didn't make anything dangerous. But the effect of this potion is less than if you had just let the Crimson Moss sit in some water overnight."

"I see," Xinzhang said, scratching his head awkwardly. Shu Yang patted him on the shoulder and continued to taste the potions one by one. No one had the ability to make pills yet, as that was very difficult to do in such a short amount of time without spiritual qi. Most of the children failed to make anything impressive, but once he got to Xinchu, he was a bit surprised.

"This actually isn't that bad," Shu Yang said.

"Really?" Xinchu asked, full of excitement.

"Really," Shu Yang said with a nod.

"But it's not good either. It would have some effect on speeding up the cultivation of even a 1st-stage martial artist, but the side effects wouldn't be worth it; it's too violent. Just one cup of this and you would perhaps increase the daily progress by 50%, but you would need several days to recover."

"Oh," Xinchu said, looking disappointed.

"It's still impressive. Keep at it, and find a way to work out those side effects," Shu Yang said. When he got to Xinru, he was once again a bit surprised, as she hadn't made a potion, but some kind of paste.

"Grandpa, this is a beautifying cream!" Xinru said proudly.

"So don't eat it; it should be put on your skin. Go ahead, try it." Shu Yang was impressed by the idea. He had seen something like this mentioned in one of the books he brought back, but Xinru's paste was obviously a bit different. He smeared it on his skin, and it felt cool and comforting. But only for a moment before some kind of heat started taking over. Shu Yang shook his head.

"You also used resources with too much violent energy. Too much yin qi isn't always a good thing; if you put this on the skin of someone below the Innate stage, it could even cause severe damage."

"No way," Xinru said, looking dismayed.

"It's natural to fail trying it for the first time," Shu Yang said.

"Keep experimenting, and I'm sure you'll succeed eventually." After finishing with Xinru, he walked over to Xinxiao, the last person left to examine. He was actually looking forward to Xinxiao the most, as she had looked very composed whenever Shu Yang looked over. It was like she had done the same thing a hundred times already.

"What do you have for me, Xinxiao?" Shu Yang asked.

"A potion for martial artists," Xinxiao answered with a sweet smile.

"Hopefully it can help speed up cultivation without too many side effects." Shu Yang nodded and took a sip of the potion, feeling the effects occurring within him carefully.

"Amazing," Shu Yang said, genuinely surprised.

"You did this?" If it weren't for several of the resources being from south of the Desolate Mountains, Shu Yang would have thought she just copied a recipe from one of the books that he had missed.

"Is it good?" Xinxiao asked, full of hope.

"It's more than just good. Drinking this isn't without value even for an Innate warrior, and there is a nourishing effect that should speed up recovery. It's definitely worth producing some for our family in the future," Shu Yang said, genuinely impressed. He had already been pleasantly surprised by Xinchu's and Xinru's effort, but this was in a league of its own. It would be of great benefit to the less talented children.

"Did you really make this for the first time just now?" Shu Yang asked.

"No, no," Xinxiao said, smiling happily at the words of praise, "I tried it several times already. Dad gave me the resources to experiment with." Shu Yang looked over at his son and smiled helplessly.

'I guess it's a father's right to give the resources he has been given to his daughter.'

"Then I had Xinyang try the results, and I worked it out from there," Xinxiao said.

"You let your brother try it?" Shu Yang asked. That could have ended badly.

"Yes, but don't worry. I only gave him the ones that Xinxin was willing to try. She is very picky and wouldn't taste something that's bad for you," Xinxiao said with certainty.

'She really made use of her family, didn't she? That's a smart one.' Shu Yang walked away from Xinxiao and announced in a loud voice.

"Xinxiao wins! A second prize will be split between Xinchu and Xinru!"