Chương 119: Chapter 118: First Taste of Alchemy

"This event is the refining event for beginner Foundation Establishment disciples. Each of you will choose your own ingredients and decide upon the pill you wish to make." Elder Fan Yi's amplified voice carried to every corner of the arena.

"For those of you new to this competition, alchemy events are always a two-in-one test. Apart from your refining, we are also testing your discernment. Many of these ingredients have been altered to look fresher, different from what they are, more potent than they are. You can be assured we have employed every trick unscrupulous merchants use to pass off spoiled goods for a higher price. Almost half the work of an alchemist is choosing the right ingredients." He paused to let that land.

"You have half an hour to choose your ingredients and three hours to make the pill. Choose wisely. You will be judged on considerably more than the completion of the pill. You are not allowed to return to the ingredient tables once you leave them. You may only use what you have selected. And should you decide to simply stack your baskets to improve your chances, be aware that every herb you do not use will result in a point deduction. You may begin."

The moment he finished, every disciple on the stage surged toward the long tables. Yang watched from his seat. The table was covered in herbs he did not recognise, though a few of them looked faintly familiar from his walks around the outer sect peak. He could not have named them though. Around him, the seniors were leaning forward. Senior Brother Lin Yi and Senior Brother Liu Te in particular had looks of concentration on their faces. Senior Brother Lin Yi glanced at Yang.

"Pay attention, Junior Brother. Watch how the disciples are identifying the ingredients." Yang had already been watching. The disciples were picking herbs up one at a time, examining them carefully, sometimes turning them over or pressing the leaves between their fingers before either placing them back on the table or transferring them to the basket in their other hand.

"Are they using a technique, Senior Brother? I cannot tell how they are judging them."

"No technique. Or rather, no one would use one here. Using a technique to assess an ingredient can alter its properties in minor ways, and no alchemist would risk that before adding something to a cauldron." Senior Brother Lin Yi looked back at the stage.

"It is experience. These are all beginner stage Foundation Establishment cultivators. Do not expect too much from them."

"Who do you think will win?" Yang asked. Senior Brother Lin Yi smiled. The others turned to look at him as well.

"They are all new alchemists, Junior Brother. I am not familiar with any of them. Each of them has to balance making the best pill they can while accounting for the possibility that some of their chosen ingredients may be subpar quality. How well they balance that is part of what we are watching." Senior Brother Xu Kai added, "These events judge on more than results. A perfect pill made from a very basic recipe will score less than a middle-grade pill made from a difficult one.

The events are designed to push disciples forward, not just to crown a winner." Senior Sister Shen Yue turned to Yang.

"Try to remember the competitors who distinguish themselves today. In a few years you will see some of them become disciples of prominent peaks. That should also be what you are aiming for. Winning against cultivators a full major realm above you is not possible. But you want the elders' attention on you." Yang nodded, then asked, "Senior Sister, what if I do not particularly want to join the talisman peak?" Senior Sister Xing Fei's voice came from the other side of Senior Brother Xu Kai.

"Oh, are you already planning your alchemy journey, Junior Brother Yang?"

"Not exactly, Senior Sister Xing Fei," Yang said.

"I am not certain what I want. I enjoy talismans greatly but it has not reduced my interest in alchemy at all. And lately I find myself becoming interested in plant cultivation as well, after working with the seeds Senior Brother Lin Yi gave me." At the mention of the plants he caught Senior Brother Lin Yi watching him from the corner of his eye.

"So young and already so ambitious," Senior Sister Xing Fei teased. Then her tone shifted toward something more serious.

"Junior Brother Yang, if you are this curious about the crafts, you should come watch every event. You are new to cultivation. Seeing the full range of what is practiced in this sect would give you a much better understanding of what paths are available to you." This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"I cannot keep asking Senior Brother Lin Yi to bring me," Yang said.

"It is quite far from the outer sect."

"Bah, what Senior Brother Lin Yi," Senior Sister Xing Fei said, waving a hand.

"Just pay one of the inner sect disciples selling escort services. If you are talented enough to compete in the talisman division you must have enough points to buy yourself a ride." Yang looked at her.

"I can book a sword ride?"

"Sword ride, boat ride, beast ride, there are all kinds depending on who you can make a deal with." She turned to Senior Brother Lin Yi.

"Why did you not tell him this was an option?"

"I was not aware he would want to attend every event," Senior Brother Lin Yi said mildly.

"I was planning to bring him to the alchemy, talisman, and dueling portions myself."

"Are you not competing in the middle stage Foundation Establishment pill refining event as well?" Senior Sister Shen Yue asked.

"Zhen Hao agreed to bring him for me during that one." Senior Sister Shen Yue went quiet. The atmosphere shifted slightly. Yang looked at both sides of the group and understood without needing to say anything that this was connected to the sponsorship again. He turned back to the stage. Most of the disciples had returned to their refining stations now, baskets in hand, and were standing at a slight distance from their cauldrons. Waiting for the brewing period to begin. Yang studied their faces.

Some looked settled and confident. Others looked like they were one more setback from losing the composure they were holding very carefully together.

"Look at that disciple," Senior Brother Lin Yi said, pointing. A disciple near the middle of the stage was holding a herb with reddish bulbs.

"He has already lost the competition. I would wager he will be the first eliminated."

"How can you tell from here?" Yang asked, genuinely curious.

"He is planning to make a qi stabilising pill. But he has chosen an ingredient that will ruin his chances before he begins." Yang looked at him with open admiration.

"You can identify the wrong ingredient from this distance?" He heard Senior Brother Liu Te make a quiet sound next to Senior Brother Lin Yi that was likely a snort.

"Forget the altered appearance of herbs. That disciple chose the wrong ingredient outright. Anyone with real alchemy experience sitting in this arena who is watching him already knows his chances are gone." A bell rang. The remaining disciples still at the ingredient tables stopped, took what they had, and returned to their stations.

"The thirty minutes for ingredient selection has ended," Elder Fan Yi announced.

"You may only use what you have already taken. Personal artifacts and personal ingredients are not permitted. You may begin." All at once, every disciple on the stage began performing what looked like the same technique on their cauldrons.

"A cleaning technique," Senior Brother Lin Yi supplied before Yang could ask.

"The sect trains all alchemists to perform it before and after every use. Its almost a reflex by the time we are able to make a complete pill." Yang nodded unable to take his eyes off the stage. Once the cleaning technique was done, the cauldrons began to be lit. Some disciples started their fires immediately, others waited. Some placed cauldrons directly over flame, others held back.

"All their steps now will depend on which pill they chose to make," Senior Brother Lin Yi continued, settling into a steady commentary.

"Some pills require the cauldron to be heated before any ingredients enter. Some require certain ingredients to go in alongside the heat from the beginning. Each recipe is different." Yang watched as disciples began preparing their ingredients. Some used what appeared to be a water technique to wash the herbs before using them. Others went directly to cutting or stripping leaves from stems.

Several were performing extraction techniques, drawing something liquid or essential from the plant material before it went near the cauldron. The stage had become a dozens of different processes happening simultaneously and he could not settle his attention on any one of them long enough before something else caught his eye. The fires varied enormously. Some burned hard and bright, others barely above simmering. He had not expected that.

In the cultivation novels he had read in his first life, alchemy had always seemed to involve tossing ingredients into a cauldron and applying pressure until a pill formed. What was happening on the stage below looked nothing like that. It was precise and deliberate and clearly very specific to whatever each disciple was trying to make. One competitor in the middle of the stage had attracted his eye. The cauldron there was releasing a dark, almost black smoke. Yang had initially thought something had gone wrong.

But the disciple looked calm, moving with the unhurried focus, clearly it was going exactly as intended.

"Senior Brother," he said, "that disciple with the dark smoke—""Not a failure," Senior Brother Lin Yi said, already following his gaze.

"Certain pills produce different smokes and effects in the early processing stage. It is a sign of the ingredients interacting correctly, not incorrectly. Experienced cultivators know what color the smoke should be at each stage. That one is doing well." Yang filed it away. Time passed. Some competitors were visibly pleased with their progress. Others were operating on pure focus. One disciple had closed the cauldron and was pressing both palms against its surface, a visible tremor in his hands.

"Adding a personal burst of qi," Senior Brother Lin Yi said.

"He was about to fail and is trying to salvage it. It is not standard practice because a cultivator's direct qi input almost always reduces the pill's quality. But when the alternative is a complete failure, it is better than nothing." Yang was about to respond when he felt it. A prickling sensation at the back of his neck.