Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Chapter 2116  Third Try at the Pill

Alex returned back to his cave and sat on the bed he had prepared for himself. He picked out one of the shards of wood he had brought back. He checked it once again thoroughly.

He tried to crush it, break it, rip it, and smash it. Nothing worked. He even tried to burn it and found that while it charred, it didn't catch on flames. Even the char was just on the outside surface. The inside was exactly the same, and even the charred wood was very hard.

"Urgh, I wanted to try it out immediately too," he thought. Alas, the stairway for the First Mountain was going to open the day after tomorrow, and he needed to make the Heavensent Invincibility pill right now.

Between the two, he could not afford to do anything else. He needed himself at top condition for both of them after all.

Alex took a moment to cultivate and prepare himself physically and mentally for the pill he was to make. Once he was ready, he got down from the bed, pulled out Memory and the ingredients, and started making the pill once again.

This time, he was stronger than before. This time his cultivation base was higher and his Intent much stronger than the last time. He didn't doubt that he could gain a much better result than last time. Alex started with the first ingredient and started moving it around. Before he got to the fruit and the flower, he needed to reduce the energy as much as possible. That way, even if things went wrong, it wouldn't do much damage.

There wasn't much time before Alex had to move on to the next ingredient, but Memory absorbed as much as it could. He placed the other ingredient and then the third one.

Memory absorbed it all the best it could.

He was finding the energy inside the cauldron much easier to control this time around. Sure he hadn't put the fruit in yet, but was this always the case? Had he become that much better then?

After Memory absorbed all it could, Alex put the scarab fruit. It went into the cauldron in pieces and immediately released its terribly strong energy for him to control.

Alex had been thinking of using his Intent to control it immediately, but he found it rather unnecessary. He struggled a little with his Qi alone, but not to the point where he had to start wasting his Intent.

"I can keep going," he said, readying the petals while Memory absorbed the excess energy within the cauldron. The petals went in all at once and then Alex employed his Intent.

The violent energy that came out as a result of the mixing of all the energy was as strong as ever, but thanks to his Intent, Alex could keep them suppressed enough that his Qi could still work with it. They did not overpower him just yet.

"Yes, don't fight back," Alex thought, employing his Intent on the ingredients. Once the ingredients began fully mixing together, Alex knew he could move on to the rest.

He pulled out the 6th ingredient and put it in. Then the 7th and the 8th.

One by one the ingredients went into the cauldron while he tried his damn best to control it all. The more ingredients he put in the harder it became, but because the cauldron continued to absorb energy it also gradually became easier as well.

That was until he would put the next ingredient and the difficulty would jump back up once again. Alex controlled the energy the entire way, not letting it erupt as it continued to want to do. The energy inside the cauldron was so very potent that should he let his Intent relax even for a split second, Memory would be badly damaged.

Alex could not let that happen. If not for him, for Memory. Alex's face was full of veins, sweat dripping every other second. His hair was in disarray and his eyes were mostly bloodshot. He didn't know when it was the last time he had taken a breath. All he had been doing was using 100% of his Intent on suppressing the energy within the cauldron and it had worked excellently the entire time.

Then, he put in the final ingredient.

Alex felt the amalgamation of all of the energy, turning into one strong collective force that tried to fight his control. It tried to push back on his Qi, trying to erupt out of the cauldron.

Alex forced his Intent on it even more, stopping it while Memory worked extra hard to absorb as much Qi as it could. As it continued to do so, Alex finally began turning it all into a pill.

Everything had gone well until now, so he couldn't let it be destroyed. He kept his Intent and his control of his Qi. And on top of that, he used his technique. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

The Qi flowed into the cauldron, grabbing onto all the powdered ingredients within it, slowly gathering them all to one spot at the center. The powder slowly spun, forming a sphere as it coalesced.

Alex made sure to not let the energy out of his attention for a single moment. When the blank pill finally formed, he slowly moved the energy inside the cauldron, making it pass into the sphere.

Bit by bit, the energy settled in the pill and at one point, Alex was finally free enough to use his pill formation technique. With that, the pill formed almost immediately.

The moment the pill formed, all the burden Alex felt in his mind and body was lifted at once. He took a deep breath, sucking in a large breath of air at once as he hadn't in a while.

He took a moment to gather himself and pulled the pill out of the cauldron.

The pill fell onto his hand and he couldn't help but laugh.

32%.

That was what he got for having Memory absorb as much energy as it could.

"Well, at least I managed to get the pill to the end," he told himself. "Now, it's just a matter of practice."