16 Calligraphy and Blood Refinement

Xia Qingyue learned my Profound Arts extremely fast but my maids did not, it took a while even to grasp the basics.

Since I was able to transfer the 'routines' but not my experience. So, they need to develop and gain experiences on their own.

This made me think… calligraphy? To express my experiences and techniques through letters and text?

I mean I had everything ready, so why not try it out?

I pulled out my ink and brush, rolled out one of my practice scrolls, and started writing while the ladies were stabilising their cultivation.

'Profound energy is like—'

…

…

…

After several tries, I think I was up to something, the issues were that my lines were either too long or didn't have much meaning.

It was much easier for me to try to write the arts which I have mastered instead of trying to express the ones I partially mastered.

Trying to write about Fire Profound Energy is like trying to explain what a fire is in five paragraphs… without sounding too science-ish. 

Not something I can do without sounding too boring or too mundane, or something in between. 

"Husband? What is that?"

My wife poked her head next to my shoulder and looked at what I was doing.

"Trying something out. Read this."

I handed over the scroll. 

She skimmed through it and then slightly spaced out for a bit.

"... It's a…sword art? Or more like… experience…I don't know…inspirational poem?" My Black-haired wife tried to explain what she read.

"Yes. This is the intent. Since I can't improve people's comprehension, can I inspire people in the right direction?" I said with a thoughtful look.

"...I see… as expected from my husband! You discovered something new! I didn't know one could do things like this! Can I borrow your sword?" She asked me as she reread the scroll one more time.

"Sure." 

The girl took the sword and did some practice swings. 

"Can you teach me the sword art you were writing about?"

I lifted my hand and put my index finger on her forehead.

The beauty slowly closed her eyes and processed what she just received.

"Now it makes so much sense… is this Xiao Clan art?" 

"In a way? It's both Xiao Clan and Xiao Sect, does it make a difference?"

"...No, Qingyue means no offence, as future Mistress of this Clan I think I should learn all there is to learn about the Clan arts. So that I could teach our children in the future when you are busy."

For a second my mouth got dry when she said that in such a casual tone.

These traditional women are slightly scary when they want to be.

"I suppose. I can teach you other things I learned. Do you want to start alchemy as well?"

"...No. If I do that then a lot of my time will be consumed with practising such a Profound Art. It will interfere with my wifely duties."

"Very well."

"Husband is testing me!"

"...Maybe?" I said with a small smirk.

The black-haired girl puffed her cheeks for a second.

"Fine. Qingyue will pass all your tests!" 

"I don't doubt she will. I have full confidence in that."

After Xiao Sect Whirlwind Sword, I tried to write down Alchemy, now alchemy is a much more complex art than just a sword swinging with the wind. While I have no doubt there is a sword art complex as Alchemy, I don't have this much faith in Xiao Sect Sword art.

After writing it down I gave it to Lingxi who started to read it and space it out from time to time.

"...What do you think?"

"...This is too much…I need time to process this!" For a second she said that while looking at something. Her mind was far away from the looks of it.

"Take your time, I will write something else in the meantime."

"N-No! Wait! Master! This is too much! If you keep writing these my mind will melt away! Take your time! Rest! Maybe make some more arrays or just cultivate!"

Xiao Lingxi said that while looking quite nervous.

"...Sure I guess… after you process what is written on the scroll don't forget to give it back, I want to place it in the Clan's library."

"...As you wish, young Master."

~~~~~~Xiao Lingxi~~~~~~~

Xiao Lingxi freaked out with this scroll business. What was written on the scroll made her understand Alchemy better! She did understand how some of the things work as her Master gave her basic lessons. 

But after reading this scroll she knew it better and better. It's like those words explained and inspired her in the right direction, removing all the doubt that she had.

It's like… it made her better at alchemy!

And that just terrified the living daylight out of her! How can this be?

What thing she knew for sure is that he used Calligraphy and Profound Runes to write this!

And it was simply astounding that he could do such a thing!

After processing some more of the text she proceeded to try…

Moments later orange gentle flames erupted from her hand as they proceeded to dance around the girl. Xiao Lingxi's eyes gleamed with happiness, how easily they followed her command.

This was simply amazing! 

Following the intent she picked up in the scroll, the flames danced and followed all of her commands. 

A few minutes later after all of her tests were done she tried to make some of the pills in a similar way her Young Master did. 

She made the flames pick up the grasses before turning them into liquid essence and making them form into pills.

What she had was a green nail-size pill!

'I-I did it… I made a Profound Sensitivity pill!!!'

For a second she got wobbly on her feet! This was THE pill, something she wanted to make the moment she accepted to be trained in alchemy! It's simply THE benchmark pill! 

After inspecting the pill, a small smile appeared on her lips. It's too authentic!

For a second she wanted to test it out, but she controlled herself! 

'Now I know how Young Master feels like! Just wanting to test it out!'

She took a deep breath and swallowed, that moment her senses increased, and this made her smile even more as it was working!

After cultivating for a bit she tried to make some more of these basic pills…yes basic, as she realised how easy it's to make these valuable pills.

Next, she tried the Vitality pill. It ended up burning as it was different material…root is much drier than she thought…

So, the girl went back to try again to find a specific feel to it. According to the scroll, it's all about the feeling.

~~~~~~Xiao Long~~~~~~

I was about to start to look into Arrays, but an Elder from Black Moon arrived with crates full of red herbs and grasses.

'Oh right…I nearly forgot about this after the whole scroll-writing thing.'

After thinking how mentally draining this was, I opened the crates and was assaulted by a strong smell, this was the peculiar smell of blood.

I started inspecting this grass. My Profound senses told me that these were grass so strongly bonded with blood that it was symbolic and extremely organic.

This specific vegetation grew from the abundance of blood… absorbed this much blood like grass absorbs water.

I thought about this for a bit before I decided to purify it and then turn it into a pill. 

The process was very quick. I got it right after the third try. It was not perfect but by the fifth time, I got it down. 

For examination, I called forth the Third Elder who was from the Black Moon Guild so he can guess what this basic refinement does.

"...Hmm…Young Master, this old man guesses that it's a basic blood-refilling pill. If you could add some herbs it could either disturb blood flow or improve it."

"...or help obese people to lose all that fat. Most royals apart from the Phoenix Empire could buy such a thing. We could get easy money… Though I am thinking of mixing with vitality herb and desert flowers, it could technically improve the vitality of blood which in turn gives cultivators more life force."

The old man trembled when he heard the latter half.

"...Indeed! It could be possible if those herbs do such things mixed with the Blood Spring Grass!"

"Hmm… yes…" 

Let's see… I pulled out some of the alchemy materials and proceeded to run my alchemy tests.

Starting with the desert flower, turning into essence,  feeding this essence with catalyst grass essence, and once it was fully powered I proceeded to the next material while keeping the desert flower absorption essence afloat.

The next part starts with mixing Blood spring essence with vitality essence and extra catalyst essence. I fed this as much as I could.

Once it was done I fed the blood spring-empowered essence into the absorption essence.

Single absorption was not enough as I won't be able to form a pill so I needed to feed the absorption essence until it can't absorb.

~~~~~~Third Elder~~~~~~

Over his 1200+ years, the old man has not seen anything like this before…

This was not alchemy… this was art! The flames would dance, melt the grass and turn into essence, which then mix and fuse with other essences!

There is no cauldron involved or anything like this…it was done on the fly…

He heard about this before… but Third Elder never watched this with his own eyes before.

It was a foolish part of him… he should have watched his Young Master work his art before! 

Once it was a crimson glass-like pill landed in the Young Master's hand. It had a thick medical smell to it. 

"...Incredible…the Profound energy it emits…truly…Should I call for more assistance?"

"Do it. I have no idea what it does. And it has grass which can absorb blood involved in it. So, I won't risk it."

"Understand!" The Elder swiftly contacted the HQ and sent word for elders to gather, a new pill has been created by Xiao Long.

~~~

In just a few short days all of the Black Moon Merchant Guild members gathered in Floating Cloud City. Such a gathering was a wondrous sight to look at…

But…they have seen a more impressive sight.

At Xiao Long's wedding when Powerhouses gathered, a multitude of Monarchs and Overlords were gathered in one spot.

Truly a sight to see.

But this gathering…while impressive, many locals quickly got over it.

As the group of old men gathered in Supreme Ocean Palace Young Master warehouse they started to inspect the new pill.

"Since vitality roots have been used with this catalyst grass we can assume that this pill should increase the potency of blood recovery in one's body."

Elders mumbled among themselves while discussing this.

In the meantime, some adjustments are being done. Floating Cloud City is expanding and it was time for Black Moon Merchant Guild to open up their branch here.

The only reason this is even happening is that Xiao Long is living here and he is constantly buying something.

So, apart from the branch, they are going to build a storage area for the materials.

All that so that the Alchemist could work and that the products could easily be moved to the guilds shops.

While all these things are happening behind the doors, The elders ended up testing the pills with a 'volunteer'.

"Fascinating! The blood recovery is absurdly fast!" One of the elders said while stroking his beard.

"This is not the end."

Zi Ji said while stroking his beard. He blasted the 'Volunteer' into a wall.

He cut the test subject several times more.

"...This… you saying the blood recovery has been increased permanently?"

"Indeed. This pill… can't be sold to a wider world."

"...Heavens…another world-shaking pill…"

The Guild Leader sagely nodded. Now he needs to discuss this with Xiao Long. 

~~~~~~Xiao Long~~~~~~

"Grandfather? You are so free that you just visit me like this?"

The old man chuckled when he heard that. 

"Don't worry. It's not a random visit, the blood pill you made is far too dangerous to enter the market. It would cause far too big of a shock."

"Hmm."

I thought for a while. It appears the recovery power is far too great.

"I see… I can remove the Desert Flower and just focus on Vitality Root and Catalyst Grass. This way the effect should be temporary."

"Good then do just that. It should be another impressive addition to the market."

"Though the issue is that the pill amount will be temporary," I said after thinking about how this specific grass grows up.

"It is… this is why the price of this pill will slowly grow as the number of pills shrinks." The old man smirked with a knowing look.

I swear I saw his eyes glow purple, the same colour as the Profound coins…

This old man truly loves money…

"I see… so I will start making these lesser versions of the pills."

"Yes. However, make a better version as well. This way the Supreme Ocean Palace and the Black Moon Guild will have an advantage." The old man rubbed his hands. It appears he can't wait for that moment when he gets those advanced pills.

"Sure…but Grandpa… why don't we add some more power? like [Earth Profound] Cores?" I asked with a thoughtful look. Doesn't he still owe me some free orders and stuff?

"...Yes…Yes…I can see it being even more powerful." The old man stroked his beard while thinking about this.

"Good. Then I shall order some of the Profound Cores." With a nod, he pulled out his communication talisman and started to order.

This was good. More cores mean more training for me. I will be able to improve my purification fire. That's another victory for me.

"Until they arrive, why don't you show this old man how you work with that Desert Flower and the Blood Current Grass."

"Very well, I will make some of those for you and grandmother. You can take one to her."

The old man nodded before I started to make some more of those pills.

~~~

After playing with the blood-related grass for a bit and even making some of the upgraded versions with [Earth Profound] cores.

It was time for me to make the pill that I was thinking about. 

I pulled out the [Tyrant Profound] core, the 1000-year-old ginseng, and the main ingredients: Desert flower, Catalyst grass, and the vitality root.

Though as one has expected to work with [Tyrant Profound] amount of Profound Energy is difficult to guide and make it bond with the 1000-year-old blood ginseng.

Turning ginseng into essence took much longer than any regular grass I have been working on, after that, I used the Tyrant core to empower the process and the grasses which I will be bonding with.

The process was the same as the advanced pill-making I did with the regen pill. Only there were several extra steps that I used on the ginseng.

As I needed to make Desert flowers to absorb the Ginseng power. To make it I needed to boost its power with the catalyst grass and the vitality root. 

Once all the stages were done I started to refine the pill.

I never thought the process of refinement could be this long!!!

Regardless I could not give you here as the moment the fire dropped I would have wasted a Tyrant core and 1000-year-old ginseng.

After several hours of condensing, it was finally there!

A crimson crystal pill dropped on my hand. This was like nothing else as it was emitting a blood-red aura…

And the pressure it was emitting was quite terrifying…

"Damn…so cool…and terrifying at the same time," I said with some awe…

Once you condense that Tyrant core the power is even more terrifying.

I took a deep breath and decided to consume this thing after resting and recovering my Profound Energy, as at this time I was running on fumes.

The next day when I was back in my warehouse I took the lotus position and calmed myself down before swallowing this pill.

The moment the pill landed in my stomach it erupted like a volcano and started to spread through the whole of my body.

The first thing I noticed was that my skin turned red. I could feel my blood start to heat up like I was thrown into an oven and started to get baked on max heat available to the thing.

The process of circulation lasted for several minutes, it felt like the blood was constantly getting refined in some sort of process which I can't understand, yet. It's like it's getting beefed up via the excess of profound energy which is added to my Profound Veins.

With such a massive extra amount of energy added I did experience breakthroughs.

Breaking into [First of Earth Profound] then several minutes later reached [Second of Earth Profound]. 

Eventually, the blood circulation stopped and I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. 

My breath was extremely hot and red, it's like I was burning from inside out. 

"F-Fuck…" 

I stood up wobbly on my foot and proceeded to walk. I was feeling extremely tired and I am not thinking about sleeping in my warehouse!

So I walked to my pavilion and proceeded to land in my bed and then just passed out.

~~~

The trio of girls just looked at Xiao Long who was out in his bed.

They all can see that his skin is extremely red for some reason.

Xia Qingyue slowly walked over and touched his skin. Her eyebrow went up as she saw this red skin just come off from a simple touch.

"...This is…you two! Help me to clean my husband off! This skin comes easily!" The black-haired girl instructed the maids as she proceeded to clean him up with Profound energy.

The two maids quickly joined in to clean up their Young Master.

~~~

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