Chapter Forty Six - I contemplate about pills and other things

Receiving the support from Pike and his other team members had humbled Leon, who had been so formerly sure that the martial artist had made a mistake by choosing him to be his alchemist. So what if there were others who were possibly a better fit, more accomplished in the art, seeing as Pike had confidence in him, he keenly wished to repay the man's faith.

So on returning to his home, he rolled up his sleeves, determined to give his team the best pills he possibly could! There were still twenty days until the Teachers opened up the portals for the event, Leon decided to use it wisely. He would focus on making pills as much as possible, only pausing to feed the Coeurl as well as himself, saving cultivation at night, when he was unable to sleep.

Leon was honest enough to acknowledge that his sleep was lacking as one side of his bed became increasingly cold. The novelty of not being tossed for the first part of the night until exhaustion set in had long since worn off, his rested body now longed to be held, even in the platonic sense, by Jin Li. He really missed him, missed his warmth, missed his company, even missed his off handed jibes that he voiced when his E.Q was particularly low (he kept it to himself that this happened to be quite often). So he had taken to cultivating at night when he could not sleep; at least he felt rested in the morning following that way.

He shook off his melancholy, cross that he'd wasted an hour feeling sorry for himself, then went to his kitchen to put on a large pot of soup. This way, his lunch would be ready for him to eat and the leftover meat and vegetables could also be pared with rice, the remaining soup would be for breakfast with steamed rolls. Satisfied with his plan, he began preparing the vegetables, considering what sorts of pills he should make.

Improved One Heart Pills and Improved Blood Pills were for certain. It would also be useful if he could supply his variant (burning) Blood pills, though this would be the equivalent to confessing that he knew how to make these. He'd not actually handed the recipe for these to the school. It was not that he didn't plan to, eventually, but it was also true that these two pills were providing him with good finance, more than many of the other pills, though the Improved healing pills gave him a more regular income.

Cultivation pills were not necessary and cosmetic pills... enough said. Sea Moss Elixir potions, which were good for removing common, natural poisons were in his capability, but potions would take up much more room and might not be useful if the poison was from a spirit beast. Perhaps he should try to see if he can make the advanced form; Sea Sage Elixir?

That and what of other combat pills? He decided to consult his diaries once the soup was simmering in order to be assured he was certain he hadn't missed something. He was not quite as meticulous in some aspects as he had been as Leo, although with his experience as Leon, he had improved in others.

Sure enough, he hadn't considered looking at types of transformation or beast pills and there were more than a few that might prove useful. Such as the Vision at Midnight Pill, which would help them see in the dark or the Hidden Mist pill which could reduce their scents. Ah, actually, he would need the Hidden Fog Pill, considering that the former was for primary Cultivators.

But what really caught his attention were the three Feather pills. These didn't depend on the strength of the Cultivator but provided different results when it came to defying gravity. Considering the fact that The Shattered Empyrean Isles were floating islands within their own space, at least two of these could be considered as life saving so long as one reached land before the effects wore off. The other was only useful in delaying death, but also could increase the chances of being rescued, perhaps.

Seeing as he had never made any of these pills, he would have to start from this, the Feather Fall Pill as it was simpler in terms of recipe than its counterparts, the Feather Float and Feather Flight Pills. Naturally the last mention would be the hardest to create and used herbs that he had never seen before in either of his incarnations, he doubted he could produce even one before the competition.

Placing the diaries to one side, Leon sought his brush and ground a little ink, sighing as he still disliked writing this way, and began to sort through what herbs he had in stock and which he required. As a core student, he no longer had to exchange his pills in order to get more pills, instead, he had to fulfil quotas now and then as requested by the Institute through his Teacher. This meant that it did not matter how many pills he had to hand, he could get what he needed so long as it was available in the Herb Hall. Of course some herbs might be tricky, if they were rare or could not be grown in the winter months, he would have to head into town and purchase them himself; some stores imported herbs from warmer climates.

He also felt that he would need a great amount of herbs, not as he needed or could take a great amount of pills, just that he was excellent producing average quality pills, not so good at producing good quality pills. Even his improved pills were actually lacking in quality, just that the adjustments in recipe actually made up somewhat for this. So what Leon planned to do was create pills en masse and pick out the best ones to take with him. Higher quality pills naturally had better effects and less impurities, meaning Leon wouldn't need the quantity others might rely on.

The list was fairly long, with many new herbs that were neither in his stocks nor had his hands touched before, but such was exciting in a way.

He stirred the soup once more before replacing its lid as the ink dried on the paper. Then he carefully folded it, tucked it into his sleeve and grabbed his coat with a cheerful smile, which froze in the sight of his courtyard; it had snowed again while he was pottering about in his kitchen and the amount was not small. Grabbing his broom, he stepped forward to tackle it.