More Effort is Always Good

While Huo Shenshou made sure that everything he taught to Shi Li in concocting the Three Injuries Recovering Liquid would be drilled into the head of the latter, Shi Li assiduously made sure that he was doing what was instructed of him. After all, every small movement while concocting an alchemical product, may it be a pill or a medicinal liquid, would affect the final result as a whole. With that in mind, Shi Li did not want to stray from the instructions. Well, he wouldn't stray from it until he had enough experience and confidence to do so.

As the sun was nearing the horizon, Shi Li focused all of his attention on the mortar and pestle he held, slowly grinding the stalks of grass that had been placed in before. Seeing as to how Shi Li was grinding the grass into a nice paste, Huo Shenshou could not help but nod in satisfaction, saying, "That's it. Continue grinding the Recova Grass until it starts oozing out juice. The more juice you can extract from it, the more Three Injuries Recovering Liquid we end up with."

Quickly wiping off the sweat from his forehead, Shi Li lightly nodded in response to Huo Shenshou's words as he continued to grind the grass. Eventually, the paste started to become watery, releasing a light green liquid that had an earthy scent to it. Focusing all of his attention onto the mortar and pestle once more, he stopped grinding once he noticed that the dregs started to mix with the light green liquid he had extracted.

Placing the mortar with the extracted liquid on a nearby table, he then went ahead and grabbed a large flask from one of the shelves, pouring a special type of liquid that glistened under the rays of the sun.

"Alright, stop. For every drop of extracted Recova Grass liquid, you would need 100 milliliters of Luminous Water. From what I could see in your mortar, you could probably form 10 drops with it, so a liter of Luminous Water is enough," Huo Shenshou instructed, prompting Shi Li to stop as he then placed the flask filled with Luminous Water on top of a burner.

While the contents of the flask was in the process of heating up, he returned his attention back to the mortar with the extracted liquid, using a special tool to scrape off the dregs, only leaving the liquid behind. After that, he opened a small vial filled with white powder, sprinkling its contents on the liquid before starting to stir it.

After some time, he stopped sprinkling white powder on the liquid as he put a stopper on it, continuing to stir the mixture in the mortar for a bit more. Eventually, the two ingredients melded with one another and formed 10 solidified light green drops, prompting Huo Shenshou to nod as he told him, "Now, we wait for the Luminous Water to boil. While that's happening, always make sure to clean your stations. As long as you have the free time, remember to do this."

Nodding, Shi Li went ahead and grabbed a clean rag before wiping down the table he had used, as well as the table where the flask and the burner was located. Coincidentally, by the time he had finished cleaning up, the Luminous Water in the flask started to bubble up.

Seeing that, Shi Li grabbed the mortar with the solidified drops, as well as a stirring stick. Dropping the solidified drops one by one, he made sure that each drop was dissolved into the water with the help of the stirring stick.

"Ah. I dropped two drops at once." Seeing that two drops were accidentally dropped into the mix, even though he was reminded to only put in a drop every time, Shi Li could not help but feel like he was going to be reprimanded once he was finished. But since Huo Shenshou stayed silent all this time, he did not know what was going in his mind.

Naturally, before Shi Li started to concoct the Three Injuries Recovering Liquid under the supervision of his master, the two of them went through the various steps in concocting one, making sure that Shi Li got the steps at least half correct. And now that Shi Li was doing all of the steps in making the liquid in order, he could not help but become nervous.

Fortunately, dropping two of the solidified drops at once did not make the concoction process fail. Inwardly letting out a sigh of relief, Shi Li continued to drop in the remaining drops into the flask before stirring the mixture well, making sure that every bit was dissolved into the water.

It was only after mixing the contents in the flask for a few more minutes did Shi Li turn off the burner, allowing the two of them to finally see the final result of Shi Li's first time. From what they could see, the liquid in the flask took on a dark green color, a shade darker than what it was supposed to be. Other than that, there seemed to be a few solidified remnants at the bottom of the flask, showing that Shi Li was not thorough in his stirring.

Just as Shi Li thought that Huo Shenshou for not following his instructions well, the latter instead did the exact opposite, patting Shi Li on the shoulder before saying with a smile, "You've done a good job, Shi Li. In fact, you've done far better than I thought for your first time."

"Are you sure you didn't learn alchemy before approaching me as your master?" he asked soon after, to which Shi Li shook his head in response.

"No? Then that makes your result here all the more surprising," he said in response, lifting up the flask filled with Three Injuries Recovering Liquid in front of his face. "Although it's nowhere near potent to considerably hasten a person's natural rate of recovery, it would still boost it by a small amount. Products like these are what I would consider substandard products. For a beginner like you, concocting something like this is incredibly impressive, even more so that half of it could actually be bottled up and sold."

"Eh? You're selling it?" Expecting Huo Shenshou to throw it away as it was a substandard product, Shi Li's face had surprise written all over it as he asked. In fact, the thought of selling such a product of that caliber did not even come across his mind.

However, contrary to his expectations, Huo Shenshou nodded in response, telling him, "Indeed, I am. You may think that your product would not sell well, but as long as I advertise and price it correctly, by the time you get back here, around half of it would be sold. Speaking of which, I could probably make 10 vials with the batch you gave me."

"Anyways, nighttime is almost here. Go head home, Shi Li. Your parents must be worrying about you," he said soon after, giving him a book as well. Before Shi Li could ask what the book was, Huo Shenshou told him, "It's a book that contains all of the ingredients that you would normally come across as a beginner alchemist while concocting. Once you memorize all of the ingredients in that book, then you would have as much as knowledge as a Tier 1 Alchemist."

Feeling that Huo Shenshou wouldn't explain to him what a Tier 1 Alchemist was right now, Shi Li decided to ask him later as he respectfully bowed in gratitude towards Huo Shenshou before taking his leave.

A few minutes after Shi Li left the pavilion, while Huo Shenshou was bottling up Shi Li's effort into vials, he could not help but recall a certain memory from his past and mutter to himself, "Could he perhaps be related to those clans? It would make sense, given that he has the talent for alchemy."

"I do wonder who decided to cripple him, though."

…

While making his way home as he infused his legs with qi to get home faster, Shi Li could not help but ponder over the things he had done wrong while concocting the Three Injuries Recovering Liquid. Surprisingly, even though he could not help but be disappointed that he did not follow the instructions well, he still found the concoction process interesting and fun.

"As the main ingredient of the Three Injuries Recovering Liquid is the Recova Grass, I should hone my proficiency in grinding with the mortar and pestle," he muttered, entering the Shi clan estate as he slowly made his way to his room. "Of course, the ratio between the extracted Recova Grass liquid and the Amalgam Powder is also important. Master told me that the consistency of the solidified drops should be similar to sticky rice."

"In any case, who knew alchemy would be this interesting?" He chuckled, entering his room as he quickly noticed the box of food that his mother prepared for him. Thanking his mother as he inwardly told her that he was going to work harder, he quickly finished his meal as he soon sat cross-legged on the ground, attuning himself to the qi as he aimed to break to the 3rd Stage of Acupoint Breaking.

"May it be cultivation or alchemy, there's one thing that should never be forgotten. Effort."

"More effort is always good."