House Arrest

Once Louis finished the story, while Amber was still enthralled with the show she had just seen, he dispersed the orbs and directed the vast quantity of elementless qi into Ambers body. It was like the ocean waves hitting a cliff, although strong but ultimately ineffective at first. However, with each crash, more qi entered her body. The tenth wave speed into her body, not from its own strength, but from the qi vortex created by her own body. It sucked all the elementless qi it touched and grew only bigger, unsatisfied by the amount. Despite the vortex's eagerness, Louis only slowed the amount of qi entering it. After five minutes, the vortex died out by itself and Amber fell asleep when the vortex died out. Louis paused the array and carried Amber up to his room, before returning to concocting.

His aim this time was not to produce a great grade pill, he already done that. He wanted to create two great grade pill in one patch. There were many conflicting theories proposed by many renown alchemists throughout history, each trying to up on each other, be it quality, quantity, versatility. Although other three star pills, such as healing pills, had unique grade pill available, the highest grade elemental qi replenishing pill was a great grade Fire Qi Replenishing Pill.

According to Louis' knowledge, there were fifteen total grades and five general grades for any pill. Each general grade had three levels: low, medium and high. Rather than attaching a level onto a grade, creating a mouthful or use an unwieldy, complex system of fifteen grades, the five general grades were adopted to sell for customers. Alchemists would use the fifteen total grade system to report their results to each to get clearer data, but the books within the library only used the five general grade, obscuring knowledge and results and overcomplicating the matter for him. His best elemental qi replenishing pill was only a grade eleven pill, putting it in the middle of the pack of great grade, but he couldn't get any further than that.

For the qi replenishing pill there were three great mysteries: producing an elementless replenishing pill with the same quantity and quality of qi, at the same or cheaper material cost; creating multiple high grade or higher grade pills with a single batch of materials; creating an unique grade of qi replenishing pills. While the qi replenishing pills used the simplest of ingredients, only one star materials, it was considered three star difficulty.

At least, until Louis came along. Few people would ever consider sending the skill of a seven star alchemy emperor at a three star grade pill and have him continuously research it to produce results, but these types of pills were the only ones he found useful within the three star pills and below. He was unlikely to get injured nor did he need help getting past the first realm.

Increasing the quantity of pills within a single batch of materials was already proven possible by many alchemists over the years. Elemental qi replenishing pills were no different in this regard. However, unlike healing pills, which had much more testing and funding, quantity was always a problem despite its needs. Two medium grade pills produced in the same batch was the limit.

Though creating multiple high grade qi replenishing pills were always theoretically possible, no one tried it. Or, if they did, no one bothered to publicize it. Publicizing it would require one to showcase one's skills and methods in front of other professionals, which would have been dissauding for anyone besides researchers. Also, they were not as important and their demand was directly proportional to the amount available. Unlike healing pills, which would save lives and many alchemists have publicize themselves for the fame or save lives rather than the money, it was simply better for an alchemist to hide these types of pills.

Louis got to work at once. It was either that or thinking about how he could not see his sisters and mother at the moment or what could Brian be planning to do with him with everything that has transpired. The array was continued and Louis started concocting Water Qi Replenishing Pills. Once he was done with one set, he would review his results and immediately start on the next set. Once he ran out of qi - every four batches - he would consume a high grade of Water Qi Replenishing Pill and a high grade Wind Qi Replenishing Pills before concocting the next pill.

When he finished the second set, he put the pills he concocted into a glass container for storage. He successfully crafted two medium grade (grade 6) Water Qi Replenishing Pills on his first try, two high grade (grade 7) Wind Qi Replenishing Pills on his second try, but two high grade (grade 9) pills was the best he got. He had stopped improving by the fourth batch and could not find any issues or techniques to help himself improve.

He returned to room for dinner. Tera sat on the bed, watching Amber, who was still asleep. Louis grabbed his dinner from the coffee table and took a seat beside Amber.

"Why is she asleep again?" Tera asked, looking in Louis' eyes.

"She needs to adjust to her new technique and I fed her pure, elementless qi, so she should speed up the process a bit." Louis said, as he started to dig in.

"How long will this last?"

"Her current sleep? A day? Maybe two?" Louis said. "She will reach the second realm in a month, if you don't disturb her. She will be asleep for most of it though."

"What if I do?"

"She will spend a longer time sleeping, be uncomfortable with her body and cultivate to alleviate her discomfort." Louis said, as he stopped eating. "She will be able to control her flames when she wakes up, but she will need training, which is where you would step in."

"Me? And why would I help?"

"Because you love her as much as I do." Louis said. "And she will need your help for the next ten months, as she advances through the second realm and enters the third realm."

"That's fast. Won't it be dangerous?"

"Not if you help her like I instructed."

"How do I trust you? And how would I help?"

"After she wakes up, do what you want. Considering Elaine could not help you earlier, I doubt she can help now. At most, she can numb the pain a bit, but Amber will get addicted fast, given her situation. If nothing you find works, then come to me. But until then, remember you will be causing her unnecessary pain." Louis said, snarfing down his food before leaving.

"Where are you going?" Elaine asked, after a long silence.

"Making more pills. My sisters will be leaving in a few days and I need to make as many pills as I can before then." Louis said. "I'll be back in the morning."

The alchemy room was much bigger now. Louis had put all the empty ingredient boxes outside. He only had two stacks of ingredients left, each with three boxes, just low enough for him to grab. Each stack had five sets of ingredients left in them. He would need to tell Silva to bring more tomorrow. Louis repeated the same process that he did before dinner, finishing another two more sets before dawn.

He tinkered with each batch of materials in different ways to create at least a single great grade (grade 10) pill, which he finally achieved by making one a grade 10 pill at the expense of the other, which fell to grade 4. By dawn, he could craft a grade 10 pill and a grade 7 pill in one batch.

When Louis awoke in the afternoon, Silva was sitting on the opposite couch.

"I have taken all the great grade pills and brought thirty sets of both elements." Silva said, bowing. She then placed the glass container which he put his pills into on the table. "I will shortly return with dinner."

The container only had eight high grade pills and twelve medium grade pills, evenly split between the two elements. Louis sighed. He got the short end of the deal this time, but such was life. He ate dinner quickly, not bothering to look at or taste it. He repeated the same process as yesterday, burning through half of his materials and producing a grade 10 and a grade 7 pill each time.

In the last three days, Louis only grabbed a pitcher of water and glass to the alchemy room. He concocted pills constantly, not researching this time, so the speed increased dramatically while the exhaustion of spiritual energy and qi decreased dramatically. He could concoct six batches of pills in the same time period with the same qi expenditure. He stopped only for bathroom breaks and refill his pitch of water, while also notifying Silva for more materials.

By the end of the marathon, he created 48 great grade Water Qi Replenishing Pills; 24 high grade Water Qi Replenishing Pills; and 24 great grade Wind Qi Replenishing Pills. He left no pills for himself when he delivered all of them to Silva, telling her to give the water pills to Shea and Carla; and the wind pills to Amelia. Then he slept for an entire day.

When he woke up, Tera was sitting on the couch in his room, facing him. Amber was sleeping with her head on Tera's lap.

"Fine. I trust you." Tera said, waking Amber up.

Louis brought the two to the alchemy room, told Amber to calm down before pouring elementless qi into her body until her body could absorb no more and passed out. From that day on, Amber would be awake only be awake for a hour every three days - enough time for her to eat a meal and absorb the qi - before she would be forced to sleep once more.

Louis spent his time with a new, less destructive schedule: he would concoct six sets of pills, until which his qi would run out. Then he would eat a high grade Water Qi Replenishing Pill, complete a water qi revolution; eat a high grade Wind Qi Replenishing Pill, complete a wind qi revolution; then continue concocting pills. He completed five of these sets a day, eat then sleep. In the morning he would eat, take a short shower, then start his schedule over again, unless Amber was awake, then he feed her qi until she slept.

In that entire month, Tera did not speak a single word to him.