Failure

Alex continued making the Bone Sealing pill as per the recipe. While more than half of the energy had escaped, he didn't worry about it. The pills would have enough energy left for him to pass.

He continued putting in more and more ingredients as the Elder kept on watching. Finally, with the last ingredient, he was done putting in everything. It was now time for him to form the pill. 

He slowly gathered the powder around to shape it into a sphere. It was beginning to form a clump of powder when suddenly, a different strand of Qi escaped from his body and went into the pills. 

'No!' he thought, horrified. This was the last thing he wanted happening to him. He wasn't worried about the Elder seeing him split a pill into two. The cauldron was at a distance where the Elder couldn't see inside at all, but the problem was…