Alchemy Test I.

 Looking at that young man who reminded me of the irritating old man.

I decided to challenge him a bit since I saw he picked two relatively rare recipes...so I wanted to see what he could do if I removed one of the main herbs from his potion and replaced it with one that would cause significant issues if he tried to use it.

With this in mind, I subtly and discreetly used my specific Dao base and understanding to move and remove the wind herb, and using my superior cultivation base, I used my earth element Qi and a movement technique. My Qi moved smoothly underground, and using my divine sense, I removed the herb and replaced it with another. 

The swap was quick and unnoticed by anyone, as no one had a cultivation base comparable to mine and almost no one had a developed divine sense. I swapped the ideal wind herb for a flower with wind and thunder elements. If he manages to overcome the challenge, I won't trouble him too much...at least I'll try.

And I smiled mysteriously with a slight trace of malice as I took a sip of strong tea.

MC POV

After understanding the recipes, I went to the herb area. Luckily, I managed to collect the specific herb packets I needed: a total of 7 sets, 4 for the depressive and 3 for the cloud one. However, a small problem occurred with the fluffy cloud potion; one of the specific herbs was not present. It was a wind element herb, one of the main ingredients of the potion.

Seeing this, I slightly furrowed my brows and began inspecting the remaining herbs. Many had already been taken by other participants, but there were still some left...

"Five-color poison herb..."

"Fire lily..."

"Snowflake orchid..."

"Myr-colored plant..."

"Drunk Dark algae..."

As I looked at the various remaining herbs, I found one that might serve, called the Thunderstorm Bromeliad.

It was a type of flower that possessed wind elements, but the problem was the thunder part, as it also contained lightning and thunder elements, which could become a problem due to the effect of greater support than offensive in the potion....

But somehow, I'll have to make it work...and I think interestingly.

Regardless of my ideas, I picked the herbs and headed to my cauldron.

Sitting in front, I raised my hand, and a flame formed in my right hand and water in my left hand. I gently poured the water into the cauldron. Not too much, as it would purely act as a medium to facilitate the breaking of the herbs' elements. And under my cauldron, the flame began to heat gently.

My Qi, especially the fire Qi, slowly manipulated the liquid and controlled the flame carefully, ensuring the ideal temperature was set and the energy was disseminated evenly.

After that, I started adding the herbs for the depressive pills.

One by one, they went in, first water herbs with ice traits, then darkness herbs, with a touch of a flower with a light element to avoid a too-strong state.

I mixed everything carefully and gently, afraid of mixing the wrong elements and causing an alchemical explosion, and when I saw the colors forming, I was quite satisfied. There was a mix of blue with dark traces and small amounts of light, as if to contain the depressed state.

"Let's go," I murmured softly and prepared for the final step, the most vital.

In this phase, it was the most important item, an herb with traces of the Dao of emotion, a very rare type of plant with elements of a highly complex Dao related to an abstract concept.

The plant had a heart shape, but with a slight black tint, as if representing the aspect of depression, and a mixed color like a rainbow or similar could be seen inside.

The worst part of this step was that when decomposing the herb and mixing it with the others, it was necessary to change its mood during the pill creation. Therefore, I began to focus on bad memories and images...especially on past events in my life when despair, depression, and fear covered me.

Images of a hospital came to my mind, of machines, syringes, medicines, blood, and people in white clothes in a clean and white room, despair coming to my entire being.

And in front of the cauldron, the state of depression present in my body was evident to everyone, so much so that the evaluators and professors who saw it were shocked, wondering how exactly a young master from a rich and powerful family could project and express such a strong and evident depressive emotion as if the whole world was falling apart.

Slowly but steadily, I placed the plant inside the cauldron and made it decompose, controlling the internal liquids with my Qi and the fire to mix the elements carefully and slowly.

My emotion seemed to resonate with the flower's Dao, and the element began to come out and mix. Slowly, the darkness and ice emphasized the strong, low emotion and complemented each other while the light seemed to contain and prevent everything from exploding and becoming excessive.

It was difficult, but after a few minutes, the substance turned into balls, and my Qi compressed them slowly but firmly. The Qi was pure and without elements.

The pills were closing and becoming beautiful spheres of dark blue and dense color.

When I finished, I picked them up, and the color was beautiful and charming.

A total of 4 pills were formed, which was an excellent number. After admiring them and smelling the emotion, I placed them in a bottle and set them aside. Their purity will only be seen at the end of the time.

After doing that, I sat down next to the side in a meditation posture.

To recover my Qi and adjust my mood.

While doing this, my mental calm technique started passing through my mind and adjusting my mood, and my Qi technique began gathering energy around me and slowly restoring all my internal Qi, but at a speed superior to normal techniques.

All this without me realizing that the slightly resentful professor with me, or rather with my family, saw all my actions and was quite surprised by my performance. Even from a distance, he seemed to perceive the quality of the pills, which made him murmur to himself silently with a slight tsundere tone.

"Well...the boy seems to have some skill...in fire qi...projection of state and mixture of herbs and flowers...hump."

He snorted, which scared the people due to the strong snort, and looked at other students as he saw Alex entering a resting mode.

Without him even knowing or admitting that he was curious about the next performance of his rival and enemy's grandson.