Ashlock felt a little prideful watching Elder Margret's and the twin's reactions to him growing cultivation resources in the blink of an eye. The system may refrain from giving him many powerful attack skills, but it didn't shortchange him regarding production skills.
He was a tree, after all. A being that was here to nurture the world and those around him as well as kill those that threaten his existence. Luckily, even with his system being frugal with attack skills, he could use his spatial Qi in any way he pleased, and as his cultivation realm increased, so did his ability to chop things in half with half-formed rifts.
Those thoughts aside, and with his feeling of pride fleeting, Ashlock could finally take in the entire situation as he had only just woken up, and already so much had occurred.
The hundred-meter-wide hole that went through the entire mountain and into the depths below now had a 50-meter-wide pillar of stone blooming with Starlight Lotus rising in its center. Neither the pillar nor the stairs built into the outside wall of the hole reached the peak yet. But Ashlock was sure Douglas could reach those heights in due time.
"He did completely renovate the farm to the point I can hardly even recognize the cavern anymore, so he must be exhausted." Ashlock's sights shifted through his vast root network, and he looked at the farm from various angles.
The lower floor was a sea of mushrooms that thrived in the darkness. However, these mushrooms only grew on the west side of the river that ran through the cavern, as on the east side, there were the cauldron fruits inside earthen bowls. Then over both sides was a second floor held up by pillars with the Qi Flowing Grass growing in many soil plots.
"Wait... I now have some aspiring alchemists and someone who knows about alchemy here. And I even have access to most of the ingredients I need to make a pill." Ashlock began to get eager. He finally had a way to use the cauldron fruit he had unlocked when his {Qi Fruit Production} skill was upgraded to A grade all those moons ago.
"I might have been able to mess around with it or have Stella try alchemy after killing the Grand Elder, but I decided to just leave it be for a while as we were all busy with other things." Ashlock sighed. It had been a very hectic few weeks, and keeping track of everything demanding his attention was getting hard.
"Let's see... I must prepare for the imminent Voidmind invasion and the alchemy tournament. I should probably expand my roots in all directions, advance my cultivation, kill monsters for credits, practice spatial techniques, build up Red Vine Peak..."
Ashlock sighed again. Those all sounded like great uses of his time, but with alchemists finally here in the cavern, the wonders of alchemy were calling to him. He had complete confidence in his ability to perform alchemy with his overpowered production skills to grow the best ingredients and the cauldron fruit that allowed him to produce the highest-grade pills from the provided ingredients due to his soul flame's purity.
The only things that had been holding him back were a lack of knowledge about pill recipes and actually getting his nonexistent hands on the cultivation resources so he could grow them himself.
But with Elder Margret's presence, who seemed to be an encyclopedia of knowledge regarding the art of alchemy, he felt confident creating some fantastic pills.
"If only I had trusted the Redclaws sooner..." Ashlock mused as he switched views back to Elder Margret and the twins, that had only just recovered from their shock. "Maybe then I wouldn't have needed to conduct the alchemy tournament."
Although the primary purpose of the alchemy tournament had been to find a talented alchemist to live on Red Vine Peak, the tournament did have some other goals. Such as establishing the Redclaws as the powerhouse over Darklight City, and he also wanted to form some contact with the merchants as he would need someone to sell the pills he made. After all, Darklight City was too poor to afford the top-grade pills he planned to create.
"I also wouldn't have formed a business relationship with the Silverspires if not for the tournament... that alone makes all of this worth it."
Ashlock naturally didn't know the full extent of the Silverspire family, but from what he could gather, they were one of the top dogs here in the Blood Lotus Sect, and if anyone could afford his pill supply, it would be them.
"And for just a 15% cut, they are allowing me to conduct business under the Silverspire name. Even the tournament is protected by their name." Ashlock hummed as his mind drifted down a rabbit hole of thoughts.
He was brought back to reality a while later when he heard Elder Margret speak.
"Can I inspect one?" She asked Douglas with a slight tremble in her voice.
"One of the Starlight Lotus? Sure, that should be fine." Douglas turned and then paused as he realized something that Ashlock also noticed at the same time.
The hole was a hundred meters wide, yet the pillar was only fifty meters in diameter. Although the stone steps that jutted out of the hole wall were wide enough for many people, there was still a considerable gap between the pillar decorated in Starlight Lotus and them.
Ashlock was about to use telekinesis to save Douglas from embarrassment but paused when he saw the man close his eyes. Earth Qi rippled out, traveling all the way into the depths of the mountain and then rocketing up the pillar.
The nearest stone trough on the pillar suddenly broke away like a desk drawer. It wasn't terribly fast, but it eventually arrived beside them. The stone stretched out many meters and defied gravity, but with Douglas's earth Qi rippling across its surface and giving it immense strength, there were no issues.
Elder Margret stepped forward after a nod from Douglas and began to harvest all of the Starlight Lotus's growing within the trough with utmost care. It was almost mesmerizing watching the stern woman cycling her Qi and carefully burning the lotus with her soul fire just below the bud so the stalk was left behind.
After the third one, she paused and stood back. Her spatial ring flashed with power, and a red fruit appeared in her hand. Without hesitation, she bit into the fruit, and Ashlock came to a realization.
"Isn't that my fruit with the {Florist's Touch} skill?"
Sure enough, a subtle glow formed around her hands, and she got back to work on clipping the Starlight Lotus buds with her soul fire that now looked like blades. It was all so effortless compared to before. The Starlight Lotuses practically leaned into her hands as if wanting to be freed from their stalks.
To Ashlock, they had looked like typical plants other than their starry petals. However, after seeing the difference between before and after Elder Margret ate the fruit, he realized just how difficult harvesting Qi-filled plants was.
It was as if the Qi within their bodies gave them a sliver of survival instincts. When Elder Margret had chopped the first two, the plant's Qi had gone to fight off the soul flames attempting to burn through its stalks.
A while later, the glow faded from Elder Margret's hands—she had a satisfied grin as she inspected the flower buds in her hand. "I don't know how the immortal did it, but these Starlight Lotus are of the highest quality. It's like they were grown on a Qi-dense lake under constant moonlight for centuries."
Elder Margret's words confirmed something at the back of Ashlock's mind. He had just bloomed these Starlight Lotus within seconds during the early morning sun—yet she had claimed earlier that these flowers could only bloom under starlight and supposedly absorbed cosmic energy.
Ashlock didn't have cosmic energy as far as he knew, nor did he grow these flowers under starlight. Therefore the only explanation was that he could grow them anywhere—even underground.
"They did take a stupidly large chunk of Qi to grow, though." Ashlock mused. Spending Qi was getting increasingly annoying as he wished to advance his cultivation stage, but that would never happen with him spending Qi like this.
"Cultivating can wait until the winter... this is too important to skip out on for now. The fact I can grow spiritual plants this easily is beyond a cheat. Can't I lay my eyes on any plant and grow as many of them as I want?" Ashlock doubted it. These were the most basic type of plants possible. One was even glorified grass, yet they had taken half of his Qi reserves to spawn.
If growing simple Qi Flowing Grass was this costly, what about some plants that the gods like to put in their tea. Would he even have the Qi reserves to grow a single petal?
"If there wasn't a sudden shortage of spiritual plants due to rival families wanting to mess with the tournament, I would take out a loan and buy as many plants as possible... Actually, couldn't the Silverspires help me here?"
It was worth a shot, but that could wait. For now, he wanted to try alchemy or at least watch someone else perform it.
While he had been thinking, the group had moved on to the Qi Flowing Grass, and once again, Elder Margret was harvesting the grass by wrapping her hand in soul fire and pulling out the grass in fist fulls.
Beside her were the twins, Oliver and Olivia. They were copying the Elder's movements and harvesting the grass. However, unlike the Elder, who effortlessly pulled out many grass stalks at once, they struggled a lot more and resorted to focusing on one stalk at a time.
It was rather amusing watching the two youngsters wrestling with an overgrown grass stalk as it fought back and strengthened itself with its Qi.
"They appear to be in the first stage of the Soul Fire Realm, meaning they successfully formed their Soul Cores only recently." Ashlock looked a little closer and noticed their crimson flames were very pure, "I can see why they were interested in alchemy with spirit roots that pure. However, they will struggle with a soul flame that weak."
Luckily, Ashlock had a solution for almost any weakness in a cultivator. Whether it was heart demons, impure spirit roots, or overall weakness, he knew a cure. He mentally prescribed meditation near the fire trees and entry to the next Mystic Realm for the twins.
"What do we do now, Elder?" Olivia asked while her brother wrestled with a grass stalk behind her and fell onto his back with a huff.
Elder Margret looked to Douglas, "I assume there are cauldrons somewhere?"
"Sure there are," Douglas nodded and gestured for them to follow him, "You can take any ramp down to the lower level and then, if you need to, cross the river and head toward the earthen bowls."
Elder Margret raised a brow while following Douglas but didn't comment further. The group of four didn't end up needing to cross the river, as the nearest ramp led them down to the east bank of the river.
"Here we are." Douglas paused beside one of the bowls, "There are small stairs beside it that you two might wish to use to get a better view as the cauldron is rather large."
Oliver and Olivia exchanged a glance before they curiously climbed onto the step and glanced over the side.
"What is that?" Oliver blurted, "Is this really a cauldron?"
"It does kind of look like one, though... just more natural?" Olivia tilted her head, "Elder Margret, is there a way to grow a cauldron?"
"Not that I know of," The stern woman shook her head as she approached the bowl and peered over its side, "They are usually made of Qi-infused metal, so I can't see how you could grow one... what is this?"
All pairs of eyes looked to Douglas, but he just shrugged, "I have no idea."
Elder Margret returned to scrutinize Ashlock's cauldron fruit. He hadn't realized it was that weird, but now that he thought about it, he understood their reaction.
"Should I wake Stella and send her down there to explain?" Ashlock grumbled. He really needed to make it mandatory for every Redclaw to learn the ancient language. There was literally no excuse why they couldn't with the help of the {Language Comprehension} fruit.
"In fact, I will do that right now." Ashlock's vision blurred, and he soon overlooked the study in the White Stone Palace, where the Redclaw Grand Elder sat back in his chair with his eyes closed.
Ashlock flooded the room with spatial Qi, which made the Grand Elder's eyes snap open. Ashlock ignored him and used telekinesis to pick up a fountain pen that seemed very expensive and began to scribble on a blank piece of parchment left on the desk.
The Grand Elder had jumped up, sending his chair crashing behind him and crimson flames surrounding his body. He eyed the floating pen with suspicion and tracked its every movement.
By decree from the Ashfallen Sect:
All Redclaw family members must learn the ancient runic language within the next month. Make use of the fruit provided to you and come and collect more if needed.
Upon finishing his message, the pen fell to the side with a thud, and Ashlock withdrew his presence back to the cavern as he didn't want to miss what was happening there.
"Why not give it a try?" Douglas said, "It's not like we have a limited amount of plants to experiment with."
"I guess I could try," Elder Margret said, "Do you have any Dragon Marrow?"
This was an area of alchemy that Ashlock didn't have total dominion over. Basically, any ingredient that could be grown wasn't an issue. But something like the Dragon Marrow, which had to be sourced from a monster that was on the cusp of ascending to the next stage or realm, would require some effort on his part to gather.
"I don't believe so," Douglas replied.
"Alright, I will only create one batch of pills, as we have a very limited supply of Dragon Marrow." Elder Margret ushered the twins to pay attention as she gathered all the ingredients on the edge of the earthen bowl.
"Oliver and Olivia, pay attention, okay." The pair nodded, so she continued, "The first step of alchemy is to know the recipe for the desired pill. In this case, we have gathered the three ingredients needed for a Body Strengthing Pill."
She then picked up the jar containing the Dragon Marrow and poured the jelly into her hand, "Second step is to purify the gathered ingredients. I will start with the Dragon Marrow."
Crimson soul fire blanketed her hands and the jelly. Everyone, including Ashlock, watched in anticipation as Elder Margret closed her eyes and then explained, "The art of purification takes a long time and practice to master. Essentially, I must push my soul fire into ingredients to remove the impurities. This is difficult because if I am not careful, my fire Qi will react with the residual Qi left in the ingredient that makes it useful for alchemy in the first place and corrupt it. The moment my Qi taints the ingredient, it becomes useless."
Ashlock could see tiny beads of sweat accumulating on her forehead as she guided her Qi through the jelly with expert control. Looking closely, Ashlock could see a black substance, almost like soot, carried away from the jelly by the flames.
A tense minute passed, and eventually, Elder Margret let out a sigh of relief and opened her eyes. Her soul fire receded back into her body, leaving an almost translucent blob of bone marrow behind.
"I could have done a better job as the speed of purification also affects the quality of the ingredient. But overall, this was a good result." Elder Margret carefully reached down and placed the jelly in the cauldron fruit.
"Next up would be the Qi Flowing Grass... the order isn't that important for this particular recipe, but I have personally always followed this order, so remember it well," Elder Margret picked up the grass in question, and her flames reappeared.
A tense ten minutes went by as Elder Margret kept her eyes shut as her crimson flames danced up and down the grass stalk. Eventually, Ashlock saw the green stem begin to turn black and then disintegrate shortly after into a pile of dust.
"Elder... what happened," Oliver whispered, worried she would snap at him.
"Amazing. I simply can't believe it." Elder Margret muttered while looking at the pile of ash.
"Was there something wrong with the Qi Flowing Grass?" Douglas asked. He had a look of concern as he studied everyone's faces.
She shook her head, "Nothing wrong. If anything, the ingredient is so perfect that I struggled to improve it. Only the slightest hint of corruption was present within the grass stalk."
"So, Elder, why did you turn it to dust?" Olivia asked while inspecting the pile of soot.
Elder Margret ruffled the young girl's hair, "I let my competitiveness overwhelm me. It's the fate of all alchemists to see the slightest imperfection in something as a direct challenge, and I sadly lost the duel. Remember when I mentioned that the time spent purifying an ingredient mattered?"
Olivia bobbed her head under the Elder's palm, "Yes, I do."
"Well, this is what happens if you take too long," Elder Margret said, "No matter how careful I am, my soul fire carries its own impurities and slowly corrupts the ingredient I am trying to purify. It's an odd balancing act, and it's why those with the purest spirit roots fare best in alchemy."
Removing her hand from the girl's head, she summoned another one of Ashlock's homegrown Qi Flowing Grass from her spatial ring and tossed it into the cauldron fruit. She then also threw in the Starlight Lotus without even attempting to purify it.
"With the top-quality ingredients, I have no need to waste time purifying them and can get onto the main event... unification!" Elder Margret summoned crimson fire to her hands and filled the cauldron with her soul fire.
Ashlock noticed that he couldn't feel anything. Likely because the cauldron was a fruit rather than directly connected to his body like a branch or root.
"Just like cooking a meal, you can't shove all ingredients into the same wok and blast them at the same temperature and expect anything but a burnt clump of mismatched ingredients to come out."
Elder Margret lectured while her eyes were closed, "Alchemy is much the same. We must know how each ingredient reacts with one another and how to combine them in the correct order. If I mess up at any stage, I will either waste the ingredients or form a low-grade pill that is no more useful than just chewing on a random bundle of the ingredients."
While Elder Margret created the pill, Ashlock felt the slightest pull on his Qi reserves toward the cauldron fruit. As he was inspecting the cause, Elder Margret seemed to have noticed something was off by her expression, but she kept going.
Eventually, she finished, and her flames died out. Reaching into the cauldron, she retrieved a pill resembling a translucent marble with twinkling stars and strands of green throughout it.
The pill was beautiful.
Twirling it around, Elder Margret muttered, "There's no way I could create a pill of the Profound tier out of these simple ingredients with my soul fire."
Ashlock finally figured out what had happened. His pure soul fire had helped with the process, allowing Elder Margret to create a pill above her capabilities.
But now he was really curious, just how good was a Profound tier pill?
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