The bundle of herbs were not fresh, many had withered and some had begun to crumble. A few scattered speckled seeds onto the wood floor of his hut, which he carefully swept up using a wooden broom, with flecks of dead leaves and dirt and added to a patch in his not yet garden. He did not know if the seeds would take, but it seemed a waste to just bin them.He separated the herbs into what he could identify using the knowledge contained in the diaries and what he could not. He did not think that these herbs were not mentioned somewhere in the carefully written pages, but they were so beyond life, he couldn"t match their dying form to the pretty, living form held in pictures.
Most of the herbs, however, seemed to be the same; purple spirit gra.s.s. There was also some marsh moth tails and a couple stalks of dark honeyvine. With his own gathered sweet sunclover, he could attempt to make either clear spirit pills or burning energy pills. Clear spirit pills could help a new cultivator focus, boosting their clarity of thought and helping them during the Primary Cultivation phase, however it was not good to rely on them and they could prevent a cultivator breaking through the the secondary stage should they not overcome their own distractions. Burning Energy pills had a boosting effect that could help a Primary Cultivator during combat, but again they came with a cost and the user might feel severely weakened after they wore off.
Leon shook his head and could not help but wonder if the many side effects of the pills were worth using them. His predecessor had not thought so and had made notes of experiments for the latter in order to improve it. Clearly he didn"t consider the former worthy of such attention.
Starting with the Clear Spirit Pills, Leon required the roots of the moth tails, the whole of the gra.s.s and a small piece of honeyvine. He placed some clover leaves beside his carefully measured herbs and took the cauldron from its hiding place. He read the instructions; he needed to place the cauldron over a fire controlling the temperature of the fire using his spirit energy. From the moment he read this, he automatically paused in thought, before skimming through the first diary.
Ah, it seemed that alchemists were cultivators as well. That proved problematic for he had never cultivated before. He took a lotus position beside his unlit fireplace and took a deep breath before closing his eyes. A minute later he opened them again, totally unable to figure out what he needed to do next. Fortunately, the writer, Leo, was nothing if not meticulous and had left him instructions.
Closing his eyes again, he focused his mind and inwardly sensed his physical body; the curling of his toes, the mild discomfort in his legs, the tautness of his spine, the breeze caressing his skin, the touch of fingertip upon thumb... his mind slipped into a slight trance and he began to utter the chant that was written. The air that filled his lungs, which was pushed back through his throat and nose, the dryness of his lips and moistness within his mouth, the tickle caused by hair brushing loosely against his cheeks... the slight warmth within his stomach that seemed small and bright.
The internal light drew his attention as it swirled lazily inside him, sometimes leaking into patterned lines that seemed to surround it. He mentally poked the light within the lines and found he could move it along them and when he did this, more of the energy was drawn into them. Slowly and painstakingly, he moved the light into the patterns until they were all lit. It seemed as if the light was flowing through them now, like blood through his veins with the small bright warmth as the heart. It swirled slightly swifter now to keep the flow moving around the patterns, his meridens, his skins tingled and the warmth moved through his entire being as it circulated. This was his spirit, he came to realise.
It was already dark when he awoke from his trance, he had spent another day not making pills so now had only two remaining.