As generous as it had sounded once offered by the matriarch, a courtyard was not going to be completely ready for guests to rest in so soon, especially not now as the sun had long since sunk beyond the horizon due to the shortened winter day. Leon and Jin Li would still need to sleep in Sun"s study for at least this one night. So after the patriarch and matriarch retired for the evening, everyone else then to followed suit, heading this way and that, and Sun, who was a little more cheerful having escaped the confines of the Hall lead his friends back through the extensive gardens towards his place.In the dark of the overcast night, the gardens took on a new look and while it couldn"t be said to be romantic, due to most of the trees being without their coats and swaying in the cold breeze eerily, there was still a different sort of charm to it. Currently, the paths had been lined with small mage lights and decorative lanterns hung from hooks in choice places. Tiny night pearls hung as beads from trees near ponds and etched into fake mountains, giving an appearance of wasteful extravagance. Sun"s personal servant held a lamp in front to further light their way.
Leon shivered slightly as a cool breeze took him by surprise and he clutched his coat together nearer the neck, the fur soft against his skin. A source of warmth leaned closer to him and he looked up to see Jin Li walking so close that their arms brushed together, but still looking nonchalantly ahead as if it was of no moment. Leon bent his fingers in Jin Li"s direction, which then became entwined with the other"s and this also added another type of charm to the night.
The following morning, after a large breakfast with varying dishes, Sun excused himself; he had to go pay his respects of his relatives. He was not looking forward to it, but his grandparents were liberal for the most part and didn"t expect them to pay obeisance every day, just once every week unless otherwise summoned. Leon likened it as the elders reminding the younger generations just who is in charge in the palace, the C.E.O"s holding a meeting with their employees. Jin Li was feeling antsy; it had been many days since he had practiced his martial arts and so he moved into the courtyard to stretch and dance in deadly yet somehow graceful motions.
Therefore, Leon was left to his own devices. He decided to create some pills while he had the chance.
Plying his own trade in the cold courtyard was not something he wished to do, he could only enquire whether there was a free side room with nothing valuable there in, just in case of accidents. The servants had already been informed that the youth was an apprentice alchemist and so he was lead to a room that was currently empty, only holding a plain single bed (it had once expected to have a tongfang room here, but that never occurred in this courtyard). Satisfied, Leon withdrew the valuable, portable stove the Headmaster had gifted him as a core student and looked through his inters.p.a.cial bag to see what herbs he had available for use.
Recently, he"d been trying to perfect a new type of cultivation pill, however it was not for humans, but for beasts; the Earth Qi Pill. Tor had attempted to explain it, that beasts had a natural instinct to gather spiritual energy from the surrounding atmosphere and it would aid the beast in its growth to adulthood and into its elder years. An Earth Qi Pill was formed from draining the spiritual energy from plants and turning into a Pill. However, it wasn"t something humans could digest into their systems, to dangerous to their innersea and meridians, thus humans could only rely on spiritual pills improving their general cultivation. Just like with humans, however, the Earth Qi Pills would only satisfy beasts of a certain level before they needed pills with stronger spiritual essence.
Earth Qi Pills required a series of different gra.s.ses and each gra.s.s required a different heat, a different length of time dissolving in the cauldron and one gra.s.s was too resilient, requiring the only non-gra.s.s ingredient to begin the reaction; Verdant Holly sap. Leon had only managed to produce a few Earth Qi Pills so far, usually due to external distractions and once as one of the gra.s.ses had unnoticeable problems. But so long as he had a good three hours without interruption, he should managed to produce a pill or two from the numerous ingredients in front of him.
One by one, the gra.s.ses were placed into the cauldron. Leon"s spiritual energy was split in two then four as he prevented certain gra.s.ses from over heating, while drawing extra heat to others. The stove"s flames tipped askew as they greedily drank energy from the mage stones within and heated the cauldron on top. Beads of perspiration began to form upon his forehead as the heat from the fire and the strength of concentration began to wear him down.
Two hours later, the gra.s.ses were mush in the base of the cauldron and the flames were lowered and spread more evenly. Leon withdrew part of his spiritual energy, leaving just enough to stir the compound within the cauldron and encourage it to take shape. Not a drop could be left to stick upon the metal frame to burn or the whole contents could be lost. Just as the third hour ticked past, Leon successfully formed the pills. Three were decent, two were trash and could only be binned. Satisfied, Leon popped them into a jade bottle and stretched his spine to ease the ache.
A face appeared above him.
"You have the gall to abandon this Lord and make Pills for those two beasts?" Jin Li sneered.
Leon simply offered a smile. "You l-look very d-d-dashing when p-practicing," he complimented, "b-but it"s c-cold outside. I c-couldn"t stay t-too long." Jin Li"s eyes softened ever so slightly, but Leon could tell he wasn"t quite ready to forgive. "Why d-d-don"t we g-go for a walk, see the C-coeurl for a b-bit?" It had been a while since he"d made Earth Qi Pills and both the Coeurl were usually very attentive when they realised that he"d brought them treats.
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"See, already you place those beasts above me," Jin Li complained, but continued to follow Leon into the study where his hands roamed freely as his small lover changed and wiped away the sweat from his body before adorning clean robes. It took quite sometime in the end and the small slaps that Jin Li endured were but mere tickles causing a slight itch. Very good. It was well that they would be changing courtyards this afternoon. It seemed his small alchemist needed a fresh lesson or two...