Legacy of Hatred-Chapter 185: Spirit Stones
The following training immediately encountered time-consuming hurdles.
Liam’s unavoidable initial lack of control made him release more Qi than needed, showing the disadvantage of having too much of a good thing. He wasted so much energy with the simplest moves, emptying his body reserves faster than he had ever done before.
There, the second issue manifested itself. That dense, more abundant, stuffing energy had to come from somewhere, and the latter couldn’t keep up with such a wasteful use.
More often than not, Liam emptied his body, only to discover that his dantian had yet to produce enough energy to replenish it, especially with the circulation technique’s higher demands.
Smoking, elixirs, and pills could accelerate the Qi production, but the technique already stressed Liam’s foundation, and abusing it even further would be begging to weaken it.
Liam still smoked, but he often had to rely on natural recovery, napping to push aside the sense of weakness caused by his empty foundation, waiting for it to be full again so that he could start another training session.
Circulation techniques were time-consuming endeavors, and the additional wait for natural recovery prolonged the gap between each training session. At first, Liam could only perform three of those in one day, but their number increased alongside his mastery.
The less Qi Liam wasted, the more he had left at his disposal to continue training. Moreover, the longer the session, the more time his core had to refill its reserves passively, shortening the number and length of the required breaks.
Needless to say, time lost meaning. Days flew by in what felt like seconds. Actually, Liam could count on two hands the number of minutes he spent with his eyes open from dawn to dawn.
The minutes eventually turned into hours, but weeks went by nonetheless. Luckily, Liam technically was in seclusion, and the Sect respected the practice’s necessity. He was also a special case, so no interruptions knocked on his boulder.
The only meaningful issue was that alchemy was out of the question while Liam lacked control, at least its practical aspect, but that goal grew close enough by the third week of training, and something else matched it.
Liam had spent most of those three weeks completely alone. His Master knew he couldn’t do much until he mastered the new circulation technique, so his visits were rare and short, only meant for random interrogations.
Yet, one day during that third week, the boulder moved again, quickly closing, its rumbling followed by a cry that sounded like a snort.
"Disciple, I found it!" The Alchemy Elder declared. "The great Horace Rauret found a way!"
Liam was sitting cross-legged, working on automating the new technique, pebbles of bent metal surrounding his figure. He had already opened his eyes at the boulder’s rumbling, but the announcement lit them up in excitement.
"It was obvious, truly," The Alchemy Elder scoffed, seemingly angry at himself. "I was so blinded by alchemy that I hadn’t considered the basics of the cultivation world."
Liam didn’t really follow, but the Elder threw something at him before he could frown. Liam caught the item mid-air, ending up with a white, translucent, thumb-sized crystal in his hands.
The frown arrived now, only to vanish just as quickly. The Qi the crystal radiated reminded Liam of a description he had read. It was actually one of his plans to look for those items.
"Master, is this a spirit stone?" Liam asked, exposing the crystal to the candles’ light.
"Correct," The Alchemy Elder confirmed, beginning his usual pacing around. "Disciple, do you know why cultivators use them as currency?"
"Because spirit stones contain Qi," Liam immediately replied. "Qi that cultivators can absorb or use in inscriptions and formations."
"Indeed," The Elder approved. "Qi-Storage Pills fulfill a similar role in alchemy. Actually, you might say that spirit stones inspired alchemists to mimic them."
That trivia hadn’t been present in Liam’s studies. He had never seen a Qi-Storage Pill, either, but its description hinted at similarities with the crystal in his hands, as well as some stark differences.
"Disciple, Qi-Storage Pills’ features," The Elder exclaimed.
"They are containers meant to refill a cultivator’s body," Liam stated, knowing the questioning nature of his Master’s exclamation. "They are more immediate than elixirs since they enter the circulation technique directly, but they require previous preparations specific to the cultivator."
As the name suggested, those pills merely stored Qi, meaning someone had to pour it inside, so that they could reabsorb it later if the situation demanded it.
Of course, no two cultivators had the same Qi, even if their natures matched. If Liam filled a Qi-Storage Pill with his energy, only he could benefit from it, making that alchemical branch more situational than Qi-Recovery elixirs.
However, the advantage was in the almost-immediate new available energy and the lack of stress on the dantian. That Qi would go directly to the body, not involving that organ at all.
Sadly, even with that directness, the alchemical variables happened in fractions of a second, making the more immediate Qi-Storage Pills still fall short of Liam’s needs.
"Alchemy doesn’t really rely on spirit stones," The Alchemy Elder announced, his lack of rebukes approving of Liam’s response. "Their Qi is too raw for the concoctions. They’d just keep the alchemical flame red and neutral."
Liam accepted that statement as true since it came from his Master and pushed it a bit further. Even as a source of Qi, the Qi-Storage Pills outclassed spirit stones, making the first preferable to alchemists since they could concoct them.
"Yet, spirit stones possess a unique set of advantages," The Elder continued. "For once, unlike Qi-Storage Pills, they can passively radiate energy, energy that you can affect."
The Elder stopped and nodded at the item in Liam’s hands, hinting at a silent order that didn’t need additional explanations.
Liam complied, carefully releasing his abundant, dense Qi from his palm, making it wash over the crystal.
As the process continued, the white crystal dimmed, turning dark until tinges of green appeared, assuming a color identical to Liam’s core and ten spiritual roots.
Still, since Liam didn’t stop, cracks eventually opened on the crystal, expanding until the item crumbled into dust, the Qi it contained releasing a black trail that quickly dispersed in the air.
Liam blinked before his wide eyes went to his Master, believing he had made a mess. Spirit stones were valuable currency after all, and he had just broken one.
Nevertheless, the Alchemy Elder didn’t care for the destruction, instead using his cane to point at Liam’s palm.
"Did you see, disciple?" The Elder exclaimed. "Spirit stones can echo your Qi’s traits. They can replicate it while only needing minimal influence."
Part of the insurmountable hurdle involved Liam’s Qi reserves. Even with the high-grade circulation technique, he simply didn’t have enough energy to perform a concoction and refine a rank 2 ingredient in a single session.
Yet, spirit stones could solve that, acting as charcoal in the alchemical flame’s stead, requiring no or a very limited amount of additional Qi to apply the same effects.
"But, Master," Liam called, diverting his gaze as calculations happened in his mind. "How many spirit stones would I need between testing this solution and implementing it?"
"A lot," The Alchemy Elder admitted. "It’s honestly a waste to use them like this compared to what they can afford, but you don’t have other options."
Liam had no terms of comparison there, so he couldn’t conceive how wasteful the practice was. Yet, he tilted his head in confusion. After all, he had already considered amassing spirit stones for his inevitable future outside the Sect, only for the idea to go nowhere.
"What are you staring at me for?" The Elder snorted, lifting the cane to point it at the boulder behind him. "You are all healed, aren’t you? So, go get a mountain of spirit stones."
