The vastness of the sect caused the walk to be long. The path passed the cave homes of those deeply invested into their cultivation. It passed the shared housing of those who refuse the caves but didn't have their own home. The path continued further into another valley.
Earth Echoing Valley, right next to the outer sect's mountain. Filled with trees and houses, some had courtyards, some were more like huts. Wu Songye walked further until he reached his relatively big home and walked in.
It wasn't too large or too small having a bathroom, living room, bedroom, and alchemy room. Wu Songye glanced around, papers spread across the rectangular coffee table. He picked them up and straightened the paper into the stack.
"Sigh, this is going to be the death of me." With his basket and cauldron in tow he went to the alchemy room. The door was made of metal. Inside the room was made of wood and covered in ash.
Wu Songye placed the cauldron down and ripped off the talisman paper, allowing the cauldron to quickly expand in size. Then from the inner pocket of his robes, he pulled out a talisman, burning it in blue flames of qi.
Energy dormant in the talisman burst out, washing over the room and wiping away ash where present. The room even smelled cleaner.
He then reached into a pouch tied to his waist, pulling out a deep-blue pill. The pill was placed into his mouth and swallowed whole. As Wu Songye's body absorbed the pill it wasn't long before he felt his qi return.
"Much better. Now… what's with this flower." He said to himself, his hand already in the basket moving flowers out of the way. He grabbed one that was identical to the rest. Turning and twisting the flower his eyes remained observant over it, when his eyes failed to help he created a bubble of translucent green qi around the herb.
He shut his eyes and tried to fully sense the herb, why it triggered his qi to such a degree. There was no way it was a fluke. He had confidence in his innate herbal qi, capable of easily manipulating and identifying traits of herbs.
Wu Songye sat there attempting to analyze this herb for ten minutes, eyes shut, eating another deep-blue pill at the end. In the end, he could not perceive anything about the herb.
Without many options, he increased the amount of qi being used over the herb. When it provided no insight he increased it again. What had drained his qi in ten minutes became five, and then four, and three. Originally, Wu Songye worried that outputting too much qi would damage the flower, but as it continuously resisted his probing the worry faded.
As he increased the amount of qi again, ever so slightly the herb finally gave in. However, instead of becoming privy to its traits, it dissolved into his qi. The qi moving forward halted and began to flow backwards, re-entering his system.
The process was unstoppable. Wu Songye strained against it, and still failed to resist the reverse flow. The reversed qi was like needles prickling across and under his skin, causing him gasp for air.
It powerfully pushed against the qi flowing in his body, pushing it all the way back into the Sea of Qi. As this river arrived inside the Sea of Qi, all the flow of qi in his body halted. Returning to one central point.
Soreness filled Wu Songye's body as he groaned. Physically, he had noticed nothing wrong, except he lacked any energy. Slowly, his body slumped backward to the ground to find rest. His rest lasted for but a moment.
His qi then exploded out, spreading from the Sea of Qi to outside his body. A deep-green gaseous aura leaked from his pores, diffusing into the air. Then everything settled.
Everything was back to normal.
Still on the ground he mumbled to himself, "That wasn't worth it. That had to be a prank… a poor prank."
Another minute probably was spent on the floor. He then rolled himself over into a lotus position. "Sigh, I can't keep using those pills until I make perfect grade pills. Guess I have to medi…" Upon beginning the breathing technique he noticed something had indeed changed. His qi was… different and yet the same.
The herbal qi that had assisted him since beginning his cultivation now felt like that of an herb aged for a century. Even the qi around him must've thought he was an herb as it passively was absorbed into his body.
Wu Songye smiled in realization that the herb was not a prank and just he lacked the insight to check before complaining. Of course, prior to experimenting he had to restore his qi. And so he did…
Thirty minutes later and he was nearly at full reserves. The only difference appeared to be the state of his qi. Now was the time for experimentation.
With a held breath in expectation Wu Songye grabbed a Yellow Heat Mushroom. He allowed his qi to slowly leave his hand and coat the mushroom. Something new was that the energy permeated the entire herb instead of just coating it.
More importantly, he could feel the elements inside the herb. The earth element brutally subdued the fire element that barely lived off the wood elements that cycled through the mushroom. He dropped control over the mushroom and focused on a White Ginseng. It was similarly filled with earth and fire elements but instead of fighting, the elements peacefully coexisted.
"This is proof for my research!" Wu Songye nearly yelled out, ready to run back to that coffee table to write this down. Halting his actions with an inhale he calmed himself to test further. Specifically, can the energies in the herb to interact in a way where can predict the effects.
Placing the two herbs next to each other he coated both in one wide motion of his qi. As his qi permeated the mushroom and ginseng something happened with the energies inside.