Chapter : 23 : Becoming An Alchemist ( Part : 1 ) :
Location : Xiao Clan Alchemist Hall : Xiao Ming's Meditation Chamber :
At this moment Xiao Ming was sitting infront of the small medicinal cauldron while the alchemist flame in his hands flickered .
" Alright let's do it . " - with that Xiao Ming brought both his hands forward keeping them beside the cauldron.
The way to make an alchemist pill was simple in technique .
Once someone have the alchemist flame with them they had gained the basic requirement to become an alchemist .
But in order to make an alchemist pill one must have things more than The Alchemist flame .
First of all they must have the ingredients and resources required to make an alchemist pill like medicinal plants and other cultivation related resources .
Secondly they must have the medicinal cauldron .
Both of these things are very important because the quality of the ingredients and the medicinal cauldron directly effects the result of the alchemist pill .
For example if you use wrong ingredients or poor quality cauldron then it won't be able to take the power of the alchemist flame and the entire process will fail .
And sometimes the cauldron may directly explode due to the failure of the pill making process .
So in the process of pill making the alchemist brings his hands in front or by the side of the medicinal cauldron but does not touch it .
Instead he needs to keep his hands a little away and then allow the alchemist flame to flow and do it's job .
Here what one must understand is that in order to continue using the Alchemist flame one must use Dou Qi which is like the fuel to the flame .
But in order to control the alchemist flame and maintain it to the temperature and intensity required and Alchemist must use there sole power .
In this situation the alchemist pill must continuously use both the Dou Qi and soul power at the same time .
And here comes one of the greatest difficulties in alchemy .
Impurities ! Yes impurities among the various ingredients used to make the alchemist pill is one of the major barrier in alchemy .
No matter how good the ingredients you are using there will be always some impurities among them.
This affects the pill making process in the cauldron which altimately results in failure .
As such before anything the impurities must be removed .
For small and low tier alchemist pills the strong use of the Alchemist flame infused with Dou Qi is enough to remove the impurities .
However when it it comes to higher level alchemist pills like those above second tier alchemist pills soul power becomes essential .
The soul energy is the important element that helps in the separation of impurities from the raw material in the medicinal cauldron during the process of pill making .
At the same time the soil power also regulates and controls The Alchemist flame according to the requirement helping in the final formation of The Alchemist pill .
Moreover various high ranking soul related Alchemist pill required a high concentration of soul energy to create .
But right now Xiao Ming doesn't need to go through all this trouble .
Because he is not making any pill right now and his objective is to use the full power of his current alchemist flame to boil the water inside the small medicinal cauldron in front of him.
After this he needs to take this small medicinal cauldron to the senior sister from before and let her check out the rest .
To be honest even he did not know how they were going to check how strong his Alchemist flame was by this process .
Whatever it was it must have to do with the special medicinal cauldron .
But to him it didn't matter because he already knew from the life simulation that his alchemist flame would be of good quality .
But still he focused his attention on his current task .
Then he focused his energy to allow The Alchemist flame to pass .
The atmosphere suddenly in the room changed as the flame started to pick up speed around the medicinal cauldron .
At first he felt that something was wrong with this medicinal cauldron because no matter how much he used the flame he could not see a single bit of riple in the water inside .
At this temperature normal water would have started boiling but the water inside the medicinal cauldron was still as it was before he started .
Seeing this Xiao Ming could only think that the material must be specifically designed to absorve the effects of The Alchemist flame .
Right now he was only using less than half of the alchemist flame and the effects were in front of him . .
If it were normal water it would have started boiling along time ago but it seems that he needed to increase the intensity of The Alchemist flame more .
With that he slowly increased the power of his Alchemist flame .
At 60% strength he could see that the water has started to ripple and by 70% it has started to boil slowly .
Seeing this he increased the intensity of the flame to 80% .
Now the water in the medicinal cauldron started to boil vigorously with steams coming out feeling the area .
But he didn't stop and continued to increase the strength of The Alchemist flame soon reaching hundred percent .
Location Change : Reception Area :
" So you are saying Xiao Ming came here a few moments ago and is now currently in the meditation chamber trying to find his alchemist flame . "
At this moment in the reception office a group of people have crowded around the reception window where the senior sister who escorted Xiao Ming earlier was working .
After she came out she directly went to her superior to inform them of Xiao Ming's arrival .
After all he was now one of the main prodigies of the new generation so him coming to the Alchemist Hall to become an alchemist is a big matter.
If he can successfully awaken his alchemist flame and coupled with his already outstanding talents is future would be even brighter .
And if Xiao Ming can show the same talent in Alchemy then it would mean that the alchemy division have just got another genius under their care .
So as soon as she reported this matter the news spread around like a wildfire.
At this point almost everyone in the clan knows the name Xiao Ming .
After all it's not everyday you get to hear that the fourth elder's grandson has been defeated by someone who is not Xiao Yun .
" Yes ! At first I couldn't recognise him . " - she said with a little embarrassed expression on her face .
" After all the rumours I heard said he had a much more muscular body and lot more taller with the scar on his cheek. " - she said while explaining the situation as to why she couldn't recognise Xiao Ming at first .
" Wait ? I heard that he is average in height and his face looks a lot more childish . " - at this moment someone within the group also spoke up .
With that everyone else also started sharing what they have heard about Xiao Ming , specially about is appearance .
And the result was that almost everyone's description differed from each other in some kind of manner .
Sometimes the differences were small and sometimes the differences where entirely out of the picture.
This is the result of all the rumours and gossips that had spread throughout the clan about Xiao Ming .
And most people who didn't know Xiao Ming believed in many such gossips .
Then they further circulated that information to the next person while also adding something from their own mind hence creating an entirely new picture .
In some gossips Xiao Ming was a tall boy with his scar on his face .
And in another story he had average height but look a lot more childish .
But no matter which description it was non of them came even close to the truth .
And some of the descriptions were so unrealistic that it made everyone in the room laugh .
Fortunately Xiao Ming wasn't present here or he might just had complaint directly to the second elder about this matter .
After all how could he be able to stay quite when his handsome appearance was was being questioned .
" So you took him to the meditation chamber to find his Alchemist flame ? Is that what you are saying . " - seeing the topic going off the rail the senior in-charge of the reception hall asked bringing the subject back to the real matter .
" Yes I did just that and at the same time I also informed him of all the basic requirements and rules to become an alchemist . " - the female cultivator replied .
" And from what I think he has a good theoretical base for Alchemy as well . " she added in the end .
See remembered when she was giving instructions to Xiao Ming he nodded in agreement and only asked a question or two in between .
It was during that time that she mixed in some basic alchemy related questions during the conversation trying to judge Xiao Ming's knowledge .
Although it was not a part of the official test she simply wanted to see if Ming was serious about being an alchemist or not .
The questions she asked were basics - like who was the founder of the Alchemy division in Xiao clan or what is the use of a certain commonly found medicinal plants .
And she was surprised that he gave all of the answers correctly with proper descriptions that you would not expect from someone who has not even started his journey as an alchemist yet .
Here one must understand while these questions were basics of Alchemy but it didn't mean that's they were easy to answer .
Infact many even failed to answer half as much as Xiao Ming did despite studying for longer than Xiao Ming .
This just goes to show that Xiao Ming had done his theoretical preparation quite well .
" Well ! I would expect nothing less from someone who is considered a genius of the new generation . " - the senior brother in charge of the reception hall said .
" So what do we do now ? Should we inform the 5th elder about it . " - suddenly someone in the group asked .
" Sigh ! unfortunately it seems that the fifth elder is quite busy this days ? " - the senior brother in charge of the reception room said with a sigh.
" She has been going around the clan a lot . "
" Either meeting with various elders or constantly in her office . So I don't think she has the time for this right now . " - he said .
" But this is a matter of great importance . After all Xiao Ming is not a ordinary member of the clan and I am sure she would like to handle this situation personally . " - another cultivator standing beside argued .
" Yes ! I know that but this time it seems whatever the fifth elder is doing is related to something very important to the clan . " he counted to say .
" She can't even spare time to work on her alchemy skills and hadn't entered her Alchemy practice room for over a week ." - this finally brought a silence around the group .
As someone working in The Alchemist hall for a considerable amount of time they were well aware with the nature of 5th elder - Xiao Mei .
She was a kind person often helping her juniors and guiding them in any way she can .
She is very energetic about her passion for Alchemy and guiding young students with talent towards the same path .
And Xiao Ming what's the kind of student she would be most excited to see .
Under normal circumstances they knew that she would be the most excited about Xiao Ming joining the Alchemy division .
And if his talents were good enough she just might even consider taking him as her disciple .
However recently they have all noticed that there was something of a tense atmosphere between the elders of the clan .
Some kind of preparation was happening for the first elder's departure from the clan .
And it seems this was big enough for someone like Xiao Mei to the point that she had not entered her personal alchemy study room in over a week .
This was a shocking matter to everyone in the alchemist hall considering they knew just how much she loved studying alchemy .
This just goes to show that whatever she was working with had to be very important .
So it's better not to disturb her for now .
" Let's just wait for Xiao Ming to come out of the meditation chamber . " - the head of the reception hall said .
" It's only been 8 hours since he entered the meditation chamber , so I think there is plenty of time before he can find his Alchemist flame . "
Hearing this everyone nodded in agreement .
After all it's only been 8 hours since Xiao Ming entered the meditation chamber .
And normally it would at least take more than one day for a normal person to find his Alchemist flame .
And although Xiao Ming wasn't a normal person still they believed it would take him more than 8 hours to find his Alchemist flame .
" Step ! Step ! " - but just as they were speaking to each other a faint sound of foot steps came from behind .
When all of them looked back they saw something that prove their earlier thinking wrong .
From the hallway the figure of Xiao Ming was slowly walking towards the reception hall with a small medicinal cauldron in his hand .
But that was not this shocking part after all he wasn't a ghost that couldn't be seen .
The shocking part was that he came out of the meditation chamber with the small medicinal cauldron just under 8 hours .
' Wait ? What's going on ? '
To Be Continued .