novelraw Chapter 1035 - 1034 - Trial of Essence
Chapter 1035 - 1034 - Trial of Essence
Lind was surprised when the world came back to him as a laboratory. It had complex arrangements with fluted glass flasks that had bubbling chemicals inside them. There were vapors that nearly made him dizzy but he recognized the vats from Skinwalker's Inheritance.
"An elixir master's laboratory." He had made something similar a few times but the current set up put his to shame. He was looking at multiple tables with cabinets that filled the walls around him.
He saw a few fires slowly working to purify a few solutions but he had no idea what they were for. Similar to the office and forest he just faced, a vast majority of the room was beyond him.
"Divine Qi. I can't sense anything due to Divine Qi." He finally understood why Older Twin was amused at him. Each realm used its own Qi to advance. Body Refining Realm used the Qi of the world as it was.
It was why the higher worlds had far better results compared to the lower ones.
Soul Realm and so forth used corresponding QI to their realm.
The mortal realms topped out at Sky Qi. Heaven Qi took ascending to truly gather but he had never actually faced Divine Qi before.
"I was a country bumpkin." He spoke aloud but a voice answered his words.
"Nothing wrong with knowing your place, weakling!" A woman was behind him but he had not sensed her at all.
She had a pale blue robe on and was a lithe figure. She also had her brunette hair cut very short. Her pale gold eyes looked at him as if he was a bug! He was growing tired of that.
"Senior, how may I pass this trial?" She scoffed at him but did not slam him into a desk or other wall as Older Twin had done.
"Considering you made it this far, you have some talent but an Immortal is useless! You can't possibly discern the true root of essence!" Lind tilted his head as essence was for Soul and World Realm in a real sense.
Aspects, Laws, and other factors made more powerful elixirs. Was there more to essence than he had imagined?
His pondering face clearly displeased the woman as her narrow face became more severe.
"Honestly! How foolhardy is my husband?!" Lind nearly fell over at that! She was Younger Twin's wife?!
Now he was slammed into a wall of cabinets. Pain lanced over his backside but he pushed through it.
"I meant no disrespect Senior, you simply caught me off guard." He was just surprised as he had not come across any such information before. He was a fool not to consider it.
"Tck, my husband was always too soft! An Immortal student has no place in this trial!" How many Divine Wills were in the trials?!
"I am–" He did not even get a chance to speak as a grade 8 Black Lotus was placed in front of him. He knew it was grade 8 as Black Lotus had no other grade!
"You have to extract the essence of this herb or you fail! No arguments!" He frowned but did not object to her request.
Grade 8 was clearly beyond him but it was the trial requirements. He could not overcome it by stating it was unfair.
The 8 petals on the flower were normal and the bright silver center felt profound to him but it was beyond an Immortal to pull the essence from.
How was he to even crack open a grade 8 anything?
Normally, essence was extracted by the use of Qi and will to purify the very foundation of the herb or item in question. It was a methodical process that could be sped up with experience and skill.
He basically did it without thinking recently.
The issue was that he was only an Immortal and the simple Black Lotus was able to defy any attempt to extract essence from it. He also suspected it was difficult for Divine Realm elixir masters or it would not a trial.
He pondered on that before a thought came to him. Would the trial really give him something impossible even if it wanted to? He was unsure since he was not technically qualified to be there but his Law Grade achievements at least got him acknowledgement.
"If I can't do it the normal way, why not tease it?" He had faced similar issues with his cultivation once before. There was the way everyone assumed elements and spiritual Qi combined to create Arts, conjurings, and every other aspect.
He had a lot of trial and error with healthy dollops of others experiences to help him move forward until he learned the truth.
The assumptions did work for everyone else but that did not make them right. If they were right, then 6 elementals would not struggle to advance.
Once he worked out the new relationships of all 6 natural elements, he unlocked entirely new levels of power for everyone.
He realized he had not done entirely the same for his professions. Weaving was the notable exception due to how closely tied it was to his harmony and elements. It could be said he had created a whole new field of weaving just by being a 6 elemental alone nevermind all the rest he was.
Forging and elixirs, however, he had simply adapted it to his ability to pull off what he wanted to do from the foundational teachings he was given. Delenn had often said he had surpassed her but only now, faced with the Black Lotus, did he truly grasp what she meant.
He assumed a lotus position and held the flower in his lap. He summoned various herbs, Qi stones, and beast cores. He studied them as he had long ago but this time he was looking to see with fresh eyes what could be learned.
"You waste time! Extract the essence of your trial!" The woman loomed over him but he ignored her. She could no longer affect him until he attempted to extract the Black Lotus. Time might be a factor but he doubted it.
Red thorn grass was a grade 1 herb. It was useful in so many ways naturally as well as in pills or elixirs. He had used it for no less than 17 elixirs to heal, enhance, or even to temper various aspects of the body.
He could pick apart the essence down to its aspects and intents without a thought but he narrowed his eyes.
Flexibility. Flexibility dropped off as grades improved but did it really? The greater power aside, herbs especially are still plants at the heart of them. Why did flexibility drop off?
His Immortal Eyes flared to life with his Immortal Touch. He pushed both Talents to the limit until his physical eyes burned and his mind ached.
He could see Qi dancing in patterns inside each item, even his own flesh, but some were like the sun and others starlight. It was not as expected.
His body was far brighter but muted overall compared to simple grade 1 herbs. They were like shining stars to him. Grade 5 was where he really noticed that things became dimmer. Why?
Why did the more powerful herbs become dimmer?
Shock flooded him as he grasped something! What began to change the more one advanced in cultivation? It was no longer just about more powerful Qi but the Laws behind it! And later, it would be the Dao as well!
His fingers began to glow but it was not weaving that caused it. It was his harmony dancing in his vision as his own body became blinding! The pressure in his eyes vanished!
"Law Eyes." He spoke the 2 words but did not notice the pale faced woman staring at him. Shortly afterward, his mind cleared as his Touch moved up and became Law Touch. Things he had never really been able to perceive with them before became so clear.
With a wave of his hand everything aside from the Black Lotus was extracted but it was not normal essence. He took the very Laws that made up each item and purified them as he had with essence so many times before.
The flickering and powerful splashes of color flew around him in joy! It was like they celebrated his progress but Lind remained calm. He was comprehending what he had done. Why was he never taught about it?
He also understood what he had done with his weaving that it was so dramatically different. It was also the same for Forging. He had been incorporating Laws for a long time but also imprinting them in his creations.
Delenn could not do that. He could.
His elixirs had been combinations of his weaving and it bypassed what he was doing at the moment. He had been applying Laws when he combined essence and aspects but not extracting the Laws of the ingredients themselves!
The Qi stones shocked him the most. They were storms of Law even at the Soul Stone!
He looked at the Black Lotus and it was no longer entirely blank to him. A thought occurred as he looked at the new essence floating around him and an orb of water appeared. He began combining all he had extracted in new ways.
Pressure built up immensely in the room but the woman was now far away from him.
"You want to kill yourself after making that kind of breakthrough, be my guest." Her words floated in one ear and out the other. Lind was in a state of enlightenment. Herbs did not lose flexibility as they advanced.
The cultivator did. They narrowed their vision to what was familiar or necessary and nothing else. He had done it as well. He thought to add Laws after extraction, not into the extraction itself.
"No wonder why I failed so many times." His early experiments with grade 7 had devastated the jungle around the Two Rivers. He smiled as everything finally combined and a dark violet elixir appeared in front of him.
He did not bottle it up as he observed what he had created once more. All grades were made up of Laws and Laws eventually led to Dao. Lind was not able to do that yet but he could grasp a thread of it.
Comparing the 2 items allowed him to slowly put a hand on the stem of the Black Lotus.
The petals shivered but then slowly shriveled as the stem became more vibrant. Pain began to lance into his mind once more but he did not stop as he slowly pulled out a heavier and more vibrant essence into the world.
The body died but the essence sat purely in his hands. Even watching it happen, Lind only barely grasped what he had done. He had used the Laws to latch onto the Dao and then extract the essence.
Blood was coming out his ears and nose but he was fine. He looked up to see the shocked face of the woman before she could only bow.
"You have passed." The room vanished and he collapsed before he could look around. It had taken everything to do a simple extraction but he had done it!