Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 1456 - 1455 - Elixirs Dance

Lind entered the work area set aside from a platform for battle. It was not a battle for him, but for the young woman seated in front of him. The round before the semi-finals would hinge on his ability to make an elixir able to eke out the most power from a peak Crystal Tier Immortal.

His opponent was an old man in shimmering violet robes. Lind recognized the symbol of a lightning bolt in gold laid over a green leaf. It was the guild that was rather ostentatious in his mind but their results were excellent.

The Heavenly Essence Guild. The lighting bolt was Heaven while the leaf was a stand in for any herbal essence.

Lind turned to the woman in front of him. She was fit but he frowned as he felt like something was off. In theory, it should be straightforward but it seemed like the committee in charge of selecting the candidates for this contest had thrown a hidden aspect to the requirements.

"Hello, I will be your Elixir Maester today." His words seemed to throw her before she began to giggle at his smile. "You were tense. Your life is not in danger as your performance will be solely based on my elixir compared to your base combat performed earlier."

Lind spoke the truth but he had no idea what she did earlier. Part of the challenge was going in blind. An elixir master of any grade sometimes had to be able to evaluate a patient with no information other than the person in front of them.

He took her wrist and began his examination. The signal to begin would be given once his analysis was complete. His counterpart was doing the same but Lind ignored him.

He focused on the person in front of him. She was human but had faint beast bloodlines in her. That was completely normal. Pure humans were rare in the higher cultivation realms. Even mortals usually had traces of other races in them.

He saw she was in the mid, nearly high Crystal Tier. Her foundation seemed stable but he still felt something off. It was like a note out of place in a song he had heard a thousand times.

He delved deeper but it was not until he reached her brain that he frowned deeply. There was damage! It was old and likely had not been repaired in a long time.

It had healed over time but not completely. Neither poison nor an Art explained it. Only damage with intent woven in it could.

"What happened to your brain?" His question made her amber eyes go wide. She swept back part of her dark hair to reveal a scar. Like the damage to her brain, it was resisting the natural ability of an Immortal to heal.

"I was in one of the battles against an expert with a spear. He had a powerful aura not only on himself but his weapon. The last thing I remember is thinking I was about to die before waking up in a healing tent. Apparently I was just barely alive and a pill helped me endure until I could recover, but the injury persists." Lind was shocked.

That kind of strike should have been instantly lethal. He examined her once more and noticed 2 of the bloodlines he had dismissed earlier were depleted. One was from a phoenix and the other was from an elephant.

There was not enough to confirm more but both bloodlines were able to endure far more than humans. It seemed the looming end had invigorated the traces to act.

"You are very lucky. Some bestial bloodlines saved your life." Shock flashed over her but he offered nothing else. He could not tell where they came from as they were already depleted.

He now examined the traces of the injury. He frowned as it was clear they were deeply rooted into her now. Removing them could actually cause damage if he tried to solely repair it.

In other words, he would fail by default but if he administered her an elixir, she would likely suffer an injury in the coming battle. It was also possible she could die.

He sat back and then closed his eyes. He had to think.

He had been simply going to analyze her dantian and Laws to try and make an elixir to improve her abilities but now he was faced with a lethal risk. If he pushed her too far, the injury could flare up and its location meant the body for sure would die.

Her soul should be fine but mental damage was possible. It could lead to her soul collapsing as well.

He could not ignore it but there were hard limits on what he could do. An elixir to heal would tax her body in the short term. She would be fine afterwards but for the purpose of his candidacy, he would fail.

Lind pushed such concerns aside. He never contemplated appealing the judge either as there was no way such an injury was overlooked by the experts.

The odds of them overlooking such a dangerous injury was so remote it had to be intentional. He was being faced with a choice. Repair the damage and lose the fight, or push her body and hope nothing went wrong.

He refused to gamble with a life.

He sighed and accepted he was going to lose but he did not care as he looked around the shelves. As if in confirmation of his thoughts, he saw 2 sets of herbs, cores, and crystals. One set clearly would help push her martial ability excellently but the other was an intensive healing option.

He had been right. He sighed as he first thought about what he would need and then frowned once more. The herbs of lavender jade leaf and yellow root essence would help heal the injury but it would be insufficient for the mental issues.

Repairing brain damage, even for cultivators, was not an easy thing. The most dangerous area even rebuilding a body was the brain. If one failed that aspect, the body was next to useless.

An injury was the same. If he over taxed the body trying to heal it, the results could be worse than to just leave it alone. He looked at the enhancement herbs and an idea lit up.

Rather than just try to heal, why not let it benefit his patient? It was outrageous normally but she had been dealing with it for centuries so some tolerance had to exist now. It was not something he could measure but he could test for it.

He was a Battle Aura Master. He conjured a spear and the intent flared. She flinched but that was all. The wound in her brain was agitated but he importantly saw her Laws respond in her dantian!

A smile spread as he realized it could work!

He pulled the first 2 herbs but then selected dark lightning fern with forked veridian tree bark and broken elemental crystal powder. A healing elixir would not need them but an enhancement one would.

He had never tried such an elixir before and he had never heard of anything like he was attempting but it was what made elixirs wonderful. They were not rigid like pills.

So long as he could imagine it, and find the right resources, anything was possible. He infused his Qi into the sphere of water and used his fire to heat it. The energized base shimmered with Laws he chose as Dao would not help him here.

His Dao could do a lot but such a delicate line required complete control from him. Dao was not under his control in that regard. He could let it do what it wanted but random effects were not useful.

The essence, aspects, and then the very Laws were extracted. He infused it into his base solution with the crystals that lit it up with a rainbow of colors. He quickly controlled the reaction to guide it to what he wanted.

Rather than heal the girl, he was going to disperse the intent to be absorbed. It was audacious but not unprecedented as other cultivators pursued weapon intent in various Ruins, Relics, or treasure areas.

It was simply a matter of endurance and time which she more than qualified for. The sphere of water began to steam as it could not contain the reaction at first. His aura engulfed it as the Laws resisted his desire.

The 2 dynamics were not contradictory but he was trying to make an amalgam of healing and enhancement aspects. The natural cohesion was not his goal.

Slowly, the liquid shifted to emit both spear intent and her own! He had resonated it with her for the healing ingredients while the enhancement applied to the injury. Confusion covered her face as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

"The choice is yours but you have endured this injury and meet the condition to incorporate it into your foundation. This would allow the injury to not only heal, but it would give you more power. I can also make a traditional healing elixir to remove the intent entirely but it will leave you exhausted for a month." It would be easy to make but he stoppered the 6 vials in front of him.

The judge moved to evaluate them but Lind held up his hand. It was his right to decide to start over but his counterpart was already administering his elixir to his patient.

She looked at the longsword next to her before looking at the elixir. He understood her concern.

"You do not need to give up the sword path. In fact, you could improve it by incorporating aspects of the spear into it. It is completely up to you, though. I will not force you." She slowly considered her options and then nodded. He waved the judge over.

They examined it but as it had no precedence, an outside Elixir Maester was called over. They were too old to participate but for analysis they were more than satisfactory.

"Maester Frey, while I commend you for noticing the issue with your patient, this is foolhardy. There is no certainty this elixir will do what you wish." Lind smiled back at the wizened face.

"Elixirs are not rigid like pills. We are composers making music. It is meant to dance in our patients to let them move forward." His words confused all but his patient seemed to light up.

He bowed and nodded that it was acceptable. He had her lay down and administered the first elixir. It would likely take at least half the batch to complete its work but it would not be easy.

He wondered how long before he would be done but focused on his task. He chose to free her of the injury. His failure was a given so he just focused on what he wanted. To heal his patient, always.