Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 240 - 239 - Scientific Method

Lind changed his approach.  Younger Twin had kept hammering home how Lind had to solve making his elixirs but he never grasped why until that strange tribulation.  Elixirs were a personal touch.  It was the same as comprehending elements and Arts.

The same Art or element could produce vastly different results from one cultivator to another.  Elixirs were the same but cultivators treated pills differently.  Pills were set by a recipe but he felt they forgot that someone had to come up with that combination in the first place.

All of cultivation was experimentation and the legacies left behind by the survivors.  It made them repeatable but not the only answer.  His mother was proof that many alchemists likely had little tricks to improve the quality of their pills not recording officially anywhere.

Lind now asked about physiques, cultivation, and healing topics with Elena and other experts to feed him ideas.  He played around with a few and was able to make some elixirs unrelated to his patient but the quality of which surprised him.

He had reached mid grade 4!  It was so much easier to grasp the essence and combine them for some reason but he did not understand why.  When he learned what the strange tribulation was called, he sent a message to Delenn who demanded a conference immediately.

She was practically grilling him on the steps that led up to it and confirmed it was a Dao Tribulation.  The benefits were clear but the near end of his cultivation life left Lind cold.  Why were the Heavens always so judgy?!

She explained that things tied to his Dao were enriched, meaning making elixirs, Forging, and likely some comprehensions were all improved without his full knowledge.  Lind wanted to focus on those gains but time was not on his side.

The girl's body was getting worse no matter what they tried.  The window to help was becoming smaller and smaller.

He then set up a series of trials and asked for the twins to come help.  Midnight happily allowed it as Lind had few physiques to study but blood relations always helped in medicine.  It gave a comparison or, in that case, an example of a physique working correctly with a cultivator.

Lind was trying to wrap his mind around it all but time always pressed down on him.  Still, he did not stop and began to learn what was possible and what was not.

The main issues for his patient were her talent and body pushing her cultivation beyond any ability to control it.  Wild elemental Qi would be sucked into her pores to run rampant in her meridians.

Stronger meridians might help but it would not be enough.  As she grew in power, the issue would always come back up each time she broke through.  No cultivator could keep up with such a demand on their Qi.

Changing a talent, so far as Lind could discover, was impossible.  They were gifts from the Heavens and had no physical feature he could change in her.  That left her physique but the few things he could do were as ineffective as the pills Midnight tried.

The words of Lan came back to him.  A Heaven grade 4 pill.  It was far beyond his reach but Heaven grade, itself, was not.  Lind wondered at the quality he had to strive for to make that happen when his mind suddenly ground to a halt.

Why a Heaven grade at all?  Why so much power?  Lind reviewed the simple Heaven grade elixirs he had made.  Their quality was far above his normal elixirs.  They had the capacity to hold a 3rd effect where he blended 2 effects before.

Their effects reached far deeper in the case of recovery and collecting Qi.  Not only is the effect greater, but they purify any cultivator in the mortal realm.  Lind had seen it in Fey when he used his Heaven grade 1 elixir to help temper her body.

It had not only helped to temper her body, it purified her blood and allowed Qi to refine it far better through the 9 tiers of the Body Refining Realm.  Alchemical pills were similar but still only had 1 effect to his knowledge.

What changed in alchemical pills was their purity and profound Qi that washed over a cultivator's body.  Much like his elixirs, they could purify a body far more than their lower counterparts but only if that was part of their intent.

Healing, tempering, and so forth kind of pills had such an effect.

Lind reviewed all he had learned and tested it in his mind from his experience.  His few jumps in ability had been driven by his harmony and instincts.  He had ridden a fine line between success and destruction during those times.

He could not do it again.  As much as it might let him arrive at an answer, he needed to learn to control his skills and push them under that control.

"You need to take a break."  Shoti had something that smelled fantastic in her hands.  It was a plate of food.  It had meat, vegetables, and what looked remarkably like cottage cheese.  Where in the world was that from?

He happily took the meal and felt some tension fade but once look over at the cot holding the young girl made him frown.

"I am stuck."  He had to admit it to himself and outloud.  Shoti smiled seductively but she only hugged him from behind.

"You are always stuck, but you never stop.  That is what I love about you the most.  You never give up."  Lind felt warmth in his heart.  She was not wrong but the way she said it sounded noble but to him, he was just stubborn.

"I keep thinking of how to harmonize her body but her talent remains in the way.  The moment I try to fix it, both body and talent will rip her apart once more.  The pill might have helped her but the need for a healer tells me it is not so easy even then."  Lan was an arrogant prick but he revealed a fact that was easy to confirm.

Even with the help of the Heaven grade 4 pill, a skilled Sky Realm healer was needed to help the cultivator regulate the Qi and the changes wrought in their body.

He believed the pill helped integrate the body to be in harmony with the cultivator's already advanced foundation or perhaps vice versa.  Every angle Lind took to apply a similar solution to his patient, her characteristics would simply come back up.

"If harmonizing doesn't work, couldn't Big Brother just change her?"  Fey had been with Shoti but her innocent question drew a harsh glare from the older woman.  Fey was humbled by the look but Lind froze.

"Fey, a cultivator's body is not something that can be changed by simply removing what is inconvenient.  She was granted this by Heaven and Earth.  There must be—"  Shoti stopped as Lind slowly stood up and looked down at the patient.  His shoulders began to shake before a strange laugh bubbled out of him.

"OF COURSE!  I am so stupid!  I have been trying to approach it from just a cultivation path but there is another way!"  Lind whirled around and the mad glint in his eyes made both step back.  "Fey, you are a genius!"

Lind then swept back to his desk and began to work on various herbs and beast cores.  What exactly made Fey a genius?

Lind, for his part, was remembering the most famou fictitious doctor on Earth.  Frankenstein.  He, of course, was not anywhere near what Lind was going to attempt to do.  He did not need to restrict himself to the rules of Heaven and Earth because he had proven those rules were only interpreted by humans.

No one actually knew until a tribulation arrived if they had crossed a line, but he had done things far beyond a Soul Realm by remembering the rules of nature.  Frankenstein had done the same but in an attempt to circumvent the finality of death.

The monster was not what he intended but it was a warning.  Lind intended to heed it.  He wanted to change the rules, so he had to apply a hybrid solution.  He needed to change her body on a fundamental level.  He had to make it so it would stop killing her which meant it had to be transformed, not harmonized.

Her talent could not be changed but Lind had myriad ways and artifacts to help her once the physique issue was resolved.  What he wanted, what he had to grasp, was an elixir that could latch onto the problematic genetics in her body and find something more compatible.

"It will be too much pain, I have to account for that as well…"  Lind began to mumble and both women knew he was lost to the world for a time.

Days passed again but there vast differences from before.  Lind was mostly researching and asking questions before, but now there were often puffs of smoke and laughter coming from his work area.

Midnight was both confused and happy as clearly the reactions of the people around him told him that Lind was moving in the right direction.

Further, Lind seemed able to give his daughter some peace.  She had slept more happily in the last few days than ever before.  She had better color and her injuries were swiftly treated by Lind when they occurred.

The younger members of Lind's group also bonded well with her and had her laughing.

"If nothing else, it is good to see her laugh again."  Midnight nodded as the twins looked on fondly at their youngest member.  It had been too long since seeing that smile.

"Family is important, and I am glad to see you treasure them so, Midnight."  All 3 jumped as they found LInd Frey behind them.  He smiled at their shock but he was recovering his Qi.  He was getting closer and closer to the answer, he could feel it.

"Whatever happens, you have given her a great gift already, Master Frey.  For that, we are grateful."  Midnight's words surprised Lind but he merely smiled and then looked determined.

"I refuse to give in, Midnight.  I refuse to let a perfectly nice girl suffer.  Further, she is one of my kind.  I would be a poor cultivator if I abandon one of my own."  Lind's words fooled no one.  He was helping because someone was in pain.

"I wish we could have taught her more, perhaps it would have helped."  Lind looked at the female half of the twins but shook his head.

"Everything about the current her is why she is still alive.  The lack of knowledge stopped her from circulating Qi well, thus it did not work properly when she broke through.  The conflict of 6 elemental dantain with her talent and body slowed down everything even more."  Lind looked on but then turned away to head back to his desk.

"She has carried the burden of it all long enough, and I will open the door for her to find a new future.  You have my word."  Lind left them and they saw him comparing vials and what seemed burnt ash as well.  He made notations and just kept making it clear he was pushing himself on all fronts.

Midnight was shaky but the moment Lind had spoken the last part, he felt the near oath level of Qi in it.  Lind was not kidding around, he meant it to save Midnight's daughter.  Tears formed but the man swallowed it all back.

There would be time enough for tears later.