novelraw Chapter 241 - 240 - Possibility
Chapter 241 - 240 - Possibility
Lind had become a machine. World Realms could live without food and water for far longer than Soul Realms, but if they consumed enough energy, the need for food would arise. Lind had gone without sleep for several days since his last meal and expended untold amounts of Qi and stamina on his experiments.
Now, he was out in a storm, a natural one, for reasons no one quite understood. He had setup several artifacts that looked familiar to those that had seen him use them before. They were the Qi gathering and ground rod artifacts.
There were some slight differences though.
Rather than simply bleed away lightning, the artifacts had flexible threads carefully set up to carry lightning to dishes set in a circle around Lind in one of the open courtyards. He was slightly disheveled and his hair was beginning to rise but none of the cultivators knew why.
Lind was building a charge much as he had back in the Soul Realm, but now that he was in the World Realm, he had far more control. It was no longer about allowing nature to take its course but actually holding nature in his hands.
When all was said and done, there were over 27 herbs and 3 beast cores all set up in the artifact circle. Lind had determined he needed the ingredients to become grade 4, instead of just the elixir. Each time he tried to invoke tribulation during creation, it failed spectacularly.
Normally, getting grade 4 ingredients was not difficult as many practitioners of various professions prepared some themselves, but the quantities Lind needed far exceeded what could be easily found in the time he had.
His patient was running out of time. She seemed ok to others, but he could See the damage continuing despite all his efforts to slow it down. It was still shredding her apart and he needed her meridians to stay the bare minimum intact for his plan to work.
He had 3 days. If he went longer than that, she would be dead beyond any hope of help he could conceive of.
The charge built in the courtyard so that even those at the edges felt their hair stand on end. Lind smiled wide as he let go the dam he had been holding up as the black clouds suddenly rumbled enough to shake the foundations of the building.
Lind stayed in the center of the circle as lightning slammed into the artifacts. His hair danced wildly, as if in a great wind, as the charge in the air swirled around him. It was quite strange to feel like he could reach out and control the lightning, but he did not do it.
He could have induced a storm but he wanted as close to natural lightning as he could. Essence was touchy. Even a faint intent could affect the results he was aiming for. A natural storm was far easier to manipulate without leave a trace behind.
The threads were as bright as suns before they were disintegrated by the lightning. Each dish glowed with the profound light of Qi before it settled into each ingredient successfully. Using his Eyes and Touch, Lind was surprised.
He had expected some loss on the herbs for sure but instead, each and every ingredient has come through without a scratch and gave off the aura of high grade 4! A better result than he hoped for!
He quickly gathered them all into his ring and cleaned up the mess. The lightning was still as destructive as ever. Many of the artifacts were blasted open or burnt piles of metal. The grounds had been protected but the plants in them were seared away cleanly.
He sighed as some of his people loved to garden and would be giving him an earful later. Still, he was pleased with his current harvest.
"My love, you understand the danger of what you are thinking?" Qing was concerned. She understood more about what Lind was attempting than most. The experts did not even get close to the truth, but that was intentional. They were still there mostly as a courtesy so long as they wished to be.
The spoiled sire of Yu Clan had long left with many threats but impotent thanks to the protections left behind by Delenn.
"I am thinking of changing a gift from the Heavens but it is now a curse. I think it will understand." Lind smiled as he knew he looked like hell but still was allowed to peck her cheek in passing. He quietly hoped it was so in his heart as well that Heaven would leave a path forward like he hoped it did.
He went towards his work area for elixir creation. It looked a little worse for wear due to his many grade 4 attempts, but the stone desk was resilient. It had been serving beyond his expectations and was supplied by Lady Su for him to use.
His next step might invoke the wrath of Heaven and Earth, but it was her only chance now. Compared to gathering essence and then putting it through lightning tribulation, the current set of ingredients resisted him a great deal.
His new strength only slightly helped but there was something new he was trying. It was something he had considered often but wondered if perhaps it was against nature to try.
Essence was the very core of an ingredient. It had all the Qi, life force, and perhaps even intent bound into a single energy. Lind had wondered if he could separate only what he needed and use the rest as he liked later.
Elixirs for healing were easy because life often gave energy or life to others in the food chain set down by nature. All Lind really did was distill it down to a more efficient form.
What he was doing now was trying to coax out a single effect. He did not want comprehensive abilities nor additional effects that would hinder his goal. Balancing all of the essence like that was what held up the stability of a lot of elixirs.
Young Twin never confirmed such a method but he did not deny it either. Lind began to wonder if it had to be discovered or if perhaps it was known but not how to get to it. Either way, he started with what he knew best, herbs.
The silver forked fern was shining to his eyes with its high grade 4 luster. Sparks appeared just a little bit over it now and again as the Qi sang in its stem to leaf blade edge. It was a very pretty plant found in northern Sarth. There were valleys steeped in high quality Qi of the earth and light there.
What he wanted from this herb was its essence of piercing. It was a tenacious plant that chose to grow in valley walls and stony edifices across a large area of ravines and small mountains. It was easy to see because of that and only had a few predators due to its normal growth location.
It was useful in most pills associated with sword techniques or purging poisons from bloodstreams. Lind had used it himself to make a low grade 4 Recovery Elixir that also detoxified the blood on top of previous effects.
Now, all he wanted was the fierce essence of piercing through stone to live. He wanted that vital life piece of it only. He had studied so many herbs growing up and all of his life that he dreamed of them sometimes. He clearly pictured the natural growth of it and focused on the day it burst through the stone to sunlight.
The silver leaf was like a pickaxe that shattered stone as easily as taking in sunlight. The hardest rock face could become a beautiful field of silver forked fern in only a single year if a few seeds took root.
The image of piercing the stone was clear in his mind as his spirit Qi flowed over the herb and he felt it. There was a piece of essence that matched what he wanted. It fought to stay with the rest but Lind was able to tease it out slowly until a bright silvery essence floated in front of him.
Sweat covered his forehead but he had succeeded. He had pulled apart a single aspect of the essence of the herb and left the rest behind. He looked at the rest of the ingredients in his ring and knew he had a long night ahead of him.
The herbs were now a known quantity but would help him practice for the cores. Even with that confidence, Lind took his time and slowly extracted the essence. He now had a low grade 3 artifact that could store essence but it still decayed in less than a week if left alone.
Essence was just energy that boiled down the most important part of each ingredient. Herbs were easy to grasp as pills were essentially the essence of the list of herbs being condensed and purified into a pill form for their effects.
Elixirs skip that step entirely and directly allow a combination of effects in a liquid form pills could never achieve. Elixirs also had greater flexibility when combining essence that pills could not tolerate.
Lind now found a new advantage. He could pick apart the specific aspect of an herb to combine with other aspects. It was a much more labor intensive process compared to normal elixirs but he was hopeful this would give him what he wanted at last.
As the sun began to climb into the star filled sky, Lind finally gathered the last herb aspect into his artifact. He looked pale and his robes were nearly soaked through. He wanted to stop and rest but one look at the frail girl made Lind push himself farther.
The beast cores were far more complicated than the herbs. Elemental Qi was but one part of it as the various abilities of the beast were not visible to his Eyes. Predators had the power of fang and claw as well as bloodlust dominating its core while the herbivore still had the aspects of rend and rip woven into theirs.
Lind was shaking as midday passed before he finally extracted the 2 aspects from the predator core. He wanted their Qi absorption and dominance. It had been far harder than the herbs but feasible.
He downed several elixirs to recover as he had 2 to go. The last 2 cores were herbivores but he needed something similar from them. He needed the Qi absorption once more but he needed shred aspect from one while he wanted the danger sense from the other.
Another day passed before he finally succeeded. It had been a fine line but he was ready at long last. He reviewed his patient's condition and frowned deeply. She was getting worse faster and no elixir could help her anymore in his possession.
"I am going to take a chance, a possibility, so hold on. Do not give up. I am a 6 elemental like you and I never gave up. I am proof it can be done and will not give up helping our kind, ever." Lind mumbled but he hoped the words helped.
He assumed a lotus position and downed several recovery elixirs to speed him back to his best condition under a few burnt incense sticks worth of time. Once he was stable, he began to pull the various aspects out and combine them.
Much like when he first started, the aspects fought his control to combine to a point but then rushed together as a balance was struck. Once the aspects began to coalesce, he summoned peak grade 3 water before putting it through the tribulation process to reach grade 4.
His water Qi transformed to mid grade 4 quality before his fire joined it a few moments later. The essence sphere was placed into the water and he nearly lost control.
THe flow of Qi was stronger from the sphere than his water, but he could do nothing about it. He pushed himself hard as Qi flowed out of his dantian like a colander holding freshly cooked noodles. Nothing could contain the Qi any longer.
:"Come on! Combine!" The aspects were fighting the process once more and his water quality was too low to easily overcome it. His fingers seemed to manipulate delicate threads of Qi and he kept pushing harder.
There was a wall stopping him but he refused to bend. A life was on the line and he felt his harmony flare brightly in his dantian at last. Emerald light danced along his body as it began to touch the water, there was a massive change.
The water broiled like mad and broke through to peak grade 4 before his eyes! The essence finally began to combine as thunderheads gathered. Lind had no capacity to spare as his mental and Qi powers were swallowed by the combining aspects.
Just before the elixir would form, a massive bolt of lightning smashed from the skies. Lind was caught off guard but he reacted quickly and saved the elixir from destruction. His aura protected it from the worst of it and a change occurred.
The liquid began to glow with a profound light that Lind recognized but felt complete shock as the process settled and he put it into 4 vials. Heaven grade. It was a low Heaven grade 4 elixir that did not drain him empty in the making!
"The aspects. Removing all the excess cut down the requirements!" He understood and smiled wide. He pushed it back as he held up the glowing burnt orange elixir. He used his senses to try and grasp his creation.
A slow smile spread as he turned back to the frail girl and held up the vial.
"To new possibilities!" Lind nearly collapsed but summoned his wives to help him for what was to come. He had a chance!