The First Elixir
Two years had passed. Someone, please save me.
* * *
I had to admit it now. The Divine Doctor was an eccentric, and so was I for enduring him these past two years. A-rang set the water jar down on the ground and rolled his shoulders to loosen the stiff muscles. There was so much to do.
Before dawn, at the hour of the Rabbit, he rose for light training. After washing his face, he strapped the water jar to his back. From the fifth to the seventh hour, he filled it at the valley and returned before Hong Seok-gu and Hong Ryeon-a woke. He checked the traps he had set the night before. If a rabbit had been caught, that was a blessing. If not, he gathered mushrooms or edible herbs instead.
Thanks to his studies in herbology, he could now distinguish edible plants from poisonous ones, though relying only on touch made the work slower. By the time he finally returned home around the hour of the Dragon, Hong Seok-gu would greet him with a smack to the head while yawning.
From the seventh to the ninth hour, A-rang hurried to the kitchen with his gathered mushrooms and herbs. There he found Hong Ryeon-a tying on her apron. Though blind, she could clean, wash clothes, and sweep, but cooking was the one thing she could not do. After a few attempts that ended with Hong Seok-gu flipping the table, she had stopped going near the kitchen entirely.
"Have you returned, brother?"
Hong Ryeon-a was twenty-five this year. Two years younger than A-rang, she no longer feared him. Once he handed over the ingredients, she prepared the meal in about thirty minutes. The three of them then ate together at the same table. After the meal, A-rang went to the valley to wash the dishes and clothes while Hong Seok-gu took Hong Ryeon-a into the room to teach her.
Until a month ago, A-rang had joined them for lessons, but that was no longer necessary. He had already learned everything there was to learn about herbology.
"Ugh...! Done."
After finishing the dishes, laundry, and yard cleaning, the sun stood directly overhead at noon. A-rang looked at the firmly shut door. Hong Seok-gu was in such a hurry that he went in early in the morning and stayed until late at night, passing on his techniques to Hong Ryeon-a. He felt sorry for the headache she must be enduring, yet a smile crept onto his face.
Since he had already gathered enough herbs yesterday, he now had at least three full hours until evening all to himself.
"Ah, sweet freedom...!"
He glanced around, then crept toward the kitchen and quietly took out a brass bowl. Of course, this one was his. If he had taken Hong Seok-gu's or Hong Ryeon-a's, the consequences would have been dire. He walked deep into the forest, then plopped down on the dirt ground.
While circulating his energy and examining his body, he confirmed that the vessel of his physique had not grown larger. However, the amount of water inside had increased slightly.
'The fire energy of the Silver Cypress Herb still remains in my body.'
The problem was that only the quantity had increased; the added fire energy was useless. A-rang thought of it as oil that would not mix with the water in the bowl. Roughly twenty percent, perhaps. From this, he could make a rather interesting deduction.
'If we judge only by the amount of internal energy, the Silver Cypress Herb is comparable to the Summoning Pill. The Summoning Pill is famous for increasing twenty years' worth of internal energy. That means my natural lifespan was originally around a hundred years.'
He had thought his lifespan had become fixed upon reaching the Qi Condensation realm, yet how could his heavenly allotted years be exactly one hundred? It was curious. He set the stray thoughts aside.
A-rang extended his index finger and focused his mind. A flame flickered at his fingertip.
—Fwoosh.
"It worked."
A-rang had been pondering how to deal with the twenty years' worth of fire energy from the Silver Cypress Herb. Since it served no purpose yet took up space, he had tried to extract it six months ago. When a flame had sprouted from his fingertip, he had nearly cried out in surprise. This was something any expert at the Peak realm could do with their qi. It was merely the result of his desperate attempt to remove the useless fire energy.
"Since it does not resonate with me yet has taken residence, I shall call you True Flame."
At first, he had thought True Flame was simply ordinary fire. Yet it did not spread to clothes or wood, which was truly strange. His conclusion was that True Flame was not ordinary fire at all. Though obvious, this obvious fact contained a concept capable of overturning thousands of years of Murim history.
"Qi that burns qi..."
Even as he said it, A-rang could hardly believe it. His heart pounded. The corners of his mouth twitched, and his shoulders shook. Those who pursued the Dao in their sects and clans had mouths, after all. Naturally, they knew the taste of meat and liquor. So why did they eat raw food while shedding tears? It was because of turbid qi, that damned turbid qi! The root of all evil that blocked the Conception and Governing Vessels!
"If my thinking is correct, True Flame can burn turbid qi!"
—Thud! A-rang set the brass bowl he had brought onto the ground and placed a stalk of Silver Cypress Herb inside. Then he gently covered the bowl with his palm as if putting on a lid. If his thinking was correct, True Flame could also burn the fire energy of the Silver Cypress Herb.
—Fwoosh!
If his thinking was correct...! The Silver Cypress Herb whose fire energy had been burned away would contain pure true qi!
—Fwoosh!
If his thinking was correct...!
"Now!"
Judging that it was done, A-rang reached into the brass bowl.
—Rustle, rustle.
"....?"
—Rustle, rustle.
".....???"
When A-rang flipped the bowl over and shook it, only ashes of what had once been Silver Cypress Herb fell out.
"What... what's the problem?"
Theoretically, there were no flaws. A-rang tried to invent mistakes where there were none.
"Well... you can't fill your stomach with the first spoonful. The intensity of the flame must have been the issue."
He placed another stalk of Silver Cypress Herb into the bowl beside him.
—Fwoosh.
"Huh...?"
Yet the next attempts also failed.
—Fwoosh.
"Hmm..."
—Fwoosh.
"Ugh..."
A-rang continued to fail, over and over.
"Why the hell isn't it working!?"
He could not figure out what the problem was. Following the principles of yin-yang and the five elements, he had prepared the brass bowl to suppress the fire energy of the Silver Cypress Herb. He had covered it with his palm instead of a lid to allow air to pass through for the entry and exit of True Flame and turbid qi.
"Even if the fire energy of the Silver Cypress Herb and True Flame are both fire, their natures are different, so it should be able to burn it! No, the Silver Cypress Herb turned to ash, so that part must be correct! Then..."
A-rang ground his teeth for a long while before an idea struck him. He picked up the brass bowl with both hands.
"Is it the absence of a vessel...!"
The Silver Cypress Herb was ninety percent composed of fire energy. If he burned away all of that energy? "If the Silver Cypress Herb, made of ninety percent fire energy, loses all its fire energy, it will no longer be able to maintain its original form! That would be death itself!"
What remained would be pure true qi. But the vessel capable of holding that true qi was already gone. It would simply scatter, leaving only ashes behind.
"Ugh..."
A-rang scratched his head vigorously. It was not just the Silver Cypress Herb that possessed fire energy. No matter what herb he used, if he wanted to remove the turbid qi and leave only true qi, he would absolutely need a vessel to contain it. And that 'vessel'—he knew about it from his conversations with Hong Seok-gu.
"I need an herb with the nature of metal."
A-rang stood up and returned home.
. . .
Another month passed, and spring was now in full bloom. A-rang, who had been steadily taking his share, finally committed a grave sin.
"Grandfather, the herbs are gone!"
"Leave it. He's the one who gathered them, so he's the one suffering."
"But they're yours, Grandfather?"
"That little bastard who deserves to be chewed up and spat out! If he comes back, I'll split his head clean in half...!"
A vessel! Right now, he was starving for a vessel!
A-rang went to his usual spot and sat in meditation.
"Please, this time...!"
Besides the Silver Cypress Herb of the fire element as the raw material, he had the Two-Horned Herb of the metal element to serve as the vessel's foundation, the lotus stem of the water element to completely extinguish the remaining embers, five-year-old ginseng root of the earth element to neutralize the ashes and remove toxins, and charcoal wood of the wood element to absorb the moisture from the stem.
"I've crammed in every principle of the myriad things and the yin-yang five elements...!"
A-rang stacked two brass bowls, one on top of the other, and sealed the herbs inside. The difference from before was that the upper bowl serving as the lid had two holes, and there was one large hole at the center where the bowls met.
"I drilled inlet and outlet holes so the air can move freely. I also made an entrance to force True Flame inside. Structurally, there shouldn't be any problems... probably!"
Assuming a fifty-fifty chance, A-rang shouted "probably!" and prayed again and again. There was no turning back. If Hong Seok-gu caught him stealing herbs, he would be half-dead whether he succeeded or failed. Since he was going to be half-dead anyway, he might as well succeed.
Please...
"Let's go!!!!!!"
—Fwoooosh!!!
He pressed his palm against the hole and ignited True Flame.
'The flame intensity starts at thirty percent and increases by one percent every moment... inhalation is sufficient... the leaves should start burning around now... good, they're burning. Then cool it for five seconds and reignite True Flame...'
A-rang, exerting the greatest concentration of his life, felt his lips grow parched. He was mobilizing everything he possessed for ten minutes straight.
'Cloud Mist Thirteen Swords, Thirteenth Form—Wind!'
He was even using the Hyeongsan Sect's ultimate technique just to create a breeze. After one meal's time, a sweet fragrance he had never smelled before spread through the surroundings.
—Drip.
Saliva began to flow from his mouth. His body was already telling him whether he had succeeded. No finest silk or mountain-sea delicacies could compare to this.
A-rang withdrew True Flame. With his left hand, he wiped his mouth. With his right, he lifted the lid of the brass bowl.
—Hiss.
"Finally..."
It was smaller than a pinky fingernail.
"Finally!!!!!"
A-rang carefully picked up the pill with both hands as if cradling a baby and raised it as high as he could.
"It's a success!!!!!!"
He wanted to dance right then and there. The internal energy of the Silver Cypress Herb was similar to the Summoning Pill—twenty years. Ninety percent of that was fire energy, so removing it left two years of true qi. Because he was unaccustomed, he could only recover half, leaving one year. After all that hardship, he had obtained a mere five-tenths. No—
"A full one-year pill! A one-year pill!"
On his first attempt, he had extracted one year out of two years of true qi—fifty percent. His efforts had been worthwhile. A-rang brought his lips to the pill.
"How adorable."
If Hong Seok-gu or Hong Ryeon-a saw him, they would be horrified, but A-rang had long since cast aside all dignity. A pill condensed solely from attributeless true qi. Truly the monumental first of its kind!
"I shall call you the Qi-Condensing Pill."
A-rang's shoulders shook. He sat in meditation and tossed the Qi-Condensing Pill into his mouth, swallowing it. As he circulated his energy, he felt his innate true qi increase. The hundred-year vessel now held one more year. A-rang could not hide his smile.
Consuming one Qi-Condensing Pill had broken through the wall that had been blocking him. What if he continued to consume them?
—Clench!
"I can become stronger!"
* * *
"Good grief. I came looking because you didn't return."
"G-Grandfather, is that even possible?"
"No."
Hong Seok-gu, who had come personally to fetch him after he failed to return for half a day, rested his club against a tree and looked at A-rang. He felt a twinge of jealousy that A-rang had entered a state of selflessness while refining the pill, but he soon shook his head. He had not seen the beginning, but he had witnessed the middle and the end. That alone was enough for the title of 'Divine Doctor' to be insufficient.
"That method is impossible."
"Th-then that..."
"....."
Hong Ryeon-a stammered, and Hong Seok-gu crossed his arms in thought. Fire energy was no different from turbid qi. Why did Daoist sects and cultivators eat raw food? Why did they bathe in cold water from childhood? It was all because of turbid qi. That was why pills like the Return Pill, Purple Firmament Pill, and Clear Firmament Pill were all ground and rounded—fire was never used.
'A pill does not simply mean something round. A pill refers to essence itself.'
Since there was no way to exclude turbid qi, harmony must not be broken. Naturally, fire—which changed the very nature of things—must never be introduced. Yet A-rang had changed the very essence contained within life itself. This was not only a reversal of Daoist philosophy but also common sense itself.
'Good grief. I came to fetch a runaway and ended up witnessing alchemy.'
If even one more person could perform such a technique, he would eat his own hand. Hong Seok-gu laughed. He recalled what he had once said to A-rang—that he was not human. Back then, it had been half-joke, half-serious, but now it was entirely serious.
'You really aren't human.'
A-rang had far surpassed the bounds of common sense. His methods and abilities were beyond what could be considered human. Hong Seok-gu wondered what that fool would become in the future.