The Alchemy of Dopamine
“Maybe I should just make some Ohaengdan.”
Baek Gyu felt relieved by his younger sister’s bright smile and finished pouring out his heart, sharing everything he had bottled up. He told her about his grueling training at the sect, the strange and wondrous landscapes of the Southern Continent, and the colorful experiences he had gathered out in the world.
“Really?” Baek Cheong played along, acting as a good listener for her brother. It was a bit boring at times, but as long as she turned off her brain for a moment, it was bearable.
After some time, Baek Gyu stood up, saying he had a backlog of tasks to attend to. “I must be going now to prepare for the exchange meeting.”
“Yes, Brother. Take care!”
As soon as Baek Gyu stepped out of her quarters, Baek Cheong’s face lit up. She hopped onto her bed and swiftly moved her Divine Sense to connect to Mumyungbang. Having just obtained a new toy in the form of a cultivation artifact, she was in high spirits.
‘Should I test the waters with Ohaengdan this time?’
There was no particular reason she thought of Ohaengdan. It was just a natural flow of consciousness, triggered by seeing Baek Gyu’s interest in the pill during their conversation. She finished her thought and immediately moved her Divine Sense to draft a new post.
It was a post meant to test the waters by subtly hinting at the efficacy of Ohaengdan. Perhaps because it sounded like such a pipe dream, the moment she posted it, users who were baited by the topic swarmed in to leave replies.
Most of the users snorted and responded with indifference. However, the world of cultivation is vast, and among them were some who took the absurd claim seriously and began to contemplate it.
Desperate cries from users presumed to be O-attribute cultivators, who had been lamenting their own fates, followed.
It was certainly a heaven-defying pill, garnering much attention despite the uncertainty of its existence. While Baek Cheong was watching these reactions, she spotted a familiar, ominous interface number among the many replies.
This was the user who claimed to have experimented on over a million O-attribute cultivators. She felt a chill run down her spine and swallowed hard. It was an interesting story, but she instinctively wanted to avoid getting involved with a mad old monster.
‘But this is anonymous anyway, and they can’t cross the interface, right? Why do I need to be scared?’
If they could cross the interface, they would have already ascended to the upper realm. She steeled herself, gathered her courage, and left a reply.
As soon as she threw the question out, the user replied with a long post as if they had been waiting.
She examined the content while focusing on the interesting story. There was a sudden correction, but it was a trivial matter, so she brushed it off lightly.
To her question, the user left a reply with a strange nuance.
Baek Cheong blocked any unnecessary speculation and urged for an answer.
Pill toxin was the biggest reason some cultivators avoided pills, and a troublesome headache that ruined meridians and the dantian.
Baek Cheong left a rough, insincere reply and closed Mumyungbang. The warning from Daoist Friend (237.309) felt like a thorn in her throat, but after pondering it for a while, it wasn’t as big of a deal as she thought.
‘Pill toxin accumulates and I’ll reach my limit? Then I can just eat pill-toxin-free talisman-inscribed pills, right?’
She had already been dragged through alchemy hell by Yakseon and had mastered the basics of the Five Elements Taiji Alchemy Method. She was in a situation where she could easily churn out first-tier talisman-inscribed pills without a single trace of toxin, regardless of the grade, if she set her mind to it.
She figured that even if it stole nutrients from her five-element roots as time passed, she could just eat a large quantity of talisman-inscribed pills.
“Should I make them in advance...”
Even when she posted a bait thread pretending to be a Zhenxian-kas last time, she had eaten Danmun Chwiryeong Pills, and her meridians had held up easily. So, she thought her meridians and dantian would hold up even if she ate first-tier mid-grade attribute talisman-inscribed pills.
“It’s a hassle, though...”
However, Baek Cheong didn’t want to sacrifice her free time to refine pills. Just as she was thinking it would be better to enjoy her leisure time by browsing the gallery, a thought struck her.
‘Should I just make Ohaengdan and sell it?’
Even just mentioning it as a hypothetical had garnered a lot of interest from the users. If she actually sold a heaven-defying pill, she would receive immense attention, and just imagining the users’ reactions and how they would rush in with spirit stones made her dopamine spike.
‘I know how to make it, anyway.’
She had also been taught the recipe for Ohaengdan. Even if she couldn’t brew Danmun Ohaengdan or top-grade Ohaengdan like Yakseon, she could certainly manage a low-grade Ohaengdan with her current skills.
‘Yakseon-grandfather is probably away negotiating with the Biun Sect, so the alchemy room should be empty.’
The more she thought about it, the better it sounded, so she jumped to her feet. She intended to quickly enter the alchemy room and make some first-tier talisman-inscribed pills and low-grade Ohaengdan.
“Alright, earn spirit stones, stir up chaos—killing two birds with one stone.”
With a determined resolution, she kicked open her door and set off. She had a private alchemy room, but rare spirit herbs like the Zhu-eun-cho used to make Ohaengdan were kept only in Yakseon’s alchemy room. Therefore, she headed toward Yakseon’s alchemy room.
“Is anyone there...?”
As soon as she arrived at Yakseon’s alchemy room, Baek Cheong checked her surroundings before stepping inside.
“You’re really not here, right...?”
Inside the silent alchemy room, only the faint lingering scent of medicinal herbs remained. It was certain that Yakseon was away negotiating with the Biun Sect.
“This alchemy room is mine now.”
Baek Cheong roamed through the alchemy room, which she had visited so often that it felt as familiar as her own room, without hesitation. First, she took out her exclusive first-tier top-grade pill furnace, which she had carefully kept in a corner, and placed it on the central furnace fire. Then, she headed to the herb storage room prepared inside the alchemy room. She skillfully opened the jade boxes and selected the spirit herbs that Yakseon had personally hand-picked. She walked out with an armful of spirit herbs of five attributes, including the Zhu-eun-cho, needed for refining Ohaengdan.
“First, the Zhu-eun-cho, so the medicinal properties aren’t damaged...”
She went over the recipe for Ohaengdan in her head and began preparing the herbs. There was not a single moment of hesitation in her hands as she prepared them. It was only natural, as she had been taught harshly by Yakseon.
“Puhuhu.”
However, even while preparing the ingredients, laughter leaked out of Baek Cheong. It was because dopamine was flooding her brain just thinking about the shockwave the Ohaengdan she created would cause on Mumyungbang.