The contradiction Qi Yuan imposed on Li caused a strange phenomenon inside his mind. From Qi Yuan's intervention, Li was asleep in the physical world and couldn't wake up but now he is asleep in his dream world and can't wake up. Normally, if you fell asleep in your dreams or were unconscious, you would immediately wake up or if you fell asleep physically then you would have a dream since your mind is always active.
However, now both the physical and dream side of Li are asleep so the two opposing forces caused Li to be in a state of limbo. Since he wasn't killed nor was his soul damaged, his mind isn't completely inactive which resulted in Li to experience no dreams of any kind the entire night.
To him, after Qi Yuan put him to sleep, it felt like he just blinked or rested his eyes for a few seconds before waking up and seeing daylight outside the cave exit.
He rubbed his eyes in a daze with a yawn. He felt very weird, it was the first night he managed to rest without having a nightmare but he wouldn't say he felt comfortable. Usually, when you sleep and have dreams, it would make you experience things or live through something like another life but even when you wake up and forget it, you still have that feeling of actually sleeping and dreaming. But this time for Li, it felt like he had nothing when he slept.
'He's probably getting supplies for his next experiment…' Li guessed with a sour expression.
Having nothing to do, he went towards the exit of the cave, onto the small semi circle of land. Below the land was a great drop to the forest and Li decided to sit on the edge of it. Looking at the large plane of trees in the horizon and the clear blue sky with little clouds drifting across it, Li began to ponder about a few things.
'Grandpa...your stories seem to have been more than a folk tale.'
'Did all those lessons you gave me at home every day after school from young all had meaning?'
'You always made me read fantasy books that you specifically picked...well I guess they weren't a fantasy.'
'One time I bought a book from the library but you told me it won't fulfill my daily criteria...guess it was because those library books were actual fantasy huh?'
'Those drawing lessons, I thought you just wanted me to have a hobby to distract me. Those fighting lessons, I thought you wanted me to be able to defend myself...guess it was for this huh?'
'I did find it strange that those techniques as you called them never seemed to actually work and those martial arts moves you made me read and practice felt all sloppy and uncomfortable to do…yet you insisted I continued to learn them'
'Did you know I would end up in this world...did you already know you were going to die!?
Tears began to form in the corner of Li's eyes.
"Dammit grandpa! Did you know I was going to have this undying body too? What else did you know dammit!" Unknowingly to Li, he started to talk out loud.
"Uh...should I come back later or…?" Li turned his head, seeing Qi Yuan next to the cave entrance with a confused look. Li's face slightly turned red from embarrassment "*Cough* So your back, what did you bring this time?"
"Glad you asked! I went down to the alchemy department and got some glass tubes and potions" Qi Yuan showed Li small tubes of empty glass and some bigger rounded glass.
"Uh...don't tell me we're going to do alchemy…as in...making potions..."
Qi Yuan smiled "Yep! That's right! We are going to do THAT alchemy!"
Li facepalmed after hearing Qi Yuan's words "You're a cultivator! Shouldn't you be doing pill making?!"
"Eh, pill making and potion making are basically the same thing! The difference is whether Qi or mana is being used and I guess the ingredients too." Qi Yuan looked over at Li as he gave him a lecture.
"In both practices, you can make a love potion but that doesn't mean there's no such thing as a love pill. There are health potions and there are pills with healing properties but do you know the physical difference between the two?"
Li didn't need much thought and said "The pill is a solid and potions are in liquid form?"
"Exactly, in the end, it's basically a person's preference of which way they want to consume it.You could argue that there are specific potions and pills for mages and cultivators like mana potions or Qi recovering pills. But, if someone really wanted to, they can create a potion to recover Qi or a pill for mana, it's just the ingredient combination to do so hasn't been researched much. Since if there are mana potions, why bother spending time and money to develop a pill equivalent?"
Li started to think about Qi Yuan's words 'What he says does make sense...medicine from my world kinda works like that too. There are medicines in powder form or in solid or liquid form yet they achieve the same effects. I guess it really does depend on a person's preference of intake.'
"Mage alchemy and Cultivation alchemy are both still Alchemy but with different methods of creation. Just because I'm a cultivator does not mean I can't create a single potion. Yes, mages and cultivators have different fundamentals and logic so creating a higher tier potion may not be possible for the average cultivator and vice versa."
"Because of the difference between Qi and Mana?" Li asked.
"Yep, the way a mage uses the elements are different from a cultivator but note that I never said it's impossible for a cultivator to create a higher tier potion and vice versa. A mage has the potential to cast a powerful fire spell and if they have good mana control, they would be able to create top notch pills like the top cultivation alchemists" Qi Yuan continued his lecture.
"It sounds like that mage had to put in much more work to create that one top notch pill compared to a cultivator though…" Li interjected with a comment.
"Mhm, yes that's true. Hence why mages don't create pills and the same goes for cultivators. But, what I'm teaching you is to not assume a mage or cultivator can't do each other's respected Alchemy. It's all the same in the end."
Li nodded in understanding.
"Now, let's go create healing potions!" Qi Yuan shouted with a bright smile.