As Yasenia and Kali arrived at the alchemy room, Yasenia could feel the sensation of water surrounding her body leaving her. She blinked twice to clear the remaining water in her eyes and looked around. "This is my first time here, to be honest."
Kali's eyebrow gently lifted in surprise. "Oh? Weren't these rooms designed by you, with Flora's and Selena's help?"
Yasenia smiled. "Well, I designed them, but this is my first time visiting one. I was busy, so I just trusted the process and didn't bother coming."
Kali realized and nodded. "I see."
Yasenia looked around the room to see the details. It was large enough that you would think it was an auditorium. It was not necessary to make it this big; after all, alchemy didn't take much space. The only bulky things were some oversized ingredients, like parts of monsters or even entire trees that some alchemist threw. Cauldrons past Earth-Ranked all had a limited transformation value.
However, Yasenia wanted the chief alchemy room to be good enough to hold conferences, lessons, competitions, and much more.
The same design was used for other professions. Alchemy required fire, so practicing it underwater was also less effective. It was possible if one used the proper skill set, but practicing it in a place with an atmosphere was consistently more effective.
Other than the size of the room, five peak-level Earth Rank cauldrons were ready on standby, and a sixth one was of low-level Heaven Rank quality. These items were part of the room, and the person using the room had the right to use them, but they couldn't use them or take them outside the room.
She took this measure everywhere to ensure that even if someone reached the position of chief alchemist by pure effort and without any foundations, they could at least practice with proper tools. Regulations were put in place to modify these rules to accommodate future higher-ranked members.
Yasenia didn't just plan for the present but also to ensure that if Distancia unlocks its cultivation level, the sect can still stand strong and adapt independently. It was not that complicated since she had the blueprint Sky Continent's sect used, but it took quite a lot of work and reviewing the details to make everything run for thousands of years, if possible.
Yasenia laughed as she considered all of this. 'If it gets destroyed right after I leave with all the preparations I'm making, I will probably become depressed for a while. All that work for nothing.'
Kali approached the place where the cauldron fit and summoned hers with a though. Kaleina said with her eyes glittering. "Mama Kali, your cauldron is so pretty!"
Kali smiled and looked at it. It had images of flower fields and rivers around it, which also moved because they were imbued with energy. Not to mention, as a peak-level Heaven-Ranked item, it had a mystical aura around it that gave that sense of wonder to lower-level people.
Kali sat by its side and turned on the alchemy fire below it at a very gentle temperature. "Well, Flame, Kaleina, it's time to learn a bit of mixing and herb resonance of the mortal and spiritual ranks." Kali said as a reminder. "Remember that the levels go from Mortal to Spiritual, Magical, Earth, and Heaven rank. Levels after that are for much later, so don't worry about it."
Yasenia sat by Kali's side, not saying anything and listening to Kali's soothing and gentle voice. The vibe around the room was extremely pleasant and relaxing, making it entertaining just to be there. The dragoness smiled, feeling happy. 'These kinds of moments are really nice. Just relaxing and listening to my dears, feeling their presence and listening to their voice.'
After the explanation, Kaleina and Flame took out peak-level Spiritual Rank cauldrons. They were low-level so that the girls didn't become reliant on items and learned on their own. Peak-level Spiritual was the perfect rank for them, making it a powerful cauldron that also needed them to focus and learn.
Flame and Kaleina lit up the alchemy flames with the universal technique, creating a fire of similar potency to the one Kali was demonstrating. Naturally, Kali was just doing it at their level so that they could follow.
Kali spoke. "Low-level pills like the ones we are concocting don't need much preparation. It is all about flame control. The reason is mostly because working with contradicting herbs is rare as the number of herbs for low-level recipes is really not enough to add everything."
Flame and Kaleina nodded, and Kaleina asked, " For higher-level pills, will we learn how to extract the Spiritual Herb's essence?"
Kali nodded. "That's right. That's the first step when starting to make magic-ranked pills and above. The ability to extract the essence is what makes it difficult to take this step."
Flame asked, curious. "What about Earth and Heaven-ranked pills? What's the catch?"
Kali laughed softly. "Well, it's complicated. For Earth rank, you need to be able to manipulate the ingredients inside with almost perfect control. For Heaven-ranked pills, the ability to take the surrounding energy and add it to the pill is what most consider the most challenging. Not to mention, the number of herbs, auxiliary herbs, materials, techniques, and much more is increasingly difficult."
Both children nodded, and the rest of the class went by quickly. Yasenia could see right away that Kaleina was very bad at it and had no potential, while Flame was quite decent. Not everything about professions was talent, but it had enough influence to matter.
Kali had similar thoughts about it. Although, she could see a bit deeper than Yasenia and felt like Flame had outstanding talent. 'I guess her Phoenix bloodline helps her with flame control. Andrea is probably thinking similarly when it comes to Flame's flames."
After finishing class, Yasenia realized that there wasn't much left to do in the Astral Sky Abyss Sect, so she chose to return to the Astral Sky Sect. "Kali, Kaleina, Flame, go get the others and tell them that we are leaving soon. Flora, come with me."
Flora followed Yasenia while Kali took both children and went to search for the rest of the girls. "I already explained most of the details to Alaia, so you just need to gather the maids and follow her orders. When you set up everything, come to the entrance of the sect. I'll be waiting there with the girls."
Flor bowed and acknowledged her order. "Understood, Young Miss. Do you want me to bring anything from the treasury?"
Yasenia thought and nodded. "Now that you say it, since we are going to build a deep lake for those eggs and future water-based creatures that might want to live in our sect, take some water flora and small animals to create a self-sufficient biome."
Flora bowed one more time and left. Yasenia nodded and walked toward the sect's entrance.
'With this, everything is on track. With the help of our four bases, we can expand both on land and in water. Land fighting for territory is more brutal, so Astral Sky City and Astral Dragon City will help shoulder the burden.'
Yasenia flipped her hand and took out two limbs. They were Fu Lang Zu's arm and leg, which Doriel had severed back then. 'What do I do with this?'
Yasenia pondered and realized. 'I'll cook it. Fu Lang Zu is a high-level Epoch Core, so his meat should be quite nutritious for Kaleina and Flame.'
As a dragon, Yasenia had zero problems eating humanoid beings. In her dragon-form battles, it wouldn't have been the first time she swallowed a humanoid creature.
With a plan in mind, she made a detour toward the kitchen and started cooking them. She peeled the parts that couldn't be eaten and perfectly ground the rest with ingredients that would make the food very light and easy to digest. Kaleina and Flame were only in the first realm, so if they ate it as it was, they would probably have problems with energy saturation.
After she finished processing the arm and leg, all that was left was a mass of red meat. 'Hm… I'll stick it in a metal rod and slowly roast it. It has enough seasoning, so I can make some sauce to go with it and add some vegetables. Perhaps I can make sandwiches with it.'
Yasenia liked the idea, so she started roasting the outer layer and spinning it with her energy. The juices that fell were caught in a bowl, where she added just a touch of water to make it lighter. She didn't want it to be too greasy and thick.
Then, she began baking the bread from zero, using grain to create the flour, previously prepared yeast, and a few spices to add extra flavor.
She took around one hour to cook everything, a total of around 130 sandwiches. Each was around two hands in length, with a crusty surface and full of ingredients that dripped a bit of sauce from the sides.
Moreover, she used the sauce bowl she prepared with a brush, allowing the soft insides of the recently baked bread to soak in the juices and complementary sauces she created.
Yasenia took a bite, and the crunching sound was loud enough to make a few cooks walking around gulp their pooling saliva. 'T-That sounds and smells so delicious! I didn't know our Sect Master could cook so expertly! I learned a few tricks just by watching her work!'
Yasenia slowly chewed, feeling the flavors spread in her mouth and mixing in a fantastic and delicious union. Her long eyelashes fluttered as she looked at the bitten sandwich with a raised eyebrow. "Hm… One more reason added to kill Fu Lang Zu, it seems."
Yasenia licked her lips and waved her hand to store all the food in her ring. With its food-preserving functions, the food would keep its current state for years without a problem. Even if she took the food out three or four years later, it would feel as if it had just been cooked.
The dragoness turned around with the bitten sandwich in her hand and continued leisurely eating. One cook was brave enough to ask. "U-Um, Sect Master."
Yasenia paused and turned to look while munching, her cheeks bulging a bit. The cook almost forgot what he wanted to ask. 'W-Why is my Sect Master so gorgeous!? Ahhhh!'
He coughed and asked. "Cough, Sect Master. What kind of meat did you use? It smells delicious."
Yasenia gulped down the food in her mouth and answered. "Fu Lang Zu."
The cook tilted his head, not understanding. "What does the leader of the Steel Back Wolves have to do with it? Did you get the meat from him?"
Yasenia answered with a lifted eyebrow. "It's his. I severed his arm and leg and cooked it. This is his meat, literally." Then, she took another bite of the sandwich and turned to leave.
The cooks listening from the size all froze, their eyes widening to round circles.
Yasenia left amidst the sounds of the cooking tools falling onto the ground.